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Migrating Old Uniface Applications that are based on Uniface 7 & Uniface 8.4

  • 1.  Migrating Old Uniface Applications that are based on Uniface 7 & Uniface 8.4

    Posted 06-10-2024 04:36

    Hi everyone,

    My name is Yaki and I'm new here.

    I am working with a customer who is contemplating what to do with a couple of old Uniface applications that are still based on Uniface 7 & Uniface 8.4, as  these applications are based on an unsupported infrastructure and need to be modernized.

    I would appreciate feedback on:

    1. The Migration path involved  from Uniface 7 & 8.4 to the current Uniface 10.4
    2. The complexity and sticking points of such a migration
    3. Is there still support for migrating from such old Uniface versions? 
    4. Feedback on your experience with Uniface migration services and its effectiveness, success  and cost-performance in such a migration scenario.  
    5. When conducting such a migration and modernization, are there any recommended products that need to be purchased that are not included in the Uniface 10.4 licenses?
    6. Feedback on migration services/tools that can facilitate an efficient migration of such applications  to non-Uniface environments
    7. Pointers to any useful references/past discussions.

    I'm hoping your experience and knowledge can help my customer make informed decisions. 

    Thank you,

    Yaki.



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    Yaki Beja
    Rocket Forum Shared Account
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  • 2.  RE: Migrating Old Uniface Applications that are based on Uniface 7 & Uniface 8.4

    Posted 06-10-2024 10:51

    Hi Yaki

    You have a lot of work ahead of you. Or maybe not :-)

    Migration from 7/8 to 9 is not the big deal
    Create a new environment with Uniface 9.
    Export the whole model to XML
    Import the XMl to UnifAce 9
    Compile all "things" and check for errors. You can ignore warnings about "depricated"  :-)
    Take a coffe pause and thing about the errors:"Can I  solve them global or have I to change the proccode in every component?"
    If you have a "stable" UnifAce 9 version, do the same for migration from Uniface 9 to 10

    We are working with Uniface from late Uniface 6 to now UnifAce 10.
    90% of the code runs without any problems.
    9% have to change "mechanical" (may be a "search&replace" component?)
    And for 1% you have to thing: "Holy s..t, how to solve this" :-)

    Just try it out; and if there are "challenges"  ask the forum

    BTW 
    Topic 5 : UnifAce do have all you need. But this depends on what you except :-)
                       There is no tool in UnifAceor outside of Uniface to create a "moderen"  appöication
                        It's up to you to thing about what is moderen and how ti reach the goal
                        But first, try to migrate to Uniface 10, maybe you find a few new "components"/"things" thet can help you to reach the goal
    Topic 6 : No there is no tools to migrate from Uniface to another program languages.
                        Just thing about the access to the database. How to tell a migration tool to handle this :)

    Ingo



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    Ingo Stiller
    Aareon Deutschland GmbH
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  • 3.  RE: Migrating Old Uniface Applications that are based on Uniface 7 & Uniface 8.4

    Posted 06-11-2024 03:37

    Ingo, thank you so much for your elaborate answer. It is very helpful.

    I understand from you that Uniface 7 apps can be migrated directly to Uniface 9.



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    Yaki Beja
    Rocket Forum Shared Account
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  • 4.  RE: Migrating Old Uniface Applications that are based on Uniface 7 & Uniface 8.4

    Posted 06-11-2024 03:42

    Hi Yaki

    Good question about 7 => 9 :-)
    We did it step by step, but I could work directly as the dictionary hasn't changed that much from 7 => 8 

    Ingo



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    Ingo Stiller
    Aareon Deutschland GmbH
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  • 5.  RE: Migrating Old Uniface Applications that are based on Uniface 7 & Uniface 8.4

    Posted 06-11-2024 04:20

    Hi Yaki

    I posted to this forum a few years ago on this topic... 

    I completed successfully and easily a conversion from v7 to v10... 

    All the data is there in the xml files of v7.... You just need to slot it into an xml format for v10.

    Formpic was also not an obstacle.

    Notepad++ and regex are your friends for this job ;-)



    ------------------------------
    Osman Shariff
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  • 6.  RE: Migrating Old Uniface Applications that are based on Uniface 7 & Uniface 8.4

    Posted 06-12-2024 03:33

    Hi Osman,

    Thank you so much for your tips and suggestions!

    To clarify - did you migrate from Uniface 7 directly to Uniface 10, or was it in phase/s with Uniface 8/9?

    I will try to look up your old posts on this topic .

    Yaki.



    ------------------------------
    Yaki Beja
    Rocket Forum Shared Account
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  • 7.  RE: Migrating Old Uniface Applications that are based on Uniface 7 & Uniface 8.4

    Posted 06-12-2024 05:12

    It was a conversion from v7 directly to v10 bypassing any uniface migrate processes.   

    If you can not get your hands on v8 and v9 then it can easily be done if you are happy to get your hands dirty.



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    Osman Shariff
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  • 8.  RE: Migrating Old Uniface Applications that are based on Uniface 7 & Uniface 8.4

    Posted 06-12-2024 03:36

    Ingo ,

    Thank you for clarifying this point !

    Yaki.



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    Yaki Beja
    Rocket Forum Shared Account
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  • 9.  RE: Migrating Old Uniface Applications that are based on Uniface 7 & Uniface 8.4

    Posted 06-11-2024 05:27

    Hi

    An important point is to be able to compile the code in v7/v8... just to compare with v9/v10. If not, you could waste a lot of time trying to fix errors that already existed in original code 20 years ago.

    A thing I do with this kind of challenges is to split message log in individual files (only for components). I built a simple program that splits compilation messages into individual files. After this, I commit all of them into a GIT or similar. This way I can easily compare compilations of the different Uniface versions.

    Pay attention on UTF8, version 7  comes from many years ago

    Most in this forum has successfully migrated from version 6 -> 7 -> 8 -> 9 -> 10

    On step after another  :-) 



    ------------------------------
    Luis Vila
    luis.vila@uniface.es
    Spain
    ------------------------------



  • 10.  RE: Migrating Old Uniface Applications that are based on Uniface 7 & Uniface 8.4

    Posted 06-11-2024 08:03

    if don't want to install github, here is a nice tool to compare folders/files :-)
    https://winmerge.org



    ------------------------------
    Ingo Stiller
    Aareon Deutschland GmbH
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  • 11.  RE: Migrating Old Uniface Applications that are based on Uniface 7 & Uniface 8.4

    Posted 06-12-2024 03:41

    Luis, 

    Thank you so much for all your useful recommendations !

    Yaki.



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    Yaki Beja
    Rocket Forum Shared Account
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  • 12.  RE: Migrating Old Uniface Applications that are based on Uniface 7 & Uniface 8.4

    ROCKETEER
    Posted 06-11-2024 07:18
    Edited by David Akerman 06-11-2024 08:02

    Hi Yaki,

    I recommend reading the Uniface Migration Guides:

    In my personal experience, migrating from Uniface 7 to 8 requires the most work, and from 9 to 10 the least.

    You may also need to regenerate database stored procedures in Uniface 10. If you're changing platform as well that would also require additional work to address any dependencies.

    We built an e-learning path for "What's New in Uniface 10" which is free to use, and includes a "Migrating to Uniface 10" module that gives you some guided practice migrating a small supplied Uniface 9 application to Uniface 10. Your account manager can put you in touch with Uniface services people if you need assistance outside of this forum.

    Kind Regards,



    ------------------------------
    David Akerman
    Principal Solution & Enablement Architect
    Rocket Internal - All Brands
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  • 13.  RE: Migrating Old Uniface Applications that are based on Uniface 7 & Uniface 8.4

    Posted 06-12-2024 03:47

    David,

    Thank you so much for your elaborate and helpful answer !

    Yaki.



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    Yaki Beja
    Rocket Forum Shared Account
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