Page Comparison

...

1) Two Translation Options added to the prototype script.

<Select BuildFile="local" />

BuildFile="local" tells the translator to generate stub files for COM API references.

2) The Library setting is different.

INTEROP <Select Library="%InteropFolder%" /> ---PROTOTYPE <Select Library="%GenExternFolder%" />

The Library setting tells gmBasic how to author HintPath settings in the target projects.

3) Two registry commands are added to the prototype script.

<Registry Type="idfstatus" Source="stdole2.tlb" Target="migrate" /><Registry Type="idfstatus" Source="MSVBVM60_3.dll" Target="migrate" />

Stdole and VBRUN are special cases of COM libraries that are rarely needed even though they explicitly show up as references in VBPs files. These two commands tell gmBasic to suppress generating and referencing the prototype assemblies.

VB6 Interop vs. ASP Interop

Comparing the following files:

tran.vbp_std.xml: For VB6 Migrations using the Interoped Externals Strategy
tran.asp_std.xml: For ASP Migrations using the Interoped Externals Strategy

shows differences in seven sections.

1) The DeployLocation for a website unit is computed differently than for a VB6 unit.

VB6 <Select DeployLocation="%NetProjFolder%" />
---
ASP <select DeployLocation="%DeployFolder%" />

2) The Virtual Root is needed for website processing so a select to set it is added

<select VirtualRoot ="%VirtualRoot%" />

3) Web Application Project Files require special GUIDS to get along with Visual Studio. They are set using these registry commands in the ASP script.

Code Block

language	html/xml

<if lang="csh">
   <Registry type="guid" source="Project" target="{7EE74E01-07B7-4C4F-B053-895BB67A3A51}" />
   <Registry type="guid" source="ProjectType1" target="{349C5851-65DF-11DA-9384-00065B846F21}" />
   <Registry type="guid" source="ProjectType2" target="{FAE04EC0-301F-11D3-BF4B-00C04F79EFBC}" />
   <Registry type="guid" source="Flavor" target="{349C5851-65DF-11DA-9384-00065B846F21}" />
</if>
<if lang="vbn">
   <Registry type="guid" source="Project" target="{CE8BB43C-9A4F-4900-AFD0-A4C18D1C30B1}" />
   <Registry type="guid" source="ProjectType1" target="{349C5851-65DF-11DA-9384-00065B846F21}" />
   <Registry type="guid" source="ProjectType2" target="{F184B08F-C81C-45F6-A57F-5ABD9991F28F}" />
   <Registry type="guid" source="Flavor" target="{349C5851-65DF-11DA-9384-00065B846F21}" />
</if>

4) Unlike VBP files, Websites do not explicitly declare all of their COM dependencies; so, the dependencies must be determined by analyzing the site. Once this is done the references can be inserted by gmStudio or by hand. The %ReferenceList% place holder in the ASP template facilitates this.

%ReferenceList%

5) It is somewhat common that ProgIds in CreateObject statements use non-standard naming conventions. The file Registry.xml helps gmBasic resolve non-standard ProgIds used by various third party components.

<Include Filename="%AppRoot%\support\lang\registry.xml"/>

6) Slightly different compilation commands are used for VB6 and ASP.

VB6 <Compile Project="%SrcPath%" />
---
ASP <Compile PageSlice="%SrcPath%" />

7) A name for the web application project and its default namespace must be explicitly provided to gmBasic since it cannot be determined from the source code. This is done using the name attribute of the Author command.

VB6 <Author />
---
ASP <Author name="%MigName%" />

Preparing an ASP solution

1) Prepare to do the first translation: generate IDFS, setup registry-libname, etc.

2) Work through the pages one at a time: add registry-fixtype and PostEdits to the Page Template Script, and compile refactors and fixes to GlobalSettings.xml. You may also develop cross-page artifacts such as custom IDFs, refactor files, and script includes. Step 2 produces the solo page solution: a Page Template Script and supporting files that can be used to generated the "one page site" for each page that builds.

For ASP, PreEdits and Compile\Refactors are mainly done at the file level in usr\GlobalSettings.xml PostEdits are added to the Author block in the template -- unfortunately this means that all of Page Actual Scripts contain PosdtEdits all pages, not ideal, but generally not harmful. Also, for ASP, many of the PostEdits will apply to many of the pages, so "all for all" is probably more appropriate than trying to minimize the set of PostEdits for each page.

3) Generate the Site Template Script from the Page Template Script (Report\Utilities\Multi-Unit Script) in theory the only difference is that the Site Template Script has Compile PageSlices for all pages explicitly while the Page Template Script has just one parameterized Compile, <Compile PageSlice="%SrcPath%">.

4) Work through any Site translations issues and make adjustments to the Site Template Script until the web application for the entire site builds.

Versions Compared

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Key

VB6 Interop vs. ASP Interop

Preparing an ASP solution