Rocket® COBOL

Problem: How do you apply XP Theming to a Dialog based application? Resolution: The XP Appearance is controlled by the Operating System and needs to be enabled for an application. The simplest way to do this is to have a manifest file in the same directory as the application. This is a file that matches the exe name with a .manifest extension. The customer.zip attached is an example of this method. You need to look in the release directory for the file. The other approach is to build the Manifest into a resource in the EXE. The other attachment is an example of this approach. Edit the RC as text to see what is required. These apps can also be run on pre-xp systems. The manifest ensure that that XP Theming controls library is loaded and used by the operating syste. We would recommend that the customers test their apps with theming applied so ensure that visually they look ok. Attachments: customer.zip Old KB# 5740

Problem: Problem: The install of Net Express 4.0 on a Window XP professional  failed because the Setup reported erroneously an installed Application Server for NE 4.0. Resolution: Workaround: 1. Using regedit, rename the key   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\Software\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Uninstall to Uninstall-temp 2. Start the NX setup. 3. At the setup welcome screen, rename the key back to Uninstall. Old KB# 5769

Problem: Problem with websphere deploying application gets error Resolution: Added MFCobol.jar in the PATH.  Now Websphere will report successful application deployment. Old KB# 5732

Problem: Is it possible to use Telnet in a COBOL system on the .Net platform. Resolution: Neither COBOL or the .Net Framework (V1 or V2.0) has support for the Telnet protocol. There is however many 3rd party .Net libraries that provide support for Telnet on the .Net platform. Old KB# 5776

Problem: A COBOL program that is built with Oracle Procobol precompiler fails with an RTS114 Error on a SQL SELECT statement. Resolution: This error was caused by a mismatch of Oracle versions. Using the correct version of Oracle client software for the Oracle Server version resolved the problem. Old KB# 5747

Problem: Receving a not found error when doing a invoke such as:-                invoke wordserver "GetSpellingSuggestions"                        using       ws-work                        returning   ws-suggestion Resolution: The problem here is in the method name "GetSpellingSuggestions". This has "get" as the first 3 characters so the COBOL OLE runtime thinks you want to get a property "SpellingSuggestions" rather than do a method call. You can fix this by making a "setdispatchtype" call to tell the runtime that the next call is actually a method c

Problem: The cookie.js file was correctly deployed to the web server but the cookie used on the page was being passed between the browser and server. Resolution: This issue was caused by the Virus checker that was installed on the webserver machine. The virus checker was preventing the javascript from functioning correctly. Old KB# 5766

Problem: Release 4.0: Creating and maintaining toolbars in Net Express, Dialog system is preferred. Where to find examples and tips? Resolution: (1)  A demo can be found in the Net Express product installation itself: ..\\DialogSystem\\Demo\\Commoncontrols\\Toolbar (2)  Additional, there is a programming tutorial "Adding and Customizing a Menu Bar and Toolbar". It can be found here: Net Express -> Help -> Help Topics -> Content -> Programming -> Dialog System -> Dialog System Guide -> Part 3 Programming Tutorials -> Chapter 21 Old KB# 5779

Problem: Is there any set of specific directives recommend whent converting from mainframe COBOL370 programs to Microfocus COBOL Net Express? Resolution: The list of directives should match the mainframe compiler version currently being used. Micro Focus creates a standard for that Dialect, but that does not mean it will match the specific environment completely. Look at Net Express Help > Start Here, Migration Cookbook, Chapter 6 Directives and Dialects for the directives associated with each Dialect. Obtain the list of directives that are used when compiling on the mainframe and match them to one of the dialects and then add/remove additional directives as needed. There is no list other than using the DIALECT(XXX) directive where XXX indicates a specific dialect. There are simply too many combinations of language elements that would enable a simple list of directives to work in all cases. This being understood the only generic list would be that provid

Problem: How can access the Vtable from a COM DLL? The VTable is the low level interface  that a COM Object Object exposes. Its structure is similiar to a C Object. Resolution: If you already have a COBOL OLE Domain object you could use the COM Class library IUnknown "fromDomainObject" class method and QueryInterface to get the COM Interface (vtable) you want. Alternatively you could CoCreateInstance and QueryInterface COM API calls. If possible its far better to use a automation object so you can invoke on it. Thats far more forgiving and simpler from COBOL. Old KB# 5727

Problem:   Is Visual Studio 2005 supported in Net Express 4.0? Resolution: Currently the Net Express 4.0 product works with Visual Studio 2003. The Net Express  5.0 version works with VS 2005. Old KB# 5768

Problem: Ther screenset uses the Datepicker component and the screenset needs to be informed back of any update which occured in the component comment below used with the demo delivered in Netx: [Net Express]\\DialogSystem\\DEMO\\COMMONCONTROLS\\DATETIME Resolution: 1) set a CALLBACK on the p2ce-losefocus event           MOVE '"' & ProgramID & z'p2ce-losefocus"' TO MessageName           INVOKE EntryCallBack "new" USING MessageName                                  RETURNING aCallback           MOVE p2ce-losefocus TO i           INVOKE aDatePicker "Set

Problem: When we try to run our application on the Net Express development machine we get the following error: ASLM: Semaphore failure. ASLM: Errno 1000 Why is this? Resolution: This indicates that the Net Express runtime license cannot be found.  On the development machine please ensure that your application is linked with the dynamic option and/or that PATH/COBDIR are set to point to the location of Net Express. Old KB# 5720

Problem: How can I create a Shortcut on my desktop from my application? Resolution: The simplest way to do this is to use COM Automation objects provided by the Windows Script Host. Attached is an example (Click on the "Related" tab above, and see "wshshortcut.zip" under "Attachments" towards the bottom of the screen.) Attachments: wshshortcut.zip Old KB# 5726

Problem: You may see this error message reported when using Net Express Application Server when attempting to execute a deployed application. The problem is that error gives in some customers and in others no. The environment is the same for all customers.      Could you help us to solve this problem, please? Regards, Resolution: The most common reason you would see this message is because you are attempting to run an application that has been built using the Net Express 4.0 runtime on a machine that only has the Net Express 3.1 run time installed. Because the Net Express 4.0 runtime cannot be found on the machine the error is produced. So the solution would be to either install the Net Express 4.0 runtime onto the client machine(s) or if possible to rebuild the application in Net Express 3.1 which will then use the Net Express 3.1 runtime available on the machine. Old KB# 5784

Problem: A sample program:            SELECT          customer            ASSIGN      TO "\\\\server1\\develop$\\test\\customer.dat";            ORGANIZATION IS INDEXED;            ACCESS       IS DYNAMIC;            RECORD KEY   IS cst-key;            FILE STATUS  IS ws-cst-status. . When the statement "OPEN I-O customer"  is executed the file on one PC works OK. However, on another PC,  a file locked error (status 9A) occurs. Resolution: Change the SELECT st

Problem: Some COBOL code from another environment does a WRITE statement to a line sequential file but a special character is not written out as expected. The special character is less that 1F hex. Resolution: This is the default behaviour. In Line Sequential files if there is a character less than x"1F" then a null is inserted before the character. You can switch off this by using the COBOL Runtime switch (N) or a file handler config entry INSERTNULL. If you set one of these options then your file will be produced as expected. Old KB# 5743#RMCOBOL#ServerExpress#COBOL#netexpress#AcuCobol

Problem: The following error mesage occurs when the user clicks on the "Click here to install Net Express 4.0" link from the install page of Net Express 4.0: "Impossible de trouver le fichier /d:/autorun/..\\nxsetup.asq. Vérifiez son emplacement et essayez á nouveau." [This above French error message simply means that it was unable to find nxsetup.asq] Resolution: Make sure to load the web page in Internet Explorer (IE)! It was designed to run on IE. The above error message occurred in Mozilla FireFox web browser. Old KB# 5749

Problem: In the Cobol program below  the field 'db_email' is filled with the value '-1' and NOT 'Null.'   ...     working-storage section.          77 ws-value     pic S9(04) comp-5.     77 ws-name      pic x(10) value spaces.          procedure division.     ....     move 'robert' to ws-name     move 1        to ws-value     compute ws-value = ws-value * -1     exec sql             insert into table (db_name,db_email)                     &

Problem: Net Express 4.0 How can you stop the run-time from checking if numeric data items have valid numeric data and stop the warning message "numeric field contains invalid data" Resolution: By default this checking is always ON, but you can override this by turning off the 'F run-time switch': - At the Net Express command prompt - set cobsw=-F; or - In the IDE, from the menu - 'Project' > 'Properties...'. Click on the 'Application...' in the Project Properties dialog and go to the 'Program Execution' tab. Under 'Error Handling', uncheck the checkbox for 'Validate numeric fields'. Old KB# 5739

Problem: In .Net Winforms how can a user hide controls when a checkbox is checked ? Resolution: In WinForms there is a CheckedChanged event for a CheckBox. You can use this and the "Checked" property of the checkbox to hide controls as required. The simplest way to hide a control is by setting the "Visible" property of a control to false. Some example code that does this is:-        method-id.  "cboxHide_CheckedChanged" final private.        linkage section.        01 sender System-Object.        01 e System-EventArgs.        procedure division using by value  sender e.                    if self::"cboxHide"::"Checked" &

Problem: Clicked on remove and it seemed to uninstall but it is not gone from the add and remove programs list. If NX is clicked on again, it says it is not there although still visisble. Resolution: Clear Unwanted Entries from Add/Remove Programs Intended For Windows XP Windows 2000 Windows Me Windows 98 Windows 95 In Add/Remove Programs in Control Panel, a list of installed applications is displayed for the purpose of easy removal. Unfortunately, but there is no obvious method for removing these entries (either to prevent accidental removal, or if the application was removed some other way) without uninstalling the programs. To remove an entry, do the following: Run the Registry Editor (REGEDIT.EXE). Open HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\ SOFTWARE\\ Microsoft\\ Windows\\ CurrentVersion\\ Uninstall, and remove any unwanted keys under "Uninstall." Old KB# 5756

Problem: A standard user is trying to invoke Net Express. Resolution: The user requires full access to the installation path, the demos, and the Micro Focus registry structure. Old KB# 5787

Problem: The system has a limit of 100 GDI objects (brushes, colours, fonts, etc.), and this limit can be reached when the same GDI object (e.g. font) is being created repeatedly, leading to the error message "Cannot map any more GDI objects - Internal Limit Reached" Resolution: If you are working with List View, and this error is occurring. This may have been a result of creating the font object over and over. The problem appears to be with the wmgadgetnotify method in the control program. It is actually creating a new font for every prepaint message. You will need to make a small change in the SetFont method of the ...LVIEWITEM.CBL program. You will note there is only one single statement in that method, which is      invoke lnkfont "deepcopy" returning itemfont Please comment that statement out, and add instead:      move lnkfont to itemfont Old KB# 5789

Problem: You may have a character based screen application that you want to run inder Windows as a full screen display. However, when you run it the screen display may be much smaller than required and you may want to extend the screen to be a full screen making the screen a 25 lines by 80 column screen. Resolution: COBOL doesn't set a 25x80 screen as default for console based applications. Instead, the screen characteristics are set by Windows. When you originally developed your app, 25x80 was probably the standard screen size, although there were some exceptions where 43 and 50 line screens were used. (These subsequently led to the intorduction of the C4 and C5 runtime switches). The only way to get a full screen is by clicking the top left corner of the application screen and selecting 'Properties'. One of the options then available is 'Full Screen'. However this only expands the display to cover the full screen and does not necess