Explore, Analyze & Document your Code
Visual Expert Update List
Visual Expert 2018 R2
- Treeview: Analyze calls to web services from PowerBuilder Code.
- Code Comparison: VE 2017 introduced the possibility to compare 2 versions (analyses) of the same code. VE 2018 adds the possibility to compare 2 independent sets of code, like 2 versions of your applications, or 2 databases (dev DB and prod DB for example).
- Response time optimization of the VE treeview: Several improvements speed up treeview manipulations, to better handle large volumes of code.
- Treeview: New presentation for macro execution.
- [Beta] Code Performance Analysis: Visual Expert 2018 r2 includes a new set of features to identify slow pieces of database code (Oracle and SQL Server).
Contact us to configure and test these features. - UI: Customizable Quick Access Toolbar
Coming soon:
- Treeview: Identify DB code with slow performances (Queries, stored procedures, functions, etc).
- Code Review: new template grouping code review features in a dedicated documentation (only available in the treeview within previous versions).
- Editing DB code: a new feature will allow to open a procedure or function from the VE UI, edit it in a separate view and save back it in the database.
Visual Expert 2018 R1
Support for Team Foundation Server (TFS)
Visual Expert for SQL Server (GA)
Visual Expert 2017 introduced a beta version of our SQL Server Code analyzers (see this post). The official version (GA) is now available with Visual Expert 2018.
Other features
- Treeview: Compare references to an object, between 2 versions of your code
From the lab...
We are currently working on a .NET code analyzer. It will reverse engineer and analyze .NET assemblies, and provide .NET developers with similar features than for other languages.
Code Comparison
- Save “snapshots” of your code on a regular basis, and compare them anytime.
- Run Comparison across both PowerBuilder and Database Code
- Explore differences in a container hierarchy. Drill down to find relevant changes.
- Filter changes for a given PBL, object, object type.
- And more...
CRUD Matrix
Shows which program is accessing which data, and how (Create/Read/update/delete)
This feature scans all your Datawindows, PowerScript, Stored Procedures, views, etc.
Read more
New Code Analyzer for SQL Server (BETA VERSION)
- Analyze T-SQL Code and SQL Server Schema: procedures, triggers, tables, views...
- Combine SQL Server and PB code Analysis to cover the entire application.
- Review and maintain dependencies between Client and Server Code.
- Navigate seamlessly between each language,
for instance when a PB Script is referencing a SQL Server Procedure
Other features
- Renovated Interface with Ribbon Menu and additional features
- New version of the Oracle and PL/SQL Code Analyzer
- New Doc Generator, supporting much larger sets of code.
- New feature to generate partial documentation, for instance on a given PBL, or a selection of objects.
- New Database section in the PB documentation, listing tables, columns and procedures used by the PB code,
- New macros for improving performances. For instance for detecting missing indexes degrading response times.
- Code documentation: generate your documentation up to 10x faster!
- Code Review: check naming convention and identify objects, methods and variables with improper names.
- UI: new information page
- Settings: new settings to locate, and better integrate with PB IDEs.
New Features Visual Expert for Oracle
- Treeview: SQL Performances - Columns with missing Index
- Treeview: Code Review - Calculating the number of Lines of PL/SQL Code
- Treeview: Code Review - Counting PL/SQL Items by type
- Treeview: SQL Performances - Tables with missing Primary Key
- Treeview: SQL Performances - Unused Indexes
- Treeview: Code Review - Find Uncommented PL/SQL scripts
- Treeview: Code Review - Large PL/SQL scripts
- Treeview: Code Review - Find empty PL/SQL functions/procedures
- Treeview: Code Review - Find duplicated functions/procedures
New Features Visual Expert for PowerBuilder
- Treeview: Find calls to tables & columns by access type (Select/Insert/Update/Delete)
- Treeview: Find PowerBuilder NVOs declared as instance variables
- Treeview: Exploring DW DataSources (Retrieve SQL, Updated Table, Stored Procedures Called...)
- Treeview: Showing Datawindows Updatable Columns
- Treeview: Filter DataWindows by DataSource type
- Treeview: Code Review - Calculating the Lines of Code in your application
- Treeview: Code Review - Counting Items by type in your applications (Oracle & PowerBuilder)
- Treeview: Code Review - Finding Unnamed PowerBuilder Controls
- Treeview: Code Review - Finding Uncommented scripts (Oracle & PowerBuilder)
- Treeview: Code Review - Non inherited PowerBuilder Objects
- Treeview: Code Review - Large scripts (Oracle & PowerBuilder)
- Treeview: Code Review - Finding empty methods/functions (Oracle & PowerBuilder)
- VE GUI: Expand/Collapse blocks of code in the Source Code View
- Document Generation: Choose the language (EN, JP, SP, FR) of the documentation
Improvements
- Treeview feature/PB: Finding "Unused" items now extended to PBL Root and PB Application level
- Treeview feature/PB: "Overrides" (methods replacing ancestor scripts) now extended to PBLs and Application level
- Impact Analysis now indicates the type of access to tables & columns (Select/Insert/Update/Delete)
- VE GUI: New indicator on tables & columns (red spot) when their declaration is included in the project
- VE GUI: Selecting a table or column in the treeview now highlights their declaration in the code
New Features
- Treeview feature/PB: List Computed Fields of selected Datawindows
- Treeview feature/PB: PBL level dependencies (External References / PBL dependencies)
- Treeview feature/PB: Large PBLs (Code Review)
- Treeview feature/PB: Find all the Dll functions declared in a PowerBuilder application
- Source Code Documentation: Home page, objects lists, new sections and hyperlinks added
- VE GUI: Macro parameters can be saved and applied automatically next time
- VE Project management: Review the history of code analyses
- VE Project management: Delete past code analyses to free up disk space
- VE Project management: Access Control features, secure VE projects shared between teammates
- New Macros: Empty Methods
- New Macros: Object Metrics
- New Macros: Functions Metrics Summary
- New Macros: Retrieve SQL
- New Macro - DW Exploration - Retrieve Arguments (5.7), Controls containing (5.7) Compute Fields
Improvements
- Treeview feature/PB: DataWindow retrieve arguments
- Treeview feature/PB: Controls containing the selected Datawindow(s)
- Treeview feature/PB: "Last updated" has new parameters - 'end date', 'start date' and 'number of items'
- VE Project management: Send log to technical support with no internet connection
- VE Project management: Task Scheduler now accepts manual dates. "Today" button added in date picker.
- VE GUI: New toolbar button (Home) to reset main view
- Treeview feature: Autocomplete in Main View search
- VE Project Management: Select where your temporary files are stored
- VE Project Management: New SQL Server instance for Visual Expert project storage - LocalDB
- VE Project Management: System Tray Notification: follow the progress of your scheduled analyses and documentation generation.
New Features
- New architecture introduced with Visual Expert 7
- VE Project management: Optimize code analysis performances
- VE Project management: Define Internet proxy settings
- VE Project management: Manage your Hard Drive space
- VE Project management: Multiple applications project - define application dependencies
- PowerBuilder 12.6 is now supported
- Support for Windows 8
- VE Project management: Support for multiple users and collaborative features
- VE Project management: Setup & forget - let code analyses run automatically in the background
- Source Code Documentation: new customizable documentation Templates
- Treeview feature/PB: new feature set (macros) to explore Powerbuilder code
- VE GUI: Global Search - more options to refine your search results
- VE GUI: New Address Bar in the source code View
- VE GUI: Docking System - Rearrange Visual Expert views as you like
- Visual Expert 5.7 Build 80122 for VB, PB, PL/SQL and Transact-SQL
- Visual Expert 5.7 Build 70410 for VB, PB, PL/SQL and Transact-SQL
- Visual Expert 5.7 Build 70227 for VB, PB, PL/SQL and Transact-SQL
- Visual Expert 5.7 Build 70117 New Major release for PB, PL/SQL and Transact SQL
- Visual Expert 5.6 Build 60711 for VB, PB and PL/SQL
- Visual Expert 5.6 Build 60412 New Major release for VB, PB and PL/SQL
- Visual Expert 5.5 Build 50711 for VB and PB
- Visual Expert 5.5 Build 41116 for VB and PB
- Visual Expert 5.5 Build 41105 New Major release for VB and PB
- Visual Expert 5.0 build 40423 for PowerBuilder
- Visual Expert 5.0 build 40423 for Visual Basic
- Visual Expert 5.0 build 40226 for PowerBuilder
- Visual Expert 5.0 build 40226 for Visual Basic
- Visual Expert 5.0 build 31112 for PowerBuilder
- Visual Expert 5.0 build 31112 for Visual Basic
- Visual Expert 5.0 Build 30704 for Visual Basic
- Visual Expert 5.0 Build 30704 for PowerBuilder
- Visual Expert 5.0 Build 30124 New Major release for VB and PB