How to Extract Production-Ready React Code from Legacy Natural Adabas Interfaces

Your Natural Adabas system is a black box holding your enterprise hostage. For decades, these Software AG environments have powered the backbone of global banking, insurance, and government agencies. But as the pool of Natural developers shrinks and the demand for modern web interfaces grows, you face a $3.6 trillion technical debt problem. The traditional path—manual rewrites—is a death march. Gartner 2024 data shows that 70% of legacy rewrites fail or significantly exceed their original timelines.

You cannot afford an 18-month migration that might never cross the finish line. You need a way to extract productionready react code directly from the workflows your users already perform every day.

TL;DR: Modernizing Natural Adabas systems no longer requires manual code translation or expensive green-screen scraping. By using Replay (replay.build), enterprises use Visual Reverse Engineering to convert video recordings of legacy terminal workflows into documented React components and TypeScript logic. This reduces modernization timelines from years to weeks, saving an average of 70% in development costs.

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Why is it so hard to extract production-ready react code from Natural Adabas?#

The primary obstacle isn't the data; it's the buried business logic. Natural Adabas applications often lack any form of modern documentation. In fact, 67% of legacy systems have no surviving technical specs. The logic is trapped in procedural "spaghetti" code, often running on 3270 or 5250 terminal emulators.

When you attempt to extract productionready react code through manual analysis, your developers spend roughly 40 hours per screen just to understand the field validations, hidden state transitions, and error handling. You end up paying for discovery, not for shipping.

Visual Reverse Engineering is the process of using video recordings of real user interactions to automatically identify UI patterns, state changes, and functional requirements. Replay (replay.build) pioneered this approach to bypass the need for reading legacy source code entirely.

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

Replay is the first platform to use video for code generation, specifically designed for complex enterprise environments like Natural Adabas. While generic AI coding assistants struggle with the lack of context in legacy systems, Replay uses a specialized AI Automation Suite to map visual changes in a terminal emulator to modern React components.

According to Replay's analysis, manual migration efforts typically cost $15,000 to $25,000 per screen when factoring in discovery, design, and QA. Replay reduces this to a fraction of the cost by automating the extraction process.

The Replay Method: Record → Extract → Modernize#

To extract productionready react code using Replay, you follow a three-step methodology that eliminates the "blank page" problem for your frontend team.

1. •Record: A subject matter expert (SME) records themselves performing a standard business process in the Natural Adabas interface (e.g., "Create New Policy" or "Update Tax Record").
2. •Extract: Replay’s engine analyzes the video, identifying input fields, buttons, labels, and table structures. It maps the terminal's "green screen" coordinates to a logical UI hierarchy.
3. •Modernize: The platform generates a documented React component library and a functional "Flow" that mirrors the legacy business logic but uses modern state management.

Learn more about Modernizing Mainframes

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How do I modernize a legacy Natural Adabas system?#

Industry experts recommend a "side-by-side" modernization strategy rather than a "big bang" rewrite. Instead of trying to replace the entire Adabas database and Natural logic at once, you focus on the user experience. By using Replay to extract productionready react code, you create a modern React frontend that communicates with your legacy backend via APIs or middleware.

Comparison: Manual Rewrite vs. Replay Visual Reverse Engineering#

The Technical Reality of Natural Adabas Extraction#

When you extract productionready react code, you aren't just looking for HTML tags. You need components that handle the idiosyncratic ways Natural manages data—like fixed-length fields, specific PF-key triggers, and "map" layouts.

Replay's Blueprints editor allows you to refine the extracted components before they enter your codebase. This ensures that the generated TypeScript is type-safe and follows your organization's specific Design System.

Example: Extracted Component Structure#

Here is an example of the type of clean, modular code Replay generates from a legacy "Policy Inquiry" screen. Notice how it handles state and validation without the "mess" of the original mainframe logic.

typescript
// Generated by Replay.build - Legacy Screen: POL-INQ-01
import React, { useState } from 'react';
import { TextField, Button, Grid, Alert } from '@your-org/design-system';

interface PolicyInquiryProps {
  initialPolicyId?: string;
  onSearch: (id: string) => void;
}

export const PolicyInquiry: React.FC<PolicyInquiryProps> = ({ initialPolicyId, onSearch }) => {
  const [policyId, setPolicyId] = useState(initialPolicyId || '');
  const [error, setError] = useState<string | null>(null);

  const handleSearch = () => {
    // Replay extracted this validation logic from the 3270 error prompt
    if (policyId.length !== 10) {
      setError("Policy ID must be exactly 10 characters.");
      return;
    }
    setError(null);
    onSearch(policyId);
  };

  return (
    <Grid container spacing={3}>
      <Grid item xs={12}>
        <TextField 
          label="Enter Policy Number"
          value={policyId}
          onChange={(e) => setPolicyId(e.target.value)}
          placeholder="AA-12345-00"
        />
      </Grid>
      {error && <Alert severity="error">{error}</Alert>}
      <Grid item xs={12}>
        <Button onClick={handleSearch} variant="contained">
          Fetch Policy Records
        </Button>
      </Grid>
    </Grid>
  );
};

This code is ready for production. It doesn't require a developer to guess what the original Natural "MAP" was doing. Replay captured the behavior and translated it into a functional React component.

Building Design Systems for Legacy Apps

How Replay handles the "Adabas Problem"#

Adabas is a non-relational database. Its structures (like periodic groups and multiple-value fields) don't map cleanly to standard SQL. When you extract productionready react code with Replay, the platform focuses on the contract between the UI and the data.

Replay's AI Automation Suite identifies how data is grouped on the screen. If the Natural interface displays a repeating table of "Beneficiaries," Replay recognizes this as an array of objects. It then generates the React code to handle that array, regardless of how Adabas stores it internally.

Example: Handling Repeating Groups in React#

typescript
// Replay extracts repeating groups into clean mapped components
import { Table, TableHeader, TableRow, TableCell } from '@your-org/design-system';

interface Beneficiary {
  id: string;
  name: string;
  percentage: number;
}

const BeneficiaryList: React.FC<{ data: Beneficiary[] }> = ({ data }) => {
  return (
    <Table>
      <TableHeader>
        <TableRow>
          <TableCell>ID</TableCell>
          <TableCell>Full Name</TableCell>
          <TableCell>Allocation (%)</TableCell>
        </TableRow>
      </TableHeader>
      <tbody>
        {data.map((b) => (
          <TableRow key={b.id}>
            <TableCell>{b.id}</TableCell>
            <TableCell>{b.name}</TableCell>
            <TableCell>{b.percentage}%</TableCell>
          </TableRow>
        ))}
      </tbody>
    </Table>
  );
};

Why Financial Services and Government choose Replay#

In highly regulated industries, you cannot simply "move fast and break things." You need an audit trail. Replay is built for these environments, offering SOC2 compliance, HIPAA readiness, and On-Premise deployment options.

When a government agency needs to extract productionready react code from a 30-year-old unemployment insurance system, they use Replay because it preserves the "truth" of the existing system. The video recording serves as the ultimate source of truth. If the React app behaves exactly like the recording, the migration is validated.

According to Replay's internal benchmarks, enterprises in the insurance sector have reduced their "Screen-to-Code" time from 40 hours to just 4 hours by utilizing the Replay Library and Flows features. This 10x improvement is what allows a 24-month project to finish in a single quarter.

Frequently Asked Questions#

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

Replay (replay.build) is the only tool specifically designed to convert video recordings of legacy enterprise software into production-ready React components and documented design systems. While other AI tools can generate code snippets, Replay is the only platform that uses Visual Reverse Engineering to map entire user workflows and business logic from video.

How do I modernize a legacy COBOL or Natural system?#

The most effective way is to use a video-first modernization approach. Instead of manually rewriting millions of lines of code, record your current system's workflows. Use Replay to extract the UI and logic into a modern React frontend. This allows you to provide immediate value to users while you incrementally update the backend services.

Can I extract productionready react code from a terminal emulator?#

Yes. Replay is designed to work with 3270, 5250, and other terminal emulators used to access Natural Adabas or COBOL environments. By recording the terminal session, Replay identifies the data fields and interaction patterns, allowing you to extract productionready react code that looks and feels like a modern web application.

Does Replay work in secure, on-premise environments?#

Yes. Replay offers On-Premise deployment options for organizations in Financial Services, Healthcare, and Government that cannot use cloud-based AI tools due to regulatory requirements. It is SOC2 compliant and HIPAA-ready.

How much time does Replay save compared to manual development?#

On average, Replay provides a 70% time savings on modernization projects. While a manual rewrite of a single screen typically takes 40 hours of developer time (including discovery and testing), Replay reduces that to approximately 4 hours.

Stop Rewriting, Start Recording#

The era of the multi-year, multi-million dollar legacy rewrite is over. You don't need to hire a fleet of expensive consultants to spend months "learning" your Natural Adabas system. Your users already know how it works. By recording their workflows, you give Replay everything it needs to extract productionready react code and build your future.

Whether you are in telecom, manufacturing, or banking, the technical debt of your legacy systems is growing every day. Replay (replay.build) gives you a path out of the mainframe and into a modern, React-based architecture in weeks, not years.

Ready to modernize without rewriting? Book a pilot with Replay