Why Use PowerBuilder for an XML Parser?
When you think of XML you probably think of the Internet and Java because these technologies have grown up together. However, there’s no reason why you can’t process XML messages using almost any language – especially if there’s a parser available for your development tool. When I worked on my first XML project, my entire team consisted of PowerBuilder developers. Although some were familiar with Java, they didn’t have enough experience to build a mission-critical system using Java. The project deadlines didn’t allow any time for training so the team investigated whether we could develop in PB. A development tool must meet three criteria before it can be used to develop a DOM-based XML system. • Be able to parse an XML file: PB has no low-level XML support built in; however, neither do C++ or Java. Most XML-based systems use a parser to process the XML data rather than perform low-level file operations. The XML parser we decided to use is an OLE object that PB can access easily. • Be a
