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PowerBuilder 5.0 gives you the ability to build applications that run in a distributed computing environment. Distributed computing allows you to get the most out of your investment in the client/server architecture. By building distributed applications, you can:
- Centralize business logic on servers
- Partition application functions between the client and the server, thereby reducing the client workload
- Make your applications scalable and easy to maintain
Distributed computing offers a natural way to separate user interface components from the business logic required by an application. In a distributed application, a client can invoke services provided by remote objects. A client can invoke methods (functions and events) that are associated with a remote object as if they were defined on a local object.
Supported drivers
Distributed PowerBuilder provides the following communication drivers:
- WinSock
Windows Sockets provides a common interface between Windows applications and TCP/IP.
- NamedPipes
A named pipe is a method of interprogram communications that includes an API to provide open, close, and read/write access.
- OpenClientServer
A Sybase Open Server application is a custom server that provides client, server, and networking components through which an application can communicate with one or more Sybase database systems.
- Local
PowerBuilder provides a Local driver to allow you to test a distributed application without having to use one of the standard communications protocols. The Local driver allows you to test a large part of your work without having to concern yourself with the network configuration on which a distributed application will be deployed.
When you use the Local driver to test an application, PowerBuilder emulates the remote server. Therefore, you do not need to create a transport object or perform any of the activities associated with using transport objects.
Distributed PowerBuilder objects
Distributed PowerBuilder introduces the following objects:
- Connection object
- Transport object
- ConnectionInfo object
Implementing a Distributed PowerBuilder application
A distributed PowerBuilder application actually uses the services of two separate applications:
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