It all started from a production system that had been developed on GeneXus 8.0 and generated on Visual FoxPro, with a data base on SQL Server.  At the request of a new client who was interested in investigating the possibility of using Open Source products, it was decided to make the Java and MySQL migration.

“I devoted a whole day to seeing how we were doing with the migration. The idea was to evaluate how costly the definite migration was going to be, so I decided to do a multi-step disposable migration, so we could solve problems and then go ahead and do the definite migration” commented Enrique Almeida, Manager of the IT Department of Concepto S.R.L., the company in charge of providing the solution.

The original system had been developed on Visual FoxPro/SQL Server 2000 and had 43 tables and 265 objects with win interface, with some years in production. The system also had around ten clients and several tens of users. The original idea was originally to finally get to Java/MySQL, but it was decided to do it in several steps.

1. Cleaning of the original KB. It included distributing the main objects and all the ones called by them; as well as identifying the objects with DBASE sentences.

2. Migrating to 9.0 .NET / SQL Server 2005. A KB had to be created in KB in GeneXus 9.0 and then consolidate the previous step, correcting the minor errors of the consolidation. A model had to be generated in .NET / SQL Server and all the Null properties had to be checked in attributes that could be null. Finally, the data had to be copied from SQL Server 2005 a SQL Server 2005.

3. Migrating data from SQL Server to MySQL. Basically the data base had to be created in MySQL with GeneXus and then the data had to be copied from SQL Server to MySQL with DTS.

4. Testing the application on .NET / SQL Server 2005.

5. Testing the application on .NET / MySQL.

6. Generating a model with Java / MySQL. The DBASE sentences had to be reprogrammed to Java.

7. Optimization and improvements. The last step was to activate the Cache, change the reports to PDF and test with Decimal Arithmetic.

“What struck me the most was how few errors appeared in the migration. All these steps were made in less than 10 hours, including the time I devoted to studying some data migration tools and to copying the data”, stated Enrique Almeida.

“It is really amazing that in such a short time we can have a system in operation on such different platforms. Now the system is generated on Full Microsoft technology (.NET 2.0/SQLServer 2005) and Full Open Source (Java/MySQL), which will let us make comparisons and choose the most convenient one. What was supposed to be an evaluation migration ended up being the definite migration”, said Almeida.