Re: converting a site in ASP to PHP. I need your advice.

FWIW, you may want to move in stages as someone else suggested. I've found freetds (freetds.org) to be a good database driver to let you talk from PHP/Linux to NT/SQL7 (should be better with SQL6.5). I think the 'ASP on Linux' ideas are pretty non-useful in your situation - you're trying to get AWAY from ASP, not embrace it more. And I've still maintained that there are drawbacks because many 'features' of ASP rely on particular COM objects that would be unavailable under Linux anyway. I've ported from ASP to PHP, and, as others said, you're probably better just rewriting from scratch. Depending on how well the original code was structured and documented, you may have a relatively easy job deciphering the logic and porting that. Older ASP was bad at string handling, so there may be many string handling hacks in that code which can be streamlined with PHP functions. Likewise with templating systems - the old ASP code is probably a mishmash of <% %> and HTML and whatnot. Especially if it is, you'd probably want to investigate templating systems and settle on something. This will make your life easier in the longrun if it's a large project, and perhaps even impress some others involved in the project who saw the initial code. Others have offered assistance, and I'll throw my hat in the ring here. If you come across specific ASP issues, feel free to email me and I'll do my best to help. Maxim Maletsky wrote: > Dear Gurus, > > My company is about to acquire a website and I was asked from my boss to > evaluate the cost of maintaining it. > > This website was designed entirely in ASP and VBScript hosted on a Windowz > NT4 using MS SQL on it's backend. > > What I just listed above is the worth configuration I could ever imagine. I > would really like to rewrite it all in PHP and connect it to mySQL or > PostgreSQL DBs on a Linux Red Hat 6.2. > > Now, I don't know a jack about ASP. I am guessing that MS SQL can be > transferred quite easily to mySQL, but what about ASP? > > How hard is it to transfer? Anyone of you has any experience like that? > > If I will host the website where it is right now it all will work, but I > will not be able to extend it in future, that's why I want it to become > another site powered by Open Sources I always work with. > > I also heard about ASP for Linux. Is that as easy as to cut&paste the whole > site or there are still some configurations and pain to support? > > What about just rewriting file by file from ASP to PHP? Would it be easy for > me knowing well enough PHP to write some quite complicated apps but having > never examined a single ASP script? > > What could you advice me. > > Thanks in advance, > I would really appreciate any your help. ========================== Michael Kimsal http://www.tapinternet.com PHP Training courses http://www.tapinternet.com/php