Micro Focus Visual COBOL 2.3 for Visual Studio 2012 > Programming > Using COBOL and Java Together > Setting Up the Environment for Native COBOL Applications > Setting Up the Environment for Java and COBOL

Setting Up the Environment for Java and COBOL

Restriction: This applies to native code only.

You need a Java run-time system on any machine that is going to execute Java applications. If you are going to develop mixed Java and COBOL applications, you will need the Java Software Development Kit (SDK) available from Oracle.

Your COBOL development system currently supports several Java run-time systems.

Before you start writing COBOL and Java programs which interact, you need to set up the following environment variables for the COBOL and Java run-time systems:

PATH
If you are using the Java run-time system from Oracle, the jvm.dll file must be available. Do not move jvm.dll to a different location, because it has dependencies on other files shipped as part of the Java run-time system. The location of this file depends on which version of the JDK you are using. To ensure the file is available, add it to the system PATH. For example:
```
set path=jdk-install-directory\bin\subdirectory;%path%
```
Where subdirectory might be client, classic, hotspot or server.
If you generate EJBs or Java beans using the Interface Mapping Toolkit, the Java Compiler must be available. To do this, put the bin directory of JDK on the PATH. For example:
```
set path=jdk-install-directory\bin;%path%
```
CLASSPATH
If you have Java programs that call COBOL, you need to provide access to the Java classes that interface to the COBOL run-time system. To do this, ensure that mfcobol.jar is specified by the CLASSPATH environment variable. For example:
```
set classpath=install-directory\base\bin\mfcobol.jar;%classpath%;.;
```
Alternatively, you can set the classpath when you run a Java program, using the -classpath switch. For example:
```
java -classpath ".;install-directory\base\bin\mfcobol.jar;%classpath%" MyClass
```
If you generate EJBs or Java beans using the Interface Mapping Toolkit, the tools.jar of the JDK must be on the CLASSPATH. For example:
```
set classpath=jdk-install-directory\lib\tools.jar;%classpath%;.;
```
Shared library path
The operating system's shared library path must include the directory containing libjava. This is often found in a subdirectory of Java's jre/lib directory, although the name of this directory is specific to each platform. On some platforms, you might need to specify more than one directory for this, for example, an additional directory containing the Java native threading support.