Modernizing ASP.NET Web Forms applications with DotVVM

DotVVM can be used to something else than just building new web apps using the MVVM approach. Thanks to its support of both old ASP.NET and new ASP.NET Core stacks, it can be an amazing tool which helps to modernize old web sites to use .NET Core.

We have create a sample repository showing how to migrate a simple ASP.NET Web Forms application, and a tutorial video.

But… why?

Imagine you have an old Web Forms application that is still actively used and your company relies on it every day.

• The application is probably difficult to maintain. It will have to be replaced or modernized sooner or later.
• Full rewrite may not be an option – it can take years, it would be too costly, and the old application would need to be maintained during the rewrite.
• Using ASP.NET Core and .NET Core will bring many new possibilities – modern authentication libraries, better performance, faster compile and startup times, better handling of NuGet dependencies, new language features…

There are a lot of reasons to consider using DotVVM:

• DotVVM is easy to learn for any Web Forms developer and can run side by side in the same app – you can build new pages in DotVVM while the Web Forms pages work as always.
• The business layer of the application can remain without significant changes.
• The deployment model remains unchanged – DotVVM is just a NuGet package.
• You can rewrite Web Forms pages one at a time in the DotVVM syntax. And they will be testable thanks to the MVVM approach.
• When you get rid of all Web Forms stuff, you can then lift the project to .NET Core - DotVVM supports it.

More Resources

• Cheat Sheet of DotVVM for Web Forms Developers
• Sample Repository
• Tomas Herceg’s post about Migrating ASP.NET Web Forms apps to .NET Core using DotVVM

We’d love to hear your feedback! Tell us about your experience on our Gitter chat!