MIGRATION AND REENGINEERING

Forms2Net

From Oracle Forms to Microsoft .NET

Forms2Net

Forms2Net is the only migration tool for the automated conversion of Oracle Forms applications to Microsoft .NET technology:

  • Minimising time, cost and risk of the migration process;
  • Reducing software maintenance costs;
  • Preserving the functionality of the original system.

The current version of Forms2Net is v.3.5 and it was released in April, 2009. Detailed information about Forms2Net, including documentation, FAQs and support download can be found at:

Forms2Net Website

Why Migrate?

Many companies are looking for strategies and tools to migrate from Oracle development environments (traditionally called Oracle Forms) to more modern environments, such as Microsoft.NET.

The reasons for this interest vary, but include:

  • Cost savings;
  • Increased development productivity;
  • Platform standardization;
  • Customer/partner alignment;
  • Admistrative or political decisions.

At What Cost?

The cost of a migration process depends on several characteristics of the original system: size of the application, complexity of its components and behaviour patterns to migrate, inter alia.

Forms2Net Analyzer is an auxiliary tool that is provided for free to potential customers. It allows users to gather statistical information from their current source code in order to estimate the time and effort required for the migration process.

The Scope of Forms2Net

Forms2Net is targeted at the the application layer only, i.e. users can choose to keep their Oracle database or migrate to another platform (e.g. Microsfot SQL Server with the SSMA tool).

Forms2Net is a family of tools consisting of Forms2Net Analyzer, Forms2Net Converter and Reports2Net Converter.

Forms2Net Converter converts Oracle forms (fmb), menus (mmb) and library (pll) files to a target platform: Windows Forms (includes the WPF Forms) or Web Forms, in either C# or VB.NET.

Reports2net Converter converts Oracle Reports (rdf) files to Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS).

Mind the Gap!

All migration techniques have to address the semantic gap that separates the original from the target environment.

Forms2Net incorporates a sophisticated reengineering approach whereby code structures are identified and transformed into the desired target using the MVC architectural pattern. This powerful feature provides 3 major advantages over a 1-1 syntactic mapping:

  • A greater percentage of the source code is automatically converted;
  • The resulting architecture enables easier maintenance and evolution;
  • The resulting code complies with Microsoft best practices.

Forms2Net offers a significant reduction of effort and costs over a manual migration process.

The output of Forms2Net is a full Microsoft Visual Studio solution. Development teams can fine tune or evolve the migrated application using all the functionality of this environment.