Is an automatic conversion the answer?

The Sibants .NET and Java Converter tools are excellent and proven at converting Centura applications to both the .NET and J2EE. Our automated conversion keeps the basic structure of the original application and makes some improvements to take advantage of the new environment.

For migrating Centura applications, which are well designed, structured and coded, this approach is perfect.

Do you want to migrate poorly coded systems?

The reality is that many Centura applications are not well designed, well structured and well coded.

Some Centura applications were developed many years ago and, as the business requirements changed, there were many additions and modifications made to the application, which has resulted in poorly coded systems. Lack of some important features in Centura Team Developer led to hard coded workarounds to emulate the desired behavior.

In these situations the migration of a Centura application to a new environment also provides an opportunity to improve the application design. In these cases Sibants can provide an additional service called Migration Plus.

What is Migration Plus?

SibAnts Software's Migration Plus will combine automated translation, refactoring and re-writing methodologies and tools. Some parts of your translated application may require a complete redesign.

What is involved in Migration Plus?

It seems very obvious but first we need to examine your applications architecture, understand its functionality, scrutinize the coding style used and read the documentation to fully appreciate and understand your application.

From this analysis we will create an Audit Document, which will contain all the necessary information about your application that is required for the translation process.

Next, we (SibAnts and our client) need to decide what we want as our result from this conversion. We need to know what is your target platform, the functionality required, your naming standards, coding styles and other such things.

We then perform a feasibility study based on the audit document and your defined business requirements. The study will determine the constraints of the project and whether the project can succeed or not. If it's not we'll ask you to re-examine your business requirements.

If we find the translation is feasible, we'll define the project including the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) and Project plan; we will also identify any risk factors.

The majority of projects starts with the automated conversion using our SibAnts Java/.NET Convertor. Conversion tool is very smart and flexible. Sibants Java/.NET Convertor ...

• ... can follow any naming standard and is able to get rid of Hungarian notation that is not recommended for Java and .NET applications;
• ... generates code that is easy to understand by any developer, not only by ex-Centura staff. Native functions and controls are used whenever it's possible;
• ... supports smart scope detection for classes, functions and variables for better encapsulation (it beats one of the main weaknesses of Centura);
• ... optimizes data types used for better performance and coding style;
• ... can support project-specific tasks via scripts
• ... marks all places that may require manual changes;
• ... much, much more.

Conversion output will be used as an input for reengineering, reverse engineering and refactoring procedures. All it allows to simplify code itself and the application structure, make it more understandable and robust, improve the performance and so on. We are experienced in these processes and use best tools for fast and error-free changes in code.

When the success criteria are meet we'll deliver you all project materials. We'll also provide you with all information relevant to the future development of your application and help you to maintain it.