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 9.1.1, 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 9.1.
The following system variables are now available:
| Variable | Description |
|---|---|
*EDITOR |
The new *EDITOR system variable returns
information on whether the Natural program, data area and map editors are
enabled (activated).
|
The behavior of an ESCAPE in an AT BREAK statement has been
changed due to compatibility reasons with Natural for Mainframe.
When an ESCAPE ROUTINE or ESCAPE BOTTOM is processed in an
AT BREAK statement, the AT BREAK processing is stopped. If
there are multiple AT BREAK blocks in the processing loop, no further
AT BREAK statement is executed for the current processing loop.
When the processing loop is terminated and an ESCAPE ROUTINE or
ESCAPE BOTTOM is processed in the final AT BREAK processing,
the AT BREAK processing is stopped and no further AT BREAK
block is executed.
Refer to AT BREAK in
the Statements documentation for further details.
The syntax of the EXAMINE statement has been enhanced with the following
effects:
An EXAMINE statement with a multi-character wild
character (* or %) at the beginning or at the end of the search-pattern, matches now
only to the next delimiter (if delimiters are used). This can lead to a different
result.
In general, a mirrored EXAMINE now delivers the mirrored
result. That means, if you swap the characters (first to last, etc.) of the
inspected field and of the search-pattern, and change the direction from
FORWARD to BACKWARD, the resulting field contains the
swapped value of the non-mirrored EXAMINE.
Refer to EXAMINE in the Statements
documentation for further details.
The behavior of the ETID parameter has been changed. If the ETID
is not specified, neither in NATPARM nor dynamically, Natural uses the setting of
*INIT-USER to fill the ETID. This also applies now, if Natural Security is used.
If you want to use the ETID from Natural Security, you have to set the
ETID parameter to OFF.
Refer to ETID - Adabas User Identification in the Parameter Reference documentation for further details.
The option to automatically renumber the source-code lines of sources that were saved
or stowed is now deactivated by default. If you want to use automatic renumbering, you
now have to activate this option. Refer to CATALL in the System Commands
documentation for further details.
When using the command line version of the Buffer Pool
Monitor (NATBPMON), additional statistics (hot fix level, read-only and
swap status) are displayed when issuing the STATUS command in
NATBPMON. Refer to Statistical Information About the Buffer Pool in the
Operations documentation for details.
- Summary of Executed Source Lines
The Natural Profiler utility now provides the option to generate a summary of source lines executed in a Natural object. The summary shows how many events occurred during execution of a source line and the CPU and elapsed time spent executing the line.
For more information, see Line Summary in the section Using the Profiler Utility in Batch Mode.
- Transaction Response Time Evaluation
The Natural Profiler utility now provides the option to evaluate transactions and generate a transaction summary. The summary shows how many events occurred during execution of the transaction and the response time used by the transaction.
For more information, see Transaction Summary in the section Using the Profiler Utility in Batch Mode.
Natural Development Server is 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 9.1.1, an enhanced Natural RPC Version 9.1.1 is delivered. This version contains error corrections. New functionality is not provided.
The following enhancements are provided with Natural Security Version 9.1.1.
The menu structure of Administrator Services has been revised slightly. In particular, User Preset Values and Library Preset Values are now two separate menu items.
User Preset Values provide a new option Automatically unlock users after nn hours, nn minutes. If you use the Lock User Option, you had to unlock every locked user manually. With this option, you can specify a time interval after which locked users are unlocked automatically: A locked user ID will then be unlocked nn hours and nn minutes after which the locking occurred.
In addition to "regular" passwords of up to 8 characters, Natural Security now also supports the use of password phrases, that is, passwords which are longer than 8 characters. The use of password phrases is activated by the new option Password phrases active in the User Preset Values section of Administrator Services.
Several Password Phrase Options are available to control the use password phrases.
In conjunction with password phrases, the new logon-related user exit
LOGONEX0 is used instead of LOGONEX1; see Logon-Related User
Exits.
See also Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) below.
In the Password Options section of User Preset Values, the option Minimum no. of non-alphabetical characters has been replaced by the two new options Minimum no. of numeric characters and Minimum no. of special characters.
A new option Pass Natural User ID (*USER) to Adabas is available in the Libary Preset Values section of Administrator Services. It determines which user ID is passed to Adabas to be used as Adabas login ID: the value of the Natural system variable *USER or that of the Natural system variable *INIT-USER.
User authentication via an LDAP server is now also possible with AUTO=ON:
If technical user support is defined and the Natural session is started with the Natural
profile parameter AUTO=ON, the user ID is LDAP-verified.
The following components of the LDAP security profile have been changed:
LDAP Options 1: The field Log level, which could be set to 0 (logging not active) and 1 (logging active), now provides a value range of 0 to 6 for selective logging of various items.
LDAP Options 2: The Technical user support fields Credential and Key value have been renamed to Path to output file and Path to key file respectively.
LDAP Options 3: The field Default separator has been removed.
For the handling of password phrases, two new APIs are available:
NSC--PH can be used to check password phrases.
NSC--PHS can be used to check and change password phrases.
The existing API NSC-US has been enhanced: The parameter PPARM4 can be used to
set a password phrase in a user security profile (see example program
PGMUS001).
To set the user ID and password phrase for an Natural RPC service request, you use the
new API USR9171 provided in the library SYSEXT.
It is planned to change the compiler used to build Natural in the upcoming version of Natural for Windows. A switch to Microsoft Visual Studio 2017 as the build compiler is intended. It may be possible that this change influences the behavior of customer programs written in language C.
