Delphi app calling cobol app -> error

Question

We need to get data out of an older accounting system. We have received a dll that gives us access to the data we need. It includes a type library that we have imported.

If we run our test application from the same directory as the accounting system, everything works fine. If we try to run our application from a different directory, we get the following error:

Dynamically Bound RTS
Runtime DLL 'OOPS', version 3.1, entry point oops not recorded in registry, not found or incompatible with requirements of dynamically bound COBOL program. Dynamic binding of RTS requires: Runtime DLL 'OOLSM', at least Version 3.1

Can anybody provide some helpful information on this?

Are we supposed to have some kind of cobol runtime in our directory? Or in the path? Or registered in the registry?

Thanks,
-Vegar

Updates:
Setting the system %path% to include the path to the accounting system seems to do the trick. Including it as a user variable did not have the same effect for some reason.

Answer 1

If it works from the accounting app's directory, but not a different one, the first thing I'd try is adding that directory to your path.

Answer 2

What Cobol are you using? I had done this for year with Microfocus NetExpress 3.1, and all works just fine. I write COBOL DLL to access COBOL data files, and also write Delphi DLL to add new features to old COBOL systens.

And yes, I use to set the runtime path, that is environment variable called COBDIR, there are others,but usually %PATH% and %COBDIR%is enough.

If you give more detais about what COBOL compiler are you using, and how is the dll interface that you are calling, will me ore easy to help you.

And maybe "Dependence Walker" can help you to identify what run time files are missing, if it is. http://www.dependencywalker.com/

Answer 3

Unless it is already loaded into memory, Windows looks for DLL's that a program is requesting in every location listed in its PATH environment variable, and also in the directory the application is located within.