S O F T S O L

About The Solution

SoftSol is the leading expert in the area of reengineering and transforming client/server applications to multi-tier Java/J2EE (and C#/.NET technologies). Our effectiveness is due to our expert teams and advanced automation tools. SoftSol has provided tool assisted modernization solution for a variety of mission critical applications ranging from 500K lines of code (LOC) to 5 Million LOC. Although, we had no prior knowledge of these applications, nor worked with these clients before, we were still able to complete on time and within budget.

SoftSol’s migration and modernization experience demonstrates the confidence that high-profile companies and government organizations have placed in our approach:

  • Security was vital to the U.S. Department of Defense when they turned to SoftSol to migrate and modernize an application that manages all foreign military sales
  • Robust migration methodology provided array of alternatives to Infosys for migration of UI and business process integration, which made resulting product customized as per requirements
  • CalPERS, the world’s largest pension fund, selected SoftSol because on-time delivery was imperative
  • Accurate retention of critical business logic was important to Superior Court of California, HBO and Arcelor Mittal the world’s largest steel maker based in Germany

Primarily SoftSol provides tool assisted modernization solutions for applications developed in PowerBuilder and Forte technologies.

SoftSol’s Automated Migration Solution Benefits

  • Accurate code translation
  • Enable service oriented architecture
  • Preserve business logic
  • Reliable and timely solution
  • Parallel development during migration
  • Value for money
  • Supports multiple options for hosting
  • 100% business rules retention in target application
  • 100% functional equivalency in target application
  • Up to 100% automation

SoftSol Modernization Methodology

Our methodology provides a foundation and logical sequence of steps for successfully completion of the modernization.  Each step consists of defined activities and expected outcomes that support moving forward to the next step.

The main characteristics of our process are:

  • Active participation of client’s staff in decision-making of key architectural and application issues
  • An implementation and knowledge transfer process that enables client staff to be self-sufficient in maintaining the transformed application
  • Verification and validation of the application at each step

 

Modernized Target Application Architecture

The modernized target application has 3-tier architecture with three distinct layers – 

  • Presentation Layer 
  • Business Layer
  • Persistence/Data Access Layer

The presentation layer will be modernized using rich thin client technologies HTML5+CSS3, jQueryUI, and Angular-JS. The business and data access layer will be modernized using Java or .Net technologies based on the requirements.

Technical Advantages

SoftSol’s automated tool supports almost all aspects of the PowerBuilder and Forte language and platform. This ensures a very high degree of automation for SoftSol’s customers. Some of the key features of the migration tool are listed below.

SoftSol automated migration tool supports translation of following PowerBuilder and Forte features:

  • Data types to their equivalent supported types in Java/.Net
  • Statements and expressions
  • Event-handling framework
  • Transaction management
  • Embedded as well as dynamic SQL statements

SoftSol recognizes that every client’s migration project is different and has unique requirements. To account for these migrations, the automated tool is highly configurable and customizable, which ensures that SoftSol can provide a highly customized migration for our clients.

PowerBuilder Modernization

Central to our solution is SoftSol’s proprietary PowerBuilder migration tool which can perform migration of PowerBuilder applications to Java or .Net. It serves three important roles in the migration process: 

  • Analysis and diagnostics: Enables accurate application analysis and facilitates reliable project timeline projection Additionally, it assists in identifying any unique technical challenges inherent to the migration
  • Language Transformation: Converts PowerBuilder code into Java/.NET technologies
  • Runtime Libraries: Provides libraries for PowerBuilder and PFC framework classes

Following PowerBuilder language constructs are efficiently translated:

  • Operators
  • Statements (for, while, if, etc.,)
  • Expressions (relational, arithmetic)
  • Comments (single line, block)
  • Power Script Functions
  • Data Types (primitive, object, array)
  • Variable scopings and resolution
  • Inheritance of PB Objects
  • Implicit Exception Handling
  • SQL statements, cursors
  • Stores Procedures
  • Dynamic Properties
  • PFC Libraries
  • GUI objects
  • Menu objects
  • GUI data binding
  • Transactions
  • Reports
  • Structures
  • Functions
  • System Objects
  • Data Windows
  • Enumerations
  • Casting, referencing
  • Application Objects
  • NVO (Non-visual objects)
  • GUI events
  • Case Sensitivity

Forte Modernization

The applications developed using UDS/Forte platform have three tiers – client, business logic, and data.  The new architecture should follow the same configuration. With SoftSol’s automated tools and modernization methodology the Forte application can be modernized to an application with 3 distinct tiersusing latest technology with minimal risk.

Following Forte language constructs are efficiently supported:

  • Statements
  • Statement Blocks
  • Statement Block Labels
  • Single Line Comments
  • Block Comments
  • Names
  • Name Resolution
  • Qualified Names
  • String Constants
  • Boolean Constants
  • Numeric Constants
  • String Data Type
  • Char Data Type
  • Boolean Data Type
  • Integer Data Type
  • GUI Widget Attributes
  • Method Invocation
  • Named Parameters
  • Positional Parameters
  • Output Parameters
  • Input/Output Parameters
  • Optional Parameters
  • Return Value
  • Return Copy
  • Method Return Event
  • Method Exception Event
  • Declaring Arrays
  • Constructing Arrays
  • Referencing Arrays
  • Float Data Type
  • Comparison Expressions
  • Logical Expressions
  • Numeric Expressions
  • Object Constructors
  • Object Referencing
  • Self Referencing
  • Super Referencing
  • GUI Widget Referencing
  • NIL Referencing
  • Object Comparison
  • Casting
  • Object Attributes
  • Declaring Variables
  • Referencing Variables
  • Event
  • Exception
  • Exit
  • For
  • If
  • Method Invocation
  • Post
  • Raise
  • Register
  • Return
  • SQL Statements
  • Start Task
  • While
  • Projects
  • Classes
  • Declaration
  • Start Task
  • Referencing Constants
  • Begin
  • Interfaces
  • Declaring Constants
  • Cursors
  • Case
  • Class Constants
  • Cursor
  • Task handle
  • Logging
  • Service Object Reference
  • Constant
  • SQL
  • Event Handling
  • Transaction
  • Assignment
  • Begin Transaction
  • Continue
  • Project Constants
  • Service Object
  • GUI Layouts
  • Assigning Variables

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