Rocket® COBOL

Problem: What does the EL00020 error code mean? Resolution: This error indicates that EnterpriseLink Server received an incorrect 3270 command from the host. This means that the mainframe host sent an incorrect command (write, write-erase, read, read-buffer, query-reply being the acceptable codes). Old KB# 3767#EnterpriseLink#Rumba

Problem: How to calculate a random number in COBOL? Resolution: The following example shows one method of generating a "random" number.  The number generated is not a "true" random number but should suffice for most purposes. The program is written as a sub-routine that can be called from another COBOL program. To simply pass the maximum value for the range of random numbers (e.g. 100 for a number between 1 and 100) and a variable to pass the result back in. If it is the first time the program has been called then the random seed is set based on the time to reduce the chance of a duplicate string on random numbers.        working-storage section.        01  ws-first-time               pic 9(1) value 0.        01  ws-rnd-seed-

Problem: An XML instance document exists on disk.  In COBOL, it is declared as "organization is xml".  When a customer tries to open it for input and read it record by record, the READ NEXT statement does not behave as expected. Resolution: The READ statement for XML instance documents can be used two ways: 1) A single READ without the NEXT clause reads the entire XML instance document (i.e. the whole input file) into memory, all at once. 2) A READ with the NEXT clause assumes that you have already read in the whole document using a single READ without NEXT as above, and have already established a key-of-reference using a START statement.  READ NEXT examines the in-memory image of the XML document, and returns the next record in the key-of-reference.  READ NEXT does not actually perform any disk I/O. Consider the demo program "customerdbxml.cbl".  This is the last program in the XML tuto

Problem: Compiling a SQL application as follows : cob -V myapp.cbl -C anim "P(COBSQL) MAKESYN CSQLT=ORACLE DEB end-c DECLARE_SECTION=YES COMP5=NO VARCHAR=YES p(cp) endp endp" the following error is returned:     28     EXEC SQL INCLUDE SQLCA END-EXEC. * 149-S******** **    No SQL directives have been set Resolution: There are two issues here: 1. The Cobsql precompiler ships in lower case on UNIX. 2. Cob will manipulate options delimited with "=" characters, as documented within the Server Express User's Guide, Chapter 9, within the section entitled "Specifying cob Options". To resolve these issues : 1. Specify Cobsql in lower case 2. Delimit the Cobsql and Pro*COBOL options with ==, rather than = Therefore, the correct command line to use is : cob -V myapp.cbl -C anim "P(cobsql) MAKESYN CSQLT==ORACLE DEB end-c DECLARE_SECTION==YES COMP5=

Created On:  02 March 2008 Problem: Is OpenESQL supported on SCO UnixWare? Resolution: SCO UnixWare is not a strategic platform for RDBMS nor ODBC driver vendors.  Oracle's final release on this platform was 8.1.7, which is now unsupported. IBM have never released DB2 on this platform. Neither iWay nor DataDirect have ODBC drivers available for this platform, and there are no plans to produce them. These are the ODBC drivers Micro Focus use for testing. Given the lack of support from major database vendors Micro Focus has no plans to add Micro Focus ODBC technology to this platform.  However, Server Express and Visual COBOL for Linux Intel provide OpenESQL support. Old KB# 3706

Problem: When trying to use XML it produces the following error: Load error : file 'MFCHK_XMLGENERATE' error code: 173, pc=1F9, call=1, seg=0 173     Called program file not found in drive/directory Resolution: The problem is that the product used is not the supporting xml generate. You can easily check this out if the following xml modules exist or not: XMLCHK XMLCHKE XMLCHKP XMLCHKEP If not then an upgrade is necessary. It is supported as of Server Express 4.0 SP3. Old KB# 3696

Problem: In KB 19658 the following line: "Micro Focus Server Express v4.0 SP1and above supports  UTF-8 in a PIC X field. You do not have to do anything special. That is, you do not have to specify any directives. The character is held in one byte." appears to be incorrect when using Oracle. UTF-8 database name conatins a letter that is not ANSI.  The letter is like an uppercase O with a forward slash on top of it.   The COBOL program gives a "?" for that character. Is there any setting  that will proper translate this character? Resolution: Please refer to Oracle's Pro*COBOL Programmer's Guide and also their Globalization Support Guide or consult with Oracle. Environment variables NLS_LANG and LANG should be specified. NLS_LANG=AMERICAN_AMERICA.WE8MSWIN1252 LANG=en_US.UTF-8 Note: The data is stored as UTF-8, so not all the characters are displayable (some are, some are not) if COBOL receives the characters

Problem: The Autofix facility enables you to automatically correct your common typing mistakes. By specifying a list of words that you sometimes mistype, and the correct spellings for them, you can type the misspelled versions and have them automatically corrected. Not only is this tool good for catching your common typos, but you can use it to quickly type out long variable names by assigning your own custom abbreviations. For instance: WS-MAINMODULE-VARIABLES-PROGRAMX-COUNTER-3 Could be abbreviated: COUNTER3 or 'long-data-item-name-12' could be abbreviated 'L12' Resolution: You can find the Autofix options by going to Options>Edit>Autofix tab. You will need to add some entries and check the box 'Monitor my typing' to get started. Now whenever you type something that is in the "If I type this" column, it will automatically be converted to the text in the "Change it to this" column. Remember that this utility is case-sensitive.Ol

Problem: Can a COBOL Application create PostScript files? Resolution: The Server Express COBOL system doesn't contain any PostScript features or functionality however it is possible to generate a PostScript file from within a COBOL application by using Server Express' ability to pipe output to external commands/applications. Create a SELECT statement like the following SELECT OUTPUTFILE ASSIGN TO ">  enscript -r -Picl2 -o out.ps" Organization LINE SEQUENTIAL. Then create an FD for the file: FD OUTPUTFILE. 01  OUT-RECORD  PIC X(256). In the procedure division: OPEN OUTPUT OUTPUTFILE MOVE "SOME TEXT" to OUT-RECORD WRITE OUT-RECORD . . . CLOSE OUTPUTFILE. . . . Ths should produce a file named out.ps that us a PostScript file suitable for printing or use with PostScript friendly applications. Note: If the enscript command is not available , there are several suitable altern

Problem: When using the Inteface Mapping toolkit to expose a COBOL application to Java you can specify a package name for the generated Java. If you use native in the package name then you get an error in the generated Java. For example using "com.microfocus.test.native" would result in an error in the Java. Resolution: This is a restriction of Java. "native" is a keyword in Java and cannot be used in a package name. You need to avoid native in the Java package name. Old KB# 3159

Problem: WrapPack 8 (ALL08N40.EXE) fails with the following error: "Net Express with .NET will not be installed because: Microsoft Visual Studio .NET is not installed" Resolution: The error above indicates that the WrapPack detected Net Express with .NET, and it cannot install the newer version because Microsoft Visual Studio .NET is not installed. The resolution is then to uninstall Net Express with .NET from Add or Remove Programs and re-apply the WrapPack. How could Net Express with .NET be installed without Microsoft Visual Studio .NET? This can be done by having both Net Express with .NET and Microsoft Visual Studio .NET at one point and then uninstalling Microsoft Visual Studio .NET only. The uninstall of the Microsoft product does not automatically remove Net Express with .NET.Old KB# 3000

Problem: cob -iav INTERACT.cbl which creates .idy and .int in the current directory Move source to /home/mysource anim INTERACT Following error receicved Animate INTERACT.int  Level=01  Speed=5   Ins  Caps   Num  Scroll F1=help FILE BELOW NOT FOUND -  Stop run Retry Alter path Zoom INTERACT.cbl Is there something other than COBDATA that must be set for animator to find the source? Resolution: Export COBCPY=/home/mysource COBCPY Specifies the directory or directories that the Compiler and Animator searches COBDATA Specifies the directory or directories that the run-time system is to search Old KB# 3141

Problem: Trying to connect from Vista 64 bit machine with AcuXDBC client to a remote server where AcuXDBC Server is running,  "Connection error  SQL State 28000, ODBC driver errno 10061" error message is received. Resolution: This error message typically means there is a discrepancy between the port number specified in the DSN on the client machine and the actual port where AcuXDBC Server is running on the server machine. Changing the port number in the DSN to match the one AcuXDBC Server is running on resolves this problem.Old KB# 3156

Problem: A circumstance may occur when COBOL programs can be invoked successfully from the command line with no error, but cannot be invoked via a script.  The following error might appear when the script is run:    "cobol version number invalid, call tech support" Resolution: In such a circumstance, check that the script is setting environment variables correctly.  This error is known to occur when the COBDIR, PATH, LD_LIBRARY_PATH, SHLIB_PATH, or LIBPATH environment variables are set to conflicting or incorrect values. See Knowledgebase articles 21774 and 18615 for information about setting these environment variables. In some circumstances, COBDIR might be set correctly, but the library environment variable (example, LD_LIBRARY_PATH) might be set to include the "lib" subdirectory of an entirely different COBDIR.  This will cause the "cobol version number invalid" error. In oth

Problem: After applying Fixpack 10 for Server Express v5.0 WP4 on AIX (contained in the file SXFixpack50.04_10_dev.tar.encr), then dynamic debugging of Enterprise Server might begin to fail.  The following error might appear in response to "cobesdebug type=cics": "the specified region is not enabled for debugging" despite the fact that the appropriate "enable debugging" box is checked in the ES admin screens. Also, the error "CASSI1807I Dynamic debug initialisation failed" might appear in the ES Console log. Such problems are often solved by following the advice in Knowledgebase article 25576, but in some cases the problem might persist even after KB 25576 is considered and acted upon. Resolution: This is a known problem with Fixpack 10 for SX v5.0 WP4 for AIX.  The problem has been fixed in the Server Express v5.1 release.  The solution is to upgrade to SX v5.1. Old KB#

Problem: Can Net Express run on a 64-bit operating system? Can 32-bit applications be built and still run on a 64-bit operating system? Resolution: When Net Express is installed, it automatically detects the bittage of the operating system. For instance: if the operating system is 64-bit, the 64-bit version of Net Express will be automatically selected and installed. There is no prompt or notification of this event. By default, 64-bit Net Express will still produce 32-bit run-times. If 64-bit run-times are desired, this setting can be changed in the Project Properties. If Net Express is installed on a 32-bit operating system, the applications that get built can still run on a 64-bit operating system. Windows has always come with a component called WOW (Windows on Windows) emulation. It was originally used to allow 16-bit programs to run on 32-bit versions of Windows. WOW64 allows 32-bit applications to run on 64-bit Windows operating systems. This means that any

Problem: If the WITH ENCRYPTION phrase is used, vutil won't extract information, but can encrypted files be viewed by tools such as ALFRED? Resolution: ALFRED is capable of reading files with encryption. For further information on ALFRED may be found at: ACUCOBOL-GT User's Guide Version 8.0 Chapter 3: Debugger and Utilities > 3.5 Acucorp's Indexed File Record Editor (alfred)   Old KB# 3179

Problem: Typically ACUCOBOL-GT files can be moved from one system to another without any issues. Is the same true of the system catalog (syscat)as well or are there exceptions? Resolution: AcuXDBC User's Guide Version 8.0 Chapter 5: Installing AcuXDBC > 5.3 Creating a System Catalog and Views If there are plans to port the system catalog to multiple hardware platforms, be aware of the byte order format for both the machine on which the system catalog was created on and the deployment machine. The machine's byte order format is commonly referred to as big endian or little endian. A system catalog created on a machine that uses little endian (Intel for example) will not be portable to a machine that uses big endian (Motorola for example). In this case, it will be necessary to create a system catalog once on each type of machine (big endian and little endian) and then port the appropriate catalog to the appropriate target machine.

Problem: Applied the Citrix Hotfix Rollup Pack PSE450W2KR02  for Citrix Presentation Server 4.5 ACUCOBOL-GT v 5.2.1, 6.0.0 & 6.1.0 all worked with the new citrix patch. ACUCOBOL-GT v7.1.3 using acuthin from the citrix server to connect to a Sun Solaris 5.8 UNIX box gave the error message: - acuthin.exe - Application Error The application failed to initialize properly (0xc06d007e). Click on OK to terminate the application. Once the system had been rolled back to pre citrix fix all was OK again. ACUCOBOL-GT v 5.2.1, 6.0.0 & 6.1.0 all worked with the new citrix patch it was just 7.1.3 that gave the error message. Resolution: This is a Citrix issue: - The 'application failed to initialize properly' tend to happen before any code is executed (i.e. Windows has a problem starting the app). Go to the following site which outlines the problem:- http://support.citrix.com/forums/thread.jspa?forumID=137&threadID=101062&tstart=0 The recommendation to

Problem: The extend 8 Runtime and Acu4GL for MSSQL were installed and when executing a program a window pops up with a message that the wrun32.2lc license is missing. Wrun32.2lc is the license for the AcuSQL Runtime but that product was not selected during install. How can the Runtime be stopped from displaying that message? Resolution: There is a defect with the Version 8.0 installation which caused it to install an extra dll, one for AcuSQL.  At execution the Runtime sees the dll, checks for the license, then displays the message  about the missing license. The solution is to navigate to the bin directory of your extend 8 installation and delete asqlsrvr.dll. Old KB# 3103

Problem: Is there any way to know the name of the program that is currently running, besides calling another program and in that program using the "C$CALLEDBY" routine? Resolution: In version 6.2.0 the following C$MYFILE library routine was introduced. This routine returns the filename of the disk file containing the currently executing program.    Here is an example of how to use it:        WORKING-STORAGE SECTION.        77  PROGRAM-NAME pic x(80) value spaces.        77  CALL-STATUS pic s99 value 0.        Main Section.                 CALL "C$MYFILE"                  USING PROGRAM-NAME     &nbs

Problem: How can I modify NO-AUTOSEL property for entry-field in ACUCOBOL-GT? MODIFY S1CG01003-T-CAU, NO-AUTOSEL = TRUE or MODIFY S1CG01003-T-CAU, NO-AUTOSEL IS TRUE give compile errors. Resolution: The right syntax is: modify Screen1-Ef-1, NO-AUTOSEL to activate this property or modify Screen1-Ef-1, not NO-AUTOSEL to de-activate it. Old KB# 3183

Problem: The following XFD FILE directive caused an "Unknown XFD directive" error message to be generated by the ACUCOBOL-GT compiler: $xfd  file=vxml.xml Resolution: The error may be resolved by adding quotes around the full file name as in this example: $xfd  file="vxml.xml" Or by removing the file extension as in this example: $xfd  file=vxml For more information on the XFD FILE directive can be found in the ACUCOBOL-GT User's Guide Version 8.0, Chapter 5: File Processing > 5.3 XFD Files > 5.3.3 Syntax >5.3.3.6 FILE directive. Old KB# 3171

Problem: A web browser control has been added to a screen. The web browser control displays a web page that requires some information to be keyed in and a "submit" button to be clicked. Some users prefer not to use a mouse, but when the button is selected, it doesn't recognize the "ENTER" key. It seems it only recognizes a mouse click. Resolution: Add the "USE-RETURN" style to the browser's screen section definition.  In AcuBench, add it manually in "Additional Properties". The USE-RETURN style allows the enter key to be active on the web page being viewed.  Pressing enter shouldl submit the form. Old KB# 3175

Problem: The AcuCOBOL-GT program is executed by an MPE batch job. The program ACCEPTs input from the batch job like this:      !JOB MYPROG,MGR.ACUCOBOL;OUTCLASS=LP,2      !MYPROG.PUB.ACUCOBOL      data-to-be-accepted      !EOJ But when executed the program receives no data. The program is compiled with -Cp and -Ca. Resolution: The Runtime configuration variable ACCEPT_AUTO must be set to 1 either in the Runtime configuration file or in the environment.  This applies to AcuCOBOL-GT 7.3.0, or earlier versions which have been patched with ECNs 3212 and 3309. Old KB# 3182