Source Stack · PowerBuilder
PowerBuilder was the gold standard for data-intensive client-server applications — but Appeon's stewardship has narrowed the ecosystem, the developer market has all but vanished, and the client-server architecture cannot meet modern web and mobile requirements. Our AI factory parses your PowerBuilder application — DataWindows, DataStores, PowerScript, and embedded SQL — and converts it into a modern stack your team can hire for. Phased delivery. Full IP ownership. 3–5× faster than a manual rewrite.
Deep PowerBuilder parsing in the factory. Proven DataWindow-to-modern-stack conversion pipeline.
The PowerBuilder dead end
Every year on PowerBuilder narrows your options. The developer pool has effectively vanished — there is no training pipeline, no bootcamp, no university teaching PowerScript. Appeon's platform updates are incremental at best. And your DataWindow-centric architecture is invisible to modern DevOps, CI/CD, and cloud tooling.
PowerBuilder applications are built around DataWindows — a uniquely powerful but deeply proprietary abstraction for data retrieval, presentation, and update. Manual rewrites invariably underestimate the complexity hidden in DataWindow expressions, computed columns, validation rules, and update characteristics. Most projects stall at 60% completion.
Inside the PowerBuilder factory
Our AI ingests your PowerBuilder libraries (PBLs) — DataWindows, DataStores, windows, user objects, menus, functions, and PowerScript. It maps every DataWindow column, computed field, validation rule, retrieval argument, and update property. Every artifact is logged and inspectable.
The AI emits idiomatic code in your chosen target stack — .NET (with data grids or Blazor), Java/Spring, React + API, Node.js, or Python. DataWindow logic is converted into equivalent data access layers, grid components, and business rules. Senior architects review every structural decision.
Before any cutover, the AI synthesizes behavioral tests comparing new system output against the live PowerBuilder application. DataWindow by DataWindow, query by query. You migrate on a passing diff.
Three engagement stages
Start with a fixed-price diagnostic. If the conversion quality doesn't meet your bar, you owe nothing beyond the diagnostic fee.
Fixed price · 3–4 week turnaround · fee credited to full migration
Provide a representative PBL. We convert it and deliver with audit + dependency map.
Fixed price · scoped per module · phased delivery
SLA-backed AI conversion of your entire PowerBuilder estate into your chosen target stack. Delivered in months, not years. Phased releases with parallel running — legacy and new system operate side by side until cutover is validated.
6–12 month retainer
Architectural support to onboard your team into the new codebase, CI/CD pipelines, and delivery cadence. We stay until your team owns it fully — no handover cliff.
What you walk away with
Questions we get
No. We parse your PowerBuilder source into a complete structural map first — every entity, screen, business rule, and integration — deterministically, not by asking a model to guess what your code does. AI accelerates the generation step from that map; a senior architect reviews every structural decision; behavioral equivalence tests verify the result against your live system before any cutover.
Your source and data are used only to produce your migration deliverables — never to train or fine-tune any AI model. Access is scoped to what a given phase actually needs, and production data access, where required at all, is time-boxed by agreement. Everything delivered is yours outright, with no ongoing dependency on us.
Yes, always. Every architecture decision, every equivalence-test result, and every cutover is reviewed and signed off by a senior architect before it reaches production. AI handles the volume; it doesn't approve its own work.
That's what the feasibility opinion below is for. Send the basics and a senior architect will give you an honest read — including "this probably isn't worth it yet" if that's the honest answer — before any paid engagement.
Get a feasibility opinion
No sales call required. Send the basics and a senior architect will reply with an honest read before you commit to a paid diagnostic.
A senior architect will reply directly — no automated sequence, no sales pitch.
Next step
Start with the Proof of Architecture Diagnostic. Fixed price, 3–4 weeks, and the fee is credited against the full migration if you proceed. We'll convert a representative PBL to your chosen target so you can judge the output before committing.