Rational Developer for System z, Version 7.6

What is the migration help and how does it work?

This function is useful when you migrate the code of a Program or Screen generated in VA Pac to RDz. It positions warnings on the lines which are generated from the design wherever it detects discrepancies between the code generated in VA Pac and the locally-generated code.

The PDP LPEX editor, in which you open the .cbl file, differentiates the generated code (which comes from the design) from the specific code.

Once the Program/Screen has been generated both from VA Pac and from the local generator, it also displays as specific code lines the lines where it has detected discrepancies between the two versions of the generated code.

The migration help function sets warnings on the lines where such discrepancies have been found. It enables you to ensure that both generations (in VA Pac and RDz) were identically performed (from the same library/package, the same instance, with all the required Macros...) and draws your attention to discrepancies which might be caused by the change of generator.

Discrepancies due to the change of generator

The Pac constants and the generation date will never be identical in the locally-generated RDz code and in the code generated in VA Pac. So the migration help function enables you to choose between:
  • Replacing the constants and the date generated in VA with those from the local generator (default). These lines will not be displayed as specific lines.
  • Keeping the constants and the date generated in VA Pac without displaying a warning. These lines will be displayed as specific lines.
  • Keeping the constants and the date generated in VA Pac and displaying a warning. These lines will be displayed as specific lines. A warning will be associated with them and will provide three quick fixes to manage the discrepancies.

Other discrepancies, due to the change of generator, may be also detected by the PDP editor (for example because the Macro dispatching is not identically managed in the VA Pac generator and in the local generator). The migration help then puts warnings on such lines.

How does the migration help work?

To be able to use the migration help function, you must first generate the Program/Screen in VA Pac:
  • If the Program/Screen calls Macros, you must generate them in VA Pac and import the corresponding .cblgen files into your local workspace.
  • You must generate two .cbl files:
    • The first file contains both the code generated from the design and the specific code. It is generated with the VA Pac generation procedure.
    • The second file only contains the code generated from the design. This file, named the control file, is generated via the MIA1 VA Pac batch procedure.

In RDz, you must then open the migration help wizard by right-clicking on a Program/Screen in the Design Explorer view and by selecting the Migration help choice in the contextual menu. Fill it in and click Finish.

The migration help function copies both the VA Pac generated .cbl files into your local workspace, launches the RDz local generation (which outputs the code corresponding to the Program's design) and compares the VA Pac control file with the locally-generated file. It puts warnings wherever it detects discrepancies.

The warnings are displayed until do you fix them (three quick fixes are available) or generate a new code.

How to manage the warnings

To see the warnings positioned by the help migration function, you must open the .cbl file with the PDP LPEX editor. Each warning is associated with a node in the generated code. The warnings are displayed:
  • Directly on the Cobol lines of the PDP LPEX editor,
  • In the Problems view. Double-clicking on a warning selects the corresponding lines in the PDP editor.
You can use quick fixes to manage the warnings. To do so, right-click on a warning and select Quick Fix. Then, in the Quick Fix wizard, select the appropriate quick fix and click Finish. Three quick fixes are available:
  • Remove the warning. If you select this quick fix, the warning will no longer be displayed and the line will be displayed as all the other specific lines.
  • Restore the local generated code. If you select this quick fix, the line content, which comes from the VA Pac generation, will be replaced by the line content of the local generation. The corresponding lines will no longer be considered as specific lines and the warning will no longer be displayed.
  • Show differences. If you select this quick fix, the Compare editor opens up. This editor displays the code of the generated VA Pac control file and the code of the locally-generated file and shows all the differences. If you click the Show ancestor pane button in its toolbar, the ancestor pane will show the complete code of the Program/Screen generated in VA Pac (which includes both the code from the design and the specific code).

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