Migration VFP to VB 2

[nirajj]

Hi all...

Very soon I will be in the process of migrating existing system on VFP 6.0 to VB 6.0 or .net.

However, before I do that, I wanted to know what is the best strategy for doing so. Is there any ready tools available which would transfer all my forms and/or code?

Also would like to transfer the database to SQL Server 2K.

Any kind of help is highly appreciated.

Thank You.

 

[Mike Gagnon]

nirajjobanputra

This would better answered in the VB forum.

Mike Gagnon

If you want to get the best response to a question, please check out FAQ184-2483 first.

 

[nirajj]

Thank you Mike for replying in less than a minute..

Well, I am surely posting this issue in VB forum as well. But I just thought some expert tips from VFP forum would be useful too.

Thank You.

 

[BlindPete]

Well a couple things to keep in mind. I'm assuming that you only need to replace the UI using VB.

#1) All of your dms can remain in VFP and you will save yourself a lot pain if you do that rather then converting to Access or whatever. Look into System DNS and ODBC. You can even fire the data over the HTTP protocol but it is slow.

#2) Decide which of the myriad of data access models you want to use in VB: DAO, ADO etc

#3) You are gonna have to plan it very well. Think in three tiers: User Interface, business rules (validation) and Get/Set routines from DMS (VFP). This way a lot of your exising VFP code that manipulates and updates data can be converted to views, triggers etc for use by VB's data access model.

VB is laid out very differntly and if your not expeienced with it you will quickly get lost. Its visually oriented and most all your UI code will be embeded in the various forms and controls you use. Some like that, some don't. I personally think it makes code maintenance a PINTA, but it has value.

VB's object model is very poorly implemented (much improved in .NET). It is very difficult to add custom methods and listeners in VB.

The VB forum here is not great. It is so busy you may have to bump your questions to make sure they are visible long enough for a responce.

-Pete

 

[mspratt]

There's a book available that could be helpful.

http://www.pearsoned.co.uk/bookshop/detail.asp?item=100000000073764&affid=tre

Regards,

Mike

 

[craigsboyd]

With the discontinuance of Microsoft Visual FoxPro there will soon be no demand for FoxPro developers...

Is this breaking news? MS forgot to send me a copy of this memo I guess.

_{craig1442@mchsi.com}

"Whom computers would destroy, they must first drive mad." - Anon​

 

[nirajj]

Thank you very much Pete and mspratt.

Well... The foxpro community is not going to die for sure. But ofcourse, a lot of companies prefer to convert their project into some other platform. One of the main reason is that it is very difficult to find developers on VFP nowadays... I tried to convince the leaders of this project to keep the system to VFP and make changes to implement any new business requirements if any. But I believe VB .net(more so) is just too favourite now.

 

[craigber]

I'm curious as to why you're taking an application written in a language (VFP) that is still be marketed and developed to one that is most definately dead (VB 6).

Craig Berntson
MCSD, Visual FoxPro MVP,

http://www.craigberntson.com

Author, CrysDev: A Developer's Guide to Integrating Crystal Reports"

 

[nirajj]

Well... VB or .net is not fixed yet...

But as I said before... its difficult to find VFP developers and they already have a VB team ... since slowly they r planning to migrate everything to .net now, they decided to start w/ VFP application...