Ab 1. Januar 2025 könnte jeder empfange PDF Rechnung eine e-Rechnung im ZUGFeRD Format sein. Es steht ja nicht immer dabei und bei einer ZUGFeRD Rechnung sollte der XML Anteil ausgewertet oder wenigstens kontrolliert werden.

Jede Rechnung im Eingang sollte geprüft werden, u.a.

• Sind alle Angaben nach §14 UStG einhalten?
• Sind die Mengen korrekt?
• Sind die Beträge und folglich die Summen korrekt?
• Ist die Umsatzsteuer korrekt ausgewiesen?
• passt die Rechnung zum Angebot bzw. Bestellung?

	Day 24 - Merry Christmas with Apple Script

It's December 24th and it's time for the presents to be delivered. That's why we want to wish you a Merry Christmas in our application and we want to do this in a very special way, with Apple Script.

AppleScript is a scripting language developed by Apple that makes it possible to automate applications on macOS and simplify various tasks. Since its introduction in 1993, AppleScript has served as a bridge between the operating system and numerous programs to control them through scripts. The scripting language makes it possible to automate recurring processes, exchange data between applications or create complex workflows. AppleScript is particularly useful when many recurring tasks have to be performed manually. An example of this would be editing and sorting files, extracting information or controlling external applications such as Safari, Finder or Microsoft Word. The basic syntax of AppleScript is comparatively easy to learn. With the MBS FileMaker Plugin you can also start Apple Scripts from FileMaker. Today I will show you how this works. I would like to take this opportunity to point out that this door is not a course on Apple Script syntax, but simply presents three different examples.

	Day 23 - Printing a PDF

Today our monkey wants to make a list of the presents that need to be bought by Christmas Eve so that he can check off what is there and what still needs to be bought. Our monkey would like to document this in a PDF.

So first we have to create this list. Do you remember how we read out the wish lists on day 10?

We now need the list of things that our Giftee wants. This list contains the wishes as text, each separated by a line break. We now want to write these entries in a table. Each gift should have a data record and be able to be assigned to the gift without mistakes. To do this, we first create a new table Gifts, which has the fields Giftee and Gift. The Giftee table is linked to this table via its primary key and the Giftee Foreinkey in the Gifts table to enable it to be assigned to a Giftee. In our script, we first transfer the gift list for a person into a variable and ask how many entries this list has. We also note the PrimaryKey for the person and then open a window to our new table. We then go through each entry in our list in a loop and combine it with the primary key of the gift to form a record. Once we have added all the entries to our database, we close the window again.

Set Variable [ $Gifts ; Value: Giftee::Presents ]
Set Variable [ $Length ; Value: ValueCount ( $Gifts ) ]
Set Variable [ $Key ; Value: Giftee::PrimaryKey ]
New Window [ Style: Document ; Name: "Gifts" ; 
	 Using layout: "Gifts" (Gifts) ]
Set Variable [ $i ; Value: 1 ]
Loop [ Flush: Always ]
	Exit Loop If [ $i>$Length ]
	New Record/Request
	Set Field [ Gifts::Giftee ; $Key ]
	Set Field [ Gifts::Gift ; GetValue ( $Gifts ; $i ) ]
	Set Variable [ $i ; Value: $i+1 ]
End Loop
Close Window [ Name: "Gifts" ; Current file ]

The layout in which we would like to display our data looks like this:

	Day 22 - Taking Photos

Our monkey is worried that someone might log in with a coworker account who shouldn't actually have access, like Grumonky the grumpy ex-Christmas elf. Our monkey has come up with a solution. When opening the application, he wants to take a picture of who is sitting in front of the computer and save it in a table.

To record the photo, we use a separate table, which we call User. In this table we have the standard fields that are created directly with the table and also the container field Image in which the recorded image is to be found later. We create the list layout Layout User as shown in the picture:

	Day 21 - Continuity Camera and Vision

Yesterday we saw how we can scan a wish list and use text recognition for Windows. Today we would like to look at a way of scanning a document and recognizing the text for Apple users. To do this, we first use the Continuity Camera functions in combination with the iPhone for scanning and then recognize the text with Vision.

The ContinuityCamera functions allow you to capture an image or scan a page by controlling your iPhone from your Mac and having it perform the scan or image capture. The requirement for this is that the devices are logged into iCloud with the same Apple ID, are on the same network, Bluetooth is enabled, the mobile device is running iOS 12 (or newer) and the computer is a Mac with macOS Mojave (or newer).

	Day 20 - Scan and Recognize

In this day and age, there are still people who like to receive things in printed form, and Christmas is no exception. Some people still fill out their wish lists and send them by mail. But we also have ways to make this easier. Here I would like to make a distinction between Mac and Windows. Today I'll show you the Windows part. First, we want to digitalize the piece of paper. To do this, we first scan it with functions from the WIA component and then run the Windows text recognition over it.

	Day 19 - Hot Keys

In Door 17 we got to know the UserNotifications, which we display once every time the solution is opened. But our little monkey doesn't think that's enough, so he wants to be able to call it up more often. However, he doesn't want an additional button on the layout, but would like to start the script automatically with a key combination. The HotKey functions under Mac and Windows are available in the plugin for this purpose. We can use them to define hotkeys to start scripts or calculations.

With the HotKey.Register function, we can register a specific key combination by first entering the virtual key code of the key to watch in the parameters. This can be the function keys (F), for example. So that the keys cannot fire if only this key is pressed, as otherwise normal use would not be possible, we also enter so-called keyboard modifiers. These can be the additional keys command, shift, alpha, option, control, RightShift, RightOption and RightControl. We can also specify other optional parameters in this function. For example, we can specify whether a hotkey should be exclusively assignable for this solution, which would prohibit other applications that also want to register this combination, because this combination is already assigned and can only be used again when this hotkey is released. Then we can also define the script in the parameters that is to be started when this combination is pressed. To do this, we specify the name of the database in which the script is located and the script name.

	Day 18 - ics-Files

In door 16 we took care of the fact that we can enter appointments in our calendar, but what do we do if our monkey wants to share an appointment with someone, e.g. as an attachment for an appointment confirmation. We can also realize this by assembling an ics file that contains the data for an appointment. As with the business card that we embedded in the QR code, an ics file also has a specific form, where some data is required and some is optional. But let's take a look at the structure of such a file by exporting an existing appointment from the calendar and opening it in an editor. It is an event that takes place on 24th December 2024 from 17:00 to 23:30 and has the title Christmas Eve Dinner. It takes place in Home, has a further description and a link to a website. And this is what it looks like in the editor:

	Day 17 - User Notifications

Advent is running faster and faster and there are not many days left until Christmas. We want our monkey to keep an eye on the time and so we always want to receive a user notification when FileMaker is opened showing how many days are left until Christmas.

I will now show you how this works with our user notifications under Windows and Mac.

First we have to determine the number of days left until Christmas. We always start from the current year, so if it is December 30th we want a negative number to come out. First we get the current date in a variable. Then we determine the date of December 25th in the current year by taking the year from the current date. Internally, a date value is seen as a number of days since a specified day. For this reason, we get the exact number of days by subtracting the current date from the Christmas date.

	Day 16 - Add Entries In Apple Calendar

Our monkey has lots of appointments and uses the Apple Calendar app to keep track of them. Now it would be nice if our monkey could also enter appointments directly from FileMaker into this calendar and we would like to implement this today. The functions from the Calendar section are available for this purpose.

Since our layout is getting pretty full and we don't need to see the information from the last created appointment on the layout all the time, we use a button with a popover and position our fields on this popover. As the fields do not belong to a specific data record, we create these fields as global fields in the Data table. We need the following fields:

We can fill these fields with information later when we create an appointment. The appointment should then be transferred to the calendar app by clicking on a button. Behind this button is the script that I would now like to introduce to you.

	Day 15 - vCard QR

Today we want to create QR codes that contain the contact details of one of our giftee. If we scan this contact with our cell phone, it can be transferred directly to the phone's address book. To do this, we first have to write a so-called vcf file. The ending vcf stands for Virtual Contact File. We can see how such a file is structured if we export a contact from the Apple calendar and open it in a text editor. It may look like this:

BEGIN:VCARD
VERSION:3.0
PRODID:-//Apple Inc.//macOS 13.4.1//EN
N:Mustermann;Max;;;
FN:Max Mustermann
ORG:Mustermann AG;
EMAIL;type=INTERNET;type=WORK;type=pref:xyz@abc.de
TEL;type=CELL;type=VOICE;type=pref:012346789
TEL;type=IPHONE;type=CELL;type=VOICE:1011121314
TEL;type=HOME;type=FAX:15161718
ADR;type=HOME;type=pref:;;Musterstraße 3;Musterstadt;;1234;Germany
NOTE:Conference 
item1.URL;type=pref:www.xyz.com
item1.X-ABLabel:_$!<HomePage>!$_
BDAY:2000-04-01
END:VCARD 

We have different key and value pairs here that are separated from each other with a colon.

	Day 14 - XML

When rebuilding the weather station, you have probably already seen that you can get the data not only as JSON, but also as XML.

XML stands for eXtensible Markup Language and is a markup language that was developed to store and transport data in a structured and easily readable form. It was standardized by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and first published in 1998. Similar to JSON, XML is often used to exchange data between interfaces. Like JSON, XML is also structured in layers, but the way it is written is more reminiscent of HTML. This is because in XML we also work with tags.

	Day 13 - Share Files With Apple Dialog

As today is Friday the 13th and we don't want to push our luck too far, we're only adding one little thing today, but it's very effective. Because under Mac we can also use the typical sharing dialog in FileMaker.

Today we want to add this option for the files in the portal. To do this, we create an additional button in the portal. Then we call the following script step with it:

Set Variable [ $r ; Value: MBS( "SharingService.ShareItems"; ""; Files::File ) ]

This function shows us the dialog. In the first parameter, we can specify which service is to be used for sharing.

If you specify one of these service identifiers in the parameter, the file is shared via this single option. If you want to give the user the choice of which of the options they want to use, simply leave this parameter empty. We have also chosen this option.

	Day 12 - Sending Mails

We have already put together an archive in one of the previous doors. We would now like to be able to send this archive by email with the click of a button. To do this, we create a button in the mail portal.

When the button is pressed, a dialog is displayed. In this dialog we then set our text and our subject. In addition, we would like to have three buttons here with which we can either Cancel, Send the mail without archive attachment or Send with archive.

To create the dialog we use the functions from the dialog area. With these functions we can freely design our dialog. We can add buttons and fields and even display an icon to give the dialog a nicer look.

	Day 11 - Know Your Way

Today we are already on day 11 of our advent calendar. Our little monkey would like to take a look at the region where the recipients live. The best way to do this is to take a look at the map. MBS has the MapView functions for Mac and iOS to display maps from Apple Maps.

To do this, we mark the position where we want to display our map with a rectangle. We name this rectangle Map. Now we want to create our map. We can either use the MapView.CreateWithSize function to place the map with a specific size at specific coordinates on the screen or we can use the MapView.CreateWithControl function and place our map on a control that we have previously placed on your layout. We want to place our map on our rectangle with the name Map. So we use the second option. In the function, we first specify the window in which we want to create this map. As we want to place the button in the same window in which we want to display the map and the window must be the frontmost one, we can enter a 0 for the window index, followed by the name of the control on which we want to place the map. Optionally, we can now enter x and y values by an amount that we would like to move the map in relation to the control. We don't want to do this, so we will leave it out.

Set Variable [ $$Mapview ; Value: MBS("MapView.CreateWithControl"; 0; "Map") ]

Now that we have a map, we want to display the customer's address on the map. To do this, we use the MapView.ShowAddress function to set the focus of our map on the address. In this function, we first enter our Mapview reference and then our address, which we have put together from the street, city, state and country, separated by commas. But we don't just want to display the address, we also want to mark it with a picture of our monkey. We already have this image in the global variable $$Overlay_Image. To mark the point of the address on the map, we use the function MapView.AddPoint. We pass this function a JSON with the information about this point. We have already seen how a JSON is structured on day 8. Now we create new information in an empty object with the functions JSON.AddStringToObject and JSON.AddNumberToObject. In these two functions, we first specify the JSON object to which we want to add the information and then the key and the value. In our case, we want to specify the address, the title of the annotation, the image of the annotation and the size of this image in the JSON. For our title, we take the first and last name. The title is displayed next to the icon when we move the mouse over it. The part of the script then looks like this:

	Day 10 - Reading The Wish List

Welcome to Door 10. A few days have passed since we sent out our wish list forms and the first wish lists are slowly rolling in. It's time for us to incorporate readout into our solution. For this reason, we first create a container in which we can place the file to read it out and create a new script. Since we also need DynaPDF here, we must first initialize it. Then we load the file from the container into a newly created working environment as we have already seen in the previous doors.

If [ MBS("DynaPDF.IsInitialized")=0 ]
	Perform Script [ Specified: From list ; “InitDynaPDF” ; Parameter:    ]
End If
# 
Set Variable [ $pdf ; Value: MBS("DynaPDF.New") ]
Set Variable [ $r ; Value: MBS("DynaPDF.OpenPDFFromContainer"; $pdf; Giftee::WishlistIn) ]
Set Variable [ $r ; Value: MBS("DynaPDF.ImportPDFFile"; $pdf) ]

	Day 9 - Archives

Our monkey likes to have things together in a compact form. For this reason, it also likes archives and would like to have the option of creating an archive from the children's information and the individual files in the portal. We want to implement this now.

	Day 8 - Weather data with JSON

Today is day 8 of our advent calendar and winter is getting a bit chilly for our monkey. To avoid any surprises at Christmas, he wants to be able to call up the current temperature and weather conditions for each customer in FileMaker.

We would like to retrieve the weather data from a weather database. The weather data can be found on the website openweathermap.org. A few years ago we already made a video about how we implement this with FileMaker nativ functions. Today I would like to show you how this works with the JSON functions of MBS. These have the advantage that they can work very quickly, even with large amounts of data.

	Door 7 - Open Files With Roundabout Route Via Temporary Files

Welcome to day 7 of our advent calendar. Today we would like to add a function to our document portal from day 3. So far we can add documents to this portal via drag and drop, what we are missing now is the possibility to open them from FileMaker.

To do this, we use the MBS function Files.LaunchFile. We can pass a path to this function and the file or folder located at this path is then launched with the standard program provided for this purpose.

But we realize now that we have a container value and no path, how do we do this now? You could perhaps come up with the idea of writing the path to a field when reading it in. This procedure becomes problematic, if we move the original file to a new location and the path is no longer correct. So we have to take a different way. We save the file in the temporary folder and display it from there.

To do this, we first create the path where we want to save the file. We determine the temporary folder with the Folders.UserTemporary function. In the Folders area, we also have further functions for other special folders such as Desktop, Applications or Documents.

Once we have the path to this folder, we still need to append the file name with the correct file extension. The file name is made up of the primary key and the file name. The file name already contains the file extension. We now put together this determined file name with the Path.AddPathComponent function, specifying our temporary path in the parameters.

	Door 6 - Sending Out Wishlist Forms

Today it is time for us to take care of the wish lists of the giftees. We want to prepare a form that we send by e-mail to the giftees, who fill out this form. In a later door we can then read this information from our returned document.

To do this, we first create the template we want to send. To do this, we first need a simple PDF file on which we can position our fields. We have the option of either building this form with DynaPDF, or we can use a pre-designed PDF in which we create fields. I chose this method now. The document was created with Pages and then output as a PDF via the print settings. We want to write several labels in this file. The labels are not only important for the labeling, so that the customer knows which data is to be entered there, but also for positioning the form fields. We want to position these behind the labels.

Now we have everything we need to create our template.

Since we are working with DynaPDF, we first have to initialize it again, as we already explained in door 4.

If [ MBS("DynaPDF.IsInitialized")=0 ]
	Perform Script [ Specified: From list ; "InitDynaPDF" ; Parameter:    ]
End If

	Door 5 - Apple Contacts

Today is day 5 of our calendar and our monkey has a few calls to make on his iPhone. He just doesn't want to keep typing in the number and searching for the customer. It would be much easier if he could simply save the specific contacts in Apple Contacts with the touch of a button. That's no problem, because as a Mac user you can read and write data in Apple Contacts. We use our Contacts functions for this.

But before we can start, we first need to be able to assign phone numbers and email addresses to our contacts. Until now, this was very complicated because we had to leave the giftee layout and enter the data in the respective layouts of the tables. We would now like to change this. To do this, we go to our relationship diagram and double-click on the equal sign between our phone and giftee relationship. Then the Edit Relationship dialog opens and we can make settings. Here we can decide whether we can delete or create data records via this relationship. To do this, we can make a choice in the checkboxes at the bottom. We tick Allow creation of records in this table via this relationship and Delete related records in this table when a record is deleted in the other table for the Telphone table. This allows us to create records in our portal and if a gifte is deleted, the associated telephone numbers are also deleted. We now do the same for the mail addresses.

	Door 4 - Add GTC with DynaPDF

Today I would like to show you a tool that you can use in FileMaker with the MBS FileMaker Plugin: DynaPDF. With DynaPDF you have the possibility to create, edit, merge, analyze or sign PDF documents in FileMaker. DynaPDF offers you many possibilities around the topic of PDF.

Our monkey also wants to use one of these functionalities today. Because today we want to build the possibility to attach user terms and conditions to a PDF document. The user terms and conditions always remain the same and can be attached to any outgoing document, e.g. an invoice. I will show you how this works today in this door.

First we have to initialize DynaPDF, which means we have to tell FileMaker where the DynaPDF function library is located. The files are automatically delivered with the download of the plugin and can be found in Examples > DynaPDF. The files have the extension dll and dylib. Which of the files you need depends on your operating system. If you want to use DynaPDF on a Mac, you will need the path to the dynapdf.dylib file. If we are working with Windows, it also depends on whether we are working with a 32 or 64 bit version. If you are using FileMaker 19 or higher, this decision is easy, as only a 64 system can be used here. In any case, the library has the extension .dll. If you are not sure, just put both dll in the same folder and the plugin will grab the file it needs. The next piece of information we need is the DynaPDF license key. If you want to use DynaPDF in your solutions, you need an appropriate DynaPDF license and an MBS FileMaker Plugin license.

There are four different DynaPDF licenses. Which license you need depends mainly on which DynaPDF functions you use. If you need more information, please visit our website to find out which license is right for you. However, we do not necessarily need a license to try it out, but need to live with the watermark. After we have determined the path to the libraries and the license key, if available, we can now call the DynaPDF.Initialize function. In the parameters we first enter the path to the library and then the license key. If we do not yet have a license key, we pass an empty string here.

	Door 3 - Drag & Drop

Welcome to our third door in this advent calendar. Today we would like to start expanding our database. We want to have the possibility to store additional documents for the giftees. For this purpose, we will create a table with the name Files. This table should store the name of the file, the type and the file itself as a container value. In addition, we also need a field with the Foreigen Key here, because we want to establish a relationship so that the files can also be assigned to the giftee.

Now we have to think about how we want to bring these files into our database. We want to use drag and drop to do this. So we build an area where we can drag the desired file and the type and name are then automatically read out and the file and the remaining information are then stored in a record in the new table. This data record should be related to the giftee that is currently displayed.

We can create drag and drop areas with the MBS FileMaker Plugin. To avoid wasting useful space for a drag and drop field on our layout, we would like to place this drag and drop field as an overlay, i.e. a freely movable area on our layout that can be activated and deactivated by clicking a button. To do this, we first need to create an overlay and then assign drag and drop functionality to it.

So let's start with the overlay first. To do this, we have the functions from the Overlay section. First, we create a new overlay with the MBS function Overlay.Create. This function returns a reference. We also need to specify this reference in the other functions so that we know exactly which overlay in our project the functions should be applied to. Next, we want to determine the size and starting position of our overlay. To do this, we use the Overlay.SetFrame function and, as already mentioned, specify the overlay reference, the position with X and Y coordinates and the height and width of the overlay in pixels. So we want the top left corner of our overlay to be 30 pixels away from the right and top edge. In addition, our overlay should be square and 200 x 200 pixels in size. Our function call looks like this:

Set Variable [ $r ; Value: MBS("Overlay.SetFrame"; $overlay; 30; 30; 200; 200) ]

	Door 1 - The Database

Hello and welcome to this year's MBS FileMaker Advent calendar. This year our logo monkey has turned into a Christmas elf and has to take care of the coordinated distribution of presents at Christmas. What could be more obvious for our monkey than to get an overview with a FileMaker database. Over the next 24 days, we'll show you how to pimp a simple database with the help of the MBS FileMaker Plugin. All you need is to have fun with FileMaker. We'll start by creating the database and work our way through step by step. Even though the advent calendar is suitable for beginners, advanced users and professionals can certainly use some of the ideas from the advent calendar for their own purposes.

So let's start with our first door and thus with the basis for this calendar. Our FileMaker database. Although we provide you with this database, it can be useful to deal with the topic of how such a database can be set up. Initially, we only have a few tables, which we will expand over the course of the Advent calendar. Initially, our database consists of 3 tables. The table with the name of the giftee is our main table in which we find the information about the giftee, such as the last name, first name, date of birth and address. In addition, each recipient has their own identification number that can be uniquely assigned to them. This means that the number exists exactly once for each recipient. In this example, we call it the Primary Key in the table.