Migrate ASP to Java environment

[Daoyue Ming]

our client is going to replace its ASP (old one, not in .net) website to java environment with concerns of security and performance.

we are going to add in transaction control, and connection pooling for security and performance, so decided to use Spring to control the transaction, and use iBatis to leverage existing SQL operation in ASP.

Now we are hesitating in web layer, as old ASP doesn't have MVC in mind, lots of web layer control and navigation are done by request parameters within the ASP itself. We have two options, one is use MVC framework like struts, but it requires rework all the ASP. Another option is just translate ASP logic to JSP, and move business logic and database operation to Spring service and iBatis.

Anyone has any suggestion how to do it?

[Merrill Higginson]

I can sympathise with how tedious it will be to go through the pages one by one and extract some logic to an Action class while leaving other logic in the page. I expect, though, that one of the reasons you're doing this whole exercise in the first place is to have a more organized, more maintainable application. As I see it, unless you go all the way and make this into a real MVC application, you won't accomplish your goal of having a more maintainable application. This means taking the time to separate business logic out of the pages themselves.

There are lots of frameworks out there. You may want to do more research before deciding on one. If you use the search function in this forum, you will find many threads comparing them. If you want a "tried and true" solution that does a good job of encouraging MVC principles, I don't think you'd go too far wrong by choosing Struts.

[Daoyue Ming]

i have worked with Struts, but not familiar with other frameworks.
as i am from a MNC, it's quite ugly that what we have done for migration is only translate ASP to JSP for presentation layer, and if use framework, it's easy to control safety and performance issues.

[Vivek Abhichandani]

Hi,
I know that this post is old, but just in case if you went ahead with the migration, can you give some idea on how you went about it.

Actually, our project is going through a similar exercise. We have already decided to use struts on top of spring framework. We have planned to document existing functionalities of the application and port them from the asp page to spring/struts layer.

Can you give some pointers on the difficulties you faced in the migration process?

Thanks,
Vivek