Tasking Client/Server to .NET

On August 10th, 1998, I was hired as a Senior Developer for CDSI. My tasking was to build and maintain a GOT’s program that would help the Comptrollers Office spread their budget down to a very specific level. To do this we had a team of three and I was the newest member on the team, so when I got their the development tools was already selected, requirements completed and the project was already started.
The tool of their choose was PowerBuilder Version 4.x – shortly after I got there we upgraded to PB 5 – and we are using an Oracle backend to hold our data. When I inquired about their reasoning behind using PowerBuilder they informed me that they choose this because it was a “true” OOP (object oriented programming) language. We were also permitted to embedded the SQL right into the code, that was one of the “benefits”. Another feature, and probable Sybase’s best feature, is the Data Window. Data Windows are a very nice formatting tool, very similar to Crystal Reports – only better.
The problem comes into play today and we are trying to convert this into a web based application. Data-Windows has a feature that these products can be incorporated into .net but trying to put that data-window into an AJAX tab-control and I get an error stating that “False” can not be sent on the property “RightToLeft” So I can use the functionality but not the way I want to..I am not happy. Do I change the UI so I can take advantage of the functionality that I have or do I change the way the application was written and write it correctly.
I guess the best thing to do is to take advantage to the functionality that I have and change the UI. I would like to write about how to convert embedded SQL into something that is designed more like how we would do it now.