How to Create a Visual Expert Project with PowerBuilder + Oracle PL/SQL Code

Step 1 - Check the Requirements

Before you start:

  • Download the latest build, and update your configuration.
  • Verify that your key supports both PowerBuilder and ORACLE:
    go to [Help - Info] - Check the "key features" in the right panel

    VE Key Supported languages
    If needed, read this article to request a new key

  • Identify 1 set of PB code: 1 PB target OR 1 set of files/folders containing the PBLs
  • Identify 1 set of PL/SQL code: 1 connection to an Oracle DB OR 1 set of files/folders containing both PL/SQL code and DDL statements (create table, etc.).

Step 2 - Add PowerBuilder Code

  • Click ‘New’ on the ribbon menu and select ‘PowerBuilder’ in the next pop-up.
    Select PowerBuilder Code to analyze
  • Choose your PB version. Then, click on ‘PowerBuilder library folders/files’.
    Select PowerBuilder Folders/Files to Analyze
  • Specify the location of your PB code by clicking on “Add files”. Then, click "Next".
    Add PowerBuilder Files
  • Select "Add more code in your Visual Expert project". Click ‘Finish’.
    Add more code for analysis in Visual Expert

Step 3 – Add Oracle Code

  • Select "Oracle PL/SQL" for analysis.

    Select Oracle code to analyze with Visual Expert
  • Click on “Folders and/or files”.
    Source of Oracle source code analysed with Visual Expert
  • Specify the location of your Oracle PL/SQL code by clicking on “Add files”.
    Then click on ‘Finish’.
    Add Oracle files to analyze

Additional Settings

Important: If you’re connecting to a database, Visual Expert will analyze all the objects accessible from this connection, including all schemas, tables, procedures, system objects, etc. In this case, it is highly recommended to filter the DB objects you wish to analyze:
DB objects listed by default by Visual Expert

If you click on "More Filters" you get the following options:

Filter the DB objects you wish to analyze with Visual Expert

  • Once your object selection is completed, click ‘Next’ > then select "Open project setup".

    Open Visual Expert project Setup 
  • Name your Visual Expert project
  • Set the scheduler to refresh your code analysis automatically on a regular basis
  • Select "Launch the analysis"
  • After analysis, you will see both PowerBuilder and Oracle objects in the treeview

    List of PowerBuilder and Oracle objects found by Visual Expert
  • You will also see 2 sources of code in your VE project.
    Go to [Code Analysis - Select Source Code].
    PowerBuilder and Oracle source code location

Step 4 - Remove Ambiguities and Duplicate Tables

Why this step?

Select  firstname,  lastname  from  employee 
Select firstname, lastname from myschema.employee

This basic example may create an ambiguity:
By default, the Visual Expert code parsers cannot know whether employee and myschema.employee refer to the same table.
Unless we remove this ambiguity, Visual Expert will duplicate the table employee.
Please read this article to remove possible ambiguities in your project.