Rocket® COBOL

Created On:  26 January 2012 Problem: The Status of Solo is continually showing "Waiting for connection on port 81" when you select "Animate CGI." Resolution: This message is shown when Net Express cannot communicate with the SOLO webserver. A common problem is that the Windows Firewall intercepts the port communication.  You will need to open the port that you are using with SOLO or disable any firewall that you may have installed. Incident #2550833 Old KB# 35416

Created On:  27 January 2012 Problem: How do you set environment variables in Visual COBOL? Resolution: In your Visual COBOL Project right click on on the loaded project in the solution explorer > add new item > Add a new Application Configuration File > Once added to the project right click on the App.config file and choose edit from the menu in the solution explorer window > Now you will see an Environment tab which allows you to add environment variables as needed > Once you have added the environment variables click ok. Old KB# 35421

Created On:  24 January 2012 Problem: COBOL application batch programs which is processing a high volume of detail records and after several hours they abort with a COBOL File error 34 on SORTWK1. Resolution: The runtime SORT temporary files were limited to 2GB of data each on UNIX ports.  Since all the data is eventually merged into one temporary file, this meant that the total amount of data that could be sorted was limited to less than 2GB.  An error 34 during the SORT was the usual indication that this limit had been reached. In version 7.1.1 it was a change that enables large file support on those UNIX systems which support it.    The USE_LARGE_FILE_API configuration variable controls this support, just as it does for relative and sequential files.On UNIX systems, this variable allows you to turn on or off file system API support for very large files (greater than 2 gigabytes). Support for large files is enabled when USE_LARGE_FILE_API is set t

Created On:  26 January 2012 Problem: When compiling a .exe application to 64 bit you get the following error message in the compilation output:* Starting code generation* 006-R Read failure on input file. Not intermediate code or wrong versionERROR: (9) Program indicated failure Resolution: A common cause for this error message is when you try to compile an executable to 64 bit on a 32 bit machine.Please note that although you can use the P64 directive (which compiles applications to 64 bit using a 32 bit machine), you can only compile to intermediate ( .int ) code to 64 bit on a 32 bit machine.The only way that you can build a 64 bit EXE or DLL is to use Net Express on a 64 bit machine. Incident #2548035 Old KB# 35418

Created On:  27 January 2012 Problem: You may find that a project converted from Net Express to Visual COBOL does not build, it shows errors saying that words such as HEADING, BOOLEAN,ATTRIBUTE are reserved words. In Net Express all built without error. Resolution: These words such as: HEADING,BOOLEAN,ATTRIBUTE are reserved words in Visual COBOL, you can use the REMOVE directive  in the additional directives textbox , found in the project properties in your Visual Cobol project, to exclude these as reserved words, allowing for a successful build in Visual COBOL. For example, REMOVE "HEADING" Old KB# 35422

Created On:  24 January 2012 Problem: Net Express has been installed on a new machine and when Animating a program we can position the cursor on a data item and select Examine for the item but when we select the Change option the popup screen does not provide for any data entry/and does not show existing value. Why is this? Resolution: This looks like an OCX is not registered to Windows so it cannot be used by the product.  The Net Express product install and update must be performed with Administrator rights with write permissions to the registry for both HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT and HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SOFTWARE in order that the Windows registry can be correctly updated during the installation process.   The product contains two OCX's that need to be registered to Windows, VALUEEDITNX.OCX used during Animation and for opening a file as Binary and HEX6.OCX used for hex display in the Data File Editor. Open up a command prompt as Administrato

Created On:  26 January 2012 Problem: When printing through your COBOL application the user receives an error message indicating:User aborted print jobThe print job does not reach the printing queue. Resolution: This error is generated when the application cannot find the default printer or the drivers of the printer have not been installed.  You will need to install your printer or update the drivers so that it is recognised by your application. Incident #2552994 Old KB# 35414

Created On:  26 January 2012 Problem: When compiling a Dialog System application you get unresolved external symbol errors similar to:error LNK2001: unresolved external symbol _DSSETFOCUS error LNK2001: unresolved external symbol _DSGRUN error LNK2001: unresolved external symbol _DSDELWIN Resolution: You should ensure that the COBDIR and PATH environment variables are set to:PATH = C:\\Program Files\\Micro Focus\\Net Express5.1\\BinCOBDIR = C:\\Program Files\\Micro Focus\\Net Express5.1\\BinThe path to these environment variable may differ depending on whether you changed the directory when install Net Express or if you have a 64 bit system (i.e. it would be  C:\\Program Files (x86)...It is also possible that this is caused by the LITLINK directive. If you have this directive set please remove it you do not need to resolve literals at link time rather than run time. Incident #2551160 Old KB# 35415

Created On:  27 January 2012 Problem: When compiling a COBOL program that uses the DB2 directive on a Windows 7 computer, the following error occurs:COBDB0006S Required DB software: 'db2agapi' could not be found.This occurs even though the location of db2aprep.dll, C:\\program files (x86)\\IBM\\SQLLIB\\BIN is specified in the system PATH.  The same program works fine on a Windows XP computer. Resolution: This problem occurs when the Net Express project file resides on a mapped network drive instead of on the local drive.  Try the following: 1. Open the project in the Net Express IDE and select Project > Properties and click the IDE button 2. Add the environment variable PATH with the following value:        c:\\program files (x86)\\ibm\\sqllib\\bin;%PATH% 3. Do not place quotes around the value 4. Try to rebuild again Note: If your DB2 installation is in a different folder than the default shown above then please subst

Created On:  27 January 2012 Problem: If copybook or COBOL program has other extension e.g. .pro or .mam then when debugging the code in Visual COBOL won't colourise. This also makes it difficult to watch fields/see status codes. Resolution: Currently .cbl, .cob, .rc and ,cpy will be fully recognised in Visual COBOL.  You can rename the files to the recognised file extensions. Old KB# 35423

Created On:  27 January 2012 Problem: When trying to read indexed ISAM files the user receives a file status code 37.037 File access denied (Fatal)Your attempt to access a file has been denied by the operating system. You might have tried to write to a write-protected file or you could have tried to read from an output device. Resolution: Alter the access permission on the relevant file. Access can be read-only, if you just want to read the contents of the file without making any changes, or it can be read and write in which case you can alter its contents. Is this file using LOCKTYPE=2? When using LOCKTYPE(2) the File Handler creates a separate data file with the extension .LCK, against which record locks will be held. When a COBOL program closes a file, the File Handler attempts to delete the lock file as it is no longer required. The problem arises when this delete operation coincides with another process that is attempting to open the same data file. If this process a

Created On:  02 January 2011 Problem: When using LIKE in a WHERE clause that references a column type of VARCHAR or NVARCHAR the correct rows are returned if a literal is used in the comparison but not if a host variable is used.Example:This works:EXEC SQL    DECLARE mycursor CURSOR FOR SELECT DISTINCT        A.EMPL_NO       ,A.EMP_NAMEFROM EMPLOYEES AWHERE ( A.EMP_NAME LIKE N'%JAMILA%' )END-EXECThis fails:MOVE N'%JAMILA%' to EMP-NAMEEXEC SQL    DECLARE mycursor CURSOR FOR SELECT DISTINCT        A.EMPL_NO       ,A.EMP_NAMEFROM EMPLOYEES AWHERE ( A.EMP_NAME LIKE :EMP-NAME )END-EXECWhy? Resolution: The problem is that the space padding in the host variable causes the comparison to be false if the actual column data does not also have those spaces.You can get around this by padding the data ite

Created On:  17 January 2012 Problem: Associating .acu extension with 32-bit 9.1.0 Runtime is not working on 64-bit Windows. The installation was made from the 9.1.0 64-bit ACUCOBOL-GT archive as there was a need for 64-bit AcuXDBC.  However, the COBOL application requires the 32-bit Runtime. When double-clicking the .acu program file it gives an error about a missing Runtime license.  There are licenses for 64-bit AcuXDBC and 32-bit Runtime. The Windows file association was made again manually and specifying .acu files open with C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Micro Focus\\Acucbl910\\AcuGT\\bin\\wrun32.exe.  However, when double-clicking the .acu program file, Task Manager shows that it is still starting the 64-bit Runtime in C:\\Program Files\\Micro Focus\\Acucbl910\\AcuGT\\bin\\wrun32.exe. Resolution: The file association apparently only takes the executable name and then gets the path from the registry entry here: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\\wrun32.exe\\Shell\\Open\\Comm

Created On:  21 December 2011 Problem: When using mflmadm (or option 2 from mflicense) the utility does not start.  In the case of mflmadm, DS Error 0003 is returned.  In the case of choosing option 2 from the mflicense menu, the menu just recycles and shows the menu again. Resolution: 1.  Download and install HotFix 1 for WrapPack 6.  To get a link for the HotFix, you need to request it from SupportLine.          Instructions to install a hot fix:As root, with COBDIR set, execute the file. You will now have a tar file containing the Fixpack. Extract the FixPack, e.g. tar xvf filename. To install the FixPack, first ensure that no application is running under that COBDIR (i.e check that $COBDIR/eslm is not running on the machine) and then execute the installation script: sh ./install.2.  Re-run the LMF install to update files in the mflmf directory.      cd $COBDIR/lmf &n

Created On:  22 December 2011 Problem: In RM COBOL we use the following line of code and it works fine. IF (TEST-FIELD(1:1) IS LIKE CASE-INSENSITIVE “S”) In Visual COBOL this same statement causes an "Invalid Operand" error. Resolution: The UPPER-CASE intrinsic function can be used instead of the CASE-INSENSITIVE of RM.IF FUNCTION UPPER-CASE(TEST-FIELD(1:1)) = "S" Old KB# 35343

Created On:  09 January 2012 Problem: What is the equivalent syntax in Visual COBOL to this fragment of code in C# that declares a property name Message that has a couple of attributes defined?        [Category("Data")]        [Description("Alert Message")]        public string Message        {            get { return message; }            set { message = value; }        } Resolution: You can do this in a couple of ways. You will have to add the following namespace import directive to the top of the program or in the project Properties:$set ilusing"System.ComponentModel"Since it is defining a simple property that only sets or gets the value of a field you could do this as follows:01 wsmessage string property as "Message"       attribute C

Created On:  12 January 2012 Problem: After installing Visual Cobol for Eclipse update 2 the following error is shown when opening Visual COBOL for Eclipse:An internal error occurred during: "Initializing Java Tooling". Resolution: To resolve this specify another Eclipse workspace location when Eclipse starts up, this should help as old settings contained within the old/original workspace could have interferred with the new update 2, once you are up and running with the new workspace in Eclipse, try reopen Eclipse but use the old workspace this time, it should be able to read the old workspace and you are back to normal. Old KB# 35376

Created On:  16 January 2012 Problem: How does one read a text file using the .NET Framework classes in Visual COBOL? Resolution: You should look at the System.IO namespace and classes like StreamReader and File in order to accomplish the task of reading a text file in a variety of different ways.Example #1:      $set ilusing"System.IO"        program-id. Program1 as "testreadtext.Program1".       data division.       working-storage section.       01 sr           type StreamReader.       01 wsLine       string.       01 wsException  type Exception.       procedure division.          try             *> Create an instance of StreamReader to read from a file.         

Created On:  09 January 2012 Problem: Although there is documentation with the WOW Extensions Designer that discusses the various properties and events available, there isn't a working example of how to read the properties. Resolution: The MonthCal control uses the MONTHCAL-SYSTEMTIMES definition in the Windows.cpy copy file.   For example to obtain the selected date you should use the following code:Call WowGetProp using win-return monthcal1-h "date"  mc-date1.See the attached example. Incident #2553227 Attachments Calendar.zip Old KB# 35367#WOWCalendar

Created On:  14 December 2011 Problem: The application is deployed with version 8.1.3.1 so there is a need to compile for that version but the -Z81 compile option is not available.  The -Z80 compile option is there but is not appropriate as there is a fix for an issue with the date entry control that requires compiling for 8.1 or later. Resolution: AcuBench 9.0 is missing the -Z81 compatibility option in the Project Settings, Compiler, Miscellaneous Options, “Program can be run by the version” list.  The resolution is to not select “Program can be run by the verion” item.  Instead, enter -Z81 in the “Additional Options” box on the Compiler tab.  The same is true of the Project Settings, Compiler, Compatibility Options, “Version compatibility mode”, -C81 option.  The resolution is the same, add -C81 in “Additional Options”. Old KB# 35326

Created On:  14 December 2011 Problem: After an upgrade to version 9.1.0 the application no longer displays the jpeg images.  There are blank spaces where the images should be displayed. Resolution: The image handler, ajpg32.dll, was inadvertantly left out of the 9.1.0 32-bit installation.  It should be in the 9.1.0 AcuGT\\bin directory.  That is fixed with the 9.1.1 installer.  In the meantime the workaround is to copy the ajpg32.dll from a previous installation.  Or you may download the one attached to this article. Attachments ajpg32.zip Old KB# 35324

Created On:  22 December 2011 Problem: Customer is converting from RM COBOL to Visual COBOL and runs into the following compatibility issue:In some programs RM / COBOL, we use the word PROGRAM-ID to know the name of the current program.       IDENTIFICATION DIVISION.       PROGRAM-ID.   BASE0006.       ...       PROCEDURE DIVISION.       PROGRAMA SECTION.       PROGRAMA-INI.                        ...       DISPLAY "PROGRAM NAME: ", PROGRAM-ID.But in Visual COBOL it gives the error "invalid operand".  Why is this? Resolution: Visual COBOL has its own set of Library routines that can be found in the documentation under Reference > Library Routines.An example of how to return program information about the current program and other program in the run-unit is

Created On:  12 January 2012 Problem: When starting Visual COBOL for Eclipse you receive an error saying: "Initalizing: Cannot communicate with Licensing Daemon". Resolution: You should check that your MF CES Daemon service is started/running under Windows Services. If not started, start and make sure it is set to start automatically. Old KB# 35378

Created On:  22 December 2011 Problem: There is a problem when trying to use the INITIALIZE statement with the TO VALUE phrase on a group item whose VALUE clause is specified at the group level instead of at the elementary level.It seems to be ignored by the compiler:Example:       working-storage section.       01  TEST-INIT1    VALUE     HIGH-VALUES.           03  TEST-FIELD1     PIC X.           03  TEST-FIELD2     PIC X.       01  TEST-INIT2.           03  TEST-FIELD1     PIC X VALUE HIGH-VALUES.           03  TEST-FIELD2     PIC X VALUE HIGH-

Created On:  16 January 2012 Problem: Prior to version 9.0, using Acu4GL Oracle or Acu4GL DB2 on UNIX it was a needed procees to relink the database libraries to the runtime. This process sometimes generated some errors. Resolution: Now, relinking is no longer necessary. For UNIX shared builds, Acu4GL Oracle and Acu4GL DB2 are now shared libraries, so all that needs to be done is to setting the appropriate environment variable (i.e LD_LIBRARY_PATH). Old KB# 35383