Rocket® COBOL

Problem: We have a product developed in C that uses the MicroFocus file handler (extfh).  The product works on a variety of Unix platforms, but we are having problems porting the product to RedHat Linux.  When we attempt to open the file, a 9/142 error occurs. Resolution: This is a problem with byte-ordering.  Using the CTF utility with the following options: mftrace.level=info mftrace.comp.mf.mffh.xfh#base=true produced a trace which showed the Opcode being passed to the File Handler Open was 01FA, instead of FA01: 15:04:55.295 MF.MFFH.XFH 65536 1 "M" 01FA Old KB# 2012#netexpress#AcuCobol#ServerExpress#COBOL#RMCOBOL

Problem: You can use code such as :-            MOVE '"' & ProgramID & z'ToolbarDestroyed"' TO MessageName            INVOKE EntryCallBack "new" USING MessageName                                   RETURNING aCallback            MOVE P2Ce-Destroyed TO i            INVOKE aWindow "SetEvent" USING i aCallback            INVOKE aCallback "finalize" RETURNING aCallback to detact when a window is destroyed in the class library. What event can you use to determinate is

Problem: A main COBOL .EXE is calling two subprograms which each contain a sort with an input procedure and an output procedure. The first program is canceled before the second one is called . The sort in the second program called is failing with a 9/220 on the first release record of the input procedure. If the first program is not called then the sort in the second program runs fine. it appears like the sort from the first program is still active when the second programis run. Resolution: This can occur if the output procedure in the first called program is not being completed before the program exits back to the main program. Make sure that the first called program is not exiting to the main program within the output procedure. Old KB# 1587#COBOL#AcuCobol#netexpress#RMCOBOL#ServerExpress

Problem: Question: Is there a way to convert a compile Dialog System screenset (.rs) back into a source screenset (.gs)? Resolution: No this is not possible.  The data for the Dialog System painter is only in the GS file. Old KB# 1609

Problem: In the unlikely scenario of accidentally deleting or corrupting the NetExpress registry settings, there is now a very easy way of resetting them back to their original state. Resolution: Go the the Control Panel > Add/Remove Programs > select NetExpress > Change > select the Repair option.  In so doing this will repair any deleted or damaged NetExpress registry settings. Old KB# 1603

Problem: Background information: Indexed files in Micro Focus COBOL can have different formats or organizations.  An indexed file's format is decided at the time the file is created, under the control of the IDXFORMAT compiler directive. The default IDXFORMAT value is "1", meaning "C-ISAM", whereas the value "4" means, "an optimized form of Micro Focus indexed file format".  Here is a table summarizing common formats: 1   C-ISAM format. 3   Micro Focus indexed file format. 4   An optimized form of Micro Focus indexed file format, for fast duplicate key handling. 8   Large indexed. Once a file is created with a certain format, it retains that format for life (unless it is converted using the "rebuild" command).  For more information, look in the main index of the Server Express documentation, under the keyword "IDXFORMAT", and check each of the references there. In this

Problem: You may have installed Server Express and are trying to have cobol and Java working together. However, when you try to run one of the test programs you get the error: Sorry unable to load libcobjvm_java2 Resolution: If libcobjvm_java2 is on shared library PATH, then ensure 'libjava' and 'java' are found on the PATH/<Shared Library> PATH. Check to see that COBJVM is set. Below is an extract from the online manuals: COBJVM Specifies which Java Virtual Machine (JVM) to load. Syntax: COBJVM=platform_nnn export COBJVM Parameters: platform_nnn  platform is a three-character code that indicates the platform on which you are running Server Express, for example: ibm IBM AIX unx SCO UnixWare sun Sun SPARC nnn indicates the version of the JVM, for example: 122 Version 1.2.2 130 Version 1.3.0 Comments: You might need to set COBJVM if you are developing distributed applications wit

Problem: Is it possible to easily change the case of all files in a directory without renaming each one? Resolution: Yes. The following script will  convert all file names from UPPERCASE to lowercase, preserving the file contents in their original case: # Script to change file names from UPPERCASE to lowercase. # Leaves the file contents unchanged! # for file in 'ls' do     mv $file 'echo $file | tr '[A-Z]' '[a-z]'' done Changing the order of '[A-Z]' '[a-z]' to '[a-z]' '[A-Z]' in the above script will convert all lowercase filenames in a directory to UPPERCASE. Old KB# 2054#RMCOBOL#AcuCobol#netexpress#ServerExpress#COBOL

Problem: Whenever an event is triggered on an ASP.NET Web page, the run-time system will automatically invoke the associated COBOL event handler method while also passing the required event handling parameters within the call. Resolution: The actual parameters that will be passed depend on the type of the event but in most cases the event handling method will be generated as follows: method-id. "Page_Load" is private. local-storage section. linkage section. 01 param-sender class-sysobject. 01 param-e         class-eventargs. procedure division using by value param-sender param-e. There are two parameters that are passed to the Page_Load event. The first one is "param-sender" which will contain the object that fired the event. This could reference a Button control on the current page. The second parameter is "param-e" which will contain an instance of the "System.EventArg&quo

Problem: Is it possible to change the SORT/MERGE operation to a 3rd party? Resolution: The compiler directive CALLSORT defines the program to be called to handle all SORT/MERGE operations.  The syntax is as follows:      CALLSORT "sort-name" "sort-name" is the root-name of a program to be called to process sorts and merges.  The default is - CALLSORT"EXTSM" Old KB# 2000#ServerExpress#RMCOBOL#COBOL#netexpress#AcuCobol

Problem: When attempting to animate a program, the screen goes blank and then control returns, that is, nothing apparently happens. This occurs both when compiling from the command line, or when using 'F4 Animate' from within SDE/Toolbox. Alternatively, when attempting to animate from within SDE/Toolbox, a message appears: ERROR: File incompatibility Resolution: The solution is that the program for which animation is being attempted is a .gnt, but it has not been compiled for animation. By default a .gnt will be found in preference to an .int, so if both exist, the .int will not be used, *unless the extension is explicitly specified*, which can be done both from the command line, or by filling in the complete filename from within SDE/Toolbox, as seen below: Animate****************************Non-Threaded**************Ins*Caps*Num*Scroll F1=help F2=dir F3=switches F4=threads            &nb

Problem: Does Micro Focus support UNISYS dialects in the Server Express Compiler? Resolution: We have no Unisys direct support in Net Express or Server Express.  Unisys specific extensions will not compile. Standard COBOL from a Unisys platform should compile and run correctly. Old KB# 2062

Problem: This Knowledge Base article concerns the need to handle multi-byte characters in COBOL programs particularly of special characters (ie non-standard English language characters). It arose as a result of configuring an Oracle database as UTF-8 and, thus, multi-byte characters.  Problems were encountered when COBOL programs needed to contain the result of a read to the database resulted in the read field becoming truncated.  To this end it was necessary to define the field lengths in the COBOL program in a more appropriate manner. Resolution: To overcome this problem it is necessary to implement Double-Byte Character Set Support. This kind of support exists because there are many (perhaps thousands) of differents characters pertaining to the world's stock of different languages.  The majority of computer systems use bytes which are 8 bits in length; in that they assign an 8 bit code to represent each different characte

Problem: There are times that you would like to know addition static with a COBOL source program.  Some of these area of interest are:    1)  number of calls    2)  number of lines within a COBOL source    3)  number of comment lines Resolution: Specifying the directive LINE-COUNT will not only number the lines of code within a COBOL program (excluding comment lines), but it will provide a count of various other statics such as: Lines of Source               Comment lines                Comment percentage            Sections                    Files    

Problem: .NET applications are supported on Windows XP and Windows 2003 Server. How about Windows 2000? Resolution: Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 (the .NET development tool) is only supported in Windows XP SP2 and Windows 2003 Server. However, Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 (the .NET support to execute .NET applications) is supported in Windows 2000 Service Pack 3 and other different Windows versions (see more details from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=0856EACB-4362-4B0D-8EDD-AAB15C5E04F5&displaylang=en) Old KB# 1560

Problem: Using NetExpress .NET in Visual Studio is it possible for a class written in OO COBOL to support a structure with lower level variables? For example:       01 wd-person.            05 wd-name          pic x(20).            05 wd-surname     pic x(20). Resolution: This type of structure should work correctly if the class is incuded in an environment which is purely COBOL.  If, however, the COBOL structure does a call to a J# environment, for example, then it would be better to write the structure as two separate strings. Old KB# 1563

Problem: There are times when printing a list file that you do not want to display the comment lines denoted by an asterisk (*) in column 1. Resolution: Turning on the MFCOMMENT directive will cause the compiler to ignore all comments in the listing that has an asterisk (*) in column 1.  They will appear in the Animator. This will not suppress comments denoted in column 7 with an asterisk and The syntax for the MFCOMMENT directive is: >>-.---.-.----.--MFCOMMENT-----------------><     -/- -NO- Parameters: None Default: MFCOMMENT (Dialect ) Old KB# 2039

Problem: What  is the different between 'system' and 'SYSTEM'   ? Resolution: What  is the different between 'system' and 'SYSTEM'   ? The 'SYSTEM' function restores the users terminal mode prior to executing any Unix command, after the Unix command completes, the terminal settings are restored to values needed for COBOL  screen handling . The 'system' function does not reset the terminal mode, screen output from a  Unix command   may not be properly formatted . An example of the application is attached . Attachments: cmain.c Old KB# 2072

Problem: Gibt es in Net Express Funktionen, mit denen man eine UTC-Zeit (ZULU) in lokale Uhrzeit umrechnen lassen kann? Resolution: Die intrinsische Funktion CURRENT-DATE liefert die Differenz zur GMT (Greenwich Mean Time => UTC => koordinierte Weltzeit) auf dem lokalen Rechner zurueck: Beispiel: 01 myDateTime pic x(21). . move function CURRENT-DATE to myDateTime . Auf einem lokalen Rechner mit Mitteleuropaeischer Zeit (MEZ=CET) liefern die Positionen 17 bis 21 von myDateTime diesen Inhalt zurueck: 0100 , entsprechend UTC 1 Stunde. Weitere Einzelheiten sind in der Net Express Dokumentation zu finden unter: Help -> Index -> CURRENT-DATE function -> COBOL Language Old KB# 1579

Problem: Can an empty idx file be used for rebuilding a C-ISAM file with a new key structure instead of specifying every key on the rebuild command line with the -k option? Creating a new idx file, copying it to the data file, and rebuilding the C-ISAM data file by one of the following commands o          rebuild infile o          rebuild infile, outfile result in a message like "records read = 0" Resolution: The Micro Focus C-ISAM file handler will by default use the logical end of file marker obtained from the index file header to determine the maximum number of records to process in the data file. If the index file is corrupted or a mismatching index file is overlaid for a given data file, using Rebuild with default behaviour will not recover all the records in the data file but only those specified by the logical end of file marker. Rebuild now contains functio

Problem: Is there a log file created when installing Net Express 5.0 or 5.1 and Server 5.0 and 5.1? Resolution: The log file is created in %TEMP%, e.g. C:\\Documents and Settings\\UserID\\Local Settings\\Temp or C:\\Users\\UserID\\AppData\\Local\\Temp The log file for Net Express is called NXP32MSILOG.TXT while the one for Micro Focus Server is SRP32MISLOG.TXT. Old KB# 1615

Problem: Here is an example of the error message from Oracle PROCOB when a JOIN is used: ----- Error at line 566, column 38 in file lb010dallas.cbl                 FROM RECEIVABLE LEFT JOIN LEGALDTL .....................................1 PCB-S-00400, Encountered the symbol "JOIN" when expecting one of the following:    , START END-EXEC CONNECT GROUP HAVING INTERSECT MINUS ORDER    WHERE WITH FOR UNION ----- Running the same syntax from Oracle SQL Developer works. Resolution: The precompilers in Oracle are outdated with INNER and OUTER JOIN's. They only precompile the old syntax, so the code will have to be modified. Here's an example of how to change the syntax: The syntax for JOIN's in Oracle is a little different when compiling with current versions of Oracle preprocessor. So change the JOIN's as follows: T

Problem: Changing the date format stored in COBOL register from MMDDYY to DDMMYY. Resolution: The compiler directive CURRENT-DATE specifies the format stored in the CURRENT-DATE special register.  The syntax is CURRENT-DATE "date-format" "date-format" is either DDMMYY  or MMDDYY Setting CURRENT-DATE to DDMMYY  causes CURRENT-DATE to be stored in European format. The parameter can be specified in either upper case or lower case. Old KB# 2003

Problem: When deploying a service to the local host using cobimtk the following error appears "Fatal Error: MccListServiceProviders returned 12 (an external component failed)" And mccerror.txt contains the following: Sun 19 Nov 2006 12:29:50 PM PKT BindToDS: MLDAP error binding to provider: 0x51 SERVER_DOWN Sun 19 Nov 2006 12:29:50 PM PKT MccDoListServiceProviders: no configured directories are available Sun 19 Nov 2006 12:29:50 PM PKT MccListServiceProviders: DoListServiceProviders failed: (12) an external component failed Resolution: The errors in mccerror.txt mean that MLDAP couldn't connect to Micro Focus Directory Services (MFDS, running as mfds) and none of the configured directories are available. (By default, the only directory is MFDS at localhost:86.). So the first thing to check is that mfds is running ok on the machine    ps -ef | grep mfds and that the Micro Focus Enterprise Server Administration pages can b

Problem: Sort causes a runtime system failure, error message is rts 173 load error on file EXTSM The failure occurs when SORT is the first file io operation attempted in the application. Resolution: The error ocurrs because the run time system dynamic loader can not find the Net Express sort module (EXTSM) EXTSM is linked with a part of the Micro Focus filehandler (MFFH.DLL) - The EXTSM module will be loaded along with MFFH.DLL if any other file io operation is executed prior to the SORT statement To Resolve: Create EXTSM.DLL file and place in the Net Express runtime directory Use the following command to create a Extsm.dll. cbllink -d -RS -k -v extsm.obj>cbllink.txt<Enter> or Place the extsm.dll in the folder where the application is executing. This will make the sort available to all .EXE and .DLL programs. Cbllink.txt will capture all the details published by the "verbose" switch (-v) and the "keep" switch (-k) will retain the modul