Rocket® COBOL

Problem: Compiling PROGRAM1.CBL with PROGRAM1.CPY as a copybook fails with "COBCH0056S COPY is recursive" [PROGRAM1.CBL] ...         COPY PROGRAM1. ... Resolution: COPYEXT(CBL,CPY) is a default compiler directive that causes the compiler to pick up a copybook with CBL extension first. In a case where the copybook has the same name as the program, the compiler will pick up the program itself. To avoid this, here are two options: 1. set COPYEXT(CPY) to pick up copybooks with CPY extension first, or 2. rename the copybooks that have the same names as programs Old KB# 1405

Problem: You may want to do the following Visual Basic function in COBOL: ReDim Preserve FileArray(1 To ArraySize) It basically allows you to increase the size of your array as you need it at runtime. Resolution: You could move the large array to linkage then allocate memory for it at runtime when you know how many elements are needed and fix its address using "set address of lnk-array to the-pointer". It won't allow for a redim but gives some flexibility on the array size. Here is a technique that is used by some of our developers when they want to increase the array! They allocate a new block of memory with the new size, copy the contents across, and then free the old memory. There is a whole selection of CBL_ routines for allocating memory dynamically. Old KB# 1447

Problem: Compiling a DB2 application with Net Express WrapPack 4 returns an RTS173 error against "hcgetenv". Compiling a DB2 application with Net Express WrapPack 4 returns errors regarding missing entry points in DB2AGAPI.DLL If working with DB2 UDB Version 8, you may encounter issues compiling applications with the DB2 compiler directive. This issue does not occur when using DB2 UDB Version 8 FixPak 15, nor with DB2 v9 or later. Resolution: Due to changes implemented to the DB2 support within Net Express WrapPack 4, you may find that compiling applications using DB2 UDB Version 8 will fail. To resolve this, you will need to upgrade your DB2 installation to the latest IBM FixPak. You can access downloads from the IBM website (currently at http://www-1.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=71&uid=swg21256059 ). Having applied this FixPak, compilation and execution will then work as expected. Old KB# 1512

Problem: This demo requires SQL Server 2000 or 2005. It shows how COBOL can be used as a powerful Web autoring tool. The attached .zip file contains a readme document and the actual demo code. Follow the instructions in the readme for installation and setup information. Happy Shopping! Resolution: The attached .zip file contains a readme document and the actual demo code. Follow the instructions in the readme for installation and setup information. Happy Shopping! Attachments: MFShopCartASPDemo.zip Old KB# 1489

Problem: Is there a way in which data can be returned containing NULL values without specifying NULL indicators? The application returns a SQLCODE of -1405 on the fetch. Resolution: Use the Oracle precompiler directive unsafe_null=yes . Refer to the Oracle Pro*COBOL documentation for further details. Old KB# 1462

Problem: Release 5.0.NET: Visual Studio 2005 There is an error message trying to open a Visual Studio project in regard with cblproj project type: >Make sure the application for the project type (.cblproj) is installed< What to do to prevent this? Resolution: Probably, there are some steps to ensure that COBOL cblproj types can be used again: (1) Open a Net Express 5.0 command prompt and point to: ..\\Net Express 5.0\\PACKAGES >regsvr32 cblprj.dll to re-register cblprj.dll  (s. also KB article 23027) (2) If this is not helpful: he Visual Studio 2005 environment should be repaired, therefore point to Microsoft's common area to pick up devenv.exe: ..\\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\\Common7\\IDE >devenv /ResetSkipPkgs and after finishing try to open this project again. (3) Lastly, for the Visual Studio 2005 environment as of b) >devenv /setup Old KB# 1455

Problem: Receiving an SQLCODE of -1131 (Process terminated abnomally) after recompiling DB2 Stored Procedures using Net Express 5.0 with WS03 applied. The same Stored Procedures ran correctly when compiled under Net Express 4.0. Moving the Stored Procedure .DLLs to a server machine to run after compiling them. Resolution: This problem can occur when the product release levels differ between the development and deployment systems. Ensure that both systems are at the same product and WrapPack level. Old KB# 1413

Problem: Is there a way to place TYPEDEFs  where they would be useable for any of these sections FILE SECTION FDs, WORKING-STORAGE, or LINKAGE SECTION , Resolution: Typedefs can be defined in an external program (or program prototype) which is placed before the main program and is therefore available to all sections. See example below. program-id. mytypedefs is prototype. working-storage 01  STD-KEY             PIC X(46) IS TYPEDEF. end-program program-id. myprogram. file section. FD ....       ...  USAGE STD-KEY. WORKING-STORAGE. .... Old KB# 1420

Problem: How can you dynamically change the alignment of Text in a cell of a DataGridView in .Net ? Resolution: There is an enumeration "DataGridViewContentAlignment" that allows you to set the alignment in a cell. You can use this using code such as:-            set DataGridView1::"Columns"::"Item"(0)::"DefaultCellStyle"::"Alignment"                to cDataGridViewContentAlignment::"TopCenter"            set DataGridView1::"Columns"::"Item"(1)::"DefaultCellStyle"::"Alignment"                to cDataGridViewContentAlignment::"TopCenter" A full demo is attached to this article. Attachme

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: This demo program will show you how to create your own functions using the COBOL language. Resolution:     ===========================================================                                             Micro Focus                                        N E T E X P R E S S       ===========================================================                         &

Problem: Customer is using Net Express 3.1 and cannot find any documentation for the CBL_ library routines. Resolution: Go to the SupportLine web site, http://supportline.microfocus.com.  Then log on, under the Self-Service section go to the Patches & Fixes or Product Update section.  On that page find the Net Express v3.1 Service Pack 1 section.  The documentation update will be found on that page. Old KB# 1510

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: A copy of the Readme file is attached to this article. Resolution: Attachments: Readme for Net Express v5 WS03.zip Old KB# 1436

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

Problem: This demonstration shows how to create a simple ASP.NET application. It was rewritten from the CGI demo program which is documented in the Net Express Help tutorial section. Resolution: Please folllow the instructions in the README.DOC for more information. Attachments: BevordASPNetDemo.zip Old KB# 1476

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: A negative value should have ended in a } but instead is shown as a p. This causes a problem as the end user now gets instead of a negative amount -35,000.00 the end-user sees -35,000.07 -35,000 should end with } to close. But it is closed by a p as last character. And this p in ASCII ends in -7 which is actually the true representation. Why is the } not displayed in the first place? The code used is: SELECT BBCONVHY ASSIGN TO EXTERNAL BBCONVHY ORGANIZATION IS LINE SEQUENTIAL ACCESS MODE IS SEQUENTIAL. 01 HR30-HOOFDSOM-REC. 03 HR30-SAL PIC S9(13)V9(2). DISPLAY "Uitvoering: 1300-HOOFDSOM". PERFORM 1300-HOOFDSOM. WHEN HULP-REC-SRT = 30 ADD 1 TO REC-30-AANT Resolution: Use the directive SIGN"EBCDIC" and the correct symbol will be displayed here. Old KB# 1471

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: 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: Trying to modify a screenset and a 114 error occurrs. Resolution: You may be getting the 114 error because the a corrupted screenset: Open the screenset by 'exporting' the screenset to a text file and then importing the file as a new screenset. This can be done from a Net Express Command Prompt. To export, type "dswin /e screensetname.gs screensetname.imp" To import, start Dialog System and select Import | Screenset from the File menu. Then save the screenset. Old KB# 1449

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: Net Express 3.1 does not support Internet Explorer 7 (IE7), so installing Net Expres 3.1 on a machine that already has IE7 installed will result to an error about the IE version. How to ignore or skip the IE version check? Resolution: NOTE: It is not recommended to ignore or skip the IE version check if you will be developing web applications with Net Express 3.1. Net Express 3.1's Form Designer supports IE5 and IE6 only. If you will be developing web applications, you can either remove IE7 and install IE6 instead or upgrade Net Express to the latest version, which is now v5.0. Having read the above, here are the steps allowing you to install Net Express 3.1 without having the setup to check for the IE version: 1. copy wrapper.ini from the Net Express CD to your local drive, e.g. C:\\ 2. edit C:\\wrapper.ini with a text editor 3. search for "checkie"  --> this should find CheckIE5OrAbove 4. delete the whole line 5. save w

Problem: Can you use Windows printers with Printer Command Language (PCL) ? PCL is a printer language that uses escape sequences to contol the display of different font and styles such as Bold and Italics. Over recent years there has been a trend in low cost printers to drop the support of PCL escape sequences. This means that they can only be used with applications that use the Windows Print Spooler. This means that applications which use SELECT ASSIGN PRINTER syntax and embed escape sequences cannot be used with these printers. Resolution: The runtime has a variety of PC_PRINTER_ calls that support Windows printing. They application can be changed to use these calls which support any printer that has a Windows printer driver. Alternative there are 3rd party utilities that convert PCL and send that to a Windows printer. Old KB# 1500

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