Simpol Limited

If the Superbase content is primarily data and forms, with a few reports, the conversion should be pretty quick and painless. If there is a large amount of code, then the process can use the phased migration approach.

What phased migration means, is that there is a methodology where the data can be converted to use the new SIMPOL database format, the Superbase application can be converted to use the PPCS method for accessing the data, and then over time, modules of the Superbase program can be converted into SIMPOL and called from the Superbase program. Depending on the design of the Superbase application, some items might be ready to convert sooner than others. Also, since both Superbase and SIMPOL can access data via the PPCS protocol, web server applications written in SIMPOL can be used to provide browser-based access to aspects of the Superbase data in real time. This capability to keep the original application in Superbase and to gradually migrate it over the course of time is not available with other tools. It has the advantage that the existing software can be maintained and updated (wherever possible building new modules only in SIMPOL) and gradually more and more of it will actually be in SIMPOL. The key to this is that both can share the same database concurrently. Changing an existing Superbase program to use PPCS instead of the normal method of accessing data rarely takes more than a single day, no matter how complicated the program is. PPCS was designed to be an easy move for Superbase programmers. It does require the user to be on a fairly recent version of Superbase, though. No less than version 3.6i, preferably as of build 496.