If you encounter problems while using Natural Construct, there are a few things you can try before contacting your Natural Construct administrator. This document describes some of the methods you can use to troubleshoot and/or debug your applications.
Note:
Many of these methods are applicable to any Natural program, not just
Natural Construct-generated programs.
Natural Construct provides several utilities you can use to trace and debug Natural modules. For information about these and other utilities, see Supplied Generation Utilities in Natural Construct Generation.
This document covers the following topics:
This section contains suggestions you can try if you encounter problems when specifying the model parameters.
Before contacting your administrator, check the online help available from each model specification panel. For example, many required fields have active help available. If you press the help PF-key when the cursor is in the field, a window is displayed listing valid entries for that field.
For more information about using the online help, see Getting Online Help in Natural Construct Generation.
Another suggestion is to look at the demo system supplied with Natural Construct. The demo system is a fully functional order entry application generated using Natural Construct.
There are two ways you can use the demo system for troubleshooting your programs. You can:
display the model specification panels to see what values were entered for a similar program in the demo system
look at the generated code to see how a similar program is structured
invoke the demo system to see how the programs run and interact
The following sections describe each of these options.
To display the model specification panels for a program in the demo
system
Logon to the demo (SYSCSTDE, for example) library.
Enter "ncstg" at the Natural Next prompt. The Generation main menu is displayed.
Enter "L" in the Function field. The Select Module window is displayed:
CSGLIST Natural Construct CSGLIST0
Oct 22 Select Module 1 of 1
Module Model Title
---------- -------------------------------- -------------------------
CUSBRSUB OBJECT-BROWSE-SUBP Object Browse ...
CUSBR020 OBJECT-BROWSE-STATIC Object Browse Static ...
CUSTN OBJECT-MAINT-SUBP Customer Maintenance
EMPLBR OBJECT-BROWSE-SUBP Employee Browse Object
MENU STARTUP Demo System Startup Pgm
MYMENU MENU Menu ...
MYORDSUB OBJECT-MAINT-SUBP Order Maintenance Subprog
MYORMSA OBJECT-MAINT-PDA
MYORMSR OBJECT-MAINT-PDA-R
NCCFCSTB BROWSE-SUBP Browse Customer File
NCCFCUST OBJECT-MAINT-DIALOG Customer Maintenance
Module ... ________ Model .... ________________________________
Enter-PF1---PF2---PF3---PF4---PF5---PF6---PF7---PF8---PF9---PF10--PF11
help retrn bkwrd frwrd
Position cursor or enter screen value to select |
This window lists the modules contained in the demo library. It shows the module names, the type of model used to generate the modules, and a brief description of each module.
Note:
For more information about this window, see List
Generated Modules Function in Natural Construct
Generation.
Move the cursor to the line containing the module for which you want to see specifications.
Press Enter. You are returned to the Generation main menu.
The name of the module you selected is displayed in the Module field and the name of the model used to generate the module is displayed in the Model field.
Enter "M" in the Function field. The first specification panel for the selected module is displayed. Continue pressing Enter to display all specification panels for the module. Press Enter again to return to the main menu.
Enter "U" in the Function field. The user exits for the selected module are displayed.
To display the code generated for a program in the demo system
Logon to the demo library (SYSCSTDE, for example).
Enter "ncstg" at the Natural Next prompt. The Generation main menu is displayed.
Enter "L" in the Function field. The Select Module window is displayed.
Move the cursor to the line containing the module for which you want to see generated code.
Press Enter. You are returned to the Generation main menu.
Enter "E" in the Function field. The code generated for the selected module is displayed.
To display the model specification panels for a program in the demo
system
Logon to the demo library.
Enter "menu" at the Natural Next prompt. The main menu for the demo system is displayed.
This section contains troubleshooting suggestions you can try if you encounter problems when generating programs.
When you generate a module from the Generation main menu, a status window is displayed showing the progress of the generation. If a problem occurs, you can optionally regenerate the module and display the embedded statements that perform the generation processing. You can then determine where in the problem occurred.
To display the embedded statements
Prior to generating the module, press PF5 (optns) on the Generation main menu. The Optional Parameters window is displayed:
CSGOPTS Natural Construct CSGOPTS0
Oct 25 Optional Parameters 1 of 1
Status window ................ X
Step ....... _
Text ....... _
Embedded statements .......... _
Condition codes .............. _
Post-generation modifications _
Specifications only .......... _
Document in PREDICT .......... _
Enter-PF1---PF2---PF3---PF4---PF5---PF6---PF7---PF8---PF9-
help retrn quit |
Mark the Embedded statements field.
Press Enter.
Enter "G" in the Function field. The status window is displayed, showing the progress of generation.
When generation is complete, enter "E" in the Function field. The embedded statements are displayed in the generated code.
The following example shows the first 25 lines of code generated by the Object-Maint-Dialog model. An embedded statement is displayed on line 0040:
0010 **SAG GENERATOR: OBJECT-MAINT-DIALOG VERSION: n.n.n 0020 **SAG TITLE: Order Maintenance Dialog 0030 **SAG SYSTEM: MYLIB 0040 **> Trace ...... --> SAVE CUOMS 0050 **SAG GDA: CDGDA 0070 **SAG DESCS(1): This program is used to maintain the order business 0080 **SAG DESCS(2): object. 0090 **SAG HEADER1: Order Entry System 0100 **SAG HEADER2: Maintain Customer Orders 0110 **SAG DIRECT-COMMAND-PROCESS: 0140 **SAG OBJECT-NAME: MYORDSUB 0150 **SAG ACTIONS: 0101010101010000 0160 **SAG ACTION-LENGTH: 2 0190 **SAG ACTIONS-AS-PUSH-BUTTONS: X 0200 **SAG MAX-WINDOWS: 1 0210 **SAG MAP-NAME(1): MYMAP 0220 **SAG UPPER-BOUNDS(1,1): 00030 0230 **SAG UPPER-BOUNDS(1,2): 00010 0240 **SAG UPPER-BOUNDS(1,3): 00020 0250 **SAG SCREEN-OCCURS(1,1): 001
After determining where the error occurred, contact your system administrator.
Note:
The problem may have occurred in a code frame, a block of code
that performs a specific function. The Natural Construct models use code
frames, as well as subprograms, in the generation process. For example, the
C--BAN9 code frame supplies the standard banner that appears at the top of all
generated modules.
This section contains troubleshooting suggestions you can try if you encounter problems while working in the Natural editor.
While working in the editor, you may not always remember which command was issued when an error occurred. If this happens, you can display the name of the last command by typing an asterisk (*) on the command line and pressing Enter.
To display a list of the last 10 (or less) commands issued, type "LAST *" and press Enter:
LAST
_ NPC CSGMENU
_ NPC CSGMAIN
_ NPC CSGMAIN
_ RENUMBER
_ STOW
_ NPC CSGMAIN
_ RENUMBER
_ STOW
_ ? NAT0247 |
Note:
This functionality is only available in the Natural editor (not the
User Exit editor or Help Text editor).
This section contains information about viewing Natural error messages.
Sometimes you require the number of the last Natural error that occurred. One method of determining the error number is to enter "TECH" at the Next prompt.
Note:
You can also issue the TECH command on the command line in the
Natural editor.
A series of three windows is displayed:
23:05:21 01-10-22 User ................. SACAPR Library .............. MYLIB Version / SM Level ... 2.3 / 0004 Startup Transaction .. NATURAL SECURITY ..... Yes Operating System ..... MVS/ESA Oper. Sys. Version ... SP6.0.5 Machine Class ........ MAINFRAME Hardware ............. 7060 TP Monitor ........... COMPLETE Device Type .......... COLOR Terminal ID .......... 1 3 Last Command ......... STOW |
This window shows information about the current settings, such as the user and library names, the operating system, and the terminal ID. It also lists the name of the last command issued. Press Enter to display the second window:
23:05:53 01-10-22 Last Error Error Number ....... 247 Error Line ......... 1950 Object ............. MYORDDIA Object Type ........ Program Level .............. 0 Library ............ DBID/FNR ........... Error Class ........ System Error Type ......... Syntax Error Time ......... 2001-10-22 23:05:01 Error Transaction .. |
This window shows the number of the last error, as well as the error line, class, type, and time. In the example above, 82 is displayed in the Error Number field. Since error numbers consist of four digits, the actual error number is 0082.
Press Enter again to display the last window:
23:06:26 01-10-22 Steplib DBID FNR Object Type Level -------- ----- ----- -------- ---- ----- SYSTEM 196 4 SYSTEM 196 3 |
This window shows information about the steplib chain, database ID, and file number.
Note:
The steplib chain indicates the order in which libraries are
searched in the current library. The current library is searched first, then
the first steplib, second steplib, etc., up to the eighth steplib (if present).
The SYSTEM library is searched last.
Once you know the error number, you can use the method described in the following section to view the error message.
Once you know the number of a Natural error, you can display the associated error message text.
To display the message text
Type "?" and the four-digit error number at the Next prompt (? 0247, for this example).
Note:
You can also issue this command on the command line in the
Natural editor.
Press Enter. The following window is displayed:
23:08:00 ***** NATURAL HELP UTILITY ***** 01-10-22 Library MYLIB - NATURAL System Message NAT0247 - Page 1 Error in automatic parameter :1: for map. Tx *** Short Text *** Error in automatic parameter ... for map. Ex *** Explanation *** A parameter which is included for a constant input map or write map without explicit parameter specification is invalid or undefined. Ac *** Recommended Action *** Correct error in program. |
After reading the text, you can determine what to do next.
To help debug your Natural programs, you can also use the Natural debugging tool. This tool allows you to place break points and watch points at strategic locations in your code.
The procedure to run this utility differs depending on the platform. For more information, see the Natural documentation for your platform.