Migrating a VB6 application in 10 easy steps
VB Migration Partner is a revolutionary software that has changed the way VB6 applications can be ported to VB.NET or C#. Much of the manual labor that is necessary with other migration tools can be avoided (or significantly reduced) if you adopt VB Migration Partner and take advantage of its pragmas and its innovative convert-test-fix methodology.
This document outlines all the steps you take when migrating a VB6 application using our tool. In spite of its highly optimistic title, not all these steps are equally easy. On the other hand, not all of them are necessary in every project.
Estimate migration costs for VB6 conversion software
Every day we receive requests and queries from VB6 developers and companies who are interested in migrating their code to .NET. Migration a complex application to .NET is a serious matter, therefore it’s no surprise that virtually all our prospects plan to compare our software with the similar tools from the competition.
A smart approach to 3rd-party ActiveX control conversion
The vast majority of VB6 business applications use one or more 3rd-party (non-Microsoft) ActiveX controls. It is therefore essential that the VB6 conversion software of your choice be able to correctly convert these controls to .NET with a cost-effective approach.
This document illustrates how VB Migration Partner can perform this task using an innovative approach based on wrapper classes. It intends to prove that – unlike more traditional approaches based on code transformations and mapping techniques – only wrapper classes can account for all minor and minor differences between ActiveX and .NET controls, can generate concise and efficient code, and don’t cause bottlenecks in the migration project.
17 Reasons for Using a Support Library in Migration Scenarios
Unlike the majority of the language conversion products available on the market – which mainly attempt to convert code from one language to another – VB Migration Partner both converts the code *and* uses a support library to decrease the gap between VB6 and VB.NET and to ensure that the converted code truly behaves as expected.
Comparing VB Migration Partner with Upgrade Wizard
The Upgrade Wizard was a tool that a company developed for Microsoft and that was included in Visual Studio .NET editions, from version 2002 to 2010. Microsoft ceased to distribute the Upgrade Wizard when support for Visual Basic 6 officially ended. Very few developers missed it, because it never gained a great reputation. Worse, it contributed to create a bad reputation for all VB6-to-.NET code translators on the market.
VB6 vs VB.NET languages
VB6 vs .NET controls
Migrating from VB6 to C# with VB Migration Partner
Since its public launch, in May 2008, Code Architects’ VB Migration Partner has proven to be the most complete VB6-to-VB.NET code converter on the market. The power of its code generation engine, which can be easily controller by over 80 different migration pragmas, and the completeness of the companion support library were the winning factors in this market segment.
Reach full functional equivalence with Trace-Match methodology
In a nutshell, the Trace-Match technology offers the ability to generate a trace file both in the original VB6 code and in the migrated .NET code, and later compare the two results to verify that the original project and the migrated project behave in the same way when the same sequence of actions is performed on them.
Support library and code maintainability
VB6 and VB.NET are similar languages that differ for a myriad of major and minor details. Even keywords, methods, and controls that have the same name in both environments may have a completely different behavior. The problem is even bigger when converting from VB6 to C#.
ActiveX controls and wrapper classes
VB Migration Partner supports all the controls included in the Visual Basic 6 package, with the only exception of the OLE and Repeater controls. When migrating a form that contains unrecognized 3rd-party (non Microsoft) ActiveX controls, such controls are transformed into “placeholder” controls that appear on the form as red rectangles. For each unrecognized ActiveX control a warning is also generated in the migrated project.
Tips for smooth migration of calls to Windows API methods
VB Migration Partner does a superb in dealing with Windows API calls. Here’s a summary of the features that it supports…