Rocket® COBOL

Created On:  03 March 2011 Problem: Net Express in Studio Enterprise Edition 6.0 fails with the following error: Micro Focus CesAdminTool failed to launch Unable to initialise: error(5): Cannot talk to license server on host "localhost". Server may not be running. Resolution: You need to look at the value specified for lshost in CES.INI that is located in “C:\\Documents And Settings\\All Users\\Application Data\\Micro Focus” or in “C:\\ProgramData\\Micro Focus\\” on more recent Windows.If the license server is installed on the same machine, then its value should be 127.0.0.1. If it is on a different machine, then the name of the remote machine should be specified. You then need to make sure this remote machine can be accessed through the network.Here are few things to look into if the remote machine cannot be contacted through the network: the firewall on the client machine is blocking access outbound, or the firewall on the remote machine is blocking port 5093 inbound, or

Created On:  03 April 2011 Problem: I installed SP1 WP1 for Studio 6.0 and the install had no errors.  Upon opening NetExpress I receive the error:Product file does not contain a version string.  The project was not saved correctly after it was created.  The only option is to click OK on this error.  Once the IDE opened, I received the error:Could not location configuration file the VISPRF.CFG file needed to rebuild project.I received this error when trying to open an existing project and also could not open a new project, received this error in that instance as well. Resolution: Check that there is a file called SYSTEM.DAT in the following folder:  C:\\Documents and Settings\\All Users\\Application Data\\Micro Focus\\NetExpress\\5.0  Then, make sure you have full control on this folder. Customer added a system.dat here but the problem continued.  He uses his own directory - not all users - so had him add there and now he can open NE

Created On:  30 March 2011 Problem: Installing Net Express 5.1 WrapPack 1 (NXP3251010074.exe) as administrator fails on Windows 7 with the following Microsoft Installer error:Error 1406.Could not write value CUSTOM_START_MENU_CMD to key \\SOFTWARE\\Micro Focus\\NetExpress\\5.1\\Setup. Verify that you have sufficient access to that key, or contact your support personnel.The above error indicates that MS Installer failed to write a value to a registry key. Resolution: Make sure your user id or the Administrators group that your user id belongs to actually has Full Control over HKEY_CURRENT_USER\\Software, HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\Software, and their respective subkeys.This error may also occur if a prior attempt to install the product failed, especially from the original CD, which is already known to fail on Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008. If that is the case, then the install has left behind some corrupted registry keys.If there are no other Micro Focus products installed, you

Created On:  28 March 2011 Problem: Brief entry for the number of locked records on a file. Resolution: As part of the Acu suite of products, you can make calls to the Acu File handler, I$IO. The current documentation for the op-code 4 (INFO-FUNCTION) mode -6 is:        'Returns the number of currently locked records for the file handle passed to I$IO.' This could be read as the call will return the total number of locks that are held against a particular vision file. This is not the case. In fact, the call will return the number of locks that the current process has on the file.Also, the documentation does not give the definition of the data type that is returned by this call. In fact it is a 4 digit number, so it should be defined as a Pic 9(4). Incident# 2506525 Old KB# 33774

Created On:  29 March 2011 Problem: The AcuSQL -Pr precompile option causes an error when using an indicator variable to insert null data:  Incorrect syntax near ‘@P3’. This is an example of the indicator variable usage that causes the error:    EXEC SQL         INSERT INTO TABLEONE (TABLE_CODE, DATA_FIELD)                      VALUES (:table-code, :data-field :myind)    END-EXEC. There is no such precompile error without the -Pr option but it must be used because of other SQL in the program.In versions prior to 8.0 there was no error when precompiling. However, at runtime it didn’t insert a null. Instead, the column contained an asterisk. Resolution: To resolve the precompile error remove the space between the data item and the indicator variable.  Instead of      :data-field

Created On:  30 March 2011 Problem: My system response is slow on some pages, what are the proper timeout settings? Resolution: EnterpriseLink Server uses timeout configuration settings to decide how much time to wait between responses from the host system and when connecting and disconnecting from the host system. These can be found under http://localhost/stadmin - > Configuration - > EnterpriseLink Server. Here is an explanation of these settings: Session Timeout Specify a value in seconds that represents the amount of time that a browser must be idle before the session is disconnected by EnterpriseLink. The default is 1800 seconds (30 minutes). New Page Timeout Specify a value in seconds that represents the maximum amount of time EnterpriseLink Server waits when connecting to a host for the first time. If the host responds earlier than the given value, the screen is translated into the page and the page is sent to the browser. This is also the timeout used when

Created On:  30 March 2011 Problem: I am having problems with my server side scripts, how do I debug them? Resolution: Here are some hints for debugging and testing server side scripts.   - You can find error messages produced by your scripts in the file smartscript-stderr.log. Look in the log directory under the directory in which you installed EnterpriseLink.   - Use the print statement for producing debugging output. EL Server automatically reroutes standard output to the file smartscript-stdout.log. Check the log directory under the directory where you installed EnterpriseLink. Be aware, however, that writing to a file this way is not thread-safe; it may cause problems when multiple concurrent users use your application: remove "print" statements when you deploy your application. Or, put your "print" statements in a function, where you can turn them all off.   - You can change where standard output and print sends its output by creating a class that imple

Created On:  30 March 2011 Problem: When using EnterpriseLink automatic translation, we found some texts were converted into buttons. Would you tell me the conditions that Enterprise Link converts text into buttons? Resolution: EnterpriseLink Automatic Translation mode will examine each host screen to determine if it follows the IBM SAA guidelines for 3270 screen design. One of these guidelines indicates that lines 21-23 should be used to indicate which PF keys are in effect for this screen and provide a short description of their operation. If EnterpriseLink can find the appropriate pattern it will turn these into HTML buttons on the page such that, when pressed, will send the PF key. IBM SAA guidelines specify a number of different forms for this information. Some of the ones accepted by EnterpriseLink are:PF1=HELP F2=LOGON OR LOGOFFPF05==>ENTERPA1 ==> AttentionF7{Scroll Forward}You can change this behavior on pages within a defined project. See the web page:En

Created On:  06 April 2011 Problem: An obscure error was encountered on a customer’s machine when attempting to open the Net Express IDE: Error C0000005 Access Violation at 042FAE7B 01:00019E7B C:\\Program Files Micro Focus Net Express 5.1\\Base\\Bin\\mfio.dll The IDE was not trying to load the last project at startup and there had previously been no issues with projects etc. Nothing seemed to point to why we were getting this error when simply attempting to open the IDE. This happened with Net Express 5.1 on Windows 7, although we believe the same may have occurred on an XP machine. Resolution: We checked all system and user environment variable settings but nothing seemed obvious. After some discussion they said they had added some configuration options to their cobopt.cfg file, which was being pointed to by the COBCONFIG_ environment variable. This had been set in the ‘User’ environment variables in Windows – i.e. Control Panel > System > Advanced System Settings &

Created On:  06 April 2011 Problem: In Visual COBOL for Visual Studio 2010, how does one define a class as being serializable and how is the serialization accomplished? Resolution: You can create a serializable class in Visual COBOL by using the following attribute:class-id. mySerializableTypeattribute System.Serializable().The following is a sample that will serialize a COBOL object and write it to an XML file and then deserialize it to a new object and display the results.       $set ilusing"System"      $set ilusing"System.Collections.Generic"      $set ilusing"System.Linq"      $set ilusing"System.Text"      $set ilusing"System.Xml"      $set ilusing"System.Xml.Serialization"      $set ilusing"System.IO"      $set ilusing"System.Collections"       progra

Created On:  06 April 2011 Problem: Does any one know how to call Twitter as a web service from within a Visual COBOL application? Resolution: If you use the TweetSharp library at http://tweetsharp.codeplex.com/ and follow the instructions on the web site to download the binaries and get an OAuth key from Twitter then the following code will work to connect to Twitter and get a list of public Tweets.Steps:1. Download binaries .zip file from TweetSharp site and unzip it into folder called C:\\tweetsharp.2. Create a Visual COBOL managed Console project.3. Under Project right click References->Add a reference, then browse and select C:\\tweetsharp\\lib\\4.0\\tweetsharp.dll.4. Register your application with Twitter to get a Consumer Key and Consumer Secret number so you can authorize.5. When you run the code below, (after replacing the ConsumerKey and ConsumerSecret values with the values that Twitter gives you) it will open up a Twitter page that will ask you to allow

Created On:  06 April 2011 Problem: Compiler reports the following error when compiling a program with Embedded DB2 statements:* 801-S                                                                (   0)**    External Compiler Module message**    DB0009 MF DB2 Connect program reported error condition '30082'.This**    error prevents SQL processing from continuing - further EXEC SQL**    statements will be ignored. Resolution: This problem is caused by a bug in versions of Net Express and Server Express prior to 5.1 WS4.  The problem occurs when the password to connect to t

Created On:  29 March 2011 Problem: In order to use data compression (for native unmanaged projects) in files you needed to link in CBLDC001.OBJ, CBLDC003.OBJ ...  but Visual COBOL no longer handles .obj files. Resolution: The compression routines are now handled by the Filehandler in Visual COBOL. There is no need to specify the .obj files for this. You can make the calls to the routine in the usual manner:Call "CBLDC001" ... Incident #2505376 Old KB# 33789

Created On:  30 March 2011 Problem: CTRL C and CTRL Break do not cause a loop to break from a character based application. Resolution: This problem has been identified in the base version of Net Express 5.0, and it cannot be reproduced in Net Express 5.0 WrapPack 4 or in Net Express 5.1. The resolution to this problem is then to apply WrapPack 4 or the latest WrapPack of Net Express 5.0 or upgrade to Net Express 5.1. Incident #2456450 Old KB# 33812

Created On:  29 March 2011 Problem: When debugging code in Visual COBOL, arrays will not show an expandable set of values contained within the array, and will only show the first value in the array. Resolution: To be able to view the contents of an array while debugging in Visual COBOL you may have to set this option in the Visual Studio Tools menu. You can set this by going to:Tools > Options > Text Editor > Cobol > MiscellaneousHere there will be the option: Debug tooltip style for OCCURS itemsYou can change it to Expandable Tooltip or Value of Expression. Incident #2476281 Old KB# 33786

Created On:  23 March 2011 Problem: Is there a way to remove an object from a web page prior to the page being submitted to the user? Resolution: This can be done via a Python script. In Builder, create a new Server-Side script and associate it to the onGenerate event of the object you do not want to appear on the page.The script should contain the following:elself.fail()For example, if you want the object to appear only if a certain text field called TEXT1 contains the value "END", then you would have the following:import stringpage = elself.getParent()obj = page.getObject('TEXT1')value = obj.getValue()if string.find(value, 'END')>=0:        elself.fail()You can find other examples or information on scripting in Builder.Select Help/Help Topics under the Web Author's Guide Chapter 4 (Scripting) Old KB# 33745#Rumba#EnterpriseLink

Created On:  16 March 2011 Problem: When animating a COBOL program and you want to accept command line parameter which contains either quota marks (“) or backslashes (\\) in the text: cobrun test-program “test” or \\test\\ and the quota marks or backslash are not accept in the COBOL program. Resolution: You should invoke animator using the following command line. Notice animator is invoked via COBSW= A: CMDLINE="text containing \\" character" COBSW= A; cobrun test-program ${CMDLINE} Incident #2425830 Old KB# 33703#backslash#commandline#QuotaMarks#Animator

Created On:  26 March 2011 Problem: An older version of Server Express was installed on a system. Both older and newer products still co-exist on the system. This error message is then received when using the product:"cobol version number invalid - Call Technical SupportThe contents of the cobver file are incorrect."This issue can be further diagnosed by executingcob -VIf something like this is returned:COBOL Version information:I see no workversion @(#)cob.c 1.237PRN=RXCAI/AAP:9d.d5.21.05PTI=SP1cobol v2.0.11-ePRN=RXCAI/AAP:9d.d5.21.05PTI=SP1Where lines are repeated or confused, it is a sign that during installation of the older version, the different versions got mixed together somehow. Resolution: The resolution is to re-install the product, and then later at runtime, to ensure that the PATH environment variable is pointing to the correct $COBDIR/bin. Incident #2481866 Old KB# 33761

Created On:  25 March 2011 Problem: AcuThin 9.0.0 installer "atcinst.exe" may not work on Windows 7 32-bit.  The returned error is: "The program can't start because wcvt32.dll is missing from your computer. Try reinstalling the program to fix this problem." Resolution: Use the acuthin.msi installer, instead. It is downloadable from the SupportLine web site, Micro Focus Product Updates section, Extend 9.0.0, 900acuthin.zip. A login/password is needed. Incident #2509026 Attachments error-using-atcinst.exe-900.jpg Old KB# 33759

Created On:  25 March 2011 Problem: Is it possible to call an ACUCOBOL-GT program from .Net using the CVM class? Resolution: A sample project is attached to this article.The requisites to work with this sample are:- Visual Studio 2010- .Net Framework 2.0 SDK- ACUCOBOL-GT Dev SysIn the same zip file, a README.txt file will explain the steps to follow. Incident #2507746 Attachments dotNetCallsAcuUsingCVM.zip Old KB# 33758

Created On:  18 March 2011 Problem: At Runtime the OPEN INPUT gives an error 37,08.  When compiling the program a warning is raised "open input or i-o used for print file" but the file isn't a print file.  The file is defined as a line sequential file but not a PRINT file.       FILE-CONTROL.           select lineseq                  assign to lineseq-name                 organization is line sequential                 file status is fs.        FILE SECTION.       fd lineseq.       01 lineseq-rec pic x(10). Resolution: File status 37,08 and the com

Created On:  14 March 2011 Problem: How do you add an application button to the Rumba toolbar? Resolution: 1. Start RUMBA Desktop, and check under Options, RUMBA Options, General dialog that you have Startup mode set to Classic. 2. Under File, New, choose a desired display session such as Mainframe Display. 3. Configure the necessary connection information such as device type and host IP address. 4. Select View, Toolbars from the menu. On the dialog that appears you may add to the Standard Toolbar or choose New…to create a new Toolbar with just your customizations. For this example we’ll add a button to the Standard Toolbar. 5. Make sure the Standard toolbar is highlighted and click the Commands tab. 6. Click the Rearrange Commands button. 7. Now choose Modify Selection, and then choose New Button… 8. Button Type: click the drop down and choose Application 9. The Button Properties are:      a. Name – this is what you want to appear on the button label. &

Created On:  14 March 2011 Problem: Is there any way to reorder sessions in Rumba 8.0 desktop profile? Resolution: Rumba sessions can be reordered in a desktop profile by editing the RDPS file in a text editor such as Notepad. This can be achieved by using the following steps: Launch Windows Explorer and navigate to the folder where you have saved your Rumba desktop profile (RDPS file). Now open the .rdps file in Notepad. All Rumba sessions are contained inside the session tag as shown in the attached example. The tabs appear in the same order as these tags are saved in the rdps file. Reordering these tags will change the order of the tabs in a desktop profile. Please note a new feature has been incorporated in Rumba 8.1 that allows a user to drag and drop the tabs to reorder the sessions in a desktop profile. Incident #2494835 Old KB# 33672#Rumba

Created On:  16 March 2011 Problem: SQL code returns 0 in your COBOL program but nothing is commited in the database when using an ODBC driver (e.g. Oracle).  How can I setup tracing? Resolution: You could setup a Windows ODBC Trace by following these steps, then review the trace file to see if that provides any more detailed infromation on what is/if anything is going wrong:1. Open the ODBC Data Source Administrator tool:  choose Start > Settings > Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Data Sources.2. Click the Tracing tab at the top of the ODBC Administrator.3. You can specify the name of the log file in the Log File Path text box along with the full path (for example: C:\\logs\\ODBC.log).4. Click Start Tracing Now to enable tracing. Now you will notice that the button has now changed to Stop Tracing Now5. Click the Apply button followed by the OK button until you exit the ODBC Administrator. All ODBC calls will now be logged to the specified log fi

Created On:  16 March 2011 Problem: When running the visualcobolr3_webinstaller.exe it does not detect that I have a German version of Visual Studio 2010 installed, all check points on the webinstaller screen fails with a red cross. Resolution: To solve this issue, temporarily create this registry key, when you try running the web installer again it should recognise it and allow you to install the product:HKLM\\SOFTWARE\\(Wow6432Node on 64-bit OS)\\Microsoft\\VisualStudio\\10.0\\Setup\\VS\\BuildNumber                1033 = 10.0.30319 Incident #2506990 Old KB# 33691