Installation on Windows 11

Rony G. Flatscher — Thu, 29 Jan 2026 10:28:53 -0000

AOO on Windows is 32-bit, net-oo-rexx is 64-bit. You could replace the ooRexx part in net-oo-rexx with the portable 32-bit version of ooRexx by copying it to net-oo-rexx/oorexx.

In case you want more information about Java exceptions you could do the following:

add a "signal on syntax" before the statement where exceptions occur, create an internal procedure "syntax:" and add debug code, e.g.:

signal on syntax
... code ...

exit
syntax:
    co=condition('object')
    say ppJavaExceptionChain(co)
    exit -1

However, we rely on the Java programmers what kind of error information they supply.

Installation on Windows 11

Jan-Erik Lärka — Thu, 29 Jan 2026 08:04:32 -0000

Can't see that portable would help me as my scripts call 32-bit and 64-bit apps right and left to use whatever resources present on the different computers it encounter.

What does this message mean and need to do under the hood?
Is it a IPC pipe it refer to that is the trouble?
---> com.sun.star.lib.connections.pipe.PipeConnection
Something one can mend here?

Error 40 running C:\Program Files\BSF4ooRexx850\UNO.CLS line 1858: Incorrect call to routine.
Error 40.900: BSF4ooRexx850/routine/BSF(), error 3: Java exception occurred: [org.apache.bsf.BSFException: BSF4ooRexx subfunction "invoke":
bean: [class org.oorexx.uno.RgfReflectUNO] --> type: <org.oorexx.uno.rgfreflectuno>
method: [FINDINTERFACEWITHMEMBER] not found or execution error!</org.oorexx.uno.rgfreflectuno>

                                                                    -> check method name=[FINDINTERFACEWITHMEMBER] (caseless o.k., but correct spelling?)
                                    -> check supplied arguments (correct number, correct types?):
                                                                                                            arg # 1: Rexx argument=[java.lang.Class@1c4af82c] --> Java value="class com.sun.star.comp.helper.Bootstrap" type=<java.lang.Class>
            arg # 2: Rexx argument=[BOOTSTRAP] --> Java value="BOOTSTRAP" type=<java.lang.String>
                                                                                                            arg # 3: Rexx argument=[0] --> Java value="0" type=<java.lang.String>
                                                                    arg # 4: Rexx argument=[0] --> Java value="0" type=<java.lang.String>
                            arg # 5: Rexx argument=[1] --> Java value="1" type=<java.lang.String>

                                                                                                    => caused by: "java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: Could not initialize class com.sun.star.lib.connections.pipe.PipeConnection"

Loading .jar-files without adding to classpath

Rony G. Flatscher — Fri, 22 Aug 2025 10:17:16 -0000

Oh, forgot to mention: once the JVM gets loaded, it will not honor changes to the process's environment variable CLASSPATH after that point in time.

So, if you use a Rexx program that employs BSF.CLS (which loads the JVM, which honors the CLASSPATH environment variable at that point in time) and then change CLASSPATH from Rexx, the change would not have any effect on the running JVM. That may have been the problem; the above program would bypass that, as CLASSPATH gets defined by a Rexx program that does not load the JVM, such that the second-called Rexx program's BSF.CLS call will load the JVM and honor CLASSPATH changed by the first (the launcher) Rexx program.

Loading .jar-files without adding to classpath

Rony G. Flatscher — Fri, 22 Aug 2025 10:11:26 -0000

Requiring or calling "BSF.CLS" will load the JVM if it is not loaded yet.

If possible, I would not change any of the BSF4ooRexx programs which have been proven (tested) for a long time. Rather I would seek a solution that would work without editing anything else.

One possible solution would be to write a separate Rexx program, a launcher, that sets up the environment (CLASSPATH in your case) appropriately and then calls the Rexx program that needs that setting and which will load the JVM using either a requires or a call "BSF.CL".

Something like this:

test1.rex:

say .context~name
dt=.dateTime~new~string
call value 'REXX_TEST1', dt, "ENVIRONMENT"   -- set environment
res=test2.rex()
say "test1.rex: res="res

test2.rex:

say .context~name
dt=value('REXX_TEST1',,'environment')  -- fetch from enviornment
say 'test2.rex: REXX_TEST1='dt
return "hey, this is from" .context~name "at" .dateTime~new

with the following output if running "rexx test1.rex":

G:\test\command\two\test1.rex
TEST2.REX
test2.rex: REXX_TEST1=2025-08-22T12:11:05.567000
test1.rex: res=hey, this is from TEST2.REX at 2025-08-22T12:11:05.585000

Loading .jar-files without adding to classpath

Jan-Erik Lärka — Tue, 19 Aug 2025 06:00:54 -0000

The real problem is however to include it early in a calling script and then never, ever use

::requires 'BSF.CLS'

in any class that may need it, as it then will be bound without the required classpath set in advance of launching bsf.

I've had to adjust a bunch of classes and scripts, but it that work I'm greatful!

load jdbc drivers dynamically

Jan-Erik Lärka — Mon, 18 Aug 2025 06:06:32 -0000

Thank you Rony, your suggestin in theis thread solved this problem, solution in: "https://sourceforge.net/p/bsf4oorexx/discussion/1374482/thread/d2f342c423/"

Loading .jar-files without adding to classpath

Jan-Erik Lärka — Mon, 18 Aug 2025 05:14:43 -0000

Ahhh, loading bsf.cls late after setting up the environment seem to be the trick.

::method Init
    CALL VALUE 'CLASSPATH', self~getClassPath, 'ENVIRONMENT'
    /* Attributes for PDF-management */
    self~currentFont = .nil
    self~currentDoc = .nil
    self~fileName = .nil
    /* Load BSF.CLS as late as possible after everything has been set up */
    .context~package~addPackage( .package~new( 'BSF.CLS' ) )

Loading .jar-files without adding to classpath

Rony G. Flatscher — Sat, 16 Aug 2025 22:36:41 -0000

Hi Jan-Erik,

you could have a Rexx script that does nothing else but setting up the environment (CLASSPATH in your case) and then run another Rexx script as a command.

E.g.
test1.rex

say .context~name
dt=.dateTime~new~string
call value 'REXX_TEST1', dt, "ENVIRONMENT"   -- set environment
"rexx test2.rex"
say "test1.rex: RC="rc

test2.rex

say .context~name
dt=value('REXX_TEST1',,'environment')  -- fetch from enviornment
say 'test2.rex: REXX_TEST1='dt
exit 99

running test1.rex:

G:\test\command>test1
G:\test\command\test1.rex
G:\test\command\test2.rex
test2.rex: REXX_TEST1=2025-08-17T00:33:58.181000
test1.rex: RC=99

Or, you could create a cmd/bat/sh script that contains the desired environment and then run that script to start a Rexx or Java program.

Would that be helpful for you?

Loading .jar-files without adding to classpath

Jan-Erik Lärka — Fri, 15 Aug 2025 14:23:39 -0000

I've got a bunch of .jar files on a network drive that I use to manipulate PDF-files along with jdbc and other more or less useful stuff placed in different classes.
I've looked at various ways to wrap things in a class and dynamically load the files and script in a better way, but have to admit defeat.
The problem is that as this class has to restart the main script and it has to provide the script name and parameters as well as add a check to determine that the first instance of the script should just return.
It doesn't return the actual return value of this script (second to first instance) if one want to chain it. :-(

How can one improve the code?
Get the script name and parameters inside the class?

PARSE SOURCE . . this
pdf = .PDFManager~new( FILESPEC( 'N', this ), ARG(1) )
If VALUE( 'CLASSPATH',, 'ENVIRONMENT' )~POS( 'pdfbox' ) = 0 Then
    Return 0

::class PDFManager PUBLIC

::attribute currentDoc
::attribute currentFont
::attribute fileName

::method Init
    Use Arg arg_1='', arg_2='', arg_3='', arg_4='', arg_5='', arg_6='', arg_7='', arg_8='', arg_9=''

    /* Initialize and load .jar-files dynamically */
    If 0 = POS( STRIP( Value( 'userprofile',, 'ENVIRONMENT' ),, ';' )||'\jars\pdfbox', VALUE( 'CLASSPATH',, 'ENVIRONMENT' ) ) Then
        ADDRESS SYSTEM "SET CLASSPATH="||self~getClassPath||" & rexx "||STRIP( arg_1 arg_2 arg_3 arg_4 arg_5 arg_6 arg_7 arg_8 )
    Else Do
        /* Attributes to manage PDF:s */
        self~currentFont = .nil
        self~currentDoc = .nil
        self~fileName = .nil
    End

::method getClassPath
usr = STRIP( Value( 'userprofile',, 'ENVIRONMENT' ),, ';' )||'\jars'
Call SysMkDir usr
patterns = .array~of( 'pdfbox-', 'fontbox-', 'commons-logging-' )
env = STRIP( Value( 'CLASSPATH',, 'ENVIRONMENT' ),, ';' )
Do pattern Over Patterns
    Call SysFileTree 'jars\'||pattern||'*.jar', 'driver.', 'FO'
    Do i = 1 To driver.0
        If STREAM( usr||'\'||FILESPEC( 'N', driver.i ), 'C', 'QUERY EXISTS' ) = '' Then
            Call SysFileCopy driver.i, usr||'\'||FILESPEC( 'N', driver.i )
        If 0 = POS( usr||'\'||FILESPEC( 'N', driver.i ), env ) Then
            env = usr||'\'||FILESPEC( 'N', driver.i )||';'||env
    End
End
Return STRIP( env,, ';' )

String as CharSequence?

Rony G. Flatscher — Tue, 29 Jul 2025 09:10:03 -0000

Very interesting and clever! :)

One area where bitness does not matter is with commands. They usually communicate their information via the return code and the standard files stdin, stdout and stderr. Starting with ooRexx 5.0 you could take advantage of the "ADDRESS ... WITH" variant which allows one to optionally feed the external command with an ooRexx array or stem for stdin, an ooRexx or stem for fetching stdout and/or stderr directly.

Ad COM/OLE: yes, that is confined to the bitness. However, BSF4ooRexx[850] does not use COM/OLE, ooRexx allows for using that.

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Installation on Windows 11

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load jdbc drivers dynamically

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