Forgive me if this is a repeat question. I've searched StackOverflow and did not find the answer to my question, so here goes.
We currently have a web application running ASP.NET 2.0 with AJAX Extensions 1.0 and SQL Server 2005 running, is deployed on IIS 6 and developing in VS2005. All works great, but I'm trying to find compelling reasons to migrate. The clients we serve to do not permit plugins in general in browsers, so Silverlight is not a reason for us to migrate. Also, we don't have any plans to migrate to SQL Server 2008 any time soon and ASP.NET MVC is not in the works either.
Here's my reasons to migrate. I would like people to comment on them or add to the list:
I want to work with the newer .NET stuff (and I think other developers would too. Also appealing to prospective employees)
Want to keep the technology up to date.
Extension methods
PageMethods in WebControls
WCF
LINQ maybe (we currently use AutoSproc for our DAL)
ASP.NET AJAX built-in to ASP.NET 3.5 (not really a big deal though)
VS.NET 2008 JavaScript Intellisense
My favorite parts are:
Lambda expressions
Functions available in the
System.Data.Linq namespace:
Where(...), OrderBy(...),
ForEach(...)
Extension methods (add a "ToDelimitedString(...)" to all IEnumerable!)
Visual Studio 2008 is nicer with
HTML/web syntax and debugging,
including the aforementioned
Javascript intellisense and
debugging.
Each of these allow you to write code in a more productive manner.
It largely eliminates the boilerplate "foreach", "if x != null", and other boring constructs.
The javascript intellisense is a huge improvement over anything that's come before. But at the same time it still fails in some very spectacular ways. All in all a good step but not something I've been able to use as much as I'd like.
The extension methods and linq (linq to objects and lambdas, not just linq to sql) are very cool, but since you have an orm already set up you won't use them as much as you'd like either.
WCF is okay, but you're probably not going to re-write your existing services for it.
I think the biggest reason up there is keeping your employees happy and attracting good new ones.
You have absolutely no reason to upgrade, from a business prospective.
You have absolutely every reason to upgrade, from a developer prospective.
Just keep in mind that SQL 2008 is not backwards compatible with SQL 2005, meaning, if you develop something in SQL 2008, chances are, your 2005 platform will barf at it. I just recently experienced this with SSIS packages.
LINQ is a reason to upgrade, even if you don't swap out your DAL, or don't do it for a while. In the product I've been working on lately, our development schedule is such that there's no room to change our DAL to a LINQ-based one for a while yet, but even so I find good reasons to use LINQ-to-Objects and/or LINQ-to-XML in probably 60% of the classes I touch, and I love it.
Everything still runs on .NET 2.0, it's just library and language enhancements and an improved IDE experience, which are made to increase productivity. Increased productivity = justification.
I use LINQ all the time now, every single day. It's not just for your DAL. It's about querying anything, with the same API over top. More generally, lamba expressions provide you with the ability to do some things that are very complicated and take a lot more code without them. Anonymous types are very useful as well.
All the points mentioned are valid.
But as a developer, when facing this kind of question, I always ask myself from the other side.
What is Compelling Reasons NOT to Migrate from ASP.NET 2.0 to ASP.NET 3.5? I find it easier to get myself motivated to upgrade.
The free Microsoft ASP.net Chart control and the new version of Ajax tool kit both require 3.5. If i'm not mistaken.
Related
I have come to know that there is a code migration wizard, that heps migrate from vb6 to vb.net.
How I can access that in vb2008?
Thanks
Furqan
There seems to be some tool support available.
Still, I would be skeptical to the use of the word migrate if you are making the technology monster-leap from VB 6 to .NET 4.0.
If your VB 6 application is really well designed with core business logic nicely isolated in separate classes, then those parts could perhaps be suited for migration.
But, if someone intends to support and maintain this app for another 10 years, you should consider whether a rewrite is a better option. That way it will be easier to start taking advantage of the efficiency gains provided by the new technology. I don't think there is any migration tool that will convert VB 6 code into e.g. anonymous methods, lambda expressions, linq, reflection and generics.
The need to consider a rewrite is particularly important if your long-lived application has suffered increases in code entropy and complexity over the years causing it to be hard to understand and difficult to maintain.
I need to update (well, rewrite really) a SMALL VB6 application which uses ADO to access a JET database, to a vb.net app in Visual Studio 2008.
My research suggests that I should use LINQ, but it doesn't seem to be possible to connect to JET. If JET is now deprecated, what should I use? Or should I use ADO.NET without LINQ?
Please don't answer SQL Server! - this needs to be an app that end users can install easily in corporate or non-corporate environments, and must not require any ongoing technical maintenance. I started to install SQL Express, but stopped when it required at least 2 system updates, as that will be far too complex for this little app.
Jet has been deprecated but there's a replacement in the form of ACE (Access Database Engine).
However, regarding using it from LINQ. The answers to this question have various suggestions and I've also read somewhere that it might be possible to use LINQ to DataSet to do it. Here's a blog post about it: Querying DataSets – Introduction to LINQ to DataSet but I can't find the link to where I read that someone had had success in using it to access an Access DB.
I'd suggest though, that if there are no clear cut solution for using LINQ, the pragmatic approach would be to just stick to normal ADO.Net and wait with using LINQ until you're sure that you're using a datasource that supports it fully.
Here is a good upgrade tool that is free if your project contains less than 10000 lines of code:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vbasic/ff793478.aspx
The general approach you should follow, is first a clean migration from VB6 to VB.NET, and get the .NET version to work exactly as it did in VB6, and then start to look for alternative technologies in .NET. It is easier to convert between different technologies when you have a working .NET application than to manually try to convert directly from VB6 code to alternatives in .NET.
Here are some good reasons to migrate first instead of a manual rewrite:
5 myth busting reasons for choosing automatic migration vs manual rewrite
From the article:
even in the worst case scenario, where you still need to rewrite a certain piece of the application after the automated migration phase, the end result will always be a fraction of the total cost and time.
Just use OleDbConnection / OleDbCommand / OleDbDataReader objects to mimic the same logic that you have in the VB6/ADO code. It will work the same way and not require any more dependencies than your existing app.
These may be of interest:
Which O/RM tool supports Microsofts Access?
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/adonet/archive/2007/01/26/querying-datasets-introduction-to-linq-to-dataset.aspx
Does anyone know if there are any ORM tools or Code Generation tools that work against an Advantage Database?
It would be helpful to know what development environment you use.
For .net:
Microsoft Entity.NET Framework
Telerik
Developer Express (Express Persistent Objects)
For Delphi:
I believe REM Objects has a framework that works with Advantage too.
Probably yes, but you'll need to write a NHibernate.Driver.IDriver implementation.
Don't worry, it's easy. You can start from any of the most simple ones at https://nhibernate.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/nhibernate/trunk/nhibernate/src/NHibernate/Driver/
Also, you should write a NHibernate.Dialect.Dialect implementation, or you'll only be able to use the basic functionality provided by GenericDialect.
Somebody posted C# source for an Advantage Database NHibernate dialect/driver to the nhibernate-development google group; you should be able to use this with any current ADS ADO.NET provider.
However, you should take note of NH-3078 "TimeAsTimeSpanType issue when using Sybase Advantage Database", which doesn't seem to be fixed yet as of now.
Has anyone used this ORM?
Telerik OpenAccess
Critiques/Praise? I work in an office that is heavily invested in other telerik venues and I would like to know more about their newest product and whether or not it should be avoided.
I'm testing it, the free Express version.
Pros
Performance (caching, lazy load etc. out of the box)
Easy integration
Great VS.NET integration, wizards
Cool community
Cons
Missing real distributed architecture support and patterns
Wizards hide configuration files and sometimes you must fix thing with hand
SQL CE support still missing
Chris is right, but Entity Framework works like beta, and OA has LINQ support too.
Personally, I think .net's Linq and it's entity framework are the best since sliced bread. I also use telerik a lot and look into everything that they make but ORM doesn't compare to M$ .NET Linq.
Chris
We are changing from vs2003 to vs2005 and use vb as our primary language, I am looking for some of the changes to VB that will be helpful in our ASP.NET development. Can someone point me to a list (maybe from microsoft?) or provide some of their favaorite differences between the two versions?
WHOA! Not so fast there, buddy! What's the rush? Relax, guy. Give it a few more years.
Any .NET developer not working version 3.5 of the framework is just wasting time. Every single bit of it... Linq, WPF, lambdas, WCF, GENERICS, I could go on... Every SINGLE bit of it is gold. I'd rather play on a highway than target 1.1. Its like night and day.
Do yourself and your team a favor... Skip 2k5 and hit 2k8.
What's new in VB 2005 (from MS)
The same topic covered in Code Magazine
From a language perspective, the addition of Generics and Nullable types (second link) (built on Generics) was a pretty compelling story for my work. The My namespace provides VB developers with quite a few shortcuts into "somewhat" more complicated features of the system.
From an ASP.NET perspective, even though they weren't VB-specific, the addition of the Master Page framework and MembershipProvider architecture were also very valuable.
Here's a fairly comprehensive list from Microsoft of all the Visual Studio 2005, language and major .NET framework changes.
For what it's worth, you might consider just jumping over 2005 and right into 2008, with .NET 3.5.
Rick Strahl takes stock of the major changes and provides a personal perspective on some of the highs and lows.
.NET 1.1 to .NET 2.0 Migration
Article 1
Article 2
Better IDE for one.
I found the biggest improvements from .Net 1.1 to 2.0 were generics and yield return for easy implementation of ienumerables.
I personally find some of the IDE changes to be of the best benefit.
The fact that the designer DOESN'T re-format your code as it feels like it
The fact that standard layout is DEFAULT rather than grid layout
Improvements in intellesence
In addition to the IDE changes, if I had to pick 1 .NET 2.0 thing that is a huge helper I would say generics.