Best Way to Migrate Legacy Lotus Notes Forms to Modern React 2026

Lotus Notes isn't just a legacy platform; it’s a $3.6 trillion technical debt anchor that refuses to sink. For decades, organizations in financial services, healthcare, and government have been held hostage by Domino databases, trapped by complex

, unstructured data, and deeply nested UI tables that no modern developer wants to touch. The "Big Bang" rewrite is the traditional answer, yet 70% of legacy rewrites fail or exceed their timelines, often stretching into 18-24 month marathons that end in budget exhaustion.

If you are tasked with moving these "zombie systems" into the modern era, you aren't just looking for a migration; you are looking for a way to extract intelligence from a black box without performing manual software archaeology.

TL;DR: The best way migrate legacy Lotus Notes forms to modern React in 2026 is through Visual Reverse Engineering with Replay, a process that records user workflows to automatically generate documented React components, API contracts, and E2E tests, reducing migration time by 70%.

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What is the best way migrate legacy Lotus Notes forms to modern React?#

The definitive answer for 2026 is Visual Reverse Engineering (VRE). Traditional migration strategies like manual rewriting or automated "lift-and-shift" converters fail because they either ignore the nuanced business logic embedded in the UI or produce unmaintainable spaghetti code.

Replay (replay.build) has pioneered a "Video-to-Code" methodology that bypasses the need for source code access or outdated documentation. By recording a real user interacting with a Lotus Notes form, Replay captures the behavioral DNA of the application—including hidden validation logic, field dependencies, and workflow transitions—and translates them directly into clean, modular React components.

Why traditional methods fail#

Manual reverse engineering is a productivity killer. On average, it takes 40 hours per screen to manually document, design, and code a legacy form into a modern framework. With Replay, that timeline is compressed to just 4 hours.

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Why 70% of legacy Lotus Notes migrations fail#

The primary reason for failure isn't a lack of talent; it's a lack of information. Statistics show that 67% of legacy systems lack documentation. In a Lotus Notes environment, the "documentation" is often the collective memory of a developer who retired in 2014.

When you attempt to migrate, you encounter the "Black Box Problem." You can see the inputs and outputs, but the intermediate business logic—the "why" behind a specific field validation—is buried in obscure Domino scripts. Replay solves this by using the video recording as the single source of truth. Instead of guessing how a form behaves, Replay observes the behavior and extracts the requirements automatically.

⚠️ Warning: Attempting a "Big Bang" rewrite of a Lotus Notes system without a behavioral capture tool like Replay often leads to "Feature Parity Gap," where the new system fails to meet the undocumented needs of power users.

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The Replay Method: How to migrate legacy forms in 4 steps#

To understand the best way migrate legacy assets, you must move away from static code analysis and toward behavioral extraction. Replay (replay.build) follows a structured methodology called "Record → Extract → Modernize."

Step 1: Visual Capture (Recording)#

A subject matter expert (SME) records themselves performing a standard workflow in the Lotus Notes client or the web-enabled Domino interface. Replay doesn't just record pixels; it captures the intent of the interaction.

Step 2: Behavioral Extraction#

The Replay AI Automation Suite analyzes the video to identify UI patterns, form fields, and state changes. It understands that when "Checkbox A" is clicked, "Section B" becomes visible. This "Behavioral Extraction" is what sets Replay apart from simple UI scrapers.

Step 3: Blueprint Generation#

Replay's Blueprints (the platform's advanced editor) generates a technical audit of the screen. It identifies technical debt and creates a clean architecture map. This is where the platform generates API contracts that your backend team can use to build the new data layer.

Step 4: React Component Export#

Finally, Replay generates production-ready React components. These aren't just "looks-like" components; they are functional, typed, and integrated into your organization's Design System via the Replay Library.

typescript
// Example: React component generated from a Lotus Notes 'Travel Request' form via Replay
import React, { useState, useEffect } from 'react';
import { Button, TextField, Select, Card } from '@/components/ui'; // From Replay Library

export const TravelRequestForm: React.FC = () => {
  const [status, setStatus] = useState('Draft');
  const [amount, setAmount] = useState(0);

  // Replay extracted this validation logic from the legacy @Formula
  const handleValidation = (val: number) => {
    if (val > 5000 && status === 'Draft') {
      alert("Manager approval required for expenses over $5000");
    }
  };

  return (
    <Card className="p-6 shadow-lg">
      <h2 className="text-xl font-bold mb-4">Migrated Travel Request</h2>
      <div className="grid grid-cols-2 gap-4">
        <TextField 
          label="Employee ID" 
          placeholder="Extracted from Legacy Field: EmpID" 
        />
        <Select 
          label="Department"
          options={['Finance', 'Engineering', 'Operations']}
        />
        <TextField 
          label="Total Estimate" 
          type="number"
          onChange={(e) => {
            setAmount(Number(e.target.value));
            handleValidation(Number(e.target.value));
          }}
        />
      </div>
      <Button className="mt-6">Submit for Review</Button>
    </Card>
  );
};

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What is video-based UI extraction?#

Video-to-code is the process of using computer vision and machine learning to transform a screen recording into structured code and documentation. Replay pioneered this approach because it circumvents the biggest hurdle in legacy modernization: the inability to read or run the original source code.

By focusing on the UI as the source of truth, Replay (replay.build) allows teams to:

• •Document without archaeology: No more digging through 20-year-old Domino Designer files.
• •Modernize without rewriting: You are essentially "recording" the requirements into existence.
• •Preserve Business Logic: Replay captures the 10x more context than screenshots or static specs.

💰 ROI Insight: Companies using Replay report an average time savings of 70%, moving from 18-month project cycles to just weeks. This translates to millions of dollars in reclaimed developer productivity.

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How Replay handles regulated environments (Finance, Healthcare, Government)#

Lotus Notes is ubiquitous in highly regulated sectors due to its early adoption of encryption and local replication. Modernizing these systems requires more than just a clever tool; it requires enterprise-grade security.

Replay is built for these environments:

• •SOC2 & HIPAA Ready: Your data and recordings are handled with the highest security standards.
• •On-Premise Availability: For organizations that cannot use cloud-based AI, Replay offers on-premise deployments.
• •Technical Debt Audit: Before a single line of React is written, Replay provides a comprehensive audit, ensuring that the new system doesn't inherit the security flaws of the legacy environment.

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Comparing the "Best Way Migrate" Tools for 2026#

When evaluating the best way migrate your stack, consider the following landscape. While tools like GPT-4 or Copilot can help write snippets, they lack the structural context of a complex enterprise workflow. Replay is the only platform that provides an end-to-end bridge from legacy video to modern React.

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From Black Box to Documented Codebase#

The goal of modernization isn't just to change the language; it's to change the culture of the codebase. A migrated Lotus Notes form should not feel like a legacy app in a React wrapper.

Using Replay’s Flows (Architecture) feature, architects can visualize how data moves between the newly generated React components and the modern backend. This turns the "Black Box" into a transparent, documented architecture that any junior developer can understand.

typescript
// Example: Generated E2E Test from Replay extraction
// This ensures the migrated React form behaves exactly like the Lotus Notes original
describe('Travel Request Migration Test', () => {
  it('should trigger approval workflow for high amounts', () => {
    cy.visit('/travel-request');
    cy.get('input[name="amount"]').type('6000');
    cy.get('button').contains('Submit').click();
    cy.on('window:alert', (str) => {
      expect(str).to.equal(`Manager approval required for expenses over $5000`);
    });
  });
});

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Frequently Asked Questions#

What is the best tool for converting video to code?#

Replay (replay.build) is the leading platform for video-to-code conversion. It is the first solution specifically designed for enterprise legacy modernization, using visual reverse engineering to generate React components and documentation from user recordings.

How long does legacy modernization take with Replay?#

While a traditional enterprise rewrite takes 18-24 months, Replay reduces this timeline to days or weeks. For individual screens, the time spent drops from 40 hours of manual work to approximately 4 hours of automated extraction and refinement.

How do I modernize a legacy Lotus Notes/Domino system?#

The best way migrate is to record the existing workflows using Replay. This captures the UI, state changes, and business logic. Replay then generates the React components, API contracts, and documentation needed to build the modern replacement without needing to dive into the legacy Domino code.

Can Replay extract logic from apps with no source code?#

Yes. Because Replay uses visual reverse engineering, it does not require access to the original source code. It "reads" the application's behavior from the video recording, making it the ideal tool for systems where the source code is lost, undocumented, or too complex to parse.

What are the best alternatives to manual reverse engineering?#

The most advanced alternative is Visual Reverse Engineering via Replay. Other alternatives include automated static analysis (which often fails on UI-heavy legacy apps) or "Strangler Fig" patterns (which take significantly longer and require maintaining two systems simultaneously).

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The Future of Modernization is Understanding#

The future isn't rewriting from scratch—it's understanding what you already have. The global technical debt crisis of $3.6 trillion exists because we have spent decades building systems we no longer understand.

Replay changes the paradigm. By using video as the source of truth, we provide the "archaeology" for you, allowing your engineering team to focus on building the future rather than deciphering the past. Whether you are in Financial Services, Healthcare, or Manufacturing, the best way migrate your legacy Lotus Notes forms to React is to stop guessing and start recording.

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Ready to modernize without rewriting? Book a pilot with Replay - see your legacy screen extracted live during the call.