Rocket® COBOL

Problem: You can use Snippits to help you complete repository entries in .Net COBOL. Resolution: In the repository section if you type "class" then TAB it will run a Visual Studio "Snippit" to help you complete your repository entry for the class. Old KB# 1379

Problem: Programs compiled in NT, are going to Windows 2003 and having a problem. error is cannot find entrypoint 'cbl_get_file_info '  in cblrtss Resolution: recompile and link with the dynamically bound runtime on cbllink  -Rs would be required Old KB# 1323

Problem: How to SORT a table in storage. Can this be done? Resolution:   Yes, here is a sample program that illustrates how to do this:       $set mf charset"ascii"        Identification Division.        Program-Id.  LORINCE.        Environment Division.        Data Division.        Working-Storage Section.       * Sorted Numeric Values : 111 112 121 122 211 212 221 222        1   MixNumVals.         2          Pic 9(12) Value 222221112121.         2          Pic

Problem: Releases: Net Express and Mainframe Express: Want to know which files are involved to store breakpoints / watchlists during an IDE session. Resolution: The file which stores the breakpoints is the projectname.~ds file on Net Express and projectname.dbs on Mainframe Express. The ~ds/dbs file is only written when the project is closed. So if for example Net Express  just had the unfortunate occurrence to crash, then the breakpoints do not get saved and they are lost. Alll the watchlist information is stored in the ~ds/.dbs file as well. Net Express:The .idy file and .app file do not store breakpoint information. Mainframe Express: The .idy file and .mvp file do not store breakpoint information. Old KB# 1268

Problem: The RaisePostBackEvent receives every event from an ASPX page. In contrast to other events like Button1_clicked, the RaisePostBackEvent routine isn't automatically generated from the COBOL wizard. How can the RaisePostBackEvent routine be implemented in COBOL. Resolution: Add the following code to the generated class:        method-id. "RaisePostBackEvent" protected override.        procedure division using by value a-source as System-PostBack                                          eventArgument as string.            invoke super "RaisePostBackEvent" using value a-source eventArgument  &

Problem: Micro Focus documentation describes WRITELINE for the extfh.cfg configuration file as: WRITELINE -  Determines whether mainframe or PC behavior is used for WRITE record. What does this actually do and what type of file does it affect? Resolution: The WRITELINE option only affects line-sequential files that contain qualified writes. When switched on any unqualified writes are treated as a write after 1 making it a qualified write. Note: Set WRITELINE=OFF if  PC print behavior for WRITELINE is desired  when using mainframe dialects. Old KB# 1402#AcuCobol#COBOL#netexpress#RMCOBOL#ServerExpress

Problem: In an unix environment parameters are retrieved with the  DISPLAY UPON ARGUMENT-NUMBER as numbers 2, 3, and 4, (with argument 1 being the program name and path). It appears in the Windows environment they correspond to numbers 1, 2, and Is there some compiler/runtime flag that would emulate the unix environment? Resolution: Use the run time tunable arguments_are_initial=TRUE according to the documentation: This affects the COBOL command line arguments returned from the syntax ACCEPT ... FROM ARGUMENT-NUMBER and ACCEPT ... FROM ARGUMENT-VALUE. example: run myapp arg1 arg2 arg3 Returns myapp as argument 0 when this tunable is set to FALSE (default). When the tuneable is set to TRUE the trigger name (run) is returned as argument 0 and myapp as argument 1. Therefore the actual passed parameters would be 2,3,& 4 as in the unix environment. syntax: set arguments_are_initial=TRUE NOTE: This run-time tunable should be specified in

Problem: Using an XP machine with the Regional Language settings set to Japanese. receiving the following syntax error .... * 230-S************************************************ **    PICTURE string has illegal precedence or illegal character 1875             15  WPRTL-PRINT-AMOUNT2        PIC $$$$9.99. * 230-S************************************************ This line of code, compiles fine on an XP machine with the regional language settings set to English.     Resolution: Setting the compiler directive to CURRENCY-SIGN"36" corrects the problem. Old KB# 1370

Problem: When CBL_DEBUGBREAK is included in code containing threads running at the same time, the first thread that hits it causes Animator to start, but the other threads execute through with no animation. Resolution: CBL_DEBUGBREAK tries to start a copy of the debugger, but as only one debugger is allowed per process (Microsoft limitation), the call to CBL_DEBUGBREAK made by the second, third and fourth thread, etc.. fails. Displaying the return-code straight after the CBL_DEBUGBREAK call,  and seeing that is 0 the first time but it isn't on subsequent calls. A solution would be to lock the call to CBL_DEBUGBREAK, so the first thread that gets there it, and all the others wait until the first one unlocks it.  That would give you the chance to start Animator and once Animator is up to swap from one thread to the other using "Animate / Threads...".  You can Freeze threads, Thaw them, set one as active, and so on...

Problem: Can the Net Express Development and Server products be installed on the same PC? Resolution: Unfortunately it is not possible to install both the development and runtime systems on to the same PC.  Our development environment contains all the runtime files anyway. If you need to run both on the same PC then you may want to consider Microsoft Virtual PC.  We use VPC here to run different products/versions on the same box. Old KB# 1396

Problem: This document describes how to open files or create new files that are not included in a Project. It is not necessary to have a project open in order to use the Data Tools. You can open or create new files using the File menu from the Main tool bar in NetExpress. For more help using the Data Tools to convert, browse, edit and create data files, refer to the Getting Start Online Book chapter called Maintaining and Creating Data Files. It contains an excellent sample on performing these tasks. Resolution: Creating New Files using the Data File Editor 1. From the File menu, select New. 2. From the New dialog box, select Data File. 3. Enter the appropriate characteristics for your data file, and select the Create button. Opening Files using the Data File Editor 1. From the File menu, select Open. 2. At the "Files of Type" option, select Data files (*.dat) or All files (*.*) 3. At the "Open As" option, select Dat

Problem: Net Express has built-in support for the following character sets. The numbering convention used for single-byte character sets is that defined by the CCIT/ITU country code. Resolution: Support is provided for the following character set conversions, except where indicated: " EBCDIC to ANSI " ANSI to EBCDIC MFCODESET Character set AUTOMATIC Determined from the Windows country setting AUTO Determined from the Windows country setting DEFAULT US English 0031 Dutch 0033 French 0034 Spanish 0039 Italian 0043 German (Austrian) 0044 UK English 0045 Danish 0046 Swedish 0047 Norwegian 0049 German 0081 Japanese Katakana Extended 0082 Korean 0086 Simplified Chinese 0351 Portuguese 0358 Finnish 0437 US English 0500 International (Latin 1) 0886 Traditional Chinese 0939 Japanese Latin Extended 9122 Japanese Katakana Old KB# 1310

Problem: OS: Windows By default Dialog truncates text on a Button when it is larger than the button size. Resolution: There's a demo called buttontext.zip, which demonstrates how to use Windows API calls in order to make the test go over multiple lines.  To locate the demo, go to the Micro Focus Supportline website.  Click on the 'Self-Service' link, then click on the 'Examples & Utilities' link and is located under the 'Dialog System' category. (http://supportline.microfocus.com/examplesandutilities/nesamp.asp) Old KB# 1337

Problem: What Net Express features can you not use when running in 64bit on the Window operating system. Resolution: The Net Expess online help for Net Express 5.0 documents the following features are not supported in 64-bit: Dialog System (Character and GUI) GUI Class Library Panels Version 2 HyHelp The following features are not currently supported in 64-bit: COBSQL Enterprise Server SQL Option (XDB)   Old KB# 1284

Problem: In Dialog System how to control the First Window displayed? Resolution: Dialog System will display the first Window as defined in the screenset. This screen is configurable at design time via the Sceenset/First Window menu option. If you want to control at runtime you can use the SET-FIRST-WINDOW function. This needs to be done in the SCREENSET-INITIALIZED function in Global Dialog. For more information please see the online documentation on the SET-FIRST-WINDOW function. Old KB# 1278

Problem: Wie loesche ich die Markierungen der Elemente, die bei der Textsuche gefunden wurden? Resolution: ueber den Menueeintrag View->Clear->Text Finds. Old KB# 1367

Problem: Have a machine that still uses Microsoft DOS V 6.2 and using IBM's bi-synchroneous communications app that is on the old machine. How to get this running? Resolution: This is not possible because Net Express character-based applications are not DOS programs. They are actually 32-bit Windows console programs that require Windows 98 or higher to run. Only our very old 16-bit Workbench products would create applications that could run under DOS. Old KB# 1329

Problem: Running a job that has 14 sort steps and then a COBOL program that does delta reporting. The files range in size from 1 million to 3 million records with record sizes from 100 bytes to 400 bytes. The largest file in this test run is just under 2 gigabytes. The entire job takes One hour to run on a Windows Server 2003 machine with 2 gigabytes of memory One hour and twenty minutes on a Windows/XP, laptop with 2 gigabytes of memory Ten minutes on the ZOS mainframe. Have been experimenting with the following in the EXTFH CONFIG file. SEQDATBUF=4096, 32K, 132K READSEMA=OFF IGNORELOCK=ON Some things managed to get a 10% performance improvement but would like to get a lot more. Are there anymore directives (remember most of this is MFSORT, not COBOL)? What is the recommended setting for SEQDATBUF when using large sequential files?    Resolution: Definitely defrag first, but also to set: TMP Tells the run-time syste

Problem: Net Express 4.0 Recompilation/rebuild of an existing project fails with error: Rebuilding    F:\\.......\\FILENAME.CBL Error during generation of INT-code Rebuild complete with errors. A new .int file is not created. COBOL programs that are modified may recompile cleanly. Resolution: Close the project and the Net Express IDE. Delete the debug directory for the project. Restart Net Express, open the project and rebuild. Old KB# 1265

Problem: Running ES MTO - an abend occurred and the CICS was creating a dump. It hung the whole system and took like 2 hours. Resolution: In this case - the faultfind utility had been turned on Faultfind should NOT be used with  ES MTO This is a feature for debugging regular pc and cgi applications. ES MTO has its own dumping facility and the two conflict with each other for resources.   Old KB# 1290

Problem: The formatDateToOLE method in the olesup class only supports putting dates into a OLE Date. The OLE date format uses a floating point number with the decimal portion representing the time portion. Resolution: You can manually enter the time format into the OLE date field using code such as:-         program-id. "ConvertDateToOLE".       *****************************************************************       *       *    Program         ConvertDateToOLE       *       *    Author          davs - MicroFocus SupportLine       *       *    T

Problem: Subprogram's Working-Storage is only initialized the first time is called. Any subsequent calls to the same subprogram will find the previous values of Working-Storage. Resolution: Add the INITIAL clause to the subprogram's PROGRAM-ID, e.g. PROGRAM-ID SubProgram IS INITIAL. An initial program is one whose program state is initialized when the program is called. During the process of initializing an initial program, that program's internal data is initialized as described in the section State of a Function, Method, Object or Program. The initial attribute is attained by specifying the INITIAL clause in the program's Identification Division. Old KB# 1350

Problem: Can not locate the 'text find and replace' window within the IDE window Resolution: Click on the View | Dockable Windows menu option within the IDE and see if the 'text find and replace' window is ticked or not. If it is not ticked, then tick it. If it is already ticked then click on the 'Window' menu and select either 'Tile Horizontally' or 'Tile Vertically' or 'Cascade' or 'Tile Docked Windows' or 'Arrange Floating' to locate the floating 'text find and replace' window. When the 'text find and replace' window is located, right click on the window and tick the option to 'Allow docking'.  Then drag and dock the window to a specific location. Old KB# 1267

Problem: Passing parameters to a COBOL.Net WebForms application using an URL: http://testserver/testform.aspx?param1=TestValue then accessing the parameters using the "request" object. In C# this can be done using syntax such as: 'string paramvalue = Request.Params["param1"];'. How to access the parameters in COBOL? Resolution: Accessing the parameters using syntax such as:      set ls-param to self::"Request"::"Params"::"Get"("param1") A full example of this syntax is attached to this article. Attachments: 2149995.zip Old KB# 1276

Problem: When a deadlock between 2 processes occured it was found that a SQLCODE was being returned with 100 (row not found) rather than a -1205 SQLCODE. Resolution: This issue has been fixed. Please download and apply the latest Net Express 4 patch to resolve the problem. Old KB# 1358