MARCOS LEITE, Magic Developer at RioApps,Inc.
Boca Raton, United States
If you are in doubt of converting your Magic application to .NET because you just don't want to go from being a "fast" Magic programmer to being a "slow" .net programmer, then doubt no more.
You see, that is the beauty of Firefly framework: It makes working in a .NET environment inside Visual Studio be similar to working in MAgic.
You still get your subforms, table controls, events, handlers, Task Prefix, Record Prefix... and on and on from Magic while now having the power of doing ANYTHING you want.
Some things you can do even faster than MAgic, like creating a simple report with groups.
Once Firefly introduced the developer's guide then it became even better. I can't tell you how much I still learn everyday by watching the videos.
The staff is top notch and Noam is "out of this world" nice and willing to help.
You see, it is not only about the conversion itself. That is done quickly and mostly without a hitch. The problem is learning the new language. It is feeling comfortable with it. This is where Firefly sets itself apart.
Thanks for keeping me in business for another 20 years!
Sincerely;
Marcos Leite
Philipp Frei, IT manager at Univerre Pro Uva SA
Sierre, Switzerland
It works ! And it's amazing how easy the migration was. If you have any doubts to migrate your Magic/UniPaas applications, don't ! Just go for it ! In a few months you can develop as fast as before in Magic, but smarter and without any limits. Finding some help, some partial/full code or even a developer is just easy, the C# community is huge !
The Firefly Migration team is very professional and offers very efficient support, even after the migration. They have very good documentations and a lot of videos, great videos.
I strongly recommend the migration with Firefly, they make it easy and painless.
Keith Canniff, VP of IT at K&K Management Solutions
Avon, United States
Those of you that know me, know that my support for Magic goes back a very long time (1986). You would also know that I was not a Firefly fan and was very verbal about it (mostly from ignorance). However, that is no longer the case and now I'm a Firefly evangelist! We needed an MSSQL solution in a short period of time to win a very large contract. We gave our large application to Firefly for a POC and within about a week, it came back working for both PSQL and MSSQL. Amazing. After signing a contract, we went through all the steps and classes and migrated our application to the new C#.Net platform. Firefly has been with us every step of the way, including some late night support when we had a deadline to hit. Support could not be better and the migration was excellent. As we get more familiar with the new C#.net universe, we find more and better ways to do applications than we could have with Magic. Now we're onto the web with our new platform and the ENV Web add-in project has been a great help. APIs are a breeze and general reusablity of the original business logic (programs now controllers) has been very good. So if you're looking to move to a standardized C#.Net platform, yet keep the original look and feel of your Magic application, with the least amount of work and best results, Firefly is the ONLY way to go.
Darryl Malcaba, Lead Engineer at CentralSquare Technologies
Kelowna, Canada
I'm very impressed in how Firefly converted our uniPaaS application. The final product looks and behaves exactly the same. Our ERP application is about 24 modules, and the migration process was painless. We have been very "creative" in our uniPaaS programming and those translated to C# code pretty well.
The transition from being a uniPaaS developer to a C# developer is very smooth. The whole uniPaaS paradigm is still there only translated to C#. This helped existing uniPaaS developers to be productive almost immediately.
The Firefly team is instrumental in providing solutions to problems that we encounter. Documentations are available and the Youtube videos are helpful.
We have done several releases since our migration. That includes enhancements, client requests, and bug fixes, all done through C#. We are now able to advance our products in ways that are otherwise difficult to develop in uniPaaS.
I'm very glad that we have converted our code using Firefly. I recommend Firefly for migrating from Magic/uniPaas to C#.
Michael Betz, Application Developer at Worlée
Lauenburg, Germany
We converted our MagicXPA Application to .NET using Firefly. It was a painless migration process with a excellent support from Firefly. Thank you.
Stephane FLAQUET, Group IT Director at Hiscox
London, United Kingdom
if you have a Magic application is your orgnaization, I would really advise you to talk to Firefly. Made a huge difference to us.
Renato DeGasperis, CEO at IndustriOS
Okville, Canada
I told him I am happy with my decision to move with Firefly, and would not change it if I go back to the beginning.
I reassured him on being able to continue development while the migration testing progresses until they are ready to cutover. We talked about the benefits of Magic, and the curses of Magic, and the benefits to him if he gets off Magic. He has had some trouble with C# developers, but I told him this is nothing more than developers lacking clarity and direction in the engineering / functionality of an application.
Burkhard Weitz, General Manager at FreshERP B.V.
Heerhugowaard, The Netherlands
Firefly has helped us to migrate our Magic 5 application running on SCO Unix and using C-ISAM database tables.
Because of the complex structure of our environment and because Firefly had little experience converting from Magic 5, we did a lot of preparation of the Magic source and the change of the infrastructure to a hybrid system using both Microsoft Windows and Debian Linux.
After that we used the Firefly tools to make a perfect migration.
Most of our customers who use our standard application for the Fruit and Vegetable business and logistical services were migrated within an absolutely amazing short time.
There are still a few customers to go, but I expect we can leave Magic behind us within a few months.
I want to thank the people from the Firefly organization being very professional and showing their competence.
It is always a pleasure to work together.
Guy Shalom, R&D Director at VeriFone
Israel
Firefly's technology has provided us with an impressive output allowing us to take our product few steps up while maintaining 15 years of code and knowledge.
After the fast migration and testing, we've upgraded a lot of components, adopted unit & automation testing and added a lot of external add-ons that enriched our product. FireFly's team is highly motivated, very technical, solution-oriented and devoted to the process.
Kieron Wray, .Net Development Team Leader at Hiscox
London, United Kingdom
My company has just migrated from Magic to MS C#, and I was brought in to assist with the revised processes and development-practices in the ‘’new and exciting world of MS development’’ and to mentor the cross-trained magic developers. I have been incredibly impressed with both the quality and structure of the migrated code and the framework that has enabled our development team to be up to nearly 100% productivity weeks after go-live.
Jimmy Kawa, MR at BSkyB
Twickenham, United Kingdom
It basically does what it says on the tin. We recently converted a number of applications to .net using the Firefly conversion engine, hassle free and a great team to work with. Your in safe hands with Firefly.
Tayyab Hassan, SAP Packing Lead at Menzies Distribution
Edinburgh, United Kingdom
We are converting two major Magic applications to .Net and have just completed one of those with no issues. I feel lucky to have bumped into Firefly who provided their first class migration technology to turn us away from Magic. Firefly are a very friendly bunch of bright and motivated developers with an amazing ability to learn your applications very quickly and then almost self-manage the process from start to finish. The resulting C# code is very neat and well-structured. Highly recommended.
Torben Birk Christensen, System Engineer at DdD retail A/S
Århus Area, Denmark
Our company took a descision to migrate from the Magic platform to .NET-technology 4 years ago and we are more than happy with that descission. It comes down to the value of our company. We strongly believe that the value of the company increased when we changed to MS-techology. It eased the SW-integration to other company SW-devisions significantly and recruiting of new staff changed to be more easier. By hiring Firefly Migration we saved a lot of tedious development time and what is more crusial we probably only lost 1-2 month in the race of being the leading SW-supplier in our market. And now after the conversion we are even better adept in the competition. During the software conversion time we had by chance the undivided pleasure and benefit of being instructed and led by the founder him self. A rarely seen helpful and truely dedicated and highly skilled person taking customers seriously
Morten Vittrup Gade, Development manager at DdD Retail A/S
Århus Area, Denmark
We used Firefly to convert our large web application to the .NET platform. The result was amazing, and the process of working with Firefly was superior. During the migration process, we were assisted by professional and very skilled people. We would never have reached our strategic business goals without the help from Firefly.
Jacques Cilliers, R&D Manager at CRS Technologies (Pty) Ltd
Cape Town Area, South Africa
We were looking to move away from Magic and into .NET in order to take advantage of a more robust platform and lower our TCO.
We found Firefly Migration to be the only company who were able to perform this migration automatically and in a way that would achieve a quick ROI. The unique migration methodology enabled us to stagger the conversion of clients to .NET, while continuing to develop in Magic to support our customers’ requirements.
Debbie Forster, Development Manager at Hiscox
Harrow, United Kingdom
We have just completed a project of converting all of our Magic applications to .net, I have been very pleased with how smoothly the project has run. Firefly have been able to deliver exactly what they promised and we have been very impressed with their technical ability, continued support and responsiveness.
Métrailler Thierry, Application Developer at Univerre Pro Uva SA
Sierre, Switzerland
We converted our uniPaaS and Magic v9 applications to .NET with Firefly Migration. The pre-migration and the migration went very well. The training provided by Firefly was very effective and we could be productive very fast in C# programming. After the migration we particularly appreciated the support and follow-up provided by the Firefly Migration team, the support are always very fast, very precise and we really appreciate Firefly's knowledge in C#.
Paweł Bober, CEO at ETOB-RES
Rzeszów, Poland
We converted our Magic Application to .NET using Firefly. We are sure, that it was a good decision to migrate with Firefly, and we can strongly recommend it to those who are planning to migrate from Magic to C#.
Realization of migration process was very well prepared and was realized with good contact with Firefly Team. The Team did the great job in conversion of our huge application. It also gave us an opportunity to develop our system in new way. We appreciate their knowledge, support and patience with work with us. Thank You.
Andreas Schwengeler, CEO at Creativ Software AG
Switzerland
Creativ Software AG has developed its comprehensive industry solution for associations and non-profit companies entirely on the basis of Magic.
Creativ Software AG joined the Nexus Group in June 2018 after 29 years (http://www.nexus-switzerland.ch/) This step, which was important for our company, was also made possible because we were able to make a technology change to C # .NET with Firefly, which is the prerequisite for achieving the desired synergies in the Nexus Group on the basis of C # .NET We have experienced working with Firefly as very constructive, straightforward and goal-oriented.
José Penalva, Senior Developer at Infolog DataCenter SA
Crissier, Switzerland
Nous avons développé toutes nos applications en Magic depuis la version 7. La mise à jour sur les différentes nouvelles versions devenait de plus en plus laborieuse et couteuse en jours/homme.
La migration des applications en C# .NET a été plus rapide que le passage de uniPaas en Magic XPA !
Le support de Firefly a été exemplaire, et les délais promis, tenus. L’équipe est très compétente, et vous n’êtes pas abandonné après la conversion. Il existe une multitude d’exemples, et des mini cours sur leur chaine Youtube afin de bien commencer avec vos projets .NET.
Si vous pensez convertir vos applications Magic en .Net, Firefly est la solution de choix.
Iain McLean, Head of IT at Nexus Business Solutions Group
Milton Keynes, UK
We recently completed the conversion of 2 large UniPaaS applications to .Net using the Firefly migration. At the same time it was also converted from Pervasive SQL to Microsoft SQL.
The support from Firefly was excellent from start to finish. The developer training was well presented and they accommodated our need for training in differing time zones. The migration engine does exactly what they said it would and any changes required were quickly addressed.
If you are considering converting to .Net from Magic then Firefly are highly recommended.
Rosie, Senior Developer at Safe Computing Ltd
Leicester, UK
Way back in 2010 I was dubious about the ability of Firefly to convert an application, how could it be "like for like"... but it really is.
I first got excited about the idea when I saw a demonstration and explanation of how they had gone about it when I was with a previous employer but had to wait until I had been with Safe a few years to actually get my hands on a converted application. The product I worked on had its final conversion from UniPaaS 1.9 to C# about 18 months ago.
Firefly worked with us all the way and provided great training for all the magic developers to enable them to continue working once the conversion had taken place. The cross-over period allowed us to program in UniPaaS but see the results in C# (and have our customers running the C# version) and practice and look at how the C# code compared to our UniPaaS code and to become familiar with it. As someone who already knew C#, I found it great to start doing searches of the code (cross-references) in C# rather than UniPaaS as the searches were so more powerful in Visual Studio.
A lot of people have said to me that the C# produced is not great C# and that is true... HOWEVER for this process to work the C# produced HAS to mimic the UniPaaS code structure in many ways, both to allow the conversion to take place and to allow non-C# developers to pick it up and get working again as quickly as possible. This is what the conversion achieves and it allows new code to be written either in the same way or new features to be added using standard design patterns. I've recently been working on code in one of our applications which is using a standard design pattern but linking easily with the converted code. This is something that was far more difficult or even impossible if we had stayed in UniPaaS.
All in all, I would really recommend the conversion process if you have applications written in Magic/UniPaaS. As a developer, I far prefer working in the C#, whether on converted code or new code t
Geoff Stark, Application Developer at Western Life Insurance
Winnipeg, Canada
Firefly helped us convert a large life insurance application from Magic eDeveloper 9.3 to c# .net quickly and efficiently. Running a Magic to c# code conversion took minutes using their tools… literally. We could continue to develop our application in Magic, while we tested the converted code, right up to our .net release date. They also helped with the move of our data from pervasive btrieve to SQL server and hooked up our development team up with excellent Visual Studio c# and Firefly framework training. It was a pleasure working with their team. They were always helpful during testing and continue to answer the occasional question. They fully support ongoing development in the converted c# code with user groups, extensive documentation and over 500 Youtube videos.
Jose Virtucio, Application Developer at Wawanesa Life Insurance
Winnipeg, Canada
Converting our Magic application to C# using Firefly from among others was the best decision my previous company (Western Life) had. The knowledge, support and the online trainings that were given to us were excellent. What made this company great are the people who are very knowledgeable, helpful and easy to work with. Highly recommended to those who are planning to migrate from Magic to C#. Thank you.
Gaël EVENO, MD at WESTcom Logiciels et Services
France
One more point for your wonderful profiler ! It allowed me to find the solution to a difficult point : some very poor performances on only one site (normal performances on others sites and on mine).
As this was a process that had no end, I wanted to modify the profiler it in order to save the status at each cycle : useless, you had already thought of it with the timer.
I wanted to open the XML profile file in order to find my function : useless, you had already added a “search function” in the tree view of the profiler.
Finally I have found the sql statement, analyzed it and found the solution. It was not a very logical solution (but is Oracle logical ?), but my goal has been reached.
Magic : two weeks
Firefly : two hours
Advantage Firefly !
Nick Barfoot, Head of IT and Operations at Design Objectives Ltd
Bournemouth, United Kingdom
Bertrand Fournier, CEO at Comutic S.A.
Lausanne Area, Switzerland
Yftach Carmi, Manager at yedion
Israel
Lee Pennington, CEO at DataMax Group, Inc.
United States
Four years later and we are still thrilled we did the Firefly port to .Net ... and so are our customers. That says it all. The port was truly hassle free. Noam and his team were extremely helpful, knowledgeable, and professional throughout the process. Without the Firefly migration we would still be struggling to port our Magic application to the .Net platform. Firefly allowed us to achieve our strategic product goals in record time.
Niels Daniels, IT Manager at iTecron
Liège Area, Belgium
Neil Valentine, System Architect at Hiscox
London, United Kingdom
We have just converted our applications to .NET using Firefly. The migration engine delivered exactly what Firefly said it would and the whole process proved easier than the upgrade we did from Magic 9 to UniPaaS a few years ago. The training course was very effective moving our 16 developers to .NET and enabled them to get up to speed.
Michael Casale, Director of Technology at Westchester County District Attorney's Office
Greater New York City Area
Firefly conducted a painless migration our most critical system from Magic to .NET and provided excellent support throughout the process. This was the easiest project I've ever managed, thanks to Firefly. It was a pleasure working with them.
Gennady Lerner, Development Manager at Eldan
Israel
Several years ago we have migrated from magic platform to .NET. The conversion of all our applications that were developed during last 20 years was made by Firefly. In my opinion this is the only company capable of converting Magic application to C# in fully automatic process, preserving all existing functionality.
The resulting source code is high quality and easy to maintain. Experience of working with a company requires a reference to itself. The professionalism, reliability and motivation of Firefly team are far beyond what I have experienced so far.
Bottom line, the most correct way to do a project of this kind it is to hire Firefly and enjoy all the way to a successful ending
