4GL MIGRATIONS

NATIVE MIGRATIONS

A Native Migration entails a variety of changes to the application code removing any reliance on legacy database technology.  Instead, technology that is “native” to the target platform is utilized.

Any calls within the application to access proprietary database technologies such as databases and screen handlers are removed from the application code and replaced with code to access standard screen systems and databases which are native to the target platform.

When the “native migration” process is completed, the application will run on the target platform providing the same functions and in the same manner to the existing end-users. However, internally, all proprietary elements have been replaced with native technology. Ideally, the end-user would not be aware that the functions are now executing on a different platform from the legacy platform.

A native migration approach involves:

• transferring application source code to the target platform (This may require translating the programing language to COBOL);
• where the source language is already COBOL then converting any proprietary COBOL statements to the equivalent standard COBOL statements;
• modifying code to utilize facilities that are native to the target platform;
• converting data;
• recompiling the code with the appropriate COBOL compiler;
• linking with .NET deployment libraries and testing it;
• executing with the native technology on the target platform.