Project Transcender

Standard Windows Forms to Windows 8 Metro Style

porting tool

Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology

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• Introduction• Research Problem• Our Solution• Uniqueness• Technologies used• Demonstration

Agenda

Introduction

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Windows 8

• New User Experience – Metro Style Apps• Targets Touch Based Devices• Fast and Fluid• Programming Flexibility• Hardware Utilization

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The Difference

Windows 7 and earlier OS

.NET 4.0

Visual Studio 10

Win32

Windows 8

.NET 4.5

Visual Studio 12

WinRT

The developers perspective(Research Problem)

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How the developer gets affected?

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•Time & Money• Companies and individuals will have to allocate more

resources to rewrite their existing applications in Metro Style.

•Learning curve• Need to rethink the UI design according to new

concepts• Changes in the .NET framework and related APIs• Need to have knowledge on Windows 8 and it’s new

features

How the developer gets affected?

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Our Solution

A porting tool to automate the conversion.

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Windows Forms Application

Metro Style Application

Convert the GUI

Convert code

behind

Our Porting Process

Convert Configura

tionfiles

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Windows Forms Application

Metro Style Application

Convert the GUI

Convert code

behind

Overview of the GUI conversion

Convert Configura

tionfiles

Overview of the GUI conversion

Input C# designer file (form.designer.cs)

Extract Information about GUI controls

Convert GUI objects

Control Database

Output file (form.xaml)

Canvas

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Windows Forms Application

Metro Style Application

Convert the GUI

Convert code

behind

Overview of the code conversion

Convert Configura

tionfiles

Overview of the code conversion

Input C# code file (.cs)

Extract Information about classes,

methods, etc. in the files

Convert using declarations

Using declaration

conversion rules

Convert method declarations

Data type mapping

Convert operations

Control mapping, Data type mapping,Method invocation

mappings

Output C# code file (.xaml.cs)

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Windows Forms Application

Metro Style Application

Convert the GUI

Convert code

behind

Our Porting Process

Convert Configura

tionfiles

Overview of the configuration conversion

Application.csproj Application.csproj

Other Components

Package.appmanifest

Input: Current project file Extracting Data Process informationOutput : New Project File

User enters data

Process manifest information

Extracting Data Output : Manifest file

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Scope

• Usages of essential GUI Controls • Frequently used .NET libraries will be mapped• No 3rd party components will be supported.

To improve the scalability we have provided methods to add controls and libraries to the porting process

Uniqueness

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The state of art today

Possible, but more effort

One-to-one mapping

Possible, reasonable effort

Development skills similar

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Setting the trend…

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Setting the trend…

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Business Model

Technologies Used

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Demo

Q & A

Thank you!