What is Datawindow?

Note: I'm the author of this article. I published 4 articles at http://allaboutpowerbuilder.blogspot.com a year ago, and some how I lost the log-in ID for the account :( So, I re-write the article in my new blog.

Datawindow Control is the heart of Powerbuilder. This is the control to communicate between the Database and the client user interface.

This is the BIGGEST different between Powerbuilder and the other programming languages. In Powerbuilder, programmers start to make application from the database into datawindow control, then visualize into the other controls (like Dropdown, Radio Button, etc), column per column. Later, you can setup the properties for each column, like display properties, validation properties, etc.


It's very contradiction with Visual Basic (VB) for example. In VB, we put the control (Dropdown for example) at the form, the we setup the properties, how to connect into the database, table and column name at the last.

Take a look the images below:

Datawindow Painter Toolbar

To create a new Datawindow control, choose the database source, then Presentation Style.

Setup what the Table(s) and column(s) you want to display. Also setup the data criteria(s) and "sort by" value(s).

Last, setup the properties for each column, such as display properties, format properties, validation properties, position, etc.