You may know that
MBS Xojo Barcode Plugin has classes for barcode generation and recognition. The
zxing classes based on the open source zxing library can recognize various types, but sadly not all QRCodes recently.
To solve this we add support for the zbar open source library with our new
ZBarMBS class. Since the library is GPL, you have to include the library file with the application and load it at runtime. You may get a zbar library from the project website or from our
Libs folder in download section. Our example project shows how to load the library at startup of application. On Linux you may just be able to install libzbar0 package and get libzbar installed.
When you like to scan a barcode, get a picture for the barcode. Make sure contrast is good and your barcodes are fully visible with a bit of border space around. Since scanning is done in black and white, you can preprocess the image to increase visibility with auto leveling, e.g.
AutoLevelMBS function. You call Scan() function and pass the picture and you receive an array with barcodes found. You may get multiple result with different quality values, so you may pick the highest one. Sometimes a few lines or some text is recognized as a barcode. To increase reliability you may limit the list of barcodes types you like to have and thus ignore all others.
Supported types includes EAN-13/UPC-A, UPC-E, EAN-8, Code 128, Code 39, Interleaved 2 of 5 and QR Code.
Our tests show that zbar can recognize a few barcodes, which didn't work with
zxingQRCodeReaderMBS class. But since we also found EAN and UPC barcodes recognized in zxing (see
zxingMultiFormatUPCEANReaderMBS or
zxingMultiFormatOneDReaderMBS class), but not in zbar. Well, you may eventually use both to see what recognizes what.
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Recently a client contacted us for a problem they have. A solution hosted via FileMaker Server with Web Direct shows a layout with a container. Users can click on a button to upload an image, which uses Insert from Device script step. But if the user has an iPhone, the uploaded image may be an HEIF one. The High Efficiency Image File Format is great to preserve images in high quality, but other tools may not be able to read it. And we run into the problem, that the container is marked to be of type JPEG, which confuses other scripts (see Container.GetTypes function).
Here is a script to look on the inserted image and convert it to PNG with our Container.ReadImage function:
# let user take a picture
Insert from Device [ Contacts::Photo Container ; Type: Camera ; Camera: Back; Resolution: Full ]
#
# check filename
Set Variable [ $name ; Value: GetAsText(Contacts::Photo Container) ]
Set Variable [ $extension ; Value: Right ( $name ; 5 ) ]
If [ $extension = ".heif" or $extension = ".heic" ]
# we got a HEIF image
#
# get new file name
Set Variable [ $name ; Value: Substitute($name; ".heif"; ".png") ]
Set Variable [ $name ; Value: Substitute($name; ".heic"; ".png") ]
#
# now convert to PNG
Set Variable [ $image ; Value: MBS( "Container.ReadImage"; Contacts::Photo Container; "PNG"; $name ) ]
If [ MBS("IsError") = 0 ]
# save on success to container
Set Field [ Contacts::Photo Container ; $name ]
Else
Show Custom Dialog [ "Read Image Failed?" ; $image ]
End If
End If
As you see we also rename the name for the container, so it matches the content. You can decide if you prefer JPEG (smaller, no alpha channel), PNG (higher quality and alpha channel possible) or another type.
This script can be used on FileMaker Server on macOS where our plugin can use the built-in system functions. Otherwise you can run it in FileMaker Pro or in your iOS app based on the FileMaker iOS SDK.
Since we got this nice database for JavaScript to do custom functions (see blog article:
Custom Functions in JavaScript), we further thought about doing this with FileMaker directly. Imaging to have your custom function in a central start database. Your solution opens, defines your own environment to store them and then loads all your custom functions from a table in the database. You may even have flags to define which are active vs. inactive, testing vs. production quality or maybe limited to admins. Once you have them loaded in memory, you can call them anywhere in any open file as long as FileMaker is running.
Here is our example database:
As you see we can define functions with as many parameters as needed. Then you enter the body of the function with whatever code you have in your custom functions. We got a button for macOS to format the calculation with our
Syntaxcoloring functions. Then we got a button to check errors, which will let FileMaker parse your code with the parameter definition included, so we can find syntax errors. Sadly we can't tell where the error is exactly, but we may tell you if the syntax is okay or what error code we got.
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New in this prerelease of version 11.3 of the MBS FileMaker Plugin:
Download at
monkeybreadsoftware.com/filemaker/files/Prerelease/, in
Dropbox folder or ask for being added to the dropbox shared folder.
New in this prerelease of the 21.3 plugins:
Download:
monkeybreadsoftware.com/xojo/download/plugin/Prerelease/ or
from Dropbox.
Or ask us to be added to our shared Dropbox folder.
We saw a presentation at dotfmp conference from Philipp Puls about him storing his custom functions in a table inside the database. With help of one custom function in FileMaker itself, he can run them all. This dispatcher function would use
execute SQL functions in
MBS FileMaker Plugin to query the expression by name, then add the parameter inside and evaluate it. Quite convenient to have all custom functions stored in one database. Based on that idea we developed two new ways at MBS to do custom functions in JavaScript and later without.
Custom Functions in JavaScript
Since
MBS FileMaker Plugin comes with a built-in JavaScript engine, which works without web viewer and even on a server side script, we can use it to define custom functions, which we can call anywhere in FileMaker:
This example database included with 11.3pr2 shows how to do it. It sets up the whole thing in the start script. With
JS.New we make a new JavaScript environment with the special name "js". Instead of getting a handle number from the plugin, we define the identifier ourselves. This way we can refer to this JavaScript environment everywhere. It's global for all files and all solutions opened in FileMaker and can be initialized in FileMaker Pro, Server (Scripting + Web Direct) as well as FileMaker iOS SDK based applications.
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Event planning strategies for virtual conferences, online events and hybrid meetings
After my blog post
What is needed for a good virtual conference from last weekend, I got some feedback. Thanks for everyone replying. The setup listed in the blog post was heavily inspired from the
dotfmp conference, but other conferences may have a different and less chaos in the setup.
After over a year of virtual conferences, online meetings and a lot of cancellations, people are eager to get back to normal live. While some enjoy the virtual conferences, others dislike them. When we talked about the user group, it looks like some groups like to stay virtual, but others want to go back to local meetings in-person. Other groups may mix virtual meetings for presentations and in-person restaurant meetings for the social gathers. Like one month virtual and other month in-person. Quite a few people want to travel again, so long term virtual only conferences may no longer happen.
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Xojo Inc. continues their way to add Android to the their
Xojo development tool. To given an update there is a
video on YouTube to watch and a
blog article:
After a few years of development the various branches come together. The UI classes (Mobile prefix) are getting ready, a lot of the framework parts are getting ready and the compiler also seems to work. This video shows the debugger with breakpoints and variables for the first time. And the classes for Android are the same as for iOS, except a few specifics. Currently there is a AndroidMobileTable vs the iOSMobileTable, but I hope that will get unified and we have one project for iOS and Android.
Sounds like most of the framework got ported already with a few classes still missing like Clipboard or introspection. Declares may work although we don't know how they work and whether they declare to Java libraries or to C libraries or both. We have not seen anything about plugins so far. Software needs to ship eventually, so at some point the team may decide which feature goes into first release, and what stays on the backlog. Plugin support including built-in plugins like XML, RegEx, XojoScript or Crypto may not make the first release. If that helps to ship it a few months earlier, it is fine for me.
There is no time frame indicating when Xojo with Android will ship. At the current rate, this may get finished in winter. We may see it shown off at
XDC in London next year. Whether this will be release or availability of a beta depends on the progress made till then. If things go quick, the pre-release testers may see it earlier, maybe even as a Christmas surprise.
Someday a beta will be given to testers. If you like to be part of a tester group, make sure you are signed up for the Xojo forum, the testers section there and you can try the next version in development.
Check out the
FMTraining.tv website. Richard Carlton and his team do a
daily free live stream about FileMaker to watch. And they have a huge library of FileMaker training material to watch and learn all about the Claris FileMaker product family.
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.
Do you like this video?
Please let Richard know and send him your wishes or ideas for future live broadcast as well as topics for training videos. And check out the FileMaker Training bundles as well as their new book for FileMaker, updated for2021.
If you use WebViewer in FileMaker or HTMLViewer in Xojo on Windows with IE11 engine and you show PDF documents, you need a PDF plugin for IE. To check whether you have Adobe PDF Reader browser support installed for IE11, please start Internet Explorer (not Edge!), then go to the menu (gear icon in the toolbar on the right) and to the Manage Add-ons dialog:
Select toolbars and extensions first on the left, then go down to pick all add-ons in the popup menu. Then on the right, you should see Adobe PDF Reader in the list. This should show 32-bit and 64-bit versions there. If one is missing, repair your Adobe Reader installation. Seems like one version of Adobe Reader shipped this year where the 64-bit part was missing. You may get current one where it is included again.
PS: See also
Windows updates breaks PDF display in FileMaker
Please be aware that Microsoft Windows got an update KB5003637, which breaks FileMaker displaying PDFs in an interactive container.
You may want to not install this update for some time or uninstall it when you find it installed.
An upcoming FileMaker release may switch to use Edge/Chrome for rendering PDF documents, so this will get fixed soon by Claris.
Alternatively you can use our
MBS FileMaker Plugin to render PDF pages (
DynaPDF.RenderPage) and have them show as JPEG or PNG pictures in a container.
See also posting in Claris Community:
Suddenly PDF are not shown in FileMaker (since today !) in multiple computer / different customer
New in this prerelease of the 21.3 plugins:
Download:
monkeybreadsoftware.com/xojo/download/plugin/Prerelease/ or
from Dropbox.
Or ask us to be added to our shared Dropbox folder.
New in this prerelease of version 11.3 of the MBS FileMaker Plugin:
Download at
monkeybreadsoftware.com/filemaker/files/Prerelease/, in
Dropbox folder or ask for being added to the dropbox shared folder.
Check out the
FMTraining.tv website. Richard Carlton and his team do a
daily free live stream about FileMaker to watch. And they have a huge library of FileMaker training material to watch and learn all about the Claris FileMaker product family.
On
Wednesday, 9th June 2021 at 1 PM PDT (22:00 o'clock in Germany), we may show you a few MBS Plugin examples and answer questions:
Please bring questions!
The Xojo group in Atlanta does another virtual meeting and since it is a lunch meeting, people from Europe have an easier time to join:
Hello Xojo fans,
We’re trying something new! We’ll be holding our monthly meeting tomorrow from 12noon to 1pm Eastern. Bring all of your Xojo and technology questions.
Meeting address: https://meet.jit.si/XojoATL
Password: Tacos
Time: 12noon to 1pm Eastern
Hope to see you there!
-Kevin
Atlanta EDT 12:00 = CEST 18:00 for me in Germany = 09:00 PDT for US West Coast
See you later there!
If you like to use databases in Xojo, you can use various plugins. There are built-in plugins for MySQL, SQLite, Microsoft SQL Server, PostgreSQL, Oracle and ODBC. And as an alternative you have MBS Xojo SQL Plugin with support for over 15 clients: CubeSQL, Centura SQLBase, DB2, Firebird, Informix, InterBase, MariaDB, Microsoft Access, Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL, ODBC, Oracle Database Server, PostgreSQL, SQL Anywhere, SQLite, SQLCipher and Sybase.
Unless you use our plugin, which handles unicode well, you may run into the problem that StringValue doesn't return a string with encoding set. So we usually refer to code like the one below in a module to get a StringValueX to return string in a defined encoding:
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Let's collect what you may need to run a virtual conference. This blog post may be updated later to add more details, so please send us feedback. MBS has hosted over 10 conferences/events in the past, but since we may run a virtual one someday, let's think about what may be needed for a company to run such a virtual conference:
Attendees
- Virtual conference, so no per person cost like food or chairs, so make it free to join.
- Use existing logins for company's forum/community to avoid people register again. Preferable single sign-on for everything.
- Email all your users, prospects and customers to let them know, early to mark dates in calendar and later to remind them.
- Take signups before and while the conference runs.
- Let attendees sign a checkbox or so for them being okay with recordings showing them if they ask a question or present in a session.
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Check out the
FMTraining.tv website. Richard Carlton and his team do a
daily free live stream about FileMaker to watch. And they have a huge library of FileMaker training material to watch and learn all about the Claris FileMaker product family.
A few days ago Christian Schmitz from Monkeybread Software joined a live episode to talk a bit about the
DynaPDF functions in the
MBS FileMaker Plugin. Watch it on
YouTube.
Next video stream with MBS will be on Wednesday, 9th June 2021. And the recording from the Q&A session from 4th June 2021 should be available soon.
Do you like this video?
Please let Richard know and send him your wishes or ideas for future live broadcast as well as topics for training videos. And check out the FileMaker Training bundles as well as their new book for FileMaker, updated for2021.
New in this prerelease of the 21.3 plugins:
- Added AddCrossOriginWhitelist, RemoveCrossOriginWhitelist and ClearCrossOriginWhitelist methods to ChromiumBrowserMBS class.
- Added allowsImplicitAnimation property for NSAnimationContextMBS class.
- Added DeleteNamedDestByIndex and DeleteNamedDest methods for DynaPDFMBS class.
- Added ExcludeCSCount property, ExcludeCS and setExcludeCS methods to DynaPDFOptimizeParamsMBS class.
- Added OptionCAInfoBlob and OptionProxyCAInfoBlob properties to CURLSMBS class.
- Added OuterBorder property for DynaPDFBarcode2MBS class.
- Added pasteboardWriterForItem event for NSCollectionViewControlMBS control.
- Added registerCloudKitShare and registerCloudKitShareWithPreparationHandler to CKContainerMBS class.
- Added setDraggingSourceOperationMask method to NSCollectionViewMBS class.
- Added zbar library support with new ZBarMBS class.
- Changed MapKitViewControlMBS control to not raise exception on Windows/Linux if not supported.
- Fixed an issue with IDE crashing when you have a PDFViewControlMBS on a container in a window.
- Fixed bug with RenderPagePicture function in DynaPDFMBS not picking right page size for rotated pages.
- Fixed CKAcceptSharesOperationMBS constructor to proces the CKShareMetadataMBS objects.
- Fixed underflowColor and overflowColor parameters for setColorScale and setColorGradient methods in CDColorAxisMBS class.
- Fixed an issue with SetLocale in SQL Plugin, introduced in 21.2. Now using C locale for Windows.
- Improved our StyledText.RTFDataMBS function to handle line breaks better.
- Updated curl library to version 7.77.0.
- Updated DynaPDF version 4.0.53.147.
- Updated openssl library to version 1.1.1k.
Download:
monkeybreadsoftware.com/xojo/download/plugin/Prerelease/ or
from Dropbox.
Or ask us to be added to our shared Dropbox folder.
New in this prerelease of version 11.3 of the MBS FileMaker Plugin:
Download at
monkeybreadsoftware.com/filemaker/files/Prerelease/, in
Dropbox folder or ask for being added to the dropbox shared folder.
