[Tfug] Advice on Powerbuilder app migration

[Chris Merle]

John,

That would be a tough decision for me on what to migrate too. My first thought would also be using web based apps against the same database, but given how much history is involved it may take you a while to decide on what the best strategy is. Last time I used Powerbuilder was about 9 years ago.

If you go for a web based solution and one that you can require users to log in I'd suggest taking a look at Django. It allows you to inspect the database to generate classes. I'd migrated a simple PHP/MySQL app to Django and it worked pretty well. The nice thing is Django has a built in admin interface. Since it's Python based it doesn't suffer as many of the same security issues that PHP based systems do.

I suspect there are probably better options out there and that it could take a while to do a thorough migration. I'd recommend comparing all your options once you gather enough information on what others suggest as well.

Chris


Message: 3
Date: Mon, 06 Apr 2009 07:35:08 -0700
From: Randy Mathews <randy at u.arizona.edu>
Subject: [Tfug] Advice on Powerbuilder app migration
To: Tucson Free Unix Group <tfug at tfug.org>
Message-ID: <49DA131C.6030000 at u.arizona.edu>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed

Hello, all. John Gruenenfelder, a longtime friend and TFUG member, 
suggested I ask folks here this question.

I work in a relatively small (~40 FTE) department at the UA that 
oversees construction projects on campus. We handle project oversight, 
budgeting, inspections, design, etc. We are using an in-house built 
Powerbuilder application with a SQL backend to handle pretty much all 
business functions including project budgets, billing, contract 
management, and timesheets. The application dates to around 2000. I've 
been working on it since 2003. My supervisor and I have recently begun 
thinking about how we would like to modernize this application, & what 
development environment we want to migrate to since Powerbuilder is dead 
or dying. This is where we are seeking input.

Both of us are competent Powerscript coders and we know SQL pretty well, 
but we do not have knowledge of contemporary business application 
development environments. Our current fat-client system has worked very 
well for us so far, but having it be a web application certainly has 
some advantages. We have a couple of users outside of our department 
that need special configurations & builds of our app to be able to run 
it, plus our folks might want to access our data from home.

Our current application has been worked on by at least 4 people over the 
years and there is code pretty much _everywhere_, from non-visual 
objects to stuff crammed on GUI elements. There actually is not a lot of 
  logic contained solely on the database so we are going to have to 
completely re-code all our business functions again. We have tons of 
custom reports & whatnot contained on datawindows that we are not 
looking forward to porting/recreating.

Does anyone have advice on what we should be moving toward in 
modernizing this application? What should we focus our training energies 
on? What have others moved to after leaving Powerbuilder?

Thanks in advance!


-- 
-Randy Mathews
Support Systems Analyst, Sr.
Facilities Design & Construction



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