I have 5 clients running a system that I wrote in Focus Six using mostly maintain to warehouse patient test result data. I use FOCUS databases with extensive cross referencing and just about every feature of maintain. The last time I tried to migrate this system to WebFOCUS Developer Studio 4.3.5(deploying in a windows environment) I ran into a major problem with file cross-referencing and was unable to migrate. I was told then that alot of the maintain functionality was not in Web FOCUS yet. I would like to know if all the functionality of FOCUS Six Maintain is now available in Web FOCUS and if anyone out there has sucessfully migrated a system like this to WebFOCUS? My clients like the system and want to keep using it and I have a new client who wants to purchase it now but FOCUS Six is not even certified for Windows XP and is not supported by IBI anymore. At some point, it will no longer run in a new windows environment.

Dara,

I did a migration from FOCUS Six many years ago. I moved the data to SQL first. Are your clients running the app stand-alone through the FOCUS Six run-time package? WebFOCUS does not have "run-time" licensing and each client may have to purchase WF software, unless you move to hosting the application. This was one of the largest impact of the releases after FOCUS Six. IBI had given Developers unlimited run-time distributions under FOCUS Six licensing. That was changed for subsequent releases and is no longer the case. The move from FOCUS Six screen to WebFORMS was perhaps the most painful part of the migration from a development perspective, the conversion to SQL was easy, but the inability to deliver as a run-time application changed the business model for a lot of developers.

Sorry I can't be more help,

kevin

Dara
According to my systems, the issues that you encountered (X-Ref) are solved. If you would like to send me a couple of the Masters and a small piece of code, I will be happy to try it in the latest V7 release. You can send files to me at Mark_Derwin@IBI.Com

Kevin,
Thanks for the information. I did not use the FOCUS Six run-time package. Each client purchased a copy of FOCUS Six power edition, which was under $1000 and fairly inexpensive, so that they could use the gui tools for writing their own reports. I don't know today's going rate for WebFOCUS but it seems like I remember a few years ago that WebFOCUS was around $13,000 and that would be a hard sell to my clients who have a system that is running fine and won't really understand the need to upgrade. Also, they are currently running on a stand-alone PC. Would that change with WebFOCUS? Is a server required and what additional software do I have to purchase for the server?
I am curious as to why you moved your data to SQL? Can you elaborate on that?
I did notice that you can no longer deploy to a windows environment with WebFOCUS and figured that I would have to change all of my screens to Webforms. Does the migrator do any of that work or did you have to completely re-do each winform?
I appreciate any info you can give me on this.

Dara

Dara,

1. WebFOCUS will run "stand-alone" on a Windows(XP) workstation. I have an installation configured on my desktop PC using DevStudio, WF Client, and WF Reporting Server using the included Tomcat App server and Web Server. The Client is really needed as Dev Studio handles that and also DevStudio comes with it's own Wf Reporting Server. They still have a Power Reporter I think, you may want to check into that.

2. I moved our data to SQL to alleviate some of the issues we had with the FOCUS SU (Sync) setup. We started running up against some of the FOCUS DB limitations at the time, were expanding the number of users sharing the data, and wanted the power and reliability offered by SQL.

3. The migrator did some of the work, but we actually moved from FOCUS Six to the WF Cactus version 3.x back in the day. Subsequently took the Cactus WebFORMs through versions 4.x and 5.x of WebFOCUS. This occurred a number of years ago at a previous employer, but overall I was extremely pleased with the migration.

Advice....Take Mark up on his offer. Also, pick his brain about the form migration.

TAKE THE LEAP...the new version of MAINTAIN is extremely powerful. There are so many things you can do that you never dreamed of in FOCUS Six. (Assuming it is afforable to your clients.)

Best of Luck,

Kevin

Mark,

I'll be sending you some files. I will try to send the smallest maintain I have for the main database. Thanks!

Dara