Moving a VB app to the web

[kstefanski]

I have a client-server application developed in Visual Basic 5, which has an Oracle 8 database (on Unix) and uses Crystal Reports 7 for the reporting functionality.

There is discussion of making this application a web application, so the user can run it through a browser and won't have a workstation installation or upgrades of the application.

Are there any suggestions about which tools to use (i.e., get trained for) to do this? Should I plan on re-writing it in Java or stick with VB and if I stick with VB, how can I make it web-enabled?

Thank you in advance! I will be checking back, but also feel free to email me at:
kymberlie.stefanski@ameritech.com

[Lothar Haensler]

my personal ideas:
- turn your VB app into an ActiveX DLL or set of ActiveX DLLs that reside on the server (hopefully IIS).
- write an HTML-based UI for your APP -> rewrite the UI, but reuse business logic and database access code.
- instantiate your ActiveX DLL from an Active Server Page.

using that approach you can develop a browser-independent Web app.

what tools to use?
- Visual Interdev (comes with Visual Studio)

there are other options though:
- use Web Classes (in my opinion the most stupid "enhancement" to VB I have seen over the past years)
- write a DHTML application in VB 6 (an be totally browser dependent: IE 4 and above)
tools needed: VB 6