Rocket® Visual COBOL®

Created On:  13 October 2011 Problem: The Manual Authorization method (via the cesadmintool.sh) was used to install a license string(s).  However, on checking the License Status, no licenses are displayed. -   Verify that the license string(s) is populated into either the "lservrc.stn" or "lservrc.net" file:     Eg:          [root@/var/microfocuslicensing/bin]$ cat lservrc.stn          10 COBOLforEclipse 5.1 LONG TRIAL 30 STANDALONE EXCL 1 INFINITE_KEYS 1 JAN 2008           NEVER SLM_CODE CL_ND_LCK 805CE00C 5 z:e5RkXYZTgZEVek7SmZLZeSghiZBtbBGflKTlBapp3C          Qz3UwEEdHVRGCsdN9:nffv:86kw9FCJNN1R:5:WE3UVyfDRe:wTXpTYsgVyIiisSfnM1qzyzKNG31KgF          iSl2LMV,Sn4ftNcGVnaSOur8u06yLI -   Login as root.

Created On:  29 November 2011 Problem: Main program has data items defined with the EXTERNAL clause as follows:01  FIELD-1   PIC X(10)  EXTERNAL.The main program calls a subprogram which has the same data item defined as EXTERNAL. When the main program and subprogram are both .ints or .gnts then this works correctly.When the main program is an .EXE and the subprogram is a .DLL then the EXTERNAL data items are not being shared. The value of the data item in the subprogram is not the same value as the data item defined in the main program.  Why is this? Resolution: The problem is most likely that either the main program .EXE or the subprogram .DLL is being linked as static.  This causes the programs to each use their own copy of the COBOL run-time system and thus they each have their own copy of EXTERNAL data items.When using EXTERNAL data items all modules must be linked to the Shared run-time system so that they share the same copy of

Created On:  03 November 2011 Problem: A full license is already installed and displayed in the "Check License Status" of the Micro Focus Licensing Administration utility (cesadmintool) on the UNIX server (see below):Micro Focus Licensing Administration                                    ====================================                                    [Nov 4, 2011 10:27:23 AM] v10000.2.00580                                        &n

Created On:  07 November 2011 Problem: A client was testing an existing legacy application using Visual COBOL in Visual Studio 2010 for the first time. In their code there were a substantial amount of comments in the area after column 72. The comments were not preceded with an asterisk in column 73. What they found was that this area was treated as code rather than as comment. They were wondering if there were any compiler directives/settings etc so that code in column 73 or greater could be treated as comment, regardless of whether they had an asterisk or not. Resolution: One thing to be aware of is that SOURCEFORMAT”FREE” is the default in Visual COBOL for Managed projects. For Native projects the default is still SOURCEFORMAT”FIXED, as it was for Net Express, Server Express a Studio EE. SOURCEFORMAT”FREE” means the IDE doesn’t adhere to the standard COBOL format of columns 0-7, 8-72 and 72 and beyond. To test, manually set the SOURCEFORMAT”FIXED” compiler directive

Created On:  09 November 2011 Problem: Customer has a Visual COBOL managed console application in Visual Studio that looks like the following:When the program invokes the MessageBox::Show method using the PIC N(2) field it does not display the Chinese characters. Why is this?$set ilusing"System.Windows.Forms"program-id. Program1 as "testchinese.Program1".       data division.       working-storage section.       01 chinesetext    type Byte[] value x"E58F91E7A5A8".              01 wsEncoding     type Encoding.              01 codePageValues type Byte[].     &nbsp

Created On:  01 November 2011 Problem: When using Visual COBOL for Eclipse to create and connect to a remote COBOL Project how can I specify the port of the remotedaemon, if the remotedaemon had to be started with a different port number (other than the default 4075)? Resolution: The port can be changed using the remote project creation wizard, when going through the wizard to create your remote project, click on the new connection button > select dstore.files >  in the available Services section expand DStore Connector Services > expand Remote Server launcher > Select Launcher Properties > Now you will be able to specify the port the remote daemon is using by using the Daemon Port Textfield. Click Next or Finish to go through the Wizard. Incident #2541417 Old KB# 35140

Created On:  24 October 2011 Problem: Application runs on the mainframe, using DB2 for Z/OS.The application is using the following SQL command on a dynamic statement:  EXEC  SQL                                                    PREPARE  SEL FROM  :STMTBUF                          END-EXEC.                                                 MOVE  3

Created On:  19 October 2011 Problem: When testing the record lock behavior in a Visual COBOL application that is accessing RM/COBOL indexed files, I find that the behavior is different than that of RM/COBOL.  In RM/COBOL when I try to access a record that is currently locked by another program, the read will wait until the lock is released before returning to the program.In Visual COBOL accessing a locked record returns immediately with a locked record file status.  How can I change this behavior? Resolution: You can change this behavior so that it works like the default RM/COBOL behavior by using the RM directive in addition to the CALLFH("ACUFH") directive to compile the program.  Then if a locked record is attempted to be read in a second program it will automatically wait until the record is released by the program holding the lock.You can also use the RETRYLOCK directive instead of the RM directive

Created On:  18 October 2011 Problem: For Visual COBOL R4 Update 2 and R5 a new version (8.4) of the SafeNet licensing software will be used.  For local servers there is nothing to worry about as we will be installing a new client (Visual COBOL) and a new server on the same machine.  However, if you have a network server you should update that first as new clients (on 8.4) cannot talk to old license servers (on 8.2). Resolution: The new version of the license server software should be available for download nearer the time from the SupportLine web site at: http://supportline.microfocus.com/websync/SLM.aspx. Old KB# 34956#COBOL

Created On:  07 October 2011 Problem: Calling the RM/COBOL subroutine, C$Century, in Visual COBOL (R4) does not return a value to the USING argument. Resolution: The following compiler directive has to be set in order to enable the C$Century call to return a value:RM "GIVING" Incident #2540577 Old KB# 34860#VisualCOBOL#RMCOBOL#Enterprise#COBOL

Created On:  07 October 2011 Problem: When running the runtime product Server for COBOL or Server Enterprise Edition the Micro Focus License Manager does not appear to want to start again.  When attempting to restart the Micro Focus License Manager service via the Control Panel, the following message is returned:"The Micro Focus License Manager on local computer started and then stopped. Some services stop automatically if they are not in use by other services or programs" Resolution: The message is coming from mflmwin (Micro Focus License Manager). For some strange reason the machine gets into a state where the License Manager will not start. Due to the anti-hack code in the License Manager the only solution is to restart the machine in order to clear the processes and shared memory. Incident #2540805 Old KB# 34862#Enterprise#COBOL

Created On:  06 October 2011 Problem: How do I tell what exact version or update level of Visual COBOL is installed? Resolution: You can look in two locations under Windows.  Open Visual Studio 2010 and Sekect Help > About Microsoft Visual Studio.1.3.00046 indicates base release of Visual COBOL R4.1.3.00047 indicates R4 Update 1 release of Visual COBOL.You can also look in Control Panel > Programs.  Click on View Installed Updates link to see what Update level your product is at: Old KB# 34850

Created On:  29 September 2011 Problem: In the product documentation under Database Access the STMTCACHE directive is defined as follows:STMTCACHESets the cache size for prepared statements used by OpenESQL. The default is 20. Depending upon your application and data source, performance improvements or data errors can result if this value is set higher than that.  What exactly does this mean?  What does the value of this setting actually refer to? Resolution: The setting of STMTCACHE refers to the number of prepared statements that the runtime will keep alive. The cache is managed on a least recently used basis. A statement can be recycled if it is not an open cursor. At one time we had problems with Oracle running out of resources so we introduced STMTCACHE to restrict the amount of server resources a client app could tie up. OpenESQL always uses prepare execute rather than direct execution so that any statement executed multiple times will execute faster on the

Created On:  04 October 2011 Problem: When you attempt to uninstall a product in “Programs and Features” a new “Windows Installer” window appears and gives the following error: "Error opening installation log file. Verify that the specified location exists and is writable.”This is related to Windows 7 Professional. Resolution: This can occur if Windows Installer Logging is enabled, but the Windows Installer engine cannot properly write the uninstallation log file. This condition can occur if the Windows Installer's application heap becomes freed and thus loses the information on where to store the log file. When this occurs, Windows Installer attempts to write to the location 'C:\\Windows\\System32' and addresses it as a file. Proper behavior would be to write to the following location and file name: 'C:\\Users\\\\AppData\\Local\\Temp\\MSIxxxxxx.log'. To work around this issue, stop and restart the Explorer.exe process using Task

Created On:  21 September 2011 Problem: When using Visual COBOL R4 to create a Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) project, the COBOL tab on the project properties shows as blank. Resolution: It appears that this problem is a known issue in R4 that has been fixed in subsequent releases. For R4 the workaround is as follows: Create a WPF application and then change the output type on the Application tab of the project properties page from Windows Application to Console Application and back again. After saving and reloading the project the COBOL tab should be accessible. Old KB# 34763

Created On:  09 September 2011 Problem: When adding ActiveX Components to a .NET Windows Form in Visual COBOL, it builds correctly but when attempting to run the application an error like the following is displayed:Why is this? Resolution: The problem manifests itself in two ways.Most ActiveX controls are 32-bit so if your project is set to x64 or anyCPU and you are running on a 64-bit OS then this will fail.If you set the project type to x86 or are using anyCPU on a 32-bit system then it should work as long as you also set the Copy Local property to True on the references that are added to your project by the IDE. Incident #2536071 Old KB# 34732

Created On:  19 September 2011 Problem: When migrating programs precompiled with Oracle's Pro*COBOL preprocessor to OpenESQL there is an error reported on the following statement when it is in the working-storage section of the program.     EXEC SQL VAR TESTVAR IS VARCHAR2 END-EXECThe error reported by OpenESQL is:     "ES0114 Statement only allowed in the PROCEDURE DIVISION." If the statement is moved to the procedure division then OpenESQL does not display the error message.  Why is this happening? Resolution: The problem is that this is an Oracle Pro*COBOL extension and it is not supported in OpenESQL either in the working-storage section or in the procedure division.  The reason you see the error is because OpenESQL tries to be very flexible in what it allows since it is designed to work with just about any data source and it only recognizes as much SQL syntax as it has to. The preprocessor determines

Created On:  23 August 2011 Problem: I am having a problem linking 'C' lib content in Visual CCOBOL.  In the Visual COBOL solution where linking to C libs is being specified, e.g. Links Settings had "diskcopy.lib" specified. When building the solution errors where returned such as:  unresolved external symbol _open referenced in function _diskcopy_open. Resolution: The words 'open', 'close', 'read' and 'write' in diskcopy.c were not compatible with the latest VISUAL STUDIO 2010 build and have to be amended to '_open', '_close', '_read' and '_write'. Try to rebuild and it should complete without further problems. Incident #2524182 Old KB# 34348

Created On:  01 September 2011 Problem: When creating XML comments for a method in a Visual COBOL source program using the characters "*" followed by ">>", the comment is displayed in Intellisense when the method is referenced from within a program that resides in the same project as the source containing the comment but if the source is in a different project than the referencing program then the comment is being ignored.Why is this and how can I get it to work? Resolution: There is an option under Solution Explorer Project Properties > COBOL Tab > Advanced Options called XML documentation file. If you check this and provide a filename in which to store the comments then it will work correctly from within different projects. This must be turned on in the project containing the source with the comment in it. Incident #2535275 Old KB# 34381

Created On:  09 August 2011More Visual COBOL results at kb.microfocus.com Problem: While attempting to install Visual COBOL 2010 you receive the top message below or while attempting to install COBOL 2010 Runtime you receive the bottom message below:What does this mean? Resolution: These error messages are correct in that Visual COBOL for Visual Studio and COBOL 2010 Runtime products cannot be installed on the same computer.  Visual COBOL is the development environment which integrates into Visual Studio 2010. It has all the components of the COBOL 2010 Runtime product installed with it so that you can test your applications on the development computer without the requirement of a production runtime license. The COBOL 2010 Runtime product is for production use and it contains all of the files necessary to run the developed applications on a computer where Visual COBOL is not installed.  These products each are licensed separately.  Where you might h

Created On:  04 August 2011 Problem: When running a Visual COBOL Windows Forms Application and clicking into a textbox control a space appears in the first character of the textbox. How do I get rid of this leading space character? Resolution: This most likely has to do with how you are intializing the text box text property. Are you initializing the field using something like:set textbox1::text to " "This is different than initializing it to the empty value which is two quotes without a space separating them.  Instead, try using:set textbox1::text to "" Incident #2530929 Old KB# 34305

Created On:  29 July 2011 Problem: There is a problem with the Visual COBOL R4 documentation for using the RM compatible C$RERR routine.The documentation states:Configuring the RM/COBOL File Handler  In acurmfm.cfg, set the file handler. DEFAULT_FILESYSTEM RMFMTo retrieve RMFM file status codes or call C$RERR in your COBOL programs: In acurmfm.cfg, set the following environment variables. set CONVERTSTATUS=rmstatset COBCONFIG=cobconfig.cfg  *> cobconfig.cfg is your MF COBOL run-time configuration file.In cobconfig.cfg, set the following environment variable: set ACU_LIBRARY=TRUE-------------------------------------------------------This does not work. Resolution: The COBCONFIG and CONVERTSTATUS environment variables must actually be set in the computers environment instead of in the acurmfm.cfg file.  If you follow the instructions in the documentation you will get a Runtime Error 173 on the call to C$RERR.If the COBCONFIG and CONVERTSTATUS envir

Created On:  04 August 2011 Problem: I have a Visual Cobol Solution, that contains two projects each with a Windows Form. One Windows Form has a button and the other a textbox control.How can a value (string) be sent across projects, for example, if I click on Button on Form1 I want it to populate the textbox1 on Form2 with some text.Would the line of code look something like the following for the btnSend_Click method:        set form2::textbox1::text to "this is a test". How can I reference components on other forms that are in other projects but in the sane solution? Resolution: Add a reference in the Form1 project to the Form2 project.Form 1 needs to define a data item to hold the instance of Form2.In this example Form2 will be instantiated from within Form1.       class-id testtextspace.Form1 is partial                 inherits type

Created On:  05 July 2011 Problem: In Visual Studio 2010 there is a setting to specify which extensions should be treated as COBOL copy files, like .cpy, .cob, .cbl etc.How does one specify that a file without any extension should be treated as a COBOL copy file? Resolution: From the Visual Studio 2010 IDE menu navigate to Tools-->Options-->Text Editor-->COBOL-->Miscellaneous-->Copy file extensions.Add a comma to the front of the list of extensions, by default this looks like:.cbl,.cpy,.cobchange it to look like:,.cbl,.cpy,.cobThe "," means that a file with no extention will also be recognized as a copy file extension. Incident #2525900 Old KB# 34229

Created On:  16 June 2011 Problem: After upgrading Visual COBOL for Visual Studio R3 to the R4 release, the following error message is reported when starting Visual Studio 2010: Resolution: This error is caused when both the Visual COBOL for Visual Studio R3 and Visual COBOL for Eclipse R3 products are installed on the same computer and you upgrade the Visual Studio product to the R4 release. This leave the products in an inconsistent state as one is at release level R3 and the other is at release level R4.Uninstall the Visual COBOL for Eclipse R3 product and install the R4 version instead.  This will make the products consistent and the error will no longer appear. Old KB# 34173