Development resources in San Diego, Rockville, and Newbury are collaborating on this initiative. Our recent Application Provider Forum in Dallas, Texas provided an opportunity for our North American ISV customers to hear the latest news about Project Meld. The presentation and Q&A session lead by Stephen Kelly – Micro Focus’ CEO, Gary Crook – Vice President of Development, and Randy Zack – Principal Architect of Acucorp Solutions was recorded. To download and play the videos, please click on the following link: Project Meld Video.
Now nine months into Project Meld, we have three teams working on an Acu4GL project, an AcuXDBC project, and a Core Technology project, and all teams are making great progress! I am very pleased to be able to use the In Focus newsletter to provide quarterly updates to the user base. For this article, I’ll give an overview of where we’re at with each of the projects, and where we’re going. Recognizing that this article is relatively brief given the complexity of Project Meld, I encourage all readers to watch out for upcoming webcasts and events, where presentations will be made in more detail and where there will be an opportunity for Question and Answer exchanges.
Acu4GL is a technology that allows you to access databases with standard COBOL I/O statements. A new compiler directive, CREATEXFD, has been implemented to allow the Checker (Micro Focus’ term for compiler) to automatically generate the data dictionaries, or XFDs, which are used by the Runtime System in the mapping of COBOL records to database rows, and COBOL datatypes to database types. The team has built an Acu File Handler (AcuFH), which communicates with Micro Focus’ EXTFH, and serves as a gateway to the existing ACUCOBOL-GT file system interface. Through this gateway, the team will integrate Acucorp’s Acu4GL software, largely “as-is” with the Micro Focus technology stack.
In this project, all base file I/O operations have been addressed. We have provided a demonstration showing an application performing READs from a Micro Focus data file and WRITEs into a DB2 database as might performed in a COBOL file conversion program. To view the demonstration given by Gary Henry, one of the developers on the project, please click on the following link: MF4GL. In the next phase of the project we will focus on increased robustness of options supported with each verb and providing improved support for locking, concurrency and transaction management.
Next, we will focus on providing support for the DEFAULT_HOST and filename-HOST configuration file variables and on some of the finer points of the OPEN and READ statements, including LOCKing behaviors. Work continues to extend the data types supported by the CREATEXFD functionality to include the full superset of all Micro Focus, and all ACUCOBOL-GT data types, and to support all XFD directives. Our plans are to deliver the 4GL technology as an add-on to Net Express/Server Express. We are anticipating an Early Adopter Program being ready in the early summer 2008.
AcuXDBC is a technology that allows you to access indexed files from ODBC- or JDBC compliant applications, using SQL. The addition of this technology onto the Micro Focus technology stack will provide a tool that can be used to access and transform data stored in either Micro Focus or VISION indexed files. Development is well underway, as drivers and utilities have been built for the Windows and Linux platforms that largely mimic the technology currently provided by Acucorp in our AcuXDBC product line.
In addition, the product has been engineered to work with the OPENESQL toolset included in Net Express/Server Express. There is overlap between this project and the Acu4GL project in that both technologies make use of XFDs. As a result, this project also requires that the CREATEXFD functionality provide support for the full superset of all Micro Focus and ACUCOBOL-GT data types and implement all XFD directives. This will be the focus of our efforts in the near future. The XDBC team is also anticipating a Spring/Early Summer Early Adopter Program. To view a demonstration given by John Waters-McCoy, the lead developer on this project, please click on the following link: MFDBC.
The Core Technology team is focused on enabling the use of ACUCOBOL-GT’s graphical technology on the Micro Focus technology stack. Preparing the groundwork for this effort has taken a great deal of work, which involves both extending the Micro Focus technology stack to support all ACUCOBOL-GT data types and devising a backbone mechanism that allows the Micro Focus Runtime System to communicate with the ACUCOBOL-GT terminal manager. Our goal is to leave the body of work that Acucorp created over the years largely in tact, so that behaviors remain identical and complex systems do not have to be re-developed. The expansion of this backbone will be seen by users as more and more of the capabilities of ACUCOBOL-GT’s graphical technology are exposed in the Micro Focus Runtime System.
The first graphical control exposed through this backbone has been the LABEL control. Next, we will expose the INITIAL/FLOATING WINDOW, ENTRY-FIELD, and PUSH-BUTTON controls. After that, there is a significant body of work that needs to be done around the ACCEPT statement. When we have completed this work, we will continue adding more controls, some of which promise to be quite straight-forward, and some quite challenging. The Core Technology team is working on pulling together a body of work that could be examined in an Early Adopter Program by the end of 2008. Prior to that date, we’ll do our best to use the In Focus newsletter and other forums to keep you up to date on our progress.
These are very exciting projects, and we look forward to bringing powerful tools to the Micro Focus customer base.
Robert Cavanagh
Product Manager, Acucorp Solutions
