Application Configuration

You can specify how your native COBOL application should be run, by specifying the required settings in a configuration file. You can specify the following:

• Environment variables - These set or modify the environment that is required for your native COBOL applications
• COBOL switches - The COBOL programmable switches (numbered from 0 to 8) must be defined using a condition name in the special-names paragraph in your program. Then you set the switches on and off when your app is started. Their state can be read by your application at any time when it is running.

The configuration file is named Application.config.

You can add an application configuration file for all types of native projects except for Mainframe Subsystem Applications. This is because under Enterprise Server you configure the environment in a different way. You specify them either on the MFDS region configuration page or from the command line environment if you start Enterprise Server from the command line.

If you run your application outside of the Visual Studio IDE, you need to set the environment variable COBCONFIG.BLOCK to the location of the application configuration file in order for the switches and environment variables set for the application to be applied.