Rocket® COBOL

Problem: Does C$FILEINFO support the @[DISPLAY] syntax to retrieve information from a file residing on the client machine? Resolution: This functionality is implemented in version 8.0.0.  Earlier versions do not support the @[DISPLAY] syntax for C$FILEINFO library routine. For earlier versions there is a workaround involving calls to Windows API functions in MSVCRT.DLL and KERNEL32.DLL to get the desired information. The attached COBOL programs, TESTIT.CBL and TCFILEINFO.CBL, are an example of how to implement the functionality with Thin Client versions 7.x and earlier. Please note the sample programs are provided "as is".  They may be freely modified and distributed, but have no warranty of functionality or support. Attachments: TESTIT.CBL Old KB# 2811

Problem: A C# program using ADO.NET to connect to Vision ISAM data through AcuODBC executed the following SQL statement: SELECT MY_FIRST FROM MEMBER WHERE MEMBER.MY_CLUB=481 AND MEMBER.MY_NUMB='D148687     ' This resulted in the following error: System.Data.Odbc.OdbcException: ERROR [S0000] [AcuCorp, Inc.][AcuODBC Driver]Invalid operand for operator: = Resolution: Although the COBOL FD has both MY_CLUB and MY_NUMB defined as PIC 9(3), they have to be passed as string data types  instead of numeric values from the C# program to avoid the error. Old KB# 2817

Problem: Attempting to link a table with Microsoft Access or Excel fails with the error: ODBC--call failed.  [TOD][ODBC][GENESIS]WORM: Cannot open 'GENESIS_XCOLUMNS',Too many open files (#-3) Resolution: The problem can be fixed by setting MAX_FILES to a higher number in the AcuXDBC configuration file.  The system catalog is a set of Vision files and each open can use up to 16 files. The default is 32, so opening up 2 DSNs causes the MAX_FILES default setting to be exceeded resulting in the error. Old KB# 2843

Problem: Does C$XML support UTF-16? Resolution: C$XML (and AcuXML) don't support UTF-16. You can use only UTF-8. Old KB# 2788

Problem: When using AcuConnect Thin Client and peforming an ACCEPT SYSTEM-INFORMATION from SYSTEM-INFO the STATION-ID variable does not return the client information as is done when using a standard runtime. Resolution: In the Thin Client environment the STATION-ID variable will contain the TTY assigned to the runtime on the server.   The ACCEPT should be changed to an ACCEPT from TERMINAL-ABILITIES and the CLIENT-MACHINE-NAME variable will contain the necessary information. Old KB# 2809

Problem: Application runs against a MSSQL 2005 database.  It moves high-values to the key, or part of a key, does a START NOT GREATER, then a READ PREVIOUS.  The wrong row is being returned. If run against Vision files containing the same data the expected record is found. For example when the entire key is set to high-values the very last record in the Vision file is returned.  However, with Acu4GL for MSSQL, it returns a row somewhere near the end of the table or even the second to last row, never the last row. Resolution: The problem is that the database collating sequence is not binary. The server's default collating sequence is chosen on installation of MSSQL, however a different collating sequence for individual databases using the alter SQL command can be specified by issuing the follow SQL command: alter database databasename collate SQL_Latin1_General_CP850P_Bin It can also be modified by using the Microsoft

Problem: When the tour.cbl sample program from the Acucorp distribution is compiled and executed via AcuThin installed on a Windows client and AcuConnect Thin Client version 7.2.1 is installed on an AIX server, labels and entry-field text are not displayed. If the program is executed directly on the Windows client or AcuConnect Thin Client is installed on a server other than AIX, labels and entry-field text are displayed as expected. Resolution: Upgrade to version 7.2.2 or higher. Attachments: Thin_Client.JPG Old KB# 2806

Problem: Connecting to AcuXDBC server resulted in one of the following errors: SQLState: 28000 EXECFAIL: Exec 'acuxdbc04' failed on host 'my_server' (errno: 2) Connection failed: SQL State: 28000 [TOD] [ODBC Driver] EXECFAIL: Exec 'acuxdbc04' failed on host '192.100.1.1' (errno: 0) Resolution: The typical reasons for this problem are related to permissions, e.g. which user started AcuXDBC Server and/or what the permissions are for the files AcuXDBC Server needs. This may be resolved by adding "export PATH=$PATH:/opt/acucorp/nnn/bin" (where 'nnn' is replaced by the correct directory, e.g.: 740 or 800) at the beginning of the acuxdbcs.sh script, that way regardless of which user starts AcuXDBC Server the correct environment settings will be in place. Old KB# 2833

Problem: How to read client environment variables through Thin Client Resolution: You can use C$SYSTEM to run this command line: echo %GENESIS_HOME% > NAME.TXT > 2>&1 After that, you have to copy NAME.TXT to the server, and then you can read it as a normal input file. Old KB# 2802

Problem: With a "read/write" license for ODBC Server (as opposed to "read-only"), running a query results in 'Vision Mode Clash" error dialog. Resolution: In addition to installing the license, the DSN must be "Read/Write", not "Read Only". Note that this applies to both AcuODBC and AcuODBC Server. Old KB# 2814

Problem: Invalid cursor state message after performing FETCH after 2nd OPEN statement.  Can the cursor be reopened? Resolution: To perform additional FETCH operations, the cursor must first be closed and then prepared again. Old KB# 2823

Problem: Migrating from Vision files to using a database to house data, a significant decrease in performance was experienced. The DBA found that temporary tables of  600,000 rows are being created for each START that is done in the COBOL program. Tuning of the database has had some positive effect, but not enough to bring performance into an acceptable range. Resolution: Programmatically implementing the use of the WHERE CONSTRAINT dramatically increased performance. Documentation of the WHERE CONSTRAINT can be found in the Acu4GL User's Guide, Chapter 9: Performance and Troubleshooting, section 9.1 Performance Issues. Old KB# 2826

Problem: When shutting down the AcuConnect service the user receives the following prompt to the kill command: unix1:/opt/acucorp/800/bin # ./acurcl -kill Shutting down AcuConnect on: unix1 There are 0 child processes on: unix1 Do you really want to shutdown AcuConnect ? This is not a issue when running interactively, but when running from a script the prompt can be problematic. How can the prompt be avoided when running a script? Resolution: AcuConnect User's Guide Version 8.0 Chapter 8: Managing the System > 8.2 Managing the System: UNIX > 8.2.1 The acurcl Command > 8.2.1.6 acurcl -kill Unless the "-f" option is specified, AcuConnect prompts for confirmation before the halt action is executed. The following is an example of using the "-f" option to halt AcuConnect. Example: unix1:/opt/acucorp/800/bin # ./acurcl -kill -f Shutting down AcuConnect on: unix1 There are 0 child processes on: unix1 Ac

Problem: Runtime reports an error: wrun32 .2lc is missing Resolution: This message indicates that AcuSQL was installed, but there is no llicense file (wrun.2lc).   Solution is it uninstall AcuSQL and only install the products that are licensed. Old KB# 2825

Problem: During the installation of AcuXDBC or AcuXDBC Server if a "SYSTEM%DUAL not found" error is encountered how can this be corrected? Resolution: Instead of uninstalling AcuXDBC and reinstalling it is easier to remove several directories and rerun a batch file that is provided with AcuXDBC on Windows machines. Navigate to the AcuGT\\bin directory.   1. delete the syscat directory 2. delete the data directory 3. ensure GENESIS_HOME is correctly set 4. delete acuxdbc.cfg 5. run genxconf.bat in the AcuGT\\bin directory 6. Run demo.bat 7. Then run the following query in asql "select * from pets;" Please note that the genxconf.bat is specific to Windows and is not provided with non-Windows ports of AcuXDBC.  When not running on a Windows based platform and this error is encountered, the resolution is to uninstall and reinstall the product. Old KB# 2836

Problem: In what version did Acucorp begin to support Windows Vista?? Resolution: Microsoft Vista support begins with Version 7.2.2 and includes all extend® products that run on Windows clients.  Since Vista is a desktop operating system, server-oriented products such as AcuConnect, AcuServer, and AcuXDBC Server are not supported. Vista has introduced new features and mechanisms that can impact programs in various ways. For instance, the User Account Control (UAC), a new security method, can send an error message to the user when attempting to open a program for the first time. Many of these features replace methodologies used in other versions of Windows and therefore may require application changes or configuration changes to adapt to Vista's methodologies. Consult Microsoft® product information source for more on developing and deploying applications in the Vista environment. Old KB# 2791

Problem: In some instances it is desirable to be able to use the file command to determine the version of a Vision file.   Resolution: If the Unix operating system is being used has a magic file then it is possible to add an entry to display the version of the Vision file. First locate your magic file ie. $whereis magic $magic: /usr/share/magic.mgc /usr/share/magic /usr/share/magic.mime /usr/share/magic.save /usr/share/man/man5/magic.5.gz In this instance the /usr/share/magic file would be edited to include the following code. # Vision 2 file 0       ulong          0x10121416     Vision >4      ushort         2              2 data file # Vision 3 file 0       ubelong  

Problem: The program executes a VB program using a call to C$SYSTEM.  This works fine when running directly on Windows, but when run via Thin Client the program does not execute. Resolution: The C$SYTEM library routine accepts a "flags" value.  The various flags are described in the page for C$SYSTEM in Appendix I of the AcuCOBOL-GT documentation. There we see a flag named CSYS-DESKTOP with a value of 128.  This flag tells the Runtime to execute the command on the client PC when running in a Thin Client environment.  This flag value is ignored if not running via Thin Client. The solution is to add the CSYS-DESKTOP value to whatever flag value is already being used. Old KB# 2777

Problem: How to use the run-time profiler within thin-client? Resolution: To use the profiler with the Thin Client, you have to specify the "-p" flag on the acuthin command line. You cannot put it as part of the alias in the acurcl.ini file. The command line should look like the following: acuthin myserver -p myalias This will cause the runtime to create a file called "acumon.xml" in the Working Directory that you have specified when creating the alias. Old KB# 2800

Problem: After an upgrade to a new server the DISPLAYs are no longer written to the log file.  Programs are executed in the background with: runcbl -b programname > output.log On the old server the DISPLAY statements were written to the log file but now the log file is empty after running the program. Resolution: The programs must be compiled with the -Ca option.Old KB# 2784

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