In DataWindow .NET 2.5, you can choose to use the DataWindow Designer plug-in in Visual Studio to create DataWindow objects and queries and work with databases, or you can use the standalone DataWindow Designer tool. If you have used DataWindow .NET before, you may find that you can work more efficiently in the standalone tool. If you are new to DataWindow .NET, you may prefer to use the plug-in.
When you install DataWindow Designer on a computer on which Visual Studio 2005 has already been installed, the installer registers a DataWindow project type that displays in the New Project dialog box in Visual Studio.
Projects created in the standalone tool have the extension .dwp, and projects created in the plug-in have the extension .dwproj. The two project file types are both text files but their formats are different.
To open a project created in an earlier version of DataWindow Designer in the plug-in, first back up all your PBLs. In Visual Studio, select File>Open>Project. In the Open Project dialog box, navigate to the location of your DataWindow Designer project, select DataWindow Projects from the Files of type list, select the project, and click Open. A message box displays asking you to confirm that you want to migrate a project in the old format to the new format. When you click Yes, a new project with the extension .dwproj is created and opened in the Solution Explorer and any PBLs in the project are migrated to the new version.
This book and the DataWindow Designer User’s Guide describe how to use the plug-in. For more information about using the DataWindow Designer plug-in, see the User’s Guide. If you prefer to use the standalone tool, you can find more information in the DataWindow .NET 2.0 documentation on the Sybase Product Manuals Web site.
