VB6 Migrations

Software Modernisation: Visual Basic 6 to .NET with Anubex VB NETamorpher

VB NETamorpher is the migration tool developed by Anubex for converting Visual Basic 6 projects into .NET. VB NETamorher currently supports both C# and VB .NET and the .NET classes it generates are functionally and visually equivalent to the original VB6 programs. Since Microsoft’s support for the VB6 IDE ceased in the Spring of 2008, the decline of the installed base of VB6 increased rapidly. Organizations still reliant upon VB6 applications are now finding it increasingly challenging to maintain their VB6 code economically. As VB6 skills decline generally and young developers show reluctance to acquire skills in obsolete technology, automated migration of VB6 applications has become one of the few viable options for moving forward. The converted code produced by VB NETamorpher gets these organizations back on track, by enabling flexible maintenance and further development of their applications in Microsoft Visual Studio 10. The kernel at the center of VB NETamorpher is a powerful migration rules engine, which enables extremely fast development of additional mapping rules, as well as extension and customization of existing rules.

Product highlights

VB6 Migration

VB NETamorpher helps you to move your applications away from the obsolete and unsupported VB6 platform towards .NET without compromising on application functionality, maintainability and performance. Designed for migrating enterprise scale applications, VB NETamorpher provides complete VB6 coverage and yet maintains a dynamic approach to the migration, allowing for complete customization, by Anubex and/or the customer.

C# and VB.NET

VB NETamorpher supports both C# (version 4.0) and VB.NET (version 10) programming languages, so customers can pick the language that best matches their strategy for .NET developments.

Application analysis

VB NETamorpher provides an advanced Analysis Tool. Given VB6 sources, a complete coverage analysis report is constructed providing Anubex with the required information to provide an accurate initial quote and elapse time for your migration.

No runtime dependencies

The migrated solution is delivered to customers entirely as .NET source code and as such is free from any hidden, proprietary runtime dependencies (from Anubex or any other 3rd party). All resulting .NET code becomes fully owned by our customers upon project completion.

Complete VB6 coverage

VB NETamorpher is the only tool on the market that has a solution for resolving all VB6 Variant usage that is at the same time both complete and fully native .NET; no proprietary components or VB6 code embedding are used to accomplish this.
VB NETamorpher resolves differences in the order in which Events are fired between VB6 and .NET and as such avoids subtle behavior bugs after migration.
VB NETamorpher resolves all typing differences between the VB6 and the .NET platform, with features capable of migrating most type conversions during the migration.
VB NETamorpher features an advanced pattern matching system for the configuration and steering of your VB6 migration. Configuration requires no modifications to the original VB6 source, while providing complete control of the migration process.

Flexible 3rd party component mapping

VB NETamorphers’s advanced mapping capabilities allow the migration of 3rd party controls by either a modern .NET counterpart or to continue their usage in the .NET environment.
Anubex provides any necessary services to customize the mappings of 3rd party controls. VB NETamorpher also provides a development interface (API) to allow your team to participate in the construction of any custom mappings.
This is the most flexible approach for dealing with 3rd party controls seen in any migration tool available on the market, to date.

 

Migration project management

The last fifteen years Anubex has successfully migrated more than 50 enterprise scale legacy applications around the globe, with a 100% success rate.
Combined in these projects, Anubex tools have migrated in excess of 100 million lines of source code, and more 150 terabytes of data.

Project assessment: Planning your migration

Planning you MigrationAn Anubex migration project typically starts with a Pre-Migration Analysis (PMA). This PMA is performed by Anubex migration specialists in combination with the customer application specialists and management. During the PMA the analysis report produced by the VB NETamorpher Analysis Tool is expanded into as much detail as possible in order to construct a complete definition of the project scope.

At the end of the PMA, Anubex consultants deliver a proposal for the migration project. This proposal consists of an analysis report, a quote and a detailed project plan.

Project Management Methodology:SOAR

Migrating a large business critical legacy application presents unique challenges. One major example is finding an answer to the conflict between the ever-evolving business requirements of the legacy application on the one hand and the migration project on the other

  • This problem is typically identified too late in a migration project and subsequently addressed through a double maintenance approach where all modifications are duplicated in both environments, leading to an enormous overhead while problems still occur regularly.
  • Anubex recognizes this problem and addresses it through the project management methodology called Snapshot Oriented Automated Reduction, or SOAR, which:
  • Divides the project in consecutive, always shortening cycles in which only source code changes are migrated and tested;
  • Relies on automation to guarantee quality;
  • Enables extremely short code-freeze periods between;
  • Below image illustrates SOAR applied in a project, with the relation between the migration (top) and development (bottom), leading up to the D-DAY and cutover to .NET.

 

SOAR


Further information

Further information about our Migrations can be found on our Migrations Frequently Asked Questions page.

If you require additional information please contact us with your questions.

Downloads

- VB NETamorpher Product Sheet

- Pluggable rule architectures: a VB6 migration case study