This document covers the following topics:
With Natural Version 6.3.3, a new database driver (ADA2) is delivered for testing purposes. This database driver supports large objects and LA fields of Adabas 6 (Open Systems) and Adabas 8 (mainframe). This database driver is not yet intended for a production environment since the complete Adabas functionality is not yet supported.
Currently, large objects in MU and PE fields are not supported.
By default, the "old" database driver ADA is used. This ensures that your Natural applications run as usual; there is no difference to previous Natural versions. Only when you define the database type ADA2 in the Configuration Utility, the new database driver will be used.
It is now possible to define a special buffer pool that only allows read access. For a read-only buffer pool, it is also possible to define an alternate buffer pool. See Read-Only Buffer Pool in the Operations documentation.
The following new Natural profile parameters are provided in this version:
| Profile Parameter | Description |
|---|---|
BPID2 |
Specifies the name (ID) of an additional read/write buffer pool to which Natural can attach/detach during execution. |
SRVWAIT |
Specifies the number of seconds the server is to wait for an RPC client request. |
The utility SYSEXT provides the following new
application programming interfaces (APIs):
| API | Description |
|---|---|
USR4209N |
Return short name of subroutine. |
USR4210N |
Base64 conversion of alphanumeric and binary bytes. |
It is now possible to specify the database type ADA2. This database type supports alphanumeric objects (Adabas LA option) and large object database fields (LOBs), which are dynamically defined inside a view, and view sizes greater than 64KB. It can be used for Adabas as of version 6 on Open Systems and Adabas as of version 8 on mainframes. See DBMS Assignments in the Configuration Utility documentation.
It is now possible to define a read-only buffer pool and an alternate buffer pool for the read-only buffer pool. See Buffer Pool Assignments in the Configuration Utility documentation.
The new profile parameter
SRVWAIT can be specified. See
RPC (Server) in the
Configuration Utility documentation.
ACIVERSThe EntireX ACI Version 9 is now supported by
ACIVERS. Therefore, the
maximum value has been increased from 8 to 9. See
also the corresponding information in the section
Natural Remote Procedure Call
(RPC) below.
STEPLIBThe profile parameter LSTEP has been renamed
to STEPLIB. The information which
was previously provided for the STEPLIB parameter is now
available under
Additional Steplib Assignments in
the Configuration Utility documentation.
CATALLThe system command
CATALL can now also be
used to check, save or stow objects. By default, the source-code lines of
sources that were saved or stowed are now automatically renumbered.
When Natural Security is active, it is now checked whether the selected action (catalog, check, save or stow) is allowed under Natural Security. When it is not allowed, an occur occurs.
The Natural Web I/O Interface client can now be installed on JBoss Application Server 4.0.5. See Installing the Natural Web I/O Interface Client on JBoss Application Server in the Natural Web I/O Interface documentation.
It is now possible to define the screen resolution
for the output window in the configuration file for the session (attributes
rows and columns
of the screen element). In
this file, it is also possible now to define the platform on which user ID and
password are to be authenticated (attribute type
of the session element) and whether the input field
for the user ID is in upper-case mode (attribute
ucase of the user
element). Furthermore, it is now possible to specify the version of the Natural
Web I/O Interface protocol that is to be used (attribute
protocol of the
session element); the latest Natural versions
automatically use the appropriate protocol version. For older Natural versions,
it is required to define the appropriate protocol version in the configuration
file. See Overview of Configuration File
Elements in the Natural Web I/O
Interface documentation.
The application programming interface USR6203N (available
with the utility SYSEXT) has been enhanced. It can now be
used to add and delete resources.
The Natural error messages that correspond to Adabas response codes have been completely revised with Natural Version 6.3.3.
Natural displays subcodes or other information from Additions fields if they are provided by Adabas.
This section provides additional information that you should be aware of after having installed Natural.
When working in structured mode, the format/length of a variable must now be the same for both DDMs and views. With previous versions, it was possible, for example, to define a variable as dynamic in the DDM and with a fixed length in the view. This is no longer possible. When a variable is defined as dynamic in the DDM, it must now also be defined as dynamic in the view.
If you want to retain the previous behavior, you can add a corresponding entry with a fixed length to the DDM (however, this is not recommended).
In previous versions, a database field short name was not rejected
during compilation if the parameter DBSHORT=ON and the
DEFINE DATA LOCAL statement were specified. This problem was
corrected with Natural Version 6.3.3 PL 1. The syntax error NAT0981 is now
returned. For further information, see the enhanced description of the
DBSHORT parameter.
With Natural Version 6.3.3 an enhanced Natural Remote Procedure Call (RPC) Version 6.3.1 is delivered that replaces the existing Natural RPC Version 6.2.3.
As of Natural RPC Version 6.3.1, the following enhancements are available:
The new parameter SRVWAIT is used to specify the
number of seconds the server is to wait for an RPC client request.
The EntireX ACI Version 9 is now supported by
ACIVERS. This allows you to
enable the EntireX Broker stub to send additional environmental information
about client and server to the EntireX Broker, or to use the Integrated
Authentication Framework (IAF).
If Natural Security is installed on the Natural RPC server side and if
the EntireX Broker uses IAF for authentication, the Natural RPC server can
optionally be configured to use an IAF token for client authentification
instead of the Natural Security logon data. The IAF token is provided by the
EntireX Broker and contains the user ID that the client has used to log on to
the EntireX Broker. As a consequence, after a successful authentication the
Natural user ID *USER is always identical to the
client user ID used by the EntireX Broker. It is no longer possible to use a
user ID within Natural that is different from the client user ID used by the
Entirex Broker.
To use this feature, the Natural RPC server and IAF must be configured in Natural Security. See the section Protecting Natural RPC Servers and Services in the Natural Security documentation for details.
No changes are required on the client side.
The following enhancements are provided with Natural Security Version 6.3.3.
The following enhancements are provided in Administrator Services:
With previous versions, the Natural system variable
*APPLIC-NAME either contained the name of the
library to which the user was logged on, or, if the user was logged on via a
special link, the special-link name.
With this version, a new general option
Set
*APPLIC-NAME always to library name is available. It can be set so
that *APPLIC-NAME always contains the library
name, regardless of whether the user is logged on via a special link or
not.
The functions for the handling of logon/countersign error records have been enhanced. They allow you to selectively handle logon errors which occurred in conjunction with Natural RPC service requests and Natural Web I/O service requests. To do so, you specify the following in the Start Value field on the Logon/Countersign Errors Menu:
RPCSRVRQ - for logon errors in conjunction with Natural RPC service requests.
NWOSRVRQ - for logon errors in conjunction with Natural Web I/O service requests.
When a user invokes a utility function and Natural Security searches
for appropriate utility profile to be applied, the search sequence, by default,
includes user-library-specific and user-specific utility profiles of all groups
in which the user is contained. With the new session option
*GROUP
Only, which can be set in a utility's default profile, you can
restrict the search to utility profiles of the current group (as determined by
the current value of the Natural system variable
*GROUP) and exclude the utility profiles of other
groups from the search sequence. See the section
Which Utility Profile Applies? in
the Natural Security documentation for details.
A new Additional Option named
Utilities option is available in the default utility
profile of the Object Handler (SYSOBJH utility). With it, you can
make the
Utilities option in library profiles apply to
SYSOBJH.
For Natural RPC servers which provide services performed by subprograms contained in a single library, a new option Logon Mode is available. It can be specified in the security profiles of Natural RPC servers to improve performance.
Setting the option to "S" (Static Mode) has the following effects:
The library on the server is set at the start of the server session, and will remain unchanged until the end of the server session.
The server will process only service requests for this library. Service requests for any other library will be rejected.
If the library is unprotected (People-protected = N), the user's authorization to access the library is not checked. If the library is protected (People-protected=Y), the user's authorization to access the library is checked.
After a successful check, the user's conditions of use of the library are determined by the library profile. Even if a special link exists between the user and the library, any settings in the special link profile will be ignored.
See the section Validation of an RPC Service Request in the Natural Security documentation for details.
As of this version, Natural Security supports Natural RPC servers which use an Integrated Authentication Framework (IAF) server for token validation. See also Support of Integrated Authentication Framework (IAF) on Server Side in the RPC section of these Release Notes.
See the section IAF Support in the Natural Security documentation for details.
The following changes are planned for future versions of Natural.
If you want to use third-party versioning software together with
Natural, it is no longer required that you write your own interface. Therefore,
NATNCVC will no longer be supported.
It is recommended that you use Local Versioning which is available with Natural Studio when you are working in a remote UNIX environment using SPoD. Using Local Versioning, you can use the source control system Concurrent Versions System (CVS) or Subversion (SVN) from within your Natural environment. To use this functionality, you must have the Subversion or CVS client part (svn.exe or cvs.exe) installed on your PC and you must have access to a Subversion or CVS repository server which has been installed locally or on a server. When you search the internet, you can find these Subversion or CVS components on several download sites. For detailed information on Local Versioning, see Natural Studio Extensions which is part of the Natural for Windows documentation.
The following environment variables will no longer be supported:
NWO_PF_MSG_LINES_NATIVE_FORMAT
NWO_BORDERS
NWO_PFKEYS
It is recommended that you do not use these environment variables any longer. In a later version, equivalent functionality is planned for the client side.