June 2004
Quick Links Press Releases |
What's new at Micro Focus?
Product Launch Event - Mainframe Express Enterprise Edition
Hosted by Micro Focus
June 8th 2004 - Drake Hotel, Chicago
Discover how you can "Leverage and Extend" your investment in mainframe technology for improved business agility at reduced risk and cost. Micro Focus announces Mainframe Express Enterprise Edition, a unified best-in-class Microsoft Windows-based development environment which mitigates risk, reduces cost and increases agility with a faster payback, through efficient use of your current skill-set and a seamless extension to J2EE, .NET or Web services.
Presentations by:
Ian Archbell, VP of Product Management, Micro Focus
Ron Exler, Director of Research Operations, Robert Frances Group
Dave Surowiec, Senior Systems Analyst, CSC
Kevin Parker, Vice President, Development, Serena
Space is limited. Register today: www.microfocus.com/maximize
Press Releases
SPARDA-Datenverarbeitung SELECTS MICRO FOCUS COMPONENT GENERATOR TO UNLOCK THE POWER OF LEGACY
Rockville, Md. and Ismaning, Germany, June 2, 2004 - Micro Focus International Ltd. (Micro Focus®), the leading provider of COBOL application development and deployment software, announced today that Sparda-Datenverarbeitung eG has selected Micro Focus Component Generator® to deliver new Web-based composite applications that reuse existing legacy assets. Sparda-Datenverarbeitung eG is the IT service provider of Sparda-Bank, PSD Bank and NetBank in Germany. By using this innovative technology, Sparda is unlocking valuable mainframe COBOL applications to improve service to its branch customers while laying the groundwork for use of newer technologies such as Web services.
more>>
MICRO FOCUS INAUGURATES NEW ST. ALBANS OFFICES
ST. ALBANS, Herts, UK, June 02, 2004 - Micro Focus International Ltd. (Micro Focus®), the leading provider of COBOL application development and deployment software, today unveils its new St. Albans office at Churchill House, 26/30 Upper Marlborough Road, St. Albans, Herts. The new Hertfordshire presence in St. Albans represents Micro Focus' continued commitment to the region, the community and its employees.
more>>
MICRO FOCUS AND UNILOG "LIFT AND SHIFT" MAINFRAME APPLICATIONS TO WINDOWS PLATFORM
Rockville, Md. and Ismaning, Germany, May 5, 2004 - Micro Focus International Ltd. (Micro Focus®), the leading provider of COBOL application development and deployment software, announced today that it has entered into a partnership with Unilog, the IT systems integrator, to port mainframe applications to the Microsoft® Windows® platform. Under the terms of the partnership, Micro Focus will combine its knowledge of COBOL applications with Unilog's business sector and applications expertise to enable existing COBOL applications, based on proprietary mainframe platforms, to run at higher performance levels on low cost, technology rich platforms, such as Windows® and Intel®.
more>>
In The News
| May 18, 2004 | Database Trends and Applications | Micro Focus and Unilog Move Mainframe Applications to Windows |
| May 13, 2004 | ADTmag.com | Microsoft, Micro Focus lead mainframe migration effort |
| May 5, 2004 | Yahoo! Finance (UK & Ireland) | Micro Focus and Unilog 'Lift and Shift' Mainframe Applications to Windows Platform |
| May 1, 2004 | SD Times | Micro Focus: Getting CICS From Windows |
| April 21, 2004 | Line 56 | Escaping the Mainframe |
SupportLine News
Advance Notice - Removal of Mainframe Express WinRunner Option
We are preparing for the release of Mainframe Express 3.0. This is a significant update from Micro Focus representing a heavy investment in order to provide some exciting benefits to your organization. Full details of what's new will be published in due course. In advance of this release, we would like to bring it to your attention that the integrated WinRunner Option will no longer be available in Mainframe Express 3.0. If you have previously purchased the WinRunner Option and wish to know how you can integrate 3rd party regression testing packages, please send an email requesting this information to mfe@microfocus.com (Note: This is a repeat of the original advanced notice made in the February through May 2003 issues of the SupportLine Newsletter. This change is now imminent.)
Upcoming Events
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Other News
Join the monthly Micro Focus Webcasts
Micro Focus conducts two Webcasts each month. These Webcasts are delivered in a one hour format, with the hour made up of about 45 minutes of presentation or instruction, followed by a 15 minute question and answer session.
First Friday Webcast
he First Fridays Webcast focus is on topics of critical concern to enterprise IT directors and developers. IT professionals in organizations whose legacy systems depend on the stability of COBOL should not miss these important events. Information about the First Friday Webcasts is available at
http://www.microfocus.com/promotion/firstfriday/schedule.asp.
E-Learning Webcasts
Join us every 3rd Thursday of the month for a one hour e-learning session on special interest topics related to Micro Focus products. The sessions are FREE and fully web-based. Registration is available online for the upcoming sessions.
For more details>
Micro Focus Training
Micro Focus Training & Education is committed to providing training that accelerates our customer's implementation and return on investment of Micro Focus tools. If you are interested in registering for a course, please contact us through the web at: www.microfocus.com/training. To view the courses and contact numbers for the individual countries, please select the proper link in the following list:
• Benelux
• France
• Germany
• Netherlands
• North America * - New Courses & locations now available! Click to view
• United Kingdom
sign up for one of our training courses NEAR YOU today!
Product Updates
Object COBOL V4.2 for UNIX
Open Unix 8 (32bit)
- Fixpack14.01_6_cob.tar.encr - Development System
- Fixpack14.01_6_osx.tar.encr - Application Server
Mainframe Express 2.5
- all01m25.exe
Server Express 4.0
AIX 5.2 (64Bit)
- Fixpack40.01_2_cob.tar.encr - Development System
- Fixpack40.01_2_apps.tar.encr - Application Server
Server Express 2.2 - SP1
AIX 4.3.3 (32-bit product)
- Fixpack22.02_14_cob.tar.encr - Development System
- Fixpack22.02_14_apps.tar.encr - Application Server
AIX 5.2 (64-bit product)
- Fixpack22.02_14_cob.tar.encr - Development System
- Fixpack22.02_14_apps.tar.encr - Application Server
HP-UX PA-RISC 11.x (32/64bit)
- Fixpack22.02_14_cob.tar.encr - Development System
- Fixpack22.02_14_apps.tar.encr - Application Server
Linux Red Hat ES 2.1
- Fixpack22.01_17_cob.tar.encr - Development System
- Fixpack22.01_17_apps.tar.encr - Application Server
Linux SuSE SLES 8
- Fixpack22.01_17_cob.tar.encr - Development System
- Fixpack22.01_17_apps.tar.encr - Application Server
SunSparc 8 (32/64bit)
- Fixpack22.02_14_cob.tar.encr - Development System
- Fixpack22.02_14_apps.tar.encr - Application Server
Server Express 2.2
HP-UX 11.22 Itanium
- Fixpack22.01_18_cob.tar.encr - Development System
- Fixpack22.01_18_apps.tar.encr - Application Server
|
Requesting Product Updates
As a SupportLine customer, you can receive your FREE update to a complete version of the current release on CD by sending an email to Update@microfocus.com. You will need to provide your Name, Company, Phone, and Fax numbers, email address, shipping address, number of users, your current product serial number(s), and to which product or release you wish to Update.
License Key Requests
Along with the other recent changes, the address to use to request new license keys has changed. License Keys for AAI, EnterpriseLink, Mainframe Express, Mainframe Manager, Net Express, Revolve, and Transformation Product Suite products should now be requested in one of two ways. They should either be requested through the Request/Obtain License link, located on the SupportLine web page Self Service menu, or they should be sent to the new e-mail address of urk@microfocus.com All of the previous e-mail addresses used for obtaining new license keys are now invalid.
Technical Articles
Articles and demos to inform you about functions and features of your Micro Focus products
Net Express
How to Enable File Tracing
When problems occur while using Micro Focus indexed files, such as data and/or index corruption, you may be asked to enable File Tracing in your application, in order to assist Micro Focus SupportLine personnel in resolving the file issues. This article details what is needed to configure and use the Micro Focus External File Handler File Tracing function.
more >
DFCONV error message 131 (Error opening input file)
When trying to convert an 8.5 GB line-sequential file into a Index-sequential file with DFCONV the following error message appeared: 131 (Error opening input file). This article discusses some of the issues and problems that can arise when creating large indexed files from Line Sequential input files.
more >
How to get locked records using the OpenESQL interface?
Using the OpenESQL interface within Net Express Version 4.0, what is needed to get locked records similar COBOL's locked records using ISAM files? This article discusses the settings needed to effect record locking similar to that used with indexed files.
more >
Mainframe Express
Starting an IMS application called by a JAVA program
We support connectivity to JAVA clients via TCP/IP (IMS Connect emulation). This article demonstrates the IMS Connect interface in Mainframe Express (MFE) 2.5 SP1.
more >
Revolve & Revolve Enterprise Edition
Data Files Browser
Data files themselves are not loaded into Revolve, but information about them is. This information can be found in the Data Files Browser. This article describes how to access this information.
more (pdf) >
Server Express
Why are Application Server licenses used instead of Development Application Server licenses?
For each Server Express Development license, five special Application Server licenses are installed automatically. This article will discuss how and when these are used in comparison with the Server Express Application Server deployment licenses.
more >
Setting up the UNIX environment for Server Express
Once you have completed the installation of Server Express, what variables must be set in the UNIX environment? This article covers the appropriate environment settings to insure that Server Express is fully functional.
more >
Planned Product Withdrawals
Are you aware of the Product Withdrawal Schedule Information within the Micro Focus Product Advisory pages? This schedule shows the planned (or past) withdrawal dates of Micro Focus products and their successor products. It is advisable for you to check this schedule from time to time, so you can stay up to date on the plans near term plans for the Micro Focus products that you are using.
A reminder: Many of the Object COBOL Developer Suite v4.1 products on all UNIX platforms are being withdrawn as of December 31, 2003. All withdrawn releases are, or have been, replaced by either Object COBOL Developer Suite v4.2 or by a Server Express release. If you are still operating on v4.1 product versions, you should be planning on upgrading your release to correspond to this schedule.
A "withdrawn release" means that new corrective fixes will no longer be made available. Other SupportLine services continue to be available once a product is "withdrawn" until such time as that the release is "withdrawn from support".
The full Product Withdrawal Schedule can be found on the Micro Focus web site at:
withdrawal
Resources
Micro Focus Forum
If you haven't visited the new Micro Focus Forum, you should check out what other users of the products are doing there.
http://www.cobolportal.com/microfocusforum/
The COBOL Portal
Have you visited the new COBOL Portal lately?
Many changes and enhancements have been made to the COBOL Portal recently to make it 'the' web site for the COBOL developer.
http://www.cobolportal.com
Have you visited the Micro Focus SupportLine web page? Have you registered for access?
If you haven't you should!
By accessing the SupportLine web page, you can:
- Submit issues directly to our support operation just as you would over the telephone. Issues submitted through the website given the same priority as telephone inquiries.
- View the status of the cases you have submitted to Support, whether you opened them through the web or through a telephone call to us. You may also update the information on your open cases to provide additional information.
- You can view the status of any product defect reports you have submitted to us.
There are self-help services available on the SupportLine web page that will allow you to find answers to a variety of product questions, provide you with a concentrated sub-site for Net Express information and examples, and give you access to our AnswerLab user community messaging area.
If you haven't registered and visited our SupportLine web page, you owe it to yourself to see what you have been missing. Click on the following links to register (all you need is your personal information and your product serial numbers) to access the SupportLine web page and start benefiting from these services.
Register for an online SupportLine account
Access the SupportLine Web Page
Please Help Improve Communication Within The Micro Focus User Community
If you know of any users of Micro Focus products, development support team members, technical architects or any other parties who would be interested in receiving future issues of this communication each month, please direct them to the registration page where they can register online.
