Visual Expert 2024 is available

Discover the New Features to Boost Productivity and Code Quality

Download Visual Expert


What's new in Visual Expert 2024

PowerBuilder Code Profiling

You have identified a slow feature using Visual Expert or as a result of user feedback.
Generate a trace of your PowerBuilder code to identify at a glance the lines that consume the most time in your business process.

Visual Expert delivers relevant, readable results by displaying in the treeview only those elements that consume the most time in a process.

The most time-consuming code is highlighted in red in the source code view, along with the percentage of execution time for the line in question.

 

Smart PB Code Profiling

Code inspection reports in JUnit and JSON format

Export the result of Visual Expert code inspection and integrate them in your DevOps platform.

You get a complete overview of your project including code review output without opening Visual Expert.

Set Up Code Inspection Profiles

Define code inspection thresholds to customize code review results and ensure a balance between code quality and security, and practical considerations.

  1. Ideal: thorough and comprehensive
  2. Strict: very rigorous
  3. Moderate: balance between strictness and leniency
  4. Light: verifies only the most critical issues
  5. Legacy code: to start enhancing an older application
  6. Custom profile

Migration to PowerBuilder 2022 and Higher

Visual Expert integrates a set of specific rules to complement the information provided by the PB Migration Assistant.

Automatically identify code that is no longer supported in this milestone version of PowerBuilder.

Quick Search

Visual Expert 2024 now features a Quick Search functionality that displays results in the form of a simple list in the treeview.

Easily locate and access the string you are looking for by using the various markers added to the source code view.

Performance and Speed Improvements

  • Faster execution time for treeview macros
  • Reduced duration of code analyses

Core features

  • New licensing system based on lines of code.
  • Ability to create projects using PowerBuilder targets in Source Control.
  • Improved dialog boxes for connecting to Source Controls.
  • Enhanced support for FIPS encryption for connections to both VE Repository and Projects.

Visual Expert Macro Development

  • Enhanced CRUD matrix for DataWindows.
  • Introduction of a new Macro for the performance-oriented Smart Profiling.
  • Added 'Most Defective Items' macro for both the Application and Code Inspection root nodes.

Get your Free Trial

Use Visual Expert with your Code

Download Visual Expert

Catch a glimpse of Visual Expert

Visual Expert Features

200+ features to analyze and improve your PowerBuilder, Oracle and SQL Server code

Impact Analysis

Assess the impact of a change in your code

Estimate what you should modify to accomplish a change.
Don't break your application after a change!

  • If I change this variable, what is the effect on my code?
  • If I add a parameter to a function, what else is affected?
  • If a table or column is changed, which code should I update?
Visual Expert PowerBuilder Impact Analysis

Scan for Security Vulnerabilities

Identify and fix Security issues in your code:

  • Hard coded user id & passwords 
  • Hard coded IP addresses.
  • Vulnerabilities to Injections attacks
  • Fields access/protection issues
  • Improper/unsecured use of encryption
  • and more...

Check rules for Code Security

Review CRUD Operations in Your code
(Create, Read, Update, Delete)

Generate a CRUD matrix showing which programs access your data.

For instance, which DW or Procedures Create/Read/Update/Delete which Tables.

  • Review dependencies between database and PB applications.
  • Analyze the impact of changing your database Schema, for example changing a table definition or adding an index.
  • Estimate software complexity and development efforts.
  • Find out which table is never updated, deleted from multiple places, etc.
  • Make sure every process has at least one input (R) and one output (CUD).
Visual Expert PowerBuilder CRUD Matrix 

Generate Diagrams from your Code 

  • Visualize objects and dependencies.
  • Diagrams and source code are synchronized.
  • Select objects to generate a diagram

Visual Expert generates:

  • Data Model Diagram to document graphically database entities and their relationships. 
  • Impact Analysis Diagrams to find all references to a table, column, object, method, variable...
  • Call graphs to visualize chains of calls (multiple levels of references).
  • PBL dependency diagrams to visualize dependencies between PBLs


Visualize your code with diagrams

Explore Complex Chains of Calls

Display Call Trees: callers and callees for Functions and events.

Explore all possible execution paths.
Drill down in the code, click on referenced methods or variables to see their definitions.

Call trees help evaluate the effects of modifications to your code.

Visual Expert Call Trees

Get your Free Trial

Use Visual Expert with your Code

Download Visual Expert

Document your Code

Create reference manuals in HTML

Update your documentation on a regular basis (scheduled job).
Document the references in your code and navigate between these using hyperlinks.
Share knowledge with teammates.

 

PowerBuilder Documentation Tools 

Improve Code Quality

Cleanup the code. Streamline maintenance efforts. Avoid unexpected behavior.

  • Identify unused objects and remove some dead code.
  • Find empty methods, duplicated objects, oversized or uncommented scripts.
  • Calculate code metrics: lines of code, number of objects, methods, variables…
  • Check naming conventions.
  • Find objects that do not inherit from an ancestor etc.
  • You can check your code against hundreds of rules

Improve Code Performance

Find slow pieces of code. Remove Bottlenecks

  • Find the slowest procedures, functions, triggers
  • Reduce the time to access a given table
  • Break down the execution time of a large object into sub-queries or instructions.
  • Decompose the performance of a chain of calls
Identify Performance Issues in your DB Code

Code Comparison

Compare 2 versions of your DB or application:

  • View differences in a container hierarchy.
  • Drill down to find relevant changes.
  • Filter changes for a given object, or object type: Userobject, Table, Procedure...
  • Filter changes in a given PBL.
  • Save “snapshots” of your code on a regular basis, and compare them anytime.
  • And more...
PowerBuilder Code Comparison 

Get your Free Trial

Use Visual Expert with your Code

Download Visual Expert

Understand Complex Code

Explore the application structure. Understand its inner working.

When maintaining complex Applications, you may need to learn more about the code.
In such cases, Visual Expert is the perfect companion for PowerBuilder.

Navigate in your code via hyperlinks: each reference comes with a link to the referenced item.
Tooltips provide useful information about objects, methods and variables.
Explore inheritance dependencies between PB objects.
Lots of advanced feature will screen your code under various angles.

 

Get your Free Trial

Use Visual Expert with your Code

Download Visual Expert

How it works?

Visual Expert Pricing & Editions

Pricing in Euro

Get your Free Trial

Use Visual Expert with your Code

Download Visual Expert

Feedback from our clients

Jane Doe

Reduces expenses

Using VE's features allows a much quicker turnaround, reduces expenses and frees up resources for more productive work.

- Project Manager
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation
Jane Doe

Become familiar with a new application in literally a few hours

(The) More you work with Visual Expert - more you understand how convenient it is. (...) I cannot remember so powerful a tool that allows a user to become familiar with a new application in literally a few hours

- Georges Mikhailovsky
Calibre Systems
HSBC
Allianz
BNP
US Army
Nato
Fujitsu
Nielsen
Baxter
Glencore
Atos
EDS