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 a Visual Studio project.

  1. Configure Visual Studio for JCL development.

    The default settings in Enterprise Developer are settings aimed at Mainframe Subsystem Application development. You can check and fine-tune them as follows:

    • Directives scanning of files added to the project - find more info about the COBOL and PL/I file scanning preferences.
    • Editor productivity and colorization - check the preferences for COBOL and for PL/I.
  2. Create a Mainframe Application Project for COBOL or for Create a PL/I project.
  3. Add your source files - see how for COBOL or for PL/I projects.
  4. Configure the project - specify your preference on the project's properties pages as follows:

    For example, for COBOL:

    • Application page - specify what the output type should be and any environment variables
    • SQL page - specify an ESQL preprocessor and directives
    • Dependency Paths page - specify the paths to your copybooks
    • COBOL page - specify a dialect with Enterprise COBOL for z/OS set by default, and the encoding.
    • Debug page - specify options for debugging JCL.

    For PL/I projects, click here.

  5. Edit your source files - see some tips for COBOL, PL/I, and BMS files.
  6. Build an application
  7. Debug an application:

    Enterprise Developer includes a testing environment for applications that run in Enterprise Server.

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

Parent topic: Where do I start: Developing Mainframe Applications in Enterprise Developer