When a need to migrate across PB versions arises, the major part of the work is accomplished automatically by just migrating the application using the built-in PowerBuilder features. This task most of the times is seamless when a migration is done following the releases of PowerBuilder. Problems come when sequential versions are skipped, i.e. moving from PB 9.0 to PB10.5 or PB 11.0.
With each single release of PowerBuilder, Sybase beefs up the release with multiple new features and upgrades to existing objects. Deciding to skip one version of PB could result in countless hours trying to go over system documentation, code comments and original requirements for an application in trying to determine where an obsolete function has been used in an application and replace it.
Chances are that the application, needing the modifications, is in Maintenance Mode, already in Production, and that the original development team that owns all the system knowledge, outside the documentation, has moved on with another project.
Visual Expert will help you in compensating for the loss of knowledge, sometime incomplete or not updated documentation of the system, with the implementation of two simple steps, 1) purify your code before the migration and 2) provide metrics for each change by performing an accurate Impact Analysis.
Before starting a migration, it’s recommended to clean
your code.
This will avoid the migration of useless code that will only
make your application harder to maintain.
Visual Expert will help in accomplishing this by:
Unfortunately some of the PB functions become obsolete with new releases of PB. Developers quite often are called to modify and updated these obsolete functions to avoid regressions and to ensure that the application still behaves as it was intended to.
With Visual Expert you will easy list all obsolete or
unused functions, and find where in the application such
functions are being used
Visual Expert allows users to:
1. In the navigation bar select PB System Functions.
2. Impact Analysis: