Porting ASP Applications from Windows to UNIX

Print-friendly Version

Problem:
I want to port my application from Windows to UNIX. What should I be aware of?

Solution:
Our Web site provides detailed information about migrating an existing ASP application to UNIX or Linux. Go to http://www.chilisoft.com/migration for step-by-step instructions, white papers, and other helpful resources. The information below also provides a good overview.

(The long answer)
For the most part, your deployment over to UNIX should go smoothly. There are several minor issues and one potential stumbling block that you should know about. We'll cover these issues at a basic level, and if you have additional questions about how this should work, just let us know.

First, the code itself - We support all of the intrinsic objects, Response, Request, Session, Application, and Server. We wouldn't expect you to have any syntactical issues moving your Windows ASP files over to UNIX. If you have paths of include files, however, you might need to change the directory structure (or even slash direction) to make sure everything conforms. Remember, Microsoft Windows/IIS is not case sensitive; UNIX is.

ODBC connections - We provide UNIX versions of ODBC drivers for most major databases (including SequeLink, which allows you to connect back to a Microsoft database running on NT). Information about setting up the DSN is provided in the Sun Chili!Soft ASP product documentation. Be aware that the process is a little different on UNIX than it is on NT, simply because there's no ODBC manager on UNIX. However, once you properly establish your DSN with the same name it had on NT, you shouldn't have to change any code. Note that at this time we only provide database access via ODBC, not native drivers.

COM objects - Sun Chili!Soft ASP includes a large selection of the most commonly used COM objects on Windows. If you have custom COM objects, you need to rewrite these objects in Java or look for an alternative such as JIntegra from Intrinsyc Software, which allows you to connect via Java to the COM objects while they reside on Windows.

This is the chief problem with deployment cross-platform. If you are using a great number of custom controls/ActiveX/libraries/COM objects, they need to be cross-platform as well. Also remember that VB source does NOT port to UNIX.

Of course, this may not be an issue for you, if you're not using COM objects. Often, that functionality can be placed back in the scripting code. Another alternative is to use our Chili!Bean object, which is a Java-COM bridge. Do a create on our object, and pass in the Java class to expose its public properties and methods for manipulation in your script.

All of our products are on a full 30-day trial; we invite you to download the product from our site for your particular OS and test it out. If you have any specific concerns about what you discover, please let us know.


(The short answer)
Sun Chili!Soft ASP provides the full functionality of Microsoft ASP on all of our supported servers. The ASP code itself - the VBScript and JScript manipulating the intrinsic objects - needs no changes to run on UNIX machines. We also provide ODBC support to several databases, including Oracle, Informix, and Sybase. With those connections, the syntax is identical, and only configuration issues differ.

We do provide the Chili!Bean object, which allows you to use any Java class in your ASP application. Instantiate the Chili!Bean and pass in the class; we wrap it as a COM object and allow you to manipulate its public properties and methods in your script. If you have any questions or concerns about a specific object, be it "homegrown" or third party, we would be happy to investigate and provide assistance in any way we can.