1. WPF For PowerBuilder Developers

2. PowerBuilder Evolving with .NET

3. Windows Presentation Foundation
WPF is Microsoft's next generation presentation technology
Applications can have rich visual appearances
3D graphics
High definition playback
etc…
WPF uses vector-based graphics and is resolution-independent

4. WPF Sample Contact Manager

5. WPF Sample Text Editor
Text Editor

6. WPF Feature Highlights
Broad Integration
3D graphics, video (HD), speech, rich document viewing
...with one technology
Resolution Independence
Vector-based graphics render/resize to any screen resolution
Hardware Acceleration
Can take advantage of graphics card performance
…cont’d…

7. WPF Feature Highlights
…cont’d…
Declarative Programming
XAML for markup
Rich Composition
Any control may “parent” another
Eventual functionality like…
…async video on each line of a DDLB!

8. Windows Presentation Foundation
XAML is the declarative markup language with which you may create complex WPF user interfaces
XAML allows separation of UI (markup) from runtime logic
XAML knowledge will not be required, just optional

9. Windows Presentation Foundation
The change is about the underlying presentation technology
Windows Forms applications use GDI+
WPF application uses DirectX technology for rendering
DirectX can be rendered using hardware resources
Performance may be improved

10. Windows Presentation Foundation
Win32 and Windows Forms technology has been all but deprecated
Eventually we’ll all need to develop Windows applications with WPF
PowerBuilder will be your entrée to WPF
Your investment, knowledge, and skills in PowerBuilder will be preserved

11. Object Models: Win32 / WinForm vs. WPF
WPF has a different object model from Win32 and WinForm
We’re working to preserve the PowerBuilder model while incorporating the WPF “style”
Drastically reduces your learning curve for WPF

12. Object Models: Win32 / WinForm vs. WPF
For example, WPF controls have a “content” property
PowerBuilder will abstract that to the “Text” property
PowerBuilder will extend WPF controls
<my:WPFButton Height="23" Margin="251,0,268,84" Name=“WPFButton1" VerticalAlignment="Bottom" Text="123" />

13. Object Models: Win32 / WinForm vs. WPF
WPF has introduced many different new concepts:
Dependency Properties, Attached Properties, Commands, Routed Events
A design goal of PowerBuilder 12 is to hide the details of these new concepts and keep the usage similar to existing PowerBuilder

14. Object Models: Win32 / WinForm vs. WPF
Our goal is to provide you with a “PowerBuilder Experience” when developing WPF applications

15. PowerBuilder 12 WPF Application Architecture
Assemblies of the WPF runtime library
WPF DataWindow engine
New Managed database drivers

16. PowerBuilder WPF Window: Constraint on Controls
Win32 and WinForm Windows could be the parent of multiple controls
In WPF, a Window may have only one control
Workaround:
Place a Panel, Grid or Canvas, in the Window
We intend to put Canvas Panels in a migrated Window by default

17. Default “Panel” in the PowerBuilder WPF Window class
By default, a Grid panel will be put inside a Window for new WPF applications
Again, Canvas will be used for migrated applications
Approximating absolute positioning

18. Grid vs. Canvas Grid: Canvas:
Can take more advantage of WPF auto sizing
SizeToContent property is available
Can automatically size controls to length of text for localization/regionalization
Canvas:
Supports positioning elements with explicit coordinates
If we used Grid for migrated applications…position information would not be accurate enough

19. “InnerControl” Property
Arguably, the most important newly-introduced WPF control property
Allows reference to WPF control directly in PowerScript
Read Only (but properties like Content are writable)
In theory, WPF controls may be infinitely nested within any other WPF controls (one at a time)
Cb_1.InnerControl.Content = “Some Contents”;

20. Third Party Controls
Third party visual controls may now be used in a WYSIWYG fashion in design mode
Conditional code blocks are no longer required for interoperability
When placed on the painter, the IDE will trigger a process to create a proxy object for the control
The proxy will be analogous to traditional OLE/ActiveX interfaces to minimize your learning curve

21. New Controls Courtesy of WPF
Layouts with Panels:
Canvas
Grid
WrapPanel
StackPanel
DockPanel

22. New Controls Courtesy of WPF
Canvas:

23. New Controls Courtesy of WPF
Grid:

24. New Controls Courtesy of WPF
StackPanel:

25. New Controls Courtesy of WPF
WrapPanel Variations:

26. New Controls Courtesy of WPF
DockPanel:

27. New Controls Courtesy of WPF
For the following controls, we may…
Create standard runtime controls
…or…
Support them though 3rd party controls (proxy objects)
…TBD

28. New Controls Courtesy of WPF
Expander (collapsible GroupBox):

29. New Controls Courtesy of WPF
Expander (collapsible GroupBox):

30. New Controls Courtesy of WPF
MediaPlayer:
Built on top of Windows Media Player
Formats:
WAV
WMA
MP3
Etc…

31. New Controls Courtesy of WPF
Document Viewer (XPS or Print Preview):

32. New Controls Courtesy of WPF
SpeechRecognizer:

33. Right-to-Left Support
FlowDirection Layout Property:

34. Theme Support

35. State of the DataWindow
New Features:
From PowerBuilder 11.5
New background properties
Support for PNG format
Tooltips for all control and column types
Rich Text Edit style
Support for 3rd party controls
May be used with a data binding mechanism in the detail band
Must be consistent with the column’s data type
Expressions are not supported

36. State of the DataWindow
New Features…
XML DataWindow syntax
SRD syntax is still supported
Can run with limited security permissions
New export formats
Excel 2007
XML paper specification (XPS)
Nested (and Composite) DataWindows
Display in normal, not print preview mode
…cont’d…

37. State of the DataWindow
New Features …(cont’d)…
Grid style
Grid line color is a property
Enablesort supports sorting the contents on a specific column
Label
Displays in normal mode, not print preview mode
Managed DataSources in the new Data Source Interface
ADO .NET
Web Services
The classic data sources are still supported
The DataWindow will run as fully Managed Code

38. DataWindow Painter (of the future)
In prototype

39. State of the DataWindow
New Architecture:
Separation of
Core functionality
DataWindow objects
Presentation (rendering) functionality
DataWindow controls
Data access
The new Data Source Interface

40. State of the DataWindow
Under the hood…
The core functionality contains the object management
Object definitions
The objects contain their syntax
Parsing
Compiling
Emitting (equivalent of dw.Describe(“datawindow.syntax”)
Property definitions
Getters
Setters
Type converters
Expression handling

41. WPF DataWindow Painter
WYSIWYG design surface for adding, moving, resizing, positioning of DataWindow elements
WYSIWYG Preview
Again, a familiar PowerBuilder experience
Support for 3rd party controls

42. The New DataWindow Painter
Under the hood again…
Adds a second control library
Uses the same core functionality as the runtime
The controls:
Analogs to the runtime controls, similar but not the same
Are actually simpler implementations
Designed to fit into the Visual Studio ecosystem harmoniously

43. The New DataWindow Painter
Architecture:
Uses the core functionality
Loading and compiling the syntax
For all of the object state management
Gets the modified syntax when it is time to save the changes
Uses the design time control library
Expose properties for user modification
Supports the design time UI – dragging/dropping/moving/resizing
Uses the Isolated Shell to host the controls
And run all the behind the scenes work