How Webswing is revolutionizing the Migration of Java desktop applications to the web

At QFS, we are in contact with many different companies using and testing Java desktop applications. These are often business critical legacy applications. Companies would love to replace these old programs with something more modern and easier to maintain, like a native web app. But completely rewriting old software from scratch takes a lot of time and money. So they stick with what they have.

A Java application in a web browser?

One company that has totally disrupted this cycle is Webswing. Webswing is a software solution for migrating existing Java software into the web browser. At its most basic, it’s a web server that mirrors the application’s Java UI into the user’s browser window. This makes it possible to translate an existing Java application into the web with very few steps.

Because there is a considerable overlap between Webswing customers and potential QF-Test customers, we have built first-class support for testing Webswing applications into QF-Test. With QF-Test you can test your Java application as it is, you can test your application running through Webswing in the browser as a pure web application, and even both at the same time! That means that QF-Test is perfectly suited to accompany companies (no pun intended) on their migration journey from Java to the web.

QF-Test + Webswing = Seamless migration testing

The Webswing Migration Framework

But of course, many companies don’t just want to run their clunky legacy UI in a browser, they want to replace it with something more modern, a native web app.

That’s why Webswing went one step further and built their Webswing Migration Framework. Companies can use Webswing technology to migrate their Java Application UIs into real web apps piece by piece. Thanks to some ingenious technical wizardry from their developers, Webswing is able to replace individual UI components in an application with real, native Web Components – without even touching the Java application code!

An infographic illustrating how a Swing app UI is replaced piece by piece with native web components until only a tiny bit of Swing UI remains. Image credit: Webswing.

This means that companies can migrate old Java application UIs to the web at their own pace, and without having to rebuild the entire business logic.

And you guessed it: QF-Test is along for the ride. Because it can seamlessly interface with both Webswing and web applications, with QF-Test you are able to secure the correct functionality of your application at every step of the migration process.

Watch a YouTube video in which Webswing explains the approach of the Webswing Migration Framework.