Rocket® Visual COBOL®

This pertains to the use of external filehandlers, where my COBOL class is compiled with CALLFH"abcdef", which in tern needs to call fh/aaaaaa.dll which exists in the sub folder fh.The COBOL has :CALL “fh/aaaaaa” using ………During animation I debug the class, debug abcdef, but when it gets to the CALL “fh/aaaaaa” it doesn’t raise an exception but doesn’t execute the code either.I can see from procmon that the assembly was indeed loaded as well as the .pdb but just ignored almost as though it was looking for the programid but that didn’t match.Is this not supported?Is there an COBOL .NET  replacement for COBPATH ?Neil 

Hey everyone,As we step into 2026, one thing is certain: GenAI will remain a major topic this year. That raises an important question — how can you leverage GenAI to accelerate COBOL modernization?This question inspired our latest insights article:✅ When generative AI delivers real value in COBOL modernization, and when it can lead to dangerous hallucinations✅ How to address the skills shortage and improve knowledge transfer using GenAI✅ What makes Rocket Software’s approach to GenAI different, ensuring you get insights you can trust for your modernization projectsRead the full post here: The Role of Generative AI in COBOL Modernization | Rocket SoftwareIf you have any questions or want us to dive deeper into any of these topics, let us know in the comments. We’d love to hear from you!

I have requested to download Visual COBOL Personal Edition, but I have not received an email or reply to download Visual COBOL Personal Edition. What should I do so that I can download Visual COBOL Personal Edition?

We currently have a native COBOL application that uses dynamic SQL (via OpenESQL) to fetch, insert and update into Microsoft SQL.This includes varbinary(max) columns which we have working and I suspect it was based on the demo which was available from this link https://community.rocketsoftware.com/rocket-visual-cobol-28/demo-using-the-varbinary-max-column-type-from-cobol-4560. Unfortunately the link to the actual demo is no longer available.I now have the fun and games of trying to convert this logic to .NET core Visual COBOL and I am really struggling to work out how to ‘stitch’ the 65k blocks back together into the correct format and would really appreciate some guidance on this (the same goes for splitting it into the 65k blocks to insert/update).Is there any chance for the demo mention

I think that no, but…Can I do something like that?:       77 lsMethod string.           Move 'gabert' to lsMethod           Invoke Classes lsMethod returning QuebraGalho  Hugs.Antonio JoãoVisual COBO + Visual Studio.

Hi everyone,Thank you again to everyone who joined the State & the Future of COBOL webinar.  If you missed it or would like to share it with your colleagues, here is the recording: The State & The Future of COBOL | Rocket SoftwareStay tuned and turn on the Rocket Forum notifications so you don’t miss the next event. Here are the quiz winners:Marc C.Sebastian S.Thibaut C.Elsabe A.Frank B.Jebastin K.Paul M.Jonathan S.Juan U.Florian G.And then Allan L. who guess the author of the COBOL quote.We'll share the gift details with everyone next week.Best,Rocket COBOL team

Hi! I am currently testing Visual COBOL 11 against my software, and when I run a program that has Database Connectors in them, I get a 9D,25 error on all the SQL tables that are in the program.Copilot tells me that the 9D,25 means the XFD is corrupt, but I re-created the XFDs and I am still getting the error. I re-created the Aculock DB, and made sure that my ACUFH file is pointing to the correct folder, and I have a valid license.  Is there anything else I can look at? 

I installed the latest Personal Edition of Visual COBOL.I'm trying to create a class that inherits from base and I'm getting the message "Inherited class 'Type base' not found".How do I fix this?

Welcome to Rocket® COBOL Fuel, your monthly source for all things COBOL. In this issue, you’ll learn about the first challenge of modernization and get the latest webinar recording.  Release of the year: Rocket Visual COBOL 11.0 Your COBOL applications hold decades of mission-critical business logic and data. They are not roadblocks. They are strategic assets. With Rocket Visual COBOL 11.0 released this year, you can unlock, modernize, and extend the value of these applications without disruption.Modernize your development Adopt Agile and DevOps practices in COBOL development using industry-standard tools and GenAI assistance. Onboard and train developers faster with AI-driven insights that make even the most complex codebases easier to understand. Modernize your infrastructure Run COBOL anywhere, from commodity platforms to containers, microservices, and th

Visual COBOL 11, COBOL .NET, .NET Core -  using methods.When using namespaces why use:       $set ilusing "System.Collections.Generic"Over right clicking on the project, properties ~Namespaces or visa versa?The $set places it in the code vs properties~Namespaces setting it in the project.I think the $set is more visible personally at a developer level, But properies~Namespaces might be better for Pipelines. (Easier to pick up dependencies)What is the benefit of either method?Neil

Hello Team,Currently we have Enterprise developer already available in the system , I am trying to integrate VS Code using Rocket COBOL extension to do a BRD documentation using the Co-pilot features. We have two copybooks extension ,one with CPY and another COPYCOB. The intelisense is  able to identify the CPY copybooks but not the COPYCOB eventhough the extensions are mapped. Is there possibility to re-use the XML files of MFED for the integration of VS code.ThanksSanoop

I am trying to call the direct ODBC API from a Visual COBOL program using Visual Studio 2022. I want to know if there are any specific configuration changes required in Visual studio 2022 to make ODBC calls work correctly, especially when linking DLLs that are not part of the same solution. Also, if anyone has a small sample COBOL program that demonstrates how to call ODBC APIs directly (for example: SQLConnect, SQLExecDirect, SQLDisconnect), it would be very helpful. Could you please guide me on the correct setup and share any sample code?

Visual Studio 2022, Visual COBOL 11 Update 1. When migrating old native COBOL code to COBOL .NET which has lots of reference modification code you have to sometimes work out something simple as the length of a string.In OO COBOL you had character arrays and you could get “size” or “sizeinbytes”. Due to my very poor understanding of what a character array was many years ago I got unstuck when using simplified Chinese to do reference modification as getting the “size” means how many simplified Chinese characters are in the array and doing reference modification would truncate the data because I didn’t use “sizeinbytes”.So now moving to COBOL .NET I’d better check the behaviour of this and see how it works.I have a simple C# winform Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture = new CultureInfo("zh-CN");Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentUICulture = new CultureInfo("zh-CN"); 

Hi,I have found that the EXIT PARAGRAPH doesn’t work in .NET COBOL. Is this an error or is it deliberate, and if it is deliberate then is there an alternative?Thanks in advance

Hi,Is there any documentation around that cross references the OO COBOL objects to help me identify what I need to use in .NET COBOL as replacements? For example: characterarray = stringAt this point I have no specifics but any help would be gratefully received.Thanks in advance 

Hello, we are migrating our Visual COBOL development for Eclipse from a AIX server to a Linux server. We have a utility to convert text from ASCII to UTF-8, but it has stopped working because the NATIONAL-OF function does not recognize UTF-8 characters in linux. the locale data are ----AIX LANG=CLC_COLLATE="C"LC_CTYPE="C"LC_MONETARY="C"LC_NUMERIC="C"LC_TIME="C"LC_MESSAGES="C"LC_ALL=-----LinuxLANG=CLC_CTYPE="C"LC_NUMERIC="C"LC_TIME="C"LC_COLLATE="C"LC_MONETARY="C"LC_MESSAGES="C"LC_PAPER="C"LC_NAME="C"LC_ADDRESS="C"LC_TELEPHONE="C"LC_MEASUREMENT="C"LC_IDENTIFICATION="C"LC_ALL=And the code of the utility is :       PROGRAM-ID. anook2       ENVIRONMENT DIVISION.       CONFIGURATION SECTION.       INPUT-OUTPUT SECTION.       file-control.           select futf8 assign to f-utf8

In native COBOL I make heavy use of the compile directive:CALLFH"ABCDEF"Where “ABCDEF” is  ABCDEF.GNT.Moving to COBOL .NET  and .NET Core, “ABCDEF” becomes a DLL but should it be a class or program?What is the benefit of either, if that’s an option?Neil

Hi, we are working with MF visualcobol 8.0 for Eclipse in linux  and we want to read a big binary file (.pdf , .-jpg,...) from the linux server and insert it into a sqlserver bbdd in a windows server.The program is compilede whit openesqlAsking for the use of the CBL_OPEN_FILE to the IA it say that we have to use this sintaxis, but in te MF documentation don´t presents parameter Organization CALL "CBL_OPEN_FILE"    USING BY VALUE 0              *> File handle (returned)          BY REFERENCE FILE-NAME  *> Nombre del fichero          BY VALUE 1              *> Mode: input          BY VALUE 4              *> Organization: binary          BY VALUE 0              *> Options    RETURNING STATUS-CODE. how must  we usei it ? 

Hi everyone,A few weeks ago, Scot Nielsen, Vice President of Product Management, sat down with Channel Insider to discuss COBOL modernization, a topic that continues to shape enterprise technology strategies.The conversation explored some of the most pressing challenges organizations face when not modernizing COBOL systems, including:Preserving decades of proven business logic without disrupting operations   Making COBOL development attractive and streamlined for both seasoned engineers and new talent   Ensuring robust security for COBOL applications at the core of business, especially when integrated with numerous third-party services“We want to find ways to always help the organization leverage those [proven COBOL applications] rather than having to do something more profoundly risky like a rewrite. From a high-level perspective, it’s about leveraging what works — what you know works as an organizatio

Hi.Following our migration from MF Enterprise Developer to Rocket Cobol for VSCode, we are experiencing some Language Server errors in VSCode that do not show up in MF, but we are unable to figure out how to fix them. We assume is probably related to missing or incorrect compiler directives, but we are not sure. This is the actual configuration of Cobol directives in MF: ​​​​​​And this is the configuration of Cobol Default Directives on Rocket Cobol (basically replicating the ones in MF, but including a few extra ones, like assign”external” to fix some COBCH0005 errors)  However, with

I am converting code from native COBOL to .NET and am looking for suggestions whereby in native COBOL I am using a dictionary that is set as an external item so that it can be referenced by a number of programs (DLL’s) but as this is not supported in .NET so I am trying to figure out a viable alternative.Any thoughts or suggestions?

Acompáñanos para conocer las últimas novedades de Rocket® Visual COBOL® 11.0, diseñadas para ayudarte a modernizar las aplicaciones críticas que impulsan tu negocio.25 de noviembre16:00 Spain / 12:00 Buenos AiresRegistrate ahoraDurante el webinar aprenderás:Cómo la IA está transformando la modernización Descubre el papel real de la IA en las iniciativas de modernización y dónde aporta más valor al trabajar con aplicaciones COBOL . Nuevos insights impulsados por GenAI para cualquier desarrollador Aprende cómo las funciones potenciadas por GenAI ayudan a cualquier desarrollador a comprender rápidamente complejas bases de código COBOL, acelerando la incorporación de personal y haciendo el desarrollo más eficiente. Compatibilidad

I’ve got to be missing something simple here: msbuild ACME.cblproj --property:Version=8.0.0.2 --property:FileVersion=8.0.0.2This will build a .NET Core 8.0 COBOL dll and pass in the properties for File Version and Product Version as if it where set on the project properties tab, under Application~Assembly Information.But how does one set Product Name and File Description, setting “Product” on the project property~Application~Assembly Information doesn’t build it into the DLL.I need to pass these properties in via command line, I don’t seem to find any documentation for all the StringFileInfo via msbuild.I require these, I have some.   CompanyName=Company  FileDescription  InternalName  FileVersion =FileVersion            LegalCopyright = Copyright  LegalTrademarks = Trademark  OriginalFilename  ProductName  ProductVersion = VesrionAnyone?