Features Added in Visual COBOL 2.1

Note: There are differences between the variants of Enterprise Developer you might have installed. Enterprise Developer Personal Edition provides a development environment that supports analysis, editing and syntax checking of COBOL and mainframe programs outside of the mainframe environment. It does not, however, support off-mainframe debugging, unit testing, or building of projects. To build, debug, and execute the demonstration application, you need Enterprise Developer.

Visual COBOL Enhancements

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.

Compiler directives

The following new Compiler directives are now available:

DISPLAY: Defines the default behavior of standard DISPLAY statements.
COMP1: Specifies the behavior of a COMP-1 data item.
COMP2: Specifies the behavior of a COMP-2 data item.
RESTRICT-GOTO: Generates a syntax error for GO TO statements that transfer control to outside of the current section.
ILSMARTRESTRICT: Limits the generation of properties in ILSMARTLINKAGE classes to non-redefining elementary items.

The following Compiler directive has changed:

DATAMAP - Two new parameters allow you to display either the address or offset values for data items in your program.

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 Visual COBOL 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.

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.

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.