New in this prerelease of the 3.5 plugins:
- Added Barcode.DrawBarcode to draw vector graphics barcode into PDF.
- Added Barcode.UPCChecksum to calculate.
- Added SyntaxColoring.GetFontSize and SyntaxColoring.SetFontSize functions to set font size in script editor on Mac.
- Changed PNG library to return warning on invalid SRGB ICC Profile instead of error.
- Fixed bug in Barcode.Detection which can lead to a crash.
Download at
monkeybreadsoftware.de/filemaker/files/Prerelease/ or ask for being added to the dropbox shared folder.
This is FileMaker 12.
Do you see the difference to normal script editor?
New in this prerelease of the 3.5 plugins:
- Added JPEG 2000 support for GraphicsMagick on Mac OS X (was already there on Windows).
Download at
monkeybreadsoftware.de/filemaker/files/Prerelease/ or ask for being added to the dropbox shared folder.
For years we are waiting now for 64bit support in both Xojo and FileMaker. And I get plenty of people asking for features to be added to plugins which will only work once we have 64bit support:
- Use newer Mac OS X frameworks like MapKit, EventKit, Social, Accounts and others. All the new goodies from Apple require apps which use 64bit.
- Use more memory, e.g. raster huge poster PDFs in dynaPDF to 300 dpi bitmaps which easily needs more than 4 GB of memory.
- Use newer VLC library with our MBS VLC Plugin. With version 2.1 VLC is 64bit only, so we can't load the libraries.
- On Linux with 64bit, we need to install 32 bit compatibility libraries. But not every lib is available there, so some things will not work.
- For database access (e.g. ODBC drivers), we already face the problem, that often 64bit only library comes by default and users have trouble getting 32bit one installed. Especially if people have 64bit Windows and create a ODBC data source with 64bit driver and our 32 bit app does not see it.
- Use faster 64 bit math. But both in Xojo and FileMaker this will not make a big difference as number crunching is normally not a bottleneck in our solutions.
So we do hope FileMaker and Xojo will get this done next year and provide us with a stable 64bit version of their software, so we can add all this nice features.
PS: FileMaker 12 has already a 64bit server for CWP.
New in this prerelease of the 3.5 plugins:
- The highlighting of variable names being undeclared is now off by default and can be enabled by SyntaxColoring.CheckVariableDeclaration.Enable command.
- Added DynaPDF orientation functions.
- Added Files.ReadFile function.
- Added transparent option to Barcode.Generate function.
Download at
monkeybreadsoftware.de/filemaker/files/Prerelease/ or ask for being added to the dropbox shared folder.
DynaForms runs a DynaPDF sale for Christmas:
We wish all our customers Merry Christmas and a successful new year.
As a thank you for the past 11 years, you get 30% Christmas discount
on everything till the end of the year.
For orders by invoice or Paypal, we apply the discount automatically. For orders through Share-it, please use the coupon code DynaPDF. Also take the chance to order updates and upgrades with this discount. We can sell updates up to 5 years in advance if you like. And of course licenses are per developer, so if you got a new coworker, you can now use the discount for a new license.
Please check our latest plugins. With
13.5pr6 Xojo and Real Studio plugins you can even add vector graphics barcodes to your PDFs. And if you like to use reporting in Xojo, you can also check out
BKeeney Shorts. There you can use our DynaPDF Plugin for PDF output.
New in this prerelease of the 3.5 plugins:
- Added Barcode.Detect function.
- Added App.GetProcessPath function.
- Fixed bug in SQL plugin with setting text parameter to SQLite prepared statement.
- Added Files.WriteFile function.
Download at
monkeybreadsoftware.de/filemaker/files/Prerelease/ or ask for being added to the dropbox shared folder.
New in this prerelease of the 3.5 plugins:
- Added caching for undeclared variables detection to make it faster.
- Improved detection of undeclared variables in script editor.
- Added Barcode.Generate function.
- Added PrintDialog functions to control printer dialog on Mac. (print to specific printer and print to PDF)
- Added more calendar functions related to Alarms and Attendees (see new example database).
- Fixed bug with Zip file creation. Finder now unpacks them again.
Download at
monkeybreadsoftware.de/filemaker/files/Prerelease/ or ask for being added to the dropbox shared folder.
Did you see FileMaker crashing?
Well, on Mac the crash reports can actually tell you where the problem may be. For example we sometimes have crash reports like this:
Thread 0 Crashed:: Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread
0 libsystem_kernel.dylib 0x97c9d952 __pthread_kill + 10
1 libsystem_pthread.dylib 0x971a2167 pthread_kill + 101
2 libsystem_c.dylib 0x94d6540c __abort + 187
3 libsystem_c.dylib 0x94d65c8e __stack_chk_fail + 233
4 com.apple.CoreServices.CarbonCore 0x946aa4dc ConvertFromUnicodeToNormalized + 3023
5 com.apple.CoreServices.CarbonCore 0x9469cae2 ConvertFromUnicodeToTextImplementation + 678
6 com.filemaker.support.framework 0x027b7d4c Unicode::ConvertToUTF16(unsigned short*, unsigned long*, char const*, unsigned long, unsigned long*, Unicode::Encoding, Unicode::Composition) + 556
7 com.filemaker.support.framework 0x027b7d9c Unicode::ConvertToUTF16(unsigned short*, unsigned long*, char const*, unsigned long, Unicode::Encoding, Unicode::Composition) + 60
8 com.filemaker.support.framework 0x0279991c Draco::TextBuffer::ConvertFromNonUnichars(char const*, unsigned long, Unicode::Encoding) + 316
9 com.filemaker.fmwrapper.framework 0x19ca76dd FM_Text_AssignWithLength + 93
Here a plugin calls FM_Text_AssignWithLength to assign some text string to a text object in the plugin API. Now if you assign a normal text string, you provide an encoding hint and FileMaker will do some text conversion. And right there in the framework, the call to ConvertFromUnicodeToNormalized will overwrite the stack and cause the app to be aborted.
One of the reasons so far has been that invalid UTF-8 character sequences can cause this buffer overrun.
To fix the MBS Plugin now checks all UTF-8 marked text to have valid sequences.
This week, I got an idea on how to control the print dialog in FileMaker. So we now can control there a few features like selecting which printer should print. And we can define in a script that we like to print to PDF and provide the destination path. Also we can automatically dismiss the dialog with OK so the user doesn't see it.
And voila we have on Mac another way to generate a PDF from a layout without user interaction
Comes soon with 3.5pr5!
Yesterday at the FileMaker meeting in cologne we had a nice idea. The plugin could check if you declared variables in your script before you use them.
So now we mark lines red where you use a variable name we don't see in the lines above in the same script. It was a lot of work to get this working in all the languages, but as you see below on the screenshots, it's working fine now.
Chinese traditional and simplified:
(more)
(German speaking FileMaker meeting in Koblenz)
Am Donnerstag, 14. November 2013, treffen wir uns zum Koblenzer Stammtisch ab 19:00 Uhr in gemütlicher Runde.
Aktuelles Thema: Rückblick auf die FileMaker Konferenz 2013 - was beschäftigt den Entwickler ...
Eigene Ideen, Konzepte oder gar Lösungen beleben lockeren Erfahrungsaustausch und erquickendes Fachsimpeln. Genießen Sie den Abend und machen Sie mit!
Treffpunkt ist das
Weindorf Koblenz in 56068 Koblenz, Julius-Wegeler-Straße 2, Telefon: 0261/1337190. Das Weindorf befindet sich nahe dem Schloss direkt am Rheinufer. Aus der Altstadt erreichen Sie es in wenigen Gehminuten. Es werden allerlei lokale Gaumenfreuden (auch kleinere Leckereien) geboten.
Fragen sowie Anregungen einfach an filemaker@interact.de senden. Freunde und Kollegen sind wie immer gern gesehen und werden auf Wunsch in den Verteiler aufgenommen.
New in this prerelease of the 3.5 plugins:
- Fixed bug with SQL Plugin when reading blob values. (introduced in pr3).
- Changed DynaPDF functions to take new first parameter with the PDF Reference. This way we can make the plugin thread safe for FileMaker server and you can edit multiple PDFs at the same time. You need to call DynaPDF.New to get a new PDF reference and pass it to all functions. Finally call DynaPDF.Release to free memory.
- Added DynaPDF.Release and DynaPDF.New functions.
- Fixed issue with GraphicsMagick introduced with pr3.
Download at
monkeybreadsoftware.de/filemaker/files/Prerelease/ or ask for being added to the dropbox shared folder.
You can code sign a runtime on Mavericks. But you have to do more work than you might expect:
- You need to fix the frameworks and include the missing symlinks codesign misses.
- You have to remove some PPC only libraries to have codesign not complain about them not being signed.
- You can remove some PPC code (like our Runtime Shrinker app does).
- You can remove duplicate libraries (like our Runtime Shrinker app does).
- You code sign each of the frameworks.
- Than you code sign the dylib.
- Finally you sign the app.
We put together a shell script for finishing a runtime app. It does all of the above tasks for FileMaker 12 runtimes. You need to adjust the script. Please open it in a text editor (BBEdit, Textwrangler or similar) and change the path to your runtime app, the app name and the name of your certificate. Than run it by dropping it in a terminal window and press return to run. If the script works, the app is fully signed.
You can verify that by running in Terminal running "codesign -v -v " plus path to the app.
Our final terminal script: See MBS Plugin download.
New in this prerelease of the 3.5 plugins:
- Added SSL socket methods for our socket functions.
- Updated SQLAPI++ 4.1.2.
- Functions returning UTF-8 text not validate the UTF-8 in order to avoid FileMaker crashing with invalid UTF-8 characters.
- First plugins build with Mac OS X 10.9.
- Added new RichText functions to also write RTF/Doc files on Mac.
- Fixed bug in writing zip archives on Windows. Archives were bloated/corrupt.
- Now checking better which window needs line numbers and colored script steps. Please report if a window misses colors or needs colors.
- Added SyntaxColoring.LineNumbers.GetColor and SyntaxColoring.LineNumbers.SetColor.
Download at
monkeybreadsoftware.de/filemaker/files/Prerelease/ or ask for being added to the dropbox shared folder.
DynaForms runs a DynaPDF sale for Christmas:
(more)
(German speaking FileMaker meeting in Koblenz)