Rocket® COBOL

Created On:  21 September 2012 Problem: Read-only Entry Fields used to allow their foreground or background colors to be modified. ACUCOBOL-GT Runtime version 8.1.0 stops this behavior and leaves the read-only field gray. Resolution: This change was made to follow Windows standards and was implemented with ECN-3699 released in 8.1.0. Since ACUCOBOL-GT 9.0, this implementation can be turned off so that applications may be customized as usual. Set the following configuration variable in cblconfi file: ECN-3699 0 The value "0" turns the ECN off, value "1" activates the ECN and entry-fields remain gray. Incident #2131301 Old KB# 36363#910#colours#colors#9.1#COBOL#Color#customizing#customize#colour#archive

Created On:  25 September 2012 Problem: The original source file for the program has been lost.  Can the source code be extracted from the compiled object? Resolution: If the object was compiled for source level debugging then yes, Micro Focus engineers can extract the source.  To check the progam, execute it in debug (wrun32 -d programname or runcbl -d programname depending on platform).  If you can see the lines of the source then decompiling is possible. Your Account Manager can provide information on the cost and availability for such services. n/a Old KB# 36374#decompileundebug

Created On:  08 October 2012 Problem: Customer is using Visual COBOL for Visual Studio and needs to dynamically upload a file to an ftp site using the .NET Framework classes.  Can you provide an example of how this can be done? Resolution: Here is an example of uploading a file to an ftp site using Visual COBOL for Visual Studio managed code and the .NET Framework classes. $set ilusing"System.Net"$set ilusing"System.IO" program-id. Program1 as "testftp.Program1".data division.working-storage section.01 cFtpWebRequest type System.Net.FtpWebRequest.01 cFtpWebResponse type System.Net.FtpWebResponse.01 cFileInfo type FileInfo.01 fileContents type Byte occurs any.01 cFileStream type FileStream.01 writer type Stream.procedure division.try   set cftpWebRequest to type FtpWebRequest::Create(new type Uri("ftp://ftp.microfocus.com/testfile.txt")) as type FtpWebRequest   set cFtpWebRequest::Method to type "System.Ne

Created On:  02 October 2012 Problem: Does Visual COBOL support the Net Express WINDOW1 preprocessor for ACU type popup windows for character applications?  For example: The following works in Net Express 5.1: $set preprocess(window1)  working-storage section. 78 note-height value 16. 78 note-width value 41. 78 no-of-chars value note-height * note-width. 01 note-window pic x(10).  01 dummy pic x.  01 note-data value all "- wallpaper ".       03 note-char pic x occurs no-of-chars.  screen section. 01 input-data highlight.       03 line 4 column 6 value " Accept and Display positions ".       03 line 5 column 6 value " are relative to the top left ".       03 line 6 column 6 value " corner of the window. ".       03 pic x using dummy.  01 note-screen pic x(no-

Created On:  18 September 2012 Problem: Customer has COBOL application that resides on a network share. He is starting the application from within a Windows batch file that also resides on the network share.When his application starts it does a call to "CBL_GET_CURRENT_DIR" to return the name of the folder from which the application was started.The application and batch file are on \\\\server1\\myfolder.When the batch file starts I get the following error:        '%1' CMD.EXE was started with the above path as the current directory. UNC paths are not supported. Defaulting to Windows directory.'and the program name cannot be found.Why is this occurring? Resolution: The problem is that Windows does not allow for a .bat file to have a network share as its current directory so it automatically changes it to the Windows folder for the local drive. This will work if you map a drive letter to the UNC name in which case the drive letter and folder will

Created On:  02 October 2012 Problem: Customer is converting an application created using Net Express and Oracle Pro*COBOL to Visual COBOL managed code using OpenESQL.In Pro*COBOL they could use the following statement to change the date format of date fields returned in SQL queries:EXEC SQL ALTER SESSION SET NLS_DATE_FORMAT = 'MM-DD-YYYY' END-EXEC.Is there an equivalent method in Visual COBOL using OpenESQL? Resolution: Starting in Visual COBOL 2.1 several SQL directives have been added to control the returned formats of SQL Date and Time fields. Please see Visual COBOL documentation under Data Access, Database Access > Reference > OpenESQL > Compiler directives for full details of these directives.DATE Controls the reformatting of date values in output parameters and in input parameter character host variables when DETECTDATE is also specified. TIMEControls the reformatting of date values in output parameters and in input parameter character host variables when

Created On:  03 October 2012 Problem: Server for COBOL (formerly known as Application Server for Net Express) was using a different license mechanism and networked licensing (ASLMFNET). Is it possible to set up a similar networked licensing with COBOL Server 2.1 or Enterprise Server 2.1? Resolution: Here are the steps to set up networked licensing with COBOL Server 2.1 to run native (non .NET) applications. [Server side]1. Install COBOL Server 2.1 on the server2. Install the license3. Copy mfcesd.exe (MF CES Daemon) and mfcesdchk.exe (this checks if MF CES Daemon is running)    a. In 32-bit Windows – from C:\\Program Files\\Common Files\\SafeNet Sentinel\\Sentinel RMS License Manager\\WinNT to C:\\Program Files\\Micro Focus\\COBOL Server\\bin    b. In 64-bit Windows – from C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Common Files\\SafeNet Sentinel\\Sentinel RMS License Manager\\WinNT to C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Micro Focus\\COBOL Server\\

Created On:  21 September 2012 Problem: There is a known issue when installing or running Micro Focus products after having previously uninstalled the runtime product Server for COBOL 5.0. When attempting to start, for example, Net Express or run a Net Express application, you may encounter the error ‘Micro Focus License Manager service is not running’. You may also be unable to view license information in the License Management Configuration tool. This is caused by having installed runtime licenses in the previous installation of Server for COBOL 5.0. This affects registry permissions rendering them inaccessible to subsequent installations of Micro Focus products.This issue was subsequently addressed and fixed in version 5.1 of Server for COBOL. Resolution: 1. Download and decompress the attachment FIXREG.ZIP into a temporary folder.2. From an administrator's command prompt navigate to the temporary folder and run FIXREG.BAT3. Once these steps have been carried out the iss

Created On:  05 October 2012 Problem: I look in $COBDIR/bin and I see the "cob" command, but I also see "cob32" and "cob64".   If I want to compile in 32-bit mode, should I use "cob32"?   Likewise, should I use "cob64" for 64-bit mode? Resolution: The intention is that end-users will use the basic "cob" command under all circumstances.  The "cob" command will notice the active cobmode at the time, then invoke either "cob32" or "cob64" behind the scenes as appropriate. The COBOL system is actively operating in one mode or another at any one time.  The current mode can be revealed by entering the "cobmode" command. The mode can be affected by setting the COBMODE environment variable.  For example:  $ export COBMODE=32  $ cobmode Effective Default Working Mode: 32 bit  $ export COBMODE=64  $ cobmode Effective Default Working Mode: 64 bit The mode can also be affected by various flags or options of the "cobmode"

Created On:  21 September 2012 Problem: An ACUCOBOL program running on Linux gets the following error message: "Missing required termcap function `cm' in entry for `dumb'" Resolution: As the program is run via Thin Client, it's possible that the environments may be different between server users. Here's an easy way to determine the environment in which the runtime is running: Use a command-line instruction like this to determine the environment from the user's prompt: env > env-from-prompt.txtThen, run this code from within the runtime, using C$SYSTEM: MOVE "env > env-from-runtime.txt" TO WS-CMD-LINE CALL "C$SYSTEM" USING WS-CMD-LINE,            CSYS-SHELL        GIVING EXIT-STATUSAt the end, compare the two .txt files. In this particular case, this comparison showed a mismatch between the two TERM environment variables: TERM=xterm (prompt environment) TERM=dumb(Thin client envir

Created On:  29 August 2012 Problem: A Visual COBOL Windows Forms application has a form on which a combo box control has been placed.  The combo box is statically populates with a list of strings.  The application retrieves data from an indexed file and needs to search the entries in the combo box to compare them with the value of one of the fields in the data record. When it finds a match it needs to set the current index of the combo box to the position within the combo box where the compare was true.  How can this be done? Resolution: Something like the following should work:      01 compareField    string.      01 emp-type          pic x(20)  value "Full Time".           set compareField to emp-field           set comboBox1::SelectedIndex to comboBox1::FindStringExact(compareField::TrimEnd(' '))

Created On:  24 August 2012 Problem: Program is executing a COBOL SEARCH statement but it appears to be failing on a data match that is definately in the table.What could be wrong?The program looks like: 01  ERROR-MSG                    PIC  X(28) VALUE SPACES.         01  ERR-IO-STATUS              PIC  X(02) VALUE SPACES.                                                                         

Created On:  07 September 2012 Problem: How to improve the performance of an AcuConnect Thin Client application. Resolution: In general two are the most important factors in performance terms when executing Thin Client applications, the application and the network latency, rather than bandwidth, latency is almost always the cause for poor thin client display performance, increasing the bandwidth does not necessarily reduce latency. In fact, when a client sends a request to acurcl, it just makes the connection via a socket, once a client is connected to the child runtime, acurcl is never again utilized for that client except during the runtime shutdown, in this case, during the execution of the application, all the performance depends on the speed of the network. The above points to the fact that the memory requirements are those for the runtime, which are minimum. A thin client program is less affected by the network latency if it has fewer calls that require a response. Re

Created On:  31 August 2012 Problem: Customer copied their Visual COBOL Windows Forms solution to another development machine with a different screen resolution.  The Form size and controls are not the same (lined up etc.). Is it the Form's AutoScaleMode property that controls this?Original developer is using a resolution of 1980 x 1080 and the second machine is 1680 x 1050. Will this also be an issue when deployed on end user machines? Resolution: Yes, it is the AutoScaleMode property of the Form that controls how the Forms and their Controls will be scaled if the application is run on a system that has a different screen resulution or uses a different default font. You can read about this at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms229605.aspx: A Forms AutoScaleMode property is set to inherit by default, which means use the mode specified in the Forms parent.  If there is no parent then this defaults to no scaling. You should try setting this prop

Created On:  10 September 2012 Problem: Customer is installing Fileshare as a service using FSSERVICE -i command.Customer uses Fileshare Manager (FSMGR) to shut down Fileshare so that backups can be done.Since FSMGR doesn't have a function to restart Fileshare, is there another command that can be used to do this? Resolution: The Fileshare service can be started and stopped using the NET START and NET STOP commands once it has been installed. NET START "Micro Focus Fileshare Service"NET STOP "Micro Focus Fileshare Service" When you start Fileshare as a service it will write its fsscreen.lst file to its current directory which will be C:\\Windows\\System32 when started as a service. You can change this by using the /wd command in the fs.cfg file or on the command line when installing fileshare as a service. If you use the following command to install fileshare: fsservice -i "Server1" /s server1 /wd c:\\testfs /pf c:\\testfs\\password.fil then it will install fileshare so whe

Created On:  09 September 2012 Problem: After installing NetExpress 5.1 WrapPack 6 (nxp3251060079.exe), applying WrapPack 7 (nxp3251070047.msp) fails with the following error: "Error 1920. Service EnterpriseLink Loader Service (ELService) failed to start. Verify that you have sufficient privileges to start system services." Resolution: For some reason, the Net Express settings got corrupted and need to be repaired.  Here is the step to do a repair on Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008: 1. Go to Control Panel > Program and Features 2. Select Micro Focus Net Express 5.1 3. Click on Repair from the tool bar above the column names 4. Click on Yes to allow NXP32MSI to update software  Here are the steps to do a repair on older Windows platforms: 1. Go to Control Panel >  Add or Remove Programs 2. Select Micro Focus Net Express 5.1 3. Click on Change 4. Click on Next 5. Select Repair 6. Click on Next

Created On:  12 September 2012 Problem: I have two projects of type .Micro Focus .INT/.GNT set up in a Visual COBOL Solution.  The startup project project1 contains program "program1.int" which is doing a call to "program2.int" which is in project2.I have added an application.config file to project1 and have set both the PATH and COBDIR environment variables to point to the output folder of project2 which is where "program2.int" resides.When the call to "program2" is made a run-time error 173 occurs which means that "program2" cannot be found. Why does this occur? Resolution: In Visual COBOL the environment variable COBPATH is used to locate .INT/.GNT files that are being called.Change your PATH setting to COBPATH and this should be found. Old KB# 36312

Created On:  13 September 2012 Problem: Is it possible to download a version of 'MF Visual Cobol for Eclipse' that just contains the MF Visual Cobol parts as plugin for being installed additionally to an already existing Eclipse version?  Allowing Eclipse to run with MF COBOL Plugin and any other plugins is what we need. Resolution: Visual COBOL for Eclipse will still need to be installed into your program files and licensed as normal.Step 1:You need this update site for AJDT if not installed into your eclipse.Get fromhttp://www.eclipse.org/ajdt/downloads/ Make sure you get the AJDT for your version of eclipse, and add it to your update sites in eclipse.http://download.eclipse.org/tools/ajdt/37/update The above for 3.7 eclipse file ajdt_2.1.3_for_eclipse_3.7.zip. Step 2:You need to get at the update site for Visual COBOLThis is contained in your Visual COBOL installation.On my machineC:\\Program Files (x86)\\Micro Focus\\Visual COBOL 2010 R4\\UpdateSite.zip You need to

Created On:  10 September 2012 Problem: The main program calls by the data-item a module that is created into .DLL. Resolution: This is an issue with Net Express 5.1WS5 . The issue is fixed in Net Express 5.1WS6. Incident #2586639 Old KB# 36294#COBOL

Created On:  10 September 2012 Problem: Customer has Oracles Pro*COBOL installed and is using the COBSQL option of Net Express to invoke the precompiler when compiling embedded SQL programs under Windows.Customer is getting following error from compiler: * CSQL-I-020: Processing output of ORACLE8 Precompiler* CSQL-I-027: Detected Working-Storage, now processing it* CSQL-I-028: Now processing through Procedure DivisionCOBPR0000S 000008:Must use option SQLCHECK=SEMANTICS(FULL) when there is embedded PL/ : "C:\\Work\\Net Express Projects\\testeval.pco"(618,7) * CSQL-I-001: Cobsql has finished returning to the CheckerRebuild complete with errors------------------------------------------ Customer asks, "How might I go about setting "SQLCHECK=SEMANTICS(FULL)"? Should this be done in the cobol.dir file? Resolution: SQLCHECK=SEMANTICS or SQLCHECK=FULL are synonymous and are Oracle Pro*COBOL directives not COBOL or COBSQL directives. From the Net Express docs: For both project setti

Created On:  29 August 2012 Problem: Windows Forms application has a form on which there are a number of Listbox and Combobox controls. As the application moves through a file of employees these controls get updated as new items are added to their lists. How can the application remove the data from these controls when it needs to start again with a new record? Resolution: Each of these controls has a Clear method on their Items collection. The following will remove all current items: invoke listBox1::Items::Clear invoke comboBox1::Items::Clear Old KB# 36255

Created On:  12 September 2012 Problem: Customer has a Visual COBOL Windows Forms application on which several comboBox controls reside. When the user selects a new item in the combobox the application needs to set some textbox controls to the value of the selected item.The problem is that the SelectedIndexChanged event also fires when the combobox is first created during the form load.How can SelectedIndexChanged event be used only when a user actually clicks on a new item and not when the form is being loaded? Resolution: You can set up a condition flag in working-storage so that you can avoid the first time the SelectedindexChanged event is fired. Example:       class-id testcomboselect.Form1 is partial                inherits type System.Windows.Forms.Form.      working-storage section.      01 isInitial   condition-value value

Created On:  14 August 2012 Problem: Users are asked to save the profile when exiting the Rumba program. The setting "Do not save profile on exit" in the Rumba options would only work if one user logs on to one PC but if you have several users on one PC it will ask the question again per user, each user who logs in has to change the setting within the software to not ask to save upon exiting. Is a registry fix or a config file that can be edited so that it does not prompt to save, for all users who log into the PC? Resolution: After a Rumba install, there is a config file located in \\system called: RumbaPage.exe.config and in this file the default setting is AskToSave:AskToSave   After the first activation of Rumba by the user, this file is copied to his local data file folder: %localappdata%\\ Micro Focus\\Rumba and saved under the name:Rumba.configThere you can change the value to DoNotSave, and you are all good:DoNotSave Old KB# 36218#Rumba

Created On:  16 August 2012 Problem: When using Dialog System Addpack in Visual COBOL can I use project types x64 or anyCPU? Resolution: Dialog System is provided as a 32-bit native .DLL and therefore it can only be called by a 32-bit project.  Although it may appear to work correctly when using calling Dialog System from a project defined as anyCPU when run on a 32-bit computer it will fail if the same application is moved to a 64-bit computer.All projects that contain programs that call Dialog System should be defined as "x86" Platform. Old KB# 36228

Created On:  16 August 2012 Problem: Customer has a managed code .NET solution in Visual COBOL where many of the programs to be called actually reside in managed code class library assemblies, (.DLLs) that reside on a network share called \\\\compname\\myprograms.When I try to call one of these programs I get the following error:    Could not load file or assembly 'file://\\\\compname\\myprograms\\ManagedCustomer.dll' or one of its dependencies. Operation is not supported.    (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80131515)If I move the programs to a folder on the local drive it works correctly.How can I configure this to load my programs from a network share? Resolution: This error occurs because of the User Access Control Trust issues associated with .NET assemblies.  Assemblies downloaded from the Internet or that reside on a network drive are not trusted by default.To allow for these assemblies to be loaded you can add the following highlighted section