Micro Focus Visual COBOL 2.3 Update 2 for Visual Studio 2015 > Developing Applications in the IDE > Building COBOL applications > Compiling COBOL Applications > Using Preprocessors > Additional Preprocessors > Specifying an additional preprocessor

Specifying an additional preprocessor

Specify a preprocessor to use with your project

To specify a preprocessor to use with your project:

In Solution Explorer, click the project whose properties you want to set.
Click Project > project_name > Properties.
Click the Preprocessors tab in the left side of the IDE to open the preprocessors properties page.
Specify a preprocessor to use with your project:
- To specify your own or a third-party preprocessor to use with your project:
  1. Click .
    This displays the Add Custom Preprocessor dialog box.
  2. Type the name of the preprocessor in the Name field.
  3. Specify the location of the preprocessor in the Location field. Alternatively, click Browse and navigate to the preprocessor location.
  4. Type any required directives in the Directives field. Use space to separate multiple directives.
  5. Click OK.
    This adds the preprocessor to your project. You can add more than one preprocessor to your project.
- To specify an installed preprocessor to use with your project:
  1. Click Installed Preprocessors.
    This displays the Add Installed Preprocessor dialog box.
  2. In the Name list, select the installed preprocessor to use.
  3. Type any required directives in the Directives field.
  4. Click OK. This adds the specified preprocessor to the stack list.
  Note: It is not possible to combine the "Micro Focus - EHTML Preprocessor" and "Micro Focus - XML Preprocessor" with other preprocessors. Selecting one of these preprocessors will prevent you from adding any other additional preprocessors. See Integrating Preprocessors into Visual COBOL for instructions about how to integrate an additional preprocessor with the list in Visual COBOL.
Click File > Save All to save your changes.

Each preprocessor you add is inserted at the top of the list on the Preprocessor page. The order of execution of preprocessors is from the top to the bottom of the list.

Specify a preprocessor to use with a file

Files in your project inherit the settings specified at project level. To specify any additional preprocessor for an individual file in your project that differ from the preprocessor settings at project level:

In Solution Explorer, right-click a COBOL program in your project, and click Properties.
On the Preprocessors page in the file properties, uncheck Inherit from project.
Specify a preprocessor to use with the file:
- To specify your own or a third-party preprocessor to use with your file:
  1. Click .
    This displays the Add Custom Preprocessor dialog box.
  2. Type the name of the preprocessor in the Name field.
  3. Specify the location of the preprocessor in the Location field. Alternatively, click Browse and navigate to the preprocessor location.
  4. Type any required directives in the Directives field. Use space to separate multiple directives.
  5. Click OK.
    This adds the preprocessor to your file. You can add more than one preprocessor to your file.
- To specify an installed preprocessor to use with your file:
  1. Click Installed Preprocessors.
    This displays the Add Installed Preprocessor dialog box.
  2. In the Name list, select the installed preprocessor to use.
  3. Type any required directives in the Directives field.
  4. Click OK. This adds the specified preprocessor to the stack list.
  Note: It is not possible to combine the "Micro Focus - EHTML Preprocessor" and "Micro Focus - XML Preprocessor" with other preprocessors. Selecting one of these preprocessors will prevent you from adding any other additional preprocessors. See Integrating Preprocessors into Visual COBOL for instructions about how to integrate an additional preprocessor with the list in Visual COBOL.
Click Apply and then click OK.
Note: To revert the file's preprocessor settings to the values set for the project, check Inherit from project on the Preprocessors page in the file properties.

Each preprocessor you add is inserted at the top of the list on the Preprocessor page. The order of execution of preprocessors is from the top to the bottom of the list.