We are very happy to announce the Visual Basic Upgrade Companion 4.0 Beta. You can now download a trial from the Trial Request page. While we complete beta testing, we’ll have both version 3.0 (current release version) and the 4.0 Beta available for download. If you have the chance, we would really appreciate it if you could download the beta, and send us any feedback either through ArtinSoft’s regular support email (support@artinsoft.com) or through my blog Contact Form.
This new version contains a large number of improvements over version 3.0, including:
- Increased productivity for migration projects, with features such as improved conversion of ByRef/ByVal parameters (specially when working with Windows APIs), TypeName/TypeOf support, improved default property conversion, generate code to explicitly release COM objects when required, and hundreds of smaller enhancements and bug fixes that greatly improve the conversion of VB6.0 code.
- Improved the user experience by adding localization/internationalization for German and Japanese and completely redesigned the installation and license process. Installing a license is now a straightforward process (no more copying files!!), and it is now possible to install and execute the VBUC on both 32- and 64-bit versions of Windows Vista and Windows 7, as well as 32-bit Windows XP. The installation requirements were also greatly simplified, so you don’t need Visual Studio installed to install the VBUC (though it is still recommended).
You can now also select the target version of Visual Studio to generate the appropriate Solution file (*.sln). The VBUC can generate Visual Studio Solutions for version 2005, 2008 and 2010.
- Enhanced Grid migration, by mapping the Microsoft Flexgrid and APEX/ComponentOne TrueDBGrid to a grid that extends the native .NET DataGridView. It will no longer be required to purchase a third-party grid solution when moving from these grid to .NET if you wish to move to 100% native .NET code without using COM Interop.
- Improved assessment capabilities, by improving the accuracy of the VBUC Assessment Mode and making additional changes so members without specific mappings are tagged with an EWIs – in the past only members that were explicitly tagged as “Not Mapped” had an EWI.
You can read more details on the new features of version 4.0 in this page: What’s new in VBUC 4.0? Make sure you try out these new features by downloading a trial.
Visual Basic Upgrade Companion 4.0 User Interface. You can now select the target version of Visual Studio,
and also note the license icon at the bottom of the window.
Today we formally released version 3.0 of the Visual Basic Upgrade Companion, including both the Enterprise and Developer Edition of the migration tool. This is a significant new release, which has improved the efficiency of the conversion tool by reducing the amount of work required to the the applications to functional equivalence by over 30% (and more in some cases). All migration improvements are based on the feedback from the experiences of both our clients and our own consulting team, and we are very happy the changes have such an effect. I already talked about specific new features on a previous post.
Also, today we went live with a new companion website to the VBUC at www.vbtonet.com. This repository of information should help you in all aspects of the migration, and includes both best practices for, for example, finding customization opportunities in the code, and both overall strategies and detailed examples on how to solve migration issues. This site is tightly integrated with the VBUC, and migration issues identified in the code by the tool will contain a link to latest information to help you solve the issue, like the following example:
'UPGRADE_TODO: (1067) Member MyMember is not defined in type Variant. More Information: http://www.vbtonet.com/ewis/ewi1067.aspx
This library of information will continue growing over time, so make sure you come back often during your migration project to check out the latest content.
You can read the official press release here.
A couple of days ago we made available the final release candidate for version 3.0 of both the Visual Basic Upgrade Companion Enterprise Edition and Developer Edition. You can now directly download a trial of the VBUC Developer Edition on the trial download page, or request a trial of the Enterprise Edition on this page.
I need to mention an obligatory disclaimer saying this is the final Release Candidate, so, unless we find something at the last minute, it should be the same version officially released within a week or so. We need your help to verify we won’t find anything by downloading it and trying it out. :)
I already covered some of the features of this version on a previous post. There was significant improvements in several areas from version 2.2, which should help you achieve even greater productivity on your migration projects.