Rocket® COBOL

Problem: Using AcuSQL on a Linux machine to access a Postgres database there appears to be a data alignment problem as a query on some fields will return data from a previous field. The data items are defined as follows: 01 data-vars.       05 my-var-1.             07 my-var-1-1                          pic S9(4) COMP-5.             07 my-var-1-2                          pic X(20).       05 my-var-2.             07 my-var-2-1       &nbsp

Problem: Using Acu8.0 on Windows, attempting to use C$XML to access XML data over the internet for the first time (previously processed XML files locally). In a program that tries to open the results of an XML query - the return-code is always returned as 0, and the error indicates "Invalid XML file or other parsing error".  Yet, when that exact text (in the XML filename) is entered into Internet Explorer, the expected response is returned. Resolution: This problem will be resolved in version 9.0 by Engineering Change Notice (ECN) 3824. When parsing an XML file using C$XML with a file from a URL, the runtime could fail to read the file from the remote server, thus causing the parse to fail.  This was due to the remote web server not specifying a text length, which was due to C$XML specifying HTTP 1.1. The work-around for the issue is to download the file and parse it locally instead of accessing it remotely.

Problem: The actual names of most of COPY library-names (file-names) are lower-case.  The files reside on AIX (IBM Unix) which is a case-sensitive OS.  The programs are compiled via AcuBench and a compiler on a Windows PC.  The COPYPATH includes a reference to the production COPY directory on AIX via a mapped drive using Samba. According to all of the documentation found for Versions 7.0 and above (User Guide 2.5/2,6 and Reference Manual 2.4.1), lower-case library names need to be placed in quotes: Note: User-defined words are always treated as uppercase on machines where file names are case-sensitive [UG 2.5]. However in Version 7.0.1, it appears making the library-names uppercase in the Cobol source code is acceptable.  No compile errors are generated using upper-case or lower-case names with or without quotes.  However, uppercase in the "OF" clause does NOT work whether or not it's in

Problem: Which version and which Acucorp products are for Windows 64-bit platforms? Resolution: Windows 64-bit Products are supported in 8.x as of 08/29/2007 Acucorp offers 64-bit versions of many (see list below) of its products, which run on the Windows x64 platform. These 64-bit product versions install from a CD that is separate and unique from the standard 32-bit Windows version of Acucorp software.   Note that the 64-bit CD also installs 32-bit versions of those products that do not have 64-bit equivalents. This includes certain program executables such as AcuBench as well as non-executables such as sample programs and tools. When selecting products to install on Windows x64 platforms the 32-bit products will be installed into a special Windows folder reserved for 32-bit programs called "Program Files (x86)". The Windows Start menu items will use these 32-bit versions. Some of the 32-bit products have 64-bit equivalents

Problem: When using AcuConnect ThinClient version 7.0.1, and Web Thin Client, a problem occurs when AcuConnect Server(acurcl) and Web Thin Client(acuthinax.ocx) run on the same PC: The dialog states there is a sharing violation of zlib.dll. The problem seems to be just a warning, since after clicking the "OK" button, the application runs without any problem. Resolution: When embedding the runtime DLLs as resources in the web runtime and the web thin client in version 8.0, Acuconnect now performs a version control check of the dlls (if already present) to ensure version compatibility. This was however not correctly done for external lib zlib.dll.  The work around for previous versions is to use a resource tool, like the one available in Microsoft Visual Studion, to set the zlib.dll version to match the actual ACU version. Old KB# 2801

Problem: How to change the order of keys in .xfd file? Resolution: Use -Ck compiler flag: This flag causes the compiler to generate key numbers for indexed file alternate keys in a different order. Key numbers are used internally by the compiler and runtime to identify a key. Normally, you do not need to know the key number for a particular key, or care about the order in which they are generated. By default, the compiler sorts the alternate keys in record order before assigning key numbers. This ensures that the keys are given the same number regardless of the ordering in the file's SELECT. Specifying "-Ck" causes the compiler to assign key numbers in the SELECT order. For most applications, the order in which key numbers are assigned is irrelevant. This option provides compatibility with some other COBOL compilers. This could be helpful when you are sharing data files between ACUCOBOL-GT based programs and programs compiled with these other systems. [2008-07-11

Problem: Using the supplied script, acuxdbcs.bat (acuxdbcs.sh on UNIX), AcuXDBC Server won't start on a non-default port. The start command used is: acuxdbcs.bat -start -p 20225 But it always starts on the default port, 20222. Resolution: Refer to the comments inside the script for proper usage:   rem =  Usage:   rem =      acuxdbcs -help   rem =      acuxdbcs -info [-n port] [server]   rem =      acuxdbcs -kill [-n port] [server]   rem =      acuxdbcs -start [-n port] [-l] Note that the AcuXDBC Server scripts accept -n to specify an alternate port, rather than -p. This command will work:  acuxdbcs.bat -start -n 20225 Old KB# 2840

Problem: The  AcuXDBC User's Guide Version 8.0, chapter 5, section 5.5.2, suggests that rather than having to set up system catalogs for each of your companies individually, you can do one of two things: 1) You can use wildcards and substitution characters (defined in the configuration file) to identify which company file to access. 2) You can assign table ownership to the different companies, then issue a single query to access all the data files. Current users of AcuODBC Server that are transitioning to AcuXDBC Server may prefer a method that allows for closer correspondence between the client DSN and filename prefix. Resolution: Current users of  AcuODBC Server are used to having different DSNs to point to particular file paths. This can be similarly accomplished by creating multiple configuration files and creating DSNs on client machines that each pointed to different configuration files. Since all configuration files

Problem: How do we access an Informix database on Windows using Acu4GL? Resolution: On our line of products Acu4GL we have a version for Informix. This version is available on most of our Unix/Linux platforms. However when we are on Windows we have to use Acu4GL for ODBC and a ODBC driver for Informix to access the database. Old KB# 2830

Problem: Opening a table with Microsoft Access caused the following error: [TOD][ODBC][GENESIS]VISION: Too many columns 291 (max: 256) Resolution: Increase the MAXIMUM_COLUMNS setting on the Advanced tab of the DSN. The default value is 256. The allowable range is from 1 to 1024. Old KB# 2845

Problem: When the ampersand ( & ) is displayed using the graphical label control, it is rendered as underscore ( _ ) which is not expected. This behavior occurred when converting a character-based screen to a simple graphical user interface (GUI) that utilizes labels and entry-fields. Resolution: ACUCOBOL-GT User Interface Programming Version 8.0 Chapter 5: Control Types Reference > 5.12 Label > 5.12.1 Label: Common Properties NO-KEY-LETTER This style suppresses the interpretation of "&" as a key prefix. This is useful in cases where you are assigning user-entered data to a label and want to allow values that include the ampersand ("&") character (such as "AT&T"). Alternatively, and a bit more complicated, the data string can be parsed programmatically and when an ampersand is encountered the string can be modified to add a second ampersand, e.g.: AT&T to: AT&&a

Problem: Is it possible to use the SQL.ACU COBOL program when accessing ORACLE and MS SQL environments during the same run execution? Testing has shown that with both 4GL products included in the runtime SQL.ACU always defaults to the Oracle connection and will not access Microsoft SQL Server. Resolution: SQL.ACU calls the I$IO library routine using the EXECUTE opcode.  This opcode takes as its first parameter the file system to execute the SQL on. The way that SQL.ACU gets that information is to look at a configuration variable SQL-TARGET, which should name the file system desired (as listed in filetbl.c)e.g: ORACL or MSSQL would need to be specified before the call to SQL.ACU. Without that information, SQL.ACU will execute the SQL on the first non-vision file system (Oracle appears first in filetbl.c so would be the connection used). Another option for you is to write the sql commands to a file from the COBOL program and then u

Problem: Is there a way to access a Microsoft SQL Server table with AcuSQL using a variable to set the table name? Resolution: This can be done using dynamic SQL.  The following link to an article by Nigel Rivett has an example of how to do this: http://www.nigelrivett.net/SQLTsql/TableNameAsVariable.html Excerpts from the article provide a detailed explanation: This is a simple problem to solve but has a number of consequences. It is often because you wish to pass a table name to a stored procedure perhaps processing all tables in a database. Of course select * from @TableName will not work as the variable will not be resolved as containing the name of a table. The method used here is dynamic SQL - executing a built string. Create procedure s_ProcTable @TableName varchar(128) as declare @sql varchar(4000)             select @sql = 'select rows = count(*) from

Problem: The AcuXDBC DSN was set up with no password so users are prompted for the password when accessing the data. Vision files were added via that DSN to an Access database as linked tables.  That database was then queried using MS Excel but no password prompt was seen and the query failed with the 'connection failed' message. There is no mechanism in AcuXDBC to manage the password prompt through multiple levels as seen in this example. Resolution: There are two solutions: 1. Add the password in the AcuXDBC DSN. 2. Query the AcuXDBC DSN directly from Excel rather than through the MS Access database links. Old KB# 2841

Problem: An AcuODBC front end application fails with: ODBC - call failed [AcuCorp, Inc.][AcuODBC Driver]Out of range Col: 14 Hex Value: 3230303030393200(#1011) Resolution: Change the "Invalid Numeric Data" option on the Advanced tab for the DSN in the ODBC Data Source Administrator to "Zero". Old KB# 2815

Problem: Adding an XFD to the system catalog using xdbcutil directly or through the addfile script caused the following error: Error: 'GENESIS_COLUMNS': Duplicate key Resolution: The XFD contained a column entitled "NUMBER" which is a reserved word with some SQL systems so AcuXDBC doesn't allow it as a column or table name. To resolve the error add the NAME directive in the FD to rename the column, then regenerate the XFD and try again. Old KB# 2844

Problem: Is there a way using Acurcl -info to only show ClientUsername/Host/PID/StartTime on one line per process running? Resolution: On Unix the command line below will show the lines with the ClientUsername / Host / PID / StartTime. If acurcl is started on a port other than the default change the line to reflect the correct port number: acurcl -info -n 5632 2>&1 | egrep -v "^Client |^Server |^  Directory|^  Command|^ *$|^ " Old KB# 2799

Created On:  1 July 2011 Problem: Which versions of Oracle are compatible with which versions of Acu4GL? Resolution: Acu4GL Versions ORACLE 6.0.x & 6.1.x 7.x 6.0.x & 6.1.x 8.0* 6.0.x & 6.1.x 8i* 6.2.x, 7.x, 8.x, 9.x 9i* 7.x, 8.x, 9.x 10G* 8.x, 9.x 11G*(* 32 bit and 64 bit) Incident #24909 Old KB# 2827

Problem: Program makes calls to C$XML to read an XML file, it comes out mostly ok but the attribute data is missing.  Is there a sample program demonstrating how to do this? Resolution: The attached sample program, readxml.cbl, reads any XML file using C$XML. It displays the contents in a two-column list-box.  Column one contains the name of the tag or attribute and column two contains the corresponding data. Use this sample program as a model for parsing most XML files. Attachments: readxml.cbl Old KB# 2773

Problem: After upgrading the server OS from AIX 5.2 to AIX 5.3 the screen display performance with Thin Client was seriously impacted. No changes had been made to the COBOL side of the equation so an AIX support consultant was called in to check networking parameters, but could find no serious problems. Are there any known performance issues with Thin Client and AIX 5.3? Resolution: The resolution to this particular problem was changing the network interface setting "large_send" to "no". The "large_send" network interface setting is new in AIX 5.3 (did not exist in AIX 5.2). A Google search of "aix large_send slow" turned up the following information links: This article from Symantec support site is dated March 2004: http://seer.entsupport.symantec.com/docs/266020.htm and this article from the "IBM AIX Discussion List" is dated April 2004: http://unix.derkeiler.com/Mailing-Lists/AIX-L/2004-04/02

Problem: The .bat and .sh files provided with AcuXDBC contain a "-z" switch in commands to xdbcutil, xdbcsrvr, xdbcping, and xdbckill that appears to be undocumented. Resolution: The "-z" switch is used to suppress the banner that may displayed when the scripts are executed on some systems. Old KB# 2842

Problem: Installing an update from Microsoft has impacted Acucorp's Thin Client performance. What can be done? Resolution: It is possible that the patch installed changed the TCP/IP settings. Software such as Dr.TCP or TCPOptimizer can be used to tune TCP/IP settings. Setting the TCPReceiveWindow to 1500 on WinXP SP2 and Win2000 SP4 has proven to improve Thin Client speed when working with a Aix 5.2 5L PowerV host, along with other Unix boxes. This setting is not intended to be the "definitive" answer, but just a start from where to begin tuning TCP (and Thin Client) performance.  After any change a reboot is needed in order to see the effects. Using these settings can also solve other performance issues after installing SP2 on WinXP. Old KB# 2793

Problem: After a while waiting for the server there comes a timeout message. This time (default=20 seconds) can be changed Resolution: Referring to manual: TC_SERVER_TIMEOUT This variable lets you determine how many seconds (from 0 to 32767) the client waits for a response from the server. If the client receives no response from the server in the specified time period, the following message box appears: The remote host is not responding. Press OK to close this program. Press Cancel to wait another %s seconds. where "%s" is the value of TC_SERVER_TIMEOUT. The default value is "20". Old KB# 2805

Problem: Question is: Do you have to be ROOT when you start AcuConnect Resolution: Only the installation has to be done as Root. AcuConnect can be started from any user with appropriate permission Old KB# 2807

Problem: Trying to import a VISION file through a DTS package and error is being encountered: ------------------------ Actual error from DTS package -------------- Step Error Source: Microsoft OLE DB Provider for ODBC Drivers Step Error Description:[AcuCorp, Inc.][AcuODBC Driver]Assignment error Step Error code: 80074005 Step Error Help File: Step Error Help Context ID:0 Resolution: This error, "Assignment error", is caused by non-numeric data in a numeric field.  Their are two solutions: 1) fix the data in the file correcting or removing the invalid data 2) On the Advanced tab of the DSN change the specification of  the Invalid Numeric Data option from Error to Zero or Null. Old KB# 2813