AbsolutePath for Xojo

As you may know Xojo deprecated AbsolutePath a few years ago and removed it in Xojo version 2019r2. Now we have projects ranging from old Real Studio versions to latest Xojo versions. I currently have 12 difference Xojo versions installed, three Real Studio versions and two REALbasic versions. We use the QuickLook plugin from us to have each project show version number in the icon.

Recently we added NativePath to FolderItem class for REALbasic and Real Studio. Newer code using NativePath now compiles even in Real Studio. For projects in Xojo 2019r2 we now add AbsolutePath function for FolderItem, so older code using it can still be built. For some projects we even switch between various versions. For example develop on Windows with Real Studio and just use Xojo for building the 64-bit version.

Of course we know that we should get rid of AbsolutePath. But the problem is in compatibility and in the detail. Older projects put file references as AbsolutePath into documents to find related files. Newer versions of the applications now use NativePath or GetSaveInfo functions. But we still want to read old documents with old paths and resolve them. It would be a support nightmare if clients call support about projects not finding their files.

For MBS Plugin 19.5 we add AbsolutePathMBS to folderItem class for all versions of Xojo and Real Studio. We got NewFolderItemFromAbsolutePathMBS function to resolve the absolute path. This even works fine in MacOS Catalina as far as we see.