Rocket® COBOL

Problem: This error can occur when the 4 backup folders for CFG, MNT, SYS, TUT become locked or are set to read only. These backup folders are named cfg_bak, mnt_bak, sys_bak, and tut_bak respectively and they are located in C:\\Program Files\\Micro Focus\\Net Express 5.0\\MFSQL by default. Please remember that you need to be logged in as an administrator to perform this update, and you need to be logged in as the same user who installed Net Express. Resolution: Resolve the issue by selecting these folders, going to Properties, and unchecking the Read Only box. You may need to adjust the permissions on the folders to allow read, write, and delete access. In extreme cases you can delete (or rename) and recreate these 4 folders to allow the installation to complete. Old KB# 4455

Problem: A macro was created in msexcel to fill column "J" with color Gray.  Editing the macro shows the following VB code. Sub Macro1() Columns ("J:J").Select With Selection.Interior        .ColorIndex = 15        .Pattern = xlSolid End With End Sub Question: What's wrong with this code? invoke  ExcelObject  "getColumns"    using  z"J"                                                       returning CellRange. invoke CellRange     "setColorIndex" using by value 15. invoke CellRange &n

Problem: Release: 5.0 WrapPack 5: Es wurde die Basisversion Net Express 5.0 und anschliessend sofort das WrapPack 5 installiert: Nunmehr können keine HTML-Seiten im Form Designer geöffnet werden sowohl als normaler Benutzer oder auch als Administrator. Das Programm meldet: "Form Designer requires Microsoft Internet Explorer 401 or greater to be installed on this system. File 'formdctl' error code 240 Object reference not valid" obwohl Internet Explorer 7 installiert ist (Standard mit Vista). Resolution: Der o.g. Fehler war mit Net Express 5.0 WrapPack 3 (V 5.003.0082) gefixt worden und unglücklicherweise ist diese Lösung im nachfolgenden WrapPack 4 sowie im WrapPack 5 nicht enthalten. Das bedeutet: Ist die Version des WrapPack 4 (V 5.004.0064) bzw. WrapPack 5 (V 5.005.0025) installiert und es wird der oben beschriebene Fehler angezeigt, dann zur Bereinigung den Micro Focus Knowledgebase Artikel Nr. 24961 vergl

Problem: A customer using a build script found that intlevel(1) as a compiler directive gave the error * Invalid qualifier - intlevel(1) * 155-U 155 Illegal command line Resolution: On Server Express INTLEVEL can only be set to 2, 4 or 5, hence the error message. It's unlikely that this will cause a problem for any customer, as INTLEVEL set to 1 is for use with Micro Focus COBOL products on DOS and COBOL/2 on UNIX. Old KB# 4488

Problem: Windows Vista differs from earlier Windows operating systems (eg. Windows XP) in that you must take into account security restrictions which are defaulted into the operating system. As it stands only NetExpress 5.0 and NetExpress 5.1 are currently supported on Windows Vista.  Before installing any wrappack, fixpack or hotfix it is stronly advised to carefully read the installation instructions on the SupportLine "Products Update" website page as there are specific installation instructions for each wrappack. The aim of this article is to emphasise further security issues pertaining to Windows Vista which are not mentioned in the installtion instructions on the website.  If you do not amend the security settings indicated below, you will get the an error message when attempting to install the patch which will be along the lines of: "Server 5.0 WrapPack #005 has not been installed.  Please contact Micro Focus Sup

Problem: When converting sort exits(E15, E35),  the definition of the required fields in the online HELP menu(DFSORT) in Net Express is very good; but there were three fields that caused problems (ENTRY-BUFFER, EXIT-BUFFER, and EXIT-AREA). The first two fields were resolved by making the linkage area a copybook and using a replacing to change the length but no one has any idea of how to define EXIT-AREA. Is there a calculation that is used to figure out the size? EXIT-AREA is defined in the help system as 'Exit area scratchpad used by the exit to maintain variables between calls to the exit program'..    Resolution: The EXIT-AREA is 256 bytes and the length is not set (though according to the IBM documentation it should be set to 256). This area is not used by SORT, it's to maintain variables between the calls to the E15 and E25 exits. Entry from IBM DFSORT docs below. Each time DFSORT calls the COBOL E15 or COBOL E35 user exit, it p

Problem: Release 5.0: Rebuilding         RELEASE\\FTP-UPRO.dll    Creating library RELEASE\\FTP-UPRO.lib and object RELEASE\\FTP-UPRO.exp FTP-UPRO.OBJ : error LNK2001: unresolved external symbol _FtpFindFirstFileA@16 RELEASE\\FTP-UPRO.dll : fatal error LNK1120: 1 unresolved externals Rebuild complete with errors This failure is related to CALL WINAPI "FtpFindFirstFileA". Resolution: In that case it was helpful to change the WINAPI call-convention from 74 back to 66 to resolve this external symbol as well while linking a DLL. Old KB# 4439

Problem: If you store dates in a DataGridView TextBox column then it will sort the column in Alphabetical order. This makes the dates out of order when dd/mm/ccyy is the format. How can you force the sort to sort based on date order ? Resolution: You can perform custom sorts by handling the Sort_Compare event. An example that would sort in correct date order would be:-        method-id.  "dataGridView1_SortCompare" final private.        01 ls-date1         type "System.DateTime".        01 ls-date2         type "System.DateTime".        procedure division using by value sender as object e as type "System.Windows.Forms.DataGridViewSortCompareEventArgs".    &nbsp

Problem: A customer has a program that returns an XML status, but he cannot find out where these are documented. Resolution: The codes are documented in different places (depending on the product), but here they are for reference: Return Code Meaning > 0  After a successful READ action, the ordinal number of the record read is returned as the status code. 0 Success. The XML I/O action is performed without problem. -1 The XML I/O action is trying to access an XML stream that is not opened.   -2 This is an invalid XML I/O action. -3 Invalid mode is specified in the OPEN statement. -4 The XML stream cannot be opened. -5 The XML I/O action is attempting to access an internal DOM (Document Object Model) representation which is not present. DOM enables you to create and modify HTML pages and XML documents as full-fledged program objects. -6 An invalid KEY is specified in the XML I/O action.   -7 The end of the XML strea

Problem: Release 4.0: While debugging within IDE and trying to change a value the Net Express IDE crashes completely with an unexpected error, s. attached snapshot. What to do to prevent this? Resolution: Probably, there are some Net Express common files not registered in the Windows registry correctly. Take a look here first: ..programs\\common files\\Micro Focus for Hex3.ocx, Hex5.ocx, Valueedit.ocx To register those files again via the Windows command line use regsvr32, i.e.: >regsvr32 Hex3.ocx and the problem gets rid off. Attachments: 2145552.JPG Old KB# 4406

Problem: The demo available in COMMONCONTROLS\\ListView shows how to create a listview containing check boxes in the first column. How can these check boxes be ticked in initial state? Resolution: To tick the check boxes by program add a:     invoke aListViewItem "selectCheckBox for example in the ListView-demo in:        Insert-Many-Items section.           PERFORM VARYING l FROM 1 BY 1 UNTIL l > lvData-Max               ...              SET lvData-Object(l) TO aListViewItem              invoke aListViewItem "selectCheckBox" *> the tick is set here           END-PERFORM Old KB

Problem: The index cache size can be increased, which will reduce the amount of file i-o Fileshare actually does. Resolution: To increase the index cache size, put the following into Fileshare's extfh.cfg file (create one if it does not exist): [xfh-default] INDEXCOUNT=32 This file must be put into Fileshare's current working directory, or environment variable EXTFH must be set in Fileshare's (not the client's) environment to specify the file, e.g.: set EXTFH=C:\\fileshare\\configuration\\extfh.cfg Old KB# 4413#ServerExpress#AcuCobol#RMCOBOL#netexpress#COBOL

Problem: When using the Suggest Word option on a mispelled dataname in the procedure division, if the selected word is longer than the mispelled word and there is data in column 73 thru 80, then that data will be moved by the number of characters > the original word. Resolution: To fix this behavior simply display the Find/Replace window by pressing Ctrl-F and then check the option to stay within margins. Then the data in col 73 will not be moved. Old KB# 4446

Problem: Trying to validate alphabetic characters in numeric fields (i.e to get rts error 163 returned)  in an application that has the RM compiler directive set, the validation is not applied in all cases. Even with the COBSW= F environment variable set to force the validation it doesn't work.   Resolution: Take the following code: $SET RM                        Working-storage section.           01 numerica          pic 9(3).          01 alfabetica         pic x(3).        01 blank-field        pic x(3).        

Problem: SDE under Linux / Unix Terminal: functions do not work Resolution: sde, animator and the mflm tools are mostly optimized for an 80x25 VT100 Terminal emulation. If these tools do not work then you should  find out which Terminal is set on your machine by typing: echo $TERM Is there another string as vt100 or xterm-color (sometimes this works fine), change your Terminal by entering in : export TERM=vt100          or export TERM=xterm-color Old KB# 4490

Problem: How to do Casting in Net Express .NET? In C# for example you can do - string x = (string)object; Resolution: The example program below shows casting in COBOL in .NET: (this is a demo of how to access an XML Config files)       $set sourceformat"variable"       program-id. ConfigReader.       environment division.       configuration section.       repository.            class cAppSettingsReader as "System.Configuration.AppSettingsReader"            class cString as "System.String"            class cInvalidOperationException as "System.InvalidOperationException"     &n

Problem: When the "Remember this" logon option is set, compiling DB2 programs will no longer present the logon dialog. How to get the logon dialog to show up again? This would be necessary to use a different user id and password Resolution: The following can be found from the DB2 documentations: ________________________________________ Compiling Programs that use a Remote DB2 Server To compile a program that uses a remote DB2 server, you must first connect to that remote server. The DB2 ECM first attempts to connect to the database using the default values for the client workstation you logged on with. If the logon fails, the DB2 ECM will invoke the Micro Focus SQL Logon dialog in which you can then enter a logon ID and password for the database you are trying to compile your program against Automated Compiles Having the graphical logon dialog appear might not be acceptable for automating compiles from a background process such as a command f

Problem: In .NET it is now possible to create an Inner Class within a class. How to access this inner class from COBOL? Resolution: Accessing an Inner class by defining it in the repository section but there is the need to use " " to denote the inner class. For example:        repository.               class innerclass as "MyClassLibrary.TheOuterClassName TheInnerClassName"                   . will allow to create instances of the innerclass. Old KB# 4407

Problem: Cannot find ygrep32.dll when compiling a COBOL program. This error occured when rebuilding a COBOL project in Net Express. Resolution: The ygrep32.dll is used by the PCOMMAIN precompiler that is supplied with the Migration Toolkit. Moving the ygrep32.dll to a directory pointed to by the PATH statement resolved the problem. Old KB# 4405

Problem: Fileshare blocking is a new feature in NetExpress 5.0 which allows the client to read up to 64K records in a single operation, which should improve sequential file access.  How to use the feature? Resolution: File must be open input (read access only) by all users or this technique is not applicable. In FHREDIR.CFG, add the following line: /bl n where n is a number, such as 100, which is the number of records to read ahead.  Concrete example: /bl 100 Acceptable value range is 1 to 65535. Note: the maximum amount of data that can be read in one block is 64K, which would be a combination of the number of records, and the record length. Too small a record count will fail to improve performance.  Too large a record count will waste time and memory bringing in more data than is actually in the file or more data than the program will actually use. Old KB# 4414#RMCOBOL#ServerExpress#COBOL#AcuCobol#nete

Problem: When trying to run a COBOL/.ASP .Net application that has been deployed to Micro Focus Server you may see a security exception when trying to access the web page that accesses the COBOL code: Security Exception Description: The application attempted to perform an operation not allowed by the security policy. To grant this application the required permission please contact your system administrator or change the application's trust level in the configuration file. Exception Details: System.Security.SecurityException: Requested registry access is not allowed. Source Error: An unhandled exception was generated during the execution of the current web request. Information regarding the origin and location of the exception can be identified using the exception stack trace below. Stack Trace: [SecurityException: Requested registry access is not allowed.]    System.ThrowHelper.ThrowSecurityException(ExceptionResource resource)

Problem: Example of how to use the .NET Framework Mutex class to detect if more than 1 instance of an application running. Resolution: Tested with Net Express 5 ================ INTRODUCTION ========== Example of how you can use the .Net Framework Mutex class to detect if you have more than 1 instance of an application running.                                                                        REQUIREMENTS: ========== Visual Studio 2005 and .NET Framework ========================================================== Keywords: demonstration, sample, example, demo, AppInstance.zip , Mutex demo.ex demo.me d

Problem: Can COBOL support Dynamic Arrays? Resolution: Micro Focus only support Dynamic arrays in COBOL.Net where an array can be defined as:-        01 myarray   object reference cMyClass occurs any. and then do:-       set size of myarray to 100 On Non .Net platforms (Server Express and Net Express) then there is a need to use one of the OO Collection classes. There is an Array class (for example bytearray) that should do what is required. Depending on the requirement there are also other collection classes that could work depending on what the exact needs are. The only other solution would be to put the definition of the array in LINKAGE SECTION and allocate it dynamically. For example:- LINKAGE SECTION. 01  my-array.     03 my-item     pic x(100) occurs 1 to 1000000 depening on ws-length At runtime the c

Problem: Keyboard utility program that will test the old and new keyboard functions. If the new functions do not work and having a 16-bit character based application, the COBSW K1 switch can be used. Resolution: ========================================================== Keywords: Utility, doskey.zip demo.ex demo.ne Attachments: doskey.zip Old KB# 4361

Problem: MFSupportInfo - Utility program to gather up workstation and products information. Resolution: Attachments: MFSupportInfo.zip Old KB# 4365