Enterprise Developer includes the Dialog System Runtime which enables you to modernize Dialog System applications within Enterprise Developer for Visual Studio 2013 and to run them under Enterprise Server.
You upgrade an application to Enterprise Developer and from there, you can run the application without change, or modernize it over time. The application runs under the Enterprise Server and the Dialog System run-time system.
The first stage is to import the application into Enterprise Developer which you do using the Net Express Project Import wizard:
This Net Express Project Import wizard automatically converts the project into a Visual Studio solution. You can then build and run the application from Enterprise Developer.
From then on, you can edit and maintain the application from within Enterprise Developer. The screensets are referenced in the Enterprise Developer project. You can double-click a screenset in Enterprise Developer to start the Dialog System painter and edit the screenset. In this way, you can continue maintaining your application with Enterprise Developer until you are ready to modernize it.
The next stage is to modernize the application gradually, as much or as little as you want, keeping other code unchanged. There is a range of techniques for modernization. For example, you can replace one Dialog System screen with a Windows Form or you can wrap a .NET user control as an ActiveX and use that in Dialog System.
You can give a modern look and feel to existing Dialog System applications by enabling the Windows visual styles and fonts in them. The applications that use the visual styles have an appearance that is native to the Windows version they are running on.
A number of samples are available in Enterprise Developer to demonstrate the various modernization techniques, and there is supporting documentation in this Help explaining the significant elements of the code. Some samples use the same code as in Net Express, and have the key difference that they use the Enterprise Developer version of the COBOL and Dialog System run-time systems.
Finally, to fully modernize, you use Microsoft tooling, the .NET Framework and Microsoft interoperability techniques.