Features Added in 2.1

Enhancements

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.

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
    EBCDIC SI/SO added on upload, removed on download
    -SOSI-K
    EBCDIC 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.

OpenESQL

JDBC
JDBC has been enhanced to support two new directives:
JNDI
Enables you to specify a JNDI class that looks up connection strings.
JNDIENC
Enables applications to use the JNDI Environment Naming Context (ENC) when looking up JDBC data source names using JNDI.
ODBC
Added support for a generic one-phase commit for ODBC XA switch module.
SQL Server
We now support Microsoft SQL Server 2012.

General Enhancements

JVM auto-runtime

If you are developing a COBOL JVM project, you don't have to choose whether to use the native or pure JVM file handling systems. You can use just one runtime that configures itself for the environment it is executing in.

Managed code enhancements

Delegates and Events
Delegates and events are now implemented on the JVM platform.

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.
Parent topic: New Features