Create and Configure ESREST

Walks you through the process of creating and configuring an enterprise server instance, ESREST, to use in this tutorial.
Restriction: This topic applies only when the Enterprise Server feature is enabled.
Restriction: This topic applies to Windows environments (local development) only.

To successfully deploy and run (debug) a Web Services service interface, you must have an enterprise server instance started in Enterprise Server. For these tutorials, you create the ESREST enterprise server instance, set its listener port, and configure a deployment folder for it to use.

Start Enterprise Server Administration

  1. From Server Explorer in Visual COBOL, right-click Local [localhost:86]; then click Open Administration Page.

    The Enterprise Server Administration Home page starts in an Visual COBOL window.

Create ESREST

In this section, you create the ESREST enterprise server instance from the Home page in Enterprise Server Administration.

  1. From the Enterprise Server Administration Home page, click Add.
  2. In the Server Name field, type ESREST.
  3. Click Next.
  4. Under Server Type, select Micro Focus Enterprise Server; then click Next.
  5. On the Add server (Page 3 of 3) page, click Add.

Configure ESREST

By default, your new enterprise server instance is already configured for the REST architectural style; however, you must make some adjustments, which include enabling dynamic debugging, setting an endpoint address for the Web Services and J2EE Listener, and if you do not have Administrator privileges to the Visual COBOL installation folder, defining a deployment folder.

Enable Dynamic Debugging
  1. On the Enterprise Server Administration Home page in the table of servers, click the Edit button that corresponds to the ESREST server.
  2. On the Server > Properties > General page (default) in the Startup Options group, check Allow Dynamic Debugging; then click OK.

    This returns you to the Home page.

Configure the Web Services and J2EE Listener
  1. On the Enterprise Server Administration Home page, in the Communications Processes column for the ESREST server, click the Details button.

    This takes you to the Communications Processes page for Enterprise Server listeners.

  2. Click the Edit button that corresponds to Web Services and J2EE.
  3. Change the contents of the Endpoint Address field to *:9003.
  4. Click OK.

    This returns you to the Communications Processes page.

  5. Click the Edit button that corresponds to Web.
  6. Change the value of the New Status field to Stopped. This enables the listener used to deploy the service interface to the ESREST server.
  7. Click OK.
    Important: If you do not have Administrator privileges to the Visual COBOL installation folder, continue with the configuration. Otherwise, configuration for the ESREST enterprise server instance is complete at this point.
Define a Deployment Folder
The default deployment folder used by Enterprise Server is a subfolder to your Visual COBOL installation folder. If you have Administrator privileges to the Visual COBOL installation structure, or if you started Visual COBOL using Run as Administrator, you are not required to complete this section of the tutorial.
  1. Back on the Communications Processes page, click the Edit button that corresponds to the Web listener.
  2. Scroll down to the Configuration Information field; then within the field, scroll down until you find the relevant code, then change:
    uploads=<ES>/deploy

    to:

    uploads=ProjectFolder/deploy
    where ProjectFolder is the full path to your project folder, using forward slashes to separate subfolders. For example:
    uploads=c:/Users/Bob/workspace/project-name/deploy
  3. Click OK.
  4. Click Home to return to the Enterprise Server Administration Home page.

Create and Configure a Deployment Folder

The default deployment folder used by Enterprise Server is a subfolder to your Visual COBOL installation folder. If you have Administrator privileges to the Visual COBOL installation structure, or if you started Visual COBOL using Run as Administrator, you are not required to complete this section of the tutorial.

Create the deploy folder
Without Administrator privileges, you cannot deploy to Enterprise Server from the default Visual COBOL deployment folder. To ensure successful deployment, create a deploy folder in your ProgramREST project.
  1. In the COBOL Explorer, right-click the project; then select New > Folder from the context menu.
  2. In the Folder name field, type deploy; click Finish.
    Note: To ensure that you can see the deploy folder in COBOL Explorer:
    1. Click View Menu > Customize View.

      This opens the Available Customizations dialog box.

    2. Uncheck Empty folders outside categories.
    3. Click OK.
Import the .mfdeploy File
The new deploy folder must contain the .mfdeploy configuration file. You import the file from the COBOL Explorer.
  1. From the COBOL Explorer, right-click the project folder; then select Import > Import from the context menu.
  2. Expand General; then click double-click File System.
  3. Click the Browse button that corresponds to the From directory field, and navigate to
    InstallFolder\deploy

    where InstallFolder is your Visual COBOL installation folder. By default, this is %ProgramFiles(x86)%\Micro Focus\Visual COBOL.

  4. Click Select Folder.
  5. Check .mfdeploy in the right pane.
  6. In the Into folder field, append \deploy to the existing value so that it points to the deploy subdirectory.
  7. Click Finish to import the file into the project.