Developer: My Application Uses JCL

Job Control Language (JCL) is a command language for the IBM mainframe that provides instructions for how to run batch jobs and start a subsystem.

Before you start, you can check the following overview of migrating JCL applications to a PC.

The following steps provide guidance on how to create mainframe projects in Enterprise Developer for your COBOL and PL/I applications that use JCL, and how to debug and test them. The assumption is that you will be adding your existing application sources to an Eclipse project.

1. Start Eclipse and open the Team Developer perspective which is the default one for Enterprise Developer.

   You can also choose the COBOL or PL/I perspective, depending on the main programming language.

2. Configure Eclipse for JCL development.

   The default settings in Enterprise Developer are settings aimed at Mainframe Subsystem Application development. You can check and fine-tune settings for the editor and for setting Compiler directives from Window > Preferences > Micro Focus.

3. Create a Mainframe Subsystem Application project for COBOL or PL/I.
4. Add your source files - see how for COBOL or for PL/I projects.
5. Set Compiler directives on the source files - for COBOL and for PL/I.
6. Specify project and build configuration properties - for COBOL and for PL/I projects.

   For example, you can specify an SQL preprocessor settings, a character set and for COBOL, the mainframe dialect.

7. Edit your source files - see some tips for COBOL, PL/I, and JCL
8. Starting the BMS Painter Utility files.
9. Build your COBOL or PL/I application.
10. Debug your application - Enterprise Developer comes with a testing environment for applications that run in Enterprise Server.
    • Configure the IDE for debugging on Enterprise Server.
    • Debug using a temporary region
    • Submit the JCL
    • See the spool and the catalog

Further, to get familiar with the process of developing JCL applications in Enterprise Developer, Micro Focus recommends that you check the following:

• Getting started with Enterprise Developer tutorial
• JCL tutorial for COBOL
• The PL/I JCL Demo available with the product's samples
• JCL programming concepts