We use the &FOCFEXNAME in every report so the user knows what fex he was running.
Until version 7.1 we only saw the first 8 characters of the fexname and that was just what we needed.
In version 7.6 that name is now the longer displayed name. This is NOT what we want.

How can I change the &focfexname so I only get the first 8 characters?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: FrankDutch,

1st thing I'd do is ask IBI why they've changed a system variables return value.

Then I'd ask them what they are going to do to fix the lack of backward compatibility.

You can not change system variables, the only option you have is to create your own and edit
the system variable into it.

Frank, what were you Fex names, were they all 8 chars or less ?

Or were they long ones, that were truncated.

I just ran a long named fex from the console and got {appname}/{fexname}, interesting.

Till version 7.1.7 all teh fexnames created in the MRE where only 8 characters, even if I gave them longer names. We give out fexes a coded name that is build as YMD with 2 characters for the daily sequence p.e. 081111FA (the first fex today created by me). After these first 8 characters we add a more descriptive text.
In the EDA the longer name was already used.

My Suggestion is with MRE to create the fex with the 8 char name, This will create a physical fex file with 8 character name, once saved, change the name to the long one.

A slight change in the process will get you going again.

I would also suggest that you have a common routin included in you programs to handle the &FOCFEXNAME, instead of using it directly, this way if there is another change you have a single point of change.

Thx Waz, your first suggestion is how we do it now, but I hoped to find a better way.

Your second is the way we thought of in case it was impossible to change it as stated above.

Frank, I would stongly suggest the second suggestion, it is a far better way, better to change it now than further down the track.

That way you can completely control how the value is retrieved, even completely different methods, just change one -INCLUDE file