Getting Started

WebMAP: WinForms to Web is a tool designed to convert .NET Framework apps based on C# and Windows Forms to a modern web architecture. Get started with the WebMAP WinForms tool documentation.

WebMAP: WinForms to Web manages to convert from the structure of .NET Desktop Application to a Web Application with the infrastructure of a client-server as follows:

In the previous Introduction, we explained the basics of how the source code will look once converted to WebMAP. Now, in the subsequent section, we will discuss how to convert your input application to this new web structure using WebMAP: WinForms to Web.

Installation

Getting up and running with Mobilize.Net WebMAP: WinForms to Web is quick and easy, you just have to follow the instructions below.

System Requirements

Supported Operating Systems

• Windows 8.

• Windows 10.

System Installation Requirements

In order to use the WebMAP: WinForms to Web Conversion Tool, you have to verify if your machine meets the following requirements:

• Internet access

• .NET Framework 4.6.2+ (the installer will look for it and install it if necessary).

• Microsoft MSBuild 15+ (the installer will look for it and install it if necessary).

Conversion Requirements

• You must have a valid license.

• Visual Studio 2022, Build Tools for Visual Studio 2022.

Your installation of Visual Studio, must include the following setting:

• Go to Individual components tab and make sure that .Net SDK option is checked into .Net section.

• Your source code must compile in your machine using the Visual Studio.

• The solutions must not have COM References, so please replace COM references with Interop DLL libraries.

• Make sure that all external DLLs are located under the solution folder.

• Supported source code project frameworks:

  • NET 3.x, .NET 4.x.

  • NET Standard.

  • NET Core.

  • We do not support VB.NET source code. Please remove VB.NET projects before you start the conversion.

Step 1: Download the Application

You can download WebMAP: WinForms to Web on the Mobilize.Net website. WebMAP: WinForms to Web is in a beta testing phase, so please fill out the form on this page to get access to it and learn more about WinForms conversions to the web.

Step 2: Execute the Installer

If you've ever installed a windows application on your computer, this should be pretty straightforward.

1. Click on the downloaded .exe file.

2. On the next screen, click on the install button.

3. The installer will set up all the required files in your machine (Note that you will not be asked to input license information until you launch WebMAP for the first time.)

4. The installer will check for missing dependencies in your computer and ask to install them if they're missing. If you choose not to install those dependencies, then the installation process will be canceled since those dependencies are necessary for the conversion tool to work as expected.

Step 3: Launch the Application

Mobilize.Net WebMAP: WinForms to Web is an executable program file so you can run it like any other Windows application. When you first start WebMAP: WinForms to Web, you will see the following screen:

When you launch WebMAP: WinForms to Web for the first time, it will prompt you for the license key. Contact [e-mail] if you are looking to get a license or renew an existing one. If you have an issue with a current license, please contact [e-mail] for further information related to these problems.

License Types

As of now, there are two types of licenses available to use WebMAP: WinForms to Web:

Trial Version: When running the application with a trial version, you will be able to execute some conversions with a limit of lines of code. Once this limit has been reached, you will prompt for a full conversion license.

Full Conversion Mode: If you have a full conversion license, you will be able to run an unlimited quantity of code through the tool, and you will receive the output code in ASP.NET Core, Angular, JavaScript, and KendoUI.

More license information will be available shortly. Please reach out to [e-mail] for more

General Menu

File Menu

The File menu can be found in the top left corner of the application screen. When you choose this menu, you will get the following options:

Settings: This option will take you to the settings page of the application where you can configure some specific settings for the conversion of your application.

Close: This option allows you to close the whole application.

Help Menu

The Help menu can be found in the top left corner of the application screen, next to the File menu. Once you click on it, you will get the following options:

User Guide: by clicking this option your default browser will open and take you to the documentation site for WebMAP: WinForms to Web.

License Information: It will give you details about: what execution mode this license is available (trial or full conversion), for who the license is registered to and when the license will expire. Also from this screen, you can update the current license.

Check for Updates: WebMAP: WinForms to Web should check for updates every time it starts up. However, if you're not sure whether or not you have the latest version, you can select this option so the application checks for updates. If an update is available, you will be given the option to download it. If there are no updates available, you will get a brief message indicating that "you're up to date!".

Terms and Conditions: This will take you to the terms and conditions page of Mobilize.Net. Brace yourself for some legalese, but if you're looking for the terms and conditions of use for this product, look no further.

About WebMAP: WinForms to Web: this will give you some basic information about the version of WebMAP: WinForms to Web that you are currently running, including what version of the application and the conversion core the application is using.

Notifications and Conversion Settings

We will go through to some of the most important notifications you may receive while using WebMAP: WinForms to Web, along with a brief explanation of the configuration screen.

Notifications

Each time you start the application, it will check to see if you have any pending notifications. These will appear in the top right corner of the screen. If you do not have any notification, nothing will appear. The most common types of notifications you will receive are listed below.

Update Available

Mobilize.Net is constantly working to improve WebMAP: WinForms to Web. If there is an update available, you will get a notification letting you know a new version is available, and asking you if you want to install it. By pressing the "Update" button in the notification, the newest version of the application will automatically start to download.

Once the download is complete, you will be prompted to run the installer. (You can see "Execute the Installer" above to learn more about installing WebMAP: WinForms to Web). The upgrade installation process will behave exactly as if you are downloading it for the first time, with the exception that you will not have to re-enter your license information since that is kept automatically.

When you launch the upgraded version of WebMAP: WinForms to Web for the first time, it will prompt you to see the release notes about this latest version of the application. This will open your default browser and take you to the release notes section of our documentation site.

License expiration

If you have a time-based license, you will receive notifications as you approach the end of your license period. These will come in three different stages:

1. The first notification will let you know that your license expires in 15 days.

2. The second one will notify you when your license expires in 2 days.

3. You will get a final notification if you open the application and your license has expired. This third notification will request a new license for you to keep using the tool.

You will be prompted to reach out to [e-mail] by each of these notifications for you to renew your license.

If you are using a license based on counting lines of code, you will get a notification indicating that the following run will exceed the maximum number of lines of code permitted for your current license. As with the time-based license, you will be prompted to reach out to [e-mail] to renew or upgrade your license.

Conversion Settings

To go to the conversion settings screen, click on the "Let's begin" button from the initial screen. Once in the conversion parameters screen, you have two ways of getting into the settings screen.

The first one is to click on the File option from the menu above and then select Settings option. The second one is to click on the blue gear icon next to the "Start conversion" button.

Once in the settings screen, the following will be displayed:

For now, we have two general settings on this screen:

Start-up project: Indicates the startup project where the conversion should begin as well it will contain the Angular folder with all the newly generated components of the user interface.

Custom conversion file: This option allows you to select a configuration file provided by Mobilize to customize the conversion to your needs. You can request and work with our sales team to customize this configuration file once you have acquired a full license with us. Please reach out to [e-mail] for further information.

In this same window, we also have the tab conversion results which has the following settings available:

Conversion results: the conversion will generate only the Angular components from the user interface of the application.

Target framework: you can select the desired framework of your output application between .NET Core, .NET 5 and .NET Framework.

Angular project: you can add to your C# solution a project where the angular application can be compiled. This option is only available when target framework is selected as .NET 5 or .Net Core.

Reset settings button: You can reset to the original default settings if you would like to revert your changes.

Conversion Process

So now to the most important part, how do you use WebMAP: WinForms to Web? The following steps will walk you through the inputs you will have to provide to the application and the processes that it goes through internally.

Step 1: Insert the Input Solution and Output Folder

Once you have launched WebMAP: WinForms to Web and click the "Let's begin" button, you will see the following screen where you can specify both the input solution (.sln) and the output folder.

Input Solution: Your input solution is the solution file (.sln) of your application. You can either click on the browse button or type the path manually. If you don't have any project at hand, you can download the sample app HelloWorld we saw during the introduction and input the solution located in the SourceCode folder.

You don't have to make sure your application is compiled before trying to use it as an input solution. But it is advised to make sure the application can be compiled on your machine before the conversion process.

Output Folder: The output folder is the folder where you would like WebMAP: WinForms to Web to save the logs, and output code from the conversion process.

Once you have chosen your input and output parameters, the application will perform the following validations:

• If there are already files in the output directory, you will get a message once you hit "Start Conversion" that will ask you if you'd still like to proceed with the conversion.

• If one or both of the file paths are invalid, you will get a message indicating so.

Once the "Start conversion" button is activated, click on it to start the conversion process.

Step 2: Start the Conversion Process

Once you begin the conversion process, there are three different conversion states that will be updated accordingly.

Note that you will also get a readout of how many files are being converted, and the total size of the source files.

Mobilize.Net WebMAP: WinForms to Web conversion tasks are divided up as follows:

1. Loading Source Code: The solution you selected as input is loaded into the conversion tool which analyzes it and prepares to parse through the source code. If there are any errors in loading the files, an error message will be thrown.

2. Converting Source Code: The conversion process begins and produces some metadata about the loaded files including the size and quantity of the files reported on the screen. While the conversion process is taking place, WebMAP: WinForms to Web is building a complete AST and a complete symbol table to properly create functional equivalence on the output code.

3. Writing Converted Code and Reports: This final state lets you know that the conversion process is complete, and the application is creating the output code and conversion logs to populate the output folder.

During each stage, the cards depicting each stage on the screen will change color to indicate what is currently taking place. The blue stage with the loading icon shows that the state is executing. The green stage with the check icon shows that the state was successfully executed. Finally, if you encounter a red stage with an X icon, that indicates that something went wrong while executing that specific task.

Take into account that since both the analyzing and converting processes depend on your input application's size, these steps may take from a few minutes to several ones.

Step 3: Check the Conversion Results

Once the conversion has finished, the "Next" button will be available at the bottom right of the screen. Once you clicked on it, you will be taken to a screen with a short summary of statistics about the conversion that just took place.

Included on this screen are the following:

Conversion Inventory

• Total Number of Files: The number of files that were processed by WebMAP: WinForms to Web during this conversion.

• Input Total Size: The total size of your input solution.

• Number of Errors: Number of warnings, elements not converted, and errors that were generated by the application while processing and converting your input solution. You can learn more about issues and errors by visiting our documentation on Errors and Troubleshooting.

Conversion Overview

• documentation: link directed to the post-conversion documentation.

• Successfully Converted: this corresponds to the percentage of language elements successfully converter to WebMAP.

• Not Converted: the percentage of language elements not converter to WebMAP.

Conversion Performance

• Elapsed Time: The actual time it took to convert your solution.

• Speed: The speed in language elements per second that took WebMAP: WinForms to Web to convert the source code.

Now that you’ve converted your first application, let's continue with the post-conversion process which includes compiling and running the output application.