For our German speaking clients we have a workshop day:
In Zusammenarbeit mit der DenkForm GmbH bieten wir eine
Schulung zum MBS Plugin an. Am 3. November 2016 (auch 2. März 2017 und 7. Dezember 2017) können Sie in Hofheim am Taunus an einer eintägigen Schulung teilnehmen. Lernen Sie die über 4100 Funktionen einmal näher kennen und wie Sie sie effektiv einsetzen. Sammeln Sie Ideen und verbessern Sie ihre FileMaker Lösungen durch den Einsatz unseres Plugins.
Das Monkeybread Software Plugin für FileMaker stellt eine vielseitige Erweiterung der eigenen Datenbank dar. Der Kurs bietet nicht nur einen tiefgreifenden Überblick in die Benutzung und Entwicklung, sondern bietet auch die Chance das Plugin günstiger zu erstehen.
- Einführung in das MBS Plugin
- Überblick über die Funktionsbereiche
- Neues im MBS Plugin dieses Jahr
- Rundgang durch ausgewählte Beispiele
- Gemeinsames Implementieren von Plugin Funktionen in eine Datenbank:
- Upload/Download mit CURL auf einen HTTP/FTP Server
- Ausfüllen eines Formulares auf einer Webseite
- Bilder bearbeiten
- PDF Verarbeitung
- Druckerfunktionen
- Adressbuch und Kontakte abfragen bei Mac OS X.
- Fragen und Antworten
Die Teilnahme kostet 99 Euro inkl. MWSt. und Verpflegung.
Details und Anmeldung bei der
Denkform.
Im
Anschluss geht es noch zur Pizzeria zum
FileMaker Stammtisch Rhein-Main.
An jedem ersten Donnerstag im Monat findet ab 19 Uhr der "FileMaker Stammtisch Rhein-Main" statt, zu dem jeder herzlichst eingeladen ist.
PS: Die Mindestteilnehmerzahl wurde erreicht und der Workshop findet am 3. November statt.
Today I gave some thought to the product idea "
Remove "Pro" from the product name?". I think it may be worth for FileMaker Inc. to offer three different levels for the desktop product: App, Pro and Developer:
- FileMaker
- No editing features or create database. Just open database and use it.
- Free to download on FileMaker website without registration, in Mac App Store and Microsoft App Store.
- Requires connection license on server when used with server
- Self containing app.
No templates included. Plugins and dictionaries need to be in Library/Application Support folders.
- Can use local database for free, so it can replace runtimes or start with local database to later connect to server.
e.g. open last database opened or some default database placed in Library/Application Support folder.
- More or less same as FileMaker Go, but for desktop.
- Could have help entry and/or start/end splash screen to tell people to get FileMaker Developer to build own solution or FileMaker Server for multi user functionality.
- Could be preinstalled by Apple on Macs in all stores and come with good start databases to demonstrate people what FileMaker can do.
- Could be given away by people with their database to demonstrate software to potential clients.
- FileMaker Pro
- The existing FileMaker Pro marketed as the enhanced FileMaker application which offers editing and creating databases for the ordinary user.
- Brings connection license for FileMaker Server with application (like now)
- Can be licensed perpetual, annually or in volume like now.
- FileMaker Developer
- Same as current Pro Advanced, but makes clear in name that it is intended for the people building solutions.
And I really expect anyone who writes scripts wants the debugger!
- Include a free Server license for n connections and limited to n databases. N could be small, maybe just 2. Or maybe limit it to require to be on same machine as FileMaker Developer.
- Can be licensed perpetual, annually or in volume like now.
Maybe the cloud strategy from FileMaker Inc. lets them do something like this in next years. Especially the idea that you could give away FileMaker app to millions of people to advertise FileMaker sounds like a great opportunity. Same with Apple Stores. If a member of staff there is asked for a business solution for Macs, they could point the business men to the Macs and launch FileMaker. The app could show the launcher with those 10 example databases (preinstalled in Library/Application Support). They can play with them and in the databases there should be explanation, which tells them that they can use those as a starting point and customize them. Even include some registration for people to be notified about nearby events or FBA members to assist in development.
What do you think about this? Please comment on vote on the ideas page.
For our German speaking clients we have a workshop day:
In Zusammenarbeit mit der DenkForm GmbH bieten wir eine Schulung zum MBS Plugin an. Am 3. November 2016 (auch 2. März 2017 und 7. Dezember 2017) können Sie in Hofheim am Taunus an einer eintägigen Schulung teilnehmen. Lernen Sie die über 4100 Funktionen einmal näher kennen und wie Sie sie effektiv einsetzen. Sammeln Sie Ideen und verbessern Sie ihre FileMaker Lösungen durch den Einsatz unseres Plugins.
Das Monkeybread Software Plugin für FileMaker stellt eine vielseitige Erweiterung der eigenen Datenbank dar. Der Kurs bietet nicht nur einen tiefgreifenden Überblick in die Benutzung und Entwicklung, sondern bietet auch die Chance das Plugin günstiger zu erstehen.
- Einführung in das MBS Plugin
- Überblick über die Funktionsbereiche
- Neues im MBS Plugin dieses Jahr
- Rundgang durch ausgewählte Beispiele
- Gemeinsames Implementieren von Plugin Funktionen in eine Datenbank:
- Upload/Download mit CURL auf einen HTTP/FTP Server
- Ausfüllen eines Formulares auf einer Webseite
- Bilder bearbeiten
- PDF Verarbeitung
- Druckerfunktionen
- Adressbuch und Kontakte abfragen bei Mac OS X.
- Fragen und Antworten
Die Teilnahme kostet 99 Euro inkl. MWSt. und Verpflegung.
Details und Anmeldung bei der
Denkform.
PS: Die Mindestteilnehmerzahl wurde erreicht und der Workshop findet am 3. November statt.
Have you seen a dialog like this?
You may have noticed that after printing to PDF, the next print jobs will again print to PDF. The dialog may show "Save" on the button or "Print". The label doesn't matter as all printing goes now to PDF.
With the upcoming 6.5pr3 plugin you can fix this with our
PrintDialog functions:
Set Variable [$r; Value: MBS( "
PrintDialog.Install" ) ]
Set Variable [$r; Value: MBS( "
PrintDialog.Enable" ) ]
Set Variable [$r; Value: MBS( "
PrintDialog.SetResetDestination"; 1 ) ]
Somewhere in your initialization scripts you can call this sequence. It installs our code to observe the print dialog on Mac. You enable the feature and you set the option to reset the print destination each time the dialog shows. This clears the problem with printing to PDF in our tests. We have a couple
more options like preselecting
printer,
paper tray or
paper format.
New plugin will be available tomorrow or by email on request.
As you may have notices in FileMaker 14 a feature was added to support elastic scrolling on Mac OS X 10.7 and newer.
As FileMaker only has one main control used for both a list and a layout, the elastic scrolling is always there for you. But some users don't enjoy it in their layouts.
So just before the lunch today here at FileMaker Conference in Salzburg, I spend approximately 20 minutes on a new function to
query and
set the elasticity mode on the scrollbars in a layout:
MBS("
Window.Scrollbar.SetScrollElasticity"; 0; "none")
You can set the scrollbars to auto, none and allowed. By default it is auto, so the system preferences define whether it is allowed or not. You can now switch it per layout and adjust it when switching to list mode or to layout mode.
PS: Coming soon in the next prerelease. If you like to try earlier, please email me.
As you may know I offer an
iOS SDK Extension for additional commands for the iOS SDK from FileMaker.
Sadly the 15.0.2 SDK has a little change. The updateProjectSettings utility used in the Xcode project overwrites the RequiredToLink.mm file each time. But in this file we put our initialization call for our static library. This breaks the extension.
To fix it, please rename the RequiredToLink.mm file in the project. For example name it "MyRequiredToLink.mm". After the change is made, the file is no longer overwritten and you can enjoy our extension.
And someday we hope to see plugin support in FileMaker iOS SDK and offer our plugin for iOS. I already have one compiled here...
One of the ideas I got on the German FileMaker conference:
Add a menu entry to the contextual menu to open the script from a perform script step:
So when you have a script step to perform a script, you can right click it, pick the open command and jump right to that script.
Coming in pr3 soon and already localized for all languages FileMaker supports.
PS: For FileMaker 14 and 15.
Sending emails in FileMaker with MBS Plugin
FileMaker has a built in feature for sending email. While this is easy to use and convenient for a lot of users, some need more: So we have an email sending feature in our MBS Plugin with the following features:
- Send emails with plain text or html
- Several attachments from files, text or containers
- As many TO, CC, BCC, Sender and ReplyTo addresses.
- Subject, HTML and text properly encoded.
- Any SMTP Server
- Custom Port
- Customize SSL options
- Proxy options
- Authentication options
So in order to send an email via MBS Plugin, you need a SMTP server and the credentials. For the server, we need a domain name or an IP, either IPv4 or IPv6. Than we need credentials, typical name and password. Next we need to have an idea about SSL. Your server should require SSL and you need to know if it's SSLv3, TLS 1.0 or best TLS 1.2. You can tell our plugin to use a specific TLS/SSL version and require SSL. Finally you can provide a SSL certificate chain for your server to actually check certificates from server.
To create the email, you use the SendMail functions like the following snippet. You pass HTML text, plain text, subject, from address and smtp details. For our functions we pass email and name separated. The plugin will encode the name properly, so non-ASCII characters survive. Same for subject, plain text and html text.
Set Variable [$EmailID; Value:MBS("SendMail.CreateEmail")]
Set Variable [$r; Value:MBS("SendMail.SetFrom"; $EmailID; EMail::FromEmail; EMail::FromName)]
Set Variable [$r; Value:MBS("SendMail.SetHTMLText"; $EmailID; EMail::HTMLText)]
Set Variable [$r; Value:MBS("SendMail.SetPlainText"; $EmailID; EMail::PlainText)]
Set Variable [$r; Value:MBS("SendMail.SetSubject"; $EmailID; EMail::Subject)]
Add the SMTP settings here or later directly on the CURL functions:
Set Variable [$r; Value:MBS("SendMail.SetSMTPServer"; $EmailID; EMail::SMTP Server)]
Set Variable [$r; Value:MBS("SendMail.SetSMTPUsername"; $EmailID; EMail::SMTP Username)]
Set Variable [$r; Value:MBS("SendMail.SetSMTPPassword"; $EmailID; EMail::SMTP Password)]
The next snippet adds addresses. We take them from a separate table and add them depending of the type. We support here TO, CC and BCC recipients. You can also add Sender and ReplyTo addresses. If you need you can also add other email headers like Company Name, Priority or read receipt request.
Go to Related Record [Show only related records; From table: “Recipient”; Using layout: “Recipient” (Recipient)]
Go to Record/Request/Page [First]
Loop
If [Recipient::Type = "To"]
Set Variable [$r; Value:MBS("SendMail.AddTO"; $EmailID; Recipient::Email; Recipient::Name)]
Else If [Recipient::Type = "CC"]
Set Variable [$r; Value:MBS("SendMail.AddCC"; $EmailID; Recipient::Email; Recipient::Name)]
Else If [Recipient::Type = "BCC"]
Set Variable [$r; Value:MBS("SendMail.AddBCC"; $EmailID; Recipient::Email; Recipient::Name)]
End If
Go to Record/Request/Page [Next; Exit after last]
End Loop
Go to Related Record [From table: “EMail”; Using layout: “EMail” (EMail)]
From another table we pick attachments. You can pass attachments as containers, files or plain text. This way you are flexible to add attachments as you need. For each attachment you can provide a file name and a mime type. If no mime type is specified, our plugin can guess it from the file extensions.
Go to Related Record [Show only related records; From table: “Attachment”; Using layout: “Attachment” (Attachment)]
Go to Record/Request/Page [First]
Loop
If [not IsEmpty(Attachment::Container)]
Set Variable [$r; Value:MBS("SendMail.AddAttachmentContainer"; $EmailID; Attachment::Container; Attachment::Name; Attachment::Type)]
End If
If [not IsEmpty(Attachment::Path)]
Set Variable [$r; Value:MBS("SendMail.AddAttachmentFile"; $EmailID; Attachment::Path; Attachment::Name; Attachment::Type)]
End If
If [not IsEmpty(Attachment::Text)]
Set Variable [$r; Value:MBS("SendMail.AddAttachmentText"; $EmailID; Attachment::Path; Attachment::Name; Attachment::Type)]
End If
Go to Record/Request/Page [Next; Exit after last]
End Loop
Go to Related Record [From table: “EMail”; Using layout: “EMail” (EMail)]
If you like to review the email in source code, you can use the GetSource function and display the email in a text field:
Set Field [EMail::EmailSource; MBS( "String.ReplaceNewline"; MBS("SendMail.GetSource"; $EmailID); 1)]
To send we need a CURL transfer. So you create a new CURL session and pass the email sending settings. Next you can change some CURL settings like SSL settings or switch to a different port. So for this example we do not check SSL certificates, but prefer TLS v1.2.
Set Variable [$curl; Value:MBS("CURL.New")]
Set Variable [$r; Value:MBS("SendMail.PrepareCURL"; $EmailID; $curl)]
#Maybe use alternative SMTP port?
// Set Variable [$r; Value:MBS("CURL.SetOptionPort"; $curl; 587)]
#This turns TLS on and requires connection to be encrypted
Set Variable [$r; Value:MBS("CURL.SetOptionUseSSL"; $curl; 3)]
#force TLS v1.2
Set Variable [$r; Value:MBS("CURL.SetOptionSSLVersion"; $curl; 6)]
#This disables certificate verification, so we accept any:
Set Variable [$r; Value:MBS("CURL.SetOptionSSLVerifyHost"; $curl; 0)]
Set Variable [$r; Value:MBS("CURL.SetOptionSSLVerifyPeer"; $curl; 0)]
#Better with certificates if you have some:
// Set Variable [$r; Value:MBS( "CURL.SetOptionCAInfo"; $curl; "/Library/FileMaker Server/certificates.pem")]
// Set Variable [$r; Value:MBS("CURL.SetOptionSSLVerifyHost"; $curl; 2)]
// Set Variable [$r; Value:MBS("CURL.SetOptionSSLVerifyPeer"; $curl; 1)]
The perform call will actually do the transfer. Our plugin can do transfer synchronously, in background threaded or asynchronously on main thread. This example uses synchronous transfer, so the script waits for the transfer to finish. But you can also run in background or asynchronously and later trigger a script to inform you about the result of the transfer.
Set Variable [$r; Value:MBS("CURL.Perform"; $curl)]
You can show debug log and input in fields if you like:
Set Field [EMail::DebugInput; MBS("CURL.GetInputAsText"; $curl)]
Set Field [EMail::DebugMessages; MBS("CURL.GetDebugAsText"; $curl)]
Finally you can do the cleanup:
Set Variable [$r; Value:MBS("CURL.Cleanup"; $curl)]
Set Variable [$r; Value:MBS("SendMail.Release"; $EmailID)]
If you have trouble with setting this up, please contact us. Our plugin works fine with a lot of smtp servers including google mail and outlook 365.
New in this prerelease of the 6.5 MBS FileMaker Plugin:
