Re: Calling a COBOL program from SQR

[David Thompson-Hall <david.thompson-hall@DOIT.WISC.EDU>]

At 05:35 PM 2/20/01 -0500, you wrote:

>
> This has been working for 4 years.  The cobol program is variable depending
> on the bank account used for the AP pay cycle.  This invokes the cobol
> program, passing the name of the text file the cobol program should read.


This is fine if your COBOL is just reading a local text file - but what if it
is a PS-delivered COBOL that reads the database?

There is an example of how to do this in the "SQR in PeopleSoft and other
Applications" book by Landres & Landres (I think we've all heard of this by
now), on pp. 278-280.  However, it involves hacking the PRCS_SQR unix shell
script to grab the System Admin password, and it doesn't tell you how they
actually did that.  Anyone who's looked at PRCS_SQR will know what a headache
taking it apart is.  (if you don't believe me, look yourself...)

Anyway, so if the COBOL you want to run needs to access the DB, then I think
you have to use PSRUN to call it; that requires the system admin password, and
it all adds up to a much messier process, one I have yet to see a complete
solution to.

Despite the challenges, we're thinking about trying this ourselves, because it
would be nice to be able to call COBOLs from SQRs.  However, we might just do
our work in PeopleCode or COBOL instead of SQR, since we can make the calls
much easier that way.

Of course, if someone knows the trick that Landres & Landres did to the
PRCS_SQR, then maybe this wouldn't be so hard after all...

DTH


David Thompson-Hall                                     1210 W. Dayton St.
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