Migration Projects

Migration Project is a logical union of files related to particular source files that are converted with the same options configuration: their current conversion result, target (expected conversion result), config and some other auxiliary files.

Migration projects always belong to the Migration Solution instance that can contain many projects.

Conversion item is a group of a source file and its conversion result (current and expected). An example of migration solution, projects and conversion items is shown below:

There are several types and categories of migration projects in Ispirer Migration Studio. In fact, there are only 2 categories of them:

• Database migration projects with connection to a database via ODBC to export database objects (created using SQLWays Wizard).
• All other conversion projects that work with source files and do not need a database connection (created using nGLFly Wizard).

For convenience, 4 main types of the projects were made (the so-called “Production” group):

• Database Migration Project (described in Database Migration Project).
• SQL Code Conversion Project (described in SQL Code Conversion Project).
• Application Conversion Project (described in Application Conversion Project).
• E-SQL/DB-API Conversion Project (described in E-SQL/DB-API Conversion Project).

There is a “Testing” group of projects. It is mainly used internally in Ispirer processes for the development and testing of automatic Toolkit conversions, and can also be used for large migrations with intensive Toolkit customization on the customer side.

In addition, Migration Studio has ready-made project templates for more particular migrations with already defined source and target technologies (e.g. “Oracle PL/SQL to Java Hibernate Conversion Project”, “PowerBuilder to C# Web ReactJS Conversion Project”, etc.).

Database migration project is intended to migrate the database from its source DBMS to the desired target DBMS. An ODBC connection to the source database is required. The source database and migration options can be specified during the project setup using SQLWays Wizard. The creation of this type of migration project is considered in the Creating a New Migration Project and Database Migration Guide chapters.

Migration Studio already has SQL code conversion project templates for the following technologies: Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, PostgreSQL, MySQL, etc. Other technologies can be chosen using SQLWays Wizard.

This type of project contains items for source database objects conversion (*.sql items) and for their import into the target database (*.bat items). Another peculiarity of this type of migration projects is the absence of the first panel for the source file(s) contents in the editor. This is because the database object is being converted, not the file (although the conversion tool extracts DDLs of the objects, but keeps them internally). An example of a database migration project is shown below:

SQL Code Conversion Project is intended to convert files containing SQL scripts from the source DBMS to the target DBMS. The source files and conversion options can be specified during the project setup using nGLFly Wizard. The creation of this type of migration project is considered in the Creating a New Migration Project and Files Conversion Guide chapters.

Migration Studio already has SQL code conversion project templates for the following technologies: Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, PostgreSQL, MySQL, etc.

This type of project does not require any ODBC connection and existing databases. It works with existing source files. Items of such projects use the 3-panel mode in the editor: the source file (“Source”), its current conversion result (“Result”) and expected result (“Target”) are depicted. An example of a SQL code conversion project and its open conversion item is shown below:

Application Conversion Project is intended to convert files containing programming code from the source programming language to the target platform, language and technology. The source files and conversion options can be specified during the project setup using nGLFly Wizard. The creation of this type of migration project is described in the Creating a New Migration Project and Files Conversion Guide chapters.

Migration Studio already has application conversion project templates for the following source technologies: COBOL, Delphi, Pascal, PowerBuilder, Informix 4GL, Informix 4GL Reports, Progress 4GL, Visual Basic, etc. and the following target desktop and web technologies: C# ADO.NET / LINQ, C# WinForms / WPF MVVM, ASP.NET / Java with ReactJS / AngularJS, Java JDBC / Hibernate, Java Swing, Oracle, Microsoft RDLC.

These projects work with existing source files. Items of such projects use the 3-panel mode in the editor depicting source, result and target files. The conversion item can have several resulting files corresponding to the same source file. It is shown in the example of an application conversion project below:

E-SQL/DB-API Conversion Project is intended to convert insertions of Embedded SQL and database API into files containing programming code from the source technology (DBMS or API) to the target one. The source files and conversion options can be specified during the project setup using nGLFly Wizard. The creation of this type of migration project is described in the Creating a New Migration Project and Files Conversion Guide chapters.

Migration Studio already has E-SQL/DB-API conversion project templates for the following technologies: Java JDBC, Java Hibernate, C# ADO.NET, VB.NET ADO.NET, C++ ODBC, Pro*C to ECPG, Pro*C to C/C++ with MySQL API, Pro*C to C/C++ with ODBC and other.

Projects of this type are similar to Application Conversion projects (described in Application Conversion Project) and SQL Code Conversion projects (described in Code Conversion Project).

In order to create a new migration project of any type, please follow the instructions below:

1.Open the “FILE” menu, then choose the “New” menu item and after that click on the appeared “Project” menu item. Alternatively, you can press the Ctrl+N Or choose “New Project…” on the Start Page.

2. In the appeared New Project dialog, please find the group of project templates called “For Production” and select the appropriate type of Production project according to your needs: Database Migration project or SQL Code / Application / E-SQL/DB-API Conversion You can also select a more particular template if you want. The Appearance of the New Project dialog and its main fields are presented below:

3. Fill in the next fields: Project Name, Solution Name and Solution Path. If you are already working in your existing solution, you can add a new project to your current solution if you want.

The Location field shows the physical path to the new project folder. The unnecessary Project Path field allows to add extra folder between the new project and its solution folder.

4. For your convenience during further steps, please make sure the “Run Conversion Immediately” check box is enabled.

5. Depending on what project template you have chosen, the corresponding Ispirer wizard (SQLWays or nGLFly) will be launched to continue the project creation process:

• For “Database Migration Project”, please follow the instructions from the Database Migration Guide chapter.
• For “SQL Code Conversion Project” follow the Files Conversion Guide.
• For “Application Conversion Project” follow the Files Conversion Guide.
• For “E-SQL/DB-API Conversion Project” use the information from the “Files Conversion Guide chapter.

6. After completing work with the corresponding wizard, your project is configured, saved and ready to use. You will see a new project appeared in your solution visible on any of the 3 view panels.

In order to run the conversion and testing processes, please make selects the project(s), conversion items or solution for that purpose, right-click on the selection to get the context menu, and click the “Run” menu item. Either make your conversion selection and press F5 on your keyboard, or click the “Run” button on the toolbar, or use the “RUN” menu.

After the conversion of the selected items and their comparison with their expected results will be completed, the items will get one of the next statuses:

• “Blocked”: an error occurred during the conversion.
• “Failed”: an item is converted successfully, but it is not equal to its expected content (“Target”).
• “Passed”: an item was converted successfully and is equal to its target.

Other items that were not launched during the conversion will get the “Not Run” status.

It is convenient to observe and work with the results of conversion and comparison in the Results View panel (can be seen in the picture below). You can easily navigate among differences between the current result file and its target using the “Previous Difference” and “Next Difference” buttons on the toolbar.

If a user found that some item is “Failed” because of its target is no longer actual/correct, it can be quickly corrected by using the “Validate” operation from the item context menu. If the difference occurred due to imperfect work of the conversion tool, please let Ispirer know about this case or correct the difference manually.