Rocket® COBOL

Created On:  26 October 2012 Problem: How do you set a combo box on a Windows Form to read-only?  It is not one of the combo box properties like it is in the properties of a Textbox control. Resolution: You can disable the Combobox so that no data can be entered into the Textbox portion or the list portion of the control as follows:      set comboBox1::Enabled to false If you want your users to be able to pick from the list but not enter a value in the Textbox then change the dropdownstyle property to dropdownlist.      set comboBox1::DropDownStyle to type ComboBoxStyle::DropDownList Incident #2597108 Old KB# 36516#COBOL#VisualCOBOL#netexpress

Created On:  25 October 2012 Problem: This article explains how to display the value of a configuration variable from within the ACUCOBOL-GT debugger. Resolution: To display the value of a variable set in the environment or in the cblconfi, the name of the variable must be preceded by a %. For instance, to inquire the value of CODE_PREFIX, this is the command line to use: d %CODE_PREFIX Incident #2281877 Old KB# 36506#COBOL#archive

Created On:  17 October 2012 Problem: I want to be able to comment/uncomment blocks of code in Visual COBOL for Eclipse but cannot see any button for this.  In Visual COBOL for Visual Studio there a button to do this. Resolution: In Visual COBOL for Eclipse 2.0 you can comment/un-comment a block of code using the following technique:-First under Windows > Preferences > General > Appearance > Colors and Fonts > Under Basic make sure that the two Entries “Text Editor Block Selection Font” and “Text Font” have the same font and font size set, e.g.  Courier new 10.-Then in your Cobol Editor windows/View select a block of COBOL code, then on the Eclipse menu you will see a button called “Toggle block selection mode” (keyboard shortcut Alt Shift A), this will allow you to select a block in the editor, select column 8, once you have selected the column you can press the * and you code will be commented. You can repeat the operation but instead of pressing

Created On:  25 October 2012 Problem: Using AcuConnect Thin Client 9.1.2, whenever the load of the traffic increases, acuthin crashes with the following message:"Communication socket closed unexpectedly".The issue occurs even running acurcl and acuthin on the same machine.  It is not present with previous 9.1.x versions. Resolution: When large amounts of data were transferred from the thin client to the application host, or vice versa, the socket could fill, causing an error in the function used to send data. This could cause the socket to close unexpectedly, forcing a disconnect.This is now been fixed in version 9.1.2.1, soon available for download.  Check the Product Updates page of SupportLine Web Site. Incidents #2596321, 2596329 Old KB# 36504#COBOL

Created On:  17 October 2012 Problem: It is possible to call Cobol sub programs but in Eclipse but am not aware of how this can be done. In Visual Studio you can set the output folder for the .exe and/or Dlls from any project to the same folder so e.g. ProgramA will find ProgramB.  But under Eclipse this can´t be done, the output folder needs to be under the Project the source is created in. Resolution: Please do the following to resolve this issue:•         In your calling project (ie the one built to an exe which calls the others), right click and bring up the project properties. •         Open the ‘Micro Focus COBOL’ section•         Click on the ‘’Build Path’ item to see the build settings•         Select the tab called ‘Projects’•         Now click the ‘Add...’ b

Created On:  23 October 2012 Problem: Fileshare has been installed as a Windows service using the command fsservice -i.Although the Fileshare service was set to Automatic with Server for COBOL 4.0/5.0/5.1 or COBOL Server 1.0/2.0/2.1, the service is not started after reboot.Event Viewer reports the following two errors:"A timeout was reached (30000 milliseconds) while waiting for the Micro Focus Fileshare Service service to connect." "The Micro Focus Fileshare Service service failed to start due to the following error: The service did not respond to the start or control request in a timely fashion." Resolution: This problem occurs when Fileshare is started as a service while the CCITCP2 daemon is not running.The CCITCP2 daemon has to be installed as a service and has to be started before starting the Fileshare service. Here are the steps to set up the Fileshare service properly:1. open a Command Prompt session that is run as administrator (i.e. right-click on the C

Created On:  19 October 2012 Problem: During installation of Visual COBOL the following error is observed:                    Micro Focus Product - Standalone Installer                               www.microfocus.com pax: VisualCOBOL2.1/visualcobol_devhub_2.1.pax : No such file or directory Resolution: This problem is likely to be caused by a space problem on filesystem containing the current working directory or the installation destination directory which is /opt/microfocus/VisualCOBOL by default but can be overridden using the -installlocation option. Incident #2596802 Old KB# 36463

Created On:  16 October 2012 Problem: One of our programs drops thru an Exit Program to the next paragraph. We are testing a new Cobol program and it is not honoring the Exit Program verb. Sample code follows:        Identification Division.       Program-Id.  LORINCE.       Data Division.       Working-Storage Section.       1   A       Pic 9.       Procedure Division.       P1.           Move 0 to A           Display ' A = ' A           If A < 3            Perform Varying A From 1 by 1 Until A > 3  &

Created On:  16 October 2012 Problem: We are reading in a report file for additional processing. Some numeric fields were printed out with leading spaces but when we try to process them with Micro Focus we are getting an 'invalid numeric data in numeric field' error. The runtime error is a RTS163. Our program is moving a field read in from a file into another field defined as a PIC Z type variable to suppress the leading Zeros to SPACES for our final results. We have tried various options but cannot get this to be accepted as an actual numeric data item. Resolution: Although IBM and Micro Focus say one should use valid data in processing any Cobol arithmetic statements, Micro Focus will also flag invalid data found in a MOVE statement. We have cut down your program to the following sample. Since we could not get the sample to pass an IF NUMERIC test, we needed to restore the leading Zeros to our field. The sample simulates data read in from a file by moving hexadecima

Created On:  17 October 2012 Problem: It is already known that Net Express 5.1 version is compatible with IBM DB2 v9.7. How about IBM DB2 v10? Resolution: It is up to the database vendor, in this case IBM, to determine what version of the Micro Focus products is compatible with their database products.According to their Support for Database Application Development in COBOL page, Net Express 5.1 is supported with IBM DB2 version 10.1 for Windows. Here is the link to the IBM page: https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/db2/10.1.0?topic=compilers-cobol Incident #2590932 Old KB# 36452#netexpress

Created On:  25 October 2012 Problem: Executing an OPEN OUTPUT on a Vision file, file-status is returned with a value of 39,01. ACUCOBOL-GT documentation says that this status means: “Existing file conflicts with the COBOL description of the file. (open) Mismatch found but exact cause unknown (this status is returned by the host file system)”. Resolution: More specifically, this error may be caused by the structure of the Vision file that is going to be opened. If the indexed file is of version 3, the limitation for split keys is 6 segments maximum. Vision files version 3 that have more than 6 segments in a split key can generate error 39,01 when an OPEN is executed. This can be solved reducing the number of segments or upgrading the file system to Vision version 5, which presents a higher limit (16 segments maximum). Incident #2431301, 99-008951 Old KB# 36508#archive#COBOL

Created On:  24 October 2012 Problem: The following error was encountered whenever customer starts the VISUAL COBOL for Eclipse in Windows: Failed to load the JNI shared library “c:\\Program Files\\Java\\jdk1.7.0._03\\bin\\..\\jre\\bin\\server\\jvm.dll” Customer previously installed the 64-bit version of Java J2EE IDE for Eclipse and the latest 64 bit Java SDK on a Windows 7 64 bit machine. He is able to start the Java IDE for Eclipse but not the Visual COBOL product. Resolution: This is an issue on the Eclipse IDE and it is due to 32/64 bit compatibility between the java virtual machine installed on the customer’s machine and the version of Eclipse.  The Eclipse version shipped with Visual COBOL is running in 32 bit and customer has 64 bit JDK. As seen in the error displayed, Eclipse in 32-bit is trying to execute the program in a 64-bit java installation.   The fix for this Eclipse issue is taken from this link: http://wiki.eclipse.org/Eclipse.ini   In

Created On:  17 October 2012 Problem: You can use ANT to compile COBOL Files from the command line in Visual COBOL for Eclipse, but how can this be done for individual COBOL programs? Resolution: First ensure your COBOL environment is set up and ensure the mfant and ant-contrib jar files (from the Visual COBOL bin directory) are on your classpath. Assuming your project is in c:\\workspace\\fred, your build configuration is called “New Configuration”, and you want to compile program1.cbl and program2.cbl, use the following command line: ant -f .cobolBuild New_Configuration.FileCompile -DfilesList="C:\\workspace\\fred\\program1.cbl,C:\\workspace\\fred\\program2.cbl " You can modify the entries in the -DfilesList parameter as needed. NA. Old KB# 36447#COBOL

Created On:  11 October 2012 Problem: Customer has Visual COBOL solution that was building fine.  A change was made to one of the compiler directives in the project properties COBOL tab.Now when attempting to rebuild the solution they get the following error:Unhandled Exception: Could not load file or assembly"BadImageFormatException"attempt was made to load a program with an incorrect format.Why is this happening now? Resolution: This error usually happens if the Platform target type gets changed from Any CPU or x86 to x64 or vice versa. There is a problem when editing a property page in that if you are not in a particular field and you scroll the mouse it may change the value of the Platform target field.Check to ensure that the Platform target field is set to the correct type in all of your projects. Old KB# 36435

Created On:  22 October 2012 Problem: The AS/400 Scheduled File transfer fails to run. Resolution: AS/400 scheduled batch transfer feature enables users to schedule file transfers to run at a desired time. It provides the ability to execute the file transfer sessions unattended. It can be configured with various options and the file transfer profiles will be executed accordingly. The important thing to remember is that the scheduled batch window must be active in order for it to execute file transfer profiles included in it at a scheduled time. Please perform the following steps to run a scheduled batch file transfer: · Launch a file transfer profile (.RTO) file · Then click on Transfer -> Batch to launch Batch Transfer window · Open a batch file transfer profile (.BTF) by clicking on the “Open” button · Click on the “Run Batch” button and it will launch scheduled batch window. Leave this window active in order for the scheduled batch transfer to run the file transfer pr

Created On:  25 October 2012 Problem: In a runtime session, it is easy to obtain TMP / TEMP path by reading environment variables. Is it possible to read client machines paths from within a Thin Client session? Resolution: To obtain client machine paths, a Windows API can be used. This is a brief COBOL program that explains how to call this DLL. IDENTIFICATION DIVISION. PROGRAM-ID. getPATH. REMARKS. ENVIRONMENT DIVISION. SPECIAL-NAMES. DECIMAL-POINT IS COMMA. INPUT-OUTPUT SECTION. FILE-CONTROL. DATA DIVISION. FILE SECTION. WORKING-STORAGE SECTION. COPY "ACUCOBOL.DEF". 01 WS-PATH PIC X(200). LINKAGE SECTION. SCREEN SECTION. PROCEDURE DIVISION. MAIN-LOGIC. ACCEPT TERMINAL-ABILITIES FROM TERMINAL-INFO IF IS-REMOTE SET ENVIRONMENT "DLL_CONVENTION" TO "1" CALL "@[DISPLAY]:kernel32.dll@WINAPI" CALL

Created On:  11 August 2012 Problem: How do I change the timeout for a COBOL Web Service client? Resolution: There are two timeout options, one for establishing the connection and another for other operations. The defaults can be overridden by setting the following environment variables: MFC_TIMEOUT MFC_CONNECT_TIMEOUT or editing mf-client.dat:[defaults] connect-timeout=15 timeout=30 These timeouts are set in seconds, but with a 5-second grain, so in effect they are rounded up to the next multiple of 5 seconds. Timeouts are set as follows: If the application calls MccSetTimeout / MccSetConnectTimeout on a context, that context will use the specified timeout values. Otherwise, if MFC_TIMEOUT / MFC_CONNECT_TIMEOUT is set in the environment, its value will be used. Otherwise, if a "[defaults]" section exists in mf-client.dat and it contains an entry for "timeout" / "connect-timeout", that value will be used. Otherwise, the built-in defaults of 15s for connect timeout and 30s

Created On:  24 October 2012 Problem: This article discusses the "database failure" error when running $COBDIR/lmf/lmfinstallYou have recovered a corrupt LMF database using the install script:  $COBDIR/lmf/lmfinstall.Your COBOL version is prior to Server Express 2.2 Service Pack 2. Restarting licensing fails with a message: “License Key database is empty”.You attempt to install licenses into the empty database and receive the message: "database failure". Resolution: The problem is that directory $COBDIR/lmf contains database files (mflmfdb, mflmfdb.idx, mflmfdbX, mflmfdbX.idx). These database files do not belong in $COBDIR/lmf and must be removed.The lmfinstall script allows the user to create an empty database in a directory of their choosing (the default is a directory called mflmf).If the user attempts to install into $COBDIR/lmf (install over itself) then it will fail but it still create the database filesThen when the user reruns the script to create a database in

Created On:  19 October 2012 Problem: When a Visual COBOL installation fails, is there any way to get more information on what the installer was doing? Resolution: There are a number of ways to get more information on what the installer is doing and finely control the installation process.  All of these options can be found if you use the -mfhelp flag.  Most of these options are for internal Micro Focus testing, however several, such as -extractonly, can be useful for diagnosing installation issues.Depending on where in the installation process the error has occurred you should see a log file in the current directoy.  The log file may also appear in /tmp or /opt/microfocus/logs.  Examining the log file should help diagnose the cause of the problem and should be submitted to Customer Care if reporting an installation problem.Also, it is possible to manually install the product.  Splitting the install into different steps will allow you to see exactly

Created On:  22 October 2012 Problem: Customer is converting an application from Net Express 5.1 to Visual COBOL 2.1 but they still need to maintain their existing Net Express application.  Both Net Express and Visual COBOL products are installed on the same development computer.Each version of the application must maintain its own set of sources and copybook files in separate folders.How can the environments be setup so that the COBCPY environment variable points to the correct copybook folder for the product being used? Resolution: You can set COBCPY and other environment variables in the computer's environment to point to the default Net Express folders.You can then create a .bat file that is executed to start Visual COBOL that will set the desired environment variables prior to starting the Visual Studio IDE. Setting COBCPY in a .bat file prior to executing devenv.exe will override the value set in the control panel as long as you don't include the %COBCPY% as part

Created On:  23 October 2012 Problem: Customer installed the Visual COBOL 2.1 product over an existing install of Visual COBOL 2.0.Now applications that used ACU or RM File handler previously do not run correctly as the ACUFH.DLL and other related files appear to be missing from the Visual COBOL\\bin folder.How can this be resolved? Resolution: The problem occurs because of an internal versioning number problem with the Vision file support.  The Visual COBOL 2.0 product has a version number for these files which is greater than the version number in the VC 2.1 product so they are being left out of the install.To correct this, open up Control Panel-->Programs and select Visual COBOL and choose Repair.You can also uninstall the product and then reinstall using the Visual COBOL 2.1 installer only. Old KB# 36485

Created On:  22 October 2012 Problem: InstantSQL requires that an ODBC Driver Manager be available, however, most Unix distributions do not come, by default, with one installed. Resolution: There are two different ODBC Driver Managers that are supported on Unix.  Below are instructions for setting up your UNIX environment for use with InstantSQL and the two different ODBC driver managers: iODBC Driver Manager: 1. Obtain iODBC Driver Manager from http://www.iodbc.org. Follow the instructions at the site to build and/or install the package. 2. Set your OS's library search path to include the directory containing the iODBC Driver Manager libraries(iodbc_lib_path): • IBM AIX - export LIBPATH=$LIBPATH:iodbc_lib_path• HP-UX - export SHLIB_PATH=$SHLIB_PATH:iodbc_lib_path• Intel UNIX System V Release 4, Linux, SCO OpenServer 5, SCO System V Release 5 (UnixWare 7.1.1 or later and SCO OpenServer 6), and Sun Solaris SPARC and Intel x86 - LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:iodb

Created On:  22 October 2012 Problem: By default, Xcentrisity BIS uses the lowercase form of the COBOL names from the --Method-Parameters data group in WORKING-STORAGE in order to generate the external SOAP web service method and parameter names.  However, it is possible to change the default, external, method and parameter without changing the COBOL WORKING-STORAGE names. Resolution: In order to define alternate names for web service's methods and parameters you will need to use an XSLT stylesheet, along with an XML conversion dictionary, that convert the original names to the new ones that you wish to implement.  The spelling dictionary is a simple XML document that can be edited by hand.  It contains entries that define the "cobName", internal COBOL data name, and the "publicName", the external SOAP element ,or method, name. Attached to this Knowledge Base Article is a zip archive containing modified XBIS SOAP stylesheets that enable the use of a dictiona

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:  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