VB6 Migration Library

Visual Basic 6.0 runtime will be supported on Windows Server 2003 until June 2008 for Mainstream Support and June 2013 for Extended Support. The IDE will move out of extended support April 8, 2008.

Below are a series of links that relate to VB6 and VB6 Migration to VB.NET.

• VBRun remains the best resource site for VB6 professionals.
• Patterns and Practices – Upgrading VB6 to VB.NET
• VB6 Upgrade resource site for VB6 developers
• How to use the Visual Basic upgrade wizard. Useful for simple applications.
• New features in the Visual Basic 2005 Upgrade Wizard.
• Patterns and Practices has a good book on Upgrading VB6 applications to VB.NET. It provides some good architectural guidance in looking at the upgrade alternative options/approaches, processes, best practices, and proven techniques.
• There is a VB6 to VB.NET upgrade assessment tool that automatically analyses your VB6 application to determine what issues you need to address to be able to upgrade, it also provides information and guidance about how to address the issues, and metrics of your VB6 application as basis for costing/effort estimation.
• Microsoft’s Support Statement for VB6 on Windows Server 2008. They are commited to “It just works” compatability. The link contains the list of VB6 dll’s that are and are NOT supported on Vista and Windows Server 2008.
• Microsoft’s support statement for VB6, http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/vbrun/ms788707.aspx

• Support Statement for Visual Basic 6.0 on Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008 and Windows 7. DLL’s that were not supported in Vista are still NOT supported on Windows 7

ASP to ASP.NET Migration Assistant:

The ASP to ASP.NET Migration Assistant is designed to help you convert ASP pages and applications to ASP.NET. It does not make the conversion process completely automatic, but it will speed up your project by automating some of the steps required for migration.

In this guide, you will find:

• Instructions on how to download and install the migration assistant and accompanying code sample
• An introduction to the ASP to ASP.NET Migration Assistant.
• A comprehensive set of white papers on technical conversion issues.
• Source code for a Web site before and after conversion.
• Extensive guidance on how to best leverage ASP.NET, including new best practices material from the Prescriptive Architecture Guidance (PAG) group.

This guide contains three sections

1. Download and Install the ASP to ASP.NET Migration Assistant
   Visit http://www.asp.net/migrationassistants/asp2aspnet.aspx and follow the instructions to download and install the ASP to ASP.NET Migrations Assistant and the accompanying code sample.
2. Using the ASP to ASP.NET Migration Assistant
   Moving to ASP.NET is generally accomplished in two steps. First you port the existing ASP application to ASP.NET and then you can optimize the application to fully leverage the .NET Framework. This section covers the initial migration using the Migration Assistant to automate some of the steps.
3. Optimizing Your Migrated Site For ASP.NET
   Sites migrated using the Migration Assistant can leverage the benefits of the .NET Framework, but there are still many optimizations that can be made to fully utilize the power of ASP.NET. This section describes how to optimize the ASP.NET site ported from ASP in the previous section.

MS WhitePaper:

Moving from Visual Basic to ASP.NET
With ASP.NET and Visual Studio .NET, creating Web applications and stand-alone Windows desktop applications are becoming near identical tasks. Explore how Visual Basic 6.0 developers can easily move their skills to the Web using ASP.NET.   

Converting ASP to ASP.NET
An examination of a typical data-driven ASP application, and a discussion of the essential steps involved in porting that ASP application to ASP.NET.

NET 1.1 to .NET 2.0 Migration  FAQ

Q: “How much work will it take to move from 1.1 to 2.0 and how long will it take?” 

 A: The answer is “It depends”.  Some applications move over with the simple click of a button, and others take a little more work than that.

Q: “Do you need to migrate at all?” 

 A: If it is an application that is still “alive” and moving forward, then the answer is “Yes, you should migrate.”  then keep reading   If you have a 1.1 application that is working just fine, and you don’t plan on modifying/updating it, leave it as it is and it should work just fine side by side.

Q: What happens when you load/run a .NET 1.1 application on a machine that has both 1.1 and 2.0 installed?

 A:

Given that .NET was designed for side-by-side usage since it first came out, that 1.1 application should run fine in a side-by-side environment.  It’s the scenarios in bold that you need to really pay attention to with regards to testing.  What will catch folks off-guard are the scenarios in the third row in the table.  The gotcha is that you might not even be aware of what applications cause the third row scenarios. 

The 2.0 framework is mostly backwards compatible with the 1.1 framework.  Meaning, most 1.1 applications should run okay on the 2.0 framework.  Therefore, the scenarios in bold should work out for you most of the time if you choose not to migrate your 1.1 application forward.  But (and there is always a ‘but’), there are some breaking changes in the 2.0 framework.  

Here’s where you can find out about breaking changes in the 2.0 Framework.  Use this list ahead of time to analyze your 1.1 application and anticipate where issues might crop up:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms994364.aspx

Then, once you have a heads up on what could go wrong, test out the scenarios in the matrix where your 1.1 application could be loaded using the 2.0 framework. Here are some test scenarios to consider:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms994387.aspx

If your 1.1 application fails to run on 2.0 for whatever reason, and you still need to support the scenario in the last column of the third row, you can make some configuration changes to force the application to run using the 1.1 framework.  Check these two links for more information:

1. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/s80xxs7s(VS.71).aspx
2. http://blogs.digineer.com/blogs/tabraham/archive/2005/12/09/15.aspx

Q: I want to migrate my application from .NET 1.1 to .NET 2.0.  Where do I start?

The quick and dirty answer:  Back up your VS 2003/1.1 solution first!!!  Then, open your Visual Studio 2002 or 2003 project/solution in Visual Studio 2005 or 2008.  A conversion wizard will convert the project/solution to 2005.  Compile the code, and you will now have a .NET 2.0 application!

The real answer:  If you’re migrating a Windows Forms application, the majority of times, the quick and dirty answer above will be all it takes for you!  If you’re migrating an ASP.NET web application, you should do a little homework before you open your .NET 1.1 project/solution in Visual Studio 2005 or 2008.

Let’s talk about non-web applications first.  As I mentioned, most of the time, opening the application in Visual Studio 2005 or 2008 and running it through the conversion wizard should be all it takes.  This will merely update the project files (.vbproj/.csproj) to work with 2005.  It will not update your application code to take advantage of the new .NET 2.0 features.  At this point, when you compile your existing 1.1 code, it will be compiled against the 2.0 framework.   If the code doesn’t compile, check out the list of breaking changes in the 2.0 framework mentioned above and begin troubleshooting from there.

For migrating web applications, there can be more work involved since the project model for web applications has changed greatly in Visual Studio 2005 and 2008.  Fortunately migration information is centraly located on MSDN’s ASP.NET migration center.

Tech Articles:

Common ASP.NET 2.0 Conversion Issues and Solutions
Solve some of the common conversion issues developers may face when upgrading from ASP.NET 1.x to 2.0.

What’s New in Web Development for Visual Studio 2005
Visual Web Developer continues to bring you the productivity benefits of the Visual Web Developer integrated development environment (IDE) while introducing a wide array of improvements.

Migrating from ASP to ASP.NET 2.0
Learn the concepts and tools you will need to develop applications in ASP.NET 2.0 coming from classic ASP. Explore the benefits of Microsoft’s newest Web technology and understand how to transition from ASP to ASP.NET 2.0.

ASP.NET 2.0 QuickStart Tutorial
The ASP.NET QuickStart is a series of ASP.NET samples and supporting commentary designed to quickly acquaint developers with the syntax, architecture, and power of the ASP.NET Web programming framework.