white paper OCDS to Server Express Product Evolution Table of Contents white paper

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1 white paper white paper OCDS to Server Express Product Evolution Table of Contents Why move?... 2 OCDS and the RTS... 2 Evolution of the Platform... 2 Micro Focus Server Express... 3 The Deployment Environment Micro Focus Server... 4 Micro Focus Server... 4 Features... 4 Summary

2 Why move? One question often asked by our customers is Why should we move to the latest version of a product when the version we have now works just fine? This is a valid question and this document will focus specifically on the Micro Focus Object COBOL Developer Suite (OCDS) and Server Express products to provide some answers. OCDS and the RTS The product that was eventually known as Object COBOL Developer Suite for UNIX (OCDS) started its life back in the 80 s and had undergone several generations of development to become OCDS. It was a very popular product for Micro Focus with installations on literally tens of thousands of UNIX machines around the world. With OCDS, developers had the latest and greatest set of tools of that generation from Micro Focus, which could be managed by the character-based Integrated Development Environment (IDE) called toolbox or from the command line. OCDS provided fast compilation, and intermediate code debugging and extensive COBOL Dialect support. This product allowed customers to develop and deploy applications which fully utilized the power of the UNIX system available at the time. Deployment was handled by what was originally called the Micro Focus Run-Time System or RTS. The RTS provided the components required to execute COBOL applications which had been built using OCDS. From the very start, developers were able to write once and deploy anywhere using the Micro Focus development tools and the run-time environment specific to the target platform. Over the years, many other languages such as Java have followed this model and it is a widely accepted approach today. Evolution of the Platform OCDS represented the culmination of over 18 years of engineering during which time the technology landscape had changed dramatically. The development tool and RTS used a combination of COBOL, C, and Assembler and were reaching the limits of their architectural abilities in trying to address a growing list of new technical requirements. The structure of the product had been stretched and twisted to provide functions well beyond its original intent. Yet the product needed to evolve and to provide the required evolution; Micro Focus redesigned all the core elements of the development and deployment tools and launched the first UNIX product based on this new architecture in October That product was called Micro Focus Server Express. OCDS Toolbox Interface 2

3 The Limitation of OCDS All applications Enterprise Application J2EE Web Service.NET 3rd Party Tools Support Oracle MQ Series TX Series DB2 Ingres Informix Sybase Platform Obsolescence Sequent (NUM A-Q) SGI IRIX DG/UX Enhanced support for ANSI2000 and OO COBOL applications support for many of the features of the next COBOL ANSI standard and all the latest modifications to the Micro Focus OO COBOL syntax. Support for 64-bit UNIX and Linux environments Web Applications Micro Focus products needed to be able to integrate with technologies such as Java, and.net, and also work in the emerging world of 64-bit computing. OCDS was 32-bit only so couldn t take advantage of the new 64-bit capable systems. And let s not forget COBOL itself. It too had evolved during this time period with new ANSI standards being published. The latest standard provided specifications for Unicode, XML generation and parsing, calling conventions to/from non-cobol languages such as C, and support for execution within framework environments such as.net and Java. This brought about changes to the language, which in turn were implemented by Micro Focus. Micro Focus Server Express With the introduction of Server Express, Micro Focus was able to provide a whole host of new features and deliver capabilities that made it the essential product for companies with a wide portfolio of application requirements: Improved COBOL/Java interoperability Support for COBOL/Java interoperability, mixed COBOL and Java applications can be easily created without the programmer having to code complex low-level interfaces. Multi-threading For easy integration with Web Servers and 3rd Party Application Servers. Debugging enhancements You can easily debug e-cobol (CGI and embedded HTML) programs with Animator. In addition you can attach to an executing process or invoke the debugger at any time through a simple API call. High performance, transaction based applications Faster execution - Due to improvements in our native code generator technology, Server Express is the fastest product for UNIX that Micro Focus has ever made. New Object Format (CSO) Callable Shared Objects provide a new method for packaging your application. They provide the performance & flexibility of the.gnt object format with the shareability of UNIX executables. 3

4 Large file support - The product supports files in excess of 2 gigabytes for all file types along with the necessary tools to sort, and rebuild those files. Database applications OpenESQL Portable, database independent, platform independent SQL access through ODBC. The RTS processes functions like this by accessing the operation system directly and shields the developer from having to write low-level system operations to accomplish a given task. How these functions were actually implemented varies from platform to platform but the RTS handles that level of interaction, keeping the application code portable. The Deployment Environment Micro Focus Server To understand the value that Micro Focus Server provides, let s first look at what the RTS provides. Its purpose was to provide the developer a library of functions to support and complement a COBOL application in a particular environment. This includes functions for data input and output, memory management and mathematical functions. Some of these functions could only be implemented at a lower level than COBOL provides or were simply not possible with existing COBOL syntax. To overcome this, Micro Focus extended the COBOL language in a number of areas and provided subroutines that were supported by the RTS. For example, to check for the existence of a file, you could use the following function: call CBL_CHECK_FILE_EXIST using filename file-details returning status-code Micro Focus Server Micro Focus Server is the application server environment for COBOL. A super-set of the base RTS, Micro Focus Server is capable of running traditional applications as well as those executing within a Service Orientated Architecture. Features COBOL Web services support - Micro Focus Server provides an open approach to the deployment of COBOL business processes within a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). Because direct COBOL Web services deployed with Micro Focus Server are standards-based, they can be consumed from any language on any platform that acts as a Web service client including Java, Microsoft.NET languages and COBOL. No third-party application servers or Web servers are required for the deployment of direct COBOL Web services, minimizing costs while increasing the agility of existing COBOL business logic. 4

5 COBOL/XML Support - COBOL/XML support lets you seamlessly integrate the power of XML with COBOL applications. With this extended syntax and run-time capability, you can consume, create or update XML documents from COBOL facilitating Business to Business (B2B) and Business to Consumer (B2C) transactions and providing the ability to share data with other applications and systems that have no direct interface with your COBOL system. Comprehensive Data Access Options - With Micro Focus Server, you can utilize the power of OpenESQL to access all data sources for which an ODBC driver exists or alternatively, harness all the power of COBOL s flexible, high-performance file handling system. By combining Micro Focus Server with industry standard ODBC drivers, COBOL applications can realize high-performance and reliable connectivity to all major databases. COBOL / Java Interoperability - With Micro Focus support for COBOL/Java interoperability, mixed COBOL and Java applications can easily be created without the programmer having to code complex low-level interfaces. Micro Focus COBOL/Java interoperability extends the business rules represented in COBOL assets to Java and J2EE applications. By deploying an Enterprise JavaBean (EJB), created from a COBOL interface by Micro Focus Net Express or Server Express, in conjunction with Micro Focus Server and the J2EE Connecter, COBOL assets can be accessed in a J2EE-compliant manner from Java application servers such as IBM WebSphere, Oracle Application Server, JBoss and BEA WebLogic. Summary Micro Focus Server Express is designed specifically for performance and reliability to support highvolume transaction processing applications and is the successor to Micro Focus Object COBOL Developer Suite. It accelerates enterprise COBOL application performance, providing the fastest ever Micro Focus COBOL product for UNIX and Linux. By remaining with OCDS, customers are not simply running in an outdated and in many cases unsupported environment, they are also denying themselves the opportunity to get more out of their IT infrastructure. The drive to do more with fewer resources and at reduced cost becomes more challenging. With Server Express, customers can maximize their investment in new hardware platforms, seamlessly connect with the leading databases via SQL or OpenESQL, integrate with technologies such as Java,.NET, SOA, and facilitate B2B and B2C transactions using XML. In short, Server Express users gain more value from their existing application portfolio than ever before. 5

6 About Micro Focus Micro Focus International plc (Micro Focus ; LSE: MCRO.L) provides innovative software that allows companies to dramatically improve the business value of their enterprise applications. Micro Focus Enterprise Application Modernization and Management software enables customers business applications to respond rapidly to market changes and embrace modern architectures with reduced cost and risk. Micro Focus has more than 30 years of expertise and more than 15,000 customers and one million licensed users, including more than 70 of the Fortune Global 100 companies. For more information, please visit or upgrade@microfocus.com. Written by Irving Abraham, Field Solutions Director, Micro Focus. Micro Focus Worldwide Australia Austria Belgium Canada x1123 Denmark France Germany Hong Kong India Italy Japan Mexico Netherlands (0) Norway Portugal Singapore Spain Switzerland Sweden United Kingdom United States Other Countries For contacts worldwidewww.microfocus.com/contact 2009 Micro Focus. All Rights Reserved. Micro Focus is a registered trademark. Other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. WPMFS0309-US 6