Q: When I just pick like 5 or 6 ASP files for it to convert, it does so, no problem, creates the VB solution perfectly, etc... but when I pick 506 files (the whole site, includes subfolders, etc.) it does not generate anything. I am using the exact same settings, just converting more files.... any idea what make this failure occur? It literally doesn't generate a single page in the deploy folder, just the BIN folder. I am getting all "green lights" on the process (takes about 16 minutes when I select all files), ... any ideas on why it is not generating the files???
A: The new project wizard is intended only to help you get setup so that you can develop an ASP site conversion. The wizard does not intend to be a turnkey process that does analysis, trouble shooting, and refinement for you.
When we develop an ASP site upgrade solution, we typically follow this process:
Use the wizard to scan and load the source, qualify files as includes or pages, and prepare the COM descriptions, the initial translation script templates, and the COM interface descriptions. I do not run any translations or reports from the wizard.
At this point, I am done running the wizard and I switch to working in the gmStudio IDE.
Filter the files to just the PAGES as identified by the Include Order process then validate all of the PAGES to identify any with missing dependencies. Resolve missing dependencies. Do not attempt to translate include files: they will be translated as needed for pages that reference them.
Next, attempt a single-page translation for each page and examine the log to see if there are any translation errors or warnings. If so investigate and resolve.
Examine the results of each page translation looking for late bound code, and if so, try to resolve to a stronger type by adding type hints (registy-fixtype) or other rule-based techniques
Deploy each page into a single-base web application project and attempt to build it. Each project will include the translated page and all of its direct and indirect includes translated to code classes. You will need to edit the User Command Batch script to facilitate the cleanup and deployment for each test.
Examine and resolve the build issues using various rule-based techniques such as fixtypes and EditFile commands in a GlobalSettings file as appropriate.
Once all of the page translations produce code that builds, take those rules and integrate them with the SITE script that contains commands to compile all of the pages as a set.
Generally speaking once all of the pages translate and build individually, the combined site script also builds.
At this point, you will have a full ASP\.NET project for all of your pages that builds in Visual Studio.
Now I will being to add the custom upgrades such as COM replacements, removing dead code, integrating hand written code, integrating runtime support assemblies as needed, custom project and web.config, etc.
At some point, you will have a ASP\.NET solution that runs and has a structure worthy of debugging. You may then cut-over to finishing it manually, or you may continue improving the translation rules to correct defects in a systematic way.
At some point, the code will have no know defects and you can work on packaging and publishing to a more production-like environment.
Once the ASP\.NET site works well enough in the production-like environment, you can go live.
See also
Prepare Web Site Script