PowerBuilder to Java, Austria

Challenge

The client turned to Ispirer initially in 2019 with an inquiry involving application conversion to the Web and aimed at using Java for these ends. The technology choice was based on the project requirements and the expertise of the internal team. The Java skill set of their experts was considered to be appropriate for applications maintenance in future.

The first milestone of the project we completed referred to the conversion of an application which included 37k lines of code. This approach helped the customer, upon a small scale, to check the feasibility of the project and ensure the right choice of migration strategy.

For the proper operation of the whole system and maximum efficiency of database migration from Oracle to Microsoft SQL Server, all the related applications have to be converted to Java.

According to the customer’s requirements, the web client was meant to be implemented with ReactJS (React), while the web server should be in Java.

In the light of a positive experience of mutual cooperation, we started discussing the next project milestone which included conversion of two applications. Its scope exceeded the previous one in terms of complexity and the quantity of LOC.

Service Strategy

Recently the number of projects involving desktop application migration to the web has increased greatly. The Ispirer team offers their own automated solution to the world's market for the tasks of this kind. The project goal was to convert the large-scale applications to a web technology correctly adhering to timescales and the budget.

Having a rich expertise in PowerBuilder and Java, we were able to find the optimal migration solution to Java involving ReactJS. We aimed at showing that the resulting applications in conjunction with the database would operate flawlessly and effectively cope with the tasks assigned.

Every business has a different IT-infrastructure combined of databases, servers and applications. Consequently, the requirements to the migration and the target system are unique and differ from one project to another. The Ispirer team can assist in identifying the code segments requiring special elaboration and define the performance measurements.

In the pipeline, the team examined in depth the source code which the customer provided us with. Particular requirements to application conversion to Java and React were gathered with diligence. After checking the approach from architectural and relevance points of view, our team found its best fit.

Ispirer ensures a faster and more efficient migration process of large applications due to the Ispirer Toolkit power and migration experts’ skills.

Solution

Application migration scope consisted of more than 500 PowerBuilder source files of the Regress application containing over 86k LOC. The application included 17 PowerBuilder customer’s modules. The Ispirer team assigned for this application migration services project consisted of three highly qualified developers.

During the analysis process 5 specifically complex code segments were revealed, which involved rarely used functionality. We developed a best-performing automatic solution for these tasks and successfully converted these code pieces into the target language.

Some non-specific instances were handled within this migration. For example, the WSDL services were initially applied in PowerBuilder. For the flawless execution of this functionality it was transferred to ReactJS.

The conversion was completed in three months, after that the workloads were moved forward to the next stage of internal testing and acceptance.

Ispirer seamlessly handled the conversion of modules and all the source files from PowerBuilder to Java and React. The Head of Application Migration Department Ivan Philipchik stated: “We successfully converted all types of source files from PowerBuilder to Java. A high level of automation in conversion of PowerBuilder was reached, and it allowed us to significantly reduce the time expenditures for code conversion in such kinds of projects.”

Results and Benefits Derived

According to tests the applications operate in a proper manner after conversion. The customer admitted that the whole system runs faultlessly and the resulting applications demonstrated the performance level proper for a high-load system. Our client remained pleased with the project outcome, since the results obtained in terms of quality and timelines surpassed their expectations. Ispirer demonstrated its expertise and credibility as a professional migration partner.