MBS @ FMTraining.TV - Scanning in FileMaker with the MonkeyBread Plug-in

Check out the FMTraining.tv website. Richard Carlton and his team do a daily free live stream about FileMaker to watch.

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.

We talk about scanning:

  • Use WIA functions on Windows to connect to scanners.
  • Use ImageCapture functions on macOS to connect to scanners.
  • Use DocumentCameraScan functions on iOS to get a document scanned using the iPhone camera (needs Filemaker iOS SDK app).
  • Use ContinuityCamera functions to take a picture with the iPhone and receive it in FileMaker Pro on your Mac.
  • Use the old TWAIN functions if you have an older scanner without driver for WIA or ImageCapture.

Also ImageCapture functions on macOS and WIA or WinPhotoAcquire functions can be used to connect to a digital camera (DSLR) and import pictures.

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MBS Plugin versions shipped

Here is a table documenting the release versions of our MBS FileMaker Plugin from the last years. You see how regular we release and what the build number the final version had. If you still use an older one like 11.1.0.7, you may notice you have the pre-release version. Pre-release versions usually are not ready for new/changed features and contain some more debug code to do runtime checks. We disable those for final builds.

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MBS @ FMTraining.TV - Printing in FileMaker with the MonkeyBread Plug-in

Check out the FMTraining.tv website. Richard Carlton and his team do a daily free live stream about FileMaker to watch.

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.

We talk about what printing functions we have in MBS FileMaker Plugin: PrintDialog functions for macOS, Printer.SetPrinter and Printer.Print functions for Windows, PDFKit.Print, PDFKit.SelectPrinter and PDFKit.SetPrintSetting functions for iOS. You may print on iOS without print dialog to print a receipt in a POS software. And even on server you can print a PDF directly to a nearby printer in the same network with PDFKit.Print or DynaPDF.Print functions.

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MBS FileMaker Plugin, version 14.2pr3

New in this prerelease of version 14.2 of the MBS FileMaker Plugin:
  • Updated DynaPDF to version 4.0.87.250.
  • Added IsSwipeNavigationEnabled and HiddenPdfToolbarItems as options to WebView.SetPreferences and WebView.GetPreferences for Windows.
  • Updated SQLAPI to version 5.3.1.
  • Updated SQLite to version 3.45.3.
Download at monkeybreadsoftware.com/filemaker/files/Prerelease/

You can subscribe to our FileMaker mailing list to get notified for new pre-release and release versions.


Controlled printing for iOS in FileMaker

If you use FileMaker iOS SDK, we can provide a few new print commands for iOS in the MBS FileMaker Plugin in version 14.2. The new PDFKit.SelectPrinter function allows you to pick a printer. And the PDFKit.Print function got extended to print PDF documents as well as images. You can configure printing with PDFKit.SetPrintSetting function.

 

Let's start with selecting a printer:

 

If [ Length ( PDFKit Print::PrinterURL ) > 0 ]

Set Variable [ $r ; Value: MBS( "PDFKit.SetPrintSetting"; "PrinterURL"; PDFKit Print::PrinterURL ) ]

End If

# show the dialog

Set Variable [ $userDidSelect ; Value: MBS( "PDFKit.SelectPrinter" ) ]

If [ MBS("IsError") ]

Show Custom Dialog [ "Failed to show printer selecto…" ; $r ]

Else If [ $userDidSelect ]

# and check what we got

Set Variable [ $printerURL ; Value: MBS( "PDFKit.GetPrintSetting"; "PrinterURL" ) ]

End If


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MBS FileMaker Plugin, version 14.2pr2

New in this prerelease of version 14.2 of the MBS FileMaker Plugin: Download at monkeybreadsoftware.com/filemaker/files/Prerelease/

You can subscribe to our FileMaker mailing list to get notified for new pre-release and release versions.


MBS @ FMTraining.TV - The FileMaker Monkeybread Plug-in 14.1 with Christian Schmitz

Check out the FMTraining.tv website. Richard Carlton and his team do a daily free live stream about FileMaker to watch.

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.

We talk about what is new in version 14.1: New functions, Release Notes and Announcement. Check out the new Overlay functions!

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Custom progress bars for FileMaker

At the Spanish developer conference an attendee asked me about whether we have something to show a nice colored progress bar in a portal, preferable possible for Web Direct, too.

 

After a bit of research, I found an easy way to do this with MBS FileMaker Plugin and without using web viewers and JavaScript. We simply use GraphicsMagick functions to generate a nice picture on demand and show it as a container field. This can either be a script to generate the picture on the fly using a trigger. Or it can be a calculated field to generate it when needed. In both cases you can trigger the recreation of the image by changing a field with the percent value.

First let us show you the sample script. It creates a 300x30 Pixel big image with white background. Then we take the color from a field and if the color is "auto", we calculate the color based on a formula based on the percent value. Once we got a color, we draw a 20 pixel wide line with round caps with the background color. That background color for the bar is dynamically calculated to be lighter than the actual bar color. After the background bar line we draw the normal color bar on top. And save it to the container field, so FileMaker shows it. Don't forget to free the image on the end and avoid the memory get filled with images.


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Conditional Formatting in Excel exports from FileMaker

For MBS FileMaker Plugin 14.2 we include new XL functions to create conditional formatting in an Excel file created in a script. While you can always load an existing document with conditional formatting or diagrams and just fill the cells with data, we now can create the rules for conditional formatting in a script. Let us show you four examples from our example file.

 

Highlighting cells that begin With the given Text

 

This example defines a conditional format with a bold font. The conditional formatting is applied for the cells in the range B3:B11 to highlight all cells that begin with 'a'. The XL.ConditionalFormating.AddRule function allows you to define rules with various conditions like to highlight empty cells, duplicate or unique values, values starting or ending with a value or by an expression. 

 

Set Variable [ $cFormat ; Value: MBS("XL.Book.AddConditionalFormat"; $book) ]

# set font to be folder

Set Variable [ $font ; Value: MBS("XL.ConditionalFormat.Font"; $book; $cFormat) ]

Set Variable [ $r ; Value: MBS("XL.Font.SetBold"; $book; $font; 1) ]

Set Variable [ $cf ; Value: MBS("XL.Sheet.addConditionalFormatting"; $book; $sheet) ]

Set Variable [ $r ; Value: MBS("XL.ConditionalFormating.AddRange"; $book; $cf; 2; 10; 1; 1) ]

Set Variable [ $r ; Value: MBS("XL.ConditionalFormating.AddRule"; $book; $cf; 0 /* BeginWith */; $cFormat; "a") ]


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FileMaker Conference dotfmp.berlin 2024

Did you sign up for FileMaker Conference dotfmp.berlin 2024?

This conference is organized by Egbert Friedrich and takes place from 6th to 8th June 2024 in Berlin, Germany.
Already over 60 people from 16 countries: 🇩🇪, 🇬🇷, 🇳🇴, 🇨🇭, 🇨🇦, 🇺🇸, 🇦🇹, 🇩🇰, 🇪🇸, 🇬🇧, 🇧🇪, 🇫🇷, 🇸🇪, 🇮🇹, 🇳🇱 & 🇷🇸.

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 5th June 2024 in the later afternoon with a relaxed "Beer and Sausages" in one of the most famous Berlin Beergarden. The session days itself last from 6th until 8th June with various socializing events in the evenings.
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.

Page Layouting in DynaPDF

You can do a lot of PDF things with the DynaPDF functions in MBS FileMaker Plugin. One of them is layouting text and images on a PDF page.

Let us show you the output of a new example we made for a client. On the left you see the final page and on the right side the same PDF but with visible boxes for the text output.

As you see on the test page, we got a couple of cool things here:

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MBS FileMaker Plugin - Valencia 2024

A recording of my presentation for codewave.es. The Spanish FileMaker conference took place in Valencia from 22nd to 23rd March 2024 and was well received. I talked about what is new in 2024 for MBS Plugin for Claris FileMaker.

All movies   Watch on YouTube.   MBS-2024-Valencia.mp4 (578M)

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MBS FileMaker Plugin, version 14.2pr1

New in this prerelease of version 14.2 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.

You can subscribe to our FileMaker mailing list to get notified for new pre-release and release versions.


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