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PowerBuilder – User Customization Service

Posted on Tuesday, July 27th, 2010 at 8:20 pm in

Here is an easy to implement user customization service you can add to your Powerbuilder applications which stores configuration information in a database. This gives the added benefit of portability to the users as nothing is stored in files or the registry. It is PFC based but, with minor modifications, could be un-coupled from that if desired.

The main object is the n_cst_dbinifile NVO. The export of it can be downloaded from here. n_cst_dbinifile
Note the export makes use of the PFC n_cst_inifile NVO but this can be stripped out if desired.

The service allows for default values to be set up and used if the user does not have their own set up (or when you give them the option to undo all their changes). The service also keeps itself updated by retrieving the datastore at an interval of your choosing.

Database table (SQL Server)
You will need the following table added to your database:

create table cmnIniFile (
fileName varchar(255) NULL,
userCode varchar(255) NULL,
sectionName varchar(32) NULL,
keyName varchar(255) NULL,
valusString varchar(8000) NULL
)

The dataobject is called d_dbinifile and has two retrieval args:
as_filename (string)
as_userCode (string)

The SQL for the dataobject is:

SELECT cmnIniFile.filename,
         cmnIniFile.userCode,
         cmnIniFile.sectionName,
         cmnIniFile.keyName,
         cmnIniFile.valueString
    FROM cmnIniFile
   WHERE ( cmnIniFile.filename = :as_filename ) AND
         ( ( cmnIniFile.userCode = :as_userCode ) OR
         ( cmnIniFile.userCode = 'DEFAULT' ) )
ORDER BY cmnIniFile.filename ASC,
         cmnIniFile.userCode ASC,
         cmnIniFile.sectionName ASC,
         cmnIniFile.keyName ASC

Implementation

In the application manager object (n_cst_appmanager) for the application you need:

n_cst_dbIniFile inv_userIniFile // instance variable

and a method (of_create_ini) which is called as part of application start up.

long ll_rc
string ls_appName
ls_appName = of_getAppName () //set in constructor by of_setappname method

inv_userIniFile = create n_cst_dbIniFile
ll_rc = inv_userIniFile.of_register (SQLCA, ls_appName, gs_username) //gs_username set at log in
if ll_rc < 0 then
	messagebox ("Application Open Error", "Unable to register the user's DB INI file.")
end if
return ll_rc

In the destructor event of the app manager object you should destroy the inv_userIniFile object.

In various windows with user specified settings which you wish to implement:

string ls_flag
ls_flag = gnv_app.inv_userIniFile.of_getString('Defaults','Maximized','N')// arguments: section, value, default
// do some processing based on the ls_flag value
// get another setting
ls_flag = gnv_app.inv_userIniFile.of_getString('Defaults','Grid Order','N')
// do some other processing based on the ls_flag value

Now we want to save settings (window size and position in this example)

gnv_app.inv_userIniFile.of_setString(this.title, 'xpos', string(this.X))
gnv_app.inv_userIniFile.of_setString(this.title, 'ypos', string(this.Y))
gnv_app.inv_userIniFile.of_setString(this.title, 'height', string(this.height))
gnv_app.inv_userIniFile.of_setString(this.title, 'width', string(this.width))

In general this would be done as part of the window close event.

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