Rocket® COBOL

Problem: Release 5.0: After installing Net Express 5.0 and trying to run an application compiled within the IDE as well it seems this F5 key does not work as expected, because CTRL F12 binds the run functionality now. Also, the tooltip for the "Run"ner button shows CTRL F12. What to do getting back this F5 keystroke to "Run" an application? Resolution: To resolve this issue take a look here: Net Express 5.0 IDE-> Options -> Customize IDE... -> Keyboard Configuration -> Load Scheme Binding "Run" to F5 is related to this MS.KEY file covering Microsoft's scheme, and picked up from the Net Express installation here: ..\\Net Express 5.0\\Base\\bin\\MS.KEY Old KB# 1498

Problem: How can you interact with a FTP Server from COBOL on .Net ? Resolution: The .Net framework V2 introduced some new classes that allow developers to easily use FTP programmatically. The FTP classes are located in the System.Net namespace. There are 2 main classes involved. You need to create an instance of FtpWebRequest containing the details of the FTP request you need to perform. You then need to use the FtpWebResponse class to receive the file you are attempting to receive. If you are accessing an FTP server that requires logon then you can specify login details using the System.Net.NetworkCredentials. An instance of this is returned from the FtpWebRequest "Credentials" property. Attached to this article is an example showing how to use these FTP classes from COBOL. You will require Net Express V5 and Visual Studio 2005 in order to this example. The demo is attached. Attachments: FTPSample.zip Old KB# 14

Problem: Can you share a Database Connection between .Net Languages (VB and C#) and COBOL. In the scenario C# would create a connection and pass that to COBOL. COBOL would then use the connection and issue its Embedded SQL on the same connection. Is this possible ? Resolution: Yes using ADO.Net you can pass a connection object from C# to the COBOL. The COBOL then can use EXEC ADO BIND to  specify that the C# connection is to be used when executing embedded SQL. Attached to this article is some example code showing how to do this. Attachments: DNSharedConnection.zip Old KB# 1505

Problem: A copy of the Readme file is attached to this article. Resolution: Attachments: Readme for Net Express v5 WS02.zip Old KB# 1437

Problem: CANCEL statements used inside a class program cause the compiler to loop and produce the following error in Net Express 5: "Error 912 : Internal error - Dictionary invalid r/w Inform Technical Support" Resolution: This issue has been fixed in WrapPack 3 (a.k.a WS3) and is available at the Micro Focus SupportLine site (http://supportline.microfocus.com). The name of the file is NXP3250030082.MSP. Note: Please make sure to read the important instructions in the WrapPack's description before applying it! Old KB# 1424

Problem: After calling CBL_DIR_SCAN_START with return code of zero, CBL_DIR_SCAN_READ fails with return code 127. Resolution: Make sure the path provided in CBL_DIR_SCAN_START does not contain any double quotes. If you called CBL_GET_CURRENT_DIR to get the current directory and the path contains spacey directory name, the returned path will be quoted (e.g. "C:\\Documents and Settings\\UserID\\My Documents\\My Current Directory"). If you use this quoted path in CBL_DIR_SCAN_START, it would return a zero return code, but CBL_DIR_SCAN_READ will fail with return code of 127. Old KB# 1444

Problem: The documentation for COBOL XML Syntax show that you can parse XML where the actual element names are unknown. How can you extend this through more levels of XML hierarchy ? Resolution: You need to build more levels on depth into the XD definitions. An example of extension to a lower depth based on the documented example:-       $set sourceformat"variable" preprocess(prexml) o(foo.pp) warn endp        select doc           assign to "MYXML.XML"  *>address of mybuf                             organization is xml                          &nb

Problem: We have been made aware of an issue whereby when running using an early release of the Bank Demo CICS application that has been web enabled, that when the client has been generated and deployed and you choose the 'Run Winform Client' option and press the 'submit' button you get an Error Code 2000 reported. Resolution: If you look at the console.log in Enterprise Server, you will probably notice an entry similar to the following: 070608 15240655        956 BANKDEMO CASMG9999E KC0027,Error executing service 'http://tempuri.org/BankServ#BankServ' Execution error : file 'C:\\Program Files\\Micro Focus\\Studio 5.0\\Base\\BIN\\MER0ADSX.gnt' error code: 114, pc=0, call=1, seg=0 114     Attempt to access item beyond bounds of mem This is caused by older versions of the bank demo had a PPT entry for MBANK10, where MBANK10 was not defined as a progra

Problem: Customer reported that after installing WrapPack #3 for Net Express 5.0 he started getting the following error message when compiling any COBOL program from Visual Studio 2005: error COBCH0857 : System error - failure during ILASM phase Resolution: In WrapPack 3 the checker was modified to use some temporary directories on the system. The problem was solved by changing the following registry entry that disables the creation of short names. And on the problematic machine this entry was set to true. HKLM\\SYSTEM\\CurrentControlSet\\Control\\FileSystem\\NtfsDisable8dot3NameCreation = TRUE The solution was to set this entry to false and recreate your logon on that machine. Old KB# 1463

Problem: The following error may occur if you are trying to invoke a C function from COBOL with NetExpress 5.0 and Visual Studio .Net 2005 (C) installed.   "Runtime Error! Program C:\\NetExpress5.0\\BAse\\Bin\\RUN.EXE R6034 An Application has made an attempt to load the C runtime library incorrectly. Please contact the application's support team for more information". This error occurs when trying to set the entry point in the COBOL program as it tries to invoke an (exported) function of the DLL. The C DLL is built from .obj files, linked together with link (v8 link). The .obj files are built , from the VS2005 command line, using cl.exe. The problem occurs only when /MD is specified in the command line of cl.exe. The problem does not occur on when running NetExpress 4.0 and Visual C Studio .NET 2003. Resolution: Consider the following commands being run from the VS2005 command prompt: cobol caller.cbl,,,, GNT(&q

Problem: XML document & COBOL -  accepting XML string through linkage - (using COBOL SELECT statement to use buffer area (address using "WSDATA") -  in XML file, between start of document event and end of document, parsing halts with "Exception error 102" message while searching for root element. Resolution: XML exception error 102 parsing error is to be expected in this scenario.  The parser reached the end of the document while looking for the root element. With XML exceptions, no further events are returned from the parser, even if you set XML-CODE to zero and return control to the parser after processing the exception. Control is passed to the statement that you specify on your NOT ON EXCEPTION phrase or to the end of the parse statement if you have not coded a NOT ON EXCEPTION phrase.  Solution:  Include the NOT ON EXCEPTION phrase. Old KB# 1482

Problem: Open i/o on a file getting status 9/57, when animating or running under debug build type. When running under release build type, Do not get the 9/57 error. Resolution: Error was resovled by adding the following to the Select Statement on the file that recieved the 9/57 error.   LOCK MODE IS AUTOMATIC          SHARING WITH ALL Old KB# 1468#COBOL#ServerExpress#RMCOBOL#netexpress#AcuCobol

Problem: Trying to execute a CICS program from a batch job by using web services and EXCI.  If running ZCOMMAND.jcl, which executes COMMAND and passes parms to it.  COMMAND then calls COMMSERV, passing along the parms.  COMMSERV invokes the web service using the client program CommandService-proxy and is supposed to link to CICS program TRNSTRT. Animating the job and stepped through COMMAND and into the COMMSERV entry point in the proxy program.  You will  see that the parms were correct before the call to COMMSERV.  As soon as the proxy program is entered, looking at the parms again and saw that an additional 16 bytes of nulls had been inserted at the beginning of the parms.  This caused error 458 (illegal character in SOAP string) when it tried to invoke the web service. Resolution: This issue was using a Migration project that has PCOMMAIN used for directives which created the webservice us

Problem: The COBOL code attached just does what's pasted below  which is a VB code OL2000: How to Programmatically Change the Displayed Calendar Date http://support.microsoft.com/kb/259767 some more glue regards to Outlook Object Model Overview http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms268893(VS.80).aspx http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa221870(office.11).aspx VB sample: Dim ol As Object Dim olns As Object Dim oCalendar As Object Dim oAppt As Object Dim oViewCmdBar As Object Dim oItem As Object Dim nItem As Integer Sub ChangeCalendarView()    ' Create Outlook Application object.    Set ol = CreateObject("Outlook.Application")    Set olns = ol.GetNameSpace("MAPI")    ' Retrieve the Calendar folder.    Set oCalendar = olns.GetDefaultFolder(olFolderCalendar)    ' You can retrieve your specific a

Problem: Customer was creating the XML XD description using the following: XD  XML-SOURCE-IN                                         LABEL RECORDS ARE STANDARD                            RECORDING MODE IS F                                   BLOCK CONTAINS 0.                               and when compiled would

Problem: It seems that animating a CGI with IIS version that comes with Windows XP does not work. It just runs through. Resolution: It seems there is a difference between IIS 5.0 that comes with Windows 2000 and IIS 5.1 that comes with Windows XP. The security in 5.1 is much tighter than in v5.0. There is no problem to animate a CGI in any versions of Net Express with IIS 5.0 of Windows 2000, and nothing additional has to be set. Please bear in mind that IIS is running as a service, and Net Express is a desktop application! Anonymous access or any other user id that were used to run the CGI must then have the proper permission to run a desktop application. This was not the case with IIS 5.0, but this is now enforced in IIS 5.1. Here are the steps to animate a CGI in Net Express with IIS 5.1 (it would be likely the same for any later versions): 1. Create a virtual directory (e.g. cgi-bin) for the Net Express project's DEBUG subfolder 2. Set Read an

Problem: The aim of this demonstration is to show "How can a Cobol program consume an EJB deployed on a Java Application Server". First question: Is it possible? ( OO Cobol EJB Client <-> EJB home Interface <-> EJB remote Interface <-> EJB [Bean] ) The answer is NO, Not directly it is not possible to invoke a instance of an EJB from Object COBOL, due to the Object COBOL Java domain not support "proxy classes". How to Proceed then? Use a Java Wrapper which will communicate with the EJB. This will be possible: ( OO Cobol Client <->  Java EJB Client STUB <-> EJB home Interface <-> EJB remote Interface <-> EJB [Bean] ) Resolution: Environment used in the context of this demonstration Weblogic 8.1 Net Express 5.0 Websync3 ==> Demonstration is  in the .ZIP attached to KB more comments in the ..DOC file in the .Zip file which d

Problem: A client installed his application on Windows Vista for the first time. The machine had Application Server for Net Express 5.0 (i.e. Micro Focus Server 5.0)  installed. The application was character based and required settings in ADISCTRL. In partucular it required function keys to be enabled. Testing led him to believe that ADISCTRL was not being read and that defaults were therefore being taken. Yet, the same configuratiopn worked correctly on XP and previous Windows versions. Resolution: When the application was distributed the preset copy of ADISCTRL was copied into the Application Server directory (eg C:\\Program Files\\Micro Focus\\Server 5.0\\bin). As this was Application Server he was not able to run adiscf to make the appropriate adjustments. When running the application the F-Keys (and other settings such as having the enter key work as a tab key) were not being recognized. The PATH was checked and seemed correct. C

Problem: The following error is occurring in Net Express 5.0, Wrappack 4(WS4 :) ----- Form Designer requires Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.01 or greater to be installed on this system. See Installation Notes for more details. Form Designer cannot continue. ----- Resolution: WrapPack 3 (WS3) of Net Express 5.0 contains the fix for the issue with Internet Explorer 7 (IE7). However, the same fix is NOT unfortunately included in WrapPack 4 (WS4). WrapPack 3 (WS3) --> NX3250030082.MSP WrapPack 4 (WS4) --> NX3250040064.MSP It is likely that those who have applied WS4 on Net Express 5.0 that did not previously have WS3 will not be able to start Form Designer and will see the error message above. If WS3 was applied before WS4, then this problem will not occur. Please follow the steps below to resolve this problem: 1. Uninstall WS4 (see below the uninstall steps)    a. go to Start | Control Panel | Add or Remove Programs   &nbs

Problem: Application was built with Net Express 4.0 that had all07n40 wrappack applied. Resolution: This message indicates that the application server 4.0  is back  level from the development machine which is running all07n40 so they need to apply aps09a40.exe. aps09a40 is the first Appliocations serv er version to have CTF enabled. http://suppportline.microfocus.com Sign in and select "click here for latest software updates" or "patest and fixes" Under Micro focus servers select "Application Server for Net Express 4.0 / Applications Server for Net Express with .NET". By looking at the description you can find the version of application server that will match the development version you are using. Old KB# 1457

Problem: Installation terminates with "Internal Error 2908" message. Resolution: Internal 2908 error in NetExpress 5.0 indicates that a Micro Focus runtime environment was previously (or is currently) installed on the intended target machine for the NetExpress 5.0 installation.  Both runtime and NetExpress environments cannot be installed on the same physical machine. Solution:  Remove any previous Micro Focus runtime installations (Application Server, Server for COBOL 5.0, etc.) Locate any system registry keys containing "ASLMF"  (Under the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE registry  hive) and delete them.  Reboot the system, then remove any Micro Focus folders that remain on the file system.  Reboot the system once more, then re-install NetExpress 5.0. Old KB# 1507

Problem: Compile fails with RTS114 in prexml.gnt when building .NET console application with a web reference Resolution: Compile fails with RTS114 especially when a web service is included and "p(prexml) endp" is set in the COBOL settings. The Preprocessor should only be called to parse XML source file only. Remove "p(prexml) endp" from the global setting and set it instead at the beginning of the COBOL file that contains XML syntax:       $set p(prexml) endp The XML pre-processor and .NET web services can exist in the same project as long as the preprocessor is not being used to parse source file that has non-supported syntax. The pre-processor does not support classes and .NET codes. Old KB# 1414

Problem: was trying to generate clients and gets compile problems when doing a generte web service client - the generation recompiles the program - Resolution: The problem here was that the project is a mainframe migration project using pcommain that was setting mainframe dialect(entcobol)  - It may compile clean when just compiling from the project window - because it does not know you are going to make a web service from it. when generating a client from the Open Services Interface window it recompiles the program this is where it will not accept the mainframe dialects. Web Services cannot use entcobol - 2 options: create a separate project for programs that will be web services and do not use pcommain -or- find the programname.dir and place a &space at the beginning of the line for directves not to be used (making the directive comments) - so it will not be used Old KB# 1441

Problem: How do you uninstall a Wrapack for Net Express v5.0 ? This resolution also applies to Mainframe Express v3.1 and Micro Focus Server v5.0 Resolution: As of late 2006 and early 2007 Micro Focus is using Microsoft installation tools to install products and subsequent fixes commonly known as WrapPacks. If/when you need to uninstall a WrapPack you will need to do the following; - Go to Control Panels - Select Add/Remove Programs - When the Add/Remove Programs window appears ensure the the List Upates checkbox at the top right-end of the window is checked - Select the WrapPack to uninstall. The 3rd item above is important.  As the WrapPack are a subset of your product installation they will only be listed if the checkbox is filled. Old KB# 1501

Problem: Micro Focus Net Express V5.003.0082 RUN TIME ENVIRONMENT Copyright (C) 1984-2007 Micro Focus (IP) Limited. URN AXCGG/AA0/00000         1 file(s) copied.           Boolean operator 'ZD' invalid SORT015U: Command statement error(s) detected 16:mfsort take CIPS0270A JOB is abending due to return code 16 SORT FIELDS=(3,10,CH,A) RECORD=(F,450) OMIT COND=((1,2,EQ,C'50'),OR,(1,2,EQ,C'52'),OR,(1,2,EQ,C'51',AND,               13,9,ZD,EQ,000000000,AND,22,9,ZD,EQ,000000000,AND, *************               31,9,ZD,EQ,000000000,AND,40,11,ZD,EQ,00000000000,AND,               51,11,ZD,EQ,00000000000,AND,406,9,ZD,EQ,000000000)) Resolution: The error is not