Some features of Mainframe Express work differently in Enterprise Developer or are superseded by features provided by the new IDE. The following list shows some of these differences:
| Feature in Mainframe Express | Feature in Enterprise Developer |
|---|---|
| Analysis Option | Enterprise Developer offers integrated code analysis functionality. |
| AppMaster Builder (AMB) and Structured COBOL (S-COBOL) source code | AppMaster Builder is not available in Enterprise Developer for Visual Studio; however, it is fully integrated into the Enterprise Developer for Eclipse product. |
| Automatic Catalog Import | Available through the MFA Drag and Drop interface as well as the option to catalog from the command line. Data connect functionality is being checked. |
| CICS resource definitions | You can reuse any existing CICS resource definitions in
Enterprise Developer after executing the
caspcupg command.
Cut-down resource definitions (PCT, FCT, PPT) are not supported. |
| Command line utility (MFECL) | The equivalent to MFECL is not available in Enterprise Developer; however, command-line options for much of the tooling are available. In addition, you can use the standard facilities of the IDE. For example, you can use the MSBUILD utility to compile your sources, and PowerShell to manage solutions and projects. |
| Database Access | If your application running under Enterprise Server accesses a database but contains no explicit connection logic, you must define the database as an XA resource (XAR) in your enterprise server instance. |
| Easytrieve
Mainframe Express provided integrated support for Easytrieve through an add-on option which allowed Easytrieve applications to be edited, compiled and tested within the Mainframe Express IDE. |
Easytrieve is now available. Contact OpenText Support for Micro Focus Products for details. |
| Editor Autofix | The editor in Enterprise Developer includes an AutoCorrect feature. Other editor features that can help increase your productivity in writing code are IntellISense suggestions and code snippets. |
| Interactive AMS | Not available. |
| MAS SDK
a collection of utilities to automatically compile downloaded source and provide reports on the outcome. These are part of Mainframe Express and Studio 6.0 (Net Express) and were developed for Windows. |
Not available. |
| MFA Server | A newer version of MFA Server is available with Enterprise Developer. |
| MFENTMAP, the Entry Point Mapping facility | Run-time system support for MFENTMAP is available and any existing configuration files will work. |
| Outline View | Displays the copybook dependencies of projects within Solution Explorer. |
| PL/I | PL/I application development is fully supported within
Enterprise Developer, and PL/I applications are supported using CICS, IMS or JCL.
The PL/I language, Micro Focus Open PL/I, is fully integrated. |
| Regions | Enterprise Developer provides support for full, multi-tasking enterprise server regions. |
| Source code control systems
Mainframe Express used the Microsoft Common Source Code Control (SCC) Interface to enable you to use the functions of a SCC-compliant source control manager with your IDE. |
Enterprise Developer comes with an industry-standard integrated development environment that provides access to any SCC tooling with the appropriate
plugin. For example:
|
| Template projects | In
Enterprise Developer, you can create templates from both projects and regions and distribute them to your developers.
You can use Visual Studio functionality to create custom project templates for COBOL applications. For more information, see the Visual Studio help. Export and import commands for regions are available from Server Explorer inside the IDE. |
| Third-party preprocessors | You can embed Third-party preprocessors in
Enterprise Developer in a manner similar to how this was done in Mainframe Express. See
Preprocessor Properties
for details.
Syntax checking is supported for ECMs and for COBSQL. |
| Time-Sharing Option (TSO)
Mainframe Express supported the use of TSO commands, CLISTs and REXX execs, which could be run in TSO interactive (or foreground) sessions or in TSO batch (or background) sessions, using the IDAEFT01 (IKJEFF01) utility. |
Enterprise Developer supports TSO batch (IKJEFTxx). |
| WinRunner
A screen capture utility that was supplied with some versions of Mainframe Express. |
You can now use third-party software such as OpenText™ Functional Test Automation. |
| Workgrouping | Not available in Enterprise Developer for Visual Studio; however workgroup emulation is available in the Enterprise Developer for Eclipse product. |
| XDB tooling | Fully supported as a Start option, and can also be accessed from within the IDE. |