Rocket® COBOL

Problem: Applies to Visual Studio 2003 and 2005 COBOL .NET project contains serveral source files.  How to compile just one of those source files? Resolution: In Solution Explorer, for each source file that you do NOT want to compile, right click on it and select Properties.  In the Properties window set Build Action to 'none'.  By default it is set to 'Compile'. Old KB# 4314

Problem: Is there a way to dynamically set the position of a screen created with Dialog System when we call it from a program, depending on some parameters? Resolution: You can do this with the "dsmovsz" function in Dialog. This allow you to dyanmically set and change the Windows location and also its size. Old KB# 4282

Problem: This pertains to Net Express 5.0 with Visual Studio .NET 2005: Using Open File and Save File dialog boxes in .NET. The 2 WinForms classes used to create dialog boxes for Open and Save are System.Windows.Forms.OpenFileDialog and System.Windows.Forms.SaveFileDialog. For more details about the properties and methods of these classes, do an index search through the Visual Studio 2005 Help or go to http://msdn.microsoft.com/library where you can search the classes by their full names (namespace and class). Resolution: To use an Open File dialog box, double-click OpenFileDialog from the Dialogs section of the Toolbox in the Visual Studio .NET 2005 IDE. An icon of the object will not appear on your form, but you will see it below the form on the Form Design window. Click on it to see and set it's properties  in the Properties window. The OpenFileDialog object has a ShowDialog method which makes it appear to the user. If a single file is c

Problem: Previously the customer was asking about using REENTRANT(2) to achieve a multi-user COM component for use with Microsoft.NET. They have now developed that module and it is working well. Whilst working on that project they found that all COM modules within an application seem to run sequentially. Let me give an example to explain what I mean by this: This is an ASP.NET Web application. User 1 runs program A.aspx which calls COM module AA.dll. If User 2 runs program B.aspx and this tries to call COM module BB.dll then this call will be suspended until the Method in AA.dll completes. They can see that if we want 2 users to be able to run the same program and call the same COM module simultaneously then this will need to be built as REENTRANT(2). They are not sure what we have to do to resolve the problem that only one COM module will execute at any one time and so all calls to Methods in different COM modules are effectively queued up and executed seque

Problem: using the following mfsort instructions gave the error SORT(EXTSM) failed - sort engine status = 39: INREC FIELDS=(0001:0021,0020,                          0021:1970,0008)      * SORT FIELDS=(0001,0020,CH,A)   SUM FIELDS=(0021,0008,PD)   use d:\\input.dat    org SQ    record (f 5940)                                                            give d:\\output.dat   org SQ   record (f 28) Resolution: Problem was due to the SORT state

Problem: The attached readme includes changes since Net Express 5.0 went GA. Resolution: Attachments: READN-50.ZIP Old KB# 4296

Problem: The Net Express 5.0 install does not show PVCS Version Manager in its install options. It was available in Net Express 4.0 install. Resolution: PVCS Version Manager is not a Micro Focus product, and it is not available an install option in Net Express 5.0. If you are interested in acquiring PVCS, you will find more details about it at the Serena Software site (http://www.serena.com) See also KB #20582 for support Source Control System. Old KB# 4332

Problem: Release 4.0: COBCH0912S Internal error - Dictionary invalid r/w 00000000 Inform Technical Support when compiling program with XML PARSE statement. Resolution: The specific problem description is: Compiling XML PARSE syntax with the directive VSC2 resulted in the error "COBCH0912S Internal error - Dictinary invalid r/w". This issue has been fixed with the Net Express 4.0 all06n40.exe WrapPack (compiler fixpack version 4.0.008) Old KB# 4327

Problem: How to compile and to link a project from the command line? Resolution: Yes. There is a utility called PROJMAKE Goto Net Express ->Help Click on Index tab in Help type in projmake select Projmake and click on Display this help shows the following: (options , file and build type are clickable to see what to enter) Projmake Command Line >>-projmake---- options-----        file----.------------.----><                                     -        build type-                   s. Examples for more details Old KB# 4313

Problem: This demo accepts an amount (Canadian Dollar) to calculate taxes and converts the total amount in US Dollar Resolution: SOURCE FILES: ========== Program Files     Description ----------------     ----------------------------------------------------------- Cbl2VBx.app      NetExpress project file QcCalc.cbl          COBOL source code QcTax.dll            Visual Basic ActiveX DLL QcTax.vbp         Visual Basic project file Tax.cls               Visual Basic class code Copy Files: ----------------     ----------------------------------------------------------- QcCalc.cpb       &

Problem: Release 4.0: How can an XML file be created without NAMESPACE and XMLNS attributes? Resolution: If your SELECT statement  contains the clause: DOCUMENT-TYPE "dummy.xsd" and your XD contains:                01 Support identified "Support"                  NAMESPACE "http://www.microfocus.com/Support" You get: <Support xmlns="http://www.microfocus.com/Support" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.microfocus.com/Support dummy.xsd">     <Person Job="Supporter">Harald Cordes</Person> </Support> The DOCUMENT-TYPE clause is optional since some updates and can be left out. If your compiler (XML preprocessor) installation sti

Problem: Release: 4.0 How to setup Application Server for Net Express at client site? Resolution: Install from cd by running setup.exe in application server folder. Also, you can manually copy the runtime folder to the deployment machine and create the license database folder see below. Note: If  not installing from the cd (manually copy runtime folder to deployment machine),  then there is the need  to update the path to where the runtime files are located. Please  make sure that where the deployment of the application is also on the path and may need to be on the cobdir. If your customers have already tried to setup their license database without success.  If this is the case tell them to go into the registry and delete the Micro Focus folder that can be found under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software\\Micro Focus\\ASLMF The hkey_local_machine\\software\\micro focus should not be deleted just the ASLMF fol

Problem: I have copied CBLCORED.EXE  to the application directory on the customer's machine, and have then used a command line to run CBLCORED.    I select "Enabled" but the CBLCORE dump itself is NOT created anywhere on the hard drive when the program fails.    I have also tried using the Net Express CBLCORE functionality, by setting error debugging to "Core Dump" in the "Animate" settings, but the CBLCORE file is still not created. Why is this? Resolution: This wasn't working because the application hadn't been compiled and linked for debugging.   Linking the application using -BFD (cbllink -BFD myapp) builds a static exe with the animation functionality built in.  If you run this, you will find that the coredump is created when the application fails. Old KB# 4284

Problem: How do you set "Duplex Printing"? (printing on both sides of a page requires optional printer feature) Resolution: This will only work for a printer that acutally can print on 2 sides Manual Duplexing does not work with this method Using PC_PRINTER_DEFAULT_PROPERTIES. The PCPDP example program demonstrates how to use the PC_PRINTER_DEFAULT_PROPERTIES routine. The routine requires two parameters, "flags" and "properties".            call 'PC_PRINTER_DEFAULT_PROPERTIES'                using by value     flags                      by reference properties                returnin

Problem: Can a Visual Studio 2005 solution or project be rebuilt directly from the command line? In the classical Net Express IDE, there is the utility ProjMake.exe. Is there a program similar to this for .Net COBOL solutions/projects? Resolution: Yes. In the .Net Framework V.2.0, there is the program MSBuild.EXE for this purpose. The .Net Framework V.2.0 has to be used together with Net Express Version 5. The program MSBuild.exe is located in a directory similar to: C:\\WINDOWS\\Microsoft.NET\\Framework\\v2.0.50727 You can rebuild the solution MyApp.sln e.g. by: MSBuild MyApp.sln /t:Rebuild /p:Configuration=Release Or a COBOL project by: MSBuild MyApp.cblproj /t:Rebuild /p:Configuration=Release For full details of the command line switches for MSBuild, just enter MSBuild /? For more information, please read also: 64-bit Support in the chapter: Known Errors and Restrictions in COBOL Support for .NET in Net Express Help - Start here! -

Problem: A customer wanted to know if it is possible to use the  "_" and '$" characters in data item names. Resolution: It is possible to use the underscore character in a data name by specifying the ISO2002 compiler directive. However the dollar sign can only be used for what is was origianlly intended, viz. a currency sign. Old KB# 4274

Problem: Release 4.0: You may get an error when opening a Btrieve file using OPEN OUTPUT: returning file status 9/139. Resolution: Run-time system errors produced by a Btrieve file, i.e. 9/139, are mapped 'backwards' to this COBOL run time system. To determine the reason for this exception you should do the following: a) Net Express Help -> Help Topics -> Index -> Btrieve -> status codes At this point you will find references to Btrieve status code numbers related to that run time error 9/139 ->  7, 22, 27, 28, 44 b) Net Express Help -> Help Topics -> Index -> Btrieve -> errors shows you a table including all  'Btrieve error codes' also 7, 22, 27, 28, 44. In that case: You should check the Btrieve environment first because record length is greater than 1024, according to the doc files: BTRPAGE Environment Variable The BTRPAGE environment variable specifies the page size that is use

Problem: FILLER in a COBOL data structure given as for this structure: 01 daten.                02 Eine   pic x(5).    02 filler   pic x(5).    02 Zwei  pic x(5). The CBL2XML wizard produces the following XD structure:         01 Pre-daten identified by "daten" count in Pre-daten-count.          02 Pre-eine pic X(5) identified by "eine" count in             Pre-eine-count.          02 Pre-filler pic X(5).          02 Pre-zwei pic X(5) identified by "zwei" count in             Pre-zwei-count.

Problem: Product:    Net Express 4.0 Running a java program and getting a 103 error message that the library file is not found. Resolution: Check the environment is setup for Java and COBOL: 1)  There is a need to have Java Development Kit (JDK) 1.3.x (or higher) installed.  It is recommended to use the JDK supplied with your J2EE application server. Make sure that the PATH environment variable points to the bin directory of the correct JDK. To set the PATH using a command such as: set Path=jdk-installation\\bin;%path% The Java Development Kit (JDK) is required for compiling Java. The JDK is downloadable from the Sun Web site or use any Java IDE which is based on either the Sun or Microsoft Java run-time environments. After installing the JDK, to put the tools.jar file for the JDK on the classpath, using a command similar to: set CLASSPATH=jdk-install-directory\\lib\\tools.jar 2)  To check the fo

Problem: What option can we use in the rebuild to pad with spaces when converting a line sequential file to a fixed length record sequential file. It appears that the records in the record sequential file are filled with low-values instead of spaces. rebuild command: REBUILD  file1.txt, file2.dat  /o:lseq,seq /r:f80 Resolution: There  is an optional padding character suboption for the /r option that designates the padding character used to fill the  fixed length record. If you  use /r:f80pd32 for the output file then this tells Rebuild to create a file with fixed length records of 80 bytes and to space fill the record. i.e.  the padding character is specified as a decimal value (32) which represents the ASCII space character " ". This is documented  in the Net Express Help ( Help>Contents>Programming>File Handling>Reference>Rebuild>Options )under the /r option you w

Problem: To open a new, empty email form with a filled out email address. From a command prompt and using: start mailto:firstname.lastname@domain.com How can this be done from Dialog System? Resolution: To achieve the same from within Net Express with     call "system" using z"start mailto:firstname.lastname@domain.com" From Dialog System, to use a CALLOUT or a RETC and call the "system" from COBOL. It was tested successfully on Windows XP Professional where Microsoft's Outlook 10 is installed. Hint: The CALL to "system" opens a Command prompt, which cannot be closed without ending the program. Old KB# 4325

Problem: How to prevent CTRL-C (CTRL BREAK) keyboard interrupt in 32bit applications? Resolution: According to the doc files (Help -> Help Topics -> Index): X"B0" function 4 Disables keyboard interrupts (Ctrl Break). Syntax: call X"B0" using function-code                  parameter ... This routine disables keyboard interrupts for the rest of the application. It should be called before any subprograms are called. Old KB# 4285

Problem: CreateProcess Windows API does not start a Process. The CreateProcess was being used to start an EXE. However this was returning the value 0. A zero from the API denotes failure to start the process. How can you find out why the process could not be started ? Resolution: The CreateProcess API will return 0 when it does not start a process. However if you get an error (zero) retrurned you can call the GetLastError API to retrieve more infomation. Code such as: 01  ws-retval       DWORD.     call winapi "GetLastError" retrurning ws-retval will allow you retieve the reason for the error. In the case if the customer problem a 2 was returned from GetLastError. A return code of 2 is:- "The system cannot find the file specified." This was caused because the EXE that had to be run was not on the PATH. Windows will search down PATH for EXE file. Ensurin

Problem: How to check what version of fixpacks are applied to the product? Resolution: (1) Download MFSupportInfo.zip utility from http://supportline.microfocus.com/examplesandutilities/nesamp.asp#Utilities Unzip MFsupportinfo.zip and run the MFSupportInfo.exe. This will create a MFSupportinfo.log that shows what versions and fixpacks that were applied. From Net Express 5.0 onwards MFSupportInfo.exe is part of the ..\\Net Express 5.0\\base\\bin installation directory. (2) Also , Start Net Express. click on Help -> About Net Express. click on more info at bottom right. Under installed options and fixpacks . See what fixpacks and installed options are applied. Old KB# 4316

Problem: This demo shows how to generate an exception in a COBOL COM Class and trap it in a .Net C# Application. Resolution: INTRODUCTION ========== This demo shows how to generate an exception in a COBOL COM Class and trap it in a .Net C# Application. DESCRIPTION ========= This demo shows: o     Create a COM Exception in COBOL o     Trap and handle the exception in C# Projects ========= The example contains 2 folders with 2 projects:- - COBOL COM Object.app         This is the Net Express COBOL Project for the COM Object - TestCOBOLCOMException.sln    This is a C# .Net application that invokes the COBOL COM Object and traps the generated  exception via a try catch block. REQUIREMENTS ========== .Net Framework V2 and Visual Studio 2005 OPERATION ========= - Open the COBOL App file and rebuild the project - Open a