Rational Developer for System z, Version 7.5

Generating the Pac COBOL and modifying it: the various steps

You can generate a Pac Program or a Pac Screen either in VA Pac or in RDz. If you generate a Program/Screen in VA Pac, you obtain a complete generated code, which includes the design and the specific code. If you generate a Program/Screen in RDz, you generate the Program/Screen design only. If you put both generations in the same directory, in RDz, the Pattern Driven Programming function will clearly make a distinction between the generated code and the specific code. You can then modify the specific code or add specific changes. You can also modify the Program/Screen design and generate again. The generation process will always keep your specific code, while taking all the design modifications into account: this is called the reconciliation.

If you create a Program/Screen in RDz, you specify its design. in its dedicated design editor of the Design explorer view of the Design perspective (you open this PDP editor by right-clicking on the Program/Screen instance and select Open. You can also double-click on the Program/Screen instance). Then:
  1. You must generate the Program/Screen in the Design explorer view by right-clicking on it and selecting Generate > Pac Program generation (or Generate > Pac Screen generation). The generation outputs a .cbl file, nested under the Program/Screen instance. This file contains the Program/Screen design.
  2. To see and modify the generated code, click the '+' symbol in front of the Program/Screen to expand it and right-click on the nested .cbl file. Then select Open with > Pdp COBOL system z LPEX editor in the popup menu.
  3. In the Pdp LPEX editor which opens up, you can add specific code to your Program/Screen. The next operations are explained below, from step 4.
You can also generate and work on a Program/Screen which already exists in VA Pac. You must then perform the following steps:
  1. If you want to see and modify the Program/Screen design in its dedicated editor, you must convert the Program/Screen to the PDP model. To do so, open the Pacbase explorer view, right-click on a Program/Screen and select Convert > Convert to PDP model.

    This Program/Screen design then becomes available in the Design explorer view of the Design perspective. Double-click on the Program/Screen to display it in its dedicated editor. This conversion step creates a .pacprogram file for a Program or a .pacscreen file for a Screen, in the Navigator view of the Design perspective.

    The same applies to Macros, for which the conversion step creates a .pacmacro file in the Navigator view of the Design perspective.

  2. You must generate the Program/Screen in VA Pac, in order to obtain a fully-generated code which includes the Program/Screen design and specific code.
    1. You must first see whether the Program/Screen calls Macros. If it does, you must first generate these Macros in VA Pac. Generating the Macro code is required before generating the Program/Screen. You obtain a file which contains the tagged code of the Macro. You must put this file (via a drag and drop or a copy/paste) in the Navigator view of the Design perspective, in the appropriate package (which corresponds to the VA Pac Database and library). This file must have a cblgen extension. Modify its extension if it is not the case.
      Tip: If the file which contains the output of the VA Pac Macro generation contains the code of more than one Macro, you are advised to use the Dispatch macros choice, in order to create one cblgen file for each Macro. If you do not, the code of all the Macros contained in the file will remain in this single file.
    2. Then you must generate your Program/Screen and put the generated .cbl file (via a drag and drop or a copy/paste) in the Navigator view of the Design perspective, in the directory where the corresponding .pacprogram or pacscreen instance has been created.
  3. You must then generate the Program/Screen design in RDz. This generation is required and does not override the .cbl file output by the VA Pac generation. To generate a Program/Screen in RDz, right-click on it in the Design explorer view and select Generate > Pac Program generation or Generate > Pac Screen generation in the popup menu.

    This step outputs a .cblpdp file in the Navigator view of the Design perspective. This file contains the metadata required by the Pattern Driven Programming (PDP) editor.

    Once you have performed both the VA Pac and RDz generations, the Pattern Driven Programming function can differentiate the generated code (which comes from the design) and the specific code. Then you can always modify the design of a Program or a Screen which contains specific code. After generating the Program again, the newly-generated code will include the new design, while keeping the specific code. Moreover, the locations of the specific code insertions will be moved to fit the new design at best. This is called the reconciliation.

  4. To view the code and modify it, select the .cbl file in the Design perspective and right-click. Select Open with > Pdp COBOL system z LPEX editor in the popup menu. You can then view the Program/Screen:
    1. Generated code in the PDP COBOL editor. This editor offers additional functions, on top of those already provided by the standard RDz LPEX editor, which help you modify the code.
    2. Design as a hierarchical tree in the Pac Design View. Dedicated wizards help you modify the Program/Screen design.
    3. Generated nodes in the Generated Code Structure view and accept or reject the choices made by the reconciliation.
    4. Structure in the Outline view.
    All the inconsistencies, if any, found upon generation are listed in the Problems view.
  5. If the generated code does not fully fit your needs, you must modify it. Modifying the generated code includes inserting code in the generated code, removing or overwriting parts of it. The changes you make in the generated code are called specific changes. When you enter a specific change in the PDP COBOL editor, this change is immediately visible in the Generated Code Structure view. Save the new code. If you want to restore the originally-generated code, go the Generated Code Structure view and select Restore generated code in the popup menu. The Pattern Driven Programming function will then recognize that the code corresponds to a generated code and will gray the corresponding lines.
  6. To specify enhancements or correct bugs which require changes in the design, you must go to the Pac Design View, modify the design, save it and generate the Program again to trigger the reconciliation.
  7. Then go to the Generated Code Structure view to see whether errors or warnings have been flagged by the reconciliation. You must correct the errors, and deal with the warnings (that is validate or reject the choices made by the reconciliation).
Related concepts
Entités
Related reference
The 'Design explorer' view
Pac Design view
PDP COBOL code editor
Generated Code Structure view

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