One of the nicest features of the Visual Basic Upgrade Companion version 2.0 is the support for Migration Profiles. These profiles give you control over which translations to use for a particular migration, improving the quality of the generated code and applying only the conversions desired (for example, for specific third party components). Profiles are managed through the Profile Maintenance screen, as shown here:
If look at the screen in some detail, you will see some of the features included with the tool. Here you can select, for example, to convert the MAPI (Mail API) library to the Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook component. And it shows that this particular conversion has a coverage of 80%. This particular library shows why Migration Profiles are important. If the application you are migrating is an end-user application that is locally installed in the user's desktop inside your enterprise, and MS Outlook is part of your standard installation on these desktops, then it should save you quite a bit of work to let the VBUC perform this transformation. If, however, it is a server-side application where MS Office is very rarely installed, then having this option selected will only cause you additional work later on, as you will have to go through the code and remove the references.
Other good examples are the ADODB and ADOCOMMON plug-ins. Both of them convert code that uses ADO into ADO.NET. How they do it, however, is completely different. The first plug-in, ADODB, converts ADO into ADO.NET using the SqlClient libraries, so it only works with SQL Server. The ADOCOMMON plug-in, however, generates code that uses the interfaces introduced with version 2.0 of the .NET Framework in the System.Data.Common namespace. This allows the application to connect to any database using an ADO.NET data provider that complies with this interfaces - most major database vendors now have providers that meet that specification. So you can use either transformation depending on your target database!
The previous two examples illustrate the importance of Migration Profiles. As you can see in the screenshot above, the tool currently has a large amount of plug-in with specific transformations. This number is expected to grow over time. I will be covering some of these plug-ins in later posts. Stay tuned!
I was expecting the annoucement near the end of the week, but here it is - The Visual Basic Upgrade Companion version 2.0 was released today! Just in time to attend that other tool's funeral ;)
I am still waiting for the official press release, but at least the press here in Costa Rica is already talking about it (link in spanish). So you know, the VBUC2.0 is a considerable improvement over previous versions of the Companion. Some of the most interesting new features are:
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Solves over 800 issues reported by our consulting staff, testing team, partners and end-users.
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Significantly reduces the amount of manual work required to compile the migrated application, so you can start the testing earlier in the migration process
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Improves the quality of the migrated code
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Adds the concept of Migration Profiles - you can select from a series of migration features and apply only those that you want to a particular migration. This greatly improves both the quality of the migrated code, and decreases the amount of manual work required after the migration. It also allows greater future expandability of the product.
As you probably know, eye candy sells. And it makes your life easier, too. So the VBUC2.0 includes a new Graphical User Interface called the Upgrade Manager, that incorporates all the features and concepts described above into one easy to use environment:
If you have been thinking about upgrading your VB6 applications to the .NET framework, think no more. With this new version of the VBUC you will be able to have your .NET application up and running in no time!