This month PowerSoft representative Linda Fisher will be on hand to discuss PowerBuilder™ 5.0 . The presentation will include an introduction to the new capabilities supported by 5.0 and distributed PowerBuilder™ concepts and methods followed by a question and answer session.
PowerBuilder™ 5.0 will support N-Tier architecture through the use of non-visual datawindows and user objects. Using these, standalone programs may be developed to be executed on remote servers. All objects are created in PowerBuilder™ using PowerScript. Traditionally, most three-tier applications must rely upon transaction managers, making the implementation of such an architecture complex and difficult to manage. With this architecture, the standalone programs are not executed by the DBMS server, but by the application itself. These programs can call other standalone programs on the same server or on other remote servers. In addition, the remote servers do not need not have your DBMS on them.
Additional amendments will be made to the Mid Michigan PBUG bylaws as requested. After these amendments are agreed upon by the group the Mid Michigan PBUG charter will be ratified. Changes made at the January 25th meeting will be reflected in the copies distributed at this month's meeting.
A drawing will be held at the conclusion of the meeting for a free gift from PowerSoft . Members must come to the meeting to win.
Dues options will be presented. Your membership is your entry into the drawing for the free gift from PowerSoft .
By the next meeting, we will have a web page on the internet to help get the word out and entice others to join us. The address will be announced at the March meeting.
Refreshments will now be served at all meetings as long as funding is available.
Gretchen Grey is a project manager for ANATEC . Gretchen has been in Information Services for 7 years. Two of those years have been in the client server environment. She has been using PowerBuilder™ for 1 1/2 years. She is especially enjoying her current assignment with the Surface Water Quality Division of the Department of Environmental Quality . She is assisting the SWQD in establishing an internal information services group, drafting a plan of timeframes and costs related to hardware and software needs, and an application development initiative.
John Carey is currently employed by the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality , Air Quality Division in Lansing, Michigan. John has been in Information Services for 13 years. Four of those years have been in the client server environment. He has been using PowerBuilder™ for 1 year. His current project involves automating the Air Quality permit processing. By downloading the application software from the Web, private organizations are able to electronically submit detailed data for permit processing.
Mike Faucett is a consultant for PowerCerv in Troy, Michigan. Mike has been in Information Services for 7 years. Four of those years have been in the client server environment. He has been using PowerBuilder™ for 3 years. Mike's favorite project was the claims system for Citizen's Insurance in Howell, Michigan. He found this project particularly rewarding because he was given the opportunity to take a project with a lot of history and change the direction.
Chayan Roychowdhury is a consultant for CBSI . Roy has been in Information Services for 10 years. Three of those years have been in the client server environment. He has been using PowerBuilder™ for 2 1/2 years. Roy also belongs to the Professional Oracle User Group in Detroit. Roy's favorite project was leading the initiative in developing the security module for the Michigan Department of Transportation. He was not only able to provide a solution to a challenging problem, but the solution was accepted as standard and used throughout the Department.
Congratulations to all the new officers of the Mid Michigan PowerBuilder™ Users Group.
The Mission and Objectives and Functions of the Mid Michigan PBUG charter were amended as requested by attendees. These changes are reflected in the copies to be distributed at the March 28th meeting.
Officer elections were held and the officers voted in by a show of hands. For election results, see Election of Officers this page.
The information available at the meeting included samples of the draft charter for the group, CPD test guidelines and information regarding the CPD program.
The time of the MM PBUG meeting was changed to 4:30p.m. to 6:30p.m. on the last Thursday of every other month. Meetings will continue to be held on the Lansing Community College (LCC) campus. This year's meetings will be held on May 30th, July 25th, September 26th and November 28th.
John Zebrowski of PowerCerv was on hand to give a presentation of PowerCerv 's security application PADLock™ .
John also brought demo disks of PADLock™ for group members to take home and examine at their own pace.
PADLock™ is a PowerBuilder application security framework that provides you with an extremely intuitive interface that is used to secure PowerBuilder applications. A point-and-click method is used to secure windows, menus, controls, and datawindow columns and rows. The detail of the security abilities even go as far as individual rows and cells within a datawindow. PADLock™ works as a stand-alone security framework, or as a seamless integrated service of PowerCerv 's PowerTOOL application framework.
" PADLock is tightly integrated with PowerCerv 's PC Admin utility, which centralizes the administration of all tools in PowerCerv 's developer suite. In PADLock™ 's case, PC Admin lets you manage users and their security equivalencies, as well as secure objects from a central location. Groups are initially defined through PC Admin to separate users into different security branches. A user can then be assigned to multiple groups." - PowerBuilder Advisor
The first step in using PADLock™ is to define users, groups and profiles. This step was already completed prior to the presentation. Next the fun begins.
Securing an object is even easier than expected. While using the context sensitive method, PADLock™ replaces the control menu box with a button displaying a picture of a lock - appropriate, no? Clicking on the lock button invokes a security mode. To secure an object simply click on it and assign it to the desired security level. Different colors indicate the type of security being placed upon the object. Green indicates enabled, yellow disabled, and red invisible. When securing a DataWindow cell, a filter specification box is displayed allowing the user to specify the conditions for cell visibility for each security level.
The presentation was a good introduction to the possibilities PADLock™ offers to all developers looking for a simple, intuitive answer to their security needs.
John is the District Technical Director of the Detroit branch of PowerCerv . He is a Certified PowerBuilder™, S-Designor™ and Watcom™ Instructor, a Certified PowerBuilder™ Developer, a Certified ERwin™ Instructor, and President of the Michigan PowerBuilder™ User's Group. John has taught PowerBuilder™ to hundreds of students and is consistently rated as one of the top PowerBuilder™ trainers in the Midwest. He has been developing client/server Windows applications for over two years and has worked with various relational databases for eight years. John graduated from Amherst College with a B.A. in Mathematics.
Excerpts taken from "Security the Point-and-Click Way", PowerBuilder Advisor Volume 1/Number 1 1996.
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