Rocket® COBOL

Created On:  14 August 2012 Problem: Application is a .NET Windows Forms application written in Visual COBOL.  Is it possible to share the working-storage data in the main form with other subforms without the requirement to pass the data in the linkage section? Resolution: Attached is an example of how the EXTERNAL clause may be used to share data between programs. Form1 and Form2 both have defined in working-storage a data record defined as: 01 company-record external.     05 contact    pic x(30).     05 company pic x(30).     05 phone      pic x(20). Because it is defined as external in both programs it actually refers to the same data item so changes made to the data in one program are automatically reflected in the other. There are other ways of sharing data between programs such as creating a class containing properties defined with the static attribute. T

Created On:  15 August 2012 Problem: I am trying to uninstall Web-to-Host version 6.3 and the error: "Win64 not supported" appears. Resolution: This only happens when both 32bit and 64bit versions of Java installed prior the installation of Web-to-Host 6.3. In such case, in order to properly uninstall W2H, use the installer (thus as if you were going to install the product again) and choose 'Modify an existing instance' option. Then the product will be uninstalled. Old KB# 36220#Rumba#Web-to-Host

Created On:  23 August 2012 Problem: When an ACUCOBOL-GT runtime terminates, all dynamically allocated memory is released. There are two situations where this is not true: CALL PROGRAM "program" using and CHAIN "program" using ....... Both terminate the current runtime but do NOT release dynamically allocated memory. This has been found to cause various problems including "Illegal Operation" errors and other unexpected results. For this reason, if you are using CALL PROGRAM or CHAIN, be sure to DESTROY all bitmaps, fonts (except those accepted from "standard object") and menus which have been created by that run unit. The exception here is any of these whose handles you may be passing in the USING section which you want to use in the called program. A second area which can cause problems is the situation where a subroutine is called several times, and each time it allocates memory by one or more of the above means. If prior to the EXIT PROGRAM you have not DESTROYED these i

Created On:  26 July 2012 Problem: Entering the command "acurcl -info" gives Socker Error: 10035. Resolution: While /etc/hosts had the server name defined correctly /etc/sysconfig/network did not. This must have changed a few days ago when we installed a new piece of software on the server which messed up the server name in /etc/sysconfig/network. As soon as I corrected this the socket error stopped appearing. Incident #2575420 Old KB# 36152#acurclsocket10035

Created On:  26 July 2012 Problem: Running FSSERVICE -i to install Fileshare as a service fails with the following error:"FSS005-S Fileshare Service failed to install." Resolution: User Account Control in Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows Server 2008 extends to the Command Prompt and prevents users (even those with administrator privileges) to run a command to install a program as a service. You need to open a Command Prompt that is run as administrator to install a program, such as FSSERVICE, as a service. To run FSSERVICE command from the Command Prompt:1. Right-click on the Command Prompt shortcut2. Click on Run as Administrator3. Issue the FSSERVICE command You should then get the following message: "FSS004-I Fileshare Service installed successfully." Incident #2584419 Old KB# 36153#netexpress#EnterpriseServer#Enterprise#EnterpriseDeveloper#COBOL#StudioEnterpriseEdition#VisualCOBOL

Created On:  20 August 2012 Problem: Microsoft documents that in a .NET managed code applications all shared assemblies that are used by the application must either be installed in the Global Assembly Cache (GAC) or they must be made located in the same folder as the startup program. They specifically state that the PATH environment variable will not be searched when attempting to locate assemblies that are called.I have a need during development for my application to load different versions of assemblies, in different stages of development, under various conditions.  How can I configure my application to find the correct assembly if PATH cannot be used? Resolution: The .NET COBOL runtime does its best to provide the same level of searching as our native runtime does, so it has similar search loaders, this includes a searcher that does use the PATH environment variable. If the .DLL assemblies are located within the PATH they will be found and loaded. This was something

Created On:  09 July 2012 Problem: The customer was using a script to build a program, and got an error stating “symbol _tmc7901b not found” . Resolution: We did a cd to $COBDIR/lib and ran this command:          for file in *; do echo $file; nm $file|grep -i _tMc7901b; done It showed that the symbol _tMc7901b is defined in the COBOL runtime system libraries, meaning it should be found as long as the environment variable LD_LIBRARY_PATH is set. Further research proved that the script to build the program was using a callable shared object (.so file) that was created with an older version of COBOL.  Once the .so file was replaced with one created with the current version, the error no longer occurred. Incident #2580447 Old KB# 36072

Created On:  20 July 2012 Problem: When trying to install a Server Express Fixpack, the user was getting the following error: --------------------------------------------------------- |                                                         | |        Micro Focus Self Extracting Archive              | |                                                  &

Created On:  20 July 2012 Problem: Customer had 130 licences with only 90 currently being used. They got intermittent connection refused error messages and it looks as if it's directly related to the number of users connected. Resolution: In this case the Acurcl service was started using the System account and it was only allowing 100 iterations of wrun32.exe to be launched. By changing the Acurcl service to use a local user account instead of the system account, the 100 limit did not apply. Incident #2549090 Old KB# 36128#COBOL#UsersConnected

Created On:  25 July 2012 Problem: Compiling with the native compiler option --intel caused an immediate runtime MAV. Why is this? Resolution: After investigation by our development team it appears the problem on Windows when running programs compiled with –n or --intel is caused by Windows machines that have Data Execution Protection (DEP) enabled for all processes. Please set the following runtime configuration variable: - USE_EXECUTABLE_MEMORY TRUE When set to "TRUE", this variable enables a COBOL program compiled for Native Code (-n compiler option) to run on a Windows machine that has Data Execution Protection (DEP) enabled for all processes. The default value is "FALSE". Incident #2552337 Old KB# 36149

Created On:  25 July 2012 Problem: The calculation is coded as follows: COMPUTE BEN-ER-PER-COMMUTED ROUNDED = (BEN-ER-CASH-LSUM-COMMUTED / COMM-FACT) / BEN-ER-FULL-ANNUAL * 100 The values loaded into COMM-FACT and BEN-ER-FULL-ANNUAL are zero. If the value inserted into BEN-ER-CASH-LSUM-COMMUTED is 63, the result is 300.00 It would seem as though where a value is loaded into the last integer digit the result is returned with a value other than zero. Resolution: In normal circumstances you cannot divide by zero and the SIZE ERROR option should be used. However, AcuCobol has the following configuration file setting A_CHECKDIV. This variable allows you to specify an alternate runtime response to a divide by zero condition when the statement does not include a SIZE ERROR clause. In COBOL, a division by zero produces a size error condition. The SIZE ERROR clause allows the programmer to specify actions to take when this condition occurs. If there is no SIZE ERROR clause,

Created On:  19 July 2012 Problem: How can I create a new Excel spreadsheet, populate it with data, prompt the user for a filename to save it under and then save it using that filename, all automated from within a Net Express or Visual COBOL native program? Resolution: This can be done by using the COM Automation client support for native COBOL within both Net Express and Visual COBOL programs.  The following is a modified version of the EXCELdemo that is supplied with Net Express.It uses the getSaveAsFilename method to prompt the user for a filename and then uses the SaveAs method to actually save the file.This demo also shows how to use the named parameter support in COM method calls in order to pass parameters by name rather than by order.      *-------------------------------------------------------------------------      *             &

Created On:  13 July 2012 Problem: Although a full permission (i.e. Administrator) is granted, the following command line to install COBOL Server 2.0 on a network drive fails:COBOLServer20.exe /q /componentargs "Micro Focus COBOL Server":"INSTALLDIR=S:\\COBOLsrv20" The install aborts with the following error message:"The installer has insufficient privileges to access this directory: S:\\COBOLsrv20. The installer cannot continue. Logon as an administrator or contact your system administrator." %TMP%\\COBOLServerx86_install_log.txt reports the following error:-----Product: Micro Focus COBOL Server -- Error 1327. Invalid Drive: S:\\  Error 1327. Invalid Drive: S:\\----- Resolution: This is an issue with Microsoft Installer not allowing to install a software on the network mapped drive. To workaround the problem, you may use instead the actual UNC behind the mapped drive. Given the UNC behind S drive is \\\\machine-name\\share\\, the command

Created On:  20 July 2012 Problem: Can I display a graphical Message Box in a Visual COBOL console application or some other non-Forms based project type?An error message appears about class not being found. Resolution: You can use the MessageBox class in a console application but you will have to add the proper assembly to the project. In the Visual COBOL Help search for MessageBox.  The Help will list a number of items because there are a couple different MessageBox classes depending on the technology you are using such as Windows Forms or WPF. Assuming you are using Windows Forms, click on the entry for MessageBox Class in System.Windows.Forms. The docs will tell you that the assembly name where this class resides is called System.Windows.Forms. In Solution Explorer, right click on References under the project name in which you wish to display the message and then select Add Reference.From the .NET tab scroll to find System.Windows.Forms for the .NET Framework versi

Created On:  20 July 2012 Problem: Customer converted most of their Net Express code to Visual COBOL 2.0 native code. The application is compiled as a set of COBOL .DLLs which are called from a Visual Basic GUI front end.In their VB application they changed options so that the COBOL directory points at where these dlls are located. However, when the application is started they get the error message, "The procedure entry point _mFerr3 could not be located in the dynamic link library cblrtsm.dll."What does this message mean? Resolution: The error message about the entry point _mFerr3 not being found means that your application is picking up the wrong version of the COBOL run-time system, cblrtsm.dll, most likely the one from Net Express. Search your system to see if you have multiple versions of cblrtsm.dll on your drive and ensure that only the one from the Visual COBOL\\bin folder is being found. You should link your native applicati

Created On:  13 July 2012 Problem: There appears to be a problem when attempting to run an application that executes back to back SQL SELECT statements where arrays are being used when using OpenESQL and Oracle's 11g ODBC driver.The same program runs fine when using Oracle's 10g ODBC driver.  The problem is that a Run-time error 114 occurs when executing the second SELECT.Here is the program: identification division.program-id. Program1.data division.working-storage section.EXEC SQL INCLUDE SQLCA END-EXEC.EXEC SQL BEGIN DECLARE SECTION END-EXEC.01 MY-ARRAY-FIELDS.   05 ARRAY-FIELD1      PIC X(02) OCCURS 80.   05 ARRAY-FIELD2      PIC X(02) OCCURS 80.EXEC SQL END DECLARE SECTION END-EXEC.procedure division.    EXEC SQL CONNECT TO "oraconnect" USER "SCOTT/TIGER" END-EXEC.   DISPLAY "SQLCODE IS " SQLCODE.* First SQL statement    EXEC SQL      S

Created On:  17 July 2012 Problem: On the mainframe an unsigned data item with usage COMP-3, containing a sign byte of either 0F or 0C would pass the if zero condition test.  In Net Express or Visual COBOL only the field ending in 0F passes a compare test to zero.Example:       program-id. packzero.       Data Division.       Working-storage section.       01 num-x pic X(3) value x'00000c'.       01 num redefines num-x pic 99V99 COMP-3.        procedure division.       main.           if num = zero              display 'Value is Zero'           else        

Created On:  13 July 2012 Problem: Created an application using Visual COBOL R3 that used the EXEC ADO GET CURSOR statement to retrieve a dataset object from a SQL SELECT CURSOR in order to bind the object to a DataGridView Control.This worked fine in Visual COBOL R3.When runnimng the same application in Visual COBOL 2.0 an error now occurs on the EXEC SQL GET CURSOR statement.The sqlcode is 19501 and the error is "Invalid Cursor State"The following demo was used.The demo uses 32-bit ADO connection mapped to the Northwind database.It has a form with a datagridView control on it which is bound to a table within an ADO.NET dataset object.The dataset object is returned using: EXEC SQL        DECLARE drcursor scroll CURSOR FOR SELECT                 A.CustomerID               ,A.CompanyName 

Created On:  13 July 2012 Problem: When user clicks a button on a main form I want to display a login form where the user can enter username and password information and then return back to the main form.How can I return these login parameters back to the main form?This is a .NET Windows Forms application. Resolution: For the example given here, displaying a login form and then getting username and password back to the main form could be handled as follows: 1. Make the username and password properties of the login form.2. Display the login form using ShowDialog method3. If OK is pressed on login form then set the properties with username and password and return DialogResult::OK to the main form.4. If Cancel is pressed on login form then return DialogResult::Cancel to the main form.5. When main form gets control it can read the properties from LoginForm and process them if OK was pressed.An example project has been attached and appears below:MainForm:*-------------

Created On:  23 July 2012 Problem: If you’ve ever tried to copy/paste something from the help viewer that is part of Visual COBOL / EDTE (essentially Visual Studio help) you might have found it difficult or impossible if you try Right clicking and then clicking “Copy” from the context menu. Normally you can select text (e.g. sample code), right click and then “Copy” when working with web pages, text, PDF, etc. When you right click in the Help Viewer after selecting some text, for some reason Copy is not there. If you then try using Ctrl-C to copy it doesn’t work either. Resolution: Select the text you want to Copy (make sure you don’t Right click if that is what you normally do). Press Ctrl-C to COPY (If you right click first, this will not work). You can then paste it where you need to. This is Microsoft known issue. Old KB# 36133

Created On:  24 July 2012 Problem: Customer would like to use the Enter key as a Tab key when entering data in a Windows Presentation Foundation application.  How can I trap the Enter key and make it behave as if a Tab were pressed instead? Resolution: You can capture the KeyDown event on the WPF Window class or on a specific control like a TextBox and check if the Enter key was pressed.If it was then you can fire a new KeyDown event for the Tab key every time the Enter key is pressed.Example program swapkeyWPF is attached.Code looks like: *----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------**                                           SWAPKEYWPF           &nbsp

Created On:  18 July 2012 Problem: Customer has RM/COBOL application and data files that they are converting to Visual COBOL.They used the Sample conversion program RMMFDataMigration to convert an indexed file from RM format to Visual COBOL format.  When attempting to open the file in a Visual COBOL program it returned a file status value of "39" which means that a fixed file attribute conflict had occurred.This means that the description of the file in the program did not match the physical attributes specified in the file itself.  What could be the problem? Resolution: You should run the Visual COBOL Rebuild.exe command against the file to see what the physical attributes are for the file.  You can then modify the COBOL source to match the physical attributes.From a Visual COBOL command prompt run:rebuild filename.dat /nWhere filename.dat should be replaced by the actual name of your file.Check that the key position and lengths match up.Record length is als

Created On:  20 July 2012 Problem: What is supported when you have AcuXDBC Client and Server differences of 64 bit and 32 bit? Resolution: The rule is that all client/server products which use sockets for communication do not care about 32bit and 64bit mixing of client and server. For instance, you can use a 32bit SQL Server client with a 64bit SQL Server, ditto for Oracle. You can use a 32bit runtime to talk to a 64bit AcuServer. Old KB# 36127#COBOL

Created On:  13 July 2012 Problem: The current documentation does not explain how to create an IMS segment Layout file (.slf) which is used to display the fields and values when editing an IMS database. Resolution: From the Windows menu section go to Studio - Compatibility Tools   - Net Express   Create a new project and add the DBD’s and Cobol programs that use the databases Gen the DBD files to create ACB files   Select File -> New - Segment Layout   To create a new one Select the database and press the Create button Select the .IDY file of your program that uses the database Drag the 01 level or the IO area of the segment to the righthand panel Select the segment name that corresponds to the IO area and press Next To create a default layout (the easiest) just press the Next button and then Finish. This will create a layout just for this segment To add more segments for the database just repeat from the drag and drop step for each segment After all

Created On:  03 July 2012 Problem: Customer has a fairly complex COBOL routine to perform business logic that they want to call from Java.  The COBOL routine uses parameter blocks which are defined as COBOL group item records. They have successfully created Micro Focus COBOL "Custom Record Interface" objects for these parameter blocks and have successfully called and passed this info into and out of the COBOL routine from Java. Thus far, each "custom record" has only had to describe COBOL elementary group items. However, to complete the set of interfaces, they need to be able to handle COBOL record definitions that include an array (OCCURS). The "custom record" documentation and other "calling COBOL from Java" documentation does not give examples or suggestions on how to handle these more complex COBOL record structures. Does anyone have any examples or know of any more detailed documentation? Resolution: The customrecord i