MBS FileMaker Plugin, version 7.4pr4

New in this prerelease of the 7.4 MBS FileMaker Plugin:

• Added checks to ExecuteSQL to return error for ALTER TABLE and CREATE TABLE to remind you to use FM.ExecuteSQLOnIdle.
• Updated SQLAPI to version 4.1.12.
• Added CUPS.GetJobIndex function.
• Added DynaPDF.AddDeviceNProcessColorants, DynaPDF.AddDeviceNSeparations, DynaPDF.CreateDeviceNColorSpace, DynaPDF.CreateSeparationCS, DynaPDF.SetExtColorSpace, DynaPDF.SetExtFillColorSpace, DynaPDF.SetExtStrokeColorSpace and DynaPDF.SetSeparationInfo functions.
• Added Webview.Create function to create WebKit 1.x views to create PDFs/Images from website in FileMaker 16.
• Added GMImage.WriteToPDFContainer function.
• Added EmailParser.HasHeader and EmailParser.HeaderValue functions to make header queries easier.

Download at monkeybreadsoftware.de/filemaker/files/Prerelease/ or ask for being added to the dropbox shared folder.

FileMaker and PDF Containers

There are sometimes problems with Containers as you see in various FileMaker forums. Well, the problem may be that FileMaker can do only previews on Mac as they don't include a PDF engine for Windows. So if you try and add files and check with Container.GetTypes what items are in the container, you get a table like this:

FileMaker 16 Win
Any Container	Insert File	FILE, FNAM
Any Container	Insert Picture	FNAM, PDF
Interactive Container	Insert PDF	FNAM, PDF
After using DynaPDF.GeneratePreview		FNAM, JPEG, MAIN, PDF , SIZE
FileMaker 16 Mac
Any Container	Insert File	FILE, FNAM
Any Container	Insert Picture	FNAM, JPEG, MAIN, PDF , PNGf, SIZE
Interactive Container	Insert PDF	FNAM, JPEG, MAIN, PDF , PNGf, SIZE
After using PDFKit.Combine function		FNAM, JPEG, MAIN, PDF , SIZE

We have a couple of common types in the containers:

• "PDF " is the PDF file data.
• FILE is the content of a file.
• JPEG if exists is the JPEG preview data.
• PNGf if exists is a preview as PNG image file.
• FNAM is the file name for the container.
• SIZE is the preview image size.

Now you need to know that FileMaker can render PDF on Mac on the fly (without annotations!), but on Windows it needs the preview. Or for all platforms use a web viewer for the interactive container to let the web engine render the PDF using it's PDF plugin.

You can of course always use MBS functions to check if preview is missing and add it on the fly using both PDFKit and DynaPDF functions. This could even be done on a server with a scheduled script or on a helper machine. The MBS Plugin adds a JPEG preview and you can use Plugin.SetPreviewSize function to configure preview size.

Sign up for European FileMaker Conferences

Please join 500+ FileMaker developers at the European developer conferences this year:

Conference Name	Location	Date	Registration
FM Summit (Dutch)	Sassenheim, Netherlands	9 - 11 October	Register Learn more
FileMaker UK Developer Event 2017 (English)	Uxbridge, United Kingdom	11 October	Register Learn more
FileMaker Konferenz (German)	Salzburg, Austria	12 - 14 October	Register Learn more
FileMaker Devcon Scandinavia (English)	Stockholm, Sweden	16 - 17 October	Register Learn more
FM Conférence (French)	Rouen, France	18 - 20 October	Register Learn more
FileMaker Spanish DevCon (Spanish)	Madrid, Spain	20 - 21 October	Register Learn more

If you like to go to a bigger conference in English, please join the Swedish one and make a trip to Stockholm!
We have a booth at the German conference and I will come for a visit to the Spanish conference.

Custom WebView in FileMaker 16

As you may know FileMaker 16 uses WebKit 2.x for the WebViewers and we had to rewrite a lot of plugin functions for FileMaker 16. But some are still missing like print to PDF or rendering images. We look forward to macOS 10.13 which should bring a couple of improvements there for the WKWebView class and so we can improve functions for the next macOS version.

As a lot of clients ask for the functionality they had in FileMaker 15 to work in FileMaker 16, I had a nice idea today: We skip FileMaker's WebView and create our own!
So here you see a WebKit 1.x WebView (the older one) with a website loaded:

You call WebView.Create to create a new web view on page. The plugin puts it right on the layout independent of all FileMaker controls. So it stays at the position and does not reload when you switch records. And this allows a lot of new possibilities for navigation and special controls!

Please try it in the next prerelease or email me for a copy to test sooner. Mac only of course.

MBS FileMaker Plugin, version 7.4pr3

New in this prerelease of the 7.4 MBS FileMaker Plugin:

• Updated DynaPDF to version 4.0.12.33.
• Added App.OpenFile for Mac to open file in FileMaker by script.
• Changed WordFile.ReplaceTag to be case insensitive for ASCII characters.
• Added WordFile.GetCaseless and WordFile.SetCaseless for case (in)sensitivity.
• Changed ImageCapture device dialog to automatically select device if there is only one.I
• Added SQL_ATTR_CURSOR_TYPE as one of the options we pass from SQL connections down to all command objects.
• Added option in Text.TextToHTML to keep links in html.
• Added AVRecorder.GetAutomaticallyAdjustsVideoMirroring, AVRecorder.GetVideoMirrored, AVRecorder.IsVideoMirroringSupported, AVRecorder.SetAutomaticallyAdjustsVideoMirroring and AVRecorder.SetVideoMirrored to mirror video on Mac/iOS.
• Changed PDFKit.WriteToPath to now also use quartz filter.

Download at monkeybreadsoftware.de/filemaker/files/Prerelease/ or ask for being added to the dropbox shared folder.

Video from MBS Plugin Presentation at DevCon 2017

DevCon 2017 Presentation (English) 50:32 minutes

At the FileMaker Developer Conference 2017 in Phoenix this year I presented a bit about MBS Plugin.

You can watch the presentation and a few questions. Enjoy!

If you like to see this live and bring your questions, you can join future conferences in Madrid, Salzburg and Berlin.

You can see more videos on our website including older presentations.

Video from MBS Plugin Presentation at DotFMP 2017

DotFMP 2017 Presentation (English) 47:13 minutes

At the dotfmp conference in Berlin this year I presented a bit about MBS Plugin.

You can watch the presentation and a few questions. Enjoy!

If you like to see this live and bring your questions, you can join future conferences in Madrid, Salzburg and Berlin.

You can see more videos on our website including older presentations.

Multiple recordsets with Microsoft SQL Server

If you try to run two SQL statements on one connection, you often see this error message:

"HY000 [Microsoft][SQL Server Native Client 11.0]Connection is busy with results for another command"

We regularly see the problem with Microsoft SQL Server, but it also happens with Sybase ASE and others.

To solve you can set the option "SQL_ATTR_CURSOR_TYPE" with the value "SQL_CURSOR_DYNAMIC" to get a server side cursor. This will tell the connection to use a dynamic cursor and you can have several of those.
In Xojo:

dim cmd as SQLCommandMBS
cmd.Option("SQL_ATTR_CURSOR_TYPE") = "SQL_CURSOR_DYNAMIC"

in FileMaker:

MBS( "SQL.SetCommandOption"; $Command; "SQL_ATTR_CURSOR_TYPE"; "SQL_CURSOR_DYNAMIC" )

For next plugins we will include code to make sure you can set the option on the connection and pass it down to all commands on that connection.

Alternatively you can use the flag MARS_Connection when connecting inside the connection string:

"bedlam-m\\sql2014en@test;MARS_Connection=yes"

This is global option for the connection.

Zwei Monate bis zur FileMaker Konferenz in Salzburg

In gerade mal zwei Monaten startet die FileMaker Konferenz in Salzburg.
So langsam füllt sich die Konferenz und inzwischen steht auch das Programm.

Vom 12. bis 14. Oktober 2017 treffen sich wieder ca. 200 Teilnehmer im Pitter in Salzburg. Die deutschsprachige FileMaker Entwickler treffen sich um Neuigkeiten zu FileMaker zu erfahren, mit den Mitarbeitern von FileMaker in Kontakt zu kommen und um alte Freundschaften zu pflegen.



Bitte bald anmelden um ein Ticket zu bekommen. Noch gibt es Konferenztickets zu kaufen.
Die Hotelzimmer im Pitter sind wohl vergriffen, aber es gibt noch freie Zimmer rund um den Salzburger Bahnhof.
Vom Flughafen kommt man übrigens mit der Buslinie 2 direkt zum Konferenzhotel.

Für die MBS Plugin Schulung am 11. Oktober sind noch Plätze frei. Nehmen sie sich einen Tag Zeit zu erfahren, was alles im MBS Plugin steckt, was dieses Jahr neu ist und probieren wir direkt einige Funktionen aus. Je nach den Wünschen der Teilnehmer bauen wir gerne neue Beispiele, die dann bestimmte Funktionen zeigen.

MBS FileMaker Plugin, version 7.4pr2

New in this prerelease of the 7.4 MBS FileMaker Plugin:

• Added ScriptWorkspace functions to work with the script workspace and list scripts, current tab and open script by name. This could be useful for tools using DDR and wanting to show the script.
• Fixed menu functions on Mac to use right font size when using bold/italic/underline font style.
• Modernized CURL.GetCertInfo for newer CURL version.
• Changed LDAP errors to include error number and message.
• Added Webview.ClearSelection, Webview.Copy, Webview.Cut, Webview.Paste and Webview.SelectAll.
• Added SQL.SQLite3.MemoryHighwater and SQL.SQLite3.MemoryUsed.
• Added DynaPDF.WriteFTextExRotated and DynaPDF.WriteStyledTextExRotated.
• Updated CURL Library to 7.55.1.
• Added DirectoryWatcher.ReleaseAll.
• Changed Files.RenameFile to accept only file name as second parameter instead of file path for Windows. That was inconsistent to the Mac behavior where the name was enough.
• Changed LDAP functions to default to protocol version 3 with UTF-8 as default encoding.
• Fixed Runtask functions to no longer crash app for broken pipes.
• Fixed errors when RunTask's streams are accessed and not opened.
• Fixed crash with CoreLocation and CLCircularRegion.
• Updated SQLite to version 3.20.0.

Download at monkeybreadsoftware.de/filemaker/files/Prerelease/ or ask for being added to the dropbox shared folder.

FileMaker consultants with MBS Knowledge

Quite a couple of FileMaker users and developers ask for help on implementing MBS Plugin functions in FileMaker solutions. So I'd like to start with a list of MBS aware consultants for FileMaker projects:

Company	Developer	Website	Location
cross solutions	Armin Egginger & Dr. Adam G. Augustin	cross-solutions.de	Munich, Germany
Datastudio d.o.o.	Dejan Sunik	datastudio.si	Log pri Brezovici, Slowenija
Denkform GmbH	Thorsten & Lars Seliger	denkform.net	Hofheim im Taunus, Germany
Filemakergarage e. K.	Nils Waldherr	filemakergarage.com	Berlin, Germany
Keeneight l.l.c.	Stefano Morandotti	keeneight.com	Washington, MI, USA
Maltacode	Dick Impens	maltacode.com	Malta & Netherlands

In general they can speak English and the local language of their country. For some projects, you may want to find someone nearby, but most times someone from anywhere could help. See also FileMaker's partner locator website.

Like to be added to my list? Please contact me.

FileMaker Meeting in Braunschweig

DevCon Offer still available

Everyone who attended the FileMaker DevCon 2017 in Phoenix can still use the coupon code to get 20% off the plugin licenses.

We extend the coupon code for another two weeks.

The discount is a thank you to the attendees for joining the conference.
Please see the leaflet you got at the conference for the coupon code.

MBS FileMaker Plugin, version 7.4pr1

New in this prerelease of the 7.4 MBS FileMaker Plugin:

• Added AVAsset.TrackInfo function.
• Updated DynaPDF to version 4.0.12.32.
• Changed PrintDialog.Enable to call PrintDialog.Install for you if needed.
• Changed Encryption functions to better handle NULL bytes.
• Removed reference to /usr/local/lib folder for iOS plugin which made trouble for MDM app distribution.
• Added Command-L shortcut to go to Go To Line box in script workspace.
• Added Command-F shortcut to read the search fields for script and relation ship graph search boxes.
• Added optional parameter for FM.RunDataDesignReport to open report after creating it.
• Added CoreImage.Detect.
• Changed DynaPDF.HighlightPattern to create highlight annotations instead of drawing rectangles.
• Fixed bug in Barcode.Generate function with generating barcode without text.

Download at monkeybreadsoftware.de/filemaker/files/Prerelease/ or ask for being added to the dropbox shared folder.