Announcing gmStudio V9.85 for VB6/ASP/COM re-engineering

  • Article

Great Migrations has released gmStudio V9.85. gmStudio is a programmable VB6/ASP/COM re-engineering tool that enables an agile tool-assisted rewrite methodology and helps teams dramatically lower the total cost, risk, and disruption of ambitious migration projects without sacrificing quality, control, or time to market.

Figure 1: the gmStudio Main Form

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The hallmark characteristics of gmStudio include the following:

  • Programmable -- can be configured to meet unique restructuring and coding conventions; for example replacing COM components with managed components (e.g., ADODB to ADO.NET)
  • Accurate -- correctly transforms VB6/ASP codebase to logically equivalent .NET code
  • Scalable -- handles multiple related projects (combinations of VB6 components and ASP pages) to produce a coherent codebase with no interop between migrated components.
  • Choice of Language -- supports translation to C# and VB.NET and VS2005 and VS2005. VS2010 is planned for an upcoming release.
  • Complete -- supports all common VB6/ASP features and all COM components.
  • Mature -- refined through extensive use on large scale migration projects.
  • Fast! -- translates typical VB projects in a few seconds.

gmStudio allows you to...

  • specify a wide array of preferences, settings and other information to improve the quality of translations
  • reduce the work needed to make the translations correct and conformant to your .NET standards
  • control how VB6/ASP language elements are upgraded to .NET language and framework calls
  • control how logic that uses COM APIs is re-engineered to use .NET classes
  • control how forms and logic that uses ActiveX controls are re-engineered to use .NET controls and components
  • control how logic that uses Win32 APIs is re-engineered to use .NET methods
  • customize the settings in your csproj or vbproj files and other static content in your .NET files
  • control the deployment of your .NET codes into the files and directories that you want
  • create stubbed out code for the application modules or functions you plan to rewrite from scratch
  • delete application modules or functions that you want to remove from your application
  • insert hand written code for the application modules or functions you plan to rewrite from scratch
  • create stubbed out code for COM components and controls referenced by your VB6/ASP files

Figure 2: Excerpt from a RefactorLibrary file that migrates MsComCtl.ImageList to System.Windows.Forms.ImageList

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gmStudio ships with...

  • over 60 configuration files that direct the translation process. You may customize these files or add your own for additional control
  • C# source code for a Migration Support library
  • an extensive online migration methodology guide and product user's manual

Figure 3: Partial Listing of gmStudio Migration Configuration Files

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gmStudio has various migration management features...

  • compute the build order of a large set of inter-related VBPs or the include dependencies of a large set of ASP files
  • track and validate the changes in your translated code as you experiment with and refine your re-engineering settings
  • produce an extensive selection of useful analytics, code metrics, and dependency reports
  • integrate with VisualStudio and MSBuild to validate your .NET translations
  • extend the conversion process with user-defined processing steps

Figure 4: gmStudio Reports Form

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About Great Migrations

Great Migrations is based in Dublin, Ohio USA. The Great Migrations team has specialized exclusively in computer language processing and automated software re-engineering tools since 1982. Great Migrations is a Microsoft Certified ISV partner and gmStudio is a Windows 7 Logo certified product. Additional details are available at https://www.Greatmigrations.com