Appeon announced on July 5, 2016 that it entered into an agreement with SAP to develop a new generation of the PowerBuilder development platform. Below are some answers to some common questions about the new generation of PowerBuilder. The official press release is available to view here.
When will Appeon release a new version of PowerBuilder?
Appeon has currently scheduled a new version of PowerBuilder for Q2 2017. You can pre-order PowerBuilder 2017 now at a huge savings or you can reserve a trial version to evaluate as soon as it becomes available.
What will be the new features of PowerBuilder?
For PowerBuilder 2017, the most notable new features are Windows 10 and Windows Server 2016 compatibility and updated database drivers, mobile deployment to iOS and Android, built-in PDF printing, and a new simpler licensing mechanism. There are many exciting enhancements planned for the desktop target in PowerBuilder 2018 and 2019. Please review the product roadmap to understand how PowerBuilder will evolve in the future.
How often will Appeon release new versions?
We have scheduled to release new features of PowerBuilder for general availability in agile yearly cycles. For the foreseeable future, each product cycle will contain some level of enhancements to the core desktop target. Maintenance releases will not contain new features and are scheduled for general availability on periodic quarterly cycles
Will Appeon offer beta versions?
We have scheduled 3-month beta cycles for PowerBuilder 2018 and 2019. However, no beta cycles have been scheduled for PowerBuilder 2017 since enhancements to the desktop target were limited to core enhancements.
What operating systems are supported?
The PowerBuilder IDE may be installed on Windows 7/8/10 and Windows Server 2008/2012/2016.
Desktop apps can be deployed to Windows 7/8/10 or Windows Server 2008/2012/2016.
Mobile Cloud Apps can be deployed to iOS 9/10 and Android 5/6.
The PowerBuilder Cloud App server runtime, which powers Mobile Cloud Apps and server-side .NET targets, requires Microsoft IIS 7.5 or newer
Are 64-bit operating systems supported?
The PowerBuilder IDE may be installed to 64-bit Windows OS but will run as a 32-bit process.
Desktop apps can be compiled to run as native 64-bit apps on Windows OS; however, if your app uses any third-party DLLs you will need to provide 64-bit versions of those DLLs in order to run successfully as a native 64-bit app.
Mobile Cloud Apps can be compiled to run as native 64-bit apps on iOS; however, on Android currently only 32-bit apps are supported.
The PowerBuilder Cloud App server runtime, which powers Mobile Cloud Apps and server-side .NET targets, can run as a native 64-bit process utilizing the 64-bit version of the .NET framework
What IDE will I be using to develop apps?
You will be using the familiar and time-tested native PowerBuilder IDE, regardless you are developing traditional desktop apps, server-side .NET targets, or Mobile Cloud Apps.
The Visual Studio PowerBuilder IDE (PB.NET) has been discontinued. However, the most commonly used feature – WCF Services – will be rolled into the native PowerBuilder IDE for the PowerBuilder 2019 release.
What language will I be using to develop apps?
You will be scripting using PowerScript, regardless you are developing traditional desktop apps, server-side .NET targets, or Mobile Cloud Apps.
Are there any features that have been deprecated?
Yes. Although PowerBuilder 2017 is based on the PowerBuilder 12.6 code base, Appeon has decided to deprecate the following features:
· PB.NET (Visual Studio IDE)
· WinForm target
· EAServer target
· GhostScript (to be replaced with a new built-in PDF engine)
If you are using a version of PowerBuilder that is older than 12.6, please refer to SAP documentation about features that have been deprecated in previous versions.
Why is PB.NET (Visual Studio IDE) being deprecated?
.NET is a very important part of PowerBuilder’s roadmap. In fact, PowerBuilder 2017 supports server-side .NET targets and deploying Mobile Cloud Apps to a .NET server. And a major overhaul is planned to the Web services capability of PowerBuilder 2019, including support for RESTful Web services and the .NET WCF.
However, the customer demand for developing WPF apps has been weak, and most customers that are using PB.NET are only doing so to deploy Web services. If you are using PB.NET only to deploy Web services, please consider using PowerBuilder 2017 to maintain your desktop apps and PB.NET (version 12.6) to maintain your Web services until the PowerBuilder 2019 release.
Will Appeon be continuing InfoMaker?
Yes, there are a significant number of customers and software vendors relying on InfoMaker. We do intend to provide an InfoMaker 2017 that is compatible with PowerBuilder 2017.
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