Rocket® COBOL

Problem: If COBDIR is defined with the correct values, as an environment variable for the Windows system, there are no compilation errors. When it is removed from the environment variables in the Windows system and defined with the same values in the Project Properties in Net Express IDE, compilation errors are seen: ASLM: Semaphore failure. ASLM: Errno 1002 Rebuild complete with errors Resolution: The COBDIR environment variable lists the paths of the COBOL system directories where INT, GNT, LBR, DLL and EXE files, which are used by an application, occur.  Setting this in the IDE, will cause the COBOL runtime to look only in the path specified.  You should set the COBDIR environment variable in the Windows System.  If you do set the COBDIR environment variable in the IDE, you will have to prefix your path with '%COBDIR%;' to ensure the application finds the run-time files needed, for example: Variable - COBDIR

Problem: Release 4.0: When compiling a program with a single syntax bug, this causes an aftereffect of about 1500 error messages. It may end with an "Unexpected Error while syntax checking", or a hanging IDE, or it may take several minutes until the IDE can be used again. Killing the IDE using taskmanager does only help if the IDY-file is deleted also. Resolution: A better solution is offered by the compiler directive MAX-ERROR. Limiting the number of errors, e.g. to: MAX-ERROR"50 E" MAX-ERROR"40 S" e.g. placed in the COBOL.DIR file, will improve the situation. After reaching the specified number of messages, the compilation will be aborted by a (last) "Too many errors" message. Old KB# 5409

Problem: Animating .EXE and .DLL Debug Build Programs that are located in multiple Project folders: Resolution: Animating .EXE and .DLL Debug Build programs located in multiple Project folders. The directory structure for this example is as follows: C:\\Animation\\ApplicationTrigger             \\DynamicLibrary1             \\DynamicLibrary2 The ApplicationTrigger folder contains the project for the main program, AP470T01.EXE. The DynamicLibrary1 folder contains the project for the AP470D01.DLL and the DynamicLibrary2 folder contains the project for the AP470D02.DLL. The AP470D01.DLL file contains two sub programs, AP470S01 and AP470S02, which are called by the main program AP470T01.EXE. The  AP470D02.DLL file also contains two sub programs, AP470S03 and AP470S04, which are called by the sub programs in AP470D01.DLL. T

Problem: How to search a directory for a given file specification (e.g. *.cbl)? Resolution: The routine x"91" function 69 can be used to search a directory for a given file specification. Another way also is to call to FindFirstNext, a WinAPI function. You will find a demo for each of this routine at the Micro Focus SupportLine site (http://supportline.microfocus.com) in the "Net Express Examples & Utilities" page. The one for x"91" function 69 is called DIRLIST.ZIP while the one for FindFirstNext is called FINDFIRSTNEXT.ZIP. Old KB# 5716

Problem: Receiving an error running MFSORT - error is SORT042U.   Cannot find MFSORT documentation that lists this message - is there a complete set of MFSORT error messages ? Resolution: Open Net Express Help and click the "Contents" tab. Then open these folders: Reference   File Handling     Sorting Files       Mfsort and click the "Error messages" document. The messages are grouped into 0001 through 0099 and 0100 through 0199. Your error is within the first group. SORT042U Memory allocation failure The mfsort utility was unable to allocate the required memory. Resolution: Try reducing the value of the SORTSPACE environment variable. See Also: Environment Variables SORTSPACE The amount of memory to be allocated to internal workspace for SORT operations. This can be specified in different formats: for example, you could specify 64M, 2G, and 1000000 to give sort memo

Problem: Is it possible to communicate from a CICS region on a mainframe with an ES MTO system (Distributed Program Linking). Resolution: Inbound DPL is not possible at the moment.  This functionality will be in Net Express 5.0 which is expected to be available during the first half of 2006. Old KB# 5406

Problem: How can I create a Net Express command prompt? Resolution: Unfortunately there is no automatic way to install/setup the Net Express command prompt.  You will need to create a shortcut yourself with the following properties: Title : Net Express Command Prompt Target : C:\\Windows\\System32\\cmd.exe /K createnv.bat Start In : "c:\\Program Files\\Micro Focus\\Net Express\\Base\\BIN" You many need to amend the above to match your own installation details i.e. your Windows installation folder may not be called "Windows" and you may not have installed Net Express in the default location. The quotes on Start In are required due to the long and spacey filenames used. Old KB# 5718

Problem: You want to convert a string (e.g. "12.3") to decimal data type in .NET. Resolution:        program-id. DecStrConv as "DecStrConv".        environment division.        configuration section.        repository.             class stringClass as "System.String"             class decimalClass as "System.Decimal"             class convertClass as "System.Convert"             .        data division.        working-storage section. 1 myString object reference stringClass. 1 myDecimal object refere

Problem: 1.  Program A calls program B. 2.  Program B opens a file, then returns control to program A. 3.  Program A calls program B again. 4.  Program B accesses the file, assuming it is still open from program A's prior call.  This causes an immediate "47" I/O declarative error. Apparently, working-storage variables in program B held state from the previous call but the FILE OPEN state did not - the file has reverted to a closed status without ever being explicitly closed.  Again this behavior is different from my 3.0 system.   Is this also a compiler directive or runtime setup issue? Resolution: The sub program was using  EXIT PROGRAM to return to the calling program which using RM directive will close all open files. Adding "ANSI" to the RM directive will allow the EXIT PROGRAM to keep files open. RM"ANSI" O

Problem: A VB application needs to run a COBOL console application in the .NET environment.  Pressing a button on a VB form is required to startup a COBOL Console exe that will accept and display. Resolution: One way would be to have a COBOL COM object (a dll) as a proxy between the VB application and the COBOL Console application.  This is the documented method and is the recommended route to take when passing arguments or values between the two languages. Please refer to the documentation on COM in the Getting Started and Distributed Computing books. Please note that you cannot accept and display from a COBOL dll. On the otherhand, you can run a COBOL Console exe directly from the VB with the following statement in the VB code: System.Diagnostics.Process.Start("the COBOL Console exe file") Old KB# 5453

Problem: Enabling a cobol program to recognize a printer plugged into a usb port Resolution:   The way to print via a USB-port and not the 'normal' LPT1/2 etc is to use the printer_redirection run-time tuneable. This redirects output on a file defined as ASSIGN TO PRINTER to whatever your default printer is. So, if that is connected via USB it should work. The printer_redirection tuneable causes ASSIGN TO PRINTER statements to go to the print spooler rather than LPTn. Therefore, provided the printer attached to the USB has been installed properly there should be no problem printing to it. There is no way to access ports directly in our product because the operating system APIs used for file handling do not handle USB port names. The printer_redirection mechanism is the only way that accessing a printer connected via USB can be done. To set the printer_redirection runtime tuneable you need to create a runtime configuration file and

Problem: Gets an exception (java.lang.nullPointerException) only when animating a web application. The same web project runs fine on any other development machines except on one. Resolution: If the web application is using a Java applet, make sure the Java (Sun) setting in the Internet options of your web browser is not set to use the Java Sun JRE. The name of the option is "Use JRE 1.x.x_xx <applet>" Old KB# 5329

Problem: Doing a static link of a ODBC program with Base release of Net Express 4.0 and base release of Application Server for Net Express 4.0. Resolution: Static link is not recommended for ODBC The issue was resolved by linking as Shared Another method would have been to upgrade development and Application Server for Net Express to the currect update levels available on our website. http://supportline.microfocus.com Old KB# 5348

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# 5378#RMCOBOL#ServerExpress#AcuCobol#COBOL#netexpress

Problem: What is the return code of the projmake utility when a project fails to build or open? Resolution: The prokmake utility sets return-code = 1 for any error found.   You cannot specify a return-code for each type of error. Old KB# 5391

Problem: I want to create a new environment variable in the registry from within a program - how can I do this? Resolution: There is an example of how to do this on the SupportLine website -  look for the cobreg program on the sample programs page. Old KB# 5382

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# 5387#netexpress#AcuCobol#COBOL#RMCOBOL#ServerExpress

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# 5357

Problem: You may see that data defined in a VARCHAR host -variable appears as "padded" with spaces when examining the record on the database. Is it possible to stop data from being padded when written out this way? Resolution: To avoid this from happening you can declare your host variables with the new Open ESQL syntax that is now supported in Net Express - CHAR-VARYING, which is a synonym for VARCHAR. The Net Express documentation describe this new syntax as follows: CHAR-VARYING Example: 01 hv-name SQL TYPE IS CHAR-VARYING(n) generates 01 hv-name pic x(n). CHAR-VARYING data is passed to OpenESQL as SQL_VARCHAR. When data is sent to the data source, trailing spaces are trimmed, except for the first space if the value is all spaces, and values fetched from the data source are padded with spaces. Having the ANSI padding checked on the driver should trim off any NULLS. Old KB# 5342

Problem: Problem with websphere deploying application gets error Resolution: Added MFCobol.jar in the PATH.  Now Websphere will report successful application deployment. Old KB# 5363#ServerExpress#COBOL#AcuCobol#RMCOBOL#netexpress

Problem: Can web services built with Net Express be deployed on any other third party servers or does it have to be deployed on Enterprise Server? Resolution: Any web services written in Net Express must be deployed on Enterprise Server no matter what the platform is. Old KB# 5379

Problem: Program A call Program B, receing error on call to Program B. Works in debug mode, error produced in Release Mode. Resolution: This was corrected by a HOTFIX for  RPI 1057346 - this occurs due to a change to the compiler to accommodate mainframe dialects. the outdd and\\or  indd are the cause and the solutions is as below: Run-time system error COBRT226 ("EXTERNAL data definition        inconsistent") was returned sometimes if programs in a run unit had been compiled with a        mainframe dialect. The error occurs because the        attributes used for the SYSOUT file when using a mainframe dialect        changed in WrapPack V4.0.005.        If you receive this error you should recompile all the programs   &nbsp

Problem: Release 4.0: Keystroke Ctrl C or Ctrl V does not work as expected with the CommonControl demo "TXTENTRY". What has to be programmed to get these keystrokes? Resolution: To get a Ctrl C or Ctrl V as expected, the method "getHighLightArea" is necessary for the Ctrl C  instead of "setHighLightArea" coded in the demo. In the "EfDataKey Section" where the EfDataKey callback event is handled. Please code e.g.:             if K-keyAsNum of Keystroke = 3 *> Ctrl C                INVOKE aTextEntry "getHighLightArea" USING CursorPos                                      &

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# 5374

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 necessarily set up the scr