Rocket® COBOL

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:  21 December 2011 Problem: When reading a TAB separated value text file you need to use a SELECT statement with the ORGANIZATION IS LINE SEQUENTIAL statement else the CR LF characters will not be honoured. The problem then arises that the TAB characters are converted to SPACES. This means that there is no easy way to expand the separated values out to data items using UNSTRING for example. Resolution: The solution is to use a configuration file with the following entry:RUN-SEQ-FILES TAB-STOPS=0This forces the runtime to not convert the TAB characters so that they can then be used to UNSTRING the value.See the attached example code, data file and configuration file. Incident #2551625 Attachments 2551625.zip Old KB# 35339#commadelimitedsequential

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:  10 November 2011 Problem: Using runtime 9.0.1, the tool Alfred returns the following error trying to open a Vision file: "The file system does not support requested operation".Using runtime 8.1.0 Alfred works correctly. Resolution: The error is caused by a known issue that concerns I$IO library and runtime of version 9.0 and 9.0.1.  A fix has been developed and released in version 9.1.0.  Be sure to upgrade to the new version of runtime. Old KB# 35199#901#91#90#ECN-4101

Created On:  24 November 2011 Problem: In order to install the runtime license in the products Server for COBOL and Server Enterprise Edition you have to use a license management system tool called "apptrack".  There are two possibilities of installing the runtime license:1) During the installation of the product itself you are prompted to enter both the serial number and license key.  However, it is possible to skip this step and insert the license after the installation process is complete.2) If you choose the latter, then in order to start up the license administartion tool, you simply run "apptrack" from a Microsoft DOS command prompt.  You don't have to run it from any particular directory or path.Sometimes apptrack does not start up.  If this is the case, the first thing to check is that both the environment variables COBDIR and PATH are pointing to the BIN directory of the Server product installation.  If, after having verified these settings

Created On:  29 November 2011 Problem: The Thin Client application makes use of a COM object which must be invoked entirely on the server to avoid having to also install it on the client PCs. The usual way of instantiating a COM object seems to require the object be present on the client PC.  For example: CREATE Application of Excel      SERVER-NAME is "MyServer"     HANDLE in xl-app. This requires that Excel be installed on the client PC.  If not the create statement fails.  How can this be accomplished so nothing needs to be present on the client PC? Resolution: Using the “Local:” prefix with the server name will cause the COM object to be wholly instantiated on the server with no requirement of anything being present on the client PC.  The CREATE statement from the example above becomes: CREATE Application of Excel      SERVER-NAME is "Local:MyServer"     H

Created On:  23 November 2011 Problem: The application runs for a period of time and then encounters a memory access violation on a START operation. The file involved has been used in the same run unit, including START operations, with no errors. Resolution: The application was configured with MAX_FILES setting greater than 255. The MAX_FILES limit was increased in version 6.2. Prior to version 6.2 the MAX_FILES limit was 255. In order to successfully use a MAX_FILES setting of 256 or greater all objects must be version 6.2 or later. Some of the objects within the application were pre-6.2. The resolution was to recompile all of the application's programs. Old KB# 35251

Created On:  29 November 2011 Problem: Using ACUCOBOL-GT version 8.1.2.1 when pasting text into certain entry fields the Runtime crashes.  Before crashing it sometimes repeatedly gives the message “Too many lines”. Resolution: This is a known issue that was fixed in Version 9.0.0.  Upgrading to version 9.0.0 or newer will resolve the error. The underlying cause is when a single-line entry field has the MAX-LINES property set. MAX-LINES is intended for use only with multi-line entry fields and should not be used with single-line entry fields.  Removing the MAX-LINES property or setting MAX-LINES to 0 will also resolve the error. Old KB# 35284

Created On:  10 November 2011 Problem: AcuBench 9.1.0 returns the following error while trying to create a new project or generating the source code: Cannot find required library ccbldll.dll Resolution: The ccbldll.dll located inside the AcuBench directory is not working as expected and therefore is not recognized.Add the full path of the BIN directory (i.e. C:\\Program Files\\Micro Focus\\Acucbl910\\AcuGT\\bin) to the user's environment variable PATH.  If this variable contains paths related to old ACU or Micro Focus installations, remove them or put the 910 string at their left so that it may be read as first.This issue has been reported to Micro Focus developers team who will fix it in the future release. Incidents #2545029, #2545826 Old KB# 35198

Created On:  28 November 2011 Problem: The user has noticed an accumulation of hundreds of Runtime log files on the server in the working directory of their Thin Client application.  There are no errors noted in any of them, only several lines of what appears to be connection information. Why are the log files there?  Is it possible to prevent them from being created? Resolution: When the Runtime detects that it was invoked via Thin Client it automatically creates a trace file in the working directory.  Normally, setting “A_REMOVE_EMPTY_ERROR_FILE ON” in the Runtime configuration file causes those automatically generated trace files to be deleted.  This prevents the accumulation of zero byte files. However, in Version 8.1.2 there was a bug which caused handshake entries to be written to that trace file and they are not empty as they should be.  This is already fixed in version 8.1.3.1, and upgrading is the recommended solution.  Make sure to a

Created On:  18 November 2011 Problem: While attempting to access Vision data using AcuXDBC Server version 9.1.0 on Unix/Linux the error below was encountered with both 32- and 64-bit versions. The error occurred whether using AcuXDBC client on Windows or UNIX/Linux and also using utilities like asql.ERROR: DLLLOAD: xvision, /bin/xvision.so: undefined symbol: ShowLicenseError Resolution: The behavior is corrected by ECN-XD071 in version 9.1.1. Install the new version when it becomes available.  In the interim, a patched version of AcuXDBC Server version 9.1.0 may be available by contacting SupportLine. Incident #2545001 Old KB# 35252

Created On:  03 November 2011 Problem: A full license is already installed and displayed in the "Check License Status" of the Micro Focus Licensing Administration utility (cesadmintool) on the UNIX server (see below):Micro Focus Licensing Administration                                    ====================================                                    [Nov 4, 2011 10:27:23 AM] v10000.2.00580                                        &n

Created On:  11 November 2011 Problem: Normally, when there is a COBOL program abend and a runtime error is returned, the name of the program in which the error occurred is displayed.However, there was an issue where error code 114 - Attempt to access item beyond bounds of memory (Signal 11) – was being returned from many COBOL programs in the application. However the program name was not being displayed in the error message. For example: Execution error : file ‘’Error code: 114, pc=0, call=1, seg=0114    Attempt to access item beyond bounds of memory (Signal11)Normally, the name of the program would be inside the quotes: Execution error: file ‘prog_name’.Because as there was no file name included they were unable to identify which program was returning the error. Further testing showed that the error was occurring after the program had completed the execution of all code – i.e. the error was occurring on exit.The client was running Server Express 5.1 Wr

Created On:  25 November 2011 Problem: In thie example, two AcuCOBOL prgrams are called A and B. When verified in Modernization Workbench, A and B get verified into programs A and B - correctly. In program B there is a CALL “A.COB”. Logically, the parser searches for an entry “A.COB”, which does not exist. By putting an entry “A.COB” into the procedure division of A, the unresolved reference report show the missing .COB program entries. Without changing the source code, so that CALL “A.COB” is changed to CALL “A”, how can this situation be corrected and the programs successfully verified for analysis? Resolution: Create an Alternative Entry Point for all COBOL programs. Make sure the "Create an Alternative Entry Point" option in Workspace Options > Verification > Cobol > Settings, is set. Enter the value “=(.*)=\\1.COB” (no quotes required) This will generate a second entry point for all COBOL programs that will have .COB appended. Re-verification will be su

Created On:  29 November 2011 Problem: Is it possible to access EBCDIC sequential files in a Visual COBOL program if the files contain data items which are defined as other than USAGE DISPLAY like COMP, COMP-3, etc.?The CODE-SET clause can be used to equate a sequential or line sequential file with an alphabet-name like ASCII or EBCDIC as follows:$SET MF  program-id.  testebc.  environment division.  special-names.     alphabet EBC is EBCDIC.  input-output section.  file-control.       select test-file assign to "testfile.dat"           organization is line sequential.  data division.  file section.  fd test-file      code-set is EBC.  01 test-record.       05 test-name   pic x(30).       05 test-company  pic x(30).&nb

Created On:  28 November 2011 Problem: Using AcuBench 9.0.1 there is an error reported when compiling: "Compiled screen description too large" Is there a compiler option to get around this error? What is the limit for a screen description? How can I tell how large a compiled screen description is? Resolution: There is no compiler option to allow a screen description to be larger than the limit, which is 32k.  To determine how large the screens are compile with a full listing and examine the Screen Section items to see how big the screens are.  That is add the “-Lfo @.lst” compile option then check the .lst file for the screen sizes.  Each 01 level screen item may not be larger than 32k. If it seems the limit is only exceeded by a small amount then there may be a workaround.  Remove some of the properties from some of the controls in the screen section until it compiles.  Then in the procedure division after the screen is displayed, m

Created On:  22 November 2011 Problem: A client found an issue during the migration of an application into Visual COBOL managed code that uses character based screen displays in the SCREEN SECTION. In previous versions of Micro Focus COBOL (eg Net Express) if they had a single DISPLAY statement that was required to straddle 2 lines of code in the COBOL source, they were able to use the continuation character (-) in column 7 of the 2nd line to string both lines to be displayed as one. For example, note the following code, which has a continuation character in column 7 in the 2nd line of the text to be displayed:       *        SCREEN SECTION.       01  SCR-DISPLAY.      05  LINE 23 BLANK LINE.      05  LINE 23 “We need to string this line with the next line a       -       &nb

Created On:  09 November 2011 Problem: In a managed code Visual COBOL program for .NET you can specify DBMAN=ADO as a directive which will cause ADO commands to be generated for embedded EXEC SQL and EXEC ADO statements in your COBOL application.In Visual COBOL how does one produce a trace file containing all commands that are executed by the Oracle Data Provider for .NET during the run of an application? Resolution: Debug TracingODP.NET provides debug tracing support, which allows logging of all the ODP.NET activities into a trace file. Different levels of tracing are available. The provider can record the following information: Entry and Exit information for the ODP.NET public methods. User provided SQL statements as well as any SQL statements modified by the provider. Connection Pooling statistics such as Enlistment and Delistment. Thread ID (entry and exit). Registry Settings for Tracing Calls The following registry settings should be configured under HKEY_LOC

Created On:  13 October 2011 Problem: The Manual Authorization method (via the cesadmintool.sh) was used to install a license string(s).  However, on checking the License Status, no licenses are displayed. -   Verify that the license string(s) is populated into either the "lservrc.stn" or "lservrc.net" file:     Eg:          [root@/var/microfocuslicensing/bin]$ cat lservrc.stn          10 COBOLforEclipse 5.1 LONG TRIAL 30 STANDALONE EXCL 1 INFINITE_KEYS 1 JAN 2008           NEVER SLM_CODE CL_ND_LCK 805CE00C 5 z:e5RkXYZTgZEVek7SmZLZeSghiZBtbBGflKTlBapp3C          Qz3UwEEdHVRGCsdN9:nffv:86kw9FCJNN1R:5:WE3UVyfDRe:wTXpTYsgVyIiisSfnM1qzyzKNG31KgF          iSl2LMV,Sn4ftNcGVnaSOur8u06yLI -   Login as root.

Created On:  29 November 2011 Problem: Main program has data items defined with the EXTERNAL clause as follows:01  FIELD-1   PIC X(10)  EXTERNAL.The main program calls a subprogram which has the same data item defined as EXTERNAL. When the main program and subprogram are both .ints or .gnts then this works correctly.When the main program is an .EXE and the subprogram is a .DLL then the EXTERNAL data items are not being shared. The value of the data item in the subprogram is not the same value as the data item defined in the main program.  Why is this? Resolution: The problem is most likely that either the main program .EXE or the subprogram .DLL is being linked as static.  This causes the programs to each use their own copy of the COBOL run-time system and thus they each have their own copy of EXTERNAL data items.When using EXTERNAL data items all modules must be linked to the Shared run-time system so that they share the same copy of

Created On:  28 October 2011 Problem: When installing Server Express and you get n error: install error: check disk space and it appears you do have diskspace then you can find out more why you got this error by doing a:sh -x installin this case it returned:Please confirm your understanding of the above reference environmentdetails (y/n): read YNy '[' y = y -o y = yes -o y = Yes -o y = Y -o y = YES ']' return 1 env_ans=1 '[' 1 '!=' 1 ']' LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/opt/microfocus/cobol/lib: export LD_LIBRARY_PATH SHLIB_PATH=/opt/microfocus/cobol/lib: export SHLIB_PATH LIBPATH=/opt/microfocus/cobol/lib: export LIBPATH bin/cobconvstrtest -s case $? in test '!' -f etc/cobver trap 'trap  0; /opt/microfocus/cobol/./bin/cobgetmsg -s2 -p/opt/microfocus/cobol/. -e install.lng 5; exit 1' 2 3 14 15 set -e trap '/opt/microfocus/cobol/./bin/cobgetmsg -s2 -p/opt/microfocus/cobol/. -e install.lng 6; exit 1' 0 cd

Created On:  28 October 2011 Problem: Neither the menu items for Find Next/Previous or the hot keys function after the after the initial "Find" to locate matching strings in source code editor. Resolution: This is a known issue with the CodeWatch IDE included in the RM/COBOL Development System v12.06.  To resolve this issue, you will need to obtain the CodeWatch IDE 12.06 Patch available on the "Product Updates" page of the SupportLine Web Portal at http://supportline.micorofocus.com.If you do not have access to the SupportLine Web Portal, you can obtain the patch by contacting a Micro Focus SupportLine representative through email, supportline@microfocus.com, or by phone, (800) 632-6265. Incident #2502706 Old KB# 35102#CodeWatchFind

Created On:  28 October 2011 Problem: When you try to execute a program that uses WOW Extensions, the program fails with one of the following termination messages:COBOL Procedure error 234 (no object file found). Error loading subprogram WF090.COBOL Procedure error 204 (program not found)...OrCOBOL Procedure error 234 (no object file found). Error loading subprogram WF093.COBOL Procedure error 204 (program not found)... Resolution: This error indicates that the WOW Runtime Library(wowrt.dll) was not loaded when the program was executed.To resolve this issue, you can instruct the RM/COBOL Runtime(runcobol.exe) to load the WOW Runtime Library(wowrt.dll) with the "L" command line option.  For example:runcobol.exe wowhelloworld L="C:\\Program Files\\Liant\\RMCOBOLv12\\WOWRT.DLL"Alternatively, you can copy WOWRT.DLL into the "RmAutoLd" sub-directory inside the RMCOBOLv12 installation directory.If loading the WOW Runtime Library does not resolve

Created On:  31 October 2011 Problem: XDBC Server 8.1.3 can be started, but the connection from the client is raising this error:Connection failed:SQLState: 28000[TOD] [ODBC Driver] DLLLOAD: acuxdbc04, This application has failed to start because the application configuration is not working properly. For troubleshooting, you should reinstall the application. Resolution: Some Visual Basic 2008 RT-Files got corrupted or deleted. Reinstalling those files solves the issue. Incident #2543749 Old KB# 35115#SQLState-28000#AcuXDBC

Created On:  31 October 2011 Problem: When attempting to compile a COBOL program, execute sde, execute animator or the editor you get:Micro Focus LMF - 010: Unable to contact license manager.This product has been unable to contact the License Manager.Execution of this product has been terminated.This product cannot execute without the License Manager. Contact your license administrator or refer to the 'Information Messages' chapter of the License Management Facility Administrator's Guide. Resolution: When you received the “Unable to contact license manager” message the problem was either:-- The License Manager in mflmf was not started-- The pipe LMF-common located in /tmp or /var/tmp was deleted There is now a third option. If there is a Host Interactive Protection System (HIPS) running on the server it can cause the error. The symptoms are very strange: -- You can compile to .int code (cob –v), but cannot create native code .gnt (cob –u)-- You can execute tbox, b