Creating Applications Using Visual COBOL

These are the basic steps for creating applications in Visual COBOL:

1. Create a project:
   1. In Visual Studio, click File > New > Project.
   2. Expand COBOL in the Installed pane.
   3. Click a project template category - for example, Native, Windows Desktop. The categories that you have installed depend on the workloads (ASP, Windows Communication Foundation, etc.) you have selected when installing Visual Studio.
   4. Click one of the available project templates.
   5. Specify a name, location, and solution name.
   6. Click OK.
2. Add files to the project:
   1. Right-click the project in Solution Explorer and click Add > New Item or Add > Existing Item to either create new files or to add existing ones.

      If you are adding existing COBOL source files, you can use Add Existing COBOL Items. The IDE then scans the files to determine what Compiler directives they require and automatically sets the directives on them.

3. Optionally, add folders to the projects, if needed, using the Add > New Folder context menu command.

   If a folder contains copybooks, you need to add it to the Copybook Paths of the project as the folder is not added automatically to these paths - right-click the folder in Solution Explorer, click Add and then click Add Folder to Copybook Paths.

4. Configure the project's properties:
   1. Click Project > MyProject Properties.
   2. Click the tab on the left-hand side to set build and debug Compiler directives and specify the output file type and location.
5. Optionally, configure any file settings - right-click a file in Solution Explorer and click Properties.
6. Build your project or the entire solution - click Build > Solution or Build > Build MyProject.
7. Debug the project - click Debug > Start Debugging.