Magic xpa Migration: Visual Discovery of Undocumented High-Volume User Flows

Magic xpa is where logic goes to hide. For decades, enterprise applications built on the Magic Software platform have powered critical operations in financial services and manufacturing, but they have also created a "black box" problem that traditional static analysis tools cannot solve. Because Magic xpa uses a proprietary, event-driven metadata engine rather than standard procedural code, traditional "lift and shift" migrations usually end in disaster. In fact, 70% of legacy rewrites fail or exceed their timelines because developers spend months trying to decipher undocumented logic before writing a single line of modern code.

The bottleneck isn't the React development; it’s the discovery. When 67% of legacy systems lack documentation, your migration team is effectively flying blind. This is why a magic migration visual discovery strategy is no longer optional—it is the only way to extract business value from the legacy UI without getting bogged down in the $3.6 trillion global technical debt.

TL;DR: Manual migration of Magic xpa apps takes roughly 40 hours per screen. By using Replay for visual discovery and reverse engineering, enterprises can reduce this to 4 hours per screen, saving 70% of the total modernization timeline. Replay converts video recordings of legacy workflows into documented React components and structured design systems, bypassing the need for missing source documentation.

The "Magic" Problem: Why Traditional Discovery Fails#

Magic xpa (formerly uniPaaS or eDeveloper) is unique. It’s a table-driven environment where logic is defined in "tasks" and "events." If you try to read the exported XML or metadata files, you won’t find a clean architectural pattern. You’ll find a labyrinth of nested tasks and global variables.

Industry experts recommend moving away from these proprietary silos toward open standards like React and TypeScript. However, the "how" is often the sticking point. If you can't see the data flow, you can't replicate it. This is where magic migration visual discovery changes the game. Instead of trying to parse 20-year-old metadata, you record the application in action.

Video-to-code is the process of using computer vision and AI to analyze user interface recordings, identifying recurring UI patterns, state transitions, and business logic to generate functional modern code.

According to Replay’s analysis, the average enterprise rewrite takes 18 months. Most of that time is wasted in "discovery workshops" where developers interview end-users to understand what a button actually does. Replay automates this by treating the visual output as the source of truth.

The Strategy: Magic Migration Visual Discovery#

To successfully move from Magic xpa to a modern React stack, you need a three-pillar approach: Visual Discovery, Component Extraction, and Flow Mapping.

1. Visual Discovery of High-Volume Flows#

In a Magic environment, the most critical flows are often the most complex. Think of a high-volume data entry screen in a brokerage firm. The "logic" is a mix of keyboard shortcuts, immediate validation rules, and background tasks. By using Replay to record these high-volume flows, you capture the actual behavior of the system, not just what is written in the outdated manual.

2. Automated Component Extraction#

Magic xpa applications often have a distinct, albeit dated, visual language. Replay’s AI Automation Suite identifies these patterns. It sees a "Table" control in Magic and maps it to a high-performance React data grid.

3. Mapping the State Machine#

Magic xpa is notoriously state-heavy. A magic migration visual discovery process identifies how the UI changes when a user enters a specific value. Replay’s "Flows" feature documents these transitions, creating a blueprint for your new frontend architecture.

Learn more about documenting legacy flows

Comparison: Manual Migration vs. Replay-Assisted Discovery#

Technical Implementation: From Magic UI to React Components#

When performing a magic migration visual discovery, the goal is to move from the proprietary Magic "Form" to a clean, modular React component library.

In Magic xpa, a screen might be defined by a series of coordinates and property tables. In the modern world, we want a functional component that consumes a theme and handles state via hooks.

Step 1: Extracting the Component Architecture#

Replay analyzes the recording of a Magic xpa screen and identifies the atomic components. For example, a standard Magic "Push Button" with specific validation logic becomes a reusable React component.

typescript
// Example: A generated React component from a Magic xpa visual recording
import React from 'react';
import { useForm } from 'react-hook-form';
import { Button, Input, Card } from '@/components/ui';

interface MagicLegacyFlowProps {
  initialData?: any;
  onSave: (data: any) => void;
}

/**
 * Extracted via Replay Blueprints
 * Legacy Source: Magic xpa Order Entry Task
 */
export const OrderEntryForm: React.FC<MagicLegacyFlowProps> = ({ initialData, onSave }) => {
  const { register, handleSubmit, formState: { errors } } = useForm({
    defaultValues: initialData
  });

  // Replay identified this specific event-driven logic from the visual flow
  const onSubmit = (data: any) => {
    console.log("Triggering legacy-equivalent validation logic...");
    onSave(data);
  };

  return (
    <Card className="p-6 shadow-lg border-slate-200">
      <form onSubmit={handleSubmit(onSubmit)} className="space-y-4">
        <div className="grid grid-cols-2 gap-4">
          <div className="flex flex-col">
            <label className="text-sm font-medium">Customer ID</label>
            <Input 
              {...register("customerId", { required: true })} 
              placeholder="Captured from Magic Control ID: 102"
            />
            {errors.customerId && <span className="text-red-500">Required field</span>}
          </div>
          <div className="flex flex-col">
            <label className="text-sm font-medium">Order Reference</label>
            <Input {...register("orderRef")} />
          </div>
        </div>
        <Button type="submit" variant="primary">
          Execute Task (F2 Equivalent)
        </Button>
      </form>
    </Card>
  );
};

Step 2: Mapping Complex Event Logic#

Magic xpa relies heavily on "Variable Change" events. During the magic migration visual discovery phase, Replay identifies these triggers. For instance, if changing a "Product ID" field instantly updates the "Unit Price" field in the legacy app, Replay flags this as a side-effect that needs to be handled in the new React implementation.

typescript
// Implementing legacy 'Variable Change' logic in modern React
import { useEffect, useState } from 'react';

export const useMagicLogicBridge = (productId: string) => {
  const [unitPrice, setUnitPrice] = useState(0);

  useEffect(() => {
    // This flow was discovered by Replay analyzing the visual state change
    // when the user exited the ProductID field in the legacy recording.
    if (productId) {
      fetch(`/api/v1/products/${productId}/price`)
        .then(res => res.json())
        .then(data => setUnitPrice(data.price));
    }
  }, [productId]);

  return { unitPrice };
};

Scaling with the Replay AI Automation Suite#

Modernizing a single screen is easy. Modernizing a Magic xpa application with 4,000 screens is an architectural nightmare. This is where Replay’s "Library" and "Blueprints" features become essential.

1. •The Library (Design System): Replay identifies all instances of a specific UI pattern across your entire Magic application. Instead of building 4,000 buttons, you build one
   text

   MagicButton
   component that is used across all generated screens. This ensures visual consistency and reduces the maintenance burden of your new React codebase. Building Component Libraries from Legacy
2. •Blueprints (The Editor): Once Replay has performed the magic migration visual discovery, developers can use the Blueprint editor to refine the code. You can swap out generic components for your enterprise’s specific UI library (like Shadcn or MUI) while keeping the discovered logic intact.
3. •Flows (Architecture): This feature maps the "how" of your application. It visualizes the navigation paths between different Magic tasks, allowing you to design a modern React Router or Next.js App Router structure that mirrors the user's mental model.

Why Visual Discovery is the Future of Legacy Modernization#

The old way of modernizing Magic xpa involved hiring expensive consultants to spend months reading documentation that didn't exist. It was a process of trial and error that led to the staggering statistic that 70% of legacy rewrites fail.

By switching to a magic migration visual discovery model with Replay, you are moving from a "spec-first" approach to a "truth-first" approach. You aren't guessing what the application does; you are observing what it does and converting those observations into clean, documented code.

This is particularly vital for regulated industries like Financial Services and Healthcare. In these environments, you cannot afford to lose a single validation rule or data constraint during the move. Replay’s SOC2 and HIPAA-ready platform ensures that your discovery process is as secure as it is efficient.

Implementation Guide: The 4-Week Discovery Sprint#

If you are facing a massive Magic xpa migration, don't start by writing code. Start with a visual discovery sprint:

• •Week 1: Inventory & Recording. Identify the top 20% of screens that handle 80% of the user traffic. Use Replay to record expert users performing these flows.
• •Week 2: Pattern Analysis. Use Replay’s AI to identify recurring components and "Magic-isms" (specific behaviors unique to the platform).
• •Week 3: Blueprint Generation. Generate the initial React components and design system.
• •Week 4: Logic Validation. Review the generated flows with business stakeholders to ensure the "visual truth" matches the intended business outcome.

By the end of this sprint, you will have a functional React prototype and a documented architecture, saving months of manual effort.

Frequently Asked Questions#

What makes Magic xpa migration harder than other platforms?#

Magic xpa is metadata-driven rather than code-driven. This means there is no traditional "source code" to refactor. The logic is stored in binary or XML tables that define events and tasks. Traditional static analysis tools cannot "read" this logic effectively, making magic migration visual discovery the only viable way to understand the application’s behavior without manual reverse engineering.

How does Replay handle the complex keyboard shortcuts common in Magic apps?#

Magic xpa users often rely on F-keys (F2 for zoom, F3 for modify, etc.). During the visual discovery process, Replay captures these input events and maps them to modern React keyboard listeners. This ensures that the high-volume users who rely on muscle memory can transition to the new system without a loss in productivity.

Can Replay discover hidden background tasks in Magic?#

While Replay focuses on the visual layer, it identifies background tasks by observing their effects on the UI (e.g., data updates, loading states, or navigation triggers). By documenting these "side effects," Replay provides a roadmap for developers to implement the necessary API calls or server-side logic in the modern stack.

Is the generated React code maintainable?#

Yes. Unlike "black box" transpilers that output unreadable spaghetti code, Replay generates clean, modular TypeScript and React code based on your specific Design System. The goal of magic migration visual discovery is to provide a high-quality starting point that follows modern best practices, including hooks, functional components, and structured state management.

How does this approach reduce the 18-month average migration timeline?#

Most of that 18-month timeline is spent in the "Analysis" and "Testing" phases. Replay collapses the analysis phase by automating discovery and collapses the testing phase by ensuring the new UI is a 1:1 functional match of the legacy system. By reducing the manual "hours per screen" from 40 to 4, the overall project timeline is typically slashed by over 60%.

Conclusion#

The era of manual legacy discovery is over. With $3.6 trillion in technical debt looming over the global economy, enterprise architects can no longer afford the "slow way" of migrating Magic xpa applications. By leveraging magic migration visual discovery, you can turn a multi-year risk into a multi-week success story.

Replay provides the bridge between the proprietary past and the open-source future. Whether you are in insurance, government, or telecom, the path to modernization starts with seeing your application clearly for the first time.

Ready to modernize without rewriting from scratch? Book a pilot with Replay