How to Transfer Your Desktop VB.Net App to Web App With Ease?

A few years back, businesses worldwide would create their business-critical applications, oftentimes using VB.NET. These apps, however, satisfied their needs; they’re not free of their fair share of challenges. Now, when the times have changed, it puts organizations in need of something new and upgraded. Fortunately, the desktop VB.NET app to web app migration is there to bridge the gap. In this article, we’re going to discuss everything on how to transfer desktop vb.net apps to web apps with ample ease.

Let’s read between the lines!

Excellent Approaches to Migrate Desktop VB.NET App to Web App

When it comes to turning your desktop VB.NET app into a web app, there are mainly three approaches for that. All these three approaches are completely backed by the official Microsoft community, so they will be more likely to be developer-friendly as well. Here’s what all you can do to make your VB.NET application web-friendly.

Transfer Desktop VB.NET App to Web App With Automation Tools

Organizations tend to choose automation tools as a substitute for fragmented development to migrate desktop vb.net app to web app. It’s a beneficial alternative to migrate your existing VB.NET application to another platform with a reduced amount of time and expense. Thanks to Microsoft officials, they launched three innovative tools, for example, Artinsoft VB Upgrade Companion, Microsoft Upgrade Wizard, and VB Migration Partner tool, in the year dated back to 2008. Making use of these tools, you can simply turn your existing classic Visual Basic and VB.NET applications to Java, C#, modern .NET framework, and the cloud.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Automation Migration

Choose This Approach When_

Transfer Desktop VB.NET App to Web App By Rewriting From Scratch

Rewriting approach to software modernization is one of the efficacious methods against lift and shift and refactoring that you can employ in every project. You can write the codebase right from scratch to do away with all the legacy tools, components, patterns, and the like.

Some organizations may try to pass by this approach, blaming its next-level of complexities. These apprehensions, however, aren’t false entirely— as you need to deal with various databases and rewriting efforts that could last for a little longer.

Advantages And Disadvantages of Rewriting VB.NET Application

Choose to Use Rewriting Approach When_

Note— Bear in mind that whatever approach to transfer the desktop VB.NET app to the web app you choose, do make sure that your chosen approach reflects what you need and help you satisfy them while being within your budget.

The VB.NET app to a web app migration is the need of the hour for businesses caught in the limitations of applications built using VB.NET. Microsoft doesn’t have plans to upgrade the VB.NET after 2020, making it an uphill task to support the existing applications powered by the very tech stack. This is what triggers the need to migrate the desktop VB.NET app to web app. Here are some of the reasons why you need to migrate your application to a web app.

VB.NET Application Encounters Performance Issues

Continuous downtimes, slow response times, and the likes are some of the common cons of VB.NET applications. In the year dated back to 2019, the owners of VB 6, VBScript, and Visual Basic for Applications, had to face an immense global outrage. The cause of this immense global outrage was that after installing the planned security update KB4512506, the apps stopped working. Software migration agencies like us solve this problem by utilizing the latest ASP.NET Core technology. Apart from this, we also ensure to use the .NET core best practices to ensure application does face any technical glitch post development.

Microsoft fixed this issue; however, the performance of Visual Basic fails to meet the expectations of the users. Thus, organizations started looking for an alternative backend solution rather than physical or dedicated servers.

Impediment While Maintaining the VB.NET Application

Next up, maintaining an application that has become obsolete is a daunting task to perform. Due to several causes, including lacking developers and the like, making changes in a VB.NET application is like clearing a minefield. When you have a lack of dexterous engineers, fixing a legacy code can open Pandora’s box, resulting in severe consequences.

Intending to back VB owners, Microsoft announced the C# coevolution plan in 2010. As a result, now it’s been convenient to work with the existing desktop applications; however, it isn’t able to extinguish the need to migrate desktop vb.net apps to web apps. One of the biggest reasons for this is there are libraries in VB applications that are completely outdated and lack the reliable analog for today’s world.

Lack of Equivalents For Obsolete Components

When it comes to outdated tech components and structure, Visual Basic applications make use of COM (Component Object Model). As it’s complex, COM was made use of immensely for Windows applications; now it has gained in popularity as Microsoft is focussing more on .NET technologies. Besides, the integral parts of COM, OCX/ActiveX controls, as well as software modules designed specifically to perform on 32-bit applications which are a part of COM, are no longer supported in VB apps.

Furthermore, there are several other third-party controls and components based on Visual Basic, too, that have become obsolete, provoking the need for replacement. The new .NET 5 release involves updates for the WinForms apps frameworks.

Incessantly Decreasing Number of VB.NET Professionals

As new technologies are continuously launching, the number of Visual Basic developers is decreasing. Now, it’s rare to find a developer willing to work on a Visual Basic project. The annual developer survey conducted by Stack Overflow states that Visual Basic 6.0, between 2016-2018, was considered the most dreaded programming language. The statistics evidence how maddening it’s to find a VB software developer and why businesses are moving towards transferring their existing desktop app to a web app.

What Are the Risks Associated with VB.NET App to Web App Migration?

Everything has double aspects, and migrating desktop VB.NET app to web app, too, isn’t an exception. With plenty of benefits, there are also some drawbacks when you head to migrate your existing Visual Basic application to a web app. Let’s have a sneak peek at a few of them!

Incompetent Developers

Getting in touch with inappropriate engineers is one of the significant risks associated with VB.NET to web app conversion. When it comes to providing services for Visual Basic, the number is considerably low. It’s one of the notable risks why more than 74% of businesses across the globe failed to accomplish software modernization projects. To circumvent consequences, you should focus on finding a VB.NET development company that has developers with a knack for creating quality VB.NET conversion solutions.

Poor Planning

Similar to lacking a developer’s potential, if you lack proper planning, it, too, can keep your project from not getting fulfilled in the way it should. Irrespective of which approach you choose, having a proper plan upfront has a lot to do with your project’s success. It directs you to move in the right direction, keeping you on track, resulting in successful project development on time and within budget. Bear in mind that the migration project requires many activities, including retooling, rethinking, to adding and training staff. So, plan your project beforehand and then move forward.

Compatibility Issues

The conversion of data from a certain place to another one is prone to data losses. There comes a situation when some sort of file formats tend to be unreadable in the new system. However, some can match; there may be some third-party tools used in the desktop app that are less likely to be compatible with the web app.

Signing Off…!

That’s all there’s to it! That’s all about how to migrate a desktop vb.net app to a web app. We suggested all three tips using which you can successfully migrate your existing VB.NET application to a web platform with ease and convenience. Furthermore, we also explored the reasons, along with the risks of VB.NET app modernization.

If you want to get details about the approaches to convert your legacy applications to a modern platform, Codzgarage is the leading application modernization and software migration agency to help.