Rocket® COBOL

Problem: Method to uninstall Net Express 4.0 and any applied fixpacks silently from a command line Resolution: End-users can silently uninstall any Micro Focus products (which use Micro Focus' proprietary wrapper install technology), without the need to go to Add/Remove Programs in Control Panel. First, users need to establish the values of %UNINSTALLER% and %UNINSTALLTAG% as referenced below in the [Setup] section of the wrapper.ini file, which can be found in the root of the Micro Focus product Installation CD. Users should be logged on as the same user which originally installed the product.  Use the following command template as a guide to uninstalling products silently: START/WAIT %UNINSTALLER% /FILE=%UNINSTALLTAG%UNINST.DAT /SMS As an example for Net Express 4.0 this would equate to: %UNINSTALLER%=NETEXPRESS40UNINST.EXE and %UNINSTALLTAG%=NETX40 The version of the file related to %UNINSTALLER% resides in the C:\\WINDO

Problem: How to begin reading from the last record of an indexed file, when the value of the key in that last record is unknown. Resolution: 1.  START file-name KEY is <= HIGH-VALUES.... 2.  READ PREVIOUS. Old KB# 5255#AcuCobol#netexpress#COBOL#ServerExpress#RMCOBOL

Problem: Is there any way to run the file conversion process from the command line in a batch job. Conversion of many data files with the tool can be easier and more reliable when done within a batch job. Resolution: This can be done using the following command line: run dfconv profile-fname [input-fname] [output-fname] where: profile-fname is the name of the profile file that contains the details of the task you want to perform.   input-fname  is optional and is the name of the input file.   output-fname  is optional and is the name of the output file. The input and output file-names are optional as they can be extracted from the profile file. If you specify file-names on the command line as well as in the profile file, those on the command line take precedence. After conversion, the operating system error level ERRORLEVEL is set to non-zero if an error occurred during conversion. If you are running the con

Problem: Should  a Net Express 3.1 module be able to call a Net Express 4.0 module? Resolution: Net Express does not support calls involving programs compiled under different versions. When upgrading all programs should be recompiled. Old KB# 5264

Problem: From the Installation Options screen, the IDE option is already checked and greyed out. It is not then possible to change the directory where to install Net Express. Resolution: This would imply either Net Express is already installed on the machine or a previous uninstall of Net Express was not properly completed. If Net Express is already installed: 1. uninstall Net Express 2. make sure to retain the license 3. install Net Express 4. change the default directory for IDE to a new directory If Net Express is not installed: 1. go to Start > Run 2. regedit<enter> 3. go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\\Software\\Micro Focus\\ 4. delete the Net Express key (or subfolder if you prefer) 5. go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SOFTWARE\\Micro Focus\\ 6. delete the Net Express key (or subfolder if you prefer) 7. start the Net Express install again Note: the steps #3 through #6 can be combined in 2 steps ***IF*** there is no other Micro Focus products instal

Problem: What does compiler directive SOURCETABSTOP do? Resolution: SOURCETABSTOP sets how many spaces tabs are expanded to when the checker reads the source code. In the Visual Studio IDE, when you press tab you get one space whereas, in the Micro Focus IDE, pressing tab will insert a set number of spaces.  With SOURCETABSTOP"8" this would be 8. Old KB# 5302#netexpress#AcuCobol#ServerExpress#COBOL#RMCOBOL

Problem: The "Click here to install Net Express with .NET" link from the main install page does not bring up the next page. It seems as it was unable to load IWIZ01.HTM from the CD-ROM's \\autorun\\html folder. Resolution: 1. Open Windows Explorer 2. Open \\AUTORUN\\HTML from CD-ROM drive 3. Double-click on IWIZ01.HTM The above steps would allow to resume with the rest of the steps to install Net Express with .NET. The problem seems to have occurred only with a web browser (e.g. Mozilla Firefox) that was not Internet Explorer. Old KB# 5269

Problem: DISPLAY SPACE ... WITH ERASE EOL actually erases everything from its location to the end of screen, exactly the same behavior as using WITH ERASE EOS. Resolution: This is not a bug. Look at the "DISPLAY statement" topic in the documentations, and you will be able to see the following note under Format 3 in clause #21: "If the literal-1 is one of the following figurative constants it has a special effect as follows: SPACE clears from the specified cursor position to the end of the screen;" [...]" If you look at the documentations, you will note the MF at the beginning of the clause. That is, the feature is an extension to ANSI 85 that is specific to Micro Focus COBOL. This also means that DISPLAY SPACE ... WITH ERASE EOL may in fact erase to the end of line in some other compilers. You have then 3 alternatives to erase to the end of line: replace the figurative constant SPACE with " ", or replace the f

Problem: MFSORT returns 9/007 when sorting large (filemaxsize=8) file The TEMP and TMP environment variables are set to C:\\TEMP Resolution: The 'C' drive was not an NTFS drive. Creating a TEMP folder on an NTFS drive and revising the User environment variables for TEMP and TMP to the NTFSdrive:\\TEMP solved the problem. Note: Sorting a "large" file, MFSORT will be writing files to TMP and or TEMP paths that will require an amount of disk space equal to the size of the file being sorted. Sort files may also be very large as well. Therefore, TEMP and TMP must point to an NTFS drive where there is significant disk space available. Old KB# 5272#AcuCobol#COBOL#ServerExpress#RMCOBOL#netexpress

Problem: Method to shut down fileshare via a command file (without GUI interface) Resolution: Some new commands line commands have been added for FSVIEW with Net Express 4.0. If a password file has not been created or no password has been added for FSVIEW that needs to be done as FSVIEW is the admin user for Fileshare. FS /pf password.dat /u FSVIEW /pw FSVIEW Fileshare must be using the password file FS /s FSTEST /pf password.dat First test that this will works on a test machine. FSVIEW Server set the_server_name Admin password the_admin_password Server shutdown Exit If this works, take the commands after FSVIEW and place them in a control file (any name is fine;  e.g.,  "your_control_file") Retest by entering the following:  FSVIEW @your_control_file Old KB# 5311

Problem: Which versions of Net Express are supported on Windows XP? Resolution: Only Net Express 4.0 with WrapPack 4.0.004 (all04n40.exe) or higher has been tested and is supported on Windows XP with SP2. Net Express 4.0 and Net Express 3.1 with SP1 have been tested and are supported on Windows XP with/without SP1. None of the previous versions (3.1 without SP1, 3.0, 2.0, and 1.0) of Net Express has been tested, and therefore none of them is supported on Windows XP. Old KB# 5268

Problem: We are writing an output file that is a Record Sequential data file. We need to convert it to a Line Sequential file. Can this be doen from a Cobol program? Resolution: Yes. Reference the following example:           Identification Division.        Program-Id.  LORINCE.       * Converts Record Sequential to Line Sequential       * via  PRINTER  keyword in ASSIGN clause        Environment Division.        Input-Output Section.        File-Control.            Select Out1  Assign to Printer 'RS2LS.Dat'.       *    Select Out1  Assign to &#

Problem: To use the GUI Class Library ListView object within a Dialog System screen, and to set focus on a specific ListView Item and give it the focus, users should first put the focus on the ListView itself by calling "SetInputFocus". Then they can set focus on the ListViewItem. The following code assumes that aListView is an object reference representing the ListView itself and aListViewItem is an object reference representing the particular item for users to select and set focus on. This code would be placed in the appropriate area of the control program for the ListView: INVOKE aListView "SetInputFocus" INVOKE aListViewItem "setSelectedWithFocus" If you do not invoke "SetInputFocus" on the listview first, then the  listview item may appeard gray because it was selected, but does not have focus. Resolution: In order to use the GUI Class Library ListView object within a Dialog System screen, and to set focus

Problem: When installing Net Express 4.0 on machine, click on setup to install, gets "invalid initialization file" message. Resolution: Use the following steps to correct the problem: 1.  The SETUP.EXE that is in the root directory of the Net Express folder must not be used.      Instead the command "cd \\setup" must be typed followed by the ENTER key to make the      Net Express\\setup folder the current directory. 2.  Type "setup.exe /ini=.\\nxsetup.ini /no_subsystem" and press ENTER. This will start the setup.exe program that is in the Setup subdirectory and tell it which initialization file to use during setup. In this case it is using the nxsetup.ini file within the Setup subdirectory and specifies the /no_subsystem option. Old KB# 5258

Problem: Micro Focus has both Net Express and Mainframe Express. Is the Net Express Interface Mapping Tool just Mainframe Express's Component Generator renamed?   Resolution: The answer is no. Net Express has an Interface Mapping Tool which allows one to select fields for mapping to a new display format. In COBOL, one can describe a data item's data type precisely, using its picture-string. COM, Java and XML (used for sending data between a client and a Web service) each define their own sets of data types. The Interface Mapper maps the COBOL types in your program onto the types available in COM, Java or XML. CG (Component Generator) is an interface allowing creation of Java and web components to allow testing of a legacy application that has been web enabled. CG allows one to (1) analyze an application, (2) capture its output screens (BMS or MFS), (3) create an eBiz transaction for displaying the output or for allowing access to a VSAM dataset or

Problem: When running a program that makes a call to a program that is included in a dll file, for some reason it is not finding the program that is being called. A RTS173 error message is being reported. What is the search path for finding programs found in dll? Resolution: The path that Windows searches in order to locate DLL files is specified in the PATH environment variable. If the DLL is not located within one of the paths defined by this environment variable, Windows will not be able to load the DLL. A DLL named, for example, "MyDLL.DLL", has a primary entry point of "MyDLL" that consists of a goback or exit program statement. Included within this DLL is a second program named "MyEntry1". To gain access to "MyEntry1" it is first necessary to call "MyDLL" to expose the entry point to your second program. Then "MyEntry1" can be called. Use the cancel verb with caution when you have

Problem: A program uses more than one copybook, but only one or some of the copybooks show up in the project tree window of the Net Express IDE. The program can be compiled successfully despite of that. Resolution: Try executing the Update All Dependencies option from the Project menu. If that does not resolve it, the project file  has possibly become corrupt. Just create a new project, and this should display the dependencies correctly. Make sure also to apply all latest fixes for Net Express. Old KB# 5253

Problem: Debugging through COBOL calling C with both debuggers. Resolution: Debugging through Net Express 4.0 COBOL int code and Visual Studio 6 C DLL code =========================================================== The project locations for this example are "C:\\cobol\\cobcallc" for the COBOL project and "C:\\cobol\\csubprog" for the Visual Studio C DLL project. It may be necessary to first edit the Windows System PATH environment variable to add the location of the C DLL so that the COBOL program can load the C DLL if they are in different locations. Open the Net Express project. Choose the "Animate" menu, "Settings..." menu: In the "Mixed Language Debugging" group, make sure that the "enable mixed-language debugging and disable generated and linked code debugging" radio button is selected. In the "General" group, the "Start Animating at" field should point to the loca

Problem: How to convert a sequential file to an indexed file using a cmd file. When deploying a Net Express project to a client machine that doesn't have Net Express installed and it is necessary to convert a sequential file into an indexed file before the file can be used in a COBOL program how can this be done using a cmd file? Resolution: Run rebuild from a command prompt. ....\\RebuildProject\\rebuild<Enter> Rebuild will display it's usage on the screen grouped into four categories: Rebuilding; Validation; Recovery; and Converting. Refer to Related tab above for a text copy of the following information. Rebuild command line options, Net Express 4.0, All04n40.exe, 1/26/2004 1) Usage for rebuilding: rebuild in-file[,out-file] [ /option ...] /i[:command]    - rebuild and display information /v[:n]                - display running count ever

Problem: Processing text files containing "tab" delimited data. Resolution: Create an "extfh.cfg" File Handler Configuration file with these settings. (TABXMPL.TXT is a text file name that contains "tab" characters.     [XFH-DEFAULT]     BASENAME=ON     [TABXMPL.TXT]     EXPANDTAB=OFF The default setting turns BASENAME ON. The TABXMPL.TXT setting turns EXPANDTAB OFF for a file named "tabxmpl.txt". This will preserve the "tab" characters as each record is read making it possible for a program to detect these characters in a text file record. The following is an example program that will isolate each element of data delimited by a "tab" character.       $ set Ans85 Mf"10" NoOsvs NoVsc2 NoAlter NoQual DefaultByte"00"            select textFile assign 'tabxmpl.txt'    &nbsp

Problem: When compiling from a command line the linker is requiring that the file external.obj be linked in but when running a .int from within the project it is not required. Resolution: .int format programs within a project will load and use the util.lbr file which contains the externl inside it. When linking OBJs the util.lbr is not used so the externl.obj module is required when there is an EXTERNAL phrase specified within an FD. Old KB# 5233

Problem: File status 9/004 returned on a file that has an environment variable set to the file name when creating a new project. Resolution: This requires the directive ASSIGN(EXTERNAL). The other projects were using a COBOL.DIR file within the application directory. If the COBOL.DIR should be used for all projects then move the COBOL.DIR to the Net Express\\Base\\Bin directory and all projects will use that one. This can be overridden in any program or project by using the directive NOCOBOLDIR. Old KB# 5234#AcuCobol#RMCOBOL#COBOL#netexpress#ServerExpress

Problem: FSVIEW enters a FSVIEW command line environment. Resolution: The XFH05N40 fixpack which is part of the ALL04N40 wrappack adds the file FSVIEW.EXE to Net Express but the add pack FSV01N40 must be installed before it can be used. To exit the FSVIEW command prompt enter the word EXIT. Old KB# 5210#RMCOBOL#netexpress#ServerExpress#AcuCobol#COBOL

Problem: How to get data mapping of working storage maps in relation to Net Express. Resolution: By creating a listing file using the directive LIST() and the DATAMAP directive to add the working storage mappings to the listing. Old KB# 5190

Problem: The MFDS Service hangs when attempting to apply the Net Express 4.0 fixpack collection. Resolution: Before attempting to run the Net Express 4.0 fixpack updates updates, go into control panel and right click on the MFDS service, and change it's properties to disabled - then reboot the machine. This will ensure that the service isn't started on boot up. Now there should be no problems in applying the updates. After they have been successfully applied, change the service back to automatic. Old KB# 5193