Rocket® COBOL

Created On:  04 February 2013 Problem: Customer is using the Enter key to traverse through a Windows Form with a number of controls on it.When the Enter key is pressed, the application needs to find out which control on the form the user was in. They have tried using the TabIndex property like: if self::TabIndex = 0     invoke self::processEmployeeNumber()    exit methodend-if But it always seems to return the same value.How can this be done? Resolution: The following code should work for you. A new method called GetFocusedControl has been created which is called in the Keydown method. This will return null if no control has focus or will contain the control that has focus. This control can then be tested with an evaluate statement. method-id Form1_KeyDown final private.01 mycontrol type Control.procedure division using by value sender as object e as type System.Windows.Forms.KeyEventArgs.     set mycontrol to

Created On:  31 January 2013 Problem: AcuRuntime 9.1.2.1 is the first release certified for Windows 8.  A CALL "C$SYSTEM" is executed always in asyncronous mode when run on this platform. Resolution: A possible workaround is to add the flag CSYS-SHELL to the CALL "C$SYSTEM".In future release 9.2.0, this behavior will be fixed in ECN-4210.This is the description of the fix:SUBJECT: On Windows 8, C$SYSTEM fails to wait for a console-mode programChange Number:  ECN-4210Status:         CompleteType of Change: CorrectionPriority:       MediumIncidents:      2608782RPI Number: 1087447 Date:        2013-01-28Product:     ACUCOBOL-GTModule:      runtimeNew Version: 9.2.0 Machines Affected: Windows 8Known Versions Affected: All DESCRIPTION of problem or enhancement: When running on Windows 8

Created On:  04 February 2013 Problem: A customer had set the LMFCOMM environment variable indicating a custom location for the LMF long-lived named pipe, as described in the documentation in the section "Relocating the Long-lived Named Pipe" in the Development System Licensing Guide Chapter 2, Administering the License Management Facility.  The customer had set this environment variable in each user's .profile, as well as setting it in /etc/mflmrcscript, so each time the machine booted, and the LMF license manager was started, the named pipe would be created in the location specified by LMFCOMM, but they sometimes still received the error LMF - 010: Unable to contact license manager. But if the LMF manager stopped, and they manually re-started it using the command "mflmman" from the operative LMF directory, then the error message occurred again, because LMFCOMM had not been set prior to the execution of, or inside, the "mflmman" script. Resolution: The solution was t

Created On:  07 February 2013 Problem: Customer was trying to add the TESTCOVER environment variable in the Project Properties-->Micro Focus COBOL-->Run-time Configuration-->Environment Variables in the Eclipse IDE but it was not being picked up at run-time.Where should environment variables be set in the Eclipse IDE?  The following failed:  Resolution: The customer has stumbled on to an annoying ‘feature’ in the Eclipse IDE.  When setting the env vars in the Project Properties/MF Cobol/RT Config page as shown, a .gcf file will be created with the values in it.This file is read by the run-time system and contains the values you have set.This file is created when the run launch configuration is created (usually when you first run the program). The settings are then remembered by the launch configuration.  Changing the .gcf on disk will not reload them into the run/debug launch configuration.   There is a also feature where the .gcf file is

Created On:  04 February 2013 Problem: In late versions (9.0 though 9.1.2.1) querying a set of files you noticed a hit performance, either using asql or from a desktop software like Excel or Crystal Reports, compared with 8.1.2 or previous the performance decreased dramatically. Resolution: This is due to an enhancement introduced in version 9.0.0 that can be avoid by doing the following:   If the query is executed from asql:   Go int asql and type this command:             SQL (/? for help) ==> set option mkeyop off; and then run your query again,   If the query is executed from a desktop software   Right click on the "Computer" icon and select properties. Click "Advanced system settings" Click "Environment Variables..." User "System variables" (just to be safe) click "New" Add a variable "GENESIS_INITSQL" and set it to point to a

Created On:  31 January 2013   Problem: When using the PuTTY terminal emulator in its VT100 emulation mode, and when setting the TERM environment variable on Linux/UNIX to TERM=vt220, emulation is generally good but function keys F5 and higher do not work.   Resolution: Attached to this Knowledgebase article is a file named "vt220_src.txt".  This is a terminfo source file with improved function key entries.  It is identical to the file originally supplied with the COBOL product: $COBDIR/terminfo/vt220.src except that the kf5 through kf10 entries have been updated to values the PuTTY terminal emulator expects for these function keys, when operating in VT100 emulation mode. To install this new terminfo entry: (1) Download the attachment "vt220_src.txt" (2) Transfer it to the Linux/UNIX machine where it will be used (3) Log in with root credentials (4) Change directories to where MF COBOL is installed, then set these environment variables: export COBDIR=

Created On:  30 January 2013 Problem: Is it possible to trap if a function key has been pressed while the user is on a Windows Form? Resolution: Yes, it is possible to trap function key values by using the KeyDown event on the form. Example:    method-id Form1_KeyDown final private.    procedure division using by value sender as object e as type System.Windows.Forms.KeyEventArgs.          if e::KeyCode = type Keys::F1              invoke type MessageBox::Show("F1 was pressed")             set e::Handled to true          end-if    end method. Old KB# 36770

Created On:  30 January 2013 Problem: Is it possible to set the background color of any given cell in a Windows Form dataGridView control to one other than the default? Resolution: Yes, you can set the background color of the individual cells in the same place where you set the ReadOnly property. This should be placed in the Form_Shown event handler in order for it to take effect immediately. Example:    set dataGridView1::Rows[sub-1]::Cells["Amount"]::ReadOnly to true    set dataGridView1::Rows[sub-1]::Cells["Amount"]::Style::BackColor to type Color::Red Old KB# 36768

Created On:  31 January 2013 Problem: How to setup AcuRuntime to work with Oracle pro*cobol pre-processor on a linux platform? Is a relink of the runtime necessary?Any possible attempt to relink AcuRuntime 9.1 returns errors such as:"direct.c:158: error: redefinition of 'LIBDIRECT'direct.c:109: error: previous definition of 'LIBDIRECT' was here"Any attempt to launch AcuRuntime without relink returns an error such as:"program missing or inaccessible" Resolution: To have the AcuRuntime operating with pro*cobol, there's no need to relink the runtime. Two solutions are available: 1.set LD_LIBARY_PATH in the environment to the LIB directory path of the Oracle installation i.e.: /opt/oracle/OracleBase/product/11gR1/client/libThen preload the library using the -y runtime switch.i.e.: runcbl -y libclntsh.so.11.1 -c .... prog 2.add the following variables in the /ect/cblconfi file:SHARED_LIBRARY_PREFIX  /opt/oracle/OracleBase/product/11gR1/client/libSHARED_L

Created On:  04 February 2012 Problem: Customer has a Windows Forms application which is comprised of a C# WinForm project and a COBOL class library project.  Several text boxes are entered on a C# form which then calls a COBOL program to do the validation.The C# project has a reference to the COBOL project so that it can create an instance of the COBOL program before calling it. There are several ways to pass the text box values to the COBOL program. 1. Pass them in linkage, including use of smart linkage (can use smart linkage if the COBOL program is not a class).2. Declaring properties in the COBOL program and setting them from the C# program before calling it.3. Passing the Windows form object to the COBOL program and using its Controls collection to get the Text properties of each text box that needs to be validated. What is the best method to making the textbox data available to the COBOL program? Resolution: What you suggest here in point 3 breaks all

Created On:  31 January 2013 Problem: AcuRuntime 9.1.2.1 may have introduced a bug in the way Paged Grid behaves.Here is an example of the behavior:A Paged Grid control shows a list of records: 01, 02, 03, 04 in the first page05, 06, 07, 08 in the second pageIn the first page, click on the Previous Record button.Then click on the Next Page button:records will be displayed as:04, 05, 09, 13The expected sequence should be:05, 06, 07, 08. Resolution: The bug has been corrected in next release 9.2 by ECN-4208:SUBJECT: Incorrect EVENT-DATA-2 for some PAGE-NEXT-PAGE eventsChange Number:  ECN-4208Status:         CompleteType of Change: CorrectionPriority:       HighIncidents:      2609120RPI Number: 1087460 Date:        2013-01-22Product:     ACUCOBOL-GTModule:      runtime, acuthinNew Version:

Created On:  07 January 2013 Problem: Is it possible to generate a WSDL file in WS-I standard 1.1 in Net Express 5.1? Resolution: Even though Net Express 5.1 indicates that it is creating a WSDL file in 1.0 standard, our generated WSDL is 1.1-compliant (although not fully 1.2-compliant). You should have no problems using the WSDL file if your require it to be in 1.1 standard. Incident #2601114 Old KB# 36715

Created On:  18 January 2013 Problem: Errors are shown during the execution of the tar command to extract the Server Express installation tar file. For example:tar: 0511-188 Cannot create bin/caspcrd32: The file access permissions do not allow the specified action." Resolution: This problem occurs because you've attempted to extract the Server Express installation tar file without first becoming root. To resolve: 1) Log in as root2) Delete any contents that were created in the folder that was the intended extraction location (by default, this would be /opt/microfocus/cobol)3) Retry the operation to extract the tar file Incident #2600283 Old KB# 36749

Created On:  07 January 2013 Problem: In previous releases of Visual Cobol 2.1 update 1 the contents of the Link with OBJS field is duplicated when you move away from the COBOL LINK tab. Resolution: You will need to upgrade to the latest version of Visual COBOL so that there is no duplication created for the Link with objs field. Incident #2602784 Old KB# 36713

Created On:  21 December 2012 Problem: Sysinternals process monitor is a very powerful system trace tool on Windows. However it can be difficult to diagnose issues due to the volume of the information produced. It is possible to output custom events to the trace from an application so you can give the information you see an application context. The attached example shows how you can output events from a COBOL application. Resolution: The help for procmon details how you can inject application trace messages to procmon. However the example code is C based. The attachment to this article contains a COBOL example that details how you can utilise this functionality from COBOL.If you start procmon and run the example code then you will see events from the COBOL application in the trace:-To see the events to also need to enable to process profiling events on the toolbar:- Attachments ProcMonOutputDemo.zip Old KB# 36695#Enterprise#COBOL

Created On:  22 January 2013 Problem: When executing an application which resides on a mapped network drive and the application makes a call to a dll you get an Exception from HRESULT: 0x80131515 similar to: Resolution: The problem is that the CLR v4 security policy model has changed since previous versions and are not sandboxing assemblies as before.Adding the snippet below to an app.config file will allow your application to load dlls from remote systems:<CONFIGURATION>  <RUNTIME>    <LOADFROMREMOTESOURCES enabled="true" />  </RUNTIME></CONFIGURATION> You may also be able to fix the error by finding the assembly DLL in Windows Explorer, right clicking, choosing Properties, and then pressing the "unblock" button. The DLL has a stream that is marking it as an external file - and by clicking unblock you remove that designation. Incident #2609953 Old KB# 36760

Created On:  04 January 2013 Problem: How can Visual COBOL updates (wrappacks) and hotfixes be installed silently? Resolution: Visual COBOL Updates and Hotfixes are provided as standard Microsoft patch files (.msp) and so they can be installed using the msiexec command and its available switches. To silently install hotfix3 for example you can use: msiexec /p c:\\yourfolder\\visualcobolvisualstudio21_hotfix03.msp /qn Incident #2607705 Old KB# 36707#EnterpriseDeveloper#VisualCOBOL#Enterprise#COBOL

Created On:  14 January 2013 Problem: The application sends terminal escape sequences to control terminal behavior. When running in standard mode it works correctly. In debug mode the escape codes are not interpreted but look like they are simply displayed on the screen. This occurred after upgrading from version 7.0 to 9.1. Resolution: In version 8.0.0 the handling of terminal escape sequences was modified to fix an issue where they interfered with the debugger window in some cases. A new configuration variable, ANSI_OUTPUT_IN_DEBUG, was also added to provide the old behavior. To resolve this issue set ‘ANSI_OUTPUT_IN_DEBUG’ to ‘TERMINAL’ either in the environment or in the Runtime configuration file. It may not be set programmatically as it must be applied before the terminal is initialized. n/a Old KB# 36734

Created On:  21 December 2012 Problem: SQL Server 2005 introduces the varbinary(max) column type for storage of large blocks of data. OpenESQL currently has a column size limit of 65K. The article will detail how you can store data in these columns even with the 65K limit. Resolution: SQL Server has a "write" function that allows you to write data to offsets in a table column. This works well with the varbinary(max) column to enable applications to store large documents or binary objects in SQL Server.Attached to this article is a example showing how to use the write function from COBOL. Incident #2597799 Attachments Varbinarymax.zip Old KB# 36694#varbinarymaxvarchar#Enterprise#COBOL

Created On:  07 January 2013 Problem: Animator is not reflecting the colors you've selected in your .Xdefaults file.Animator is the COBOL debugger on UNIX/Linux.  It operates in character-mode on a terminal.  There are various ways of invoking Animator, such as by entering the “anim” command, or by setting the COBSW= A environment variable, or calling CBL_DEBUGBREAK from within a COBOL program, or using cross-session animation with “cobanimsrv”. In most cases, when Animator first starts, it looks for an environment variable named DISPLAY.  If the DISPLAY environment variable is set (and appears to refer to a valid X-windows server), Animator opens a new ‘xterm’ terminal on that X server, and the user sees the xterm window appear on X-windows.  This could even be an X server on a separate machine than the UNIX/Linux machine where the COBOL program is running.  If DISPLAY is not set, Animator operates within the user’s original terminal session. Resol

Created On:  21 January 2013 Problem: Customer is using the PREXML preprocessor in Server Express to use COBOL syntax to create XML files.By default, these files are written as formatted XML files with CRLF following each record as well as spaces between record so XML will appear formatted when viewed as text file.Customer would like to know if these files can be written without the formatting characters in them. Current program looks something like the following:        $set p(prexml) endp                                                    id division.                        &nbsp

Created On:  14 January 2013 Problem: Customer has a Visual COBOL Windows Forms application that has forms which use TabControls made up of various tabPages. Each tabPage contains data relevant to the header. The first tabPage on form XYZ is called 'Personal'. The first textBox control on tabPage 'Personal' is called 'Per-Code'. The tab order says that 'Per-Code' is value 0.0.0 with the Personal tabPage having a tab order of 0. There are no other tab values of 0.0.0 within the tabPage of Personal. At runtime the code used is within the Form_Load event is:     set tabControl1::SelectedTab to Personal     Invoke Per-Code::Focus However, on running the form the field Per-Code doesn't become active until the key is pressed and then the textBox Per-Code becomes 'live' and editable. What command needs to be used so that the key does not have to be pressed fi

Created On:  11 January 2013 Problem: Customer is using Visual COBOL for Visual Studio 2012 2.1 and when trying to display Help either from the Start Menu-->All Programs-->Micro Focus Visual COBOL for Visual Studio 2012-->Documentation or by selecting Help directly within Visual Studio 2012 the help content is displayed using raw HTML tags instead of rendering the help properly.Customer is running under Windows 2008 Server R2.  How can this be fixed? Resolution: This is a problem with the security settings for Internet Explorer.  The link below gives the fix. By turning off IE ESC for administrators the Micro Focus help could be displayed properly.Displaying the help through Firefox also works correctly.  See this link for more details. Incident #2608460 Old KB# 36727#Enterprise#VisualCOBOL#EnterpriseDeveloper#COBOL

Created On:  10 January 2013 Problem: Customer was converting an application from Net Express to Visual COBOL. The application was using Dialog System and the extension called DSHTML which allows you to display Windows Help files in the .CHM format from within Dialog System screens. Customer installed the Visual COBOL Compatibility Addpack to provide support for Dialog System in Visual COBOL but the DSHTML support was not available. How can an application using Dialog System and DSHTML callouts be run in Visual COBOL? Resolution: The Dialog System extension DSHTML was made available in a file named DSHTML.CBL which exists in the Net Express\\base\\Examples\\DialogSystem\\HTMLHELP folder. If you wish to run your Visual COBOL Dialog System applications that use DSHTML then you must copy the DSHTML.CBLfile from Net Express and compile it as a .DLL in Visual COBOL and make it available to your application.A demo program has been attached to this article which uses DSHTML in Vis

Created On:  10 January 2013 Problem: Customer was converting an application from Net Express to Visual COBOL.  The application was using Dialog System and the extension called DSONLINE which allows you to display Windows Help files in the .HLP format from within Dialog System screens.Customer installed the Visual COBOL Compatibility Addpack to provide support for Dialog System in Visual COBOL but the DSONLINE support was not available.  How can an application using Dialog System and DSONLINE callouts be run in Visual COBOL? Resolution: The Dialog System extension DSONLINE was made available in a file named DSONLINE.GNT which exists in the Net Express\\base\\DialogSystem\\bin folder.This file has not been ported to Visual COBOL and it is documented as not being supported in Visual COBOL.If you wish to run your Visual COBOL Dialog System applications that use DSONLINE then you must copy the DSONLINE.GNT file from Net Express to your applications output folder and t