ISV Community Day

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ISV Community Day

• Verktyg och alternativ för konvertering

Per Ahlberg Developer Evangelist Developer
Platform Evangelism Microsoft Sweden
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Agenda

• Migration Strategy And Pitfalls
• VB .NET Language Aids
• VB6 Code Advisor
• Visual Basic 6 to .NET Assessment tool
• Migration Wizard
• Code Snippet Tool
• Amplifying the Application
• Migrate ASP till ASP.NET

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Visual Basic Language Changes

• Let and Set are not supported, so change
• Set MyObj1 MyObj2 to MyObj1 MyObj2
• No more default properties(except for indexed
  properties), so change
• MyString as string Textbox1 to MyString as
  string Textbox.text
• Integer data types have been changed to match the
  runtime and other languages
• Integers are now 32 bit (old long integer size)
• Longs are now 64 bit

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Visual Basic Language Changes

• Use structured error handling
• (try catch block) instead of On Error
• (On Error still works)
• Must cast data types explicitly
• Response.Write (Count CStr(MyCount)) or
• Response.Write(Count CType(MyCount, String))
• Error handling
• Try Catch Finally replaces On Error Resume
  Next
• And More
• Short-circuiting conditionals,
• , Early Binding etc

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Visual Basic Language Changes

• Must have spaces around , so change
• Property Get, Property Set, and Property Let are
  not supported anymore, so instead use

x str1str2 to x str1 str2
Public Property MyCount as Integer Get
MyCount InternalValue End Get
Set(value as Integer)
InternalValue value End Set End
Property
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Not Everything Gets Migrated

• Inventory and evaluate applications
• Education Get some VB .NET Experience
• Target a few small applications
• Pick Carefully! Evaluate the apps first
• Migrate one piece at a time
• Horizontal Slice UI or Middle Tier
• Vertical Slice Bank forms
• New Application Development

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Tools help migration
VB6 Application
VB6
Prepare for upgrade VB6 Code Advisor
VB6
VB6
VB6
VB6
VB.NET
Upgrade and fix issues Migration Wizard
Enhance with new features
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Micro Issues are 88

• Simple to fix.
• Create Noise
• Five issues represent 88 of all upgrade issues

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Strongly Typed Variables

• Visual Basic 6.0 code
• After upgrade
• Result works perfectly

Dim myTextBox As TextBox myTextBox "Hey There"
Dim myTextBox As System.Windows.Forms.TextBox myTe
xtBox.Text "Hey There"
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Latebound Variables

• Visual Basic 6.0 code
• After upgrade
• Result Runtime error

Dim myTextBox myTextBox "Hey There"
Dim myTextBox As Object 'UPGRADE_WARNING
Couldn't resolve default property of object
myTextBox. myTextBox "Hey There"
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Choice Of Solutions

• Solution 1 Prepare in Visual Basic 6.0
• Solution 2 Fix after upgrading

As TextBox
Dim myTextBox myTextBox "Hey There"
Dim myTextBox As Object 'UPGRADE_WARNING
Couldn't resolve default property of object
myTextBox. myTextBox.Text "Hey There"
.Text
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Macro Issues
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Using COM From .NET
Common Language Runtime
ComServer
Object
Runtime CallableWrapper
ReferenceCounted
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Exposing Managed APIs to COM

• Many unmanaged clients/hosts exist
• Internet Explorer
• Office
• Windows shell
• Every managed object is a COM object
• Has a class factory
• Implements IUnknown, IDispatch
• Type library can be generated using tlbexp.exe
  (Type Library Exporter)
• CCW (COM Callable Wrapper) takes care of all this
  during runtime

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.NET from COM
Common Language Runtime
COM Client
COM CallableWrapper
IFoo
Server
Client
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VisualBasic.Compatibility.dll
Caution Functions in the Visual Basic 6.0
Compatibility library are provided only for use
by the upgrading tools. Although it is possible
to use this library when writing new code, there
is no guarantee that it will be supported in
future versions of Visual Basic.
Class DirListBoxEx Inherits Microsoft.VisualBasi
c.Compatibility.VB6.DirListBox End Class
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Prepare VB6 code

• Strongly type variables
• Null Propagation
• Non zero lower bound arrays
• Replace values with Enums
• Incompatible properties
• Module methods

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Code Advisor a.k.a FixIt

• Configuration
• HTML summary
• Extending the Code Advisor

Dim prpObj As Property 'FIXIT Declare 'vTmp'
with an early-bound data type
FixIT90210ae-R1672-R1B8ZE Dim vTmp As
Variant 'FIXIT Declare 'vNew' with an
early-bound data type FixIT90210ae-R1672-R1B8ZE
Dim vNew As Variant Dim frmProp As New
frmProperty
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Issues Identified by the Code Advisor
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Visual Basic 6 to .NET Assessment tool

• New tool!
• Analyses VB6 projects
• Create extensive reports
• Cost and Time
• Problems
• What to do
• In with order
• Dependences
• And much more

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Before Upgrade Wizard

• Must be able to compile VB6 app
• Must have design time license files
• Must have all referenced components
• required for Interop assemblies
• Should remove unused references, particularly for
  ActiveX controls

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Upgrade Wizard

• EXE DLL
• Copies project
• Creates reports
• Links to Help
• Four Levels
• Issue No Automatic Upgrade
• ToDo Requires Finishing
• Warning Possible Behavior Change
• Note Informational

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Upgrade Wizard now also upgrade!

• MTS and COM projects
• VB6 to Windows Forms controls
• WebBrowser, Toolbar, ImageList, TreeView,
  ListView, OleContainer,RichTextEdit, ProgressBar,
  StatusBar, CommonDialog, MaskedEdit
• Code that uses string-based-keys in forms control
  collections
• Code that changes the key value in the KeyPress
  event
• Upgrade to the BackgroundImageLayout property
• VB6 App object to the My object
• Unload Mode Parameter of QueryUnload event to
  ClosingReason

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Upgrade Wizard now also upgrade!

• Unload Mode Parameter of QueryUnload event to
  ClosingReason
• Forms to use the new Partial Type format
• Default instance to use VS support for default
  instances
• Forms collection to the VS forms collection
• VB6 Printers collection object to the
  My.Computer.Printers object
• VB6 clipboard object to the My.Computer.Clipboard
  
• Upgrade LoadResString, LoadResData,
  LoadResPicture to use My.Resources

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Upgrade Wizard
Form Layout
ActiveX Controls
ADO Data Binding
RES files
Code
Syntax Changes
COM Libraries
Behavior warnings
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Code Snippet Tool

• Visual Studio .NET IDE tool
• Piecemeal alternative to full project upgrade
• Not available in C

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Code Snippet Tool

• Usage Scenarios
• Paste in existing Visual Basic 6.0 code
• Leverage existing Visual Basic 6.0 code without
  doing a full upgrade
• Type in Visual Basic 6.0 style code
• Ideal for learning the Visual Basic .NET
  equivalent of a familiar syntax

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Code Snippet Tool

• Steps For Using the Tool
• Place cursor where you want to insert code
• Open Upgrade Visual Basic 6.0 Code tool
• Paste Visual Basic 6.0 code, or type Visual Basic
  6.0 syntax
• Add references to COM components
• Click Upgrade
• COM references added to project References
• Microsoft.VisualBasic.Compatibility

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Take Advantage of .NET

• Replace ADO with ADO .NET
• Replace ActiveX controls
• Web-enable
• Mobile front end
• Reflection
• Web services

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Migrate ASP to ASP.NET

• Run side-by-side
• Integrate
• Use both ASP and ASP.NET
• Use common components
• COM, written in VB6 or .NET
• Run in same application
• Total migration
• Move everything to .NET
• Including data layer Components

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How can ASP ASP.NET coexist?

• Separate worlds!
• File extensions (asp vs. aspx)
• Configuration (metabase registry vs.
  web.config)
• Processing engines (asp.dll vs. aspnet_wp.exe)
• Can be combined in one application
• Allows for
• partial conversion
• conversion as updates are needed
• just adding new features written in .NET
• Coexistence issues
• Sharing info
• Sessions and applications dont work
• Database, XML, get post do work
• Performance
• Running two engines obviously takes more
  resources then running just one

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Changes in Core objects

• Request object changes
• Request(item), Request.QueryString(item), and
  Request.Form(item) now return a name value
  collection
• In classic ASP, they return an array of strings
• Use Response.Write with caution
• It will output results at the top of the page
• before the ltHTMLgt tag
• Instead
• Use server controls (placeholder)
• Use lt gt tags if you want the output to appear
  in the right place
• Each of the core objects now have many new
  properties and methods.

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Changes in Structure

• One page one language
• No mixing of languages in single page
• A page can have only one server-side Form tag
• and it must submit to the same page
• An ASPX page may contain
• Directives lt_at_ Directive gt
• Server controls lttag runatservergt
• Code blocks ltscript runatservergt
• Data binding expressions lt gt
• Server-side comments lt-- --gt
• Server-side includes lt!-- include --gt
• Render code lt gt and lt gt

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Changes in Structure

• Code blockrelated changes
• You cannot declare functions inside lt gt tags
• Declare all your functions and variables inside
  the server-side ltSCRIPTgt blocks

ltScript runatserver languagevbgt dim gVar
as String Page level variable private sub
MySubRoutine() Label1.Text gVar End
Sub lt/Script gt
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Changes in Structure

• No Render functions permited

lt MyRenderFunction Sub MyRenderFunction() gt
lth1gt Hi there! lt/h1gt ltend subgt
lt Call MyRenderFunction()gt ltscript
runatserver languagevbgt
Response.Write(Hi there!) lt/scriptgt
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Changes in Application Configuration

• ASP.NET application settings are stored in XML
  configuration files
• Types of configuration files
• Machine.config
• Contains machine-wide settings
• Web.Config
• Contains project/application-wide settings
• Easy programmatic access to the data in these
  files
• Some of the settings in the IIS snap-in are
  ignored
• For example application protection level,
  session state

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Changes in Security

• The IIS part of the security remains same
• New robust and flexible security model is based
  on the security sections in the configuration
  files
• New authentication modes
• Windows uses Windows Authentication
• Forms uses cookie-based custom logon forms
• Passport uses the Microsoft .NET Passport
  Service
• None no authentication
• Authorization modes permit you to control access
  to resources
• File authorization
• URL authorization
• Permit and deny users access to the application

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