This document covers the following topics:
As of Natural Version 6.3.12, OpenVMS I64 Version 8.4 with SSL 1.4-334 is also supported, in addition to the operating systems listed in the section Supported Operating Systems of the release information for Natural Version 6.3.4.
When still using OpenVMS I64 Version 8.3-1H1, the following fix for SSL is now required: HP I64VMS SSL V1.4-335.
Starting with Adabas Version 6.1 and Entire Net-Work Version 7.4, Software AG uses an access control list protection mechanism for Adabas-based products on OpenVMS. This provides a more refined level of protection than that which is available with UIC-based protection.
To make sure that Natural works in an environment with Adabas Version 6.1 or above or Entire Net-Work Client Version 1.4 or above, see Installing Software AG Products in an Adabas or Entire Net-Work Environment in the Installation documentation.
As of Natural Version 6.3.12, a new logical name table structure is implemented. As in previous Natural versions, the Natural logical name table still has the name NATURAL_C$V<version>_LOGICAL_NAMES, for example, NATURAL_C$V631200_LOGICAL_NAMES. This logical name table includes all logical name definitions necessary for a specific Natural version.
An additional logical name table with the name LNM$SAG_TABLE is created as of Natural Version 6.3.12. Each Software AG product defines its own product-specific table in the LNM$SAG_TABLE table.
If the LNM$SAG_TABLE has not yet been defined on your system, it will be defined your LNM$SYSTEM_DIRECTORY or LNM$PROCESS_DIRECTORY during the STARTUP_NAT<v>.COM procedure. The existing, specific order of your system tables will not be changed.
Natural Version 6.3.12 and other new Software AG product versions such as Adabas Version 6.3 create a new directory named SAG$ROOT:[SAGCOMMON] during the product installation. This directory includes a number of common components that are shared by all Software AG products (for example, licensing images or the Adabas User Administration procedure).
The new SAG$ROOT:[SAGCOMMON] directory includes the latest version of LIBSAGLIC5.EXE.
Some older Software AG products provide an own version of this image in a product-specific subdirectory. They also define an own LIBSAGLIC5.EXE in the process or system table.
To be able to use the latest license image for all Software AG products on Itanium 8.3, you have to add the following lines to the end of your login procedure (normally, this is SAG$ROOT:[000000]LOGIN.COM):
$ define/nolog/process LIBSAGLIC5 SAG$ROOT:[SAGCOMMON]LIBSAGLIC5.EXE $ define/nolog/system LIBSAGLIC5 SAG$ROOT:[SAGCOMMON]IBSAGLIC5.EXE
If you use a system-wide Adabas Version 6.1 environment together with Natural Version 6.3, you have to make sure that both products use same SAG$ROOT definition. To check this definition, enter the following:
$ mc sysman sysman> startup show file STARTUP_ADABAS_I64.COM
When an entry for STARTUP_ADABAS_I64.COM exists, check the SAG$ROOT definition at the beginning of this file. You must remove or uncomment this definition if it differs from the SAG$ROOT definition of Sagbase, which is a prerequisite for Natural-based products. In such a case, Sagbase makes sure that all products use the same SAG$ROOT definition.
The Natural Development Server installation now facilitates the use of a remote database. For this purpose, a command procedure is created. This command procedure has to be transferred to the OpenVMS node on which the database is running and must then be executed. See also Completing the Installation in the section Installing and Setting Up Natural Development Server on OpenVMS which is part of the Installation documentation.
The following new Natural parameters are provided in this version:
| Parameter | Description |
|---|---|
SRVRTRY |
Specifies the number of attempts for an RPC
server to connect/reconnect (REGISTER) to an EntireX Broker that
is not active, and the wait time between two successive attempts.
|
RQTOUT
|
Specifies the timeout value for the
REQUEST DOCUMENT statement.
|
The utility SYSEXT provides the following new
application programming interface (API):
| API | Description |
|---|---|
USR6307N |
Get and set the timeout value of the new
RQTOUT parameter.
|
The new parameter SRVRTRY can also be specified
in the Configuration Utility. See
Remote Procedure Call in the
Configuration Utility documentation.
The new parameter RQTOUT can also be specified
in the Configuration Utility. See
HTTP Parameters in the
Configuration Utility documentation.
It is now possible to specify the following capabilities: RTLM (set RTL input mode) and LTRM (set LTR input mode). See Right-To-Left Support in Natural Termcap (NATTERMCAP) Utility in the Utilities documentation.
PF11 can now be used to toggle between the standard and the extended views of Server Command Execution. See also Server Command Execution in SYSRPC Utility in the Tools and Utilities documentation. The PF-key PF4 has been disabled.
The term Stub Generation has been changed to the term Interface Object Generation. See Generating Interface Objects in SYSRPC Utility in the Tools and Utilities documentation.
See also Documentation below.
The Remote Directory Maintenance function has been removed from the SYSRPC utility. The directory for a remote server can now be created and maintained with the Service Directory Maintenance function of the SYSRPC utility. For detailed information, see the section Service Directory Maintenance in SYSRPC Utility in the Tools and Utilities documentation.
In previous versions, a blank after the equal sign (=) of the
EM parameter in the
MOVE
EDITED statement was illegally accepted during compilation.
This has been corrected. Error NAT0023 is now returned.
Example:
MOVE EDITED #N (EM= 999) TO ... /* NAT0023 is now returned MOVE EDITED ... TO #A (EM= XXX) /* NAT0023 is now returned
Floating-point numbers that are displayed due to Natural I/O will now
be rounded to the floating-point mantissa length used for display. This also
affects the display when the FL parameter is used and when
a floating-point number is assigned to an alphanumeric field.
Example:
DEFINE DATA LOCAL 1 #F8 (F8) 1 #A (A30) END-DEFINE * MOVE 5.1234567892345678E00 TO #F8 WRITE #F8 * WRITE #F8 (FL=7) * MOVE #F8 TO #A WRITE #A * END
Results in Natural Version 6.3.8:
+5.123456789234567E+00 +5.123456E+00 +5.123456789234567E+00
Results in Natural Version 6.3.12:
+5.123456789234568E+00 +5.123457E+00 +5.123456789234568E+00
See also Arithmetic Operations with Floating-Point Numbers in the Programming Guide.
With Natural Version 6.3.7, the
SYSEXV utility provided new sample
programs for the new DDM EMPLOYEES-V2009 (Adabas 6.1.6 support).
The new program V637INFO (Readme Information) is now also
available, providing detailed information on how to get the data from the new
EMPLOYEES file. This program can be found in the menu of the SYSEXV utility.
It is now recommended that you use Adabas 6.1.8 or higher.
The new option DATA is now available for the
PROCESS PAGE UPDATE statement. This
option behaves like the FULL option, with the exception that the
MODIFIED status of the control variables is not reset.
New attributes are available for the work file assignments in the
Configuration Utility and for the DEFINE WORK FILE statement:
REMOVECR (default) and KEEPCR. Using these
attributes, you can decide whether to remove or keep carriage return characters
when reading ASCII work files. See
Work File Assignments in the
Configuration Utility documentation and the description of
DEFINE WORK
FILE in the Statements documentation.
With Natural Version 6.3.5 (which has already been released some time
ago), internal functions returning data about Natural objects have been
enhanced. Amongst others, functions retrieving the long name of an object (such
as Natural subroutines) require more sections of file
FILEDIR.SAG to be present in the buffer pool. This change
will be noticed in an environment where the parameter
BPSFI is set to OFF and where a large
number of Natural subroutines, Natural functions and Natural classes is heavily
used.
For the UNLOAD command, the
Object Handler
provides a new type of report: In addition to reporting from the source
environment where the object has been unloaded, which is the default case, the
Object Handler can now also report from the target environment where the object
is to be loaded, for example, a change within a parameter such as the library
name. You can select a reporting type using the option
REPORT-FORMAT.
The Object Handler provides two new return codes for the load function:
| Return Code | Explanation |
|---|---|
| 9995 | Function completed successfully, but object(s) could not be replaced. |
| 1115 | Function completed successfully, but Natural Security errors have occurred and object(s) could not be replaced. |
When objects are to be replaced using the load function,
return code 9995 is issued in one of the following situations:
a Natural source to be loaded is locked,
a replacement has been rejected by Natural Security,
a subroutine, resource, class name or class GUID exists,
a DDM to be loaded is locked,
an extended error message to be loaded has no corresponding short error message.
Note:
In batch mode, the Natural session terminates with condition code
50 unless Object Handler user exit OBJHEX01 is activated.
In case of additional Natural Security errors, return code
1115 is issued instead.
The Natural Web I/O Interface client is now delivered in the Version 1.3.10. This version supports the following browsers:
Internet Explorer 7 through 9
Mozilla Firefox 3.6 through 10
Note:
Mozilla Firefox 10 (Extended Support Release) is supported. In
future versions, only the Extended Support Releases of Mozilla Firefox will be
explicitly supported.
Safari 5.1 on Windows and Mac OS X
This version now also supports the following:
Oracle GlassFish Server 3.1. See Installing the Natural Web I/O Interface Client on Oracle GlassFish Server in the Natural Web I/O Interface documentation.
Apache Tomcat 6. See Installing the Natural Web I/O Interface Client on Apache Tomcat in the Natural Web I/O Interface documentation.
Apache Ant 1.8.1 or above is now required to perform the deployment on JBoss Application Server. This tool is freely available on http://ant.apache.org/.
As of Version 1.3.11 of the Natural Web I/O Interface client, Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) will no longer be supported (this has already been announced previously). If you are currently using the Natural Web I/O Interface client on IIS, you will have to move to another supported server platform. This may be JBoss Application Server, Oracle GlassFish Server or Apache Tomcat. The most simple solution is to migrate the Natural Web I/O Interface client from IIS to Apache Tomcat. For detailed information, see Migrating the Natural Web I/O Interface Client from IIS to Apache Tomcat in the Natural Web I/O Interface documentation.
Using the new session option Check for numeric input, you can now decide whether numeric input fields are to be validated or not. See Overview of Session Options in Configuring the Client which is part of the Natural Web I/O Interface documentation.
It is now possible to set the cursor (caret) to output fields. The
Natural system variables *CURS-LINE,
*CURS-COL and *CURSOR
are now set correctly when placed on an output field. It is no longer required
to enable caret browsing in the web browser.
With the XSLT files that are used for the conversion of the Natural Web
I/O Interface screens from the internal XML format to HTML, the output fields
are now generated as HTML read-only <input>
elements instead of <span> elements.
It is now possible to use your own XSLT files with Internet Explorer and Firefox (Java EE-based servers only). These files must have special names. See XSLT Files in Configuring the Client which is part of the Natural Web I/O Interface documentation.
Version 1.3.10 no longer supports the following application servers:
Sun Java System Application Server 8.1 and 8.2
JBoss Application Server 4.0
Natural Remote Procedure Call (RPC) is available as a separate subcomponent of Natural. It has its own version number. This measure takes into account that Natural RPC is a cross-platform component and makes it possible to provide new Natural RPC versions independent of new Natural versions for the various platforms supported.
With Natural Version 6.3.12, an enhanced Natural Remote Procedure Call Version 6.3.4.5 is delivered that replaces the existing Natural RPC Version 6.3.3.3.
The following changes and enhancements are available.
The Natural RPC Server has been extended to support EntireX RPC clients
(EntireX 8.2.0) using Natural redefinitions (REDEFINE statement)
and other features introduced with the IDL Extractor for Natural (EntireX
8.2.0). The IDL Extractor for Natural has been extended with a graphical user
interface to complete the extraction process with user decisions. This allows
modeling of the Natural server to an IDL and enables selection of the
appropriate (Natural to IDL) mapping where multiple possibilities exist and
where automatic decision taking can lead to incorrect or suboptimal IDL.
Note:
The Natural RPC server still supports EntireX RPC clients built with
previous EntireX versions.
The Natural RPC has been extended to support Natural RPC clients using
Natural redefinitions (REDEFINE statement) and other features
introduced with the IDL Extractor for Natural. The IDL Extractor for Natural
has been extended with a graphical user interface to complete the extraction
process with user decisions. This allows modeling of the IDL for a Natural
client which differs from the RPC server interface and enables selection of the
appropriate (Natural to IDL) mapping where multiple possibilities exist and
where automatic decision taking can lead to incorrect or suboptimal IDL.
For the IDL extraction and wrapping of Natural RPC clients with the EntireX workbench, the use of the latest supported EntireX workbench and the use of latest supported Natural on the RPC server side is recommended to reach best results.
The following enhancements are provided with Natural Security Version 6.3.12:
Access control to the Administrator Services subsystem of Natural
Security has been revised. With previous versions, it was only possible to
allow or disallow access to Administrator Services as a whole. As of this
version, you can allow/disallow individual functions of Administrator Services.
For this purpose, the command processor NSCCMD01 has been
enhanced. For details, see the section
Access to Administrator Services
in the Natural Security documentation.
The user interface of the Logon Records functions has been enhanced and now provides more and improved selection options. At the same time, the performance of these functions has been enhanced.
The options Del and Par in SYSOBJH profiles can now be allowed for a user, even if the respective function is disallowed for all object types. Both options can only be set in user-specific profiles; but their settings in the user-specific profiles also apply to the library-specific and user-library-specific profiles.
In some cases, the checking of logon data for an access to a library via a Natural RPC service request includes a check if the Natural RPC user ID is identical to the EntireX user ID. If your external security system uses a so-called "domain separator" to separate the domain name from the user ID, this check may be applied to the wrong data, thus leading to incorrect results. To avoid this, a new field is provided in RPC server profiles in which you specify the domain character. This ensures a correct user ID evaluation. For details, see the Domain Separator description in the section Components of an RPC Server Profile of the Natural Security documentation.
Natural Security's protection mechanisms for Eclipse Navigator view actions have been enhanced and now support the NaturalONE development mode. For details, see the section Protecting the Navigator View in the Natural Security documentation.
Deferred countersigning allows you to perform a maintenance function, and obtain the required countersignature later. This is possible for the functions Add, Modify, Rename and Delete of user profiles and library profiles, and if only one countersignature is required.
When you attempt to maintain a security profile and the Countersignatures screen is invoked, but none of the other owners of the security profile is available to supply his/her password, you may defer the countersigning. This means that you can proceed with your intended maintenance function and obtain the other owner's countersignature afterwards. For details on how this works, see the section Deferred Countersigning in the Natural Security documentation.
With the current version of Natural Security, deferred countersigning is available for the functions mentioned above. With subsequent versions, it is planned to make it available for further functions.
New user exits NSCXXEX3 (where
XX is the object type) are provided.
They are invoked when a maintenance function has been invoked and after data
have been entered - but before these data are validated and processed by
Natural Security. For details, see the section
Other User Exits in the
Natural Security documentation.
The application programming interface (API)
NSCADM has been enhanced: It allows you
to process logon records with time-stamp-related ETIDs. For details, see the
example program PGMADM05 and text member TXTADM05 in
the library SYSSEC.
The documentation for the
MP parameter has been
corrected. Other than documented with previous versions, it is not possible to
use MP as a dynamic parameter when invoking Natural.
The section Portable Natural System Files in the Operations documentation has been updated so that it now contains the information below. See also Migrating Non-Portable Message Files to 64-Bit Platforms in the Operations documentation.
Message files which have been created with a Natural version older than 6.2 are not automatically converted to the portable format. In addition, they are not converted to the portable format by simply changing and saving them with a newer version of Natural. This does not cause difficulties on 32-bit platforms. On 64-bit platforms, however, message files in the old, non-portable format which have not been created on a 64-bit platform are not readable.
If you want to migrate your applications from a 32-bit platform to a 64-bit platform, you must first convert your old message files to the portable format. You do this by using the export and import functions of the SYSERR utility. First, you export the message file to a text file, and then you generate a new message file by importing the text file into Natural. This creates a portable message file which is readable on Windows, UNIX and OpenVMS. For detailed information on the export and import functions, see Generating Message and Text Files in the Tools and Utilities documentation.
A revised and updated Natural Remote Procedure Call (RPC) documentation is available with this version.
Please note that the term stub subprogram, which in earlier versions of EntireX was also used to refer to application-dependent, Workbench-generated pieces of code for issuing and receiving remote procedure calls, is no longer used. In the EntireX documentation and in the Natural Remote Procedure Call (RPC) documentation, these objects are now referred to as interface objects.
The Natural Web I/O Interface documentation has been changed in such a way that it now only contains the configuration information for the Natural Web I/O Interface client. All information concerning the client configuration for Natural for Ajax is now available in the Natural for Ajax documentation (the most up-to-date Natural for Ajax documentation is always available at http://documentation.softwareag.com/).
