Previously an Oracle-only visual development tool, Power Objects 2.0 now not only connects to just about any database, it also makes the process simpler than any other database development tool. Just about every area of the core program has been reworked in this release to provide new functionality.

Developers wanting to quickly build interfaces for corporate databases should look hard at Power Objects. However, non-database-centric developers should pick other environments--Power Objects' narrow focus on databases and relatively slow interpreted language are too constricting for general development work. In addition, its lack of team development features and basic editing environment will keep Power Objects out of larger database development projects.

Bolstered with the full version of Seagate Software's Crystal Reports Professional 5.0 report writer (Crystal Reports' first appearance on the Macintosh), ODBC (Open Database Connectivity) database drivers from Intersolv Inc. and an entirely new database engine, Power Objects is now in the same league as Microsoft Corp.'s Visual Basic Enterprise Edition, Sybase Inc.'s PowerBuilder and Borland International Inc.'s Delphi Client/Server Edition.

Matching Visual Basic's prototyping speed, Power Objects goes one (or three) better by providing Macintosh compatibility, a Netscape Communications Corp. plug-in to run its applications in a browser and flexible object-oriented extensions that made it easy to customize included controls. For database-only development, Power Objects is now an impressively credible choice.

But Power Objects, due this week, still can't touch Delphi's execution speed, the team development management tools found in PowerBuilder or Visual Basic's adaptability to just about any programming need.

In PC Week Labs tests, native improvements and third-party additions showed that Power Objects has been transformed from a downloader's toy to a developer's tool.

Instead of giving Power Objects away--as Oracle did in the hundreds of thousands--this version will cost you. The Professional Edition, which can access only local data sources, will cost $295 for new users and $149 for upgrades. The Client/Server Edition, able to access a full suite of networked databases (but otherwise identical), will cost $1,495 for the full package and $495 for users of the current Client/Server Edition.

It's the extras

While Version 1.0 of Power Objects was myopically focused on Oracle's own databases, Power Objects 2.0 is aggressively polyglot, connecting to Access, Sybase System 10 or even text databases via ODBC as easily as it can connect to Oracle Universal Server via SQLNet. We were able to both access data and change database schema on local Personal Oracle Lite, Microsoft Access and remote Microsoft SQL Server databases.

Power Objects' new database session manager made it simplicity itself to connect to different data sources and then drag and drop tables from one source to another. The new multidatabase display used by the session manager showed both local and remote databases in a consistent format, and copied tables and associated data between widely differing formats with ease.

Once we had designed a database and populated it with data, it was just as simple to drag data sources into a form and have an instant database-entry application that we could then compile to a stand-alone executable.

Power Objects' visual approach extends to its new ActiveX controls and class libraries; they can be dragged into applications and dropped as instances of a parent class, then extended with the addition of user properties and methods. This extensibility matches Delphi's object-oriented Pascal and leaves Visual Basic's noninheriting component architecture looking lame.

In contrast to Visual Basic, however, Power Objects does not support VBX controls, nor does it allow the creation of OLE controls for use in other applications. These omissions strongly limit Power Objects' utility as a general-purpose development tool.

Blaze, the quick-and-dirty Oracle database engine included with Power Objects 1.0, has been abandoned with this release. Its replacement is the far more capable Personal Oracle Lite 2.3 engine, which is a few weeks away from release as a separate product. The Personal Oracle Lite engine was fast and small, but without support for the PL/SQL language of Oracle's high-end servers, it won't be much use as a prototyping tool.

Besides producing stand-alone executables, Power Objects now provides a Netscape plug-in, letting clients use a browser to run applications developed in Power Objects. But this is no thin-client scenario: Power Objects' large run-time modules and database drivers, totaling about 3M bytes, need to be installed on each client before the plug-in will work. In addition to downloading drivers, each client will have to have drivers locally configured, a job most users will find daunting. But browser plug-in support does provide an effective way to access corporate databases in environments where clients will probably already have working ODBC or SQLNet drivers installed.

Copyright(c) 1996 Ziff-Davis Publishing Company. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of Ziff-Davis Publishing Company is prohibited. PC Week and the PC Week logo are trademarks of Ziff-Davis Publishing Company. PC Week Online and the PC Week Online logo are trademarks of Ziff-Davis Publishing Company.