This document covers the following topics:
The system requirements for the current version of Natural are now listed in the Installation documentation.
With Natural for Windows Version 8.4.1, a different compiler version was used to build and test Natural: Microsoft Visual Studio 2015. See also Compiler Used to Build Natural in the Installation documentation.
Applications that were created with Natural for Windows Version 3.1 and above can be executed with Version 8.4.
The following statements are now available:
| Statement | Description |
|---|---|
READLOB |
The READLOB statement is
used on a single record, where the defined LOB field (Large OBject field) is
read in fixed length segments during the loop processing.
|
UPDATELOB |
The UPDATELOB statement
is used to update a data segment of a LOB field (Large OBject field) in a
database record.
|
With Natural Version 8.4.1, the code coverage functionality has been introduced. It is now possible to exactly examine the statements of a Natural application that have been executed during a specific run and that have not been executed. Tests can now be improved so that they raise the number of touched statements of a Natural application when executed.
Natural code coverage requires that the Natural sources are
cataloged with the subparameter setting COVERAGE=ON of the new
GPGEN profile parameter. Refer to the Natural profile parameter
GPGEN for further
details.
Natural code coverage is activated with the new
COVERAGE profile parameter. Refer to the Natural profile parameter
COVERAGE for
further details.
The coverage data is written to an NCVF (Natural code coverage file) resource file you can analyze with NaturalONE or with the Natural Profiler utility. For more information, see the NaturalONE documentation or the Natural Profiler documentation.
The utility SYSEXT provides the following
new application programming interfaces (API):
| API | Description |
|---|---|
USR1052N |
This API offers two new optional parameters offering that the output of the executed command for the operating system (from STDOUT) is returned to the calling program. |
USR1069N |
This API offers a new optional parameter offering that the physical printer name is processed with a length of 256 bytes instead of 80 bytes. |
USR8401N |
This new API reads or writes the dynamic parts (:1:,:2:, ...) of a Natural system or user-defined error message. |
The following parameters are now available:
| Parameter | Description |
|---|---|
ADAPRM |
This Natural profile parameter is used to pass Natural session data to Adabas Review within the seventh Adabas buffer. |
COVERAGE |
This Natural profile parameter is used to perform a code coverage of a Natural session. |
GPGEN |
This Natural profile parameter is used
to generate specific profiling, code coverage and debugging information which
is currently only generated if the corresponding Natural object was compiled
with SYMGEN=ON. With the introduction of
GPGEN, it is no longer required and not recommended to
use the SYMGEN profile parameter.
|
MAXPREC |
This Natural profile parameter is used to control Natural's compiler. It determines the maximum number of digits after the decimal point that the Natural compiler generates for results of arithmetic operations. |
RI |
This Natural profile parameter specifies whether ISNs (internal sequence numbers) for records which were read and placed in hold status but were not updated are to be retained in hold status. |
YD |
This Natural profile parameter is used to adjust the current machine date (as read by using the internal machine time) by adding/subtracting a number of years to/from it. |
The syntax of the FIND statement has been enhanced so
that it is now possible to use the SHARED HOLD and SKIP
RECORDS clause. Refer to FIND in the
Statements documentation for further details.
The syntax of the MOVE ALL statement has been
enhanced so that it is now possible to use the SUBSTRING clause.
Refer to MOVE
ALL in the Statements documentation for
further details.
The syntax of the READ statement has been enhanced so
that it is now possible to use the SHARED HOLD and SKIP
RECORDS clause. Refer to READ in the
Statements documentation for further details.
The syntax of the READ WORK FILE statement has been
enhanced so that it is now possible to use the ADJUST clause.
Refer to READ WORK
FILE in the Statements documentation for
further details.
As already documented in a previous Natural version, the
WITH TEXT and the MARK option can now be used to
specify control variables as field attributes. Refer to
REINPUT in the
Statements documentation for further details.
It is now possible to define an array as the source operand (operand1) to be separated.
The syntax of the SEPARATE statement has been
enhanced so that you can now use the STARTING FROM POSITION option
and the REMAINDER POSITION clause. Refer to
SEPARATE in the
Statements documentation for further details.
As already documented in a previous Natural version, it is now
possible to specify system variables as the fields in
operand1 that are to be written to the work file.
Refer to WRITE WORK
FILE in the Statements documentation for
further details.
A new category Tools has been added in the NATPARM group of the Natural Configuration Utility. Refer to Overview of Profile Parameters in the Configuration Utility documentation for details.
- Code coverage of Natural applications
In batch mode, the Profiler utility now provides options to evaluate code coverage information of Natural applications. For more information, see Code Coverage of Natural Applications in the section Natural Profiler of the Tools and Utilities documentation.
Natural Development Server is now released with the same version number as Natural for Windows.
Natural RPC (Remote Procedure Call) 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 8.4.1, an enhanced Natural RPC Version 8.4.1 is delivered. This version contains error corrections.In addition, the following new functionality is provided.
webMethods EntireX Broker has a reworked mechanism for character conversion. This mechanism detects incorrect configurations such as RPC communication without configured character conversion. In these cases, the configuration defined in the EntireX Broker attribute file is not used and a warning message is written to the EntireX Broker log file. Adapt your EntireX Broker attribute file to avoid the message.
For details, see the section Broker's Mechanism for Choosing the Character Conversion Approach in Introduction to Internationalization in the webMethods EntireX documentation.
The mechanism is active if the version of the RPC server component is the following (or above):
EntireX RPC Server (z/OS CICS, z/OS Batch, z/OS IMS, Micro Focus, C, .NET) 9.10
EntireX RPC Server (Java, CICS ECI, IMS Connect, XML/SOAP, RPC-ACI, IBM MQ) 9.9
EntireX Adapter 9.9
Natural RPC Server (Natural Version 8.2.7 for Mainframes, Natural Version 8.4.1 for UNIX, Natural Version 8.4.1 for Windows)
- New PING and SRVLIST Commands
The
SYSRPC PING(pings a server) and theSYSRPC SRVLIST(lists servers) direct commands can now also be used in a Windows online or batch environment. See also Overview of SYSRPC Direct and Batch Commands.In addition, the new List Natural RPC servers function is provided in the context menu of a node selected in the service directory tree of the SYSRPC - Remote Procedure Call window.
The following enhancements are provided with Natural Security Version 8.4.1:
The Logon Records Menu provides a new selection criterion, FUSER DBID/FNR. It allows you to list only logon records of logons to a specific FUSER system file.
The Logon/Countersign Errors Menu provides a new selection criterion, FUSER DBID/FNR. It allows you to list only records of logon errors which occurred in conjunction with logon attempts to a specific FUSER system file.
The Maintenance Log Records functions List Administrator Services Maintenance Logs and List Security Profile Maintenance Logs provide a new selection criterion, Modifier. It allows you to list only the modifications performed by a specific administrator.
The new application programming interface NSCONE allows you to display the Natural Server view and Eclipse Navigator view options and actions allowed/disallowed for a specific library and user.
Since the Entire Transaction Propagator is no longer supported
with this version of Natural, the corresponding parameters
ETPDB and ETPSIZE have been
removed from the documentation.
The features to be removed which have been announced in the Release Notes for Version 8.3 are no longer available with Version 8.4:
Entire Transaction Propagator is no longer supported with this
version of Natural. As a consequence, the parameters
ETPDB and ETPSIZE have been
removed as well.
The following parameters are deprecated. Therefore, they have been removed from the user interface of the Natural Configuration Utility. For compatibility reasons, these parameters may still be referenced as dynamic parameters when starting Natural.
| Parameter | Description |
|---|---|
ACIVERS |
Define API Version for Use with EntireX Broker ACI |
RDACTIVE |
Activate Remote Debugger |
RDNODE |
Remote Debugger Node Name |
RDPORT |
Remote Debugger Port |
SPODDEBUGPORT |
Debugger Port for Debugging in the Context of SPoD |
SYMGEN |
Generate Symbol Table |
Notes:
RDACTIVE,
RDNODE and RDPORT, Export and Import is still
supported. See Working
with the Natural Configuration Utility in the
Configuration Utility documentation.
SPODDEBUGPORT, Export and Import is still supported. See
Working with the
Natural Configuration Utility in the
Configuration Utility documentation.
SYMGEN has been replaced by the
parameter GPGEN with
subparameter DEBUGGER.