Nov 21, 2001 08:17 AM
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(Updated Nov 21, 2001 09:10 PM)
DataWindow of the Magi
The greatest gift that PowerSoft gave to the development community is the DataWindow. There are courses, articles and endless news groups to discuss it. The DataWindow is a primary marketing tool used to sell PowerBuilder, it is the one that you save for the end of the argument, the exclamation point in the discussion with the VB guys (and win arguments it does). Why has no one wholly dedicated a book to it until now? Over two years in the making, Richard Brooks has captured the essence of the DW with countless little details that he has earned with his blood and sweat, some from working with PowerSoft engineers, fighting it out in the trenches, trying to build the perfect application. Rik writes from a strong position of highly developed experiential knowledge. To quote from Little Man Tate, “it’s not so much what he knows, but what he understands.”
It Spoke To Me…
The first half of this book is fundamental, perhaps overly so. The first nine chapters cover some information that is well covered in the Sybase classes ”Mastering DataWindows” and “Using The DataWindow Object” - although in far greater detail than a three to five day class. This section will serve the beginning PowerBuilder developer well; you will want to work through the code examples, try out the SQL and make use of the excellent advice on tables and data. Rik does the newer developer the courtesy of covering the essentials of SQL and database design.
The subjects are so interrelated to the DataWindow that it is hard to really approach it without some of this fundamental knowledge. Do not lose heart, those of you who have been in the game a while. For as the first half may seem rudimentary to some of us perhaps even tedious, Richard suggests that there will be fine-print details that will emerge in those early sections. For those early chapters use the Bold-Type Method, looking over the section titles, italicized points and the chapter summaries. These summaries include many of the Golden Nuggets of information; you may also want to simply move on to later chapters.
Content (Where’s The Beef??)
Rik uses easy to follow examples throughout, as well as lots of example screens and diagrams so that you get some idea of expected output. Many books give code examples without an idea of what you should be seeing at the end of the rainbow. DDW is rife with screen examples. After all, presentation is a major facet of what this book is all about. The latter chapters go into the DW role as it relates to distributed PB, the basics of Object Orientation, the Web DataWindow, and the PB 7 examples show interfaces with PowerJ and PowerSite. There is an extensive section on DataWindow Controls and DataWindow properties have their own area, as opposed to including them in each section. A lot of the meat is in chapter fourteen - it is over one hundred and fifty pages of tips, techniques, and heartburn relievers.
Extras
I spoke with Rik about the writing process. He said this book was born in stages. It began as a book about the very basic functionality of DataWindows. However, as it grew in length and scope, his original publisher said they “didn’t want it to be definitive”. Rik created his own private classroom setting and used it to help guide his writing, which helped form his informational style. Rik will also be teaching the DataWindow Magic class at TechWave2001. The CD has several sample applications with loaded pibbles, bitmaps and lots of code. You should be able to follow the examples on the CD. It also comes with an evaluation copy of SQL Expert and SQL Wizard. The Definitive DataWindow will be available at TechWave2002 as you find your way to the book area. It is also available through dot-com sources such as Amazon, FatBrain or Barnes & Noble.
Conclusion
I give this book my highest recommendation. While at times basic, it will be excellent for a classroom setting, and an interesting read. It will prove to be an invaluable reference and SQL guide. If you have been using for some time (PB junkies) then you can learn more advanced techniques and mechanics. The key is to glean from this book the parts that are the most important to you. After all, it wouldn’t be definitive if it did not cover all aspects of the DataWindow – from the simplest to the most complex.
