Compiling Eclipse Projects

You can use the Micro Focus COBOL extension to compile COBOL (both native and JVM COBOL) source files that include the .cobolBuild project file created with either Visual COBOL or Enterprise Developer for Eclipse.

The extension auto-generates build tasks for each .cobolBuild file found.

This has the following requirements:

• A licensed version of one of the following products:
  • Micro Focus Visual COBOL
  • Micro Focus Visual COBOL Build Tools
  • Micro Focus Enterprise Developer
  • Micro Focus Enterprise Developer Build Tools

  You need to specify the installation location of the Micro Focus product you have as Micro Focus COBOL: Install Location in the Micro Focus COBOL extension settings.

• Apache Ant must be installed and the path to its bin folder added to the PATH.

If a folder opened in Visual Studio Code contains the .cobolBuild project file, the Micro Focus COBOL extension will automatically generate a task for compiling the project via Ant. You can manually configure the build task, if required.

To compile COBOL sources:

1. Ensure the folder that contains your sources is opened in Visual Studio Code.
2. Click Terminal > Run Build Task.

   This shows the Task Picker with the supplied build task:

   
   
   
3. Select COBOL: Ant (.cobolBuild) to trigger a build.

   The build output is displayed in the Terminal window. Any errors are underlined with red squiggly lines in the editor.

4. Check the Problems panel for any issues. Double-click any of the rows to navigate to the lines of code in the editor that contain the issue.

Optionally, you can configure the build task as follows:

1. Click Terminal > Configure Tasks.
2. Select COBOL: Ant (.cobolBuild) from the Task Picker.

   This loads the tasks.json file for your sources in the editor.