Pre- and post-build processing events

Within the Micro Focus > Events section of a project's properties, you can call your own script files to execute immediately before and after the .cobolBuild ANT script during the building of a project.

Pre-build events command line setting

Some of the contents of a pre-build script can affect the build process; you can:

Introduce error messages into the IDE.
Set a return code for the entire build.

Error messages

Code errors within the pre-build script that use the same error format as those usually shown within the IDE. For example, the following message can be broken down as follows:

** VALDN0003S Validation error : program1.cbl(12,14,5)

VALDN: The error message prefix.
0003: The error code.
S: The error severity: S for severe, W for warning, and I for information.
Validation error: The error message text.
program1.cbl: The relative (to the script file) or absolute path and file name of the program.
(12,14,5): The location of the error in the source file: line number, end column, start column.
Tip: If you do not know the location, use (0,0,0).

By using this same format, you receive a similar behavior to that of errors generated by a background parse: they are listed in the Problems tab, under the sub-section relating to their severity. Double-clicking the entry also takes you to the specified location in the source code.

Return code

The following entry sends a return code (in this case '8') to the build process; a non-zero code will mark the build process as failed, as shown in the Console view:

exit /b 8