Rocket® COBOL

Problem: A program contians some DOS LineDraw characters which can be seen correctly in Net Express but which cannot be printed with Windows. Not even using various PC_PRINTER routines will solve the problemt.  The characters can be printed correctly in DOS on port LPT1 but are treated differently when using a deskjet or laser printer via the USB port. Resolution: The issue lies with the DOS LineDraw characters which are part of the OEM character set. The problems is that Windows Fonts are based on the ANSI code page. In the Net Express IDE you can edit in an OEM font by using Options/Edit/Dos Compatability. If you switch to OEM then you should see that characters correctly in the editor. However when printing you get this problem. What some customers have done in the past is to install and use a font that supports the OEM Line Draw characters. Microsoft used to ship a font "MS LineDraw" for this which can be found at: http://www

Problem: RTS 173 error on CHECKFIL Resolution: Recompile program with initcall"utils.lbr" to resolve the issue. utils.lbr contains the module and with the above directive that library is opened at the start of the module. Old KB# 6947

Problem: "CGI Error: The specified CGI application misbehaved by not returning a complete set of HTTP headers." is the message the webserver will return when a web application (or cgi) cannot find or access the runtime files or other resources. Resolution: Application Server was installed on deployed workstation, application was linked with shared dynamic but no license had been installed to the Application Server License database. Entering a valid Application Server serial number and license key through AppTrack utility, found in the Application Server directory, resolved the CGI error. Old KB# 7000

Problem: A simple example of mult-threading in COBOL. Resolution: Net Express 4.0 comes supplied with a multi-threading demo in:    \\Net Express\\Base\\DEMO\\MTHREAD In addition, the following code sample may be of interest.  The demo has two threads: 1) The first thread simply increments a counter and displays the result on    the screen. 2) The second thread displays the date and time on the screen. All this goes on whilst the parent updates its own counter.  The demo is simple but it does show how to create a thread and to terminate them.  Full details can be found in the multi-threading manual. Please note, ADIS (Display/Accept) will interrupt threading so that support should be used with caution.  Also, you may find you get "funny" results inside the animator as debugging multiple threads seems tricky. It is always a good idea to run any example from the comm

Problem: Animation fails with 114,  using a Net Express 3.1 project which has been migrated to Net Express 4.0 Resolution: When migrating a Net Express project, transfer only the project directory files.  Do not include the DEBUG and RELEASE directories. Old KB# 6984

Problem: The code pasted below is just on add-on to the cobreg demo available on MF WEB Netx sample page; the initial cobreg demo reads & updates registries on the "local" computer. With the code pasted below, you'll be able to read registry on a remote computer. cobreg: Accessing the Windows registry with COBOL and writing or reading information from the registry Resolution: use the WIN32 API RegConnectRegistry as pasted below ========================================================== RegConnectRegistry: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/sysinfo/base/regconnectregistry.asp MSDN registry APIs http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/sysinfo/base/registry_functions.asp ========================================================== ... working-storage section. 01 ComputerName pic x(100) value z"\\\\NameOfTheRemoteComputer". 01 result long. ...  &nb

Problem: Support for CURRENT TIMESTAMP is likely to be required in migrations from Cobol AS/400 with Embedded SQL to Windows platforms using Micro Focus COBOL and OpenESQL. This is an example of a sentence where CURRENT TIMESTAMP is used. In this case, CURRENT TIMESTAMP is substituted by the current date time at execution and used as a value for column TSCOLUMN:            EXEC SQL                        INSERT INTO MYTABLE  (COLUMN1,                                       COLUMN2,                     

Problem: An stack overflow error or a  stackOverflowException can be easily corrected by increasing the size of the stack. Knowledge base article 19007 - "STACK OVERFLOW, EXCEPTION_STACK_OVERFLOW <- increase stack's size of the process" describes how can you set up an environment variable to define a specific stack size when the executable is being created when linking. This article describes how you can increase the size of an executable once it has already being created. This affects to any kind of executable, even a .NET executable. Resolution: There is an SDK utility called editbin that allows you to change the stack size for an executable (amongst other things). Open a command prompt and cd to the directory where your application executable is, and then run:    editbin /stack:nnn application.exe where application.exe is the name of the executable of your application and nnn is the number of bytes in siz

Problem: Received an error when trying to open a file.  The file status returned is '9 '.  What does this mean? Resolution: There are several different file status code values that can be returned from an I/O operation.   The default file status codes for this version of COBOL is ANSI'85 (Please read the documentation on the ANS85 compiler directive in the on-line help).  The values returned from an I/O operation are in the range '00' through to '49'.  The values are returned into a 2 character field. However, the Micro Focus file system also has an extended version of file status codes. To activate these, the NOANS85 compiler directive must be set.  The values returned from an I/O operation are returned into a field where the first character is defined as pic x, and the second is defined as pic x comp-x (i.e. hex storage).  When an I/O operation fails the first field will always be 9 and

Problem: Is it possible to add version information to a COBOL .dll or .exe? Resolution: It is possible to add your own version details to an .exe or .dll. First of all, you need to create an .RC file. Create the .RC file using a text editor - an example of the contents and parameters of the .RC file are below: 1 VERSIONINFO                                                             FILEVERSION    1,1,1,1                                        &nbs

Problem: The simplest way is to retrieve the contents of the environment variable USERNAME, as in the code pasted below Others ways are to use the WIN32 APIs  GetUSerName or WNetGetUser, as described in MF NeXx sample page getuser.zip :    Using WIN 32 Api to get the current user logged using the win 32 api in Cobol getnuser.zip:   Using WIN 32 Api to get the current user logged on the network using the win 32    api in cobol   Resolution:         working-storage section.        01  ENV-value                pic x(200).        01  ENV-name.                pic x(11) value "USERNAME". &n

Problem: Haven't you ever wondered why there is not a simple way of obtaining this, like an intrinsic function, or using INSPECT? Or maybe you have tried something like:        working-storage section.            77 ws-name                      pic x(50).          77 ws-count                     pic 9(03).          procedure division.            move "Micro Focus" to ws-name          inspect ws-name tallying ws-count for characters      

Problem: Error message; "Failed to set up Integrated Development Environment At least one Net Express option failed to install .please exit setup and start install again" Resolution: This can be caused by a problem with the 16-bit subsystem setup on the workstation To check if the 16-bit subsystem is setup properly; - Reboot your workstation to ensure that you are working in a clean environment.  *** Please ensure that you are log on as a user that has administrator rights *** - Once the machine is rebooted, move your cursor on your taskbar, right click and bring up Task Manager. - Go to Start/Accessories/Command Prompt to start a Command Prompt. - type the following command; command.com, and press enter.   - Under normal circumstances you should see a new process in your Task Manager called NTVDM.EXE - If you have a problem, you should see and error message usually something like; "WOW NTVDM illegal instruction m

Problem: How is a cross reference listing created using Net Express 4.0? Resolution: Use a "Cobol.dir" file (a text file consisting of compiler directives, one directive per line) with the following directives, to create a basic compiler listing file with Data Map and Cross Reference listings appended to the end of the source file listing. ....show-dir.......... - Shows the content of directives files in the source listing. ....setting"col3"..... - Includes a list of the directive settings, three directives per line in columns. ....confirm........... - Echos all subsequent directives to the screen. ....list().............. - Causes the listing file to be named "source-name.lst", where "source-name" ....................... - is the basename of the program being compiled. ....xref............... - Makes the Compiler produce a cross-reference listing. ....datamap......... - Causes the Compiler to output information o

Problem: You may have run the ADISCF function to configure ADIS for certain screen/keyboard behaviour on your Net Express development environment, but found that the same behavior is not reflected in your Application Server environment in production. Resolution: The file ADISCTRL in your \\Net Express\\Base\\Bin directory in development contains the ADIS settings. Copy this file to your production machine and copy into the \\Net Express\\Base\\Bin directory on that machine. Old KB# 6976

Problem: The toolbar no longer appears when I launch Net Express. Have opened and closed IDE multiple times and it won't be displayed. Doesn't appear to be minized anywhere. Resolution: From the IDE View -> Dockable Windows , check Toolbar and the Toolbar should now be displayed. Old KB# 6899

Problem: Can Net Express Application Server be run on a clustered server? Resolution: We are not aware of any issues with running Net Express Application Server in a clustered environment.  The only thing to be aware of is licencing.  As licencing is local to each machine, each PC in the cluster would have to have its own licence definition/database. Old KB# 6941

Problem: Two methods besides using LITLINK compiler directive and adding the correct MQMCB32.LIB or MQICCB32.LIB to the CBLLINK process. Add "call-convention 12" to your program and modify all the calls to MQ from " CALL 'MQ' " to "CALL MQCALL 'MQ'".  This will require the correct MQMCB32.LIB or MQICCB32.LIB to be linked.  This can only be uses as DLL or EXE not GNT or INT. Resolution:        IDENTIFICATION DIVISION.        PROGRAM-ID. 'MQODBCPUT'        environment division.        configuration section.        special-names.            call-convention 12 is MQCALL.        PROCEDURE DIVISION.     &

Problem: Error when registering a COM Server created using Interface Mapping Toolkit. File not found. Resolution: This error can occur as the COM DLL is dependant on the comservices.dll that resides in the base\\bin where you installed Net Express. If you add base\\bin to your path then the DLL will register correctly. Old KB# 6902

Problem: If you use charset"ebcdic" in a OpenESQL program that uses SQL Server you will get the following error when linking:- error : unresolved external symbol _OESQLEBC@12 Resolution: You need to link your EXE with  OESQLEBC.OBJ  that is supplied with Net Express Old KB# 6904

Problem: Are there any examples of accessing Excel from COBOL via COM? Resolution: There are examples in Net Express which show how to access Excel and Word from COBOL.  The demos can be found in:    \\Net Express\\Base\\Demo\\OLEDEMOS\\EXCEL    \\Net Express\\Base\\Demo\\OLEDEMOS\\WORD    \\Net Express\\Base\\Demo\\OLEDEMOS\\REPORT The downside with OLE is that you are reliant on the vendor of the OLE server for details of the methods they make public.  In Microsoft's case this is normally in the Visual BASIC for Applications on-line help. Old KB# 6935

Problem: Receiving a -170 syntax error on SELECT statement containing a WHERE clause. The WHERE clause contains a host variable declared as a group item. Resolution: Although you can use groups of data items as a single host variable in embedded SQL, group items are not permitted in the WHERE clause. Old KB# 6898

Problem: We used to use this program, dfedwg.exe to edit customer datafiles. Is there a NE 4.0 equlivent for this program? Resolution: In Net Express 4.0 the Data Tools are now integrated into the main development environment. Old KB# 6913

Problem: If you follow the "Working with COBOL Projects with .NET" tutorial and get at the steps for adding a Web reference, you may get prompted to open or save after clicking on the Service1 link  from the Add Web Reference wizard. Resolution: This problem may actually occur with any service that is selected from the Add Web Reference wizard. This simply means that the file name extension (.asmx) was not mapped to any program or interpreter that processes that file type. Here are the steps to map that file name extension to the program or interpreter: 1. Find out if there are different versions of the MS .NET Framework installed on the machine 2. Determine which one (if there are more than one version) is the latest version by looking at the directory name (e.g. C:\\[Windows directory]\\Microsoft.NET\\Framework\\v1.1.4322 is more recent than C:\\[Windows directory]\\Microsoft.NET\\Framework\\v1.0.3705) 3. Open a command prompt session 4

Problem: The tutorial gives the following steps to add a web reference: 1. Right-click OurConsApp in Solution Explorer, and click Add Web Reference. The Add Web Reference wizard is displayed. If we knew the URL, we could enter it directly in the URL entry field. 2. Click the link for Web Services On The Local Machine. A list of all web services on your machine appears very quickly, showing the Services name and URL. We only have one, Service1. Resolution: If the user does not see anything after clicking the link for Web Services On The Local Machine, it is possible the user does not have a web server running on his/her machine. (This would be the case for Win9x/ME and WinXP Home users) If user is running Windows 2000 or XP Profesionnal, they can install the IIS as follows: 1. Go to Add/Remove Program from Control Panel 2. Click on Add/Remove Windows Components from the left-hand right of the window 3. Check the option for Internet Information Servic