Just three months left until the
XDC 2023 in London, England. Tickets are still available for $525 USD.
It will be held
April 26-28, 2023 in London, England at the
Hilton London Euston. This conferences is the best place to meet Xojo developers from around the world in real live, make contacts, present yourself as expert and learn what is new in Xojo. Tickets are available in the
Xojo store and if you bring your partner, you can order an extra guest ticket for the dinner events.
Check out the
conference highlights video if you want to see what it's like - or ask one of the many attendees from the forum!
Wether you are full or part time Xojo developer, this is your chance to learn all about the Web 2.0 framework, the Android progress and what's new in the Xojo world. The first sessions are already listed, so
check the list.
To get there, please use public transportation. The piccadilly line brings you right from Heathrow Airport to Russell Square Station, near the hotel. That trip should cost about 3 £ and you may just pay by tap in/out with your NFC enabled credit card or phone. Otherwise buy an Oyster card and load money on it if you don't have such a card. If you come by Eurostar train through the tunnel from France, you can exit Pancras station and just walk to the hotel.
See you soon there!
Did you sign up for
FileMaker Conference dotfmp.berlin 2023?
This conference is organized by
Egbert Friedrich and takes place from 1st to 3rd June 2023 in Berlin, Germany.
As the conference is in English, this is your chance to meet people from around the world at a conference in Europe. And for a lot of people it's easier to get to Berlin than to cross the atlantic and deal with US immigration officers.
Who
dotfmp is an effort of various leading European FileMaker Developers. It is meant to bring all kinds of higher level developers together to share knowledge, educate and challenge each other.
When
dotfmp starts at the 30th May 2023 in the later afternoon with a relaxed "Beer and Sausages" in one of the most famous Berlin Beergarden. The session days itself last from 1st until 3rd June with various socializing events in the evenings. Additionally you may stay the Sunday 4th June to see more from Berlin and its surroundings.
What
dotfmp is a 3 Day-Unconference, Meetup, Hangout or Barcamp. It is an informal and self-organized effort to meet on a personal base.
Where
dotfmp takes place in one of the most famous spots in Berlin. The Schankhalle Pfefferberg is located in a vibrant area with a very short walking distance to all the famous restaurants.
Why
We feel there are far too few possibilities to talk to, learn from, and hangout with fellow developers in a relaxed and informal environment. And we'd like to share work and get feedback from people chewing on similar challenges.
If you like to join the conference and present something, please
register soon.
In this article I want to introduce you the new functionalities from the MBS Xojo Plugins in version 23.0.
Linux 64-bit for ARM
We added Linux 64-bit plugin support for our plugins.
Please try and let us know if something broke on the way as we plan to improve our support for Linux 64-bit on ARM for the upcoming releases.
As you see on the screenshots, the ChartDirector and Scintilla control works fine.
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In this article we want to introduce you the new functions from the MBS FileMaker Plugin in version 13.0.
MongoDB
In the last releases we have often talked about MongoDB. At the end of last year we added the possibility of transactions. This time we provide new functions for you with which you can document the changes. Here we can distinguish between three types of changes. With the function MongoDB.WatchClient we create a stream that documents the changes in the connection. With the function MongoDB.WatchDatabase we create a stream that documents the changes in a database and with the function MongoDB.WatchCollection we list all changes on the collection, which is similar in meaning to a table. A change stream is closed when the MongoDB reference is released, when a new stream has been set or when MongoDB.CloseChangeStream has been explicitly called. The MongoDB.NextChange function iterates over the underlying change stream and returns the next valid JSON document. You can check if there was an error during creation or iteration over a stream with the MongoDB.ChangeStreamErrorDocument. As return of this function you get a JSON with details.
JSON
Also in the JSON topic we got a new function. The JSON.Text function. This function returns us a text that is very readable for humans. The brackets are removed. We get the values with their keys as output. But see yourself. On the left is the JSON we put into the function and on the right is the plain text output.
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Nickenich, Germany - (January 17th, 2023) -- MonkeyBread Software today is pleased to announce MBS FileMaker Plugin 13.0 for Claris FileMaker for macOS, iOS, Linux and Windows, the latest update to their product that is easily the most powerful plugin currently available for Claris FileMaker produce line. As the leading database management solution for Windows, macOS, iOS and the web, the Claris FileMaker Pro Integrated Development Environment supports a plugin architecture that can easily extend the feature set of the application. MBS FileMaker Plugin 13.0 has been updated and now includes over 6900 different functions, and the versatile plugin has gained more new functions:
We added new MongoDB functions to provide a stream of changes in a database. This may help you to audit changes on the database and check what changes you or others do on the database, your connection or just a collection (table).
For CURL functions we added web socket support. The new CURL.WebSocketReceive and CURL.WebSocketSend functions can send and receive data using web sockets. You can set the certificate cache timeout with CURL.SetOptionCACacheTimeout function. We improved CURL.SetupAWS to do PATCH requests. In the examples we got an example database for SMTP with OAuth for Office 365 in FileMaker.
For DynaPDF, we added new functions to create ICC profile based color spaces. We can inspect the fields on a page and modify them. With DynaPDF.TestGlyphs function you can now test whether a text is okay to be written with the current font.
The preferences dialog for macOS now shows additional check boxes for code folding, export dialog tooltips, the option-click feature in Script Workspace and syntax highlighting for calculations independent of scripts.
In the Script Workspace, we added the find or go to line commands to the contextual menu to make them more visible. The search field in Script Workspace is now a real search field and remembers the history. Code folding can now be toggled with option key between folding all of an IF block or just to the first ELSE.
For Windows the preference dialog got a new check box for whether to show the relationship graph search box. We added the control-F shortcut for the relationship graph search field on Windows to move focus to the search field. Press control-G to continue the search. We got the Windows support for ProcessActivity.beginActivity function added.
The Menu.DefineQuickMenuXML function recognizes FontName and FontSize as keys to control font for a menu. You can work with RTF on the clipboard with new RichText functions for macOS and iOS. The Files.DeleteFolder function is updated for Linux to do recursive deletion.
Finally we updated the Plugin SDK to the one of FileMaker 19.6. We updated CURL library to version 7.87.0, DynaPDF to 4.0.70.201, GraphicsMagick to 1.3.38, SQLAPI to 5.2.3, SQLite to 3.40.0, Xcode to 14.2, zint to 2.11.1 and zlib to 1.2.13.
See release notes for a complete list of changes.
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Nickenich, Germany - (January 17th, 2023) -- MonkeyBread Software today is pleased to announce
MBS Xojo Plugins 23.0 for macOS, Linux and Windows, the latest update to their product that is easily the most powerful plugin collection currently available for Xojo.
MBS Xojo Plugins have been updated and now includes over 3000 classes and 80,000 documented features, and the versatile plugins have gained more new functions:
Since you can build your applications for Linux 64-bit ARM target with Xojo 2022r4, we now include the support for this in our plugins. All plugins are now build for the new target, but not all plugins parts work. We updated Scintilla and ChartDirector plugins to work, but e.g. for LibXL we wait for the next version to include Linux 64-bit ARM support.
Our MongoDB plugin got a new
MongoChangeStreamMBS class to provide a stream of changes in a database. This may help you to audit changes on the database and check what changes you or others do on the database.
The updated CURL plugin includes functions for web sockets. This includes the new
CURLSWebSocketFrameMBS class for receiving a message and WebSocketReceive and WebSocketSend methods to
CURLSMBS class. If you use SetupAWS, you may now do so with PATCH requests. The OptionConnectOnly property is now an integer as required for using with web sockets. The
CURLSVersionMBS class can report protocols and features as string arrays.
The new
CallDelegateCrashSafeMBS module provides a way to run a method, which may normally crash your application. Instead of a crash, we raise an exception and you can catch it and react on it.
The new
WindowsThreadExecutionStateMBS class can help to block display or computer from sleeping while your application performs a longer operation. The
TimerMBS class got updated to create yielding timers, which can help to keep threads running while menus are used on Windows.
With the update of the barcode generator, we got new WhitespaceHeight, GuardDescent and WarnLevel properties for
BarcodeGeneratorMBS class.
Our Bluetooth LE classes for Windows got an update. With the new
WindowsGattSessionMBS class you can manage a session for a connection to a Bluetooth device. The new FromIdAsync shared method in
WindowsBluetoothLEDeviceMBS and
WindowsGattDeviceServiceMBS classes can create an object for a given device ID. We added several GUIDs methods for
WindowsGattCharacteristicMBS and
WindowsGattDeviceServiceMBS classes.
We updated our Core Image filter classes for macOS Ventura. This adds 28 new classes to the MacCI Plugin. The new
DCDeviceMBS class can help to generate a token that identifies a device for macOS or iOS.
The XML Plugin got a new parser class named
XMLDOMParserMBS class. We added a
ReSVGMBS class to use the ReSVG library to render SVG images to pictures. For the MemoryBlock class we added
BitwiseAndMBS,
BitwiseOrMBS and
BitwiseXOrMBS methods.
Finally we updated CURL library to version 7.87.0, DynaPDF to 4.0.70.201, GraphicsMagick to 1.3.38, SQLAPI to 5.2.3, SQLite to 3.40.0, Xcode to 14.2, zint to 2.11.1 and zlib to version 1.2.13.
See
release notes for a complete list of changes.
17. Januar 2023 - Monkeybread Software veröffentlicht heute das MBS FileMaker Plugin für Claris FileMaker in Version 13.0, mit inzwischen über 6900 Funktionen eines der größten FileMaker Plugins überhaupt. Hier einige der Neuerungen:
Wir haben neue MongoDB-Funktionen, um Änderungen in einer Datenbank zu überwachen. Dies kann Ihnen helfen, Änderungen an der Datenbank zu überprüfen und zu sehen, welche Änderungen Sie oder andere an der Datenbank, Ihrer Verbindung oder nur einer Tabelle vornehmen.
Für unsere CURL-Funktionen haben wir neue Web-Socket Funktionen hinzugefügt. Die neuen Funktionen CURL.WebSocketReceive und CURL.WebSocketSend können Daten über Web-Sockets senden und empfangen. Mit der Funktion CURL.SetOptionCACacheTimeout kann der Timeout für den Zertifikats-Cache eingestellt werden. Wir haben CURL.SetupAWS verbessert, um PATCH-Anfragen durchzuführen. In den Beispielen haben wir eine Beispieldatenbank für SMTP mit OAuth für Office 365 in FileMaker.
Für DynaPDF haben wir neue Funktionen zur Erstellung von ICC-Profil-basierten Farbräumen hinzugefügt. Wir können die Felder auf einer Seite überprüfen und ändern. Mit der Funktion DynaPDF.TestGlyphs kann man nun testen, ob ein Text mit der aktuellen Schriftart geschrieben werden kann.
Der Voreinstellungsdialog für macOS zeigt nun zusätzliche Kontrollkästchen für Code-Folding, Tooltips für den Exportdialog, die Option-Klick-Funktion im Script Workspace und Syntax-Highlighting für Berechnungen unabhängig von Skripten.
Im Skript-Arbeitsbereich haben wir die Befehle "Suchen" oder "Gehe zu Zeile" zum Kontextmenü hinzugefügt, um sie besser sichtbar zu machen. Das Suchfeld im Skriptarbeitsbereich ist jetzt ein echtes Suchfeld und speichert den Verlauf. Das Code-Folding kann jetzt mit der Optionstaste zwischen der Faltung des gesamten IF-Blocks oder nur des ersten ELSE umgeschaltet werden.
Für Windows gibt es im Einstellungsdialog ein neues Kontrollkästchen, mit dem Sie festlegen können, ob das Suchfeld des Beziehungsdiagramms angezeigt werden soll. Wir haben die Tastenkombination Strg-F für das Suchfeld des Beziehungsdiagramms unter Windows hinzugefügt, um den Fokus auf das Suchfeld zu setzen. Drücken Sie Strg-G, um die Suche fortzusetzen. Wir haben die Windows-Unterstützung für die Funktion ProcessActivity.beginActivity hinzugefügt.
Die Funktion Menu.DefineQuickMenuXML erkennt FontName und FontSize als Schlüssel zur Steuerung der Schriftart für ein Menü. Mit den neuen RichText-Funktionen für macOS und iOS können Sie mit RTF Texten in der Zwischenablage arbeiten. Die Funktion Files.DeleteFolder wurde für Linux aktualisiert, um rekursives Löschen zu ermöglichen.
Außerdem haben wir das Plugin SDK auf die Version von FileMaker 19.6 aktualisiert. Wir haben die CURL-Bibliothek auf Version 7.87.0, DynaPDF auf 4.0.70.201, GraphicsMagick auf 1.3.38, SQLAPI auf 5.2.3, SQLite auf 3.40.0, Xcode auf 14.2, zint auf 2.11.1 und zlib auf 1.2.13 aktualisiert.
Alle Änderungen in den Release Notes.
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Did you know we had already organised three Xojo conferences in London?
Yes, organised by Monkeybread Software for the European community, we had these conferences:
London 2012,
London 2015 and
London 2017
Now for the 4th conference in London, I am delighted that Xojo Inc. will take over and organise a conference.
Please join us in about 100 days in London for
XDC 2023.
This conference is in English and we expect not just the European community, but quite a few people from all over this planet to join us.
As some people have trouble to get into the USA for past conferences, this is the chance for people from the following countries to come visa-free to the UK, but not visa-free to USA:
Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Botswana, Brazil, Costa Rica, Dominica, East Timor, El Salvador, Grenada, Guatemala, Honduras, Hong Kong, Israel, Kiribati, Macau, Malaysia, Maldives, Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Mexico, Micronesia, Namibia, Nauru, Nicaragua, Palau, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, Seychelles, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tuvalu, Uruguay, Vanuatu.
If you live in one of this countries, please come to London, so you can join the conference without getting a visa for the United Kingdom (or visa for USA for a conference there).
It's a long time since we published the last statistics diagrams.
First we look on the OS distribution and see that Linux grew a lot over the last three years. If that trend continues, Linux may reach 50%. So far in our numbers Linux was No 1 OS for FileMaker Server in November and December 2022.
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New in this prerelease of the 23.0 plugins:
- Fixed ExitCode for ShellMBS class on Linux.
- Changed CoreAudioMBS methods to allocate bigger memory blocks to make sure NULL bytes can be included.
- Lots of little documentation changes and updated Dash archive.
Download:
monkeybreadsoftware.de/xojo/download/plugin/Prerelease/ or
from DropBox.
Or ask us to be added to our shared DropBox folder.
New in this prerelease of version 13.0 of the
MBS FileMaker Plugin:
- Optimized initialization to log better if something gets wrong to help debugging.
- Fixed a problem with macOS using same class name for a class as MBS. This may lead to a crash if one side tries to use the class and gets the one from the other side. We renamed our classes.
- Lots of little documentation changes and updated Dash archive.
- Fixed Shell.ExitCode to work better on Linux.
- Improved Files.MoveFile on Linux to allow you to specify a folder as destination.
Download at
monkeybreadsoftware.com/filemaker/files/Prerelease/, in
DropBox folder or ask for being added to the DropBox shared folder.
In general we build our plugins to work on Windows 7 and up since we dropped Windows XP support long ago. But to use newer features on Windows 10 and 11, we have to require some basic functionality from Windows 8.
The following list of plugin parts shows for Windows 64-bit Intel, which use the newer functionality for Windows 8 to manage COM interfaces:
If you use one of them, your application also requires Windows 8 or newer to launch.
For the future, we may simply state Windows 8 is required for our plugins. And then some plugins may still run on Windows 7. Over time more Windows parts added will require Windows 10 or 11 to function.
Please let us know if you have questions.
New in this prerelease of version 13.0 of the
MBS FileMaker Plugin:
- Added fontname and fontsize as keys for the XML for Menu.DefineQuickMenuXML function. Now works for submenus, too.
- Deprecated Proj functions.
- Adjusted maximum object counts. Now DynaPDF.Table.Create can have 10000 tables at the same time in memory.
Download at
monkeybreadsoftware.com/filemaker/files/Prerelease/, in
DropBox folder or ask for being added to the DropBox shared folder.
The Xojo Developer Magazine publishes articles around Xojo for over 20 years now. It provides a platform for Xojo developers to share articles in a nice way.
The xDev Magazine couldn't exist without writers! They are always on the lookout for programmers with unique projects, interesting techniques, and innovative ideas.
If you're interesting in writing for xDev Magazine, please read the Writer's Guidelines for the details on submitting your proposal.
I am regularly impressed what nice article Marc creates out of my writings and a few pictures. And instead of hiding an article somewhere in the internet on a blog or forum page, they get nicely formatted, published and thus archived.
If you have something to share with the community, please contact Marc Zeedar and send in your proposals. Often we dig into a topic for a project and then later write a few interesting facts into an article to remember them later.
We keep an archive of our articles here.
Let us show you nine features of MBS FileMaker Plugin around the data viewer in FileMaker. While all are available on macOS, only one is also available on Windows:
Toggle data viewer
To show or hide the data viewer, just run MBS("Menubar.RunMenuCommand"; 49297) to trigger the menu command. Of course you need a menu set where this command is included and sufficient permissions.
You can define a hotkey via MBS FileMaker Plugin to show an hide the data viewer via a keyboard shortcut on macOS and Windows:
Set Variable [$hotkey; Value:MBS("HotKey.Register"; "F5"; "control")]
Set Variable [$r; Value:MBS( "HotKey.SetEvaluate"; $hotkey; "MBS(\"Menubar.RunMenuCommand\"; 49297)" )]
You may also use our Toolbar functions or even the TouchBar functions to define a custom button to toggle the data viewer.
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Check out the FileMaker Magazine website. Matt Petrowsky provides a huge collection of training videos around FileMaker. And recently he started a series of videos about our MBS Plugin:
Watch it on YouTube and subscribe to his channel.
Matt shows how he uses MBS functions and walks through our examples.
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New in this prerelease of the 23.0 plugins:
- Added DebugMessages and CollectDebugMessages properties to CURLSMBS class as the new names for DebugData and CollectDebugData. Old names stay valid, but get deprecated.
- Added Headers and CollectDebugMessages properties to CURLSMBS class as the new names for HeaderData and CollectHeaderData. Old names stay valid, but get deprecated.
- Fixed an issue for CURLSMBS class, where the LastError was not updated by Perform called on CURLSMultiMBS class.
- Deprecated SecureDongleXMBS class.
- Added Available method to Rockey2MBS class.
- Added ColorNumber properties to ZintVectorRectMBS and ZintVectorCircleMBS class.
- Added HAlign constants to ZintVectorStringMBS class.
Download:
monkeybreadsoftware.de/xojo/download/plugin/Prerelease/ or
from DropBox.
Or ask us to be added to our shared DropBox folder.
New in this prerelease of version 13.0 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 FileMaker Magazine website. Matt Petrowsky provides a huge collection of training videos around FileMaker. And recently he started a series of videos about our MBS Plugin:
Watch it on YouTube and subscribe to his channel.
Matt presents how to look through our documentation and find useful functionality.
(more)
For everyone using MBS Plugins with MySQL can now get the library in version 8.0.31 on our website:
Libraries Download
Please use option on connection to point to the libmysqlclient.21.dylib for MacOS, libmysql.dll for Windows or libmysqlclient.so.21.2.31 for Linux.
You can just include the dylibs/DLLs in same folder as the application and point to them.
For macOS the libraries are signed and notarized, so you may be able to use them. If you include them with your application, you may need to code sign them again.
The whole package is a convenience thing, so you don't need to find those files on the
mySQL download page.
