Deanne M. Chance

We begin this article by asking the question: Why would you want to integrate real-time GPS data into your PowerBuilder applications anyway? After all, it's not likely you are going to connect a GPS receiver to your desktop computer and ask yourself where you are currently located. (At least I hope not!) More likely, you will be utilizing some sort of field service application where you need to know how to get from point A to point B, for example, an insurance assessor who needs to know how to get to the next accident site. For this, the user might use a tablet PC connected to a GPS receiver with some sort of integrated mapping solution. However, as PowerBuilder programmers, how are we to write such applications? Currently, unlike PocketBuilder, there is no built-in support for hardware devices such as GPS receivers. That being said, we will go about the task of "r... (more)

Tablet PC Programming

We begin this article by answering a few questions. Namely, what is VoIP? What is Skype? And why would you want to integrate these capabilities into your PowerBuilder applications? We will begin with the latter. Imagine that you are a field service worker armed with a tablet PC with a wireless broadband connection and you want to call your next client from your appointment list. You could just use your cell phone, but that would require you to look up and dial the number independent of your application. However, imagine an integrated solution whereby you could click on the next ... (more)

Adding Caller ID to Your PowerBuilder Applications

We begin this article by asking the question, why would you want to add caller ID to your PowerBuilder applications anyway? I can think of about a handful of applications for it, mostly revolving around picking a phone number and querying a database. For example, "Good morning, Chance, will you be ordering the cheese and sausage pizza again?" Or perhaps a database of people, some whom you might not like, just to have your modem hang up on them. The possibilities are endless. First some introductions. How does caller ID information get relayed from Ma Bell to your phone or modem ... (more)

Personalizing Your PowerBuilder Applications Using SMS and Voice Messaging

Text messaging is cool. Voice messaging is even cooler. Wouldn't it be great to be able to add that functionality to your PowerBuilder apps as well? For example, when an event occurs within your application, let your users receive real-time notification via SMS or voice messaging to their cell phones! This article will focus on writing Web services to do just that using the Strike Iron SMS and PhoneNotify messaging services. Download the print PDF of this article Download the issue this article appeard in Subscribe to 3 FREE issues! After reading this article you should be able to:... (more)

Publishing .NET Web Services Using SQL Anywhere 10.0.1

In this article we're going to take a database and create our own mini version of an "Amazon-like" item lookup. That is to say, any .NET or .NET-compatible client will be able to look up items in our database via the Web by simply providing a UPC. This article will show you how. To complete this project, you'll need a few items: -  SQL Anywhere 10.0.1 or higher. Here is a free developer edition. -  Visual Studio 2005 -  Internet connection -  Some time to learn! Note: This article assumes some knowledge of how to create ODBC connections and how to type in commands in iSQL. If you're no... (more)