The year 2015 will end in around three weeks. Do you need some more licenses?
- Last chance to update licenses purchased in 2013.
- You can order licenses for 2016 or later and have delivery plus payment done in 2015.
- And of course you can order updates for several years in advance for all your MBS products.
- As all licenses are per developer, you should check if you got a new developer in your team this year and adjust licenses to match team size.
- If you need a Xojo license (new or update), we can always check whether a bundle of Xojo offers an advantage for you.
- For FileMaker please check if you have enough license for the number of seats or servers you have in use.
Especially if you run on a budget and you want to spend some money in 2015, you can buy updates for several years in advance.
New in this prerelease of the 5.5 plugins:
- Added new parameters for DynaPDF.ReplacePattern: TextScaling and TextRise.
- Changed calculation formatting to not format very long texts. New limit is 30000 characters.
- Updated SQLAPI++ 4.1.7.
- Updated DynaPDF to version 3.0.46.140.
- Added example for Solution Registration via elliptic curve signature.
- Fixed bug in ECKey.Verify.
- Added new optional ScriptParameter parameter to MenuItem.SetScriptAction and Menu.SetScriptAction.
Download at
monkeybreadsoftware.de/filemaker/files/Prerelease/ or ask for being added to the dropbox shared folder.
Frohe Weihnachten und ein gutes neues Jahr!
Merry Christmas & Happy New Year
Joyeux Noël et Bonne Année
Buon Natale e Felice Anno Nuovo
Sebastian, Michael, Monika & Christian Schmitz
For our Germans speaking users:
Wir haben die Artikel zum MBS Plugin aus dem FileMaker Magazin gesammelt hier online gestellt: FileMaker Magazin Artikel:
- FMM 201105 Bilder skalieren mit dem MBS FileMaker Plugin, So bleibt Ihre Datenbank schlank
- FMM 201203 Arbeiten mit Dateidialogen, Komfortablere Dateiexporte per MBS Plugin
- FMM 201303 Script-Träger übers Netzwerk, Scripts triggern übers Netzwerk
- FMM 201303 Syntax Coloring, Berechnungen und Scripts bekennen Farbe
- FMM 201306 Zip-Archive auslesen, Bilder aus OpenOffice-Dokumenten extrahieren
- FMM 201401 Kalendertermine und Erinnerungen, Wie man Ereignisse aus FileMaker anlegt
- FMM 201402 Variablen, Globalisierte Lösungen per Plugin
- FMM 201405 Vorbereiten von PDFs für den Versand, Verkleinern großer Dateien
- FMM 201405 E-Mail-Versand, Mehr Möglichkeiten mit dem MBS Plugin
- FMM 201501 QuickList, Schnelle Listen für FileMaker
- FMM 201503 Neue Datensätze ohne Layoutwechsel, Mit Hilfe von SQL-Befehlen und dem MBS-Plugin
- FMM 201504 Datensätze effizient kopieren, Mit etwas SQL und dem MBS-Plugin
- FMM 201505 Wünsche werden wahr, Neues im „MBS-Plugin“ bei der FMK 2015
- FMM 201506 Authentizität durch Signaturprüfung, Daten übertragen und Veränderungen bemerken
- FMM 201601 iOS App SDK, Eigene iOS-Apps auf Basis von FileMaker
Wir empfehlen allen FileMaker Anwender ein Abo vom Magazin und den Kauf der alten Ausgaben. Das FileMaker Magazin ist eine excellente Quelle von Informationen, Anleitungen und Profitips.
New in this prerelease of the 5.5 plugins:
- Updated DynaPDF to version 3.0.46.139.
- Added DynaPDF.AssociateEmbFile, DynaPDF.AttachFile and DynaPDF.AttachContainer functions to embed XML for PDF invoices.
- Added LDAP functions.
- Fixed RichText.WriteContainer to use filename parameter correctly.
- Added Window.ResizeContentView.
- Changed plugin to use DynaPDF if initialized to render PDF preview images for PDF in container on Windows. This allows FileMaker to show preview on Windows. For Mac we render them using PDFKit.
- Changed plugin to return JPEG preview for containers with PNG images only in FileMaker 11 and older.
- Changed plugin to return container values with GIF images always now without JPEG preview. FileMaker doesn't need it.
- Added FM.DeleteRecord and FM.DeleteRecords functions.
- Added FM.UpdateRecords functions.
Download at
monkeybreadsoftware.de/filemaker/files/Prerelease/ or ask for being added to the dropbox shared folder.
The PauseOnError Steering Committee, in collaboration with Cleveland-based host firm Adatasol, is pleased to announce the Sixth PauseOnError Conference in Cleveland, OH, Monday, March 14th to Tuesday, March 15th, 2016, at the
Metropolitan at the 9 hotel in downtown Cleveland.
Interface. Contribute. Learn. Be a part of your Community.
PauseOnError is a self-organized effort of software developers and consultants who use FileMaker. PauseOnError content is created by the attendees in a low tech and high touch environment, so leave Powerpoint at home and come prepared to share the mic.
Have a topic you'd like to talk about?
Visit the wiki page, and add your session to the Schedule. It's just that easy.
Our objective is to provide a valuable and educational forum on which we can all collaborate to grow our community. We took care of most of the details so you an focus your energy on your contributions to the conference. PauseOnError is inexpensive because PauseOnError is a not-for-profit venture. The goal for each event is to cover our expenses and break even, and have some buffer for future events.
We would like to extend an early invitation to you to learn about the event, add your session to the schedule, and purchase tickets for you and your team.
To find out more about PauseOnError Cleveland - Sessions, Tickets, Hotel, and more, visit the
conference wiki page!
We will have a MBS Plugin session there about our plugin, features and how the plugin is created and changed development with FileMaker.
We are adding LDAP support for FileMaker with a few functions to query, add, modify and delete values.
To connect, you call the LDAP.Connect function and pass server IP/domain, SSL and maybe port setting. Next you call LDAP.Bind or LDAP.SimpleBind to pass your authentication data.
Once you are connected correctly, you can call the others functions. In our example we simply call the LDAP.Search function passing a query. For example we can search with Scope=Subtree through all nodes and find entries which have a given name: "(givenName=*)". This finds all people with a name.
Next we walk over all the entries found to list all the attributes and show values.
At this point you can of course redirect keys like FirstName to a matching field and import contact information.
Here our example script which does query values and show them in our example database as records:
Delete All Records [No dialog]
#Connect
Set Variable [$r; Value:MBS("LDAP.Connect"; LDAP Query::Server; LDAP Query::SSL; LDAP Query::Port)]
If [MBS("IsError")]
Show Custom Dialog ["LDAP error"; "Failed to connect." & ¶ & $r]
Exit Script []
Else
Set Variable [$ldap; Value:$r]
#Login
Set Variable [$r; Value:MBS("LDAP.Bind"; $ldap; LDAP Query::UserName; LDAP Query::Password; LDAP Query::AuthMethod)]
If [MBS("IsError")]
Show Custom Dialog ["LDAP error"; "Failed to authenticate." & ¶ & $r]
Else
#Search
Set Variable [$r; Value:MBS("LDAP.Search"; $ldap; LDAP Query::Base; LDAP Query::Scope; LDAP Query::Filter; ""; 0; 20; 999)]
#Check results
Set Variable [$EntryCount; Value:MBS("LDAP.SearchResult.Count"; $ldap)]
#Walk over all entries
Set Field [LDAP Query::Entry Count; $EntryCount]
If [$EntryCount > 0]
Set Variable [$EntryIndex; Value:0]
Loop
Set Variable [$EntryName; Value:MBS("LDAP.SearchResult.DistinguishedName"; $ldap; $EntryIndex)]
#Walk over all attributes
Set Variable [$AttributeCount; Value:MBS("LDAP.SearchResult.AttributeCount"; $ldap; $EntryIndex)]
If [$AttributeCount]
Set Variable [$AttributeIndex; Value:0]
Loop
#Check attribute name and value:
Set Variable [$AttributeName; Value:MBS("LDAP.SearchResult.AttributeName"; $ldap; $EntryIndex; $AttributeIndex)]
Set Variable [$AttributeValues; Value:MBS("LDAP.SearchResult.AttributeValues"; $ldap; $EntryIndex; $AttributeIndex; 1)]
#Store in a record:
New Record/Request
Set Field [LDAP Query::Entry; $EntryName]
Set Field [LDAP Query::Attribute; $AttributeName]
Set Field [LDAP Query::Values; $AttributeValues]
Commit Records/Requests [No dialog]
#next attribute
Set Variable [$AttributeIndex; Value:$AttributeIndex + 1]
Exit Loop If [$AttributeIndex = $AttributeCount]
End Loop
End If
#next entry
Set Variable [$EntryIndex; Value:$EntryIndex + 1]
Exit Loop If [$EntryIndex = $EntryCount]
End Loop
End If
End If
#Cleanup
Set Variable [$r; Value:MBS("LDAP.Release"; $ldap)]
End If
Please try in the next days with updated 5.5pr3 plugin. We may add more functions over time if developers ask for them, e.g. to import data like pictures from LDAP server.
Recently reinstalled a virtual machine with FileMaker versions to test:
Good news is that those all work on Windows 10 and allows me to check if my plugin works.
Especially if you have a problem with an older version, I can try myself here. Although I know that over 90% of my plugin users do use FileMaker 13 or 14, so bug reports for versions before 11 are rare.
But by using special code which is not in the official FileMaker SDK, I can keep my plugin load in older versions and still use newer SDK features if available.
PS: Still waiting for first bug report for FileMaker 15...
Sometimes you may have a reason to figure our the IP for a domain name or vice versa the name for an IP. Lookup up the name for an IP often helps to identify the IP address because the hostname you get may include the domain of the provider or company.
To do a lookup, you can use the two functions
DNSLookup.LookupHostByAddress or
DNSLookup.LookupHostByName. First one takes the IP, second the domain name. Both start a lookup and give back a reference number. Why? Because we get back a domain name, several IPs and several alias addresses.
So you can query the name of the record you got via
DNSLookup.Name, the addresses with
DNSLookup.AddressCount and
DNSLookup.Address, the alias names with
DNSLookup.AliasCount and
DNSLookup.Alias and later release the whole data set with
DNSLookup.Release function. For example lookup up apple.com from my office gives three IPs: 17.172.224.47, 17.142.160.59 and 17.178.96.59. But looking up www.apple.com gives just one 104.87.225.193. The record name is e6858.dscc.akamaiedge.net so Apple actually uses Akamai here for content distribution. The IP also has aliases listed as www.apple.com, www.apple.com.edgekey.net and www.apple.com.edgekey.net.globalredir.akadns.net.
We hope you find those IP lookup functions helpful and use them someday.
New in this prerelease of the 5.5 plugins:
- Changed calculation formatting to not format very long texts. New limit is 5000 characters.
- Added new function DynaPDF.ExtractText to extract text of whole document.
- Changed a lot of .Release functions to accept a list of reference numbers, e.g. PDFKit.Release
- For PDFKit.Combine and PDFKit.CombineRef the PDFs parameters can also be lists of paths or reference numbers.
- Updated openssl to 1.0.2e.
- Added FM.UpdateRecord and FM.InsertOrUpdateRecord functions.
- Improved error message when loading a library file fails.
- Updated DynaPDF to version 3.0.46.137.
- Added more path functions.
- Added Content option for DynaPDF.GetEmbeddedFile function.
- Added more FSEvents functions.
- Fixed FM.RunDataDesignReport to work better if save dialog is slow to list files.
- Added DNSLookup functions.
Download at
monkeybreadsoftware.de/filemaker/files/Prerelease/ or ask for being added to the dropbox shared folder.
Today we had the need to write a script to update or install MBS FileMaker Plugin. Often developers put plugin files in containers in a special MBS table in their solution on a server. Now if client opens database, the plugin may need to be installed or updated on the client. So we check a few cases here and made sure script runs well if plugin is not installed.
Check If Update is Needed:
# Check what plugin version we have here in the database:
Go to Layout [ “Install Plugin Update if needed” ]
Go to Record/Request/Page [ First ]
Set Variable [ $DatabaseVersion ; Value: GetAsNumber(Install Plugin Update if needed::Version Number) ]
Set Variable [ $InstalledVersion ; Value: GetAsNumber(MBS("VersionAutoUpdate")) ]
Set Variable [ $InstalledVersionText ; Value: GetAsText(MBS("Version")) ]
If [ GetAsNumber($InstalledVersion) = "?" ]
# not installed
Show Custom Dialog [ "MBS Plugin is not installed. Can we install version " & Install Plugin Update if needed::Version D…" ]
If [ Get ( LastMessageChoice ) = 1 ]
Perform Script [ “Install MBS Plugin” ]
End If
Else If [ $InstalledVersion = $DatabaseVersion ]
# current version
Show Custom Dialog [ "Already up to date" ]
Else If [ $InstalledVersion > $DatabaseVersion ]
# newer version
Show Custom Dialog [ "Already up to date. Installed version " & $InstalledVersionText & " is newer than version " & Inst…" ]
Else
# found update
Show Custom Dialog [ "Newer Version " & Install Plugin Update if needed::Version Display & " is available. Install now?"… ]
If [ Get ( LastMessageChoice ) = 1 ]
Perform Script [ “Install MBS Plugin” ]
End If
End If
# go to fields to update them
Go to Field [ Install Plugin Update if needed::MBS Installed ]
Go to Field [ Install Plugin Update if needed::MBS Installed Version ]
Go to Field [ Install Plugin Update if needed::MBS Installed Version Number ]
Commit Records/Requests [ Skip data entry validation ; No dialog ]
Skript: Install MBS Plugin
# Check Architecture
# will be ? for older 32-bit FileMaker Pro
Set Variable [ $Arch ; Value: GetAsText( Get (ApplicationArchitecture)) ]
# Check Platform
Set Variable [ $Plat ; Value: Get ( SystemPlatform ) ]
If [ $Plat = 1 ]
# Mac
Install Plug-In File [ Install Plugin Update if needed::Plugin File Mac ]
Else If [ $Plat = 3 ]
# iOS
Exit Script []
Else If [ $Plat = -2 ]
# Win
If [ $Arch = "x86_64" ]
# Win 64-bit
Install Plug-In File [ Install Plugin Update if needed::Plugin File Win 64bit ]
Else
# Win 32-bit
Install Plug-In File [ Install Plugin Update if needed::Plugin File Win 32bit ]
End If
Else
# something new or old?
Exit Script []
End If
Set Variable [ $LastError ; Value: Get(LastError) ]
If [ $LastError = 0 ]
If [ MBS("VersionAutoUpdate") = Install Plugin Update if needed::Version Number ]
Show Custom Dialog [ "Success" ; "Installed MBS Plugin: " & MBS("Version") ]
Else
Show Custom Dialog [ "Success" ; "Installed MBS Plugin: " & Install Plugin Update if needed::Version Display & ¶ & "Please restart …" ]
End If
Else
Show Custom Dialog [ "Failed" ; "Failed to install plugin due to error " & $LastError ]
End If
What do you think? Something missing? The script will be in an example database with next plugin beta version (or email us).
The year 2015 will end in around three weeks. Do you need some more licenses?
- You can order licenses for 2016 or later and have delivery plus payment done in 2015.
- And of course you can order updates for several years in advance for all your MBS products.
- As all licenses are per developer, you should check if you got a new developer in your team this year and adjust licenses to match team size.
- If you need a Xojo license (new or update), we can always check whether a bundle of Xojo offers an advantage for you.
- For FileMaker please check if you have enough license for the number of seats or servers you have in use.
Especially if you run on a budget and you want to spend some money in 2015, you can buy updates for several years in advance.
Eight years ago we started created tutorial videos and today our
video page has birthday. Enjoy a video and learn about our plugins.
Over the years we collected more than 60 videos. We hope you enjoy them!
We know we could make more videos. So what wishes do you have?
Please email us or post a comment here.
