COBOL Views

The following shows examples of views that are available by default for the COBOL perspective.

COBOL Editor

The COBOL editor provides numerous features to help you write your code such as:

Background parsing underlines errors as you type, while hovering over the item gives information on the error.
Content Assist provides context sensitive proposals for typing COBOL code in the editor.
You can search for references to any variable in your code.
The Outline view shows the structure of the file you are editing. This view enables you to navigate around the file. For example, if you want to go to a particular COBOL section or a data item in the Editor view, just click on it in the Outline view.
You can use block selection to move blocks of text. Press Alt+Shift+A to switch to block selection mode, then click and drag to select.
By using the COBOL Copy View you can view copybooks inline, enabling you to see the effects of COPY … REPLACING, as in the following example. You can open COBOL Copy View when working in the COBOL editor by pressing F4.

COBOL Explorer

The COBOL Explorer view includes the following features to help you manage your projects:

For COBOL Project, Remote Project, and Mainframe Project types, COBOL Explorer adds category folders that automatically group together your project's COBOL programs, copybooks, and output files. (These folders are not physical folders on the disk, but effectively headings for certain file types.)

To simplify navigation around your project, you can hide some files that are part of the project, such as the .cobolBuild, .cobolProj, and .project files, and the .settings folder and its content in JVM projects. In the COBOL Explorer, click

and then click Customize View and choose from the options.

Filters

Choose types of content to hide in COBOL Explorer:

Option	Description
.*resources	Any files of type .* such as .cobolBuild, .cobolProj.
COBOL Copybook projects	Any COBOL Copybook projects.
Closed projects	Resources in closed projects never display, but you can choose to hide all closed project icons too.
Derived COBOL programs	Programs that have been generated by COBOL preprocessors.
Empty categories	COBOL Projects that do not contain COBOL program or copybook files.
Empty folders inside categories	Folders mapped to the COBOL Programs and Copybooks that contain no COBOL program or copybook files.
Empty folders outside categories	Folders not mapped to the COBOL Programs and Copybooks that contain no COBOL program or copybook files.
Non-Micro Focus projects	Non-Micro Focus projects.
RSE Internal projects	Projects generated by the RSE plug-in.

Content

Choose types of content to show in COBOL Explorer:

Option	Description
Working Sets	Working sets are subsets of workspace resources you can choose to show or perform options on. To define a working set, click Project > Build Working Set > Select Working Set > New.
COBOL Elements	Non-resource types that are COBOL-specific: x Category folders, including those for COBOL programs and copybooks Icons for the different types of COBOL files. Overlays for build errors and warnings Some context menu items
Resources	COBOL projects, COBOL programs and copybooks. Has effect only if the COBOL Elements option is unchecked.

COBOL Explorer helps you fix problems by using icons to identify files and containers that cause build errors and warnings.
- A file that generates a warning, and any containing folders and categories, is marked with a yellow warning sign. For example:
- A file that causes an error, and any containing folders and categories, is marked with a cross. In this example the icons indicate the most severe problem is the error caused by Program4.cbl, and the folders are marked with error icons despite Program5.cbl generating a warning:
- A project that suffers from a dependency error is marked with a red exclamation point; its contents remain unmarked. In this example the project depends on another project that is closed, causing a build path problem: