ILE COBOL Programmer's Guide


Running an ILE COBOL Program From a Menu-Driven Application

Another way to run an ILE COBOL program is from a menu-driven application. The workstation user selects an option from a menu, calling the appropriate program. The following figure illustrates an example of an application menu.

Figure 30. Example of an Application Menu

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|                             PAYROLL DEPARTMENT MENU                            |
|                                                                                |
|    1.  Inquire into employee master                                            |
|    2.  Change employee master                                                  |
|    3.  Add new employee                                                        |
|    4.  Return                                                                  |
|                                                                                |
|                                                                                |
|  Option:                                                                       |
|                                                                                |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

The menu shown in this figure is normally displayed by a CL program in which each option calls a separate COBOL program.

The DDS for the display file of the above PAYROLL DEPARTMENT MENU looks like the following:

Figure 31. Data Description Specification of an Application Menu


 ....+....1....+....2....+....3....+....4....+....5....+....6....+....7....+....8
      A* MENU PAYROLLD PAYROLL DEPARTMENT MENU
      A
      A          R MENU                      TEXT('PAYROLL DEPARTMENT MENU')
      A                                  1 29'PAYROLL DEPARTMENT MENU'
      A                                  5  4'1.  Inquire into employee master'
      A                                  6  4'2.  Change employee master'
      A                                  7  4'3.  Add new employee'
      A                                  8  4'4.  Return'
      A                                 12  2'Option:'
      A            RESP                 12 10VALUES(1 2 3 4)
      A                                      DSPATR(MDT)

Figure 31 shows an example of the CL program for the application menu illustrated in Figure 30.

Figure 32. Example of a CL program which calls ILE COBOL Programs


            PGM /* PAYROLL Payroll Department Menu */
            DCLF FILE (PAYROLLD)
     START: SNDRCVF RCDFMT(MENU)
            IF (&RESP=1); THEN(CALL CBLINQ)
            /* Inquiry */
            ELSE +
              IF (&RESP=2); THEN(CALL CBLCHG)
              /* Change */
              ELSE +
                IF (&RESP=3); THEN(CALL CBLADD)
                /* Add */
                ELSE +
                  IF (&RESP=4); THEN(RETURN)
                  /* Return */
            GOTO START
            ENDPGM

If the user enters 1, 2, or 3 from the application menu, the CL program in Figure 32 calls the ILE COBOL programs CBLINQ, CBLCHG, or CBLADD respectively. If the user enters 4 from the application menu, the CL program returns to the program that called it.


[ Top of Page | Previous Page | Next Page | Table of Contents | Index ]