How can I convert a bunch of .asp to .aspx ?

Question

Hello,

I want to port an existing, legacy, ecommerce website from ASP to ASP.NET.

What approaches do I have ?

• is there a way to run an ASP file with an ASP.NET engine ?
• are there tools to automatically convert ASP to ASP.NET and do they work on complex websites ?
• other approaches ?

Thanks for your help Jerome Wagner

Answer 1

• No, but if you have Asp.NET on the server, that doesn't mean the Asp pages won't run anyway. Having Asp.Net installed does not break classic asp. However, newer versions of Windows come with classic Asp turned off by default, so you have to go into add/remove programs/add/remove windows components and drill down to install asp. And there's nothing to prevent you from having asp pages sitting side-by-side with Asp.Net pages in te same website, or even the same directory, so really the first question si not really an issue.
• I've never heard of them. Classic ASP is so different from Asp.NET that it's just not feasible.
• Manually, one page at a time. And that is an approach that has issues because sharing session between Asp and Asp.Net is not trivial and relies on hacks.

I know this isn't an answer to your question and it's probably none of my business, but in my experience, this may be a good time to look at a commercial ecommerce site. Several are out there at good prices. The amount of time you'll spend on this may be way less than you'd spend. Also, PCI rules and security issues have changed so much since classic Asp was a "real" development platform that you're definitely better off with a commercial app.

I say this from experience. We just replaced our old shopping cart with a commercial one after spending quite a bit of time going back and forth on our best approach. If you can afford it, i strongly recommend it.

Answer 2

Step 1. Gather requirements for the new system
Step 2. Does anything exist that already meets your needs? if so, stop here and buy it.
Step 3. Build a data model and screen designs.
Step 4. Does the new system jive with the stake holders expectations. Go back to step 1 if necessary.
Step 5. Code new site

If necessary, review various standard project templates (scrum, waterfall, whatever). Pick one and stick to it.

You'll notice a distinct lack of anything remotely related to "converting" the old code / data files to the new platform. This is to preserve your sanity and help ensure the project will be a success.

To answer the actual question: no. You might as well have asked if there were tools to convert a php site to java. They are radically different things with their own approaches.

Answer 3

The other answers are valid, so I'll only add that there is a migration tool of sorts provided by microsoft: The ASP to ASP.NET 1.x Migration tool . It doesn't claim to completely migrate a site, but may assist with a large portion of it. Of course, this assumes that a asp.net 1.1 site will run just fine on the latest incarnation of asp.net.