Version 6.3.8 for OpenVMS
 —  Programming Guide  —

Processing of Application Errors

This section discusses the two basic methods Natural offers for the handling of application errors: default processing and application-specific processing. Furthermore, it describes the options you have to enable the application specific error processing: coding an ON ERROR statement block within a programming object or using a separate error transaction program.

Finally, this section gives an overview of the features that are provided to configure Natural's error processing behavior, to retrieve information on an error, to process or debug an application error.

This document covers the following topics:

For information on error handling in a Natural RPC environment, see Handling Errors in the Natural Remote Procedure Call documentation.


Natural's Default Error Processing

When an error occurs in a Natural application, Natural will by default proceed in the following way:

  1. Natural terminates the execution of the currently running application object;

  2. Natural issues an error message;

  3. Natural returns to command input mode.

"Command input mode" means that, depending on your Natural configuration, the Natural main menu, the NEXT command prompt, or a user-defined startup menu may appear.

The displayed error message contains the Natural error number, the corresponding message text and the affected Natural object and line number where the error has occurred.

Because after the occurrence of an error the execution of the affected application object is terminated, the status of any pending database transactions may be affected by actions required by the setting of the profile parameter ETEOP. Unless Natural has issued an END TRANSACTION statement as a result of the settings of these parameters, a BACKOUT TRANSACTION statement is issued when Natural returns to command input mode.

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Application Specific Error Processing

Natural enables you to adapt the error processing if the default error processing does not meet your application’s requirements. Possible reasons to establish an application specific error processing may be:

Because the execution of the affected Natural application object is terminated after an application error has occurred, the status of the pending database transactions may be influenced by actions which are triggered by the settings of the profile parameter ETEOP. Therefore, further transaction handling (END TRANSACTION or BACKOUT TRANSACTION statement) has to be performed by the application’s error processing.

To enable the application specific error processing, you have the following options:

These options are described in the following sections.

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Using an ON ERROR Statement Block

You may use the ON ERROR statement to intercept execution time errors within the application where an error occurs.

From within an ON ERROR statement block, it is possible to resume application execution on the current level or on a superior level.

Moreover, you may specify an ON ERROR statement in multiple objects of an application in order to process any errors that have occurred on subordinate levels. Thus, application specific error processing may exactly be tailored to the application’s needs.

Exiting from an ON ERROR Statement Block

You may exit from an ON ERROR statement block by specifying one of the following statements:

Error Processing Rules

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Using an Error Transaction Program

You may specify an error transaction program in the following places:

If you assign the name of an error transaction program to the system variable *ERROR-TA during the Natural session, this assignment supersedes an error transaction program specified using the profile parameter ETA. Regardless of whether you use the ETA profile parameter or assign a value to the system variable *ERROR-TA, the error transaction program names are not saved and restored by Natural for different levels of the call hierarchy. Therefore, if you assign a name to the system variable *ERROR-TA in a Natural object, the specified program will be invoked to process any error that occurs in the current Natural session after the assignment.

On the one hand, if you specify an error transaction program by using the profile parameter ETA, an error transaction is defined for the complete Natural session without having the need for individual assignments in Natural objects. On the other hand, the method of assigning a program to the system variable *ERROR-TA provides more flexibility and, for example, allows you to have different error transaction programs in different application branches.

If the system variable *ERROR-TA is reset to blank, Natural's default error processing will be performed as described above.

If an error transaction program is specified and an application error occurs, execution of the application is terminated, and the specified error transaction program receives control to perform the following actions:

Because the error transaction program receives control in the same way as if it had been called from the command prompt, it is not possible to resume application execution in one of the Natural objects that were active at the time when the error occurred.

If the Natural profile parameter SYNERR is set to ON and a syntax error occurs at compile time, the error transaction program will also receive control.

An error transaction program must be located in the library to which you are currently logged on or in a current steplib library.

When an error occurs, Natural executes a STACK TOP DATA statement and places the following information at the top of the stack:

Field Contents Format/Length
Natural error number N4 if session parameter SG is set to OFF; N5 if SG=ON
Number of the line where the error has occurred N4
Status Code: A1
C Command processing error (the line number will be zero)
L Logon processing error (the line number will be zero)
O Object (execution) time error
R Error on remote server (in conjunction with Natural RPC)
S Syntax error
Name of the Natural object where the error has occurred A8
Level number of the Natural object where the error has occurred; if the level number of the Natural object is greater than 99, the value 99 will be stacked. N2

If the Natural profile parameter SYNERR is set to OFF, the following information will be stacked in addition:

Field Contents Format/Length
Level number of the Natural object where the error has occurred; if the level number of the Natural object is less than or equal to 99, the field content is identical to that of the level number field of format/length N2 described above. I4

If the Natural profile parameter SYNERR is set to ON and a syntax error occurs at compile time, the level number will be zero, and the following information will be stacked in addition:

Field Contents Format/Length
Position of the offending item in the source line N3
Length of the offending item N3

This information can be retrieved in the error transaction program using an INPUT statement.

Example:

DEFINE DATA LOCAL                                                   
1 #ERROR-NR           (N5)                                          
1 #LINE               (N4)                                          
1 #STATUS-CODE        (A1)                                          
1 #PROGRAM            (A8)                                          
1 #LEVEL              (N2)                                          
1 #LEVELI4            (I4)
1 #POSITION-IN-LINE   (N3)                                          
1 #LENGTH-OF-ERRTOKEN (N3)                                          
END-DEFINE                                                          
IF *DATA > 6 THEN       /* SYNERR = ON and a syntax error occurred 
  INPUT                                                             
    #ERROR-NR                                                       
    #LINE                                                           
    #STATUS-CODE                                                    
    #PROGRAM                                                        
    #LEVEL                                                          
    #POSITION-IN-LINE                                               
    #LENGTH-OF-ERRTOKEN                                             
ELSE                                                                
  INPUT                 /* other error                             
    #ERROR-NR                                                       
    #LINE                                                           
    #STATUS-CODE                                                    
    #PROGRAM                                                        
    #LEVEL                                                          
    #LEVELI4
END-IF                                                              
WRITE #STATUS-CODE                                                  
* DECIDE ON FIRST VALUE OF STATUS-CODE                              
*  ... /* process error                                             
* END-DECIDE                                                        
END

Some of the information placed on top of the stack is equivalent to the contents of several system variables that are available in an ON ERROR statement block:

Field Contents Equivalent System Variable in ON ERROR Statement Block
Natural error number *ERROR-NR
Number of the line where the error has occurred *ERROR-LINE
Name of the Natural object where the error has occurred *PROGRAM
Level number of the program where the error has occurred *LEVEL

Rules under Natural Security

If Natural Security is installed, the additional rules for the processing of logon errors apply. For further information, see Transactions in the Natural Security documentation.

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Error Processing Related Features

Natural provides a variety of error processing related features that

These features can be grouped as follows:

Profile Parameters

The following profile parameters have an influence on the behavior of Natural in the event of an error:

Profile Parameter Purpose
CPCVERR Conversion Error
ETA Error Transaction Program
ETEOP Issue END TRANSACTION at End of Program
RCFIND Handling of Response Code 113 for FIND Statement
RCGET Handling of Response Code 113 for GET Statement
SYNERR Control of Syntax Errors

System Variables

The following application related system variables can be used to locate an error or to obtain/specify the name of the program which is to receive control in the event of an error condition:

System Variable Content
*ERROR-LINE Source-code line number of the statement that caused an error.

See Example 1.

*ERROR-NR Error number of the error which caused an ON ERROR condition to be entered.
*ERROR-TA Name of the program which is to receive control in the event of an error condition.

See Example 2.

*LEVEL Level number of the Natural object where the error has occurred.
*LIBRARY-ID Name of the library to which the user is currently logged on.
*PROGRAM Name of the Natural object that is currently being executed.

See Example 1.

Example 1:

...
    /*                                                      
    ON ERROR                                                
      IF *ERROR-NR = 3009 THEN                                 
        WRITE 'LAST TRANSACTION NOT SUCCESSFUL'             
            / 'HIT ENTER TO RESTART PROGRAM'                
        FETCH 'ONEEX1'                                      
      END-IF                                                
      WRITE 'ERROR' *ERROR-NR 'OCCURRED IN PROGRAM' *PROGRAM
            'AT LINE' *ERROR-LINE                           
      FETCH 'MENU'                                          
    END-ERROR                                         
    /* 
...

Example 2:

...
    *ERROR-TA := 'ERRORTA1' 
    /* from now on, program ERRORTA1 will be invoked 
    /* to process application errors
...
    MOVE 'ERRORTA2' TO *ERROR-TA
    /* change error transaction program to ERRORTA2
...

For further information on these system variables, see the corresponding sections in the System Variables documentation.

Terminal Commands

The following terminal command has an influence on the behavior of Natural in the event of an error:

Terminal Command Purpose
%E= Activate/Deactivate Error Processing

System Commands

The following system commands provide additional information on an error situation or invoke the utilities for debugging or logging database calls:

System Command Purpose
LASTMSG Display additional information on the error situation which has occurred last.
TECH Display technical and other information about your Natural session, for example, information on the last error that occurred.

Application Programming Interfaces

The following application programming interfaces (APIs) are generally available for getting additional information on an error situation or to install an error transaction.

API Purpose
USR0040N Get type of last error.
USR1016N Display error level for copycode.
USR2001N Read information about last error.
USR2006N Get detailed message information.
USR2007N Set/get RPC default server information.
USR2010N Display DB error information.
USR2026N Get TECH information.
USR2030N Read dynamic error parts :1:,...
USR3320N Find user short error message from FNAT or FUSER.
USR4214N Display program level information.

For further information, see SYSEXT - Natural Application Programming Interfaces in the Utilities documentation.

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