When you decide to migrate an application to the new three-tiered architecture, you must also decide which migration method is best suited to your business needs. Migrating to the new architecture can be an iterative process. You may need to run the form transformation tool multiple times and carefully alter any problematic forms to ensure that pages can be created that have the required layout. For more information about how to run the transformation tool, see How to: Run the Form Transformation Tool. For more information about how to modify forms, see Preparing for Form Transformation by Redesigning Forms.

It is important to remember that when you transform a form, the form does not change. For each form that you transform, a new page object is created with matching functionality that can be used by the RoleTailored client. You then have two objects—a form and a page. If you run the tool again and transform the same form, the new page object that is created will overwrite the first page object.

If, at a later date, you decide that you want to change the functionality of your application, you can implement the changes in one of the following ways:

Implement changes on the form and then transform the form to a page.
Implement changes on the corresponding page.
Implement changes on both objects, depending on your business needs.

For more information to help you decide how to implement changes, see Developing Applications for the Classic Client and RoleTailored Client.

You can choose between the following methods when you move your application from the Classic client to the RoleTailored client:

Reactive Method
Proactive Method
Start from Scratch Method
Combined Method (all of the above)

The method that you choose can vary from one implementation to another. A good development practice is to use a copy of the database to see which method or combination of methods achieves the best results for each implementation.

Reactive Method

The following are the steps for the reactive method:

Run the Transformation Tool. For more information, see How to: Run the Form Transformation Tool.
Check the resulting pages and the log file. For more information, see Reviewing the Form Transformation Log Output File.
Redesign or modify any forms that did not transform successfully. For more information, see Preparing for Form Transformation by Redesigning Forms.
Run the tool again to transform the forms that you have altered.

Proactive Method

The following are the steps for the proactive method:

Redesign any forms that you know will not transform satisfactorily. For more information, see Preparing for Form Transformation by Redesigning Forms.
Run the Transformation Tool. For more information, see How to: Run the Form Transformation Tool.
Check the resulting pages and the log file. For more information, see Reviewing the Form Transformation Log Output File.
Modify forms that are still causing problems.

Start from Scratch Method

The following are the steps for the start from scratch method:

Implement your entire application in the Page Designer and ignore the transformation tool. For more information, see Creating and Maintaining Pages.

Combined Method

The following are the steps for the combined method:

Transform some forms to pages.
If desired, modify the resulting pages in Page Designer to get greater benefit from the new user experience (UX). For more information about Page Designer, see Creating and Maintaining Pages.
If desired, create some new pages without transforming the source forms.