Converting VB.Net to ASP.Net

[Derek Martin]

Hi there, kind of a dumb question, but it falls in line with not
understanding (go figure) every nuance about .Net. Is it relatively
straight forward to convert a VB.Net built app to an ASP.Net web system? If
I am not just way off in left field, it would seem to be not too difficult,
but am curious if anybody had experience doing or attempting this.

Thanks,
Derek

 

[Marina]

First of all, VB.NET is a language - a VB.NET app is anything written in
this language - a windows app, an ASP.NET web application, a web service, a
windows service, etc.

To answer your question, converting from a windows app (which is what I
assume you mean by VB app) to a web application is not something I would say
is trivial. The key lies in the structure of your current application. If
the UI and the business logic are well separate, then it will be easier, as
you will mainly focus on converting the UI, and be able to call your
business logic (presumably in a separate DLL) to do all the work.

The stateless nature of web apps will no doubt present some issues, as a web
application functions much different then a windows form. The fact that the
page object gets recreated on every request, means you have to code
differently then for a windows app, which has just one instance of the Form
the entire time. But again, if the business logic is already separated,
then you will mainly focus on the UI portion. This means having to work
with objects that function differently, and are possibly less functional
then what you are used to.

 

[Herfried K. Wagner [MVP]]

Hi there, kind of a dumb question, but it falls in line with not
understanding (go figure) every nuance about .Net. Is it relatively
straight forward to convert a VB.Net built app to an ASP.Net web system? If
I am not just way off in left field, it would seem to be not too difficult,
but am curious if anybody had experience doing or attempting this.

I think with VB.NET you are referring to "Windows Forms". You want to
convert a Windows Forms application to a Web Forms application. Yes,
that's difficult because in the browser you have a different interaction
model -- no dialogs, other ways to display data properly, you can build
richer interfaces in some cases but there are also limitations. If your
application is well-structured (3-tier for example) you can easily
replace the presentation layer by a web interface.

 

[Cor Ligthert]

Hi Marina,

Nice answer

Cor