Converting a Java Web Application to .Net

What is the process involved with converting a Java web application to something like ASP.NET with Silverlight or alike?

I know many Java frameworks have been proted to .Net (either C# or VB.NET), but haven't really seen many web applications done. (I might be very wrong here)

I also know very little about Java programming but know C#, VB.NET and ASP.NET. I haven;t looked at silverlight yet but know what it can do to some extent. I do know t开发者_JAVA百科hough that Java syntax is very similar to that of C, C# and C++ as they all the the "{}" brackets and layed out similarly.

For arguments sake (just to get a handle and example) what would it take to convert something like Alfresco to a .NET type web app? Also, just want to add that I am not planning on doing it but want to know that if its even worth investing time in looking into Java applications to port to .NET.

Microsoft used to distribute a 'Java Language Conversion Wizard' to convert Java code into C# code, including substituting some of the common framework classes. It needs a lot of cleanup after the fact, but may be useful depending on what sort of code you're trying to convert. If you have access to the VS 2005 tools you should be able to install it.

Other than that, it's heavily dependent on how the code's structured. Finding a web framework that's similar to the Java framework used would probably be helpful. In many cases, I suspect it would be easier just to port the database and master page templates/stylesheets across and build the rest from scratch.

This page on MSDN might be useful: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/gg715299.aspx.

It does a conceptual mapping of concepts in Java to concepts in .NET.

Regarding Giacomo's mention of the Java Language Conversion Assistant (JLCA), it is in fact retired and I wouldn't recommend relying too heavily on it. As he says there's quite a bit of cleanup to do but much of that depends on how you architected your app.