MBS @ FMTraining.TV - 14.4 MonkeyBread FileMaker Plug-in Release

Check out the FMTraining.tv website. Richard Carlton and his team do a daily free live stream about FileMaker to watch.

A few days ago Christian Schmitz from Monkeybread Software joined a live episode to talk a bit about the MBS FileMaker Plugin. Watch it on YouTube.

We check what is new in 14.4 release: Announcements, new functions and Release Notes.

Little tidbits from the FileMaker conference

Back from the conference in Liechtenstein, I wrote down a few of the tidbits we learnt.

Missing serial numbers

If you use serial numbers for new records in FileMaker, you may notice that sometimes the serial numbers have a gap. Why could this happen?

• Someone deleted a record
• Someone created a record, but never committed it.
• FileMaker crashed or network got disconnected while a transaction runs, so it never completes.

You need to know that on record creation, the client will request a new serial number from the server. If the record doesn't get committed or gets reverted, the serial value is used, but no record saved. If you like to make sure the serial number doesn't get lost, please call Commit script step after creating the new record to make sure the empty record is definitely stored.

Please consider moving to UUID numbers instead, so people can't get the serial numbers and they are more random but unique.

MBS Xojo Plugins, version 24.5pr2

• Added WillPopUp, WillDismiss, SelectionIsChanging and SelectionDidChange events to NSComboBoxControlMBS control.
• Updated DynaPDF to version 4.0.94.265.
• Added GetTextBBox and GetAnnotColor functions to DynaPDFMBS class.
• Fixed an edge case with swiss keyboard layout for PressKey function in RemoteControlMBS module and the virtual key lookup.

You can subscribe to our Xojo mailing list to get notified for new pre-release and release versions.

MBS FileMaker Plugin, version 14.5pr2

• Added field comment to the tooltips for the export dialog.
• Fixed an issue in Window.PositionNextDialog function for Windows.
• Updated DynaPDF to version 4.0.94.265.
• Added DynaPDF.GetAnnotColor and DynaPDF.GetTextBBox functions.
• Fixed an edge case with swiss keyboard layout for RemoteControl.PressKey function and the virtual key lookup.
• Added sample script into extras to launch two FileMaker on macOS, one with HTTP tunneling on and one with it being off.
• Optimized XML functions to better handle thread locking.
• Improved error handling for XML.ApplyStylesheet.
• Added some auto complete for custom functions for parameters and function names:
  • Table occurrences
  • Field names after ::
  • Operator names
  • Function names from function list
  • Parameter names
  • Get/Hole/Obtenir functions
  Invoke with fn-F5 in the dialog or we auto invoke it for you.

You can subscribe to our FileMaker mailing list to get notified for new pre-release and release versions.

Table comments in FileMaker

Recently someone asked about comments for a table and whether we could do something there. In the FileMaker community you find a couple of ideas around this topic, so we through why not. Let us add a comment text for the table definition section of the manage database dialog.

But we run into a couple of questions like where to store comments. Should the plugin store them somewhere or should FileMaker store them. Would we have some kind of user interface to enter the comment?

We can't just store comments in a local preferences file since others would open the database file and miss the comments. We can't store them in a new separate table as that would not survive clone and migration process. We decided to leverage the existing field comments in FileMaker to define a new field _TableComment to store it. Just define a field (can be global) and add a comment there. FileMaker stores the comment and provides the user interface to enter it.

Xojo 2024r3

This Release Includes:

• Preemptive Threading
• Android tablet support
• Web supports adding CSS classes to controls
• Code Editor improvements: Row highlighting, command bar button for Standardize Format, and Syntax Help area size control
• Web now uses Bootstrap v5.3.3 and Bootstrap Icons v1.11.3
  
• macOS Popovers can be resized
• Windows HTMLViewer can now access camera and microphone
• iOS Picture can now access EXIF metadata
  
• Android improved Declare support
• Android RegEx classes

The complete list of improvements can be found in the Release Notes. Download here

MBS Plugins 24.3 and later work fine with Xojo 2024r3.

MBS Xojo Plugins, version 24.5pr1

• Fixed crash with running Python on Windows.
• Updated DynaPDF to version 4.0.93.262.
• Updated CURL to version 8.10.1.
• Added GetAnnotTextAlign function to DynaPDFMBS class.
• Updated to libxml2 version 2.13.4.
• Updated to libxslt version 1.1.42.
• Updated OpenSSL to version 3.3.2.
• Note: SSLv3 is disabled now.
• Removed outdated CKFetchNotificationChangesOperationMBS, CKModifyBadgeOperationMBS and CKMarkNotificationsReadOperationMBS classes.
• Updated to Xcode 16.0.
• Updated jpeg library to version 9.6.
• Using REALCopyStringCFString on iOS to quicker get CFString from Xojo String.
• Fixed CURLSMultiMBS class, broken in 24.4.
• Added scroll methods for NSViewMBS class.
• Added sendAction method for NSControlMBS class.
• Added more properties for ArchiveEntryMBS class.
• Updated libarchive to version 3.7.6.
• Updated discount library to version 2.2.7d.
• Improved exception handling for ReSVGMBS class.
• Updated unicode tables for removing accents for RemoveAccentsMBS function.
• Added abortEditing method to NSControlMBS class.

You can subscribe to our Xojo mailing list to get notified for new pre-release and release versions.

MBS FileMaker Plugin, version 14.5pr1

• Updated DynaPDF to version 4.0.93.262.
• Updated CURL to version 8.10.1.
• Fixed crash with running Python on Windows.
• Added DynaPDF.GetAnnotTextAlign function.
• Added DynaPDF.ClearLicense function.
• Added JSON.InsertRecords function to insert array of records in JSON.
• Updated to libxml2 version 2.13.4.
• Updated to libxslt version 1.1.42.
• Updated LibXL to version 4.4.0.
• Updated OpenSSL to version 3.3.2.
• Note: SSLv3 is disabled now.
• Updated libarchive to version 3.7.6.
• Changed Archive.Content to skip GID, UID, Permissions, RDev, FileType and HardLink fields, if not set.
• Updated zxing library to newer branch.
• Improved Barcode.Detect by using newer zxing library.
• Added Barcode.DetectAsJSON function.
• Updated to Xcode 16.0.
• Updated jpeg library to version 9.6.
• Fixed CURL Multi functions, broken in 14.4.
• Added a field to database design dialog for tables to show comments. To add a comment, define a field _TableComment and put comment text there.
• Fixed an issue with GMImage.WriteToPDFContainer and Twain.Acquire on Windows.
• Added Text.FilterSwissQRCode function.
• Added DynaPDF.GetGlyphIndex and DynaPDF.GetGlyphOutline functions.
• Updated discount library to version 2.2.7d.
• Added Audit.BuildCaches function.
• Updated unicode tables for removing accents for Text.RemoveAccents function.

You can subscribe to our FileMaker mailing list to get notified for new pre-release and release versions.