Brochure

Application Modernization and Connectivity

Visual COBOL
Brochure
Visual COBOL

Business Challenge
There is an increasing demand from users of
business software for easier to use applica-
tions which flexibly integrate with other busi-
ness systems. As a result IT organizations are
being asked to deliver modern user interfaces
and integrate multiple business systems. At
the same time IT continually strives to reduce
operational costs and risk by standardizing on
common platforms for all their applications.
This way, the same tools and processes can
be used across teams regardless of which pro-
gramming language was used to build it origi-
nally. Microsoft’s .NET framework and the Java
Virtual Machine (JVM) are widely seen as the
standard frameworks of choice.

Moving to commodity hardware and man-

aged code frameworks can return consider-
Figure 1. The future of COBOL application development using industry standard tools
able cost savings and better business agility.
But often, IT organizations must contend with
these modern tools and processes enabling Existing COBOL applications seamlessly inte-
long-standing applications that run on aging
them to take on new enterprise application grate with C# or Java systems enabling faster
or even unsupported hardware and software
maintenance and development tasks. This development and service delivery.
environments. Previously, IT organizations and
approach accelerates onboarding, reduces
ISVs considered that their only option to deliver
new innovation was to rewrite business appli-
new hire costs and delivers a future strategy Business Benefit
for building next generation talent. Visual COBOL provides IT organizations with
cations in newer languages, such as Java or
the ability to create new customer value from
C#. This strategy introduces considerable cost
Solution Overview existing application investments. By re-using
and risk for little business value. With Visual
Visual COBOL is a suite of software products core application logic, Visual COBOL removes
COBOL the application’s core business logic
designed to meet the needs of IT organizations the risk associated with re-write or replacement
is re-used enabling the application provider to
with existing application investments written in strategies which expose the business to uncer-
deploy new functionality across a wide range of
the COBOL language. tain cost and extended delivery time frames.
enterprise platforms including Linux, .NET, JVM
or the Cloud. This strategy enables the orga-
Advanced COBOL application development With Visual COBOL, organizations can quickly
nization to take advantage of next generation
tools available within Visual Studio and Eclipse and safely respond to new business require-
technology alongside traditional strengths and
provide developers with a modern develop- ments and modern IT user needs with predict-
reliability of proven application investments.
able and highly cost-effective results.
ment experience, consistent with that of Java
IT organizations must also find ways to quick­ and C# developers, facilitating fast, agile de-
­ly onboard or transfer specialty skills and velopment and easy onboarding for new staff. Feature Overview
resources to support existing application in- Patented Compiler Technology
vestments, avoiding the pitfalls of siloed appli- Patented compiler technology offers flexible The Visual COBOL compiler includes patented
cation development. By standardizing within deployment options across native platforms technology that offers unique and highly ver-
integrated development environments (IDEs)— including Windows, UNIX and Linux systems satile options for COBOL application develop-
Visual Studio and Eclipse, IT teams can quickly as well as managed code environments such ment. COBOL programs can be compiled to a
onboard new developers already familiar with as .NET and the Java Virtual Machine (JVM). variety of executable formats including:

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■ Intermediate code (.int) a Micro Focus
platform portable executable format
■ Generated code (.gnt) a Micro Focus
executable format optimized for the
target platform
■ Shared Object (.so) native shared object
executable format for UNIX/Linux platforms
■ Windows Executable (.exe/dll) native
Windows executable formats
■ Java bytecode (.class) COBOL compiled
to Java bytecode and executable within
the JVM
■ .NET Assembly (.exe/.dll) COBOL
­ ompiled to MSIL and executable within
c
the Microsoft Common Language
Runtime (CLR).
The Visual COBOL compiler offers support for
a wide variety of modern and older COBOL dia- Figure 3. Mixed language COBOL and Java development within Eclipse
lect variants and includes ANSI and ISO stan-
dards, Enterprise COBOL and many others. environment for the execution of COBOL ap- COBOL Server provides many services essen-
plications. Consistent application behavior tial to a range of COBOL applications such as
High Performance COBOL Runtime is provided across supported platforms and file processing, sorting and relational database
Environment through use of a portable API layer, enabling support. The COBOL Server also provides ap-
Micro Focus COBOL Server provides a high- developers to follow a write-once, deploy-any- plication tracing and diagnostic tools.
performance and platform-portable runtime where approach.
The latest release of Visual COBOL includes
new compiler and runtime optimizations which
have been shown to increase application per-
formance on Intel-based systems by between
20-30% across a broad range of benchmarks.

Cross-Platform Deployment
The Micro Focus COBOL compiler and COBOL
runtime system provides ubiquitous platform
coverage enabling COBOL applications to be
deployed across a range of distributed sys-
tems, ensuring compatibility and consistent
behaviour across different platforms. Standard
library routines callable from COBOL applica-
tions enable application developers scope to
write-once, deploy-anywhere yet still access
operating system level functionality.

Figure 2. High performance, portable runtime execution environment for COBOL applications

www.microfocus.com 3
Brochure
Visual COBOL

ISVs can target multiple platforms with the

same COBOL codebase, increasing market
coverage and reducing application testing
overheads. Application owners can swiftly
change operating platforms to take advantage
of commodity hardware and more agile, flexible
deployment options.

This release of Visual COBOL includes sup-

port for the Docker container platform, further
in­creasing flexibility for application develop-
ment and deployment. New product packag-
ing options enable Docker deployment to both
Windows Server and Linux platforms.

Advanced COBOL Development Tools

Visual COBOL extends the Visual Studio and
Eclipse IDEs to provide a rich COBOL devel-
opment environment within the world’s most Figure 5. Creating a REST web service using the graphical web services toolkit provided in Visual COBOL
popular application development platforms.
providing instant feedback to the suggestions and access to framework
Visual COBOL provides advanced editing and developer APIs and documentation
debugging features within the IDE: ■ Auto-complete prompts assist the ■ Advanced debugging tools support JIT,
■ Continuous background compilation ­ eveloper when coding language
d attach-to-process and remote debug options
catches syntax errors as they occur constructs. It automatically offers ■ Multiple tool windows provide extra
i­nformation about the structure and
layout of the application
■ Inline editor views provide a single window
view of a COBOL program, ­incorporating
all copybooks used and the result of
COPY REPLACING
■ Several code navigation tools assist
developers in identifying points of interest
in the code, including go to definition,
find all references, and navigation bars
■ Snippets and templates give developers
access to commonly used constructs
and can be customized to meet specific
developer and development team needs
■ Code analysis tools enable developers to
create customizable analysis queries that
can be executed on demand or following
a build. Out-of-the box queries identify
Figure 4. Visual COBOL for Eclipse remote development option performance bottlenecks and dead code.

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Reversible Debugging and Live Recorder the results of the latest checked-in code. The source code and data resides on a remote
This release of Visual COBOL includes pat- unit testing framework is available within the UNIX server. This feature enables teams to
ented reversible debugging tools from Undo. Visual Studio and Eclipse IDEs which provide retain the traditional client-server approach to
tools for automatic test case creation and vi- UNIX application development, while delivering
Unlike traditional debugging techniques, which sualization of results. a unified and seamless development experi-
allow the developer to step forwards through ence within Eclipse. Compilation and debug-
code as it executes, reversible debugging en- Visual COBOL includes support for common ging occur on the remote server while being
ables a developer to step back through the ap- Continuous Integration (CI) toolsets, such as initiated and controlled through the Eclipse IDE.
plication’s execution path. Somewhat akin to Microsoft TFS and Jenkins. Documentation
reviewing a CCTV recording, developers using guides aid in configuring CI systems to com- RESTful Web Services
reversible debugging tools can retrospectively pile COBOL applications and run unit testing. Visual COBOL provides several options for
examine application behavior to identify and building applications as part of an SOA or API
resolve logic errors. CI pipelines can be augmented using additional development strategy. Once compiled for use
validation checks such as coding standards in .NET or JVM environments, COBOL applica-
In addition to the standard reversible debug- rules from Micro Focus COBOL Analyzer, unit tions can be invoked within the native frame-
ging tools available from within the Eclipse testing with code coverage, performance pro- work support for web services.
IDE, the Live Recorder utility allows develop- filing and use of Live Recorder to capture failing
ers to capture application execution at runtime. test cases. In addition, Visual COBOL provides a native
Live Recorder trace files can subsequently be code, COBOL application server which offers
loaded into Eclipse for debugging and diagnos- Remote Development for UNIX and Linux both J2EE application server integration and
tic purposes. In this release of Visual COBOL, Productivity offered by the Eclipse platform a Web Services option for SOAP or REST-
reversible debugging and Live Recorder tools extends to COBOL application development JSON based web services. A graphical tool-
are available as early adopter features on Red on UNIX platforms. A remote development set enables developers to quickly create web
Hat only. option enables developers to use Eclipse on services from existing COBOL applications.
Windows or Linux platforms while application Once created, services can be debugged
Agile Development
This release of Visual COBOL includes features
designed to support Agile development teams.

The Micro Focus COBOL unit testing framework

enables developers to create unit tests for new
application code. Unit tests can be au­to­mated
as part of a continuous integration system to
provide immediate feedback to developers on

The latest release of Visual

COBOL includes new compiler
and runtime optimizations which
have been shown to increase
application performance on
Intel-based systems by between
20-30% across a broad range
of benchmarks. Figure 5. Creating a REST web service using the graphical web services toolkit provided in Visual COBOL

www.microfocus.com 5
Brochure
Visual COBOL

and deployed within the Micro Focus COBOL The Visual COBOL native web services toolkit to run directly within the Common Language
Server for SOA, a high-performance COBOL supports containerized delivery of APIs which Runtime (CLR) and become accessible to other
application server environment. can be orchestrated by Kubernetes to provide .NET languages, such as C# or VB. COBOL de-
scalable and reliable application delivery. velopers can also make use of .NET framework
JSON APIs or invoke functionality implemented by
This release of Visual COBOL includes sup- UI Modernization other languages within separate assemblies.
port for generating JSON data from COBOL For many organizations, the application user ex-
records. The JSON GENERATE verb accepts perience is often not in keeping with the needs Modern COBOL Syntax
a COBOL record structure and emits a JSON of today’s users. Green-screen or command line The COBOL language has been enhanced to
string; the verb also provides options for re- driven data entry is commonplace and an up- better support the needs of application devel-
naming or suppressing certain fields. As JSON dated modern look and feel is highly desirable. opers working within .NET and JVM platforms.
rapidly becomes the standard for data inter- An extended and lightweight object-oriented
change and with the predominance of tooling Visual COBOL’s integration with .NET and JVM syntax is available for creating classes in
that can consume JSON, COBOL data in this frameworks provide unique options for over- COBOL or can be used to invoke object-ori-
format can be readily passed to external ap- hauling aged user interfaces while preserving ented code from traditional procedural COBOL.
plications for processing. existing business logic. Modern UIs can be de-
veloped directly in COBOL or combined, using These extensions also add modern constructs
Containers Java, C# or VB.NET for front end functionality to COBOL programming, such as the ability to
The desire to deliver faster business results and COBOL for backend service delivery. declare local fields.
has accelerated Agile and DevOps practices
within IT organizations. Engineering teams are Java SmartLinkage
achieving higher rates of success by embrac- Visual COBOL provides several options for cre- When compiling COBOL applications for Java
ing containerized architectures to support in- ating composite applications which use both bytecode or MSIL, the Visual COBOL compiler
creased software deliveries. COBOL and Java. These include: can be instructed to automatically produce
■ JNI mechanisms using the Micro Focus wrapper classes which can be used by C#,
Visual COBOL provides containerized devel- OO COBOL Java domain VB.NET or Java developers. These classes
opment and deployment options using Docker. assist other developers in calling existing pro-
■ Java EE using Java Connector Architecture
cedural COBOL applications by implementing
(JCA) for EJB integration
routines that hide the complexity involved in
■ Direct bytecode generation using converting to and from COBOL systems.
“The Visual COBOL implementation COBOL JVM
has given us many benefits. The COBOL JVM option enables COBOL ap­
Maintenance of our new, .NET-based pli­cations to be directly compiled to .class
“Using Visual COBOL within our
solution is so much easier that we files. This enables COBOL applications to run
directly within the JVM and become accessible modernization project has given
have realized a 20 percent IT cost
to other JVM languages. COBOL developers us unrivalled application platform
savings. Our development team
can also make use of the Java SDK or invoke stability, improved customer
is more efficient and productive, functionality implemented by other languages satisfaction and significant cost
thanks to the intuitive IDE, in separate .class files.
savings. Visual COBOL was the
helping us respond faster to
Microsoft .NET right choice for our business.”
business requirements.”
Visual COBOL compiler technology enables
ALEJANDRO WYSS
JOVENTINO MEDEIROS COBOL applications to be compiled directly
CIO
Managing Director to Microsoft Intermediate Language (MSIL)
Caja de Valores S.A.
Jove Informática assemblies. This enables COBOL applications

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Run Units Data Tools Specialized compiler directives are provided to
Application developers and architects can face A comprehensive suite of COBOL data tools emulate source platform behavior and include
challenges when reusing procedural COBOL is provided for the editing and maintenance of platform-specific functions, such as Little En­
applications in multi-user environments, such COBOL data files. A COBOL file editor supports dian (LE) routines.
as web-based deployments in .NET and JVM. formatted data editing of COBOL data types
COBOL programs were traditionally archi- and a data file converter, enabling files to be Data conversion tooling is available and pro-
tected to isolate user state within separate converted from one format to a wide variety vides support for ASCII and EBCDIC data formats.
processes and which conflicts with the web of alternatives.
server models in .NET and JVM. Products
Application Rehosting Application Development
Micro Focus run unit technology solves this Visual COBOL is the leading choice for main- ■ Visual COBOL for Visual Studio
chal­lenge by enabling a top-level COBOL pro­ frame application rehosting projects. Visual ■ Visual COBOL for Eclipse
gram where all data and sub programs are then COBOL integrates with the leading transaction ■ Visual COBOL Development Hub
isolated from other users of the application. processing monitors and middleware vendors Application Deployment
Multiple instances of the top-level program including IBM TX Series and Oracle Tuxedo. Our ■ COBOL Server
can be constructed, each corresponding to network of specialist partners, with decades
individual users, removing the need to update of skill in application rehosting and moderniza-
or re-architect the existing COBOL applica- tion, ensures that the most effective solutions
tions and easing the transition to .NET and are provided for our customers.
JVM platforms.

www.microfocus.com 7
 Contact us at:
www.microfocus.com

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163-000005-005  |  M  |  05/20  |  © 2020 Micro Focus or one of its affiliates. Micro Focus, the Micro Focus logo, and Visual COBOL, among others,
are trademarks or registered trademarks of Micro Focus or its subsidiaries or affiliated companies in the United Kingdom, United States and other
countries. All other marks are the property of their respective owners.