Rocket® COBOL

Problem: Mapping numeric data types from COBOL to C may cause some unpredictable results when the data items are passed to C and assigned values in C, especially when these are COMP-5 numeric data types. Resolution: C always uses a whole word of memory (4-bytes) when a numeric variable is passed to it as an int or a long int. Data items defined as type COMP-5 in COBOL will store: 1-4 decimal digits in 2 bytes of storage; 5-9 decimal digits in 4 bytes of storage; and 10-18 decimal digits in 8 bytes of storage. This must be considered when passing numeric variables between COBOL and C. For example, consider the following COBOL data structure: 01   ws-group.    03   ws-a        PIC 9(4) COMP-5.    03   ws-b        PIC 9(9) COMP-5. When ws-group is passed as a parameter to a C program, C finds ws-a

Problem: When compiling a .NET project, the following errors occur: Could not find method 'New' with this signature Could not find method 'xxxxxx' with this signature Resolution: Create a new .NET project using the same source code. Old KB# 3860

Problem: The national characters are not correct in my character based screens. Resolution: The reason for the characters not appearing correctly is that the application has the 'ANSI Input mode' option selected in Application build settings.  Unselect the 'ANSI Input mode' option  and retry your application. Old KB# 3844

Problem: Team Server/ Team System is a Microsoft tool that provides much wider services than just Source Resolution: We provide some support for the Source Control part of Team Server. In .NET we provide support for it in Studio 5. In Net Express 4.0 and Mainframe express 3.0 we provide support for what is called Microsoft Source Control Common Interface (MSSCCI).  This is sort of a standard that provides access to different Source Control systems.  Currently the only systems that we have validated MSSCCI with (for both, un-managed Net Express and MFE) are PVCS and SourceSafe. Currently there is a beta MSSCCI provider for VSTS SCCS but we haven't validated this yet. Please contact technical support for more up-to-date information. Old KB# 3889

Problem: To remove the  'This web service is using http://tempuri.org/ as its default namespace' message. Resolution: In the Net Express IDE, select 'File', 'Open Service Interface's. Right Click on the Web Service Select  'Settings' Under, Service Name, click the  'Advanced'  button to bring up the 'Service Namespace settings'.    What you put in here populates the field on the previous pane Old KB# 3843

Problem: Any directives or tips to help performance, not using cursors doing select into an array Resolution: Following made a significant improvement in performance: 1. move sql directives to sql program only (remove from project properties) 2. remove autocommit and thread=isolate add autofetch remaining directives were targetdb=mssqlserver ansi92entry esqlversion=3 Old KB# 3857

Problem: Yo might be getting error 48 on a write to file in subprogram. Main_Program opens file output and writes header record to the file, no errors. Main_Program calls Sub_Program. In the Sub_program when try to write to this file opened in Main_Program get error 48 file status. Resolution: Make sure the compiler directive ASSIGN(External) is used for the file. In both the Main_Program and Sub_Program,  the FD section for the file lets call the file "File_out"  need to add external to the FD. This will prevent the error 48 from occurring. For example: FD   File_out  External. 01   File_out_record      PIC X(1000). Old KB# 3902#netexpress#RMCOBOL#COBOL#AcuCobol#ServerExpress

Problem: Product:  Application Server for Net Express / Server for COBOL An 'C' application calling COBOL returns the following error:          cannot fiind Cblrtss.dll   Resolution: Set the PATH and COBDIR environment variables to point to the Application Server or Server for COBOL product: Set Path=drive:\\path\\ApplicationServerFolder;%PATH% Set Cobdir=drive:\\path\\ApplicationServerFolder; Old KB# 3877

Problem: "File or assembly name MicroFocus.COBOL.Runtime, or one of its dependencies, was not found." The "all06n40.exe" WrapPack had been applied to the Net EXpress 4.0 development system used to create the application programs being executed. Resolution: The "aps08a40.exe" Service Pack for Net Express 4.0 Application Server and the "SRN89N40.EXE" Service Pack for Net Express with .NET Applicaition server had not been applied to the base installations of Net Express 4.0 Application Server and Net Express with .NET Application Server. Applying the Service Packs "aps08a40.exe" and "SRN89N40.EXE" to the Application Server installations on the server eliminated ther error. Old KB# 3905

Problem: How can you access an App.config file from COBOL in .Net ? For example you may want to store database connection details in an XML Config file and retrieve them at runtime. Resolution: A demo of how to access an XML Config files is attached to this. Some example code to do this is:-        $set sourceformat"variable"        program-id. ConfigReader.       *****************************************************       *       *     Author  - David Sands (Micro Focus Technical Support EMEA)       *       *     Purpose - Show how to access appSettings config data that is       *        &nbsp

Problem: The method to create a global temporary table under SQL Server. Resolution: With SQL Server, a global temporary table needs to be prefixed with ## . This statement will create a global temporary table ##tmptable            EXEC SQL Create table ##tmptable (col1 char(10) , col2 varchar(30))            END-EXEC Old KB# 3876

Problem: What are the methods ejbCreate  ejbRemove  ejbActivate  ejbPassivate and setSessionContext used for? Resolution: These are the defined methods for a session bean as described by the EJB specification, which you can get from http://java.sun.com. Old KB# 3851

Problem: If you have a project with for example 3 forms in it:- 1)       frmMain 2)       frmFirst 3)       frmSecond When you run the project it loads frmMain which have the property IsMdiContainer set to true. frmFirst is running as a child of frmMain. From a button on frmFirst how can I start off frmSecond and have that as a Child of frmMain in the MDIContainer. Resolution: You can use code such as:- set ls-frmSecond to cfrmSecond::"New"() set ls-frmSecond::"MdiParent" to self::"MdiParent" invoke ls-frmSecond::"Show"() to do this. You set the parent to the parent of the current form which in this case is frmFirst. Old KB# 3882

Problem: You can use embedded printer escape sequences when printing using the syntax such as:- SELECT PRINTFIL ASSIGN  TO  PRINTER  WS-PRINT-NAME                            ORGANIZATION  LINE SEQUENTIAL                            FILE  STATUS  IS  FILE-STATUS. WS-PRINT-NAME contains "\\\\PRINTSERVER\\printername". and standard COBOL File IO. Some printer ignore the control characters. Resolution: This is caused by the COBOL file handler inserting a NULL character before each control character. Some printers just ignore these extra null characters so they continue to work but some printers don't int

Problem: Currently the field value is erased, is there a way to keep the old value and allow an overwrite using adis and the accept statement with screen sections? Resolution: Use the WITH UPDATE option in the Accept statement- From the on-line docs for Format 5 of the Accept statement- If the UPDATE option is not specified, a data item for data entry is displayed initially as spaces, if you set the MS Compiler directive when you submit your source code to your COBOL system. (If the MS directive is not set, the display of initial data is a configuration option.) If the UPDATE option is specified, initial data of the data item for data entry is displayed. Old KB# 3874

Problem: A COBOL app in Net Express 4.0 outputs to a file. How do you write to the file using different Font sizes? Resolution: There is no way to select/change the font (size) of the text being output to the file. You are simply outputting text. There are PC_PRINTER_ routines in Net Express that allow you to specify the font and size to be used by the printer to print the file. Please refer to the online documentation for these library routines. Old KB# 3861

Problem: When using the .Net Framework email classes in the System.Net.Mail namespace, the method to specify that the format of the mail is HTML. Resolution: Use  the  "IsBodyHTML" property on the System.Net.Mail.MailMessage class.       $set sourceformat"variable"        program-id. Program1 as "SMTP.Program1".        environment division.        configuration section.        repository.             class cMailMessage      as "System.Net.Mail.MailMessage"             class cMailAddress      as "System.Net.Mail.MailAddress"   &nbsp

Problem: Ensuring that programs are ANSI'85 compliant and setting this directive ANS85, but do not get error messages for syntax elements which are NOT represented in ANSI'85-COBOL. Resolution: The ANS85 directive adds the ANSI'85 COBOL features to a selected language level. Please use the directive DIALECT"ANS85" to restrict the COBOL features to ANSI'85. Old KB# 3855

Problem: What can you do if the toolbar under the pulldown menus of the IDE is missing or hidden? Resolution: Click on the 'View' pulldown menu and then click on 'Dockable windows'. Tick on the 'toolbar' option. This should bring back the toolbar that was hidden. Old KB# 3901

Problem: Application von SX4.0 SP2 für  Server Unixware 7.1 Problem: Aufruf eines prozeduralen Cobol-Programms von JAVA über das JNI, nachgestellt an Hand des Testbeispiels calc_pi aus dem DEMO Verzeichnis PI des Net Express 4.0: Das Programm funktioniert unter Windows 2000 sowohl von der Kommandozeile als auch im Fenster. Das Programm wurde auf ein Unixware System portiert und dort mit dem Programm cobjrun in einer Terminalsession ausgeführt. Es funktioniert. Nun wurde die Klasse calc_pi innerhalb von Tomcat ausgeführt. Tomcat selbst wurde mt cobjrun gestartet. Es kommt die folgende Fehlermeldung: Exception in thread "main" java.lang.UnsatisfiedLinkError: no libcobjvm_unx_142 in java.library.path         at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadLibrary(ClassLoader.java:1517)         at java.lang.Runtime.loadLibrary0(Runtime.java:788)   

Problem: If you are using extfh using direct calls how can you determine the record size of a file ? Resolution: To get the record size you would need to use the Special Operation opcode 06. This will return record length for files that have file header information. This is documented in the file handler documentation supplied with the product. Old KB# 3891#AcuCobol#RMCOBOL#COBOL#netexpress#ServerExpress

Problem: when trying to create a new project, I receive the following: General failure: could not create project. Resolution: In this case - the user needed write access to folder where project was being created Old KB# 3848

Problem: WrapPack install may report that some of FixPacks failed to be applied. It is normal that some FixPacks will not be applied if the associated components (e.g Dialog System, SQL Option for DB2, etc.) are not installed, but this Knowledgebase article addresses a failure to apply FixPacks for installed components. Resolution: The install program (Micro Focus Web Installer) does not handle well paths with $ or %, e.g.  C:\\DOCUME~1\\$235\\LOCALS~1\\Temp\\ or C:\\DOCUME~1\\#5\\LOCALS~1\\Temp\\ This is a limitation in the install product, which is no longer used by Micro Focus for its new products. All new products are using Microsoft Installer (MSI), and this handles paths with $ and %. Due to this limitation, WrapPack may fail to apply certain FixPacks if the directory where the TEMP environment variable contains $ or %. The workaround is to point the TEMP environment variable to a directory that does not contain these two characters (e.g. c

Problem: It can be interesting to dynamically set,  for test purposes or whatever, a COMMAND-LINE within a program.... How to do it? Resolution: The sample code pasted below show how to:        working-storage section.        01 CMDline   pic x(100).        01 CMDline1  pic x(100).        procedure division.            move "1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 " to      CMDline            display CMDline  upon command-line            accept  CMDline1 from command-line            display "CMDLINE received " CMDline

Problem: Release 4.0: When using the Profiler Utility to analyse the performances of the programs a large part of the time spent seems to go to an 'unnamed paragraph' part shown in the output. Total time:       9234 milliseconds.      Module called once. % time      time   entries  ms/entry      paragraph ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 98.69      9113      1      9113    Unnamed Paragraph 0021     0.99        91         1        91      A8   0.11   &nb