Power Builder 9 Data Window Programmers Guide (Manual)

DataWindow® Programmer’s Guide
PowerBuilder®
9
DOCUMENT ID: 37775-01-0900-01
LAST REVISED: March 2003
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Contents
About This Book .......................................................................................................................... vii
CHAPTER 1 About DataWindow Technology .................................................... 1

About DataWindow objects, controls, and components ................... 1
Presentation styles and data sources ....................................... 3
Basic process ............................................................................ 4
Choosing a DataWindow technology ............................................... 5
Solutions for client/server and distributed applications ............. 5
Solutions for Web applications .................................................. 6
PowerBuilder DataWindow control................................................... 8
CHAPTER 2 Using DataWindow Objects ......................................................... 11

About using DataWindow objects .................................................. 11
Putting a DataWindow object into a control.................................... 12
Names for DataWindow controls and DataWindow objects .... 13
Working with the DataWindow control in PowerBuilder .......... 14
Specifying the DataWindow object during execution .............. 16
Accessing the database ................................................................. 18
Setting the transaction object for the DataWindow control...... 19
Retrieving and updating data .................................................. 23
Importing data from an external source.......................................... 26
Manipulating data in a DataWindow control ................................... 27
How a DataWindow control manages data ............................. 27
Accessing the text in the edit control....................................... 30
Manipulating the text in the edit control................................... 31
Coding the ItemChanged event............................................... 31
Coding the ItemError event ..................................................... 32
Accessing the items in a DataWindow .................................... 32
Using other DataWindow methods.......................................... 34
Accessing the properties of a DataWindow object ......................... 35
Handling DataWindow errors ......................................................... 36
Retrieve and Update errors and the DBError event ................ 37
Errors in property and data expressions and the Error event.. 39
DataWindow Programmer’s Guide iii

Contents
Updating the database ................................................................... 41

How the DataWindow control updates the database .............. 41
Changing row or column status programmatically .................. 43
Creating reports ............................................................................. 45
Planning and building the DataWindow object ........................ 45
Printing the report.................................................................... 46
Using nested reports ...................................................................... 47
Using crosstabs.............................................................................. 49
Viewing the underlying data .................................................... 49
Letting users redefine the crosstab ......................................... 49
Modifying the crosstab's properties during execution.............. 51
Generating HTML........................................................................... 52
Controlling display ................................................................... 56
Calling the SaveAs method ..................................................... 59
Displaying DataWindow objects as HTML forms .................... 60
CHAPTER 3 Dynamically Changing DataWindow Objects ............................. 65

About dynamic DataWindow processing........................................ 65
Modifying a DataWindow object ..................................................... 66
Creating a DataWindow object....................................................... 67
Providing query ability to users ...................................................... 70
How query mode works........................................................... 70
Using query mode ................................................................... 71
Providing Help buttons ................................................................... 74
Reusing a DataWindow object ....................................................... 75
CHAPTER 4 Using DataStore Objects............................................................... 77

About DataStores........................................................................... 77
Working with a DataStore .............................................................. 80
Using a custom DataStore object................................................... 80
Accessing and manipulating data in a DataStore .......................... 82
Sharing information ........................................................................ 84
Example: printing data from a DataStore ................................ 85
Example: using two DataStores to process data..................... 87
CHAPTER 5 Manipulating Graphs ..................................................................... 91

Using graphs .................................................................................. 91
Modifying graph properties............................................................. 92
How parts of a graph are represented..................................... 93
Referencing parts of a graph................................................... 94
iv PowerBuilder
Contents
Accessing data properties.............................................................. 94

Getting information about the data .......................................... 95
Saving graph data ................................................................... 97
Modifying colors, fill patterns, and other data .......................... 97
Using graph methods .............................................................. 98
Using point and click .................................................................... 101
CHAPTER 6 Using the Web DataWindow....................................................... 105

What the Web DataWindow is ..................................................... 105
How the Web DataWindow works ......................................... 106
The Web DataWindow server component and client control 107
Designing DataWindow objects ................................................... 110
Setting HTML properties in the DataWindow painter ............ 111
Controlling the size of generated code.................................. 112
Using expressions ................................................................. 113
Using foreign language character sets.................................. 114
Providing links for data .......................................................... 114
Rendering HTML for controls in a Web DataWindow............ 114
Using Button and Picture controls ......................................... 115
Specifying HTML generation for a specific browser .............. 117
Using JavaScript caching for Web DataWindow methods .... 118
Previewing the DataWindow ................................................. 121
Setting up database connections ................................................. 121
Deploying DataWindow objects to the component server............ 123
The Web DataWindow Container project wizard................... 124
Creating Web page templates...................................................... 126
Writing client-side scripts ............................................................. 128
CHAPTER 7 Server-Side Processing for the Web DataWindow .................. 133

Server configuration details.......................................................... 133
Instantiating and configuring the server component .................... 138
Instantiating the component .................................................. 140
Loading the DataWindow object............................................ 141
Controlling what HTML is generated ..................................... 142
Specifying the database connection and retrieving data ....... 143
Passing page-specific data to the reloaded page ................. 145
Passing user actions to the server component ..................... 149
Inserting the generated HTML into the page......................... 150
Using a custom server component............................................... 150
Creating a custom server component in EAServer ............... 152
Setting properties for a custom component in EAServer ...... 153
Instantiating the custom component...................................... 156
Maintaining state on the server ............................................. 157
DataWindow Programmer’s Guide v

Contents
Using service classes................................................................... 159

Defining a service class for PowerBuilder components ........ 160
Defining a service class for Java components ...................... 162
CHAPTER 8 Using the DataWindow Web Control for ActiveX ..................... 165
About the Web ActiveX ................................................................ 165
HTML for inserting the controls on a Web page........................... 168
Object element ...................................................................... 168
Properties and Param elements............................................ 169
How to use the Web ActiveX in a Web target .............................. 170
DataWindow objects for the Web ActiveX.................................... 173
What the DataWindow object can include............................. 173
Managing DataWindow objects in PowerBuilder libraries ..... 173
Specifying a DataWindow object for the control.................... 174
Using the DataWindow Transaction Object control...................... 175
Making database connections...................................................... 177
Connecting and retrieving data ............................................. 178
Coding for the Web ActiveX ......................................................... 179
Data types for method arguments and return values ............ 179
Setting event return codes .................................................... 180
Deploying the Web ActiveX.......................................................... 180
Index ........................................................................................................................................... 183
vi PowerBuilder
About This Book
Subject This book provides information about using DataWindow technology in

client/server, distributed, and Web applications. It describes how to define
DataWindow objects appropriate for your application and how to write
code that interacts with those DataWindow objects.
Audience This book is for anyone developing applications that use DataWindow
technology. It assumes that:
• You are familiar with the DataWindow painter. If not, see the
PowerBuilder User’s Guide.
• You have a basic familiarity with the language that corresponds with
your development environment: PowerScript, JavaScript, Java, or
DynaScript. If not, see the PowerBuilder or PowerDynamo
documentation, and other background material for your language of
choice.
Other sources of Use the Sybase Technical Library CD and the Technical Library Product
information Manuals web site to learn more about your product:
• The Technical Library CD contains product manuals and is included
with your software. The DynaText reader (included on the Technical
Library CD) allows you to access technical information about your
product in an easy-to-use format.
Refer to the Technical Library Installation Guide in your
documentation package for instructions on installing and starting the
Technical Library.
• The Technical Library Product Manuals web site is an HTML version
of the Technical Library CD that you can access using a standard web
browser. In addition to product manuals, you will find links to
EBFs/Updates, Technical Documents, Case Management, Solved
Cases, newsgroups, and the Sybase Developer Network.
To access the Technical Library Product Manuals web site, go to
Product Manuals at http://www.sybase.com/support/manuals/.
DataWindow Programmer’s Guide vii

If you need help Each Sybase installation that has purchased a support contract has one or more
designated people who are authorized to contact Sybase Technical Support. If
you cannot resolve a problem using the manuals or online help, please have the
designated person contact Sybase Technical Support or the Sybase subsidiary
in your area.
viii PowerBuilder
CH A PTE R 1 About DataWindow Technology
About this chapter This chapter describes what DataWindow objects are and the ways you
can use them in various application architectures and programming
environments.
Contents
Topic Page
About DataWindow objects, controls, and components 1
Choosing a DataWindow technology 5
PowerBuilder DataWindow control 8
About DataWindow objects, controls, and components

DataWindow technology is implemented in two parts:
• A DataWindow object The DataWindow object defines the data
source and presentation style for the data.
• A DataWindow control or component The control or component
is a container for the DataWindow object in the application. You write
code that calls methods of the container to manipulate the
DataWindow object.
DataWindow controls and The DataWindow was originally invented for use in PowerBuilder to
components provide powerful data retrieval, manipulation, and update capabilities for
client/server applications. Now the DataWindow is available in several
environments:
• PowerBuilder DataWindow A PowerBuilder control for use in
client/server and distributed PowerBuilder applications.
• Web DataWindow A thin-client DataWindow implementation for
Web applications that provides most of the data manipulation,
presentation, and scripting capabilities of the PowerBuilder
DataWindow, requiring the Web DataWindow component on a
component server but no PowerBuilder DLLs on the client.
DataWindow Programmer’s Guide 1

• Web DataWindow DTC A design-time control used to represent the

Web DataWindow on a development machine. The DTC is an ActiveX
control that generates a set of instructions for the DataWindow component
on a component server. The component generates a Web DataWindow for
display in a client browser. The client browser does not need to support
ActiveX controls to display the Web DataWindow.
• Sybase DataWindow Web control for ActiveX An ActiveX control for
use on Web pages. The client browser must support ActiveX controls to
display a DataWindow object used by this control
• DataWindow plug-in A browser plug-in that displays Powersoft reports.
For a comparison of each of these environments, see “Choosing a
DataWindow technology” on page 5.
You can also use DataStore objects as containers for a DataWindow object.
DataStores provide DataWindow functionality for retrieving and manipulating
data without the onscreen display. Uses for DataStores include specifying
layouts for printing and managing data in the server component of a distributed
application.
What DataWindow A DataWindow object is an object that you use to retrieve, present, and
objects are manipulate data from a relational database or other data source (such as an
Excel worksheet or dBASE file). You can specify whether the DataWindow
object supports updating of data.
DataWindow objects have knowledge about the data they are retrieving. You
can specify display formats, presentation styles, and other data properties to
make the data meaningful to users.
In the DataWindow painter, you can also make Powersoft report (PSR) files,
which you can use in DataWindow controls or components. A PSR file
contains a report definition—essentially a nonupdatable DataWindow object—
as well as the data contained in the report when the PSR file was created. It
does not retrieve data.
Where to define You define DataWindow objects in the PowerBuilder DataWindow painter.
DataWindow objects You can also define nonupdatable DataWindow objects in the InfoMaker
Report painter.
2 PowerBuilder
CHAPTER 1 About DataWindow Technology
Presentation styles and data sources

When you define a DataWindow object, you choose a presentation style and a
data source.
Presentation styles A presentation style defines a typical style of report and handles how rows are
grouped on the page. You can customize the way the data is displayed in each
presentation style. The presentation styles include:
Table 1-1: DataWindow presentation styles
Presentation style Description
Tabular Data columns across the page and headers above each
column. Several rows are viewable at once.
Freeform Data columns going down the page with labels next to each
column. One row displayed at a time.
Grid Row-and-column format like a spreadsheet with grid lines.
Users can move borders and columns.
Label Several labels per page with one row for each label. Used for
mailing and other labels.
N-Up Two or more rows of data next to each other across the page.
Useful for periodic data, such as data for each day of the
week or each month in the quarter.
Group A tabular style with rows grouped under headings. Each
group can have summary fields with computed statistics.
Composite Several DataWindow objects grouped into a single
presentation. Not supported by the Web DataWindow.
Graph Graphical presentation of data. Not supported by the Web
DataWindow.
Crosstab Data summary in a row-and-column format.
RichText Paragraphs of text with embedded data columns. Not
supported by the Web DataWindow or the Sybase
DataWindow Web control for ActiveX.
OLE An OLE object linked or embedded in the DataWindow and
associated with the retrieved data. Not supported by Web
DataWindow.
For examples of the presentation styles, see the PowerBuilder User’s Guide.
Data sources The data source specifies where the data in the DataWindow comes from and
what data items are displayed. Data can come from tables in a database, or you
can import data from a file or specify the data in code. For databases, the data
specification is saved in a SQL statement. In all cases, the DataWindow object
saves the names of the data items to display, as well as their data types.

Table 1-2: Data sources you can use for a DataWindow

Data source Description
Quick Select The data is coming from one or more tables in a SQL database.
The tables must be related through a foreign key. You need to
choose only columns, selection criteria, and sorting.
SQL Select You want more control over the select statement that is
generated for the data source. You can specify grouping,
computed columns, and so on.
Query The data has already been selected and the SQL statement is
saved in a query object that you have defined in the Query
painter. When you define the DataWindow object, the query
object is incorporated into the DataWindow and does not need
to be present when you run the application.
Stored Procedure The data is defined in a database stored procedure.
External The data is not stored in a database, but is imported from a file
(such as a tab-separated or dBASE file) or populated from
code.
Basic process
Using a DataWindow involves two main steps:
1 Use the DataWindow painter to create or edit a DataWindow object.
In the painter, you define the data source, presentation style, and all other
properties of the object, such as display formats, validation rules, sorting
and filtering criteria, and graphs.
2 In your development environment, put a DataWindow control or
component in a window, form, or Web page and associate a DataWindow
object with it.
It is through this control that your application communicates with the
DataWindow object you created in the DataWindow painter. You write
code to manipulate the DataWindow control and the DataWindow object
it contains. Typically, your code retrieves and updates data, changes the
appearance of the data, handles errors, and shares data between
DataWindow controls.
4 PowerBuilder
Choosing a DataWindow technology

Since DataWindow technology can be used in different environments, it may
not be obvious what approach you should take to implementing your
data-enabled application. This section describes the DataWindow technologies
available for three basic application architectures and the requirements for each
DataWindow solution. See Building Internet and Enterprise Applications for
further discussion of application architectures.
The basic architectures are:
• Client/server A program running on a client workstation accesses a
database running on a server. The user interface and business logic reside
together on the client computer.
• Distributed application The user interface on the client computer calls
components on a middle-tier server, which execute business logic and
access the database server.
• Web application A client Web browser sends requests for HTML or JSP
documents to a Web server. The Web server passes control to a page or
application server, where server-side scripts can access components on a
transaction server that can connect to databases on a database server.
Solutions for client/server and distributed applications

The PowerBuilder DataWindow was initially developed for use in client/server
applications.
You can implement the PowerBuilder DataWindow as a control that displays a
DataWindow object or as a DataStore that supports data retrieval and update
without displaying the data. A complete set of events and methods
programmed in PowerScript provides control over all aspects of the
DataWindow, including data retrieval, display, validation, and update.
You can also deploy the PowerBuilder DataWindow as a component for use in
distributed applications.
For more information, see “PowerBuilder DataWindow control” on page 8.

Choosing a DataWindow technology
Solutions for Web applications

You can use these DataWindow technologies in Web applications:
• Web DataWindow and the Web DataWindow DTC
• Sybase DataWindow Web control for ActiveX
• DataWindow plug-in
Web DataWindow
The Web DataWindow is a thin-client DataWindow implementation for Web
applications. It provides most of the data manipulation, presentation, and
scripting capabilities of the PowerBuilder DataWindow without requiring any
PowerBuilder DLLs on the client.
Functionality The Web DataWindow supports a subset of the PowerBuilder DataWindow
events and methods, including dynamic modification of the DataWindow
object. The user can modify and update data. Graph, OLE, and RichText
presentation styles and controls are not supported.
Client requirements The technology works in any browser, but the appearance of the generated
HTML is usually best in Internet Explorer. Generated HTML can be
dynamically optimized for Netscape or Internet Explorer, or scaled back to
handle older browsers.
Server requirements A component server and a dynamic page server work together to generate a
client control with data and include it in a Web page. Each time the user
requests a new page of data, updates data, or inserts or deletes rows, the server
gets a request to generate a new page. Depending on how state is managed, the
component may retrieve data each time it is called, causing added load on the
server.
Development tools The Web Target interface in PowerBuilder provides the Web DataWindow
DTC that you can use to develop Web DataWindows without hand coding. You
can also write your own server-side scripts to create Web DataWindows using
the component server’s API. You can write the scripts for interpretation by a
specific page server type (PowerDynamo, Active Server Pages, or JavaServer
Pages). For Web site targets, you can use the Web Target object model to write
server scripts that are type-neutral—the scripts can be deployed to either
PowerDynamo or Active Server Pages.
When you use the Web DataWindow DTC on a 4GL Web page, server-side
events are available and page variables can enhance the dynamic capabilities
of your Web application. You cannot hand code a Web DataWindow on a 4GL
Web page.
6 PowerBuilder
For information about the Web DataWindow, see Chapter 6, “Using the Web
DataWindow.” For information about the Web DataWindow DTC, see
Working with Web and JSP Targets.
Sybase DataWindow Web control for ActiveX

The Sybase DataWindow Web control for ActiveX is an interactive
DataWindow control for use with Internet Explorer that implements all
features of the PowerBuilder DataWindow except rich text.
Functionality The Web ActiveX is fully programmable and supports DataWindow events,
methods, and dynamic modification of the DataWindow object. The user can
modify and update data. The RichText presentation style is not supported.
Client requirements The control uses ActiveX technology and works in Microsoft Internet Explorer
only.
The user must download the CAB file for the component, which is less than
two megabytes in size. Database connection via JDBC occurs from the client,
which must be configured with the connection software. The software can be
downloaded from the Web server.
DataWindow behavior that would compromise security of the client, such as
the SaveAs functionality, is disabled.
Server requirements The JDBC database connection can access databases on a remote server.
Development tools You can use the Web Target tools for working with ActiveX components to
develop your Web application.
For information, see Chapter 8, “Using the DataWindow Web Control for
ActiveX.”
DataWindow plug-in
The DataWindow plug-in is a browser plug-in that displays Powersoft reports
(PSRs).
Functionality A PSR is a frozen DataWindow; it cannot be modified and the data does not
stay current. However, a PSR is a compact representation of the DataWindow
definition and data and can be downloaded efficiently. It is an efficient means
of viewing batch-produced reports.
The user cannot modify or update the data.

PowerBuilder DataWindow control
Client requirements The plug-in executable must be installed in the browser plug-in directory. It
cannot be downloaded and installed automatically. The plug-in works in
Netscape browsers. Internet Explorer browsers prior to version 5.5 also support
the plug-in.
DataWindow behavior that would compromise security of the client, such as
SaveAs, is not disabled.
Development tools You can use PowerBuilder or InfoMaker to create PSRs.
For more information about the plug-in architecture, see Application
Techniques.

Features The PowerBuilder DataWindow control is a container for DataWindow objects
in a PowerBuilder application. You can use it in a window to present an
interactive display of data. The user can view and change data and send
changes to the database.
In addition to the DataWindow control, the DataStore object provides a
nonvisual container for server applications and other situations where onscreen
viewing is not necessary.
The DataWindow supports data retrieval with retrieval arguments and data
update. You can use edit styles, display formats, and validation rules for
consistent data entry and display. The DataWindow provides many methods
for manipulating the DataWindow, including Modify for changing
DataWindow object properties. You can share a result set between several
DataWindow controls and you can synchronize data between a client and
server.
Development You can develop both parts of your DataWindow implementation in
environment PowerBuilder. You use:
• The DataWindow painter to define DataWindow objects.
• The Window or User Object painters to add DataWindow controls to
windows or visual user objects. The DataWindow control is on the
painters’ palette of controls.
In these painters, you write scripts that control the DataWindow’s behavior
and manipulate the data it retrieves. Your scripts can also instantiate
DataStore objects.
8 PowerBuilder
In the PowerBuilder Browser you can examine the properties, events, and
methods of DataWindow controls and DataStore objects on the system tab
page. If you have a library open that contains DataWindow objects, you can
examine the internal properties of the DataWindow object on the Browser’s
DataWindow tab page.
DataWindow objects The DataWindow control or DataStore object uses a DataWindow object,
which determines what data is retrieved and how it is displayed. The control
can also display Powersoft reports (PSRs), which do not need to retrieve data.
A DataWindow object for a PowerBuilder application can have any
presentation style.
Database connections The PowerBuilder DataWindow can use ODBC, JDBC, and native database
drivers for database connectivity. Users can connect to a data source on any
server to which they have access, including databases and middle-tier servers
on the Internet.
To make a connection, you can use the internal Transaction object of the
DataWindow, or you can make the connection with a separate PowerBuilder
transaction object.
A PowerBuilder application provides a default Transaction object, SQLCA;
you can define additional Transaction objects if you need to make additional
connections. When you connect with a separate Transaction object, you can
control when SQL COMMIT and ROLLBACK statements occur, and you can
use the same connection for multiple controls.
For more information about using a Transaction object with a DataWindow, see
Chapter 2, “Using DataWindow Objects”.
For more information about PowerBuilder Transaction objects, see Application
Techniques in the PowerBuilder documentation set.
Coding You write scripts in the Window or User Object painter to connect to the
database, retrieve data, process user input, and update data.
In PowerBuilder, you can take advantage of object inheritance by defining a
user object inherited from a DataWindow control and adding your own custom
functionality. You can reuse the customized DataWindow control throughout
your applications.
You create DataStore objects, the nonvisual version of a DataWindow control,
by creating them in a script and calling methods for the object. You can also
define a user object that is inherited from a DataStore and customize it. For
more information, see Chapter 4, “Using DataStore Objects”.

Libraries and You store DataWindow objects in PowerBuilder libraries (PBLs) during
applications development. When you build your application, you can include the
DataWindow objects in the application executable or in PowerBuilder dynamic
libraries (PBDs).
For more information about designing DataWindow objects and building a
PowerBuilder application, see the PowerBuilder User’s Guide and Application
Techniques.
10 PowerBuilder
CH A PTE R 2 Using DataWindow Objects
About this chapter This chapter describes how to use DataWindow objects in an application.
Contents
Topic Page
About using DataWindow objects 11
Putting a DataWindow object into a control 12
Accessing the database 18
Importing data from an external source 26
Manipulating data in a DataWindow control 27
Accessing the properties of a DataWindow object 35
Handling DataWindow errors 36
Updating the database 41
Creating reports 45
Using nested reports 47
Using crosstabs 49
Generating HTML 52
Before you begin This chapter assumes that you know how to build DataWindow objects in
the DataWindow painter, as described in the PowerBuilder User’s Guide.
About using DataWindow objects

Building DataWindow Before you can use a DataWindow object in an application, you need to
objects build it. PowerBuilder has separate painters for database management,
DataWindow definition, and library management.
You define and edit a DataWindow object in the DataWindow painter. You
specify its data source and presentation style, then enhance the object by
specifying display formats, edit styles, and more.
The DataWindow painter is also where you make Powersoft report (PSR)
files, which you may want to use in applications too. A PSR file contains
a report definition—essentially a nonupdatable DataWindow object—as
well as the data contained in that report when the PSR file was created.

Putting a DataWindow object into a control
Report objects only in InfoMaker

Older versions of PowerBuilder had a Report painter as well as a DataWindow
painter. A report object could retrieve but not update data; it was essentially a
nonupdatable DataWindow object. The Report painter is now available only in
InfoMaker.
Managing Several painters let you manage and package your DataWindow objects for use
DataWindow objects in applications.
In particular, you can maintain DataWindow objects in one or more libraries
(PBL files). When you are ready to use your DataWindow objects in
applications, you can package them in more compact runtime libraries (PBD
files).
For further details on how to build and organize DataWindow objects, see the
Using DataWindow After you build a DataWindow object (or PSR file) in the DataWindow painter,
objects you can use it to display and process information from the appropriate data
source. The sections that follow explore the details of how to do this.

The DataWindow control is a container for DataWindow objects in an
application. It provides properties, methods, and events for manipulating the
data and appearance of the DataWindow object. The DataWindow control is
part of the user interface of your application.
You also use DataWindow objects in the nonvisual DataStore and in child
DataWindows, such as drop-down DataWindows and composite presentation
styles. For more information about DataStores, see Chapter 4, “Using
DataStore Objects”. For more information about drop-down DataWindows
and composite DataWindows, see the PowerBuilder User’s Guide.
To use the DataWindow object in an application, you add a DataWindow
control to a window or form, then associate that control with the DataWindow
object:
12 PowerBuilder
CHAPTER 2 Using DataWindow Objects
Figure 2-1: Putting a DataWindow object into a DataWindow control
This section has information about:

• Names for DataWindow controls and DataWindow objects
• Procedures for inserting a control and assigning a DataWindow object to
the control
• Specifying the DataWindow object during execution
For information about assigning a DataWindow object to a Web DataWindow
control, see Working with Web and JSP Targets or “Loading the DataWindow
object” on page 141.
For information about assigning a DataWindow object to a Web control for
ActiveX, see “Specifying a DataWindow object for the control” on page 174.
Names for DataWindow controls and DataWindow objects

There are two names to be aware of when you are working with a
DataWindow:
• The name of the DataWindow control
• The name of the DataWindow object associated with the control
The DataWindow control name When you place a DataWindow control in
a window or form, it gets a default name. You should change the name to be
something meaningful for your application.
In PowerBuilder, the name of the control has traditionally had a prefix of dw_.
This is a useful convention to observe in any development environment. For
example, if the DataWindow control lists customers, you might want to name
it dw_customer.

Using the name

In code, always refer to a DataWindow by the name of the control (such as
dw_customer). Do not refer to the DataWindow object that is in the control.
The DataWindow object name To avoid confusion, you should use different
prefixes for DataWindow objects and DataWindow controls. The prefix d_ is
commonly used for DataWindow objects. For example, if the name of the
DataWindow control is dw_customer, you might want to name the
corresponding DataWindow object d_customer.
Working with the DataWindow control in PowerBuilder

❖ To place a DataWindow control in a window:
1 Open the window that will contain the DataWindow control.
2 Select Insert>Control>DataWindow from the menu bar.
3 Click where you want the control to display.
PowerBuilder places an empty DataWindow control in the window:
4 (Optional) Resize the DataWindow control by selecting it and dragging

one of the handles.
Specifying a After placing the DataWindow control, you associate a DataWindow object
DataWindow object with the control.
14 PowerBuilder
❖ To associate a DataWindow object with the control:

1 In the DataWindow Properties view, click the Browse button for the
DataObject property.
2 Select the DataWindow object that you want to place in the control and
click OK.
The name of the DataWindow object displays in the DataObject box in the
DataWindow Properties view.
3 (Optional) Change the properties of the DataWindow control as needed.
Allowing users to move DataWindow controls

If you want users to be able to move a DataWindow control during
execution, give it a title and select the Title Bar checkbox. Then users can
move the control by dragging the title bar.
Defining reusable DataWindow controls

You might want all the DataWindow controls in your application to have
similar appearance and behavior. For example, you might want all of them to
do the same error handling.
To be able to define these behaviors once and reuse them in each window, you
should create a standard user object based on the DataWindow control: define
the user object's properties and write scripts that perform the generic
processing you want, such as error handling. Then place the user object
(instead of a new DataWindow control) in the window. The DataWindow user
object has all the desired functionality predefined. You do not need to respecify
it.
For more information about creating and using user objects, see the
PowerBuilder User's Guide.
Editing the DataWindow object in the control

Once you have associated a DataWindow object with a DataWindow control in
a window, you can go directly to the DataWindow painter to edit the associated
DataWindow object.
❖ To edit an associated DataWindow object:

• Select Modify DataWindow from the DataWindow control's pop-up
menu.

PowerBuilder opens the associated DataWindow object in the

DataWindow painter.
Specifying the DataWindow object during execution

Changing the The way to change the DataWindow object depends on the environment:
DataWindow object
• PowerBuilder Set the DataObject property to one of the DataWindow
objects built into the application
• Web ActiveX Set the SourceFileName and DataWindowObject
properties to select a new library file and DataWindow
• Web DataWindow If you are not using the Web Target object model, you
can call the SetDWObject method on the HTML DataWindow generator
component
Setting the transaction object when you change the DataWindow object
When you change the DataWindow object during execution, you may need to
call setTrans or setTransObject again.
For more information, see “Setting the transaction object for the DataWindow
control” on page 19.
Dynamically creating You can also create a new DataWindow object during execution and associate
a DataWindow object it with a control.
For more information, see Chapter 3, “Dynamically Changing DataWindow
Objects”.
Changing the DataWindow in PowerBuilder

When you associate a DataWindow object with a control in the window, you
are setting the initial value of the DataWindow control's DataObject property.
During execution, this tells your application to create an instance of the
DataWindow object specified in the control's DataObject property and use it in
the control.
Setting the In addition to specifying the DataWindow object in the Window painter, you
DataObject property in can switch the object that displays in the control during execution by changing
code
the value of the DataObject property in code.
For example: to display the DataWindow object d_emp_hist from the library
emp.pbl in the DataWindow control dw_emp, you can code:
16 PowerBuilder
dw_emp.DataObject = "d_emp_hist"
The DataWindow object d_emp_hist was created in the DataWindow painter
and stored in a library on the application search path. The control dw_emp is
contained in the window and is saved as part of the window definition.
Preventing redrawing
You can use the SetRedraw method to turn off redrawing in order to avoid
flicker and reduce redrawing time when you are making several changes to the
properties of an object or control. Dynamically changing the DataWindow
object at execution time implicitly turns redrawing on. To turn redrawing off
again, call the SetRedraw method every time you change the DataWindow
object:
dw_emp.DataObject = "d_emp_hist"
dw_emp.SetRedraw(FALSE)
Using PSR files To put a PSR file into a DataWindow control at execution time, change the
control's DataObject property to specify that PSR file name.
Changing the DataWindow in the Web ActiveX

When you associate a DataWindow object with a DataWindow control, you are
setting the initial value of the DataWindow control's SourceFileName and
DataWindowObject properties.
During execution, this tells your application to:
1 Look for DataWindow objects in the library (PBL file) or runtime library
(PBD file) specified in the control's SourceFileName property.
2 Create an instance of the DataWindow object specified in the control's
DataWindowObject property (which must be in the specified library) and
use it in the control.
Setting the In addition to specifying the DataWindow object in the Window painter, you
SourceFileName and can switch the object that displays in the control during execution by changing
DataWindowObject
properties in code the value of the SourceFileName and DataWindowObject properties in code.
You might simply change the DataWindowObject property to use a different
DataWindow object from the same library, or you might change both properties
to use a DataWindow object from some other library.
For information about URLs for SourceFileName, see “Specifying a
DataWindow object for the control” on page 174.

Accessing the database
For more information about the SourceFileName and DataWindowObject

properties, see the DataWindow Reference.
Using PSR files If you want to dynamically put a PSR file into a
DataWindow control at execution time, change the control's SourceFileName
property to an empty string and specify a URL for the PSR file as the value for
the DataWindowObject property.
Examples This example shows the code to set the properties in JavaScript. The code
changes the DataWindow object in dw_emp, a DataWindow control in a form
or Web page. Dw_emp is saved as part of the form or Web page definition. The
value for DataWindowObject is d_emp_hist; it was created in the DataWindow
painter and is stored in the library named emp.pbl, the value for
SourceFileName.
Web ActiveX For the Web ActiveX on a Web page, you set the
SourceFileName and DataWindowObject properties directly.
To display the DataWindow object d_emp_hist from the library emp.pbl in the
DataWindow control dw_emp, you can code:
dw_emp.SourceFileName = "dwlibs/emp.pbl";
dw_emp.DataWindowObject = "d_emp_hist";

Before you can display data in a DataWindow control, you must get the data
stored in the data source into that control. The most common way to get the
data is to access a database.
An application goes through several steps in accessing a database:
1 Set the appropriate values for the transaction object.
2 Connect to the database.
3 Set the transaction object for the DataWindow control.
4 Retrieve and update data.
5 Disconnect from the database.
This section provides instructions for setting the transaction object for a
DataWindow control and for using the DataWindow object to retrieve and
update data.
18 PowerBuilder
To learn more about setting values for the transaction object, connecting to the
database, and disconnecting from the database, see:
• PowerBuilder Application Techniques, "Using Transaction Objects"
• Web DataWindow “Specifying the database connection and retrieving
data” on page 143
• Web ActiveX “Using the DataWindow Transaction Object control” on
page 175
Setting the transaction object for the DataWindow control

There are two ways to handle database connections and transactions for the
DataWindow control. You can use:
• Internal transaction management
• A separate transaction object
The two methods provide different levels of control over database transactions.
If you are displaying a PSR file in the control

You do not need to use a transaction object or make a database connection if
you are displaying a PSR file in the DataWindow control.
If you change the DataWindow object

If you change the DataWindow object associated with a DataWindow control
during execution, you may need to call the SetTrans or SetTransObject method
again.
PowerBuilder You always need to call one of the methods to set the
transaction object.
Web ActiveX You need to call SetTransObject again only when you are using
a separate transaction object.
These options are described in this section.

Internal transaction management

What it does When the DataWindow control uses internal transaction management, it
handles connecting, disconnecting, commits, and rollbacks. It automatically
performs connects and disconnects as needed; any errors that occur cause an
automatic rollback.
Whenever the DataWindow needs to access the database (such as when a
Retrieve or Update method is executed), the DataWindow issues an internal
CONNECT statement, does the appropriate data access, then issues an internal
DISCONNECT.
Whether to use it When not to use it Do not use internal transaction management when:
• Your application requires the best possible performance
Internal transaction management is slow and uses considerable system
resources because it must connect and disconnect for every database
access.
• You want control over when a transaction is committed or rolled back
Because internal transaction management must disconnect after a database
access, any changes are always committed immediately.
When to use it If the number of available connections at your site is limited,
you might want to use internal transaction management because connections
are not held open.
Internal transaction management is appropriate in simple situations when you
are doing pure retrievals (such as in reporting) and do not need to hold database
locks—when application control over committing or rolling back transactions
is not an issue.
How it works PowerBuilder To use internal transaction management, you specify
connection values for a transaction object, which could be the automatically
instantiated SQLCA. Then you call the SetTrans method, which copies the
values from a specified transaction object to the DataWindow control's internal
transaction object.
SQLCA.DBMS = ProfileString("myapp.ini", &
"database", "DBMS", " ")
... // Set more connection parameters
dw_employee.SetTrans(SQLCA)
dw_employee.Retrieve( )
20 PowerBuilder
Connecting to the database

When you use SetTrans, you do not need to explicitly code a CONNECT or
DISCONNECT statement in a script. CONNECT and DISCONNECT
statements are automatically issued when needed.
For more information about PowerBuilder transaction objects, see

PowerBuilder Application Techniques.
Web ActiveX To use internal transaction management, set the transaction
properties for the DataWindow Web ActiveX control instead of using a
DataWindow Transaction Object control. You can set the properties via Param
elements or in a script. This example sets the DbParm property and calls
Retrieve in a script:
dw_employee.DbParm =
"Driver='com.sybase.jdbc.SybDriver',
URL='jdbc:sybase:Tds:www.domain.com:7373'";
dw_employee.Retrieve( );
For internal transaction management, you do not call SetTransObject. If you
change the DataWindow object during execution, the connection information
is still available and the DataWindow connects as needed. You can change the
connection information by changing the value of the DbParm property.
Transaction management with a separate transaction object

How it works When you use a separate transaction object, you control the duration of the
database transaction. Your scripts explicitly connect to and disconnect from the
database. If the transaction object’s AutoCommit property is set to False, you
also program when an update is committed or rolled back.
Typically, a script for data retrieval or update involves these statements:
Connect
SetTransObject
Retrieve or Update
Commit or Rollback
Disconnect
In PowerBuilder, you use embedded SQL for connecting and committing. For
the Web ActiveX, the transaction object has methods that perform these
actions.

The transaction object also stores error messages returned from the database in
its properties. You can use the error information to determine whether to
commit or roll back database changes.
When to use it When the DataWindow control uses a separate transaction object, you have
more control of the database processing and are responsible for managing the
database transaction.
There are several reasons to use a separate transaction object:
• You have several DataWindow controls that connect to the same database
and you want to make one database connection for all of them, saving the
overhead of multiple connections
• You want to control transaction processing
• You require the improved performance provided by keeping database
connections open
How it works PowerBuilder The SetTransObject method associates a transaction object
with the DataWindow control. PowerBuilder has a default transaction object
called SQLCA that is automatically instantiated. You can set its connection
properties, connect, and assign it to the DataWindow control.
The following statement uses SetTransObject to associate the DataWindow
control dw_emp with the default transaction object (SQLCA):
// Set connection parameters in the transaction object
SQLCA.DBMS = ...
SQLCA.database = ...
CONNECT USING SQLCA;
dw_emp.SetTransObject(SQLCA)
dw_emp.Retrieve( )
Instead of or in addition to using the predefined SQLCA transaction object, you
can define your own transaction object in a script. This is necessary if your
application needs to connect to more than one database at the same time.
The following statement uses SetTransObject to associate dw_customer with a
programmer-created transaction object (trans_customer):
transaction trans_customer
trans_customer = CREATE transaction
// Set connection parameters in the transaction object
trans_customer.DBMS = ...
trans_customer.database = ...
CONNECT USING trans_customer;
dw_customer.SetTransObject(trans_customer)
dw_customer.Retrieve( )
22 PowerBuilder
Web ActiveX To use a separate transaction object for the Web ActiveX, you
add an OBJECT element for the Sybase DataWindow Transaction Object
control to the Web page. You can set its connection properties using Param
elements or a script.
A script that connects and retrieves data would have statements like these:
trans_1.Connect( );
dw_employee.SetTransObject( trans_1 );
dw_employee.Retrieve( );
trans_1.Disconnect( );
For more information For more information about database transaction processing:
• PowerBuilder See the chapter on using transaction objects in
Application Techniques
• Web ActiveX SeeChapter 8, “Using the DataWindow Web Control for
ActiveX”
For more information about SetTrans and SetTransObject methods, see the
DataWindow Reference.
Retrieving and updating data

You call the following two methods to access a database through a
DataWindow control:
Retrieve
Update
Basic data retrieval

After you have set the transaction object for your DataWindow control, you can
use the Retrieve method to retrieve data from the database into that control:
dw_emp.Retrieve( )
The Web DataWindow server component has a second form of the method,
RetrieveEx, for use when the method requires arguments. For more
information about retrieving data with the Web DataWindow, see “Specifying
the database connection and retrieving data” on page 143 and “Passing page-
specific data to the reloaded page” on page 145.

Using retrieval arguments

About retrieval Retrieval arguments qualify the SELECT statement associated with the
arguments DataWindow object, reducing the rows retrieved according to some criteria.
For example, in the following SELECT statement, Salary is a retrieval
argument defined in the DataWindow painter:
SELECT Name, emp.sal FROM Employee
WHERE emp.sal > :Salary
When you call the Retrieve method, you supply a value for Salary. In
PowerBuilder, the code looks like this:
dw_emp.Retrieve( 50000 )
Special considerations for each environment are explained below.
When coding Retrieve with arguments, specify them in the order in which they
are defined in the DataWindow object. Your Retrieve method can provide more
arguments than a particular DataWindow object expects. Any extra arguments
are ignored. This allows you to write a generic Retrieve that works with several
different DataWindow objects.
Omitting retrieval arguments If your DataWindow object takes retrieval
arguments but you do not pass them in the Retrieve method, the DataWindow
control prompts the user for them when Retrieve is called.
More than 16 The Retrieve method is limited to 16 arguments in some environments.
arguments
PowerBuilder You can specify any number of retrieval arguments.
Web DataWindow You can specify a maximum of 16 arguments using the
RetrieveEx method.
Web ActiveX You can specify a maximum of 16 arguments for Retrieve. If
you need to specify more, use the RetrieveEx method for the Web ActiveX and
pass an array where each array element is a retrieval argument.
Updating data
After users have made changes to data in a DataWindow control, you can use
the Update method to save those changes in the database.
In PowerBuilder, the code looks like this:
dw_emp.Update()
24 PowerBuilder
Update sends to the database all inserts, changes, and deletions made in the
DataWindow control since the last Update method. When you are using an
external transaction object, you can then commit (or roll back) those database
updates. In PowerBuilder, you use SQL statements. In the Web ActiveX, you
use methods and properties of the transaction object. In the Web DataWindow
client control, update requests call the update method in the server component,
which handles the commit or rollback.
For more specifics on how a DataWindow control updates the database (that is,
which SQL statements are sent in which situations), see “Updating the
database” on page 41.
Examples The following example shows code that connects, retrieves, updates, commits
or rolls back, and disconnects from the database.
Although the example shows all database operations in a single script or
function, most applications separate these operations. In a PowerBuilder
application, for example, an application could connect to the database in the
application Open event, retrieve and update data in one or more window
scripts, and disconnect from the database in the application Close event.
PowerBuilder The following statements retrieve and update data using the
transaction object EmpSQL and the DataWindow control dw_emp:
// Connect to the database specified in the
// transaction object EmpSQL
CONNECT USING EmpSQL;
// Set EmpSQL as the transaction object for dw_emp

dw_emp.SetTransObject(EmpSQL)
// Retrieve data from the database specified in

// EmpSQL into dw_emp
dw_emp.Retrieve()
// Make changes to the data...

...
// Update the database

IF dw_emp.Update() > 0 THEN
COMMIT USING EmpSQL;
ELSE
ROLLBACK USING EmpSQL;
END IF
// Disconnect from the database

DISCONNECT USING EmpSQL;

Importing data from an external source
Web ActiveX The following JavaScript statements retrieve and update data
using the transaction object EmpSQL and the DataWindow control dw_emp.
// Connect to the database specified in the
// transaction object EmpSQL
EmpSQL.Connect( );
// Set EmpSQL as the transaction object for dw_emp

dw_emp.SetTransObject(EmpSQL);
// Retrieve data from the database specified in

// EmpSQL into dw_emp
dw_emp.Retrieve();
// Make changes to the data

...
// Update the database

if (dw_emp.Update() > 0) {
EmpSQL.Commit( );
} else {
EmpSQL.Rollback( );
}
// Disconnect from the database

EmpSQL.Disconnect( );
Handling retrieval or A production application should include error tests after each database
update errors operation.
For more about checking for errors, see “Handling DataWindow errors” on
page 36.
Importing data from an external source

PowerBuilder and If the data for a DataWindow is not coming from a database (that is, the data
Web ActiveX source was defined as External in the DataWindow wizard), you can use these
methods to import data into the DataWindow control:
ImportClipboard
ImportFile
ImportString
26 PowerBuilder
All environments You can also get data into the DataWindow by using the SetItem method or by
using a DataWindow expression.
For more information on the SetItem method and DataWindow expressions,
see "Manipulating data in a DataWindow control" next.
Manipulating data in a DataWindow control

To handle user requests to add, modify, and delete data in a DataWindow, you
can write code to process that data, but first you need to understand how
DataWindow controls manage data.
How a DataWindow control manages data

As users add or change data, the data is first handled as text in an edit control.
If the data is accepted, it is then stored as an item in a buffer.
About the A DataWindow uses three buffers to store data:
DataWindow buffers
Table 2-1: DataWindow buffers
Buffer Contents
Primary Data that has not been deleted or filtered out (that is, the rows that are
viewable).
Filter Data that was filtered out.
Delete Data that was deleted by the user or through code.

About the edit control As the user moves around the DataWindow control, the DataWindow places an
edit control over the current cell (row and column):
About text The contents of the edit control are called text. Text is data that has not yet been
accepted by the DataWindow control. Data entered in the edit control is not in
a DataWindow buffer yet; it is simply text in the edit control.
About items When the user changes the contents of the edit control and presses ENTER or
leaves the cell (by tabbing, using the mouse, or pressing UP ARROW or DOWN
ARROW), the DataWindow processes the data and either accepts or rejects it,
depending on whether it meets the requirements specified for the column. If the
data is accepted, the text is moved to the current row and column in the
DataWindow Primary buffer. The data in the Primary buffer for a particular
column is referred to as an item.
Events for changing When data is changed in the edit control, several events occur. The names of
text and items the events are different in each environment, as shown in the table. This chapter
refers to events using PowerBuilder names.
Table 2-2: Event names in different environments
Event Description
PowerBuilder,
Web DataWindow
client control Web ActiveX
EditChanged (not onEditChange Occurs for each keystroke the user
available on client types in the edit control.
control)
28 PowerBuilder
Event Description
PowerBuilder,
Web DataWindow
client control Web ActiveX
ItemChanged beforeItemChange Occurs when a cell has been
modified and loses focus.
ItemError onItemError Occurs when new data fails the
validation rules for the column.
ItemFocusChanged onItemFocusChange Occurs when the current item in the
control changes.
How text is processed When the data in a column in a DataWindow has been changed and the column
in the edit control loses focus (for example, because the user tabs to the next column), the
following sequence of events occurs:
1 The DataWindow control converts the text into the correct data type for the
column. For example, if the user is in a numeric column, the DataWindow
control converts the string that was entered into a number. If the data
cannot be converted, the ItemError event is triggered.
2 If the data converts successfully to the correct type, the DataWindow
control applies any validation rule used by the column. If the data fails
validation, the ItemError event is triggered.
3 If the data passes validation, then the ItemChanged event is triggered. If
you set an action/return code of 1 in the ItemChanged event, the
DataWindow control rejects the data and does not allow the focus to
change. In this case, the ItemError event is triggered.
4 If the ItemChanged event accepts the data, the ItemFocusChanged event
is triggered next and the data is stored as an item in a buffer.

Figure 2-2: How text is processed in edit controls
Action/return codes You can affect the outcome of events by specifying numeric values in the
for events event’s program code. For example, step 3 above describes how you can force
data to be rejected with a code of 1 in the ItemChanged event.
To specify action/return codes:
• PowerBuilder and Web DataWindow Use a RETURN statement
• Web ActiveX Call the SetActionCode or setActionCode method
For information about codes for individual events, see the DataWindow
Reference.
Accessing the text in the edit control

Using methods The following methods allow you to access the text in the edit control:
• GetText—Obtains the text in the edit control
• SetText—Sets the text in the edit control
In event code In addition to these methods, the following events provide access to the text in
the edit control:
EditChanged
ItemChanged
ItemError
Use the Data parameter, which is passed into the event, to access the text of the
edit control. In your code for these events, you can test the text value and
perform special processing depending on that value.
For an example, see "Coding the ItemChanged event" below.
30 PowerBuilder
Manipulating the text in the edit control

When you want to further manipulate the contents of the edit control within
your DataWindow control, you can use any of these methods:
CanUndo Scroll
Clear SelectedLength
Copy SelectedLine
Cut SelectedStart
LineCount SelectedText
Paste SelectText
Position TextLine
ReplaceText Undo
For more information about these methods, see the DataWindow Reference.
Coding the ItemChanged event

If data passes conversion and validation, the ItemChanged event is triggered.
By default, the ItemChanged event accepts the data value and allows focus to
change. You can write code for the ItemChanged event to do some additional
processing. For example, you could perform some tests, set a code to reject the
data, have the column regain focus, and trigger the ItemError event.
Example The following sample code for the ItemChanged event for a DataWindow
control called dw_Employee sets the return code in dw_Employee to reject
data that is less than the employee's age, which is specified in a SingleLineEdit
or textbox control in the window.
This is the PowerBuilder version of the code:
int a, age
age = Integer(sle_age.text)
a = Integer(data)
// Set the return code to 1 in the ItemChanged

// event to tell PowerBuilder to reject the data
// and not change the focus.
IF a < age THEN RETURN 1

Coding the ItemError event

The ItemError event is triggered if there is a problem with the data. By default,
it rejects the data value and displays a message box. You can write code for the
ItemError event to do some other processing. For example, you can set a code
to accept the data value, or reject the data value but allow focus to change.
For more information about the events of the DataWindow control, see the
Accessing the items in a DataWindow

You can access data values in a DataWindow by using methods or
DataWindow data expressions. Both methods allow you to access data in any
buffer and to get original or current values.
The method you use depends on how much data you are accessing and whether
you know the names of the DataWindow columns when the script is compiled.
For guidelines on deciding which method to use, see the DataWindow
Reference.
Using methods There are several methods for manipulating data in a DataWindow control.
These methods obtain the data in a specified row and column in a specified
buffer (Web DataWindow methods have separate methods for overloaded
versions):
• PowerBuilder GetItemDate, GetItemDateTime, GetItemDecimal,
GetItemNumber, GetItemString, GetItemTime
• Web ActiveX GetItemDate, GetItemNumber, GetItemString
• Web DataWindow server component GetItemDate,
GetItemDateByColNum, GetItemDateByColNumEx, GetItemDateEx,
GetItemDateTime, GetItemDateTimeByColNum,
GetItemDateTimeByColNumEx, GetItemDateTimeEx, GetItemNumber,
GetItemNumberByColNum, GetItemNumberByColNumEx,
GetItemNumberEx, GetItemStatus, GetItemStatusByColNum,
GetItemString, GetItemStringByColNum, GetItemStringByColNumEx,
GetItemStringEx, GetItemTime, GetItemTimeByColNum,
GetItemTimeByColNumEx, GetItemTimeEx
This method sets the value of a specified row and column:
• PowerBuilder and Web ActiveX SetItem
32 PowerBuilder
• Web DataWindow server component SetItemDate,

SetItemDateByColNum, SetItemDateTime,
SetItemDateTimeByColNum, SetItemNumber,
SetItemNumberByColNum, SetItemStatus, SetItemStatusByColNum,
SetItemString, SetItemStringByColNum, SetItemTime,
SetItemTimeByColNum
For example, the following statement, using PowerBuilder syntax, assigns the
value from the empname column of the first row to the variable ls_Name:
ls_Name = dw_1.GetItemString (1, "empname")
This PowerBuilder statement sets the value of the empname column in the first
row to the string Waters:
dw_1.SetItem(1, "empname", "Waters")
Uses You call the GetItem methods to obtain the data that has been accepted
into a specific row and column. You can also use them to check the data in a
specific buffer before you update the database. You must use the method
appropriate for the column’s data type.
For more information about the methods listed above, see the DataWindow
Reference.
Using expressions DataWindow data expressions refer to single items, columns, blocks of data,
selected data, or the whole DataWindow.
The way you construct data expressions depends on the environment:
• PowerBuilder Use dot notation
• Web ActiveX Data expressions are not supported
Expressions in PowerBuilder The Object property of the DataWindow
control lets you specify expressions that refer directly to the data of the
DataWindow object in the control. This direct data manipulation allows you to
access small and large amounts of data in a single statement, without calling
methods:
dw_1.Object.jobtitle[3] = "Programmer"
The next statement sets the value of the first column in the first row in the
DataWindow to Smith:
dw_1.Object.Data[1,1] = "Smith"
For complete instructions on how to construct DataWindow data expressions,
see the DataWindow Reference.

Using other DataWindow methods

There are many more methods you can use to perform activities in
DataWindow controls. Here are some of the more common ones:
Table 2-3: Common methods in DataWindow controls
Method Purpose
AcceptText Applies the contents of the edit control to the
current item in the DataWindow control.
DeleteRow Removes the specified row from the DataWindow
control, placing it in the Delete buffer; does not
delete the row from the database.
Filter Displays rows in the DataWindow control based on
the current filter.
GetRow Returns the current row number.
InsertRow Inserts a new row.
Reset Clears all rows in the DataWindow control.
Retrieve Retrieves rows from the database.
RowsCopy, RowsMove Copies or moves rows from one DataWindow
control to another.
ScrollToRow Scrolls to the specified row.
SelectRow Highlights a specified row.
ShareData Shares data among different DataWindow controls.
Update Sends to the database all inserts, changes, and
deletions that have been made in the DataWindow
control.
Some, but not all, of these methods are available for the Web DataWindow
client control, server component, or both. Each development environment
provides a reference list of methods. For a complete list of DataWindow
methods, see the PowerBuilder Browser for PowerScript targets or the
Components tab of the System Tree for Web targets.
For complete information on DataWindow methods, see the DataWindow
Reference.
34 PowerBuilder
Accessing the properties of a DataWindow object

About DataWindow DataWindow object properties store the information that controls the behavior
object properties of a DataWindow object. They are not properties of the DataWindow control,
but of the DataWindow object displayed in the control. The DataWindow
object is itself made up of individual controls—column, text, graph, and
drawing controls—that have DataWindow object properties.
You establish initial values for DataWindow object properties in the
DataWindow painter. You can also get and set property values during execution
in your code.
You can access the properties of a DataWindow object by using the Describe
and Modify methods or DataWindow property expressions. Which you use
depends on the type of error checking you want to provide and on whether you
know the names of the controls within the DataWindow object and properties
you want to access when the script is compiled.
Note that in the Web ActiveX, only the Describe and Modify methods (not
property expressions) are supported.
For guidelines on deciding which method to use and for lists and descriptions
of DataWindow object properties, see the DataWindow Reference.
Using methods to You can use the following methods to work with the properties of a
access object DataWindow object:
properties
• Describe—Reports the values of properties of a DataWindow object and
controls within the DataWindow object
• Modify—Modifies a DataWindow object by specifying a list of
instructions that change the DataWindow object's definition
PowerBuilder For example, the following statements assign the value of the
Border property for the empname column to a string variable:
string ls_border
ls_border = dw_1.Describe("empname.Border")
The following statement changes the value of the Border property for the
empname column to 1:
dw_emp.Modify("empname.Border=1")
Web ActiveX The JavaScript code is nearly identical to PowerScript. These
statements get the value of the Border property for the empname column:
string ls_border
ls_border = dw_1.Describe("empname.Border");

Handling DataWindow errors
The following statement changes the value of the Border property for the
empname column to 1:
dw_emp.Modify("empname.Border=1");
About dynamic DataWindow objects

Using Describe and Modify, you can provide an interface through which
application users can alter the DataWindow object during execution. For
example, you can change the appearance of a DataWindow object or allow an
application user to create ad hoc reports.
Objects”.
Using expressions DataWindow property expressions provide access to properties with fewer
nested strings. In PowerBuilder, you can handle problems with incorrect object
and property names in the Error event:
PowerBuilder Use the Object property and dot notation. For example:
integer li_border
li_border = Integer(dw_1.Object.empname.Border)
dw_1.Object.empname.Border = 1
For reference material on the available variations for property expressions, see
the DataWindow Reference.

There are several types of errors that can occur during DataWindow
processing:
• Data items that are invalid (discussed in “Manipulating data in a
DataWindow control” on page 27)
• Failures when retrieving or updating data
• Attempts to access invalid or nonexistent properties or data
This section explains how to handle the last two types of errors.
36 PowerBuilder
Retrieve and Update errors and the DBError event

Retrieve and update When using the Retrieve or Update method in a DataWindow control, you
testing should test the method's return code to see whether the activity succeeded.
Do not test the SQLCode attribute

After issuing a SQL statement (such as CONNECT, COMMIT, or
DISCONNECT) or the equivalent method of the transaction object, you should
always test the success/failure code (the SQLCode attribute in the transaction
object). However, you should not use this type of error checking following a
retrieval or update made in a DataWindow.
For more information about error handling after a SQL statement, see:
• PowerBuilder The chapter on using transaction objects in Application
Techniques
• Web ActiveX Chapter 8, “Using the DataWindow Web Control for
ActiveX”
Table 2-4: Return codes for the Retrieve and Update methods
Return
Method code Meaning
Retrieve >=1 Retrieval succeeded; returns the number of rows retrieved.
-1 Retrieval failed; DBError event triggered.
0 No data retrieved.
Update 1 Update succeeded.
-1 Update failed; DBError event triggered.
Example PowerBuilder If you want to commit changes to the database only if an

update succeeds, you can code:
IF dw_emp.Update() > 0 THEN
COMMIT USING EmpSQL;
ELSE
ROLLBACK USING EmpSQL;
END IF
Web ActiveX To commit changes to the database only if an update succeeds,
you can code:
number rtn;
rtn = dw_emp.Update( );
if (rtn == 1) {
trans_a.Commit( );
} else {

trans_a.Rollback( );
}
Using the DBError The DataWindow control triggers its DBError event whenever there is an error
event following a retrieval or update; that is, if the Retrieve or Update methods return
–1. For example, if you try to insert a row that does not have values for all
columns that have been defined as not allowing NULL, the DBMS rejects the
row and the DBError event is triggered.
By default, the DataWindow control displays a message box describing the
error message from the DBMS:
In many cases you may want to code your own processing in the DBError event
and suppress the default message box. Here are some tips for doing this:
Table 2-5: Tips for processing messages from DBError event
To Do this
Get the DBMS's error code Use the SQLDBCode argument of the DBError
event.
Get the DBMS's message text Use the SQLErrText argument of the DBError
event.
Suppress the default message box Specify an action/return code of 1.
About DataWindow action/return codes

Some events for DataWindow controls have codes that you can set to override
the default action that occurs when the event is triggered. The codes and their
meaning depend on the event. In PowerBuilder, you set the code with a
RETURN statement. In the Web ActiveX, you call the SetActionCode or
setActionCode method.
Example PowerBuilder Here is a sample script for the DBError event:

// Database error -195 means that some of the
// required values are missing
IF sqldbcode = -195 THEN
38 PowerBuilder
MessageBox("Missing Information", &

"You have not supplied values for all " &
+"the required fields.")
END IF
// Return code suppresses default message box
RETURN 1
During execution, the user would see the following message box after the error:
Web ActiveX In JavaScript, the code for the DBError event might look like
this:
// Database error -195 means that some of the
// required values are missing
if (sqldbcode == -195) {
alert("Missing information:\n" +
"You have not supplied values for all " +
"the required fields.");
}
// Action code suppresses default message box
dw_1.SetActionCode(1);
Errors in property and data expressions and the Error event

A DataWindow control's Error event is triggered whenever an error occurs in
a data or property expression at execution time. These expressions that refer to
data and properties of a DataWindow object may be valid under some
execution time conditions but not others. The Error event allows you to
respond with error recovery logic when an expression is not valid.
PowerBuilder compiler In PowerBuilder, when you use a data or property expression, the PowerScript
information compiler checks the syntax only as far as the Object property. Everything
following the Object property is evaluated at execution time. For example, in
the following expression, the column name emp_name and the property Visible
are not checked until execution time:
dw_1.Object.emp_name.Visible = "0"

If the emp_name column did not exist in the DataWindow, or if you had
misspelled the property name, the compiler would not detect the error.
However, at execution time, PowerBuilder would trigger the DataWindow
control’s Error event.
Using a Try-Catch The Error event is triggered even if you have surrounded an error producing
block data or property expression in a Try-Catch block. The catch statement is
executed after the Error event is triggered, but only if you do not code the Error
event or do not change the default Error event action from ExceptionFail!. The
following example shows a property expression in a Try-Catch block:
TRY
dw_1.Object.emp_name.Visible = "0"
CATCH (dwruntimeerror dw_e)
MessageBox (“DWRuntimeError”, dw_e.text)
END TRY
Determining the cause The Error event has several arguments that provide information about the error
of the error condition. You can check the values of the arguments to determine the cause of
the error. For example, you can obtain the internal error number and error text,
the name of the object whose script caused the error, and the full text of the
script where the error occurred. The information provided by the Error event’s
arguments can be helpful in debugging expressions that are not checked by the
compiler.
If you catch a DWRuntimeError error, you can use the properties of that class
instead of the Error event arguments to provide information about the error
condition. The following table displays the correspondences between the Error
event arguments and the DWRuntimeError properties.
Table 2-6: Correspondence between Error event arguments and
DWRuntimeError properties
Error event argument DWRuntimeError property
errornumber number
errorline line
errortext text
errorwindowmenu objectname
errorobject class
errorscript routinename
Controlling the When the Error event is triggered, you can have the application ignore the error
outcome of the event and continue processing, substitute a different return value, or escalate the error
by triggering the SystemError event. In the Error event, you can set two
arguments passed by reference to control the outcome of the event.
40 PowerBuilder
Table 2-7: Setting arguments in the Error event

Argument Description
Action A value you specify to control the application's course of action as
a result of the error. Values are:
ExceptionIgnore!
ExceptionSubstituteReturnValue!
ExceptionFail! (default action)
ReturnValue A value whose data type matches the expected value that the
DataWindow would have returned. This value is used when the
value of action is ExceptionSubstituteReturnValue!.
For a complete description of the arguments of the Error event, see the
When to substitute a return value

The ExceptionSubstituteReturnValue! action allows you to substitute a return
value when the last element of an expression causes an error. Do not use
ExceptionSubstituteReturnValue! to substitute a return value when an element
in the middle of an expression causes an error.
The ExceptionSubstituteReturnValue! action is most useful for handling errors
in data expressions.
Updating the database

After users have made changes to data in a DataWindow control, you can use
the Update method to save the changes in the database. Update sends to the
database all inserts, changes, and deletions made in the DataWindow since the
last Update or Retrieve method was executed.
How the DataWindow control updates the database

When updating the database, the DataWindow control determines the type of
SQL statements to generate by looking at the status of each of the rows in the
DataWindow buffers.
There are four DataWindow item statuses, two of which apply only to rows:

Table 2-8: DataWindow item status for rows and columns

Status Applies to
Web
PowerBuilder DataWindow
name name Numeric value
New! New 2 Rows
NewModified! NewModified 3 Rows
NotModified! NotModified 0 Rows and columns
DataModified! DataModified 1 Rows and columns
Named or numeric constants

The constants shown in the table are used differently in each environment:
PowerBuilder The named values are values of the enumerated data type
dwItemStatus. You must use the named values, which end in an exclamation
point.
Web DataWindow You can use a string value with or without the
exclamation point
Web ActiveX Named values are not defined; use the numeric values.
This discussion uses the PowerBuilder names.
How statuses are set When data is retrieved When data is retrieved into a DataWindow, all rows
and columns initially have a status of NotModified!.
After data has changed in a column in a particular row, either because the user
changed the data or the data was changed programmatically, such as through
the SetItem method, the column status for that column changes to
DataModified!. Once the status for any column in a retrieved row changes to
DataModified!, the row status also changes to DataModified!.
When rows are inserted When a row is inserted into a DataWindow, it
initially has a row status of New!, and all columns in that row initially have a
column status of NotModified!. After data has changed in a column in the row,
either because the user changed the data or the data was changed
programmatically, such as through the SetItem method, the column status
changes to DataModified!. Once the status for any column in the inserted row
changes to DataModified!, the row status changes to NewModified!.
When a DataWindow column has a default value, the column’s status does not
change to DataModified! until the user makes at least one actual change to a
column in that row.
42 PowerBuilder
When Update is called For rows in the Primary and Filter buffers When the Update method is
called, the DataWindow control generates SQL INSERT and UPDATE
statements for rows in the Primary and/or Filter buffers based upon the
following row statuses:
Table 2-9: Row status after INSERT and UPDATE statements
Row status SQL statement generated
NewModified! INSERT
DataModified! UPDATE
A column is included in an UPDATE statement only if the following two

conditions are met:
• The column is on the updatable column list maintained by the
DataWindow object
For more information about setting the update characteristics of the
DataWindow object, see the PowerBuilder User's Guide.
• The column has a column status of DataModified!
The DataWindow control includes all columns in INSERT statements it
generates. If a column has no value, the DataWindow attempts to insert a
NULL. This causes a database error if the database does not allow NULLs in
that column.
For rows in the Delete buffer The DataWindow control generates SQL
DELETE statements for any rows that were moved into the Delete buffer using
the DeleteRow method. (But if a row has a row status of New! or
NewModified! before DeleteRow is called, no DELETE statement is issued for
that row.)
Changing row or column status programmatically

You may need to change the status of a row or column programmatically.
Typically, you do this to prevent the default behavior from taking place. For
example, you might copy a row from one DataWindow to another; and after the
user modifies the row, you might want to issue an UPDATE statement instead
of an INSERT statement.
You use the SetItemStatus method to programmatically change a
DataWindow's row or column status information. Use the GetItemStatus
method to determine the status of a specific row or column.

Changing column You use SetItemStatus to change the column status from DataModified! to
status NotModified!, or vice versa.
Change column status when you change row status

Changing the row status changes the status of all columns in that row to
NotModified!, so if the Update method is called, no SQL update is produced.
You must change the status of columns to be updated after you change the row
status.
Changing row status Changing row status is a little more complicated. The following table
illustrates the effect of changing from one row status to another:
Table 2-10: Effects of changing from one row status to another
Specified status
Original status New! NewModified! DataModified! NotModified!
New! - Yes Yes No
NewModified! No - Yes New!
DataModified! NewModified! Yes - Yes
NotModified! Yes Yes Yes -
In the preceding table, Yes means the change is valid. For example, issuing
SetItemStatus on a row that has the status NotModified! to change the status to
New! does change the status to New!. No means that the change is not valid
and the status is not changed.
Issuing SetItemStatus to change a row status from NewModified! to
NotModified! actually changes the status to New!. Issuing SetItemStatus to
change a row status from DataModified! to New! actually changes the status to
NewModified!.
Changing a row's status to NotModified! or New! causes all columns in that
row to be assigned a column status of NotModified!. Change the column’s
status to DataModified! to ensure that an update results in a SQL Update.
Changing status indirectly

When you cannot change to the desired status directly, you can usually do it
indirectly. For example, change New! to DataModified! to NotModified!.
44 PowerBuilder
Creating reports
You can use DataWindow objects to create standard business reports such as
financial statements, sales order reports, employee lists, or inventory reports.
To create a production report, you:
• Determine the type of report you want to produce
• Build a DataWindow object to display data for the report
• Place the DataWindow object in a DataWindow control on a window or
form
• Write code to perform the processing required to populate the
DataWindow control and print the contents as a report
Calling InfoMaker from within an application

If your users have installed InfoMaker (the Sybase reporting product), you can
invoke InfoMaker from within an application. This way you can let your users
create and save their own reports. To do this in PowerBuilder, use the Run
function.
For information about invoking InfoMaker, see the InfoMaker User’s Guide.
Planning and building the DataWindow object

To design the report, you create a DataWindow object. You select the data
source and presentation style and then:
• Sort the data
• Create groups in the DataWindow object to organize the data in the report
and force page breaks when the group values change
• Enhance the DataWindow object to look like a report (for example, you
might want to add a title, column headers, and a computed field to number
the pages)

Creating reports
Using fonts
Printer fonts are usually shorter and fatter than screen fonts, so text may not
print in the report exactly as it displays in the DataWindow painter. You can pad
the text fields to compensate for this discrepancy.
You should test the report format with a small amount of data before you print
a large report.
Printing the report

After you build the DataWindow object and fill in print specifications, you can
place it in a DataWindow control on a window or form, as described in “Putting
a DataWindow object into a control” on page 12.
To allow users to print the report, your application needs code that performs the
printing logic. For example, you can place a button on the window or form,
then write code that is run when the user clicks the button.
To print the contents of a single DataWindow control or DataStore, call the
Print method. For example, this PowerBuilder statement prints the report in the
DataWindow control dw_Sales:
dw_Sales.Print(TRUE)
For information about the Print method, see the DataWindow Reference. For
information about using nested reports to print multiple DataWindows, see
“Using nested reports” on page 47.
Separate DataWindow For PowerBuilder applications only If the window has multiple
controls in a single DataWindow controls, you can use multiple PrintDataWindow method calls in
print job
a script to print the contents of all the DataWindow controls in one print job.
These statements print the contents of three DataWindow controls in a single
print job:
int job
job = PrintOpen("Employee Reports")
// Each DataWindow starts printing on a new page.
PrintDataWindow(job, dw_EmpHeader)
PrintDataWindow(job, dw_EmpDetail)
PrintDataWindow(job, dw_EmpDptSum)
PrintClose(job)
For information about PowerBuilder system functions for printing, see the
PowerScript Reference.
46 PowerBuilder
Using nested reports

When designing a DataWindow object for a report, you can choose to nest
other reports (which are also DataWindow objects) within it. The basic steps
for using nested reports in an application are the same ones you follow for the
other report types. There are, however, some additional topics concerning
nested reports that you should know about.
Availability
Composite and nested reports are not available in the Web DataWindow.
To learn about designing nested reports, see the PowerBuilder User's Guide.
Printing multiple An advantage of composite reports is that you can print multiple reports on a
updatable page. A limitation of composite reports is that they are not updatable, so you
DataWindows on a
page cannot directly print several updatable DataWindows on one page. However,
there is an indirect way to do that, as follows.
You can use the GetChild method on named nested reports in a composite
report to get a reference to a nested report. After getting the reference to the
nested report, you can address the nested report during execution like other
DataWindows.
Using this technique, you can call the ShareData method to share data between
multiple updatable DataWindow controls and the nested reports in your
composite report. This allows you to print multiple updatable DataWindows on
a page through the composite report.
❖ To print multiple DataWindows on a page using a composite

DataWindow:
1 Build a window or form that contains DataWindow controls with the
updatable DataWindow objects.
2 Define a composite report that has reports corresponding to each of the
DataWindows in the window or form that you want to print. Be sure to
name each of the nested reports in the composite report.
Naming the nested report

To use GetChild on a nested report, the nested report must have a name.
To name a nested report in the DataWindow painter, double-click it in the
workspace and enter a name in the Name box on the General property
page.
3 Add the composite report to the window or form (it can be hidden).

Using nested reports
4 In your application, do the following:

a Retrieve data into the updatable DataWindow controls.
b Use GetChild to get a reference to the nested reports in the composite
report.
c Use ShareData to share data between the updatable DataWindow
objects and the nested reports.
d When appropriate, print the composite report.
The report contains the information from the updatable DataWindow
objects.
Re-retrieving data
Each time you retrieve data into the composite report, all references (handles)
to nested reports become invalid, and data sharing with the nested reports is
terminated. Therefore, be sure to call GetChild and ShareData each time after
retrieving data.
Creating and You can create and destroy nested reports in a DataWindow object dynamically
destroying nested during execution using the same technique you use to create and destroy other
reports during
execution controls in a DataWindow object.
Creating nested reports To create a nested report, use the CREATE
keyword with the Modify method. Supply the appropriate values for the nested
report's properties.
Viewing syntax for creating a nested report

The easiest way to see the syntax for creating a nested report dynamically is to
export the syntax of an existing DataWindow object that contains a nested
report. The export file contains the syntax you need.
For more information about exporting syntax in the Library painter, see the
PowerBuilder User's Guide.
When creating a nested report, you need to re-retrieve data to see the report. In
a composite report, you can either retrieve data for the whole report or use
GetChild to get a reference to the new nested report and retrieve its data
directly. For nested reports in other reports, you need to retrieve data for the
base report.
Destroying nested reports To destroy a nested report, use the DESTROY
keyword with the Modify method. The nested report disappears immediately.
48 PowerBuilder
For more about creating and destroying controls in a DataWindow object or

report, see Chapter 3, “Dynamically Changing DataWindow Objects”.
For a list of properties of nested reports, see the DataWindow Reference.
Using crosstabs
To perform certain kinds of data analysis, you may want to design
DataWindow objects in the Crosstab presentation style. The basic steps for
using crosstabs in an application are the same ones you follow for the other
DataWindow types, but there are some additional topics concerning crosstabs
that you should know about.
To learn about designing crosstabs, see the PowerBuilder User's Guide.
Viewing the underlying data

If you want users to be able to see the raw data as well as the cross-tabulated
data, you can do one of two things:
• Place two DataWindow controls on the window or form: one that is
associated with the crosstab and one that is associated with a DataWindow
object that displays the retrieved rows.
• Create a composite DataWindow object that contains two reports: one that
shows the raw data and one that shows the crosstab.
Do not share data between the two DataWindow objects or reports

They have the same SQL SELECT data definition, but they have different
result sets.
For more about composite DataWindows, see the PowerBuilder User's Guide.
Letting users redefine the crosstab
Availability
This technique is available in PowerBuilder and the Web ActiveX.

Using crosstabs
With the CrosstabDialog method, you can allow users to redefine which
columns in the retrieved data are associated with the crosstab's columns, rows,
and values during execution.
The CrossTabDialog method displays the Crosstab Definition dialog box for
the user to define the data for the crosstab's columns, rows, and values (using
the same techniques you use in the DataWindow painter). When the user clicks
OK in the dialog box, the DataWindow control rebuilds the crosstab with the
new specifications.
Displaying You can display informational messages when a crosstab is rebuilt during
informational execution as a result of the call to CrosstabDialog. (The messages are the same
messages
ones you see when building a crosstab in the DataWindow painter, such as
Retrieving data and Building crosstab.) You may want to do this if
you are working with a very large number of rows and rebuilding the crosstab
could take a long time.
PowerBuilder In PowerBuilder, you use a user event to display the crosstab’s
informational messages.
❖ To display informational messages when a crosstab is rebuilt:

1 Define a user event for the DataWindow control containing the crosstab.
Associate it with the event ID pbm_dwnmessagetext.
2 In the script for the user event, get the value of the text argument (which
holds the message that PowerBuilder would display when building the
crosstab in the DataWindow painter) and display it to the user.
Web ActiveX In a Web page, you use the DataWindow’s onMessageText
event to handle informational messages.
❖ To display informational messages when a crosstab is rebuilt:

1 Edit the code for the onMessageText event of your DataWindow control.
2 In that event, get the value of the Text argument and display it to the user.
Examples PowerBuilder In the example, code for the DataWindow control's user event
for pbm_dwnmessagetext displays informational messages in a static text
control in the window containing the crosstab:
st_message.Text = text
With that script in place, after CrosstabDialog has been called and the user has
redefined the crosstab, as the crosstab is being rebuilt, your application
dynamically displays the informational messages in the static text control
st_message. (You might want to reset st_message.Text to be the empty string
in the line following the CrosstabDialog call.)
50 PowerBuilder
In this example, code in the user event for pbm_dwnmessagetext displays

informational messages as MicroHelp in an MDI application (w_crosstab is an
MDI frame window):
w_crosstab.SetMicroHelp(text)
The informational messages are displayed in the MDI application's MicroHelp
as the crosstab is rebuilt.
For more information For more about user events in PowerBuilder, see the PowerBuilder User's
Guide.
For more about the CrosstabDialog method and MessageText event, see the
Modifying the crosstab's properties during execution

As with other DataWindow objects, you can modify the properties of a crosstab
during execution using the Modify method. Some changes require the
DataWindow control to dynamically rebuild the crosstab; others do not. (If the
original crosstab was static, it becomes a dynamic crosstab when it is rebuilt.)
Availability
You can use this technique in all DataWindow environments.
Changes that do not You can change the following properties without forcing the DataWindow
force a rebuild control to rebuild the crosstab:

Generating HTML
Table 2-11: Properties you can change on a crosstab DataWindow

without forcing a rebuild
Properties Objects
Alignment Column, Compute, Text
Background Column, Compute, Line, Oval, Rectangle,
RoundRectangle, Text
Border Column, Compute, Text
Brush Line, Oval, Rectangle, RoundRectangle
Color Column, Compute, Text
Edit styles (dddw, ddlb, checkbox, Column
edit, editmask, radiobutton)
Font Column, Compute, Text
Format Column, Compute
Pen Line, Oval, Rectangle, RoundRectangle
Pointer Column, Compute, Line, Oval, Rectangle,
RoundRectangle, Text
Changes that force a If you change any other properties, the DataWindow control rebuilds the
rebuild structure of the crosstab when Modify is called. You should combine all needed
expressions into one Modify call so that the DataWindow control has to rebuild
the crosstab only once.
Default values for For computations derived from existing columns, the DataWindow control by
properties default uses the properties from the existing columns. For completely new
columns, properties (such as font, color, and so on) default to the first column
of the preexisting crosstab. Properties for text in headers default to the
properties of the first text control in the preexisting crosstab's first header line.
For more about the Modify method, see Chapter 3, “Dynamically Changing
DataWindow Objects”. For details on the DataWindow object properties, see
Generating HTML
You can use the data in a DataWindow object to create HyperText Markup
Language (HTML) syntax. Once the HTML has been created, you can display
it in a Web browser.
52 PowerBuilder
Web DataWindow
This section does not describe the Web DataWindow. The Web DataWindow
uses DataWindow object properties that are described in Chapter 6, “Using the
Web DataWindow” and the DataWindow Reference. In particular, see the
Data.HTML and HTMLGen properties.
Techniques you can You can use any of several techniques to generate HTML from a DataWindow
use object.
In a painter In both the DataWindow painter and the Output view in the
Database painter, you can save retrieved data in HTML format. To do this in
the DataWindow painter, select File>Save Rows As from the menu. In the
Database painter, open the Output view, then select Rows>Save Rows As from
the menu. In both painters, specify HTML Table as the format for the file.
In your application code You can obtain an HTML string of the
DataWindow presentation and data from the Data.HTMLTable property. You
can save the string in a variable and modify the HTML with string
manipulation operations. In PowerBuilder, you can also use the FileOpen and
FileWrite functions to save the HTML to a file.
The HTMLTable property has its own properties which you can set to control
the HTML attributes and style sheet associated with the Table HTML element.
PowerBuilder only In PowerBuilder, there are two more techniques
available to you. You can:
• Call the SaveAs method to save the contents of a DataWindow directly to
a file on disk. To save the data in HTML format, you need to specify
HTMLTable as the file type when you call SaveAs.
• Call the GenerateHTMLForm method to create an HTML form from data
contained in a DataWindow control or DataStore whose DataWindow
object uses the Freeform or Tabular presentation style.
Choosing presentation Some DataWindow presentation styles translate better into HTML than others.
styles The following presentation styles produce good results:
Tabular
Group
Freeform
Crosstab
Grid

Generating HTML
The Composite, Graph, RichText, and OLE 2.0 presentation styles produce
HTML output that is based on the result only, and not on the presentation style.
DataWindows that have overlapping controls may not produce the expected
results. Nested reports are ignored; they are not included in the generated
HTML.
Example This example illustrates how you might use DataWindow-generated HTML in
an application.
The key line of code gets the HTML from the DataWindow by referring to its
HTMLTable property. Variations for each environment are shown below. In
PowerBuilder, you can use the Describe method or a property expression. The
Web ActiveX has to use Describe.
PowerBuilder
ls_htmlstring = dw_1.Object.DataWindow.Data.HTMLTable
Web ActiveX
str_html = dw_1.Describe("DataWindow.Data.HTMLTable");
The complete example that follows is implemented in PowerBuilder.
The window below displays customer data in a tabular DataWindow object. By
pressing the Browse button, the user can translate the contents of the
DataWindow object into HTML format and invoke a Web browser to view the
HTML output. By pressing the Select Browser button, the user can tell the
application which Web browser to use:
54 PowerBuilder
Script for the Select Browser button The script for the Select Browser
button displays a dialog box where the user can select an executable file for a
Web browser. The path to the executable is stored in is_Browser, which is an
instance variable defined on the window:
String ls_BrowserName
Integer li_Result
// Open the dialog to select a browser.

li_Result = GetFileOpenName("Select Browser", &
is_Browser, ls_BrowserName, &
"exe", "Executable Files (*.EXE),*.EXE")
IF li_Result = -1 THEN
MessageBox("No Browser", "No Browser selected")
END IF
Script for the Browse button The script for the Browse button creates an
HTML string from the data in the DataWindow by assigning the
Data.HTMLTable property to a string variable. After constructing the HTML
string, the script adds a header to the HTML string. Then the script saves the
HTML to a file and runs the Web browser to display the output:
String ls_HTML, ls_FileName, ls_BrowserPath
Integer li_FileNumber, li_Bytes,
Integer li_RunResult, li_Result
// Generate the HTML.

ls_HTML = dw_1.Object.DataWindow.Data.HTMLTable
IF IsNull(ls_HTML) Or Len(ls_HTML) <= 1 THEN
MessageBox ("Error", "Error generating HTML!")
Return
ELSE
ls_HTML ="<H1>HTML Generated From a DataWindow"&
+ "</H1><P>" + ls_HTML
END IF
//Create the file.

ls_FileName = "custlist.htm"
li_FileNumber = FileOpen(ls_FileName, StreamMode!, &
Write!, LockReadWrite!, Replace! )
IF (li_FileNumber >= 0) THEN

li_Bytes = FileWrite(li_FileNumber, ls_HTML)
FileClose(li_FileNumber)
IF li_Bytes = Len(ls_HTML) THEN
// Run Browser with the HTML file.

Generating HTML
IF Not FileExists(is_Browser) THEN

cb_selbrowser.Trigger Event Clicked()
IF NOT FileExists(is_Browser) THEN
MessageBox("Select Browser", "Could &
not find the browser.")
RETURN
END IF
END IF
li_RunResult = Run(is_Browser + " file:///"+&
ls_FileName)
IF li_RunResult = -1 THEN
MessageBox("Error", "Error running
browser!")
END IF
ELSE
MessageBox ("Write Error", &
"File Write Unsuccessful")
END IF
ELSE
MessageBox ("File Error", "Could not open file")
END IF
Controlling display
You control table display and style sheet usage through the
HTMLTable.GenerateCSS property. The HTMLTable.GenerateCSS property
controls the downward compatibility of the HTML found in the HTMLTable
property. If HTMLTable.GenerateCSS is FALSE, formatting (style sheet
references) is not referenced in the HTMLTable property; if it is TRUE, the
HTMLTable property includes elements that reference the cascading style
sheet saved in HTML.StyleSheet.
56 PowerBuilder
This screen shows an HTML table in a browser using custom display features:
HTMLTable.Generate If the HTMLTable.GenerateCSS property is TRUE, the HTMLTable element

CSS is TRUE in the HTMLTable property uses additional properties to customize table
display. For example, suppose you specify the following properties:
HTMLTable.NoWrap=Yes
HTMLTable.Border=5
HTMLTable.Width=5
HTMLTable.CellPadding=2
HTMLTable.CellSpacing=2
Describe, Modify, and dot notation

You can access these properties by using the Modify and Describe PowerScript
methods or by using dot notation.
The HTML syntax in the HTMLTable property includes table formatting

information and class references for use with the style sheet:
<table cellspacing=2 cellpadding=2 border=5 width=5>
<tr>
<td CLASS=0 ALIGN=center>Employee ID
<td CLASS=0 ALIGN=center>First Name
<td CLASS=0 ALIGN=center>Last Name
<tr>
<td CLASS=6 ALIGN=right>102
<td CLASS=7>Fran
<td CLASS=7>Whitney
</table>

Generating HTML
HTMLTable.Generate If HTMLTable.GenerateCSS is FALSE, the DataWindow does not use

CSS is FALSE HTMLTable properties to create the Table element. For example, if
GenerateCSS is FALSE, the HTML syntax for the HTMLTable property might
look like this:
<table>
<tr>
<th ALIGN=center>Employee ID
<th ALIGN=center>First Name
<th ALIGN=center>Last Name
<tr>
<td ALIGN=right>102
<td>Fran
<td>Whitney
</table>
Merging HTMLTable The HTML syntax contained in the HTMLTable property is incomplete: it is
with the style sheet not wrapped in <HTML></HTML> elements and does not contain the style
sheet. You can write code in your application to build a string representing a
complete HTML page.
PowerBuilder example This example sets DataWindow properties, creates
an HTML string, and returns it to the browser:
String ls_html
ds_1.Modify &
("datawindow.HTMLTable.GenerateCSS='yes'")
ds_1.Modify("datawindow.HTMLTable.NoWrap='yes'")
ds_1.Modify("datawindow.HTMLTable.width=5")
ds_1.Modify("datawindow.HTMLTable.border=5")
ds_1.Modify("datawindow.HTMLTable.CellSpacing=2")
ds_1.Modify("datawindow.HTMLTable.CellPadding=2")
ls_html = "<HTML>"
ls_html += &
ds_1.Object.datawindow.HTMLTable.StyleSheet
ls_html += "<BODY>"
ls_html += "<H1>DataWindow with StyleSheet</H1>"
ls_html += ds_1.Object.DataWindow.data.HTMLTable
ls_html += "</BODY>"
ls_html += "</HTML>"
return ls_html
This technique provides control over HTML page content. Use this technique
as an alternative to calling the SaveAs method with the HTMLTable!
Enumeration.
58 PowerBuilder
Calling the SaveAs method
Availability
The SaveAs method is not available for the Web control for ActiveX.
As an alternative to creating HTML pages dynamically, you can call the

SaveAs method with the HTMLTable! Enumeration:
ds_1.SaveAs &
("C:\TEMP\HTMLTemp.htm", HTMLTable!, TRUE)
This creates an HTML file with the proper elements, including the style sheet:
<STYLE TYPE="text/css">

</STYLE>
<TABLE nowrap cellspacing=2 cellpadding=2 border=5

width=5>
<tr>
<td CLASS=2 ALIGN=right>Employee ID:
<td CLASS=3 ALIGN=right>501
<tr>
<td CLASS=2 ALIGN=right>Last Name:
<td CLASS=3>Scott
<tr>
<td CLASS=2 ALIGN=right>First Name:
<td CLASS=3>David
<tr>
<td CLASS=2 ALIGN=right>Status:
<td CLASS=3>Active
</TABLE>

Generating HTML
Displaying DataWindow objects as HTML forms

The GenerateHTMLForm method creates HTML form syntax for
DataWindow objects. You can create an HTML form that displays a specified
number of columns for a specified number of rows. Note the following:
• You create HTML form syntax by calling the GenerateHTMLForm
method for the DataWindow control or DataStore
• The GenerateHTMLForm method creates HTML form syntax for the
detail band only
• Embedded nested DataWindows are ignored; they are omitted from the
generated HTML
Presentation styles Although the GenerateHTMLForm method generates syntax for all
presentation styles, the only styles that create usable forms are Freeform and
Tabular.
The following HTML page shows a freeform DataWindow object converted
into a form using syntax generated by the GenerateHTMLForm method:
Edit style conversion The GenerateHTMLForm method converts column edit styles into the
appropriate HTML elements:
Table 2-12: HTML elements generated for column edit styles
Column edit style HTML element
CheckBox Input element specifying TYPE=CHECKBOX.
DropDownDataWindow Select element with a single Option element.
DropDownListBox Select element with one Option element for each item
in the DropDownListBox.
60 PowerBuilder
Column edit style HTML element

Edit Input element specifying TYPE=TEXT.
RadioButton Input element specifying TYPE=RADIO.
Generating syntax To generate HTML form syntax, you call the GenerateHTMLForm method:
instancename.GenerateHTMLForm ( syntax, style, action { , startrow,
endrow, startcolumn, endcolumn { , buffer } } )
The method places the Form element syntax into the syntax argument and the
HTML style sheet into the style argument, both of which are passed by
reference.
Static texts in freeform DataWindow objects

All static texts in the detail band are passed through to the generated HTML
form syntax. If you limit the number of columns to be converted using the
startcolumn and endcolumn arguments, remove the headers from the detail
band for the columns you eliminate.
Here is an example of the GenerateHTMLForm method:

String ls_syntax, ls_style, ls_action
String ls_html
Integer li_return
ls_action = &
"/cgi-
bin/pbcgi60.exe/myapp/uo_webtest/f_emplist"
li_return = ds_1.GenerateHTMLForm &
(ls_syntax, ls_style, ls_action)
IF li_return = -1 THEN
MessageBox("HTML", "GenerateHTMLForm failed")
ELSE
// of_MakeHTMLPage is an object method,
// described in the next section.
ls_html = this.of_MakeHTMLPage &
(ls_syntax, ls_style)
END IF
After calling the GenerateHTMLForm method, the ls_syntax variable contains
a Form element. Here is an example:
<FORM ACTION=
"/cgi-
bin/pbcgi60.exe/myapp/uo_webtest/f_emplist"
METHOD=POST>

Generating HTML
<P>
<P><FONT CLASS=2>Employee ID:</FONT>
<INPUT TYPE=TEXT NAME="emp_id_1" VALUE="501">
<P><FONT CLASS=2>Last Name:</FONT>

<INPUT TYPE=TEXT NAME="emp_lname_1" MAXLENGTH=20
VALUE="Scott">
<P><FONT CLASS=2>First Name:</FONT>

<INPUT TYPE=TEXT NAME="emp_fname_1" MAXLENGTH=20
VALUE="David">
<P><FONT CLASS=2>Status:</FONT>
<INPUT TYPE="RADIO" NAME="status_1" CHECKED CLASS=5
><FONT CLASS=5 >Active
<P>
<INPUT TYPE="RADIO" NAME="status_1" CLASS=5 >
<FONT CLASS=5 >Terminated
<P>
<INPUT TYPE="RADIO" NAME="status_1" CLASS=5 >
<FONT CLASS=5 >On Leave
<P>
<P>
<BR>
<INPUT TYPE=SUBMIT NAME=SAMPLE VALUE="OK">
</FORM>
The ls_stylesheet variable from the previous example contains a Style element,
an example of which is shown below:
<STYLE TYPE="text/css">

</STYLE>
62 PowerBuilder
Unique element names

The GenerateHTMLForm method creates unique names for all elements in the
form (even when displaying multiple rows in one form) by adding a
_nextsequentialnumber suffix.
Creating an HTML To use the syntax and style sheet returned by the GenerateHTMLForm method,
page you must write code to merge them into an HTML page. A complete HTML
page requires <HTML> and <BODY> elements to contain the style sheet and
syntax.
One way to do this is to create a global or object function that returns a
complete HTML page, taking as arguments the Form and Style elements
generated by the GenerateHTMLForm method. Such a function might contain
the following code:
// Function Name: of_MakeHTMLPage
// Arguments: String as_syntax, String as_style
// Returns: String
//***********************************
String ls_html
IF as_syntax = "" THEN
RETURN ""
END IF
IF as_style = "" THEN

RETURN ""
END IF
ls_html = "<HTML>"
ls_html += as_style
ls_html += "<BODY>"
ls_html += "<H1>Employee Information</H1>"
ls_html += as_syntax
ls_html += "</BODY></HTML>"
RETURN ls_html

Generating HTML
64 PowerBuilder
CH A PTE R 3 Dynamically Changing
DataWindow Objects
About this chapter This chapter describes how to modify and create DataWindow objects
during execution.
Contents
Topic Page
About dynamic DataWindow processing 65
Modifying a DataWindow object 66
Creating a DataWindow object 67
Providing query ability to users 70
Providing Help buttons 74
Reusing a DataWindow object 75
About dynamic DataWindow processing

Basics DataWindow objects and all entities in them (such as columns, text,
graphs, and pictures) each have a set of properties. You can look at and
change the values of these properties during execution using DataWindow
methods or property expressions. You can also create DataWindow
objects during execution.
A DataWindow object that is modified or created during execution is
called a dynamic DataWindow object.
About property expressions

Property expressions are available in PowerBuilder and the Web
DataWindow. Property expressions use dot notation to address properties
directly and are evaluated on the server component of the Web
DataWindow.
For the Web ActiveX, property expressions are not available; use the
Describe and Modify methods.

Modifying a DataWindow object
What you can do Using this dynamic capability, you can allow users to change the appearance
of the DataWindow object (for example, change the color and font of the text)
or create ad hoc queries by redefining the data source. After you create a
dynamic DataWindow object and the user is satisfied with the way it looks and
the data that is displayed, the user can print the contents as a report.
Modifying a DataWindow object

During execution, you can modify the appearance and behavior of a
DataWindow object by doing one of the following:
• Changing the values of its properties
• Adding or deleting controls from the DataWindow object
Changing property You can use the Modify method or a property expression to set property values.
values This lets you change settings that you ordinarily specify during development in
the DataWindow painter.
Before changing a property, you might want to get the current value and save
it in a variable, so you can restore the original value later. To obtain information
about the current properties of a DataWindow object or a control in a
DataWindow object, use the Describe method or a property expression.
Using expressions in With some DataWindow properties, you can assign a value through an
property values expression that the DataWindow evaluates during execution, instead of having
to assign a value directly. For example, the following statement displays a
salary in red if it is less than $12,000, and in black otherwise:
dw_1.Modify("salary.Color &
= '0 ~t if(salary <12000,255,0)' ")
For more information The syntax is different for expressions in code versus expressions specified in
the DataWindow painter. For the correct syntax and information about which
properties can be assigned expressions, see the DataWindow Reference.
For more information about property expressions and DataWindow object
properties and examples of using Describe and Modify methods, see the
Adding and deleting You can also use the Modify method to:
controls within the
DataWindow object • Create new objects in a DataWindow object
66 PowerBuilder
CHAPTER 3 Dynamically Changing DataWindow Objects
This lets you add DataWindow controls (such as text, bitmaps, and graphic
controls) dynamically to the DataWindow object.
For how to get a good idea of the correct Create syntax, see “Specifying
the DataWindow object syntax” on page 68.
• Destroy controls in a DataWindow object
This lets you dynamically remove controls you no longer need.
PowerBuilder tool for PowerBuilder only Included with PowerBuilder is DW Syntax, a tool that
easier coding of makes it easy to build the correct syntax for property expressions, Describe,
DataWindow syntax
Modify, and SyntaxFromSQL statements. You click buttons to specify which
properties of a DataWindow you want to use, and DW Syntax automatically
builds the appropriate syntax, which you can copy and paste into your
application code.
To access DW Syntax, select File>New and select the Tool tab.
Viewing DataWindow PowerBuilder only You can use the PowerBuilder Browser to get a list of
object properties in DataWindow properties: on the DataWindow tab, select a DataWindow object
PowerBuilder
in the left pane and Properties in the right pane. To see the properties for a
control in a DataWindow object, double-click the DataWindow object name,
then select the control.
Creating a DataWindow object

This section describes how to create a DataWindow object by calling the
Create method in an application.
DataWindow painter
You should use the techniques described here for creating a DataWindow from
syntax only if you cannot accomplish what you need to in the DataWindow
painter. The usual way of creating DataWindow objects is to use the
DataWindow painter.
To learn about creating DataWindow objects in the DataWindow painter, see
the PowerBuilder User's Guide.
You use the Create method to create a DataWindow object dynamically during
execution. Create generates a DataWindow object using source code that you
specify. It replaces the DataWindow object currently in the specified
DataWindow control with the new DataWindow object.

Creating a DataWindow object
Resetting the transaction object

The Create method destroys the association between the DataWindow control
and the transaction object. As a result, you need to reset the control's
transaction object by calling the SetTransObject or SetTrans method after you
call Create.
Web ActiveX If you used a connection technique that did not require you to
call the SetTransObject or SetTrans method, you do not need to call it after
Create either.
To learn how to associate a DataWindow control with a transaction object, see
Chapter 2, “Using DataWindow Objects”.
Specifying the There are several ways to specify or generate the syntax required for the Create
DataWindow object method. Not all the techniques are available in all environments.
syntax
In PowerBuilder, you can:
• Use the SyntaxFromSQL method of the transaction object
• Use the LibraryExport PowerScript function
In all environments, you can:
• Use the DataWindow.Syntax property of the DataWindow object
• Create the syntax yourself
Using SyntaxFromSQL You are likely to use SyntaxFromSQL to create the
syntax for most dynamic DataWindow objects. If you use SyntaxFromSQL, all
you have to do is provide the SELECT statement and the presentation style.
In PowerBuilder, SyntaxFromSQL is a method of the transaction object. The
transaction object must be connected when you call the method.
Setting USERID for native drivers

In PowerBuilder, table names are automatically qualified with the owner’s
name if you are using a native driver. To obtain the same results in an
application, you must set the USERID property in the transaction object so that
the table name is properly qualified and extended attributes can be looked up.
SyntaxFromSQL has three required arguments:

• A string containing the SELECT statement for the DataWindow object
• A string identifying the presentation style and other settings
68 PowerBuilder
• The name of a string you want to fill with any error messages that may
result
SyntaxFromSQL returns the complete syntax for a DataWindow object that is
built using the specified SELECT statement.
Using SyntaxFromSQL with Adaptive Server Enterprise

If your DBMS is Adaptive Server Enterprise and you call SyntaxFromSQL,
PowerBuilder must determine whether the tables are updatable through a
unique index. This is possible only if you set AutoCommit to TRUE before
calling SyntaxFromSQL, as shown below:
sqlca.autocommit=TRUE
sqlca.syntaxfromsql (sqlstmt, presentation, err)
sqlca.autocommit=FALSE
Using LibraryExport in PowerBuilder You can use the LibraryExport

PowerScript function to export the syntax for a DataWindow object and store
the syntax in a string.
You can then use the exported syntax (or a modification of the syntax) in Create
to create a DataWindow object.
Using the DataWindow.Syntax property You can obtain the source code of
an existing DataWindow object to use as a model or for making minor changes
to the syntax. Many values in the source code syntax correspond to properties
of the DataWindow object.
This JavaScript example gets the syntax of the DataWindow object in the
DataWindow control, dw_1, and displays it in the text box control,
textb_dw_syntax :
var dwSyntax;
dwSyntax = dw_1.Describe("datawindow.syntax");
textb_dw_syntax.value = dwSyntax;
Creating the syntax yourself You need to create the syntax yourself to use
some of the advanced dynamic DataWindow features, such as creating a group
break.
The DataWindow source code syntax that you need to supply to the Create
method can be very complex. To see examples of DataWindow object syntax,
go to the Library painter and export a DataWindow object to a text file, then
view the file in a text editor.
For more information on Create and Describe methods as well as DataWindow
object properties and syntax, see the DataWindow Reference.

Providing query ability to users

When you call the Retrieve method for a DataWindow control, the rows
specified in the DataWindow object's SELECT statement are retrieved. You
can give users the ability to further specify which rows are retrieved during
execution by putting the DataWindow into query mode. To do that, you use the
Modify method or a property expression (the examples here use Modify).
Limitations
You cannot use query mode in a DataWindow object that contains the UNION
keyword or nested SELECT statements.
How query mode works

Once the DataWindow is in query mode, users can specify selection criteria
using query by example—just as you do when you use Quick Select to define
a data source. When criteria have been defined, they are added to the WHERE
clause of the SELECT statement the next time data is retrieved.
The following three figures show what happens when query mode is used.
First, data is retrieved into the DataWindow. There are 36 rows:
70 PowerBuilder
Next, query mode is turned on. The retrieved data disappears and users are
presented with empty rows where they can specify selection criteria. Here the
user wants to retrieve rows where Quarter = Q1 and Units > 15:
Next, Retrieve is called and query mode is turned off. The DataWindow control
adds the criteria to the SELECT statement, retrieves the three rows that meet
the criteria, and displays them to the user:
You can turn query mode back on, allow the user to revise the selection criteria,
and retrieve again.
Using query mode

❖ To provide query mode to users during execution:
1 Turn query mode on by coding.
In PowerBuilder:
dw_1.Modify("datawindow.querymode=yes")
In JavaScript:
dw_1.Modify("datawindow.querymode=yes");

All data displayed in the DataWindow is blanked out, though it is still in

the DataWindow control's Primary buffer, and the user can enter selection
criteria where the data had been.
2 The user specifies selection criteria in the DataWindow, just as you do
when using Quick Select to define a DataWindow object's data source.
Criteria entered in one row are ANDed together; criteria in different rows
are ORed. Valid operators are =, <>, <, >, <=, >=, LIKE, IN, AND, and
OR.
For more information about Quick Select, see the PowerBuilder User's
Guide.
3 Call AcceptText and Retrieve, then turn off query mode to display the
newly retrieved rows.
In PowerBuilder:
dw_1.AcceptText()
dw_1.Modify("datawindow.querymode=no")
dw_1.Retrieve()
In JavaScript:
dw_1.AcceptText();
dw_1.Modify("datawindow.querymode=no");
dw_1.Retrieve();
The DataWindow control adds the newly defined selection criteria to the
WHERE clause of the SELECT statement, then retrieves and displays the
specified rows.
Revised SELECT statement

You can look at the revised SELECT statement that is sent to the DBMS when
data is retrieved with criteria. To do so, look at the sqlsyntax argument in the
SQLPreview event of the DataWindow control.
How the criteria affect Criteria specified by the user are added to the SELECT statement that
the SELECT originally defined the DataWindow object.
statement
For example, if the original SELECT statement was:
SELECT printer.rep, printer.quarter, printer.product,
printer.units
FROM printer
WHERE printer.units < 70
72 PowerBuilder
and the following criteria are specified:
the new SELECT statement is:

SELECT printer.rep, printer.quarter, printer.product,
printer.units
FROM printer
WHERE printer.units < 70
AND (printer.quarter = 'Q1'
AND printer.product = 'Stellar'
OR printer.quarter = 'Q2')
Clearing selection To clear the selection criteria, Use the QueryClear property.
criteria
In PowerBuilder:
dw_1.Modify("datawindow.queryclear=yes")
In JavaScript:
dw_1.Modify("datawindow.queryclear=yes");
Sorting in query mode You can allow users to sort rows in a DataWindow while specifying criteria in
query mode using the QuerySort property. The following statement makes the
first row in the DataWindow dedicated to sort criteria (just as in Quick Select
in the DataWindow wizard).
In PowerBuilder:
dw_1.Modify("datawindow.querysort=yes")
In JavaScript:
dw_1.Modify("datawindow.querysort=yes");
Overriding column By default, query mode uses edit styles and other definitions of the column
properties during (such as the number of allowable characters). If you want to override these
query mode
properties during query mode and provide a standard edit control for the
column, use the Criteria.Override_Edit property for each column.

Providing Help buttons
In PowerBuilder:
dw_1.Modify("mycolumn.criteria.override_edit=yes")
In JavaScript:
dw_1.Modify("mycolumn.criteria.override_edit=yes");
You can also specify this in the DataWindow painter by checking Override Edit
on the General property page for the column. With properties overridden for
criteria, users can specify any number of characters in a cell (they are not
constrained by the number of characters allowed in the column in the
database).
Forcing users to You can force users to specify criteria for a column during query mode by
specify criteria for a coding the following:
column
In PowerBuilder:
dw_1.Modify("mycolumn.criteria.required=yes")
In JavaScript:
dw_1.Modify("mycolumn.criteria.required=yes");
You can also specify this in the DataWindow painter by checking Equality
Required on the General property page for the column. Doing this ensures that
the user specifies criteria for the column and that the criteria for the column use
= rather than other operators, such as < or >=.
Providing Help buttons

A DataWindow object has properties related to online Help. By initializing the
DataWindow.Help.File property to the name of a Help file, you can display
Help command buttons on dialog boxes that display for a DataWindow during
execution.
For complete information on the Help-related DataWindow object properties,
see the DataWindow Reference.
74 PowerBuilder
Reusing a DataWindow object

PowerBuilder only
This technique uses PowerScript methods, which are not available in other
DataWindow environments.
You can reuse a DataWindow object by retrieving its syntax from the library it
is stored in, then using the syntax to create a DataWindow object dynamically
in a DataWindow control.
Here is a typical way to accomplish this in an application. Use:
• The LibraryDirectory function to obtain a list of DataWindow objects and
other library entries in the current library
• A DropDownListBox to list the DataWindow objects in the library and
then allow the user to select a DataWindow from the list
• The LibraryExport function to export the selected DataWindow object
syntax into a string variable
• The Create method to use the DataWindow syntax to create the
DataWindow object in the specified DataWindow control
• The Describe method to get the current DataWindow object syntax—for
example:
string dwSyntax
dwSyntax = dw_1.Describe("datawindow.syntax")
• The Modify method to allow the user to modify the DataWindow object
• The LibraryImport function to save the user-modified DataWindow object
in a library
For information about the PowerScript functions, see the PowerScript
Reference. For information about the DataWindow methods Create, Describe,
and Modify, see the DataWindow Reference.

Reusing a DataWindow object
76 PowerBuilder
CH A PTE R 4 Using DataStore Objects
About this chapter This chapter describes how to use DataStore objects in an application.
Contents
Topic Page
About DataStores 77
Working with a DataStore 80
Using a custom DataStore object 80
Accessing and manipulating data in a DataStore 82
Sharing information 84
Before you begin This chapter assumes you know how to build DataWindow objects in the
DataWindow painter, as described in the PowerBuilder User’s Guide.
About DataStores
A DataStore is a nonvisual DataWindow control. DataStores act just like
DataWindow controls except that they do not have many of the visual
characteristics associated with DataWindow controls. Like a DataWindow
control, a DataStore has a DataWindow object associated with it.
Availability
In PowerBuilder, a DataStore is a nonvisual object. The Web control for
ActiveX does not support DataStores.
The Web DataWindow server component uses an instance of a custom
DataStore object to hold the DataWindow definition and data. See “Using
a custom DataStore object” on page 80.
When to use a DataStore DataStores are useful when you need to access data but do not need the
visual presentation of a DataWindow control. DataStores allow you to:

About DataStores
• Perform background processing against the database without

having to hide DataWindow controls in a window
Suppose that the DataWindow object displayed in a DataWindow control

is suitable for online display but not for printing. In this case, you could
define a second DataWindow object for printing that has the same result
set description and assign this object to a DataStore. You could then share
data between the DataStore and the DataWindow control. Whenever the
user asked to print the data in the window, you could print the contents of
the DataStore.
• Hold data used to show multiple views of the same information
When a window shows multiple views of the same information, you can
use a DataStore to hold the result set. By sharing data between a DataStore
and one or more DataWindow controls, you can provide different views of
the same information without retrieving the data more than once.
• Manipulate table rows without using embedded SQL statements
In places where an application calls for row manipulation without the need
for display, you can use DataStores to handle the database processing
instead of embedded SQL statements. DataStores typically perform faster
at execution time than embedded SQL statements. Also, because the SQL
is stored with the DataWindow object when you use a DataStore, you can
easily reuse the SQL.
• Perform database access on an application server
In a multitier application, the objects in a remote server can use DataStores

to interact with the database. DataStores let you take advantage of the
computer resources provided by a server machine, removing the need to
perform database operations on each client.
DataStore methods Most of the methods and events available for DataWindows are also available
for DataStores. However, some of the methods that handle online interaction
with the user are not available. For example, DataStores support the Retrieve,
Update, InsertRow, and DeleteRow methods, but not GetClickedRow and
SetRowFocusIndicator.
Prompting for When you are working with DataStores, you cannot use functionality that
information causes a dialog box to display to prompt the user for more information. Here
are some examples of ways to overcome this restriction:
78 PowerBuilder
CHAPTER 4 Using DataStore Objects
SetSort and SetFilter You can use the SetSort and SetFilter methods to
specify sort and filter criteria for a DataStore object, just as you would with a
DataWindow control. However, when you are working with a DataWindow
control, if you pass a NULL value to either SetSort or SetFilter, the
DataWindow prompts the user to enter information. When you’re working
with a DataStore, you must supply a valid format when you call the method.
Moreover, you must supply a valid format when you share data between a
DataStore and a DataWindow control; you cannot pass the NULL value to the
DataWindow control rather than the DataStore.
Prompt for Criteria You can define your DataWindow objects so that the
user is prompted for retrieval criteria before the DataWindow retrieves data.
This feature works with DataWindow controls only. It is not supported with
DataStores.
SaveAs When you use the SaveAs method with a DataWindow object, you
can pass an empty string for the filename argument so that the user is prompted
for a file name to save to. If you are working with a DataStore, you must supply
the filename argument.
Prompt for Printing For DataWindow controls, you can specify that a print
setup dialog box display at execution time, either by checking the Prompt
Before Printing checkbox on the DataWindow object’s Print Specifications
property page, or by setting the DataWindow object’s Print.Prompt property in
a script. This is not supported with DataStores.
Retrieval arguments If you call the Retrieve method for a DataWindow
control that has a DataWindow object that expects an argument, but do not
specify the argument in the method call, the DataWindow prompts the user for
a retrieval argument. This behavior is not supported with DataStores.
DataStores have Many of the methods and events that pertain to the visual presentation of the
some visual methods data in a DataWindow do not apply to DataStores. However, because you can
print the contents of a DataStore and also import data into a DataStore,
DataStores have some visually oriented events and methods. For example,
DataStores support the SetBorderStyle and SetSeriesStyle methods so that you
can control the presentation of the data at print time. Similarly, DataStores
support the ItemError event, because data imported from a string or file that
does not pass the validation rules for a column triggers this event.
For a complete list of the methods and events for the DataStore object and
information about each method, see the DataWindow Reference.
DataStores require no Unlike DataWindow controls, DataStores do not require any visual overhead
visual overhead in a window. Using a DataStore is therefore more efficient than hiding a
DataWindow control in a window.

Working with a DataStore
Working with a DataStore

To use a DataStore, you first need to create an instance of the DataStore object
in a script and assign the DataWindow object to the DataStore. Then, if the
DataStore is intended to retrieve data, you need to set the transaction object for
the DataStore. Once these setup steps have been performed, you can retrieve
data into the DataStore, share data with another DataStore or DataWindow
control, or perform other processing.
Examples The following script uses a DataStore to retrieve data from the database. First
it instantiates the DataStore object and assigns a DataWindow object to the
DataStore. Then it sets the transaction object and retrieves data into the
DataStore:
datastore lds_datastore
lds_datastore = CREATE datastore
lds_datastore.DataObject = "d_cust_list"
lds_datastore.SetTransObject (SQLCA)
lds_datastore.Retrieve()
/* Perform some processing on the data... */
Using a custom DataStore object

This section describes how to extend a DataStore in PowerBuilder by creating
a user object.
You may want to use a custom version of the DataStore object that performs
specialized processing. To define a custom DataStore, you use the User Object
painter. There you specify the DataWindow object for the DataStore, and you
can optionally write scripts for events or define your own methods, user events,
and instance variables.
Using a custom DataStore involves two procedures:
1 In the User Object painter, define and save a standard class user object
inherited from the built-in DataStore object.
2 Use the custom DataStore in your PowerBuilder application.
Once you have defined a custom DataStore in the User Object painter, you can
write code that uses the user object to perform the processing you want.
For instructions on using the User Object painter in PowerBuilder, see the
80 PowerBuilder
❖ To define the standard class user object:

1 Select Standard Class User Object on the PBObjects tab in the New dialog
box.
2 Select datastore as the built-in system type that you want your user object
to inherit from, and click OK.
The User Object painter workspace displays so that you can define the
custom object.
3 Specify the name of the DataWindow object in the DataObject box in the
Properties view and click OK.
4 Customize the DataStore by scripting the events for the object, or by
defining methods, user events, and instance variables.
5 Save the object.
❖ To use the user object in your application:

1 Select the object or control for which you want to write a script.
2 Open the Script view and select the event for which you want to write the
script.
3 Write code that uses the user object to do the necessary processing.
Here is a simple code example that shows how to use a custom DataStore
to retrieve data from the database. First it instantiates the custom
DataStore object, then it sets the transaction object and retrieves data into
the DataStore:
uo_cust_dstore lds_cust_dstore
lds_cust_dstore = CREATE uo_cust_dstore
lds_cust_dstore.SetTransObject (SQLCA)
lds_cust_dstore.Retrieve()
/* Perform some processing on the data... */
Notice that this script does not assign the DataWindow object to the
DataStore. This is because the DataWindow object is specified in the user
object definition.
Changing the DataWindow object at execution time

When you associate a DataWindow object with a DataStore in the User
Object painter, you are setting the initial value of the DataStore’s
DataObject property. During execution, you can change the DataWindow
object for the DataStore by changing the value of the DataObject property.

Accessing and manipulating data in a DataStore
4 Compile the script and save your changes.
Accessing and manipulating data in a DataStore

To access data using a DataStore, you need to read the data from the data source
into the DataStore.
If the data source is a If the data for the DataStore is coming from a database (that is, the data source
database was defined as anything but External in the DataWindow painter), you need to
communicate with the database to get the data. The steps you perform to
communicate with the database are the same steps you use for a DataWindow
control.
For more information about communicating with the database, see “Accessing
the database” on page 18.
If the data source is If the data for the DataWindow object is not coming from a database (that is,
not a database the data source was defined as External in the DataWindow painter), you can
use the following methods to import data into the DataStore:
ImportClipboard
ImportFile
ImportString
You can also get data into the DataStore by using a DataWindow data
expression, or by using the SetItem method.
For more information on accessing data in a DataStore, see the DataWindow
Reference.
About the DataStore Like a DataWindow control, a DataStore uses three buffers to manage data:
buffers
Table 4-1: DataStore buffers
Buffer Contents
Primary Data that has not been deleted or filtered out (that is, the rows that are
viewable).
Filter Data that was filtered out.
Delete Data that was deleted by the user or in a script.
82 PowerBuilder
About the Edit control The DataStore object has an Edit control. However, the Edit control for a
DataStore behaves in a slightly different manner from the Edit control for a
DataWindow. The Edit control for a DataWindow keeps track of text entered
by the user in the current cell (row and column); the Edit control for a
DataStore is used to manage data imported from an external source, such as the
clipboard or a file. The text in the Edit control for a DataStore cannot be
changed directly by the user. It must be manipulated programmatically.
Programming with There are many methods for manipulating DataStore objects. These are some
DataStores of the more commonly used:
Table 4-2: Common methods in DataStore objects
Method Purpose
DeleteRow Deletes the specified row from the DataStore.
Filter Filters rows in the DataStore based on the current filter criteria.
InsertRow Inserts a new row.
Print Sends the contents of the DataStore to the current printer.
Reset Clears all rows in the DataStore.
Retrieve Retrieves rows from the database.
RowsCopy Copies rows from one DataStore to another DataStore or
DataWindow control.
RowsMove Moves rows from one DataStore to another DataStore or
DataWindow control.
ShareData Shares data among different DataStores or DataWindow controls.
See “Sharing information” on page 84.
Sort Sorts the rows of the DataStore based on the current sort criteria.
Update Sends to the database all inserts, changes, and deletions that have
been made since the last Update.
For information about DataStore methods, see the DataWindow Reference.

Dynamic DataWindow objects The methods in the table above manipulate
data in the DataStore but do not change the definition of the underlying
DataWindow object. In addition, you can use the Modify and Describe
methods to access and manipulate the definition of a DataWindow object.
Using these methods, you can change the DataWindow object during
execution. For example, you can change the appearance of a DataWindow or
allow your user to create ad hoc reports.
Objects”.

Sharing information
Property and data expressions You can use the same property and data
expressions as for the DataWindow control. For information, see the
Using DataStore properties and events This chapter mentions only a few
of the properties and events that you can use to manipulate DataStores. For
more information about DataStore properties and events, see the DataWindow
Reference.
Sharing information
The ShareData method allows you to share a result set among two different
DataStores or DataWindow controls. When you share information, you remove
the need to retrieve the same data multiple times.
The ShareData method shares data retrieved by one DataWindow control or
DataStore (called the primary DataWindow) with another DataWindow control
or DataStore (the secondary DataWindow).
Result set When you share data, the result set descriptions for the DataWindow objects
descriptions must must be the same. However, the SELECT statements can be different. For
match
example, you could use the ShareData method to share data between
DataWindow objects that have the following SELECT statements (because the
result set descriptions are the same):
SELECT dept_id from dept
SELECT dept_id from dept where dept_id = 200
SELECT dept_id from employee

You can also share data between two DataWindow objects where the source of
one is a database and the source of the other is external. As long as the lists of
columns and their data types match, you can share the data.
What is shared? When you use the ShareData method, the following information is shared:
Primary buffer
Delete buffer
Filter buffer
Sort order
84 PowerBuilder
ShareData does not share the formatting characteristics of the DataWindow

objects. That means you can use ShareData to apply different presentations to
the same result set.
When you alter the If you perform an operation that affects the result set for either the primary or
result set the secondary DataWindow, the change affects both of the objects sharing the
data. Operations that alter the buffers or the sort order of the secondary
DataWindows are rerouted to the primary DataWindow. For example, if you
call the Update method for the secondary DataWindow, the update operation is
applied to the primary DataWindow also.
Turning off sharing To turn off the sharing of data, you use the ShareDataOff method. When you
data call ShareDataOff for a primary DataWindow, any secondary DataWindows
are disassociated and no longer contain data. When you call ShareDataOff for
a secondary DataWindow, that DataWindow no longer contains data, but the
primary DataWindow and other secondary DataWindows are not affected.
In most cases you do not need to turn off sharing, because the sharing of data
is turned off automatically when a window is closed and any DataWindow
controls (or DataStores) associated with the window are destroyed.
Crosstabs You cannot share data with a DataWindow object that has the Crosstab
presentation style.
Example: printing data from a DataStore

Suppose you have a window called w_employees that allows users to retrieve,
update, and print employee data retrieved from the database:

Sharing information
The DataWindow object displayed in the DataWindow control is suitable for

online display but not for printing. In this case, you could define a second
DataWindow object for printing that has the same result set description as the
object used for display and assign the second object to a DataStore. You could
then share data between the DataStore and the DataWindow control. Whenever
the user asked to print the data in the window, you could print the contents of
the DataStore.
When the window or The code you write begins by establishing the hand pointer as the current row
form opens indicator for the dw_employees DataWindow control. Then the script sets the
transaction object for dw_employees and issues a Retrieve method to retrieve
some data. After retrieving data, the script creates a DataStore using the
instance variable or data member ids_datastore, and assigns the DataWindow
object d_employees to the DataStore. The final statement of the script shares
the result set for the dw_employees DataWindow control with the DataStore.
This code is for the window’s Open event:
dw_employees.SetRowFocusIndicator(Hand!)
dw_employees.SetTransObject(SQLCA)
dw_employees.Retrieve()
ids_datastore = CREATE datastore

ids_datastore.DataObject = "d_employees"
dw_employees.ShareData(ids_datastore)
Code for the Update Code for the cb_update button applies the update operation to the
button dw_employees DataWindow control.
This code is for the Update button’s Clicked event:
IF dw_employees.Update() = 1 THEN
COMMIT using SQLCA;
MessageBox("Save","Save succeeded")
ELSE
ROLLBACK using SQLCA;
MessageBox("Save","Save failed")
END IF
Code for the Print The Clicked event of the cb_print button prints the contents of ids_datastore.
button Because the DataWindow object for the DataStore is d_employees, the printed
output uses the presentation specified for this object.
This code is for the Print button’s Clicked event:
ids_datastore.Print()
86 PowerBuilder
When the window or When the window closes, the DataStore gets destroyed.
form closes
This code is for the window’s Close event:
destroy ids_datastore
Example: using two DataStores to process data

Suppose you have a window called w_multi_view that shows multiple views
of the same result set. When the Employee List radio button is selected, the
window shows a list of employees retrieved from the database:
When the Employee Salary Information radio button is selected, the window
displays a graph that shows employee salary information by department:
This window has one DataWindow control called dw_display. It uses two
DataStores to process data retrieved from the database. The first DataStore
(ids_emp_list) shares its result set with the second DataStore (ids_emp_graph).
The DataWindow objects associated with the two DataStores have the same
result set description.

Sharing information
When the window or When the window or form opens, the application sets the mouse pointer to the
form opens hourglass shape. Then the code creates the two DataStores and sets the
DataWindow objects for the DataStores. Next the code sets the transaction
object for ids_emp_list and issues a Retrieve method to retrieve some data.
After retrieving data, the code shares the result set for ids_emp_list with
ids_emp_graph. The final statement triggers the Clicked event for the
Employee List radio button.
This code is for the window’s Open event:
SetPointer(HourGlass!)
ids_emp_list = Create DataStore
ids_emp_graph = Create DataStore
ids_emp_list.DataObject = "d_emp_list"
ids_emp_graph.DataObject = "d_emp_graph"
ids_emp_list.SetTransObject(sqlca)
ids_emp_list.Retrieve()
ids_emp_list.ShareData(ids_emp_graph)
rb_emp_list.EVENT Clicked()
Code for the The code for the Employee List radio button (called rb_emp_list) sets the
Employee List radio DataWindow object for the DataWindow control to be the same as the
button
DataWindow object for ids_emp_list. Then the script displays the data by
sharing the result set for the ids_emp_list DataStore with the DataWindow
control.
This code is for the Employee List radio button’s Clicked event:
dw_display.DataObject = ids_emp_list.DataObject
ids_emp_list.ShareData(dw_display)
Code for the The code for the Employee Salary Information radio button (called rb_graph)
Employee Salary is similar to the code for the List radio button. It sets the DataWindow object
Information radio
button for the DataWindow control to be the same as the DataWindow object for
ids_emp_graph. Then it displays the data by sharing the result set for the
ids_emp_graph DataStore with the DataWindow control.
This code is for the Employee Salary Information radio button’s Clicked event:
dw_display.DataObject = ids_emp_graph.DataObject
ids_emp_graph.ShareData(dw_display)
88 PowerBuilder
When the window or When the window closes, the DataStores get destroyed.
form closes
This code is for the window’s Close event:
Destroy ids_emp_list
Destroy ids_emp_graph
Use garbage collection

Do not destroy the objects if they may still be in use by another process—rely
on garbage collection instead.

Sharing information
90 PowerBuilder
CH A PTE R 5 Manipulating Graphs
About this chapter This chapter describes how to write code that allows you to access and
change a graph in your application at execution time.
Contents
Topic Page
Using graphs 91
Modifying graph properties 92
Accessing data properties 94
Using point and click 101
Using graphs
Supported environments
PowerBuilder and Web ActiveX Graphs are supported. Because you
can print DataStores, PowerBuilder provides some events and functions
for DataStores that pertain to the visual presentation of the data. However,
graph functions such as CategoryCount, CategoryName, GetData,
SeriesCount, and so forth depend on the visual graph control, which is not
created for a DataStore. These functions return an error value or an empty
string when used with DataStore objects.
Web DataWindow Graphs are not supported. If you use a DataWindow
object that includes graphs, the graphs are ignored. If you use a
DataWindow object with the Graph presentation style, nothing displays.
It is common for developers to design DataWindow objects that include

one or more graphs. When users need to quickly understand and analyze
data, a bar, line, or pie graph can often be the most effective format to
display.
To learn about designing graphs, see the PowerBuilder User’s Guide or
the DataWindow Builder User’s Guide.

Modifying graph properties
Working with graphs The following sections describe how you can access (and optionally modify) a
in your code graph by addressing its properties in code at execution time. There are two
kinds of graph properties:
• Properties of the graph definition itself These properties are initially
set in the DataWindow painter when you create a graph. They include a
graph’s type, title, axis labels, whether axes have major divisions, and so
on.
• Properties of the data These properties are relevant only at execution
time, when data has been loaded into the graph. They include the number
of series in a graph (series are created at execution time), colors of bars or
columns for a series, whether the series is an overlay, text that identifies
the categories (categories are created at execution time), and so on.
Using graphs in other PowerBuilder controls

Although you will probably use graphs most often in DataWindow objects, you
can also add graph controls to windows, and additional PowerScript functions
and events are available for use with graph controls.
For more information, see PowerBuilder Application Techniques.
Modifying graph properties

When you define a graph in the DataWindow painter, you specify its behavior
and appearance. For example, you might define a graph as a column graph with
a certain title, divide its Value axis into four major divisions, and so on. Each
of these entries corresponds to a property of a graph. For example, all graphs
have a property GraphType, which specifies the type of graph.
When dynamically changing the graph type

If you change the graph type, be sure also to change the other properties as
needed to properly define the new graph.
You can change these graph properties at execution time by assigning values to
the graph’s properties in code.
Property expressions PowerBuilder You can modify properties using property expressions. For
example, to change the type of the graph gr_emp to Column, you could code:
dw_empinfo.Object.gr_emp.GraphType = ColGraph!
92 PowerBuilder
CHAPTER 5 Manipulating Graphs
To change the title of the graph at execution time, you could code:
dw_empinfo.Object.gr_emp.Title = "New title"
Modify method In any environment , you can use the Modify method to reference parts of a
graph.
Example for PowerBuilder For example, to change the title of graph gr_emp
in DataWindow control dw_empinfo, you could code:
dw_empinfo.Modify("gr_emp.Title = 'New title'")
Example for Web ActiveX This example changes the label text for the Value
axis of graph gr_emp in the DataWindow control dw_empinfo:
dw_empinfo.Modify("gr_emp.Values.Label = 'New label'");
For a complete list of graph properties, see the DataWindow Reference.
How parts of a graph are represented

Graphs consist of parts: a title, a legend, and axes. Each of these parts has a set
of display properties. These display properties are themselves stored as
properties in a subobject (structure) of Graph called grDispAttr.
For example, graphs have a Title property, which specifies the text for the title.
Graphs also have a property TitleDispAttr, of type grDispAttr, which itself
contains properties that specify all the characteristics of the title text, such as
the font, size, whether the text is italicized, and so on.
Similarly, graphs have axes, each of which also has a set of properties. These
properties are stored in a subobject (structure) of Graph called grAxis. For
example, graphs have a property Values, of type grAxis, which specifies the
properties of the Value axis, such as whether to use auto scaling of values, the
number of major and minor divisions, the axis label, and so on.
Here is a representation of the properties of a graph:
Graph
int Height
int Depth
grGraphType GraphType
boolean Border
string Title
…
grDispAttr TitleDispAttr, LegendDispAttr, PieDispAttr
string FaceName
int TextSize

Accessing data properties
boolean Italic
…
grAxis Values, Category, Series
boolean AutoScale
int MajorDivisions
int MinorDivisions
string Label
…
Referencing parts of a graph

You use dot notation or the Describe and Modify methods to reference the
display properties of the various parts of a graph. For example, one of the
properties of a graph’s title is whether the text is italicized or not. That
information is stored in the boolean Italic property in the TitleDispAttr
property of the graph.
This example changes the label text for the Value axis of graph gr_emp in the
DataWindow control dw_empinfo:
dw_empinfo.Object.gr_emp.Values.Label="New label"
For a complete list of graph properties, see the DataWindow Reference.
You can use the PowerBuilder Browser to examine the properties of a
DataWindow object that contains a graph. For more information, see the

To access properties related to a graph’s data during execution, you use
DataWindow methods for graphs. There are three categories of these methods
related to data:
• Methods that provide information about a graph’s data
• Methods that save data from a graph
• Methods that change the color, fill patterns, and other visual properties of
data
How to use the To call the methods for a graph in a DataWindow control, use the following
methods syntax:
94 PowerBuilder
DataWindowName.methodName ( "graphName", otherArguments… )

For example, there is a method CategoryCount, which returns the number of
categories in a graph. So to get the category count in the graph gr_printer
(which is in the DataWindow control dw_sales), write:
Ccount = dw_sales.CategoryCount("gr_printer")
Getting information about the data

There are quite a few methods for getting information about data in a graph in
a DataWindow control at execution time. For all methods, you provide the
name of the graph within the DataWindow as the first argument. You can
provide your own name for graph controls when you insert them in the
DataWindow painter. If the presentation style is Graph, you do not need to
name the graph.
PowerBuilder These methods get information about the data and its display.
For several of them, an argument is passed by reference to hold the requested
information:
Table 5-1: Common methods for graph DataWindows in PowerBuilder
Method Information provided
CategoryCount The number of categories in a graph.
CategoryName The name of a category, given its number.
DataCount The number of data points in a series.
FindCategory The number of a category, given its name.
FindSeries The number of a series, given its name.
GetData The value of a data point, given its series and position
(superseded by GetDataValue, which is more flexible).
GetDataPieExplode The percentage at which a pie slice is exploded.
GetDataStyle The color, fill pattern, or other visual property of a specified
data point.
GetDataValue The value of a data point, given its series and position.
GetSeriesStyle The color, fill pattern, or other visual property of a specified
series.
ObjectAtPointer The graph element the mouse was positioned over when it
was clicked.
SeriesCount The number of series in a graph.
SeriesName The name of a series, given its number.

Web ActiveX These methods get information about the data and its display.
There are additional helper methods available whenever the equivalent
PowerBuilder method uses an argument passed by reference. These helper
methods are identified in the second column of the following table (and are
described in the DataWindow Reference):
Table 5-2: Common methods for graph DataWindows in Web ActiveX
CategoryCount The number of categories in a graph.
CategoryName The name of a category, given its number.
DataCount The number of data points in a series.
FindCategory The number of a category, given its name.
FindSeries The number of a series, given its name.
ObjectAtPointer The graph element the mouse was positioned over when it
was clicked. Call ObjectAtPointerSeries and
ObjectAtPointerDataPoint to get additional information.
SeriesCount The number of series in a graph.
SeriesName The name of a series, given its number.
Getting information about a data point’s appearance
GetDataPieExplode The percentage at which a pie slice is exploded. Call
GetDataPieExplodePercentage to retrieve the requested
value.
GetDataStyleColor The color of a specified data point. Call
GetDataStyleColorValue to retrieve the requested value.
GetDataStyleFill The fill pattern of a specified data point. Call
GetDataStyleFillPattern to retrieve the requested value.
GetDataStyleLine The line style and width of a specified data point. Call
GetDataStyleLineWidth and GetDataStyleLineStyle to
retrieve the requested values.
GetDataStyleSymbol The symbol of a specified data point. Call
GetDataStyleSymbolValue to retrieve the requested value.
Getting a data point’s value
GetDataDate The value of a data point that contains a date, given its
series and position. Call GetDataDateVariable to retrieve
the requested value.
GetDataNumber The value of a numeric data point, given its series and
position. Call GetDataNumberVariable to retrieve the
requested value.
GetDataString The value of a string data point, given its series and
position. Call GetDataStringVariable to retrieve the
requested value.
96 PowerBuilder

Getting information about a series’ appearance
GetSeriesStyleColor The color of a specified series. Call
GetSeriesStyleColorValue to retrieve the requested value.
GetSeriesStyleFill The fill pattern of a specified series. Call
GetSeriesStyleFillPattern to retrieve the requested value.
GetSeriesStyleLine The line style and width used by a specified series. Call
GetSeriesStyleLineWidth and GetSeriesStyleLineStyle to
retrieve the requested values.
GetSeriesStyleOverlay Indication whether a series in a graph is an overlay (that is,
whether it is shown as a line on top of another graph type).
Call GetSeriesStyleOverlayValue to retrieve the requested
value.
GetSeriesStyleSymbol The symbol of a specified series. Call
GetSeriesStyleSymbolValue to retrieve the requested
value.
Saving graph data

PowerBuilder The following methods allow you to save data from the graph:
Table 5-3: PowerBuilder methods for saving data from a graph
Method Action
Clipboard Copies a bitmap image of the specified graph to the clipboard.
SaveAs Saves the data in the underlying graph to the clipboard or to a
file in one of a number of formats.
Web ActiveX You can save an image of the graph on the clipboard, but you
cannot save data in a file. Writing to the file system is a security violation for
an ActiveX control:
Table 5-4: Web Active X method for saving data from a graph
Method Action
Clipboard Copies a bitmap image of the specified graph to the clipboard.
Modifying colors, fill patterns, and other data

PowerBuilder The following methods allow you to modify the appearance of
data in a graph:

Table 5-5: PowerBuilder methods for modifying the appearance of data

Method Action
ResetDataColors Resets the color for a specific data point.
SetDataStyle Sets the color, fill pattern, or other visual property for a
specific data point.
SetSeriesStyle Sets the color, fill pattern, or other visual property for a
series.
Web ActiveX These methods modify the appearance of data in a graph:

Table 5-6: Web ActiveX methods for modifying the appearance of data
Method Action
ResetDataColors Resets the color for a specific data point.
SetDataColor Sets the color of a specified data point.
SetDataFill Sets the fill pattern of a specified data point.
SetDataLine Sets the line style and width of a specified data point.
SetDataPieExplode Explodes a slice in a pie graph.
SetDataSymbol Sets the symbol of a specified data point.
SetSeriesColor Sets the color of a specified series.
SetSeriesFill Sets the fill pattern of a specified series.
SetSeriesLine Sets the line style and width used by a specified series.
SetSeriesOverlay Specifies whether a series in a graph is an overlay (that is,
whether it is shown as a line on top of another graph type).
SetSeriesSymbol Sets the symbol of a specified series.
Using graph methods

You call the data-access methods after a graph has been created and populated
with data. Some graphs, such as graphs that display data for a page or group of
data, are destroyed and re-created internally as the user pages through the data.
Any changes you made to the display of a graph, such as changing the color of
a series, are lost when the graph is re-created.
Event for graph To be assured that data-access methods are called whenever a graph has been
creation created and populated with data, you can call the methods in the code for an
event that is triggered when a graph is created. The event is:
• PowerBuilder Event ID pbm_dwngraphcreate, which you can assign to
a user event for a DataWindow control (described below)
• Web ActiveX The onGraphCreate event
98 PowerBuilder
The graph-creation event is triggered by the DataWindow control after it has

created a graph and populated it with data, but before it has displayed the graph.
By accessing the data in the graph in this event, you are assured that you are
accessing the current data and that the data displays the way you want it.
Setting up the PowerBuilder provides an event ID, pbm_dwngraphcreate, that you can assign
PowerBuilder user to a user event for a DataWindow control.
event
❖ To access data properties of a graph in a DataWindow control:

1 Place the DataWindow control in a window or user object and associate it
with the DataWindow object containing the graph.
Next you create a user event for the DataWindow control that is triggered
whenever a graph in the control is created or changed.
2 Select Insert>Event from the menu bar.
The Script view displays and includes prototype fields for adding a new
event.
3 Select the DataWindow control in the first drop-down list of the prototype
window.
If the second drop-down list also changes to display an existing
DataWindow event prototype, scroll to the top of the list to select New
Event or select Insert>Event once again from the menu bar.
4 Name the user event you are creating.

For example, you might call it GraphCreate.

5 Select pbm_dwngraphcreate for the event ID.
6 Click OK to save the new user event.

7 Write a script for the new GraphCreate event that accesses the data in the
graph.
Calling data access methods in the GraphCreate event assures you that the
data access happens each time the graph has been created or changed in
the DataWindow.
Examples PowerBuilder The following statement sets to black the foreground (fill)
color of the Q1 series in the graph gr_quarter, which is in the DataWindow
control dw_report. The statement is in the GraphCreate event, which is
associated with the event ID pbm_dwngraphcreate in PowerBuilder:
dw_report.SetSeriesStyle("gr_quarter", "Q1", &
foreground!, 0)
The following statement changes the foreground (fill) color to red of the
second data point in the Stellar series in the graph gr_sale in a window. The
statement can be in a script for any event:
int SeriesNum
// Get the number of the series.
SeriesNum = gr_sale.FindSeries("Stellar")
// Change color of second data point to red

gr_sale.SetDataStyle(SeriesNum, 2, foreground!, 255)
Web ActiveX The following statement sets the foreground (fill) color to
black in one of the series in the graph gr_quarter, which is in the DataWindow
control dw_report. The statement is in the onGraphCreate event:
dw_report.SetSeriesStyleColor("gr_quarter", 1, 0, 0);
For more information For complete information about the data-access graph methods, see the
For more about PowerBuilder user events, see the PowerBuilder User’s Guide.
100 PowerBuilder
Using point and click

Users can click graphs during execution. The DataWindow control provides a
method called ObjectAtPointer that stores information about what was clicked.
You can use this method in a number of ways in mouse events. For example,
with the ObjectAtPointer information, you can call other graph methods to
report to the user the value of the clicked data point. This section shows you
how.
Mouse events and To cause actions when a user clicks a graph, you might:
graphs
• PowerBuilder Write a Clicked script for the DataWindow control
• Web ActiveX Write code for the MouseDown or onButtonClick event
You should call ObjectAtPointer in the first statement of the event’s code.
Using ObjectAtPointer ObjectAtPointer works differently in PowerBuilder and the Web ActiveX.
PowerBuilder ObjectAtPointer has this syntax:
DataWindowName.ObjectAtPointer ( "graphName", seriesNumber,
dataNumber )
ObjectAtPointer does these things:
• Returns the kind of object the user clicked
The object is identified by a grObjectType enumerated value. For
example, if the user clicks on a data point, ObjectAtPointer returns
TypeData!. If the user clicks on the graph’s title, ObjectAtPointer returns
TypeTitle!.
For a list of object values, see the chapter on constants in the DataWindow
Reference. In PowerBuilder, you can also open the Browser and click the
Enumerated tab.
• Stores the number of the series the pointer was over in the variable
seriesNumber, which is an argument passed by reference
• Stores the number of the data point in the variable dataNumber, also an
argument passed by reference
Web ActiveX ObjectAtPointer is used with two supporting methods to get all
the information. ObjectAtPointer has this syntax:
DataWindowName.ObjectAtPointer ( "graphName" )

To get the information, you:

1 Call ObjectAtPointer, which returns the kind of graph element the user
clicked.
The element type is identified by a number. For example, if the user clicks
on a series, ObjectAtPointer returns 1. If the user clicks on a graph's title,
ObjectAtPointer returns 4.
For a list of values for individual graph elements, see the chapter on
constants in the DataWindow Reference.
2 Call ObjectAtPointerSeries, which returns the number of the series the
pointer was over.
3 Call ObjectAtPointerDataPoint, which returns the number of the data
point the pointer was over.
The second two methods must be called after ObjectAtPointer.
Example Assume there is a graph named gr_sales in the DataWindow control dw_sales.
The following code for the control's MouseDown event displays a message
box:
• If the user clicks on a series (that is, if ObjectAtPointer returns 1), the
message box shows the name of the series clicked on. The example uses
the method GetSeriesName to get the series name, given the series number
stored by ObjectAtPointer.
• If the user clicks on a data point (that is, if ObjectAtPointer returns 2), the
message box lists the name of the series and the value clicked on. The
example uses GetDataNumber to get the data's value, given the data's
series and data point number.
PowerBuilder This code is for the Clicked event:
int SeriesNum, DataNum
double Value
grObjectType ObjectType
string SeriesName, ValueAsString
string GraphName
GraphName = "gr_sale"
// The following method stores the series number

// clicked on in SeriesNum and stores the number
// of the data point clicked on as DataNum.
ObjectType = &
dw_printer.ObjectAtPointer (GraphName, &
SeriesNum, DataNum)
102 PowerBuilder
IF ObjectType = TypeSeries! THEN

SeriesName = &
dw_printer.SeriesName (GraphName, SeriesNum)
MessageBox("Graph", &
"You clicked on the series " + SeriesName)
ELSEIF ObjectType = TypeData! THEN

Value = dw_printer.GetData (GraphName, &
SeriesNum, DataNum)
ValueAsString = String(Value)
MessageBox("Graph", &
dw_printer.SeriesName (GraphName, &
SeriesNum) + " value is " + ValueAsString)
END IF
Web ActiveX This code is for the MouseDown event:
number SeriesNum, DataNum, ObjectType, Success, Value;
string SeriesName, GraphName;
GraphName = "gr_sales";
ObjectType =
dw_sales.GrObjectAtPointer(GraphName);
if (ObjectType == 1) {
SeriesName =
dw_sales.GetSeriesName(GraphName,
SeriesNum);
alert("You clicked on the series " + SeriesName);

}
else {
if (ObjectType == 2) {
Success = dw_sales.GetDataNumber(GraphName,
SeriesNum, DataNum, 1);
if (Success == 1) {
Value = GetDataNumberVariable( );
alert(dw_sales.GetSeriesName(GraphName,
SeriesNum) +" value is " + Value);
}
}
}

104 PowerBuilder
CH A PTE R 6 Using the Web DataWindow
About this chapter This chapter describes how to use the Web DataWindow in a data-based
Web application.
Contents
Topic Page
What the Web DataWindow is 105
Designing DataWindow objects 110
Setting up database connections 121
Deploying DataWindow objects to the component server 123
Creating Web page templates 126
Writing client-side scripts 128
What the Web DataWindow is

The Web DataWindow generates a DataWindow in HTML. It offers a
thin-client solution that provides most of the data manipulation,
presentation, and scripting capabilities of the PowerBuilder DataWindow
without requiring any PowerBuilder DLLs or plugins on the Web client.
The DataWindow that displays in the Web browser looks very much like
the DataWindow you designed in the DataWindow painter.
HTML DataWindow
The Web DataWindow was formerly called the HTML DataWindow; both
terms refer to the same technology.
The simplest way to use the Web DataWindow is to place a Web

DataWindow DTC on a Web page template in a Web target. You can find
more information about using the Web DataWindow DTC in the Working
with Web and JSP Targets book.

How the Web DataWindow works

The Web DataWindow uses a component running in a transaction server (such
as EAServer or MTS) cooperating with a dynamic page server (such as
PowerDynamo, Microsoft Active Server Pages in IIS, or Java Server Pages in
Tomcat) and communicating with a Web client via a Web server.
PowerDynamo Personal Web Server

PowerDynamo provides a Personal Web Server for use during development. In
production, you can use any Web server that uses CGI, NSAPI, or ISAPI with
the PowerDynamo dynamic page server.
A DataWindow COM component can also be called directly from

PowerDynamo or ASP without a transaction server, but using a transaction
server usually provides better performance because database connections and
instances of the component can be pooled or cached.
Changing the component pooling property

During development, you may want to turn pooling off. Otherwise your
transaction server will hold onto its connection to your DataWindow objects,
preventing you from modifying them without stopping and restarting the
server. For information on changing the pooling property of a component, see
your server documentation.
When you have developed and deployed the pieces the Web DataWindow
needs, here is what happens:
1 In a Web browser, a user requests the URL for a page.
2 The Web server passes the request to the page server, which locates the
template for the requested page and executes server-side scripts in the
template.
3 The server-side scripts connect to the (transaction) server component,
passing it information about the DataWindow and the database
connection.
4 Methods on the server component retrieve data required for the
DataWindow from the database and translate the DataWindow definition,
data, and state into HTML and JavaScript.
5 The server component returns the HTML and JavaScript to the page
server.
106 PowerBuilder
CHAPTER 6 Using the Web DataWindow
6 The page server replaces the server-side script in the requested Web page
with the generated HTML and JavaScript and returns the page to the Web
browser via the Web server.
7 The user interacts with the DataWindow—for example, requesting the
next page or updating the data.
8 The Web server passes the URL with added action parameters to the page
server, and the cycle begins again.
Figure 6-1: How the Web DataWindow works
The Web DataWindow server component and client control

The Web DataWindow has two main components: the server component and
the client control.
Server component The Web DataWindow server component retrieves data from a database and
returns HTML and JavaScript that represent the data and the DataWindow
object definition to the page server. The server component is a PowerBuilder
custom class user object that uses a DataStore to handle retrieval and updates
and is deployed as an EAServer or COM component. You can use the generic
component provided with PowerBuilder or a custom component.

The generic EAServer component, HTMLGenerator90, is preinstalled in

EAServer in a package named DataWindow. PowerBuilder also provides a
generic COM component called PowerBuilder.HTMLDataWindow that you
can register and use with IIS, MTS, or EAServer. The COM component is in
the file PBDWR90.DLL. For information about using the COM component, see
“Server configuration details” on page 133.
Using an older version of the generic component

An earlier version of the generic component, HTMLGenerator, is also installed
in the EAServer DataWindow package. Because EAServer supports multiple
PowerBuilder VMs, you can continue to run older Web DataWindow
applications that use this component.
The generic component has methods that you call in your Web page template
to instantiate and configure the component. It also provides most of the
methods available on the PowerBuilder DataWindow control. You should
probably use the generic component when you are getting started with the Web
DataWindow. Later you may want to build and deploy a custom component
that uses the methods of the generic EAServer component interface or that uses
only the methods you design for the component. See “Using a custom server
component” on page 150.
The following table displays all types of DataWindow server components:
Table 6-1: DataWindow server components and supported platforms
DataWindow
server Platform (server component
component name) Description
Generic EAServer Prebuilt (Generic COM
(DataWindow::HTMLGenerator90) component is prebuilt
or ActiveX). No generation
COM or compiling of stubs
(PowerBuilder.HTMLDataWindow) required.
Container (can EAServer Deploy with Web DW
include (PackageName::ComponentName Container project wizard.
multiple using generic Increases performance by
DataWindow DataWindow::HTMLGenerator90 reducing calls to server.
definitions) interface) No generation or
compiling of stubs
required.
108 PowerBuilder
DataWindow
server Platform (server component
component name) Description
Custom EAServer Use to increase flexibility
(hybrid) (PackageName::ComponentName of generic component.
using generic Can build and deploy with
DataWindow::HTMLGenerator90 PB object or project
interface) wizard. Generic methods
remain available.
Custom (user- EAServer Potentially best for
designed) (PackageName::ComponentName) performance and
or scalability. Can use to
COM avoid downloads of
(PackageName.ComponentName) unneeded generic
methods to client.
Client control Embedding client-side scripts The Web DataWindow client control is the
JavaScript and HTML that is generated by the server component and
embedded in the page returned to the Web client. Client-side scripts that you
add to your Web page template and wrap in SCRIPT tags are embedded as
JavaScript in the client control.
JavaScript caching Some features available on the client control are
optional: events, methods, data update and validation, and display formatting
for newly-entered data. The size of the generated JavaScript increases as you
add more client-side functionality. You can cache client-side methods in
JavaScript files on your Web server, reducing the size of the HTML generated
for Web DataWindow pages and improving performance on the client machine
if the browser is configured to use cached files.
For information on enabling JavaScript caching, see “Using JavaScript
caching for Web DataWindow methods” on page 118 and the discussion of
HTMLGen properties in the DataWindow Reference.
Using client-side events Events that are triggered on the client control and
several of the client control methods do not require the server component to
reload the page, so processing on the client is typically much faster than
processing performed on the server.
For more information about enabling features on the client, see “Setting
HTML properties in the DataWindow painter” on page 111 and “Controlling
what HTML is generated” on page 142. For more about writing scripts, see
“Writing client-side scripts” on page 128.

Designing DataWindow objects
For complete documentation of the events and methods available on the server
component and the client control, see the DataWindow Reference or the
PowerBuilder online Help.

The Web DataWindow supports most PowerBuilder DataWindow
functionality. This section describes what features to use to take full advantage
of the Web DataWindow.
Using existing Many existing DataWindow objects work in the Web DataWindow. If a
DataWindow objects DataWindow object uses features that the Web DataWindow does not support,
then the features are ignored. You can still use the DataWindow object if the
remaining functionality is acceptable for your application. For example: if the
DataWindow includes a graph control, the graph is ignored; if the DataWindow
uses the Graph presentation style, the DataWindow object will not be useful.
Supported and
unsupported features Table 6-2: Supported and unsupported DataWindow features in the Web
DataWindow
Category What is supported
Presentation All except Graph, RichText, OLE, Composite. Unsupported
styles presentation styles retrieve data but display nothing.
Nested reports Not supported
Controls Supported controls: Column, Computed Field, Text, Picture,
Button.
For information on:
• expressions for Computed Fields, see “Using expressions” on
page 113
• images for Picture controls, see “Using Picture controls” on
page 117
• including valid HTML in a control, see “Including HTML in
a control” on page 114
• Button controls and supported actions, see “Using Button
controls” on page 115
These controls are ignored: Graph, OLE Object, OLE Database
Blob, Report, Line, Rectangle, RoundRectangle, Oval,
GroupBox.
110 PowerBuilder
Category What is supported

Retrieving data Up to 16 retrieval arguments. Filtering and sorting are supported
by setting properties with the Modify method or calling methods
on the server component. Sorting can also be specified via a
client control method.
User-specified queries using the QueryMode property are not
supported.
Updating data Same as PowerBuilder DataWindow control. The DataWindow
object must contain editable columns.
Edit styles All edit styles are supported except EditMask. If the
DataWindow uses the EditMask edit style, the styles specified
are treated as though they were specified as a display format.
DropDown A drop-down DataWindow must be in the same PBL as the
DataWindows DataWindow in which it is used. Data for drop-down
DataWindows is retrieved on the server and the values for the
display column are converted to HTML Select list boxes.
Display formats Supported, including the use of color.
Validation rules The expression may be evaluated on the client or the server,
depending on the expression.
For information, see “Using expressions” on page 113
Property Evaluated on the server.
expressions
Layout Properties that specify autosizing of height and width or allow
the user to resize or move controls are ignored.
Tab order Supported in HTML 4 browsers.
Setting HTML properties in the DataWindow painter

There are four types of HTML properties you can set in the DataWindow
painter. The first three apply to the DataWindow object itself. The last applies
to bitmap, column, computed field, and text controls in the DataWindow
object. All these properties can also be set in a script.
For more information about each property, see the DataWindow Reference or
the online Help for the property name shown in the left column:

Table 6-3: HTML properties you can set in the DataWindow painter
Property User interface fields Allows you to
HTMLDW HTML DataWindow View the HTML in a browser
check box on the General using Design>HTML Preview
page of the DataWindow (or if you plan to use the
object Property view. DataWindow object with a
Selecting this check box custom Web DataWindow
sets this property to Yes. server component). The
generic server component
automatically sets this property
to Yes.
HTMLTable.property All fields on the HTML Change the display
Table page of the characteristics of HTML
DataWindow object tables, including border style
Property view. and cell width and padding.
HTMLGen.property All fields on the HTML Control the number of rows
Generation page and the displayed on the page, generate
JavaScript Generation HTML for a specific browser
page of the DataWindow or HTML version, choose
object Property view (You client-side features to
can also start the incorporate into the page, and
JavaScript Generation set up JavaScript caching to
wizard from a button on enhance performance.
the JavaScript Generation
page).
HTML.property All fields on the HTML Set up hyperlinks and retrieval
page of the Property view arguments typically used to
for a Column, Computed create master/detail Web
Field, Text, or Picture pages, specify whether the
control in a DataWindow content of a control should be
object. rendered as HTML, and
specify any HTML to be
appended to a control.
Controlling the size of generated code

Some supported features increase the size of the generated code. If you do not
use a feature such as display formatting, validation rules, or client-side
scripting, you can enhance performance by preventing the server component
from generating code for the unused feature. You can turn these features on or
off on the HTML Generation property page in the DataWindow painter or in a
script. For more information, see “Controlling what HTML is generated” on
page 142.
112 PowerBuilder
You can also cache client-side methods in JavaScript (JS) files to reduce the
size of the generated code and increase performance on both the server and the
client. Without JavaScript caching, each time a Web DataWindow is rendered
in a client browser, JavaScript code for DataWindow methods is generated on
the server and downloaded to the client. When you set DataWindow properties
to reference cached JS files, the methods defined in the files are not generated
with the HTML in any Web DataWindow pages that are sent to the page server
(and client browser).
For more information, see “Using JavaScript caching for Web DataWindow
methods” on page 118.
Using expressions
In general, expressions for validation rules and computed fields are translated
into JavaScript and evaluated in the client browser. For validation of data entry,
the user gets immediate feedback on the new data.
Some expressions have to be evaluated on the server. This may be because the
evaluation involves all the rows, rather than data on the current page only, or
because the expression does not translate into JavaScript.
If an expression includes these functions, it will be evaluated on the server:
• Aggregation functions, like Sum, Max, Average, First
• Case function
• External functions
If you use an aggregation function in a computed field, the value is computed
on the server and displayed on the client. If the user edits data, the value is not
updated. If an action occurs that reloads the page, the value is computed again
based on the changed data.
ProfileInt and ProfileString return default values

The ProfileInt and ProfileString DataWindow expression functions do not
examine a user’s INI files if you use them in an expression evaluated on the
client. Doing so would be a security violation. They always return the default
value.

Using foreign language character sets

If a data source for your Web DataWindow uses foreign characters with accent
marks, you may need to change the character set for the generated HTML page
to display the characters properly. This is also necessary if you expect to update
the data with foreign character text. You can use the HTML editor to edit the
<META> tags in the <HEAD> section of the generated page. The following
example uses the utf8 character set instead of the default iso-8859-1 character
set:
<META content="text/html; charset=utf-8"
http-equiv="Content-Type">
Changing the character set in EAServer

You can also change the character set used by your component in EAServer by
setting the com.sybase.jaguar.component.code.set property for the component.
By default, the component uses the server’s codeset.
Providing links for data

You can set properties that cause columns, text, computed fields, and Picture
controls to be hyperlinks. In the painter, select the control and choose the
HTML tab in the Properties view. The URL you specify must be valid when
you deploy your application.
Rather than set link information in the painter, you can set the HTML
properties for columns by calling methods of the server component. For
information, see the SetColumnLink method in the DataWindow Reference.
Rendering HTML for controls in a Web DataWindow

Including HTML in a You can include valid HTML in some controls in a DataWindow object,
control including a text control, column, or computed field. To render the contents of
the control as HTML when the HTML for the DataWindow is generated, set
the control’s ValueIsHTML property to TRUE. For example, suppose a text
control’s text property is <I>Name</I>. The following table shows how the
text is rendered in the generated HTML and displayed in a browser.
114 PowerBuilder
Table 6-4: Effect of ValueIsHTML property on rendered text

ValueIsHTML Generated HTML source Output in browser
TRUE <I>Name</I> Name
FALSE <I>Name</I> <I>Name</I>
No validation
The HTML generator does not validate the HTML you include in controls in
DataWindow objects. If the HTML is not valid, the DataWindow may not
display correctly.
Appending HTML to a The AppendedHTML property enables you to append your own HTML to the
control HTML generated by the HTML generator component. You can use this feature
to specify attributes and event actions. The HTML you specify for the
AppendedHTML property value is appended to generated syntax for the
rendering of a DataWindow control before the closing bracket of the HTML
element for that control.
No validation
The HTML generator does not validate the HTML you append to controls in
DataWindow objects. If the HTML is not valid, the DataWindow may not
display correctly.
You must also make sure not to use an event handler name that is already
generated for a DataWindow control as a client-side event handler. These
include:
Table 6-5: Generated event handler names
DataWindow control Generated event handler names
Edit, EditMask, DropDownListBox, or onFocus, onClick, onChange, and onBlur
DropDownDataWindow
CheckBox or RadioButton onFocus, onClick, and onBlur
TextBox, Picture with link, or Button onClick
Using Button and Picture controls

Using Button controls When a DataWindow object includes a Button control, the button becomes an
HTML button element in the Form element for the Web DataWindow client
control. The button action becomes JavaScript code for the button's Clicked
event. You do not need to write any code yourself.

You can use Button controls for:

• Navigation Buttons with the PageFirst, PageLast, PageNext, and
PagePrior actions let the user scroll to other rows in the result set.
• Getting and editing data Buttons with Retrieve, Update, InsertRow,
DeleteRow, and AppendRow actions let the user maintain data. There
must be updatable columns in the DataWindow object.
These button actions are not supported and are ignored:
Cancel QueryClear
Filter QueryMode
Preview QuerySort
PreviewWithRulers SaveRowsAs
Print Sort
Setting SelfLink Button actions send information back to the server, whose scripts apply the
properties to enable action to the DataWindow data. Then the HTML page is reloaded. To complete
navigation buttons
this loop, you must set the SelfLink property for the DataWindow object so that
the server knows what page to reload.
You can set this property in the DataWindow painter on the HTML Generation
tab in the DataWindow properties view, or you can set it in a server-side script.
The value is the name of the application server template or file to be reloaded—
generally, the name of the current document. If the DataWindow uses retrieval
arguments, they must be provided in the SelfLinkArgs property.
For more information, see “Passing page-specific data to the reloaded page”
on page 145 and the SetSelfLink method in the DataWindow Reference. For
information on setting links on a DataWindow object (such as a button or
column) in the PowerBuilder HTML editor, see the chapter on the Web
DataWindow DTC in Working with Web and JSP Targets.
GIF and JPEG images The picture on a button in a DataWindow object can be rendered in the Web
for buttons browser as a JPEG, GIF, or BMP image. Use a JPEG or GIF image to ensure
that the image will display on all browsers. PowerBuilder provides GIF images
for commonly used buttons such as Retrieve, Update, PageNext, and so on.
These pictures are included in the DWACTION.JAR file in the
Sybase\Shared\PowerBuilder directory.
To make the images available to the HTML page in the Web browser, you must
uncompress the JAR file, deploy the image files to the page server, and set the
HTMLGen.ResourceBase property to the directory where the files are located.
116 PowerBuilder
Alternative to buttons: If you want to use an existing DataWindow object that does not have Button
use methods of the controls, you can edit the DataWindow object and save a new version with
client control
Button controls. However, if you are sharing DataWindow objects with an
existing application and it is not practical to edit them, your Web page can
include HTML buttons that call methods of the Web DataWindow client
control.
There are methods of the client control that correspond to each of the supported
button actions. For information, see “Writing client-side scripts” on page 128.
Using Picture controls You can use any image types the browser supports, most commonly JPEG or
GIF. Use relative paths for ease of deployment.
To make sure the images are available to the HTML page in the Web browser,
place the image files in a directory on the Web server and then set the
HTMLGen.ResourceBase property to that directory. You can do this in the
DataWindow painter on the JavaScript Generation page of the DataWindow
property view, or in a script:
dwMine.Modify("DataWindow.HTMLGen.ResourceBase=
'C:\Sybase\MyApp\Images'")
The ResourceBase property also specifies the location of JavaScript include
files. See “Using JavaScript caching for Web DataWindow methods” on page
118.
Where to deploy image files

The image files need to be deployed to the Web server, not the component
server. If these servers are on different computers, the files belong with the
templates and HTML files of the application, not the PBL containing the
DataWindow objects.
Specifying HTML generation for a specific browser

About browsers and The Web DataWindow can generate HTML optimized for different browsers.
HTML version You can use the Browser choice on the HTML Generation tab of the
DataWindow property sheet to preview what the DataWindow looks like in
different browsers. You can also specify an HTML version that the HTML
generation should use if it does not recognize the browser.

At runtime, a server-side script should find out what browser the current client
is using and pass that information to the server component. For information,
see “SetBrowser” on page 143 and the SetBrowser method in the DataWindow
Reference or online Help.
Using absolute Netscape implements absolute positioning differently than Internet Explorer.
positioning in To format the DataWindow with absolute positioning for Netscape browsers,
Netscape
you must set the DataWindow HTMLGen.NetscapeLayers property to TRUE.
You can do this in the DataWindow painter by selecting the Use Layers for
Netscape check box on the HTML Generation page of the DataWindow
property view. Alternatively, you can use a DataWindow Modify call in the
script for the Generate method of the HTML Generator
(nv_remote_datawindow in PBDWRMT.PBL that ships with PowerBuilder).
The default DataWindow HTML generator generates code for determining the
browser type and version of the client browser. For Netscape browsers earlier
than the 4.0 version, the DataWindow is formatted as an HTML table, whether
or not the NetscapeLayers property is set.
Limitations in Netscape
Certain functionality in a Netscape browser using absolute positioning may not
be identical to the functionality available with Internet Explorer. For example,
you cannot tab between DataWindow columns using a Netscape browser on an
NT machine, although you can do this using a Netscape browser on a Solaris
machine.
Using JavaScript caching for Web DataWindow methods

You can use the Web DataWindow JavaScript Generator wizard to create JS
files (at design time) that contain all the Web DataWindow JavaScript client-
side methods. You can start the wizard from the Tool tab of the New dialog box,
or from the JavaScript Generation page of the DataWindow property view in
the DataWindow painter.
Improving server-side When you set new DataWindow properties to reference included JS files, the
and client-side methods defined in the referenced files are not generated with the HTML in
performance
any Web DataWindow pages that are sent to the page server and client browser.
Using JS files also reduces the size of the HTML page rendered in the browser.
118 PowerBuilder
With JavaScript caching, you improve performance on the client machine as

long as the client browser is configured to use cached files. With caching
enabled, the browser loads the JS files from the Web server into its cache, and
these become available for all the Web DataWindow pages in your application.
There is no client-side performance gain if the browser does not find the JS
files in its cache, since, in this case, it reloads the files from the Web server.
Web DataWindow With the Web DataWindow JavaScript Generator wizard, you can generate
JavaScript Generator only one JS file at a time. The wizard gives you the option of including all Web
wizard
DataWindow methods in a single file, but you can also restrict the types of
method to include in each JS file it generates every time you use the wizard.
The different method types correspond to the following DataWindow HTML
properties:
Table 6-6: Methods generated by JavaScript Generator wizard in
cached files
HTMLGen.property Contents of cached file
CommonJSFile Methods used by all DataWindows.
DateJSFile Methods used by DataWindows with date and time
formatting.
NumberJSFile Methods used by DataWindows with number formatting.
StringJSFile Methods used by DataWindows with string formatting.
UserJSFile User-defined client-side JavaScript methods—these
cannot be generated by the Web DataWindow JavaScript
Generator wizard (see "User-defined JavaScript methods"
below).
All of these properties are optional. You can set each of the properties from the
JavaScript Generation page of the DataWindow property view, selecting the
files you generate with the wizard as values. The wizard registers each file it
generates, making it available for selection from the drop-down lists in the
DataWindow property view.
Using the You must deploy all cached files for your Web application to your Web server.
ResourceBase You can use relative URLs or path names for cached JS files if you specify their
property
location in the HTMLGen.ResourceBase property. (You set these on the
JavaScript Generation page of the DataWindow property view in the
DataWindow painter.) The ResourceBase property is also used to specify the
location of image files.

If you do not set the HTMLGen.ResourceBase property, you must include the
complete URL in the values of any of the HTMLGen properties that you set.
In either case, the URLs are rendered as SRC attributes inside SCRIPT tags in
the pages generated by the Web DataWindow component and sent to the client
browser.
Setting the properties You can customize the DataWindow HTML Generator component
in script (nv_remote_datawindow in PBDWRMT.PBL that ships with PowerBuilder),
setting the HTMLGen properties in the script for the Generate method. This
example sets the URL location for included files and names the files for
common and date-formatted Web DataWindow methods that you deploy to the
Web server (and that will be downloaded to browser clients the first time they
connect to the Web site):
ids_datastore.Modify &
("DataWindow.HTMLGen.ResourceBase=" +&
"'http://www.myserver.com/JavaScripts'")
("DataWindow.HTMLGen.CommonJSFile=" +&
"'dwcomn.js'")
("DataWindow.HTMLGen.DateJSFile=" +&
"'dwdate.js'")
User-defined You can also reference a file where you store your own client-side JavaScript
JavaScript methods methods. To use this feature, you must assign the name of the file to the
DataWindow HTMLGen.UserJSFile property and make sure the file is
available to your Web server. As for the wizard-generated JavaScript files, you
can use the HTMLGen.ResourceBase property to set the location for the file,
or you can include the complete path to the file in the property value
assignment.
You can make this assignment in the DataWindow painter or in script. The
following script sets the user-defined JS file to MyMethods.JS:
("DataWindow.HTMLGen.UserJSFile=" +&
"'http://my_server.com/JavaScripts/MyMethods.JS'")
This example will be rendered in the generated HTML page as:
<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript" SRC=
"http://my_server.com/JavaScripts/MyMethods.JS">
</SCRIPT>
120 PowerBuilder
You can then call client-side methods stored in the MyMethods.JS file from the
HTML syntax rendered for (or appended to) controls in a DataWindow object.
For information on generating or appending HTML syntax to controls, see
“Rendering HTML for controls in a Web DataWindow” on page 114.
Previewing the DataWindow

To see what the DataWindow will look like in a Web DataWindow application,
you can use HTML Preview.
❖ To get an HTML preview of a Web DataWindow:

1 On the DataWindow property sheet, General page, check HTML
DataWindow.
If you do not check HTML DataWindow, the preview displays the data as
an HTML table without buttons, validation rules, or other scripts.
2 On the HTML Generation page, specify a value for Rows per Page.
This sets the PageSize property for the DataWindow object. To display
only one row of data, specify 1.
3 Specify a value for Browser and one for Version if you want to preview the
DataWindow for a specific client configuration.
4 Select Design>HTML Preview from the menu bar.
If the menu item is disabled, open the Preview view to enable it.
5 Enter data and see whether validation rules behave as expected.
6 Use your buttons to navigate to other pages.
Setting up database connections

When you use the Web DataWindow, it is the Web DataWindow server
component that interacts with the database, so you need to set up database
connections on the server where the component is running.
What database If you are using EAServer as the component server, you can use several types
connectivity software of connectivity software, including ODBC, Open Client, JDBC, and OCI. You
to use
need to set up a connection cache for the data source you are using. See
"Creating a connection cache on EAServer" next.

Setting up database connections
If you are using MTS as the component server, you must use ODBC to take
advantage of connection pooling and transaction management features. The
data source for your DataWindow objects must be configured as a system DSN
on MTS or IIS because both run as services.
When you are defining DataWindow objects, you can use the types of
connectivity software documented in Connecting to Your Database. To
simplify setting up database connections on the server, use the same type of
connection in the DataWindow painter that will be used when the DataWindow
is deployed. For example, if you plan to use the DataWindow object in
EAServer with an Open Client connection, use Open Client in the
DataWindow painter too.
Using Adaptive Server Enterprise

PowerBuilder and EAServer use slightly different versions of the CT-Lib
software to connect to Adaptive Server Enterprise via Open Client. In the
PowerBuilder development environment you use the SYC native database
interface to connect to the database, but to connect to an Adaptive Server
Enterprise database in EAServer you must use the SYJ database interface.
Creating a connection To use the HTMLGenerator90 component (or your own custom component) in
cache on EAServer EAServer, you need to define a connection cache for the database it will use.
❖ To create an EAServer connection cache:

1 Start EAServer and the Jaguar Manager.
Follow the instructions in the EAServer Getting Started book for your
platform.
2 Define the connection type you want, using the appropriate database
configuration software.
For an ODBC connection on Windows, for example, open the ODBC
control panel and define a Data Source Name (DSN) for the database. If
you installed Adaptive Server Anywhere 8, you can use the predefined
user DSN to connect to the ASA Sample database for testing purposes. If
EAServer is running as a service, you must use a system DSN, not a user
DSN. On UNIX, see your driver documentation.
3 In Jaguar Manager's left pane, right-click the Connection Caches node
under the server name and select Install Connection Cache.
4 In the dialog box, select Create and Install a New Connection Cache.
122 PowerBuilder
5 Enter a name for the cache and click OK. (You cannot change the name
later.)
6 In the Connection Cache Properties dialog box, specify database
connection information on the General tab and the driver you want to use
on the Driver tab.
For ODBC on Windows: for Database Connection:Server Name on the
General tab, specify the DSN you defined in step 1. You do not need to
specify a user name or password if they are specified as part of the DSN.
On the Driver tab, click the ODBC radio button and specify ODBC32.dll
for the Driver Class or File.
For other connection types: see the EAServer Getting Started book for
your platform.
7 Select the Enable Cache-by-Name Access check box on the Cache tab.
8 Click Refresh on the General tab (the Refresh button is available only on
the Connection Cache Properties dialog box accessed from the server
node).
9 To test the connection, click Ping.
For more detailed information about setting up connection caches, see the
EAServer documentation.
Deploying DataWindow objects to the component

server
When you run a Web DataWindow application, the definitions of your
DataWindow objects must be available on the component server. You can
ensure this by copying the PBL or PBD file that contains the definition of the
objects to the server. If you are using EAServer, the files must be in the server’s
path, or if the server component is running as a service, in the system path.
MTS and IIS always run as services, so the files must be in the MTS or IIS
server’s system path.
For more information about setting up your development environment, see
“Server configuration details” on page 133.

Deploying DataWindow objects to the component server
The Web DataWindow Container project wizard

In PowerBuilder, you can use the Web DataWindow Container project wizard
to create a project that deploys a custom version of the Web DataWindow
server component (HTMLGenerator90) to EAServer with all the DataWindow
objects in your library list built into the deployed PBD.
Because you are using a custom component instead of the preinstalled
HTMLGenerator90 component, you can set properties for your component in
Jaguar Manager. Setting properties reduces the number of method calls
required to configure the component and can result in improved performance,
maintainability, and scalability.
Using the wizard When you have defined the DataWindow objects you need, start the Web
DataWindow Container wizard from the Project page of the New dialog box
and follow the instructions in the wizard.
The choices you make in the wizard are similar to those you make for other
EAServer components, such as whether to support instance pooling or live
editing. The package and component can have any names you want, with the
exception that you cannot name the package DataWindow (the name of the
package that contains the preinstalled HTMLGenerator90 component). You
cannot set component type or transaction support properties.
Building the Web DataWindow Container project presets some of the
properties of the component that you would otherwise need to set in scripts or
in Jaguar Manager. You can specify a database profile in the wizard or Project
painter to set the com.sybase.datawindow.trans.dbms and other database
transaction properties. If you want calls to component methods to be written to
the server log, select Enable Trace to set the com.sybase.datawindow.trace
property.
Connection cache
Specifying a profile sets database transaction properties for the component, but
you still need to create a connection cache in Jaguar Manager for the database
the component will access.
Service classes You can add a custom class user object to your project to perform any special
processing you require. This object acts as a service class. The custom class
user object must be in the same library as the DataWindow objects or on the
target’s library list. When you build the Web DataWindow Container project,
select the class in the Select Objects dialog box in the Project painter.
For more information, see “Using service classes” on page 159.
124 PowerBuilder
Instantiating the When you create an instance of the container component, you must either
container component provide a Java proxy for the component or pass
DataWindow/HTMLGenerator90 as the last argument to the
CreateComponent method. This specifies that the component uses the proxy
provided for the generic component. For example:
dwObj = java.CreateComponent
("ContainerPkg/ContComponent",
"iiop://testMachine:9000", "Jagadmin", "",
"DataWindow/HTMLGenerator90" );
This is the same way you instantiate custom components. For more
information on custom components, see “Instantiating the custom component”
on page 156.
Selecting a To select a DataWindow from the container component, you must use the
DataWindow from the SetDWObjectEx method rather than the SetDWObject method:
container component
//Only the DW is needed, as package already specified
//above when connecting
retVal = dwObj.SetDWObjectEx("d_mydw");
document.write("SetDwObject = " + retVal);
For more information on the SetDWObject method, see “Loading the
DataWindow object” on page 141 and the DataWindow Reference.
Using the component You can select the container component when you use the Web/JSP
with the Web DataWindow Page wizard to create a new Web page. On the Choose EAServer
DataWindow DTC
Profile page in the wizard, check the Use Custom Web DW Component check
box. Then, when you click Next, the wizard prompts you for the component
name and the DataWindow in the component that you want to include on your
Web page.
On the DataWindow page of the Web DataWindow DTC property sheet, you
can also specify a container component and the DataWindow in the container
component that you want to use on a Web page. Selecting a container
component on the DataWindow page automatically selects it on the HTML
Generator page of the DTC property sheet. (If you want, it is possible just to
use the container component to generate HTML for a DataWindow that you
select from a PBL, PSR, or SRD file).
❖ To use the container component with the Web DataWindow DTC

1 Select the Web DataWindow Container Component radiobutton on the
DataWindow page of the Web DataWindow DTC property sheet.
2 Click the browse button (...) next to the Component text box.

Creating Web page templates
The Web DataWindow Container Component dialog box displays. It has a

list box with nodes for each EAServer profile defined in PowerBuilder.
3 Expand the node for the server and package that contains the container
component you want to use.
Select the container component and click OK.
The Web DataWindow DTC property sheet redisplays. The server name
and the container package and component are displayed in the Server and
Component text boxes on the DataWindow page of the property sheet.
4 Select a DataWindow from the DataWindow drop-down list.
The drop-down list displays all the DataWindows in the container
component.
5 (Optional) Click the Connection tab and override the database connection
property stored by the component.
This is recommended only for testing purposes. If you want to change the
connection property, you can do it directly from Jaguar Manager.
6 (Optional) Click the Control tab and override the weight settings stored
with the DataWindow.
7 Click OK.
Creating Web page templates

Different approaches to creating Web page templates are described below. You
can use all of the following techniques in a Web target.
Using the Web The Web DataWindow DTC makes it easy to add a DataWindow to a Web page
DataWindow DTC without writing the code required to connect to EAServer and configure the
server component. The DTC accesses the server and creates a Web page
template for the generated HTML. You set up the DTC to reference your
DataWindow object and the HTML Generator component in a wizard or on a
property sheet.
The Web DataWindow DTC embedded in the page includes the code required
to connect to EAServer, establish database connections, and render the page as
HTML. The generated scripts use the Web Target object model. If you use a
4GL Web page, you can use the EAServer extensions to server-side scripting
that are built into the Web Target object model. You cannot hand code a Web
DataWindow on a 4GL Web page.
126 PowerBuilder
For how to use the DTC, see Working with Web and JSP Targets.
Using the Web Target The Web DataWindow DTC uses a set of objects in the Web Target object
object model model. If you want more flexibility than the Web DataWindow DTC provides,
you can write your own server-side scripts that instantiate and manipulate the
server component using the Web Target object model.
For example, the following script defines the DataWindow object name and the
PBL that contains it, sets up database and EAServer connection parameters,
instantiates the server component, specifies client control properties, and
generates HTML:


Writing client-side scripts
The example above uses the PSDataWindowClass object to create the server
component. If you are using EAServer, you can use the
PSWebDataWindowClass object, which provides server-side events and
additional methods.
For more information about the Web DataWindow DTC and the Web Target
object model, see Working with Web and JSP Targets. For information about
methods and events of Web Target object model classes, see the Web and JSP
Target Reference.
Extending the DTC The code generated by the Web DataWindow DTC can be modified by
code changing DataWindow object properties in the DataWindow painter or
changing DTC properties and then regenerating the code. If you want to
include additional customizations, you can modify the generated code in the
editor’s Source view. To prevent your customizations from being overwritten
when the Web page is regenerated, remove the METADATA tags that surround
the code.
Calling the Web Instead of using the DTC or Web Target object model, you can use any HTML
DataWindow server editor (including the Web Target HTML editor) to write code that instantiates
component methods
the server component and calls its methods directly. See “Instantiating and
configuring the server component” on page 138.

Responding to events If you want to provide additional processing of newly entered data or have
more control over user interactions with the data, you can choose to enable
events in the Web DataWindow client control. To do so, you set the Client
Events property on the HTML Generation page in the DataWindow painter or
call the SetWeight method in a server-side script.
The client control supports several events:
ButtonClicking ItemError RowFocusChanging
ButtonClicked ItemFocusChanged UpdateStart
Clicked OnSubmit
ItemChanged RowFocusChanged
Most of these events have similar arguments and the same return codes as the
events of the PowerBuilder DataWindow control. For information, see the
DataWindow Reference or online Help.
128 PowerBuilder
Implementing an To write a script for an event of the client control, you define a function whose
event name is the control name plus the event name, separated by an underscore:
HTMLGenObjectName_eventname ( arguments )
The control name is the one you specified using the SetHTMLObjectName
method or the Object Name property on the HTML Generation page in the
DataWindow painter. The script must be enclosed in SCRIPT tags. You can
include client methods in the script if client scripting is enabled (described
next).
This example prevents focus from changing if the user tries to go back to an
earlier row. In this case the name of the DataWindow control is dwMine:
<SCRIPT Language=JavaScript>
function dwMine_RowFocusChanging(curRow, newRow)
{
if (newRow < curRow) { return 1; }
}
</SCRIPT>
You can put the script anywhere in your Web page template. If you are using a
Web target, you do not need to define a function to wrap your event code. You
can code client-side events directly in the editor by selecting the DataWindow
control name in the leftmost drop-down list in the toolbar and the event name
in the center drop-down list.
Calling client methods To write scripts that call methods of the client control, you must enable client
scripting. To do so, you can set the Client Scriptable property in the
DataWindow painter or call the SetWeight method in a server-side script.
Several client methods accomplish the same tasks as actions of Button
controls. If your DataWindow object uses Button controls to implement
scrolling and updating, you may not need to do any client scripting.
You can use the following methods on the client (methods marked with an
asterisk force the Web page to be reloaded):
AcceptText GetItem ScrollPriorPage *
DeletedCount GetItemStatus SetItem
DeleteRow * InsertRow * SetColumn
GetClickedColumn ModifiedCount SetRow
GetClickedRow Retrieve * SetSort
GetColumn RowCount Sort *
GetFullContext ScrollFirstPage * Update *

GetNextModified ScrollLastPage *
GetRow ScrollNextPage *
GetNextModified
The GetNextModified method finds modified rows in the current page only.
For information about these methods, see the DataWindow Reference or online
Help.
This example includes a form with a button that causes data to be updated on
the server:
<FORM NAME="update">
<INPUT type="button" value="Update"
onClick="{dwMine.Update();}">
Note that you can get the same functionality with the Update action for a
Button control in the DataWindow object.
Multiple DataWindows If you have multiple updatable Web DataWindows on the same Web page, you
on a page can script the OnSubmit client-side event to synchronize them before the
changes on the page are submitted. You call the GetFullContext method to get
a string that represents the context of the client side control that would be
passed on a submit, and transfer the context to the other DataWindow control.
To enable the second DataWindow to create the required fields on the submit
form, each of the DataWindows must have two arguments defined as self-link
arguments:
dw_1.SetSelfLink(document.name,
"dw_2_context=''|dw_2_action=''")
dw_2.SetSelfLink(document.name,
"dw_1_context=''|dw_1_action=''")
This client-side script transfers the context and action from dw_2 to dw_1
when dw_1 is submitted, and from dw_1 to dw_2 when dw_2 is submitted:
<SCRIPT>
function dw_1_OnSubmit()
{
dw_1.submitForm.dw_2_context.value =
dw_2.GetFullContext();
dw_1.submitForm.dw_2_action.value = "";
}
function dw_2_OnSubmit()
{
130 PowerBuilder
dw_2.submitForm.dw_1_context.value =
dw_1.GetFullContext();
dw_2.submitForm.dw_1_action.value = "";
}
</SCRIPT>

132 PowerBuilder
CH A PTE R 7 Server-Side Processing for the
Web DataWindow
About this chapter This chapter presents design and programming techniques as well as an
overview of configuration requirements for the server-side Web
DataWindow component.
Contents
Topic Page
Server configuration details 133
Instantiating and configuring the server component 138
Using a custom server component 150
Using service classes 159
Server configuration details

The servers and clients used by the Web DataWindow can run on the same
or different machines. The following diagram shows typical
configurations with the Web server and page server on the same machine
and the component server and database on separate machines, but any or
all of the servers can run on the same computer. In your development
environment, the client browser could be on the same computer too.

Figure 7-1: Typical Web target configurations
Using the Web If you install EAServer and PowerDynamo on the same computer, most of the
DataWindow with configuration is done for you. You can use PowerBuilder Web Target wizards
PowerDynamo
to perform any additional setup tasks.
However, if you design your own custom class user objects, you must generate
and compile the stubs, making sure that the compiled stubs are included in the
PowerDynamo class path.
CLASSPATH environment variable

If you are not running your Web server as a service and you have a user
CLASSPATH environment variable, make sure that this variable includes the
paths to all classes needed for communication between the Web server and the
component server. This includes the Sybase\EAServer\html\classes directory
and the path to any component stubs that you generate for use with your Web
pages (if these are in a different directory). When you install EAServer, the
path information for the server is placed only in the system CLASSPATH
variable, not the user variable.
134 PowerBuilder
CHAPTER 7 Server-Side Processing for the Web DataWindow
Using the Web To use Web DataWindows and access EAServer components in JSP pages that
DataWindow with you deploy to a Tomcat server, you must add the following JAR files and
Tomcat
classes to the class path used by Tomcat at startup:
• pbjdbc1290.jar
• jconn2.jar
• easclient.jar
• easj2ee.jar
• EAServer_home\html\classes
• EAServer_home\java\classes
where EAServer_home is the full path to the EAServer where the Web
DataWindow component is installed. To add the required files to the Tomcat
class path, you need to edit the catalina.bat file in the Tomcat bin directory.
Using the Web You can also use the Web DataWindow with Microsoft servers, but more
DataWindow with a configuration tasks are required. On MTS or IIS, you access the COM version
COM component
of the generic server component (PowerBuilder.HTMLDataWindow) using
automation methods called from any page server, such as PowerDynamo or
ASP. For example, to instantiate the generic COM component from ASP:
dwMine = Server.CreateObject(
"PowerBuilder.HTMLDataWindow")
The COM server component is provided in PBDWR90.DLL. You can also
write your own custom class user object based on the sample source code in
PBDWRMT.PBL.
For more information about building Web pages that use the Web DataWindow
server component, see “Instantiating and configuring the server component”
on page 138.
You need to register the COM server component and install PowerBuilder
runtime files and the PBL or PBD containing your DataWindow objects on the
MTS or IIS server computer.

Transaction server The following table summarizes the configuration tasks you need to perform
configuration tasks on the transaction server:
Table 7-1: Configuration tasks for transaction server
Server Tasks
EAServer, IIS, or Copy the PBLs, PBDs, SRDs, or PSRs containing the
MTS definitions of your DataWindow objects to a directory on the
EAServer server’s path or the system path if the server
component is running as a service (always true for MTS or IIS).
EAServer Set up a DSN and a connection cache for your data source.
IIS or MTS • Copy the following PowerBuilder runtime files to the system
path: PBVM90.DLL, LIBJCC.DLL, PBDWE90.DLL,
PBODB90.DLL, PBODB90.INI
• Copy the file containing the generic COM server component
to the system path and register it:
regsvr32.exe pbdwr90.dll
• If you designed your own custom class user object and built
a COM server component, you need to copy your component
DLL to the server and register it
• If necessary, install the ODBC driver for your DBMS and use
the ODBC Administrator to define an ODBC data source for
your DataWindow objects as a system DSN
MTS If MTS is hosting the server component and running on a
different computer from IIS, create a client install package using
MTS Explorer and install it on the IIS machine. For more
information, see the MTS documentation.
136 PowerBuilder
Page server The following table summarizes the configuration tasks you need to perform
configuration tasks on the page server:
Table 7-2: Configuration tasks for page server
Server Tasks
PowerDynamo or Copy the HTML pages, scripts, images, and other application
ASP files to the page server. You can use the Web target deployment
controller for PowerDynamo or ASP to copy them to the server.
JSP Copy the JSPs, custom tag libraries, scripts, images, and other
files to the page server. You can use the Web target deployment
controller for JSP to copy them to the server.
Although a custom tag library you add to a page is placed in the
Web-Inf\tld directory and deployed with the target, you must
manually copy any classes or archives required by the tag
library. Tag library class files should be copied to the
Web-Inf\classes directory, and tag library archive files should be
copied to the Web-Inf\lib directory.
For information about the Web DataWindow custom tag library,
see the "Custom Tag Reference" chapter in the Web and JSP
Target Reference.
PowerDynamo Create a Web site and define a mapping in Sybase Central that
(with any associates the connection profile for your database with the Web
component site pathname you will use in the URL. (The PowerDynamo
server) Web Site target wizard can do this for you.)
PowerDynamo If PowerDynamo and EAServer are not installed on the same
(with EAServer as computer:
the component • Copy JAGCLIENT.EXE from the EAServer client
server) subdirectory to the PowerDynamo server, run it, and select
Java Runtime.
• Add Sybase\Shared\Sun\jdknnn\bin to the system PATH
environment variable.
• Add Sybase\Shared\Sun\jdknnn\lib\classes.zip to the
CLASSPATH environment variable.
In Sybase Central, open the General Settings folder in the
PowerDynamo Configuration utility and check that the Sun
Java VM is selected (the default).

Instantiating and configuring the server component
Server Tasks
ASP (with If ASP and EAServer are not installed on the same computer:
EAServer as the • Copy JAGCLIENT.EXE from the EAServer client
component subdirectory to the ASP server, run it, and select ActiveX
server) Runtime.
• Copy PBDWR90.TLB and PBDWR90.REG to the ASP
server from the Sybase\Shared\PowerBuilder directory on
the computer where PowerBuilder is installed.
• Edit the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\TypeLib lines in
PBDWR90.REG that show the location of the
PBDWR90.TLB file to show the correct location on the ASP
server.
• Double-click PBDWR90.REG to install its information into
the Windows registry.
If you designed your own custom class user object, generate
TLB and REG files for the component in Jaguar Manager and
register them on the ASP server. For more information, see the
chapter on creating ActiveX clients in the EAServer
Programmer’s Guide.

If you are not using the Web DataWindow DTC or the Web Target object
model, you can write code to create an instance of the Web DataWindow server
component, and you can call its methods to create a Web DataWindow
application.
For information on the types of Web DataWindow server components, see
“The Web DataWindow server component and client control” on page 107.
For information on the Web Target object model and its 4GL extensions, see
Working with Web and JSP Targets.
Two sets of methods There are two sets of methods available on the generic Web DataWindow
server component: methods that are available for other DataWindow controls,
and methods used to configure the component and generate HTML.
DataWindow control DataWindow control methods supported by the generic server component
methods include sorting, filtering, validation, and get and set methods. When you call
one of these methods on the server component, the server reloads the page in
the browser.
138 PowerBuilder
Methods with more than one syntax have a different form for each syntax to
overcome restrictions on the use of overloading. For example, the ClearValues
method takes a string as an argument and the ClearValuesByColNum method
takes a number.
For a complete list of supported DataWindow control methods, see the
DataWindow Reference or the online Help.
Examining server component methods

You can view the generic EAServer component methods on the Components
page of the System Tree or in Jaguar Manager. You can examine the methods
in the COM server component in an OLE viewer (look for
PowerBuilder.HTMLDataWindow in the Programmable Objects list on the
OLE tab of the PowerBuilder Browser, or in the Automation Objects list in the
Microsoft OLE/COM Object Viewer).
Configuration and Other methods are available to set up the component, retrieve data, establish
generation methods persistent values needed by your Web page, and generate HTML.
If you use a custom server component, there are additional configuration tasks.
For more information, see “Using a custom server component” on page 150.
Mixed case method names

The methods of the generic EAServer server component use mixed case names
and all the examples in this section use mixed case. If you write your own
server component, the methods of the component you generate are all
lowercase. (You can use the sample PBDWRMT.PBL as a starting point if you
want the methods described here.) The generic COM component method
names are also all lowercase.
Coding steps In your server-side script, you will code these tasks:
1 Instantiate the component.
2 Load the DataWindow object.
3 Control what HTML is generated (for example, by specifying what
functionality to include and what browser to target).
4 Specify the database connection and retrieve data.
5 Pass page-specific data to the reloaded page.
6 Pass user action information to the server component.
7 Insert the generated HTML in the page template.

Sample code for each of these tasks follows. Most of the code examples show
the DynaScript code you would use to instantiate and configure the EAServer
component. Some ASP examples are provided, but the code in other ASP
server-side scripts would be similar to the DynaScript examples shown here.
For detailed information about the methods used in the examples, see the
DataWindow Reference or the online Help.
Instantiating the component

CreateComponent In PowerDynamo, you use the CreateComponent
method of the Java object to create an instance of the EAServer component.
The first argument is the EAServer package and module name—for the generic
component this is DataWindow/HTMLGenerator90. Additional arguments
specify the URL for the EAServer server and the account ID and password.
The last argument is necessary only for instantiating a custom component,
described in “Creating a custom server component in EAServer” on page 152.
This statement creates a component instance called dwMine. If dwMine is null,
the creation fails and the PowerDynamo site object provides some error
information:
dwMine = java.CreateComponent(
"DataWindow/HTMLGenerator90",
"iiop://testMachine:9000", "Jagadmin", "" );
if( dwMine == null ) {
document.Writeln( "Error Message: " +
site.GetErrorInfo() + "<BR>");
}
CreateObject In ASP, you can access the registered COM component using
its Program ID. For example, if you use the generic component:
dwMine = Server.CreateObject(
"PowerBuilder.HTMLDataWindow")
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Loading the DataWindow object

SetDWObject The next step is to specify the PBD or PBL file that contains
the DataWindow object and the name of the DataWindow object. You do not
need to specify the location of the file, but it must be available on the
component server in a directory on the server’s path (or on the system path if
the EAServer component is running as a service or if you are using IIS or
MTS):
retVal = dwMine.SetDWObject ("htgenex.pbl",
"d_tabular_dept");
This DynaScript example tests the return value and writes an error message to
the HTML page (in ASP, use Response.Write instead of document.Writeln):
if (retVal != 1){
document.Writeln("SetDWObject failed " +
retVal + "<BR>");
}
You can also specify a:
• Source definition (SRD) file containing the source for a DataWindow
object. You can export a DataWindow definition to an SRD file in the
Library painter or System Tree.
• Powersoft report (PSR) file containing a DataWindow object plus data.
You can save a PSR file from the DataWindow painter
• DataWindow Container component on EAServer containing multiple
DataWindow object definitions.
For SRD and PSR files, specify an empty string for the DataWindow name:
dwServer.SetDWObject("myreport.psr", "" );
For DataWindow Container components, use the the SetDWObjectEx method:
dwServer.SetDWObjectEx ("d_emp");

Controlling what HTML is generated

Disabling features of SetWeight Although the server component generates a considerable amount
the client control of HTML and JavaScript for the Web DataWindow client control, it is still no
more than an average image file. However, to reduce the size of the control on
the client, you can instruct the component to leave out code for features you are
not using. You can tell the component to omit code for:
• Updating data
• Validating newly entered data
• Client-side events
• Allowing client-side scripts to call methods of the client control
• Applying display formats to newly entered data
You can disable any of these on the HTML Generation property page in the
DataWindow painter or with the SetWeight method. False for a particular
argument means no code for that feature is generated.
This statement enables all features:
dwMine.SetWeight(true, true, true, true, true);
If updating of data is false, no validation or display formatting code is
generated either. In this statement, it does not matter what the second and fifth
arguments are, because the first argument for updating data is false:
dwMine.SetWeight(false, false, true, true, false);
This statement turns off the client-side scripting capability:
dwMine.SetWeight(true, true, true, false, true);
Updating data and display formatting add the most code to the client-side
control. Date processing also generates additional code. For the smallest client
control, turn on only the features you need and make sure your DataWindow
object does not have any date columns.
Naming the client SetHTMLObjectName You need to provide a name for the Web DataWindow
control client control. The name is used for page parameters and client-side events. If
there is more than one Web DataWindow client control on the Web page, each
needs a unique name.
This code uses the same name for the server component variable and the client
control:
dwMine.SetHTMLObjectName ("dwMine");
142 PowerBuilder
Optimizing HTML for a SetBrowser The Web DataWindow can generate HTML optimized for
browser particular browsers and versions. In particular, it can generate code for
Microsoft and Netscape browsers. The browser may be different each time the
server component is instantiated by a different client, so this information
cannot be preset in the DataWindow painter. You can tell it what browser and
version to target in the server-side script. In the painter, you can set the HTML
Version property to specify what level of HTML to generate if the browser is
not recognized.
For information on what HTML features the DataWindow uses for different
browsers, see the DataWindow Reference or the HTMLGen.property topic in
online Help.
At runtime, the HTTP header sent from the client browser to the Web server
contains the HTTP_USER_AGENT value, which the server component can
use to identify the client browser.
In PowerDynamo, you can use the GetServerVariable method of the document
object to get the HTTP_USER_AGENT value:
dwMine.SetBrowser(
document.GetServerVariable("HTTP_USER_AGENT"));
In ASP, you can use the ServerVariables method of the Request object to get
the HTTP_USER_AGENT value:
var clientbrowser =
Request.ServerVariables("HTTP_USER_AGENT");
dwMine.SetBrowser(clientbrowser);
Specifying the database connection and retrieving data

Specifying connection SetTrans You provide connection information for the server component with
information the SetTrans method. The arguments you specify depend on the type of
connection. For an ODBC connection to Adaptive Server Anywhere 6.0, you
specify all the connection information in the dbParm argument.
In EAServer, you must also set up a connection cache for the component,
described in “Creating a connection cache on EAServer” on page 122.

The data source must be defined on the server machine. It must be a system
DSN on EAServer if the component is running as a service, and it must always
be a system DSN on MTS or IIS. This statement connects to the EAS Demo
DB sample database:
dwMine.SetTrans("ODBC",
"ConnectString='DSN=EAS Demo DB
V3;UID=dba;PWD=sql'",
"", "", "", "", "")
Using Adaptive Server Enterprise

PowerBuilder and EAServer use slightly different versions of the CT-Lib
software to connect to Adaptive Server Enterprise via Open Client. In the
PowerBuilder development environment, you use the SYC native database
interface to connect to the database, but you must use SYJ as the first argument
to SetTrans to connect to ASE in EAServer.
Retrieving data Retrieve To tell the server component to retrieve data, you call the Retrieve
method or, if the DataWindow object expects retrieval arguments, the
RetrieveEx method.
This DynaScript code calls Retrieve and, if the return value reports an error,
calls GetLastErrorString for the error message text. In ASP, use
Response.Write instead of document.Writeln:
retVal = dwMine.Retrieve();
if (retVal < 0 )
{
document.Writeln("Error on Retrieve: " + retVal +
"<BR>");
document.Writeln(dwMine.GetLastErrorString() +
"<BR>")
}
Specifying retrieval RetrieveEx If the DataWindow object expects retrieval arguments, call
arguments RetrieveEx:
dwMine.RetrieveEx("60000");
Typically, the retrieval arguments are not constants. They are page parameters
passed to the page from another page where the user filled in a form or clicked
a hyperlink. If the DataWindow expects more than one retrieval argument, the
arguments must be passed in a single string. The arguments in the string must
be separated by newline characters (\n), and individual values cannot contain
newline characters as part of the value. Array values must be separated by tab
characters (\t).
144 PowerBuilder
Values passed into the page are properties of the value property of the
document object. For example, this form prompts the user for a salary:
<FORM ACTION="salaryrpt.stm" NAME="log" METHOD="POST">
<p>Please enter a salary ceiling:</p>
<P><INPUT TYPE="text" NAME="salary" SIZE="15"></p>
<p><Center>
<INPUT TYPE="Submit" VALUE="Register">
</Center></p>
</FORM>
In the PowerDynamo server-side script in salaryrpt.stm, code calls the

RetrieveEx method for the server component using the salary value passed as
a page parameter:
dwMine.RetrieveEx(document.value.salary);
Getting the retrieval argument from another page works the first time the page
is loaded. The retrieval arguments have to be page parameters each time the
page is reloaded. To specify page parameters for the reloaded page, you use the
SetSelfLink method, described next.
Passing page-specific data to the reloaded page

Using self link The first time the client browser requests the page template, it can pass page-
information specific information using GET or POST, and the page can use those values in
the server-side scripts. However, when the page is reloaded because of user
interactions with the Web DataWindow, that information is not passed to the
page automatically.
To make the information available, you specify a selflinkargs string with values
that become page parameters in the reloaded page. Typically, you would use
self-link parameters to keep available:
• Login information from another page
• The DataWindow object name
• Retrieval arguments for the DataWindow object
To provide these values when the page is reloaded, you use the SetSelfLink
method, which takes as arguments the URL of the page template as well as the
selflinkargs string.

Getting the URL for To reload the page correctly in response to user actions, the server component
the page needs to know the URL of the page template. You can get this information from
the name property of the document object or the SCRIPT_NAME server
variable.
In PowerDynamo, use the GetServerVariable method of the document object:
var url = document.GetServerVariable( "SCRIPT_NAME" );
In ASP, use the ServerVariables method of the Request object:
var url = Request.ServerVariables( "SCRIPT_NAME" );
Building a self-link Self-link arguments become page parameters in the reloaded page. Your script
argument string typically looks at an existing page parameter and re-creates it using a self-link
argument. The syntax for specifying a self-link argument string is:
pageparam1=’expr1’|pageparam2=’expr2’...|pageparamn=’exprn’
The string can contain one or more page parameter and expression pairs
separated by pipes ( | ). Each expression is a DataWindow expression that
evaluates to a string. Usually you specify constant string values that are already
values of page parameters rather than expressions.
The expression is enclosed in quotes, and if the value is a constant, it must also
be enclosed in quotes. For example, if a page parameter called logname is
passed to the page and it has the value Fred, the string you need to pass in the
SetSelfLink method is:
logname='"Fred"'
To get the value from the current logname parameter, which is already defined
for the page, you build the expression using the logname page parameter. The
single quotes and inner double quotes are embedded in the expression. The
current value of logname is inserted between the quotes:
var linkargs =
"logname='\"" + document.value.logname + "\"'";
An expression does not need the inner quotes:
var linkargs = "date='String(Today())'";
Passing the URL and SetSelfLink Use the URL obtained from the SCRIPT_NAME server variable
argument string to and the link arguments string you built as arguments to the SetSelfLink
SetSelfLink
method:
dwMine.SetSelfLink(url, linkargs);
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Retrieval arguments The first time the page is loaded, the retrieval argument might be:
as self-link values
• A page parameter passed from another page. The user might have clicked
a URL that included the value or filled in a form that posted the value.
• A new value calculated in the current script.
If the value is a page parameter, then you can re-create the page parameter
using SetSelfLink. If the value is from some other source, you need to write
code that gets the value from the source (which might be a page parameter) the
first time the page is loaded and from a page parameter when it is reloaded.
Examples These PowerDynamo examples show code that works with the types of values
listed above. They illustrate how to get each type of value and use it in both
RetrieveEx and SetSelfLink method calls.
Value from another page If the user entered a product ID in a form to get
detailed information on the product, the product ID is passed to the product
report template as a page parameter. The page parameter should always exist
because it comes from the calling page, but the code provides a default value
anyway:
if (exists(document.value.prodid)) {
prod_id = document.value.prodid;
} else {
prod_id = "1";
}
dwMine.RetrieveEx(prod_id);
dwMine.SetSelfLink(document.name,
"prodid=" + "'\"" + prod_id + "\"'");
Calculated value If the value is to be calculated in the script, then the page
parameter will not exist the first time the script runs. If the random page
parameter exists, the script gets the value from the parameter; otherwise the
script calculates a value using a Math function:
if (exists(document.value.random)) {
rnd = parseInt(document.value.random);
} else {
rnd = Math.random();
}
dwMine.RetrieveEx(rnd);
dwMine.SetSelfLink(document.name,
"random=" + "'\"" + String(rnd) + "\"'";

Multiple values In this example, a Web page with a form prompts the user for
a user name and a product category and the level of detail the user wants to see.
The code uses the product category as a retrieval argument for the Web
DataWindow. The script selects a DataWindow object based on the level of
detail. All three values are carried over each time the page is reloaded:
// Get product category as a retrieval arg
if (exists(document.value.category)){
retrievearg = document.value.category;
} else {
retrievearg = "all";
}
rtn = dwMine.RetrieveEx(retrievearg);
if (rtn < 0) {
... // Check for error
}
// Get the user name
if (exists(document.value.username)){
username = document.value.username;
document.Write("<P>Dear " + username + "</P>");
}
document.Write("<P>Here is the report you
requested.</P>");
// Choose DW based on detail level requested

if (exists(document.value.reportlevel)) {
rptlevel = document.value.reportlevel;
if (rptlevel == "detail"){
dw = "d_product_detail";
} else {
dw = "d_product_summary";
}
}
else if (exists(document.value.dw)){
dw = document.value.dw;
} else {
document.Write("<P>Error selecting report");
return;
}
}
dwMine.SetDWObject("productrpt.pbd", dw);
// Tell the server component to recreate the

// page parameters in HTML generated for the browser
148 PowerBuilder
linkargs = "username='\"" + username + "\"'"

+ "|category= '\"" + retrievearg + "\"'"
+ "|dw= '\"" + dw + "\"'";
dwMine.SetSelfLink( document.name, linkargs );
Passing user actions to the server component

SetAction When the user clicks a DataWindow button, action information is
passed back to the page server as context and action page parameters. Your
server-side script needs to access those page parameters and call SetAction so
the server component can apply the action to the generated HTML.
The names of the parameters use the object name specified in the
SetHTMLObjectName method, for example: dwMine_action and
dwMine_context. You can also specify the object name on the HTML
Generation tab page in the DataWindow painter:.
You can include buttons for scrolling to other pages of data and for retrieving
and updating data and inserting and deleting rows. When these button actions
occur, the change is sent back to the server component and the change is made
in the DataWindow buffer. If the user clicks an update button, the update
method is called in the component without any other scripting needed.
No need to call methods

You can call server component methods directly for retrieving data, updating,
inserting and deleting rows, and so forth. However, remember that button
clicks invoke the actions. You do not need to call the methods too.
This DynaScript code uses a function called GetParam to see if the parameters
have been defined (meaning that the page is a reloaded page) and if so, calls
SetAction to send the action information to the server component:
// Function to test whether page parameters are defined
function GetParam( envparam ) {
if( exists(document.value[envparam] ) ) {
return document.value[envparam];
}
return "";
};
// Check if we need to perform the action
var dwMine_action = GetParam("dwMine_action");
var dwMine_context = GetParam("dwMine_context");

Using a custom server component
if ("" != "" + dwMine_action) {

retVal = dwMine.SetAction(
dwMine_action, dwMine_context);
if (retVal < 0 ) {
document.Write ("Error on SetAction: "
+ retVal + "<BR>");
document.Write (
dwMine.GetLastErrorString()+ "<BR>");
}
}
Inserting the generated HTML into the page

Generate After the server script has done all the setup, it calls the Generate
function, which returns the generated HTML as a string.
In PowerDynamo, use document.Write to insert the code in the page template:
document.Write( dwMine.Generate() );
In ASP, use Response.Write to insert the code in the page template:
Response.Write( dwMine.Generate() );

If you are using EAServer as the component server, you can deploy a custom
component that uses methods of the generic server component interface. You
can also write a server component with its own DataWindow methods for use
with EAServer, MTS, or IIS.
Some advantages of a You can use a custom component to enhance:
custom component
• Maintainability Keep connection information on the server by
specifying values for transaction properties.
• Performance Specify the source file and DataWindow object on the
server so that the DataWindow object is loaded when the component
instance is created, resulting in fewer method calls from server-side scripts
in the Web page. You can also improve performance by having your
custom component maintain its state.
150 PowerBuilder
For information about changing the state property of a custom component,

see “Maintaining state on the server” on page 157.
• Scalability Specify the source file and DataWindow object and use
EAServer instance pooling so that the component is reused and loading the
DataWindow object occurs only once.
Contention between the DataWindow painter and EAServer

If you are working in the DataWindow painter and testing the same PBL in
EAServer, your PBL may be locked when the EAServer component loads the
DataWindow. To avoid this, disable instance pooling for the component in
EAServer Manager. After you have finished testing and editing the
DataWindow object, you can enable instance pooling.
Instance pooling provides better performance in a production environment
when a component instance can be reinitialized and reused for multiple clients.
For information on creating a custom component that uses the generic Web
DataWindow interface, see “Creating a custom server component in
EAServer” on page 152 or “Deploying DataWindow objects to the component
server” on page 123.
Writing your own For full control of HTML generation and the state of the DataStore object that
custom component holds the DataWindow definition and data, you can write your own custom
class user object in PowerBuilder and deploy it as an EAServer or COM
component. Using a custom component that includes only the processing you
need can reduce the size of the client control returned to the Web client.
The source code for the generic component is available in PBDWRMT.PBL in
the PowerBuilder code examples directory so that you can examine or reuse it.
You can modify or add to the code in this PBL or start from scratch, using the
sample PBL as a model for your own component.
Mixed-case method names

The methods of the generic EAServer component use mixed-case names and
all the examples in this section use mixed case. If you write your own server
component, the methods of the EAServer component you generate are all
lowercase. However, you can change the case of the method names in the IDL
file for your component after it is deployed to EAServer. When you use your
own component, you must generate and compile stubs for the component, and
you must do this after you make any changes to the IDL.

Your server component will use methods on a DataStore object to retrieve data
and return the data and state to the client as HTML. To get the HTML and
JavaScript that represents the state, data, and presentation of the DataWindow
object, use the Describe method:
ls_html = ds_1.Describe("DataWindow.Data.HTML")
To update the HTML according to user actions, use the SetHTMLAction
method:
li_rtn = ds_1.SetHTMLAction(arg_action, arg_context)
SetHTMLAction restores the state of the DataStore based on the context
passed in as an argument and then changes the state based on the passed action.
For more information about SetHTMLAction, see the DataWindow Reference
or online Help. For information about working with DataStore objects, see
Chapter 4, “Using DataStore Objects”.
If you create your own server component and deploy it to EAServer, you must
also generate and compile the stubs. For information on generating and
compiling stubs, see the EAServer documentation.
If you deploy the user object as a COM component, you need to register it. For
information about registering COM components, see “Server configuration
details” on page 133.
Creating a custom server component in EAServer

You can install and configure a custom Web DataWindow server component in
Jaguar Manager. In this procedure, you create a custom version of the
EAServer server component with custom properties preset in Jaguar Manager.
Using the Web DataWindow Container Project wizard

The procedure in this section describes how to create a custom component in
Jaguar Manager that uses the generic DataWindow::HTMLGenerator90
interface. You can also create a custom component with a Web DataWindow
Container project. For more information, see “The Web DataWindow
Container project wizard” on page 124.
152 PowerBuilder
❖ To create a Web DataWindow custom component in EAServer:

1 In the left pane of Jaguar Manager, under the server name, right-click
Packages and select New Package from the pop-up menu.
2 In the New Package dialog box, type a package name (you cannot change
it later) and click Create A New Package.
For example, use EmpListPkg to identify a package for an application
called EmpList.
3 On the General tab of the Package Properties dialog box, enter a
description of the package and click OK.
For example, enter DataWindow Components for EmpList app to describe
EmpListPkg in terms of the application that you are customizing it for.
4 In the left pane of Jaguar Manager, under the server name, right-click the
new package and choose Install Component from the pop-up menu.
5 In the wizard, choose the Define New Component radio button and click
Next.
6 Specify the name of your custom component (you cannot change it later)
and click Finish.
For example, use EmpListDW to identify a component that uses the
d_emplist DataWindow object.
7 In the Component Properties dialog on the General tab, specify:
Module and interface DataWindow::HTMLGenerator90
Component Type PowerBuilder NVO
PowerBuilder Class Name nv_remote_datawindow
PowerBuilder Library List pbdwr90.pbd
PowerBuilder Application remote_datawindow_appl
8 On the All Properties tab, add the properties for which you want preset
values.
Setting properties for a custom component in EAServer

You add as many of the following properties as needed for your custom
component. The properties are divided into two groups: general and database
connection.
For boolean properties, values can be true or false, or yes or no.

General properties These properties specify settings that take effect when
the component is instantiated.
Table 7-3: General properties to add for custom component
General property Description
com.sybase.datawindow. Specifies the PBL, the PBD that contains the
sourceFileName DataWindow object for the component, or the SRD or
PSR file that is the DataWindow object.
See also the SetDWObject method in the online Help
or DataWindow Reference.
com.sybase.datawindow. The name of the DataWindow object in the PBL or
dwObjectName PBD specified for sourceFileName.
See also the SetDWObject method.
com.sybase.datawindow. Whether component properties can be modified from
fixed server-side script (SetDWObject, Create, Modify, and
SetTrans methods) that instantiates the component.
Values are:
• Yes — Properties are fixed and cannot be changed.
• No — Properties can be changed.
com.sybase.datawindow. A list of PowerBuilder user objects that are in the PBL
serverServiceClasses or PBD specified in sourceFileName. The class names
should be separated by semicolons (;). The user objects
implement custom events for data validation.
For information on custom events, see the
SetServerServiceClasses method in the online Help or
com.sybase.datawindow. Specifies whether the server attempts to maintain its
serverSideState state between method calls. Values are:
• Yes — The server component keeps the result set
and keeps the transaction open if possible.
• No — (Default) The result set is not saved and the
server component uses information passed back
from the client to retrieve the result set again and
restore any uncommitted changes.
com.sybase.datawindow. Whether calls to component methods are included in
trace the EAServer server log. Values are:
• Yes — Calls to component methods are listed in the
log.
• No — (Default) Calls to component methods are not
logged.
154 PowerBuilder
General property Description

com.sybase.datawindow. The name used for the Web DataWindow client control
HTMLObjectName in the generated code. The name is used to implement
client-side events and to allow client-side scripting
Set this property when there will be more than one Web
DataWindow on a Web page so that they do not
conflict.
See also the SetHTMLObjectName method.
com.sybase.datawindow. A string that is used as an argument to the Modify
modifyString method for setting properties of the DataWindow
object. The component calls the Modify method when
it is initialized.
For information on syntax, see the Modify method.
Database connection properties For the database connection properties,

you must add com.sybase.datawindow.trans.dbms. This property must be set
for any of the other trans properties to be recognized. When trans.dbms is set,
any unspecified connection properties default to an empty string.
For more information about database connections, see the SetTrans method in
Table 7-4: Database connection properties to add for custom
component
Database connection
property Description
com.sybase.datawindow. A database vendor identifier, as displayed in the
trans.dbms PowerBuilder Connection Profiles dialog box.
com.sybase.datawindow. DBMS-specific connection parameters.
trans.dbparm
com.sybase.datawindow. The isolation level. See the online Help for information
trans.lock about database preferences.
com.sybase.datawindow. The name or ID of the account the component uses
trans.logid when it logs on to the database server.
com.sybase.datawindow. The password used to log on to the database server.
trans.logpass
com.sybase.datawindow. The name of the database to which the component is
trans.database connecting. Ignored for ODBC.
com.sybase.datawindow. The name of the server on which the database resides.
trans.servername

Instantiating the custom component

To use the custom component in your server-side scripts, you specify your
package and component name in the form YourPackage/YourComponent. The
method for instantiating the component must reference the
DataWindow/HTMLGenerator90 interface if you are using methods of the
generic component installed with EAServer.
This code in a PowerDynamo script instantiates a custom component called
EmpListDW in the package EmpListPkg. The last argument narrows the
interface—it specifies that the component will use the stub interface for the
generic server component:
dwMine = java.CreateComponent( "EmpListPkg/EmpListDW",
Using OneTrip to set up the component and get the generated HTML
“Instantiating and configuring the server component” on page 138 described
several items your server script should include to set up the Web DataWindow
correctly. Instead of coding all these things separately, you can do all the setup
and get the generated HTML with a single method when the EAServer
component has been configured with a DataWindow definition and transaction
information.
This technique is especially useful for improving performance without
requiring the server component to maintain state.
// Create component on server
dwMine = java.CreateComponent( "EmpListPkg/EmpListDW",
// Get action and context page parameters

if (exists(document.value.dwMine_action))
var action = document.value.dwMine_action;
else action = "";
if (exists(document.value.dwMine_context))
var context = document.value.dwMine_context;
else context = "";
// Get browser
var browser = document.GetServerVariable
("HTTP_USER_AGENT");
// Get document name for reloading page

var selfLink = document.GetServerVariable
("SCRIPT_NAME");
156 PowerBuilder
// Pass setup info to server and insert HTML returned

// from OneTrip in the page
document.Write(dwMine.OneTrip("dwMine", browser,
selfLink, "", action, context));
Using OneTripEx for retrieval arguments If your DataWindow requires
retrieval arguments, use OneTripEx instead of OneTrip. The code checks for a
page parameter that has the retrieval argument value. It also makes sure the
value will still be available in a reloaded page by providing a selflinkargs
expression:
if (exists(document.value.retarg))
var retrievearg = document.value.retarg;
else
// Provide some meaningful default value
var retrievearg = "default";
var selflinkarg = "retarg='\"" + retrievearg + "\"'";
document.Write(dwMine.OneTripEx("dwMine", retrievearg,
browser, selfLink, selflinkarg, action,
context));
Maintaining state on the server

Using a stateless The Web DataWindow can run in a fully stateless server environment.
component Variables in the Web page keep information about the rows being viewed and
any changes the user makes; this information is communicated to the server
component as needed so that the component can restore its state each time it is
called. Restoring its state includes retrieving data from the database each time
the page is reloaded, including each time the user navigates to another page.
Operating in a stateless mode minimizes use of server resources but can
decrease performance. The client maintains the state of the server component
in string form and the information is sent back and forth with every request.
Also, when state is not maintained on the server, the component must connect
to the database and retrieve data each time it is called. If the component server
does not do connection caching, response time for the client could be very
slow.

Using a stateful You can increase performance by maintaining state on the server. To maintain
component state, the page server’s session object keeps a reference to the server
component. If the server component is running in EAServer, you must mark
the component as a stateful object and set a timeout value for the component.
Failing to set a timeout value if you are using the component as a stateful object
will result in orphaned instances of the component on the server.
Maintaining state on the server provides faster response time if the same
component is accessed again. However, it also increases the server resources
used for each client connection.
To minimize impact on server resources, a short timeout on a session lets the
server get rid of a component that might not be requested again. If the
component is called again, its state can be restored from the client state
information. When the number of hits on a page is expected to be large, setting
a shorter timeout reduces the number of instances that need to be maintained
simultaneously.
Marking the object as To mark the component as a stateful object, set the component’s
stateful com.sybase.datawindow.serverSideState property in Jaguar Manager or call
the SetServerSideState method in a server-side script:
dwMine.SetServerSideState( true );
You should not set the com.sybase.jaguar.component.stateless property for the
HTMLGenerator90 component in Jaguar Manager.
If you are using the Web Target object model, you specify whether the database
state is managed on the server by passing the boolean value TRUE as the
second parameter to the PSDataWindowClass constructor:
dw_1 = new PSDataWindowClass("dw_list", true,
jagConn, dwSource, dbConn, 5);
Passing this parameter calls the SetServerSideState method, but it does not set
a timeout value—you need to set a timeout value whether or not you are using
the Web Target object model.
Setting timeout values To set the timeout value for the HTMLGenerator90 component, open its
Component Properties dialog box in Jaguar Manager and set the
com.sybase.jaguar.component.timeout property. Timeout values are specified
in seconds; a value of 0 means the component never times out. Since the state
of the component is saved in the PowerDynamo session object, the timeout
values for the PowerDynamo session and the HTMLGenerator90 component
should be the same.
158 PowerBuilder
Using service classes

You can use the methods available on the server component to perform most
server-side processing, including validation routines and error handling. The
Web DataWindow also provides another way to add specialized processing.
To include server-side processing not available on the server component, you
can define one or more PowerBuilder custom class user objects called service
classes. These service classes are stored in the same PBL or PBD as the
DataWindow object for the server component. They can be used whenever you
want to include additional processing on the server. For example, you might
want to use this technique to access the SQLPreview event so that you can
examine the syntax of a SQL statement before it is committed to the database.
Where you implement The service classes implement user-defined events with prescribed signatures.
the code These events correspond to standard DataWindow events. In the user-defined
events, you perform the processing and specify return codes that tell the server
component whether to cancel the corresponding DataWindow event.
In the server component, you set a property or call a method that identifies
these user objects as service classes for the server component.
How the code is called Service classes work like this:
1 Service classes are instantiated when the component is instantiated (if they
are specified in a EAServer property) or when they are first registered by
the SetServerServiceClasses method.
2 An event occurs in the server component for the DataStore.
3 The server component calls an event of the same name in each registered
service class.
4 If the service class implements the event, the event script is executed and
a return code is sent back to the server component.
5 If the event can be canceled via a return code and if any of the service
classes returns that code, the event is canceled in the server component.

Figure 7-2: How service classes work
Defining a service class for PowerBuilder components

❖ To create and register a service class for PowerBuilder components:
1 In the PBL that contains the DataWindow object for the server component,
define one or more PowerBuilder custom class user objects.
2 In each custom class user object, define one or more user-defined events.
The event signatures must match one of these (all these events return a
long):
• DBError (long sqldbcode, string sqlerrtext, string sqlsyntax,
DWBuffer buffer, long row, DataStore ds)
• HTMLContextApplied (string action, DataStore ds)
• RetrieveEnd (long rowcount, DataStore ds)
• RetrieveStart (DataStore ds)
• SQLPreview (SQLPreviewFunction request, SQLPreviewType
sqltype, string sqlsyntax, DWBuffer buffer, long row, DataStore ds)
• UpdateEnd (long rowsinserted, long rowsupdated, long rowsdeleted,
DataStore ds)
• UpdateStart (DataStore ds)
160 PowerBuilder
The arguments are the same as those documented for the similarly named
DataWindow events in the DataWindow Reference, with the exception of
the additional DataStore argument, which gives the user object access to
the Web DataWindow data.
3 In the event script, use return codes to specify whether the server
component should cancel the event.
The return codes are also the same as those documented in the
DataWindow Reference. Any of the service classes that implements the
event can specify that the event be canceled.
4 Register the service classes for the component.
There are two ways to make the user object available as a service class:
• For any component in EAServer or another supported server such as
MTS, call the SetServerServiceClasses method in the Web page
template’s server-side script:
dwMine.SetServerServiceClasses
("uo_update_validate;uo_retrieve_process");
• For a custom component in EAServer, add this property in Jaguar
Manager:
com.sybase.datawindow.serverServiceClasses
Set its value to the list of user object names, with names separated by
semicolons. For example:
uo_update_validate;uo_retrieve_process
Using server component methods with the DTC

If you are using the Web DataWindow DTC or the Web Target object model,
you can use methods of the server component by using the Component
property. For example:
dwMine.Component.SetServerServiceClasses
("uo_updatestart")
Example Suppose that you want to check that data did not exceed a budgeted total before
it was updated in the database. You might set up a service class that implements
the UpdateStart event.

In the custom class user object in PowerBuilder, select Insert>Event and

declare a new event called UpdateStart that returns a long and has one
argument of type DataStore called ds:
UpdateStart (DataStore ds) returns long
This script for the UpdateStart event has a DataStore that retrieves data from a
budget table and compares it to the component’s data:
DataStore ds_budget
double darray[], total
long ll_upper
integer i
ds_budget = CREATE datastore

ds_budget.DataObject = "d_budget"
ds_budget.SetTransObject(...)
ds_budget.Retrieve( )
// Get data to be validated

darray[] = ds.Object.expenses.Primary
// Add up values in darray
ll_upper = UpperBound(darray)
FOR i = 1 to ll_upper
total = total + darray[i]
NEXT
IF ds_budget.Object.cf_expense_total < total THEN
RETURN 1
END IF
Defining a service class for Java components

❖ To create and register a service class for Java components:
1 Make sure your Java service class is in the system classpath.
2 In your Java service class, define one or more methods. Method prototypes
must match one of these (all event data types are in the
powersoft.datawindow.event package):
• DBError (DatabaseEvent event, DataStore ds)
• RetrieveEnd (RetrieveEvent event, DataStore ds)
• RetrieveStart (RetrieveEvent event, DataStore ds)
162 PowerBuilder
• SQLPreview (DatabaseEvent event, DataStore ds)

• UpdateEnd (UpdateEvent event, DataStore ds)
• UpdateStart (UpdateEvent event, DataStore ds)
3 In the class methods, set the return codes to specify whether the server
component should cancel the event.
The return codes are also the same as those documented in the
DataWindow Reference. Any of the service classes that implements the
event can specify that the event be canceled.
4 Register the service classes for the component.
There are two ways to make the Java class available as a service class:
• For any component in EAServer or another supported server such as
MTS, call the SetServerServiceClasses method in the Web page
template’s server-side script:
dwMine.SetServerServiceClasses
("UpdateValidate;RetrieveProcess");
• For a custom component in EAServer, add this property in Jaguar
Manager:
com.sybase.datawindow.serverServiceClasses
Set its value to the list of user object names, with names separated by
semicolons. For example:
UpdateValidate;RetrieveProcess
Using server component methods with the DTC

If you are using the Web DataWindow DTC or the Web Target object model,
you can use methods of the server component by using the Component
property. For example:
dwMine.Component.SetServerServiceClasses
("UpdateStart");
Example Suppose that you want to check that data did not exceed a budgeted total before
it was updated in the database. You might set up a service class that implements
the UpdateStart event.
The method declaration would be:
public void UpdateStart (UpdateEvent event,
DataStore ds)

The body of this method has a DataStore that retrieves data from a budget table
and compares it to the component’s data:
import powersoft.datawindow.event.*;
import powersoft.datawindow.*;
public void UpdateStart (UpdateEvent event, DataStore

ds)
{
DataStore ds_budget;
ds_budget = new DataStore();
ds_budget.setSourceFileName
("c:\\mydirectory\\mypbd.pbd");
ds_budget.setDataWindowObjectName("d_object");
ds_budget.setTransObject(...);
ds_budget.retrieve( );
// Get data to be validated
int rowcount = ds.getRowCount();
int total = 0;
for (int i = 1; i<=rowcount;i++){
total=total + ds.getItemNumber(i, "expenses",
ds.Primary);
}
String expense_total = ds_1.describe (...);
double d_expense_total = Double.parseDouble
(expense_total);
if (d_expense_total<total){
event.setReturnCode(1);
}
)
164 PowerBuilder
CH A PTE R 8 Using the DataWindow Web
Control for ActiveX
About this chapter This chapter describes how to use the Sybase DataWindow Web control
for ActiveX (Web ActiveX).
Contents
Topic Page
About the Web ActiveX 165
HTML for inserting the controls on a Web page 168
How to use the Web ActiveX in a Web target 170
DataWindow objects for the Web ActiveX 173
Using the DataWindow Transaction Object control 175
Making database connections 177
Coding for the Web ActiveX 179
Deploying the Web ActiveX 180
About the Web ActiveX

Features The Sybase DataWindow Web control for ActiveX is a fully interactive
DataWindow control for use with Microsoft Internet Explorer. It
implements all standard DataWindow features except rich text.
The Web ActiveX supports data retrieval with retrieval arguments and
data update. You can use edit styles, display formats, and validation rules.
Most of the standard methods for manipulating the DataWindow are
available, including Modify for changing DataWindow object properties.
Several functions that involve file system interactions, such as SaveAs
and SaveAsAscii, are not supported, allowing the Web ActiveX to be in
the safely scriptable category of ActiveX controls.
Included with the Web ActiveX is the Sybase DataWindow Transaction
Object control for making database connections that can be shared by
several Web ActiveX controls.

About the Web ActiveX
Browser support
The Web ActiveX and Transaction Object control are designed to work in
browsers that support ActiveX controls, such as Microsoft Internet Explorer
version 3 and higher.
The DataWindow controls are not designed to work in Netscape browsers,
which do not support ActiveX controls. Even if you use third-party plugins to
enable ActiveX support, scripting for the controls works differently and is not
tested.
Development When you install PowerBuilder, the Setup program registers the Web ActiveX
environment and the Transaction Object control in the Windows registry. The class
information entered in the registry is visible in the PowerBuilder Browser
under OLE Custom Controls on the OLE tab. You can also examine the
properties, events, and methods of the controls on the OLE tab of the Browser.
In a Web target, you can develop Web pages that use the Web ActiveX and
Transaction Object control. You can drag and drop these controls from the
Components tab of the System Tree to a Web page. You can also examine the
properties, events, and methods of these controls from the System Tree. In the
HTML editor, you can insert the control, set property values using the control
property sheets, and write event scripts in the script editor.
For more information, see “How to use the Web ActiveX in a Web target” on
page 170.
In addition to the Web target HTML editor, you can use any text editor to write
HTML for the controls. However, other development environments are not
supported and do not provide advanced authoring support.
For information about the required HTML, see “HTML for inserting the
controls on a Web page” on page 168.
DataWindow objects The Web ActiveX uses a DataWindow object, which determines what data is
retrieved and how it is displayed. The Web ActiveX can also display Powersoft
reports (PSRs), which do not need to retrieve data.
A DataWindow object for the Web ActiveX can have any presentation style
except RichText.
DataWindow objects are stored in PowerBuilder libraries (PBLs) or
PowerBuilder dynamic libraries (PBDs). The DataWindow libraries are stored
on the Web server and downloaded as needed by the Internet Explorer browser.
You use a URL to point to the library. It can be relative or absolute, using any
supported protocol—for example, http, ftp, or file.
166 PowerBuilder
CHAPTER 8 Using the DataWindow Web Control for ActiveX
For more information, see “DataWindow objects for the Web ActiveX” on
page 173.
Database connections The Web ActiveX uses JDBC for database connectivity. Users can connect to
a data source on any server to which they have access, including databases and
middle-tier servers on the Internet.
You can use internal transaction properties for specifying a connection; or you
can make the connection with a separate Transaction object, the Sybase
DataWindow Transaction Object control. When you connect using a separate
Transaction object, you can control when SQL COMMIT and ROLLBACK
statements occur and you can use the same connection for multiple Web
ActiveX controls.
For more information, see “Using the DataWindow Transaction Object
control” on page 175.
Scripting Since the Web ActiveX is designed for Internet Explorer, you can use Jscript
or another ECMAScript-compatible scripting language for scripting purposes.
In general, you can use the same methods as in a PowerBuilder application.
However, there are a few differences:
• Data types are mapped to the basic JavaScript types of string, number,
boolean, and various object types
• ECMAScript languages do not support arguments passed by reference; so
instead of checking the value of a reference argument, you call a separate
method to retrieve the value
• Enumerated data types are not supported; instead, specify the integer that
corresponds to the enumerated data value
For more information, see “Coding for the Web ActiveX” on page 179.
Events The Web ActiveX supports the same events as a standard DataWindow control,
with these differences:
• Event names are different to conform to Web conventions
• Events in ECMAScript languages do not have return values; instead you
can call SetActionCode to affect the outcome of an event
Deployment The Web ActiveX is provided as a CAB file, which allows the client browser
to install and register the control. When the user downloads a Web page that
refers to the CAB file, the browser also downloads the CAB file if necessary,
unpacks it, and registers the control.
For more information, see “Deploying the Web ActiveX” on page 180.

HTML for inserting the controls on a Web page
HTML for inserting the controls on a Web page

You include the controls on a Web page with an Object element and associated
Param elements. Then you write scripts that direct the control to make database
connections, retrieve and update data, and respond to user actions.
The way the Object and Param elements look in a Web page are described next.
When you insert the controls and set their properties using the Web Target user
interface in PowerBuilder, these elements are coded for you.
Object element
How it works ActiveX controls use the Object element to specify the GUID (a unique
identifier) of the control as well as the space the control takes on the page. The
Object tag looks like this:
<OBJECT id=PSDWC1 height=357 classid="CLSID:99991503-
9999-1000-8000-080009AC61A9" width=343>
</OBJECT>
In a Web target, when you insert the Web ActiveX control by dragging from
the System Tree or by using the Insert>Component menu item, the Object tag
is written for you.
CODEBASE attribute If your users need to download the controls, you can include the CODEBASE
attribute in the Object element to identify the file to be downloaded. After the
browser downloads the CAB file, it unpacks it and registers the ActiveX
controls in the user’s system registry.
The value for CODEBASE has the format:
url#version
A typical value for CODEBASE uses a relative URL:
CODEBASE="cabs/psdwc90.cab#9,0,0,3514"
URL The URL is the location of the DataWindow control’s CAB file on your
Web server. It can be an absolute or relative URL.
Version The version is a set of four numbers, separated by commas. The
numbers must match the version of the CAB file. The version number of the
CAB file is the same as the version number for PowerBuilder.
168 PowerBuilder
❖ To find out the 4-part version number in Windows:

1 Select the PowerBuilder executable or a PowerBuilder DLL in Windows
Explorer.
2 Select File>Properties from the menu bar.
3 On the Version tab, look at File Version. A typical number is 9.0.0.3514.
Example The Object element with a CODEBASE attribute looks like this:
<OBJECT codeBase=
"http://www.domain.com/psdwc90.cab#Version=9,0,1,3514"
id=PSDWC1 height=357 classid="CLSID:99991503-9999-
1000-8000-080009AC61A9" width=343>
</OBJECT>
New versions When you get new versions of the CAB file, you can change the version
numbers on the Web page and cause the browser to install a new version of the
control.
For more information about how to deploy new versions, see “Deploying the
Web ActiveX” on page 180.
Properties and Param elements

How they work The Web ActiveX and the Transaction Object control have several properties
that specify connection information. The Web ActiveX also has properties that
specify a DataWindow object or a PSR. You provide values for the properties
with Param elements, which are enclosed in the Object element.
When you insert the controls in a Web target, Param elements are automatically
added to the Web page. You can provide values for the Param elements using
the control property sheets. You can also write scripts that set or change
property values.
The inserted Param elements are grouped in an order that corresponds to pages
in the control property sheets. The first group of Param elements contains
standard ActiveX properties. You can assign values for the standard ActiveX
properties in the ActiveX OBJECTn Properties dialog box, where n is the order
in which the object is placed on the page.

How to use the Web ActiveX in a Web target
The Web ActiveX also inserts Param elements for custom properties. You set
these custom properties from the Sybase DataWindow Web Control Properties
dialog box. To open this dialog box you can click the Control Properties button
on the ActiveX page of the ActiveX OBJECTn Properties dialog box for the
Web ActiveX control.
The Sybase DataWindow Web Control Properties dialog box has four tab pages
where you can set custom properties: General, Scrolling, Transaction, and
Trans User. The Transaction Object control has only two custom property
pages: Transaction and Trans User.
Standard ActiveX <PARAM VALUE=65536 NAME="_Version"></PARAM>
properties <PARAM VALUE=9280 NAME="_ExtentX"></PARAM>
<PARAM VALUE=5155 NAME="_ExtentY"></PARAM>
<PARAM VALUE=2 NAME="_StockProps"></PARAM>
<PARAM VALUE="" NAME=Caption></PARAM>
Properties on General <PARAM VALUE="javadwtest.pbl" NAME=SourceFileName>
page </PARAM>
<PARAM VALUE="d_emp" NAME=DataWindowObject></PARAM>
<PARAM VALUE=0 NAME=SuppressEvents></PARAM>
Properties on <PARAM VALUE=0 NAME=VScrollBar></PARAM>
Scrolling page <PARAM VALUE=0 NAME=HScrollBar></PARAM>
<PARAM VALUE=0 NAME=HSplitScroll></PARAM>
<PARAM VALUE=0 NAME=LiveScroll></PARAM>
Properties on <PARAM
Transaction page VALUE="Driver='com.sybase.jdbc2.jdbc.SybDriver',
URL='jdbc:sybase:Tds:localhost:2638'" NAME=dbParm>
</PARAM>
Properties on Trans <PARAM VALUE=dba NAME=LogId></PARAM>
User page <PARAM VALUE=sql NAME=LogPass></PARAM>

The PowerBuilder Setup program installs the Web ActiveX and the
Transaction Object control in the system registry. You can find them in the
System Tree on the Components tab.
These procedures provide a summary of the ways you author Web pages with
ActiveX controls in a Web target.
170 PowerBuilder
❖ To find the controls in the System Tree:

1 Select the Components tab.
2 Expand ActiveX Controls.
3 Expand Controls that are safely scriptable.
4 Look for the controls with these names:
• Sybase DataWindow Web Control
• Sybase DataWindow Transaction Object Control
These controls have Properties and Methods branches (the Web ActiveX
also has an Events branch) that you can expand to view available
properties and methods.
❖ To add the controls to a Web page:

• Drag the control name from the System Tree to the Web page
or
Select Insert>Component>ActiveX from the menu bar, select the Controls
page, make sure that Controls is selected in the drop-down list box, and
select the control (Sybase DataWindow Web Control or Sybase
DataWindow Transaction Object Control) you want.
❖ To set standard ActiveX properties for the control:

1 In the Page view, right-click the control and select ActiveX OBJECTn
Properties from the pop-up menu, where n is the order in which the object
is placed on the page. When you specify a name for the control, the menu
item uses that name instead of OBJECTn.
or
In Source view, right-click the Object tag and select Properties from the
pop-up menu.
2 In the ActiveX Properties dialog box, specify the values you want. Some
of the more common attributes to set include:
• Network Code Base—its value is the URL and version number of the
CAB file that the browser downloads to install the ActiveX control
For more about the CODEBASE attribute, see “HTML for inserting
the controls on a Web page” on page 168.
• Width and Height—also set by dragging the control’s resizing handles
in Page view
• Name for forms and scripting

❖ To set custom properties for the controls:

• In the Page view, right-click the control and select Sybase DataWindow
Web Control Properties (or Sybase DataWindow Transaction Object
Control Properties) from the pop-up menu.
For information on specifying the DataWindow object on the General tab
page, see “Specifying a DataWindow object for the control” on page 174.
For information about specifying connection information on the
Transaction and Trans User tab pages, see “Making database connections”
on page 177.
The custom properties dialog box is not available from the Source view.
Where to set connection properties

You need to set connection properties only once. If you are using a separate
Transaction Object control, you do not need to set properties on the Transaction
and Trans User pages for the Web ActiveX. The same property pages are
available for the Transaction Object control.
❖ To use the System Tree when writing code for the controls:
1 On the Page tab of the System Tree, expand window in the Client Side
branch.
2 Under window, expand Properties and find the name of your control as one
of the properties.
3 For the control, expand Properties, Events, or Methods.
4 Find the item you want to insert in the script editor and drag it to its
position in the code.
A fully qualified expression is inserted, such as:
window.dw1.Describe(propertylist)
window.dw1.dbParm
Substitute your own variables and expressions for method parameters.
172 PowerBuilder
DataWindow objects for the Web ActiveX

The DataWindow Web control for ActiveX requires either of these:
• A DataWindow object stored in a PBL
• A PSR that was saved with data
Properties for the Web ActiveX identify the DataWindow object that you want
to display in the control.
This section describes considerations for:
• Defining DataWindow objects
• Building libraries
• Identifying the DataWindow object or PSR by setting Web page properties
What the DataWindow object can include

You define DataWindow objects in PowerBuilder. The Web ActiveX supports
all DataWindow presentation styles except RichText.
You can use all edit styles, including DropDownDataWindow. Properties can
have conditional expressions (written in PowerScript) and computed fields can
use any of the functions available to a standard DataWindow.
In the Web page, you can include scripts (written in JScript or other
ECMAScript-compatible scripting languages) to manipulate DataWindow
presentation and data.
Managing DataWindow objects in PowerBuilder libraries

Types of libraries The Web ActiveX can use DataWindow objects that are stored in PBLs or
PBDs.
When to use a PBD The Web browser downloads the library specified for the Web ActiveX and
stores it in a temporary cache. If you do not want your DataWindow object
source code to be available to the user (who could copy it from the cache),
convert a PBL to a PBD before deploying it.
Because the library will be downloaded, you should make it as small as
possible—another good reason to convert a PBL to a PBD.

DataWindow objects for the Web ActiveX
PowerBuilder version
PBLs must be migrated to Version 9 or later.
Grouping A PBL or PBD is downloaded in its entirety from the Web server; therefore,
DataWindow objects you should make sure your library includes only those objects needed on your
into libraries
Web pages. You can group DataWindow objects that are used on different Web
pages in a single library; however, you should avoid forcing users to download
objects used on pages they will not view.
When choosing how to group DataWindow objects into libraries, make the set
of objects in the library correspond to the typical set of pages the user will view.
Although a single download saves a lot of communications overhead, it is
worthwhile for users only if they view the pages that use the objects.
Using other resources A DataWindow object can use external resources such as bitmaps or cursors.
in the DataWindow You can use a resource file when you build a PBD to include these resources
object
in the library. You can also store these resources on the Web server. A relative
path in the DataWindow object can point to the file’s location on the Web
server. The browser retrieves the resource as needed.
A DataWindow object can use other DataWindow objects, such as drop-down
DataWindows. Make sure these objects are included in the downloaded library.
Specifying a DataWindow object for the control

To identify the DataWindow object you want to display in the control, you
specify values for two properties:
• SourceFileName
• DataWindowObject
You enter their values on the General page of the Sybase DataWindow Web
Control Properties dialog box.
About The value for SourceFileName is the name of the library that contains the
SourceFileName DataWindow object for the control. It can be a URL or a file path. These
examples illustrate some typical variations:
• Absolute URL:
http://www.domain.com/dwlibraries/financedws.pbd
174 PowerBuilder
• Relative URLs:
financedws.pbd
dwlibraries/financedws.pbd
• Absolute file path (can be useful while developing pages):
d:/web project/dwlibraries/financedws.pbd
In the Web ActiveX property sheet, when you use the Browse button to look
for the library, you browse the file system, not URLs. After the full path is
inserted in the field, you probably should edit it so that it is valid when your
Web pages are deployed.
Web targets If you are working in a PowerBuilder Web target, it is a good
idea to include both the library and the Web page in the workspace. If you do,
SourceFileName can be a relative path that is valid in both your design and
deployment environments.
Changing SourceFileName during execution You can change the value of
SourceFileName in a script. If you do, you also have to specify a value for
DataWindowObject that is valid in the new library. You must also call
SetTransObject again if you are using a separate transaction object.
About The value for DataWindowObject is the name of a DataWindow object that is
DataWindowObject in the library specified in SourceFileName.
If the library is accessible in the development environment (for example, it is
part of the PowerBuilder workspace and you specify a relative URL), then the
property sheet displays a drop-down list of the DataWindow objects contained
in the library.
Displaying Powersoft reports

To display a PSR file instead of a DataWindow object, specify its URL as the
value for the DataWindowObject and leave the SourceFileName blank.
Using the DataWindow Transaction Object control

What it does The DataWindow Transaction Object control allows you to establish a
database connection independent of the Web ActiveX. It is similar to the
PowerBuilder Transaction object.

Using the DataWindow Transaction Object control
Internal transaction Both the Web ActiveX control and the Transaction Object control can establish
management or a database connection. The one you use depends on your needs.
separate Transaction
object There are two main reasons to use the Transaction Object control:
• You can make one database connection for several Web ActiveX controls,
saving the overhead of multiple connections.
• You can control transaction processing with Connect and Disconnect
methods, equivalent to the SQL statements CONNECT and
DISCONNECT. If the AutoCommit property is set to False, you can
control when an update is committed or rolled back (by calling the
Commit and Rollback methods).
If you have only one control and are simply retrieving data, you do not need
either of these features. Instead of instantiating a separate control, you can set
the connection properties of the Web ActiveX itself and allow it to connect and
disconnect for each database access.
Status and error The Transaction Object control receives status information from the database.
information You can test the success or failure of a database operation and get status
information with these methods, which are equivalent to PowerBuilder
transaction object properties:
• GetSQLCode
• GetDBCode
• GetSQLErrText
• GetSQLNRows
• GetSQLReturnData
Hiding the Transaction The Transaction Object control has no visual aspect, but if it is in the BODY
Object control section of the Web page, it still takes up space. You can set its HEIGHT and
WIDTH attributes to very small values or use style sheet settings to make it
invisible.
If you put it in the HEAD section, you will not have access to its property sheet
in a PowerBuilder Web target.
For information on setting properties for making a database connection, see
"Making database connections" next.
176 PowerBuilder
Making database connections

The connection The Web ActiveX and Transaction Object controls make database connections
process using JDBC. Their Java classes interact with the Java classes of the database
vendor’s JDBC interface. The vendor’s classes interact with the database.
JDBC driver from a The classes for the JDBC database driver you plan to use must be available to
database vendor the user’s browser. If the user does not have them installed already, you can set
up the Web page so that they are downloaded and installed just as you do for
the Web ActiveX.
To have the JDBC driver classes installed automatically, you can:
1 Convert the database vendor’s Java classes into a CAB file. You can use a
Microsoft utility called CABARC to do the conversion. The classes can be
in a ZIP archive or directory tree.
2 Add an Object element with a CODEBASE attribute for the CAB file to
the Web page.
The browser downloads the CAB file and adds the classes to its internal class
path. There is no change made to the CLASSPATH environment variable.
If you want to use the JDBC driver when you are defining DataWindow
objects, you need to do some additional installation, such as putting the JDBC
driver classes on the system class path.
For more information, see Connecting to Your Database or the online Help for
PowerBuilder.
Connection properties The connection information for the Transaction Object or Web ActiveX is set
as Param elements enclosed in the Object element. Whether you use a separate
Transaction object or the internal connection properties of the Web ActiveX,
the connection properties are the same:
Table 8-1: Connection properties of the Transaction Object and Web
ActiveX controls
Param name Meaning Typical value
LogID The ID needed to log in dba (default ID for ASA databases)
to the database.
LogPass The password needed sql (default password for ASA
to log in to the databases)
database.
dbParm A string specifying the For the JConnect driver:
Java classes for the Driver='com.sybase.jdbc.SybDriver',
driver and the URL for URL='jdbc:sybase:Tds:199.1.1.1:999
the database. 9/mydatabase'

Making database connections
Param name Meaning Typical value

Lock The isolation level of Vendor-specific values
the connection.
AutoCommit Whether a commit False (default)
occurs immediately
after the database is
updated.
About dbParm For JDBC drivers, the dbParm property specifies essential connection
information. Its value is a string that contains at least two values. Those values
identify the driver you want to use and the URL of the database, in a format
understood by the driver.
The format is:
Driver='JDBCclassname',URL='database_url'
To find the class name for Driver and the format of the database URL, check
the documentation from the DBMS vendor.
For examples of setting these properties in Param elements, see “Properties
and Param elements” on page 169.
JConnect in the If you want to use JConnect when you define DataWindow objects, put the
development Java classes for JConnect on the class path. An instruction like this should
environment
appear in AUTOEXEC.BAT:
SET CLASSPATH=d:\Program Files\Sybase\Shared\JConnect-5_5
Connecting and retrieving data

To connect and retrieve data, you must write a script. The script can belong to
a Retrieve button or you can have the retrieval occur automatically by putting
the code in the window’s onLoad script.
For example, to connect and retrieve data for a Web ActiveX named dw_1,
using a DataWindow Transaction Object control named trans_1, your script
would be similar to this:
trans_1.Connect( );
dw_1.SetTransObject( trans_1 );
dw_1.Retrieve( );
When you use the internal transaction properties, the Web ActiveX makes the
connection automatically. The script can be simpler, like this:
dw_1.Retrieve( );
178 PowerBuilder
Coding for the Web ActiveX

You can write scripts in the Web page to manipulate the DataWindow data and
presentation. The methods and events are similar to those available in a
standard DataWindow, but the events have been renamed to match JavaScript
naming conventions.
The properties, methods, and events—as well as the DataWindow object
properties and expression functions—are documented in the DataWindow
Reference.
You can see a list of the properties, methods, and events for the controls on the
Components page of the System Tree or in another tool for examining ActiveX
controls.
The Script editor lets you write scripts for all events of the Web ActiveX.
❖ To write a script for a particular event in a Web target:

1 In Page view, select a Web ActiveX that you have inserted in the Web
page.
or
In the Script editor, select the name of the DataWindow Web ActiveX in
the leftmost drop-down list.
2 In the Script editor, select an event from the second drop-down list. The
drop-down list shows the event name and the parameters whose values are
available in the script.
3 In the third drop-down list, select JScript as the scripting language.
4 Write code for the event. To call methods or access properties without
typing, drag them from the Page tab of the System Tree to the editor.
Data types for method arguments and return values

Primitive types JScript supports three primitive data types:
• string
• number
• boolean
Method arguments and return values and event parameters are one of these
basic types, or an object type.

Deploying the Web ActiveX
DataWindow methods that deal with specific data types, such as

GetItemDecimal, are not available for the Web ActiveX. Instead, you use the
method that handles the more general data type, such as GetItemNumber.
Date data types PowerBuilder has several date and time data types, but in JScript these all map
to the Date object.
Enumerated data PowerBuilder enumerated data types have named values, but in JScript, each
types value is a number. The list of numbers (and their meaning) is documented in
the DataWindow Reference for each enumerated data type.
Setting event return codes

The event return codes documented for DataWindow events are also valid for
the Web ActiveX. However, JScript does not support return values for events.
Instead, to specify a return code, you call the SetActionCode method as the last
line in the event script.
For example, the return code of the onItemError event allows you to determine
what happens when user-entered data fails a validation rule. By specifying a
return code of 3, you cause the Web ActiveX to reject the data but allow focus
to change. This statement would be the last line of the onItemError event script:
This.SetActionCode(3);

CAB file for The PowerBuilder Setup program installs the PSDWC90.CAB file in the
deployment Sybase\Shared\PowerBuilder directory. This CAB file contains all files and
information the client Web browser (Internet Explorer) needs for installing the
Web ActiveX and the Transaction Object control. The CAB file includes:
• An Open Software Distribution information file
• DLLs for the controls
• Java class files for the JDBC driver
The browser manages installation of the ActiveX controls using the
information in the CAB file. It installs the controls in the system registry and
maintains its Java class path. You need only to tell the browser how to find the
CAB file.
180 PowerBuilder
❖ To make the Web ActiveX and Transaction Object control available to

users:
1 Put the CAB file on your Web server.
2 Refer to the CAB file on the Web page in the CODEBASE attribute of the
Object element.
In a Web target, you can accomplish both goals by:
• Including the CAB file in your project and deploying it to the Web server
along with your other project files.
• Specifying a value for Network Code Base in the ActiveX object property
sheet. The value is the name and relative path for the CAB file, plus the
version number. If the CAB file is part of your PowerBuilder Web target,
use the browse button to display the Choose URL dialog box. You can then
select the CAB file on the Project page of this dialog box.
For information about specifying the correct value for CODEBASE, see
“HTML for inserting the controls on a Web page” on page 168.
Deploying a new The version number in the value of the CODEBASE attribute determines
version whether the browser downloads and installs a new version of the ActiveX
controls. The browser compares the version number in the CODEBASE value
with the version of the controls that are installed in the system registry. If the
version numbers do not match, the browser downloads the CAB file again and
installs it.
❖ To deploy the new CAB file when you get a new version of PowerBuilder:
1 Find the new version number by checking the version number of any
PowerBuilder DLL (as described in “HTML for inserting the controls on
a Web page” on page 168).
2 Edit the Web pages that refer to the CAB file. Change the version number
in the CODEBASE attribute to match the new number.
3 Replace the CAB file on the Web server with the new version.

182 PowerBuilder
Index
A crosstabs
modifying during execution 51
absolute positioning, Netscape browser 118
users redefining during execution 50
accent marks, Web DataWindow 114
using in applications 49
action codes 38
viewing underlying data 49
aggregation functions, Web DataWindow 113
custom DataStore objects 80
applications
architectures 5
using DataWindow objects in 11
D
data
B retrieving and updating 23
saving in graphs 97
bitmaps, dynamically adding and removing 66
sharing 83
buffers
updating 24
DataStore 82
Web control for ActiveX 178
DataWindow 27, 41
Web DataWindow 111, 143
Button controls, Web DataWindow 115
data sources
external 26, 82
types 3
C database connections
about 18
CAB file, Web control for ActiveX 180 Web control for ActiveX 177
Case function, Web DataWindow 113 Web DataWindow 143
character set, foreign language 114 database errors 37
Clicked events in graphs 101 databases
client control, Web DataWindow 109 communicating with 18
client/server applications 5 connecting automatically 20
CODEBASE HTML attribute, Web ActiveX 168 data source 3
column status in DataWindow controls 41 disconnecting automatically 20
COMMIT statement and SetTransObject 21 retrieving, presenting, and manipulating data 2, 23
communication with databases 18 snapshot connections 20
CONNECT statement and SetTransObject 21 transaction management 21
connection caches, defining in EAServer 122 updating 24
controls, supported in Web DataWindow 110 DataModified status 41
create capability for Modify 66 DataObject property of DataWindow controls 16
Create method 67 DataStore objects
CreateComponent method, example 140 about 2
CrosstabDialog function 50 accessing data 82

Index
buffers 82 generating HTML from 52

custom 80 graphs in 91
importing data from external sources 82 HTML preview 121
methods 83 names 13
sharing data 83 overview 2
DataWindow controls preparing to use 11
about 1, 5, 8, 12 presentation styles 3
accessing a specified item 32 printing multiple on a page 47
accessing the current text 30 properties of 35
action codes 38 PSR file for Web DataWindow 141
and graphs 94 SRD file for Web DataWindow 141
assigning transaction objects to 68 Web DataWindow, set in script 141
associating with objects during execution 16, 17 Web DataWindow, set on server 152
buffers 27, 41 DataWindow painter
column status 41 about 11
creating reports with 45 editing DataWindow object 15
data management in 27 working in 11
DataObject property 16 DataWindow plugin 2, 7
DBError event 38 DataWindow technology 1, 4
displaying PSR files in 17, 18, 19 DataWindowObject property
handling errors 37 Web control for ActiveX 174
importing data from external sources 26 DataWindowObject property, Web control for ActiveX
ItemChanged event 31 17
ItemError event 32 DBError event 38
methods 34 Delete buffer
names 13 DataStore 82
naming in code 14 DataWindow 27
placing in windows 12 Describe method 35, 66, 68, 69
processing entries 29 destroy capability for Modify 66
row status 41 DISCONNECT statement and SetTransObject 21
updating, use of row/column status when 41 display formats in Web DataWindow 111
using crosstabs 49 distributed applications 5
using graph methods 98 dynamic DataWindow objects
DataWindow execution time errors 39 about 65
DataWindow objects adding elements 66
about 1 creating 67
associating with controls 14, 16, 17 modifying 66
basic use of 11 providing query mode 70
creating dynamically 67 specifying create syntax 68, 69
creating reports with 45
data sources 3
defining 2
designing for Web DataWindow 110 E
displaying data 18 EAServer
dynamic use of 65 database connection caches 122
editing 15 installing custom component 152
184 PowerBuilder
Index
instantiating custom component 156 GetItemDate method 32

locked PBL 151 GetItemDateTime method 32
maintaining state for Web DataWindow 157 GetItemDecimal method 32
EAStudio GetItemNumber method 32
HTML generator components 107 GetItemString method 32
edit controls GetItemTime method 32
in DataStore objects 83 GetMessageText method 50
in DataWindow controls 28, 30, 31 GetText method 30
edit styles graphics, adding to DataWindow objects 66
overriding in query mode 73 graphs
Web DataWindow 111 about 91
EditChanged event 30 data properties 94
Error event 39 getting information about 95
errors, following database retrieval or update 37 internal representation 93
events modifying data properties in DataWindow control
action codes 38 99
DBError 38 modifying display of data 97
Error 39 modifying during execution 92
ItemChanged 31 properties of 93
ItemError 32 saving data 97
Web control for ActiveX 179, 180 grAxis subobject of graphs 93
Web DataWindow client control 128 grDispAttr subobject of graphs 93
execution
accessing graphs 92
associating DataWindow objects with controls
16, 17 H
modifying DataWindow objects 66 Help, providing in dynamic DataWindow objects 74
expressions, assigning DataWindow property values HTML
66 appending to a control 115
External data source, importing data 26, 82 generating forms 60
external functions in Web DataWindow 113 including in a control 114
saving DataWindow data as 52
HTML DataWindow see Web DataWindow 105
HTML Preview 121
F
files as data source 3
Filter buffer 27, 82
fonts, using in reports 46 I
foreign language character set 114 InfoMaker Report painter 2
instance pooling, EAServer 151
ItemChanged event 30, 31
ItemError event 30, 32
G items in DataWindow controls 28
Generate method, example 150
GenerateHTMLForm method 60
GetChild method 47

Index
J Netscape browser, absolute positioning 118

New status 41
java PowerDynamo object, example 140
NewModified status 41
JavaScript caching, Web DataWindow 118
NotModified status 41
JConnect 178
JSP targets
class path 135
custom tag libraries 137 O
Object element, Web control for ActiveX 168
OneTrip method, Web DataWindow 156
L
language, character sets 114
libraries P
for DataWindow objects 10, 11
painters 11
locked by EAServer 151
Param elements, Web control for ActiveX 169
PBD files see libraries 10
LibraryExport function 69
PBL files see libraries 10
Picture button in Web DataWindow 116
Picture controls in Web DataWindow 117
M plugin, DataWindow 7
point and click, in graphs 101
MessageText event 50
PowerBuilder libraries see libraries 10
methods
PowerDynamo targets
DataStore 83
instantiating custom server component 156
DataWindow 34
writing scripts for Web DataWindow 138
graph 95
Powersoft reports
JavaScript caching 118
about 2, 11
Web control for ActiveX, listed in System Tree 171
DataWindow plugin 7
Web DataWindow client control 129
displaying in DataWindow controls 17
Web DataWindow server component 138
displaying in Web control for ActiveX 18
Modify method
no database connection needed 19
basic usage 35, 66
Web application 7
using query mode 70
presentation styles
using with graphs 93
list 3
with crosstabs 51
supported in Web control for ActiveX 173
multiple Web DataWindows on a page 130
supported in Web DataWindow 110
Primary buffer 27, 82
Print method 46
N printing
multiple DataWindow objects on a page 47
names of DataWindow controls and DataWindow objects reports 46
13 programs, using DataWindow objects in 11
nested reports properties
creating during execution 48 DataWindow object 35
destroying during execution 48 retrieving current values of 66, 68, 69
using in applications 47
186 PowerBuilder
Index
PSR files see Powersoft reports SetAction method, example 149

SetBrowser method, example 143
SetDWObject method, example 141
SetHTMLObjectName method, example 142
Q SetItem method 32
query mode SetText method 30
clearing 73 SetTrans method
forcing equality 74 about 20
providing to users 70 Web DataWindow example 143
sorting in 73 SetTransObject method 21
quotation marks in self-link expressions 146 SetWeight method, example 142
ShareData method 47
sorting in query mode 73
SourceFileName property
R Web control for ActiveX 17, 174
reports SRD file for Web DataWindow 141
see also Powersoft reports 2 status of DataWindow rows or columns 41
creating with DataWindow objects 45 SyntaxFromSQL method 68
nested 47
printing 46
Retrieve method
handling errors 37 T
using 23 text controls in DataWindow objects 66
Web DataWindow example 144 text in DataWindow edit control 28
RetrieveEx method, example 144 transaction objects
ROLLBACK statement and SetTransObject 21 reassociating DataWindow controls with 68
rows Web control for ActiveX 175
providing user-specified retrieval 70
status in DataWindow controls 41
runtime libraries see libraries 11
U
Update method
handling errors 37
S using 24
saving data in graphs 97 URLs
scripts, modifying graphs in 92 Web control for ActiveX 174
SELECT statements, modifying at execution time 72 user events, for graphs in DataWindow controls 98
selection criteria see query mode 70 user objects, inherited from DataStore objects 80
self-link arguments, Web DataWindow 145
server component
accessing from server-side scripts 138
properties 153 V
Web DataWindow 135 validation rules in Web DataWindow 111
server component, Web DataWindow 107 validation, server-side 159
server-side validation for Web DataWindow 159
service classes for Web DataWindow 159

Index
W instantiating server component 140

JavaScript caching 118
Web applications and DataWindow technology 5, 6, 105,
JavaScript Generator wizard 118
165
locked PBL 151
Web browsers
maintaining state 157
DataWindow plugin 7
methods for client control 129
multiple, on a page 130
Web DataWindow 117, 143
navigation 115
Web control for ActiveX
object name 142
about 7, 165
OneTrip method 156
CODEBASE HTML attribute 168
page parameters 145, 149
database connections 177
picture button 116
DataWindow objects 173
process 106
DataWindowObject property 17, 174
programming for server component 138
deployment 180
PSR file 141
event return codes 180
reloading page 145
libraries 173
retrieving data 144
library versions 174
self-link information in scripts 145
Object element in HTML 168
self-link properties 116
retrieving data 178
server component properties 153
setting DataWindow object during execution 175
server component, about 135
SourceFileName property 17, 174
server-side scripts 138
transaction objects 175
service classes 159
version number of CAB 168
setting DataWindow object during execution 141
Web browsers 166
size of generated code 142
Web target 166, 170
SRD file 141
writing scripts 179
user actions 149
Web DataWindow
where to install 133
about 6, 105
Web DataWindow Container wizard 123
aggregation functions 113
Web Target object model 126
browsers 117
Window painter, placing DataWindow controls 12
browser-specific HTML 143
wizards
client-side scripts 128
Web DataWindow Container 123
custom server component 152
Web DataWindow JavaScript Generator 118
data manipulation 115
database connections 143
DataWindow objects 110
design-time control 126
EAServer connection cache 122
events for client control 128
expressions 113
foreign language text 114
generating HTML 150
HTML generator components 107
HTML version 117
installing custom component 152
instantiating custom component 156
188 PowerBuilder

Power Builder 9 Data Window Programmers Guide (Manual)

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DataWindow® Programmer’s Guide

LAST REVISED: March 2003

Copyright © 1989-2003 by Sybase, Inc. All rights reserved.

Sybase, Inc., One Sybase Drive, Dublin, CA 94568.

About This Book .......................................................................................................................... vii

CHAPTER 1 About DataWindow Technology .................................................... 1

CHAPTER 2 Using DataWindow Objects ......................................................... 11

DataWindow Programmer’s Guide iii

Updating the database ................................................................... 41

CHAPTER 3 Dynamically Changing DataWindow Objects ............................. 65

CHAPTER 4 Using DataStore Objects............................................................... 77

CHAPTER 5 Manipulating Graphs ..................................................................... 91

Accessing data properties.............................................................. 94

CHAPTER 6 Using the Web DataWindow....................................................... 105

CHAPTER 7 Server-Side Processing for the Web DataWindow .................. 133

DataWindow Programmer’s Guide v

Using service classes................................................................... 159

Index ........................................................................................................................................... 183

Subject This book provides information about using DataWindow technology in

DataWindow Programmer’s Guide vii

About DataWindow objects, controls, and components

DataWindow Programmer’s Guide 1

• Web DataWindow DTC A design-time control used to represent the

Presentation styles and data sources

DataWindow Programmer’s Guide 3

Table 1-2: Data sources you can use for a DataWindow

Choosing a DataWindow technology

Solutions for client/server and distributed applications

DataWindow Programmer’s Guide 5

Solutions for Web applications

Sybase DataWindow Web control for ActiveX

DataWindow Programmer’s Guide 7

PowerBuilder DataWindow control

DataWindow Programmer’s Guide 9

About using DataWindow objects

DataWindow Programmer’s Guide 11

Report objects only in InfoMaker

Putting a DataWindow object into a control

Figure 2-1: Putting a DataWindow object into a DataWindow control

This section has information about:

Names for DataWindow controls and DataWindow objects

DataWindow Programmer’s Guide 13

Using the name

Working with the DataWindow control in PowerBuilder

4 (Optional) Resize the DataWindow control by selecting it and dragging

❖ To associate a DataWindow object with the control:

Allowing users to move DataWindow controls

Defining reusable DataWindow controls

Editing the DataWindow object in the control

❖ To edit an associated DataWindow object:

DataWindow Programmer’s Guide 15

PowerBuilder opens the associated DataWindow object in the

Specifying the DataWindow object during execution

Changing the DataWindow in PowerBuilder

Changing the DataWindow in the Web ActiveX

DataWindow Programmer’s Guide 17

For more information about the SourceFileName and DataWindowObject

Accessing the database

Setting the transaction object for the DataWindow control

If you are displaying a PSR file in the control