Features Added in Enterprise Developer 2.1

Enterprise Developer Enhancements

Assembler option

Now you can use a standalone Assembler debugger, which is independent from the IDE, to debug Assembler applications. This enables System administrators to debug Assembler applications as an aid in problem determination when setting up Assembler routines for use in an offload development and test environment.

Associating file extensions with the COBOL language

This release includes enhancements to the way you associate file extensions and extensionless files with the COBOL language.

If you are importing existing COBOL applications into Visual Studio, it is recommended that you create associations with COBOL within the IDE for any extensions that are not traditionally used in COBOL.

Building to .int, .gnt, and .lbr files

All sources for native COBOL and mainframe subsystem projects can be built to either .int or .gnt files. Native COBOL projects can optionally be bundled into an .lbr file.

Enterprise Server

• CICS External Call Interface (ECI) - Micro Focus proprietary support for ECI is now available. ECI uses the Micro Focus BINP protocol and negates the need for third-party middleware. For more information about ECI support, read the section IBM External Call Interface (ECI) in your product help.
• Enterprise Server Batch Clustering is now available as a technology preview. Features include:
  • Support for sharing of both the catalog and spool between multiple batch regions is included as a technology preview.
  • Allows multiple batch regions to share commonly configured resources by providing global locking facilities to manage contention.

  For further details about this feature, contact your Micro Focus technical account management team.

• Micro Focus Batch Scheduler Integration solution - enables you to submit, execute, and feedback between Enterprise Server and a scheduler that controls JCL job execution.
• Support for running TSO commands in a TSO batch session using the IDAEFT01 (IKJEFF01) utility is now available.
• The mfds –x export command line option has been extended to support repository export to an XML-format file. The syntax is as follows:

  mfds -x [repository type] [repository address] [server name] <opts> <user id> <password>

  Where:

  [repository type]

  • 1 = file:///
  • 5 = XML

  [server name]

  * = export all servers

  <opts>

  • D = (default) do not delete or overwrite any existing repository contents at specified location
  • O = delete and overwrite any existing repository contents at specified location
  • S = export server and security manager configuration

  <user id> and <password>

  the MFDS credentials required if administration access is restricted

• The new –g option is used to allow XML format repository import. The syntax is as follows:

  mfds -g [repository type] [repository address] <opts> <user id> <password>

  [repository type]

  5 = XML

  <opts>

  Not currently in use.

• XML repository import - extends the MFDS repository export to XML and import from XML introduced in Enterprise Developer 2.0 to UNIX platforms. This allows administrators to export, modify and then reimport Enterprise Server instance configuration data in XML format.

Mainframe Access

MFA Server

MFA Server has been updated to version 4.00 (BASE), and provides the following enhancements:

• Double-byte character support using the following code pages:
  • Traditional Chinese with Taiwanese additions (BIG5)
  • Korean (KSC5601)
  • Simplified Chinese (SCHINESE)
  • Japanese - Kanji (SJISKANJI)
  • Traditional Chinese (TCHINESE)
• Additional qualifiers for use with the new code pages:

  default

  EBCIDIC SI/SO added on upload, removed on download

  -SOSI-K

  EBCIDIC SI/SO assumed on upload, preserved on download

  -SOSI-A

  ASCII SI/SO assumed on upload, preserved on download

  -SOSI-S

  Spaces converted to SI/SO on upload. SI/SO converted to spaces on download

  Note: This will only work correctly with text that originates on a host.

Enterprise Server Application template

This release includes an Enterprise Server Application template that you can use to create a Visual Studio project for COBOL service interfaces that do not require mainframe support.

HCO for SQL Server

HCOSS now supports rowset cursors.

IMS support

• Non-discardable message exit (early release) - provides you with functionality present in Mainframe IMS that allows messages destined for an abended IMS application program to be deleted, put on the suspend queue, requeued to the original transaction, or routed to an alternate destination.
• IMS printer support (early release) - IMS application LU1, LU3 MFS, or LTERM output can now be spooled to printers using TCP/IP protocols. You now have the ability to print IMS output on local or networked printers.
  Note: Print spool API support is not available. Users are responsible for associating printers with a user or a department.

OpenESQL

ODBC

Added support for a generic one-phase commit for ODBC XA switch module.

SQL Compiler Directive Options

OpenESQL has been enhanced to support the the following new SQL compiler directive options:

DATE

Controls the reformatting of date values in output parameters and in input parameter character host variables when DETECTDATE is also specified.

TIME

Controls the reformatting of date values in output parameters and in input parameter character host variables when DETECTDATE is also used.

DATEDELIM

Specifies a single character as the delimiter between the year, month, and day components to override the default delimiter determined by the HCOSS DIALECT or DATE directive specification.

TIMEDELIM

Specifies a single character as the delimiter between the hour, minute, and second components to override the default delimiter determined by the HCOSS DIALECT or TIME directive specification.

TSTAMPSEP

Specifies a single character as the separator between the date and time parts of timestamp and date/time data.

OpenESQL Assistant

OESQL Assistant now supports updateable cursors.

SQL Server

We now support Microsoft SQL Server 2012.

Open PL/I

The following enhancements to the Open PL/I feature are now available:

• Support for WCHAR data types and associated built-in function enhancements. See the Open PL/I Language Reference Manual in the General Reference section of your product help for more information.
• Support for bigendian CHAR VARYING on Intel chipsets.
• Support for the following built-in functions: PLICTF, PLIFILL, PLIMOVE, PLIOVER.
• Support for character picture data types. See the Open PL/I Language Reference Manual in the General Reference section of your product help for more information.
• Preprocessor for SQL Server (HCOSS).
• New PLITEST debugger attach facility.
• Macro Preprocessor enhanced to support multiple closure.
• Macro Preprocessor enhanced to support up to 100 byte variable names.
• Macro Preprocessor enhanced to support %SELECT,%DO WHILE,SYSVERSION, ||=
• Macro Preprocessor support for the -incafter Compiler directive to allow for addition of an include file without modifying the customer sources.
• The DB2 LUW Precompiler has been enhanced to allow specification of userid and password.
• Integration with Visual Studio 2010.
• Early Adopter Support for Oracle on Windows using the ODBC interface.

Tutorials

The following tutorial is now available in the Getting Started section in your product help:

Tutorial: Assembler

AACT is a sample CICS 3270 transaction that comprises several Assembler programs and a single BMS map, and uses the resource definitions in the file dfhdrdat. This tutorial walks you through the steps required to implement and test the AACT transaction.

General Enhancements

Managed code enhancements

Delegates and Events

This release provides support for combining delegates, using the METHOD keyword to specify method groups, and implicit conversion from a method group or an anonymous method to the suitable delegate type.

Handling Invalid Numeric Data

The handling of invalid numeric data is controlled by a number of Compiler directives: HOSTNUMMOVE, HOSTNUMCOMPARE and SIGNFIXUP. These directives were previously only available in native code but are now supported in managed code.

Resolving Types

In this release, the Compiler attempts to resolve types to those defined in the current compilation unit wherever possible. The Compiler will attempt to resolve such types to an external name only if no suitable type exists in the current compilation unit. For example:

$set ilusing"System"
class-id MyNamespace.EventHandler.
01 o type EventHandler.                       
end class.

In this release, 01 o type EventHandler. resolves to MyNamespace.EventHandler and not to System.EventHandler.

Specifying Properties

In previous versions of the products, properties declared using the PROPERTY keyword on a data item were generated as final properties. Starting with this release, they are generated as virtual properties by default. In order to make the properties final, you need to specify the word FINAL following PROPERTY. This change may affect the generation of Proxy classes, for example, if you are using WCF.