Copy and paste XML in FileMaker

You can copy and paste stuff in FileMaker: Layouts, script steps, scripts, custom functions, value lists, fields and table definitions. Each time FileMaker puts a XML on the clipboard, but you can't see it. It is kind of hidden, so FileMaker can find it for pasting. But you can't just paste it to your favorite text editor.

With MBS Plugin 15.4 we change this. Our plugin monitors when FileMaker goes to back or comes to the front and updates the clipboard:

If the clipboard has FileMaker's XML, we copy the XML into the text section, so you can paste it in a text editor.

If the clipboard has text, which is valid XML for FileMaker, but not yet the section that FileMaker looks for, we copy the XML into the right section. Then you can paste in FileMaker as usual.

You may wonder why we do this? Well we like to edit the XML in a text editor like BBEdit and then put it back.

Register custom functions with MBS Plugin

With MBS FileMaker Plugin 15.3 we allow you to dynamically register custom function via plugin functions. Yes, make your own functions on the fly and use them in all your database files. Instead of defining custom functions in FileMaker directly and then copying & pasting them to other files, you can store them in records and register them at startup.

Each function gets the following:

• ID

  It needs an unique ID which is what FileMaker internally uses to find the function. Please use an ID >= 3 and assign them yourself to the functions.

• Name

  An unique name, which doesn't match a FileMaker function or an existing custom function. Just like names in FileMaker, you may only use a subset of characters, e.g. no brackets.

• Prototype

  The function needs to have a prototype for display in the function list.

  The prototype gives our parameters a name for the variables.

• Expression

  You pass the calculation to evaluate. This is a FileMaker calculation just like in a custom function in FileMaker. You can use the names defined for variables in the prototype.

  Independent of parameter names, you can always use Plugin.CustomFunctionParameterCount to query the number of parameters and then query the value with Plugin.CustomFunctionParameter function. This allows your function to take a variable number of parameters.

  Since parameters are stored per thread, you may prefer to read any variable parameter values into local variables before doing any recursion.

• Min/MaxParameter

  You can define a minimum and a maximum number of parameters. Both are optional and default to 0 for minimum and no limit (-1) for maximum parameters.

• Flags

  For MBS Plugin 15.4 we add optional flags. Default is 0 here for compatibility with older versions. You can pass 1 to enable the use of JavaScript here. Later we added 2 for using JavaScript with WebKit instead of Duktape.

  Then we added the flag 4 which allows to remember values from one call to the next. Great for using multiple calls within a script and have one custom function take data, parse it and remember it, so other custom functions can read this data.

Once registered somewhere, you can use the functions everywhere in all calculations.

MBS FileMaker Plugin, version 15.4pr4

• Added a clipboard converter feature for macOS and Windows. When you switch to other application, we add XML text to the clipboard for FileMaker's XML data. And when coming back, we convert text to XML to paste in FileMaker. This allows you to easier copy and paste FileMaker XML text to other applications.
• Added SyntaxColoring.ClipboardConverter.SetEnabled and SyntaxColoring.ClipboardConverter.GetEnabled functions.
• Added checkbox for the preferences dialog to enable the clipboard conversion.
• Implemented WebView.SetZoom and WebView.GetZoom for macOS and iOS.
• Implemented WebView.CanZoomPageIn, WebView.CanZoomPageOut, WebView.CanResetPageZoom, WebView.ZoomPageIn, WebView.ZoomPageOut, WebView.ResetPageZoom, WebView.SetPageSizeMultiplier and WebView.GetPageSizeMultiplier for Windows in FileMaker 19.4 or newer.
• Added flags for Plugin.RegisterFunction and Plugin.RegisterScriptStep functions, so you can turn on JavaScript.

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

MBS @ FMTraining.TV - MBS Plugin 15.3

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 check out the new plugin version 15.3: Announcement, New functions, News article.

MBS FileMaker Plugin, version 15.4pr3

• Rewrote Files.Mount for macOS to user newer API and get mounting of folders on shares via SMB.
• Updated SQLite to version 3.50.4.
• Fixed link detection to work again in calculations.
• Fixed a case where FindBar in database designing dialog doesn't work.
• Fixed a bug in SQL.ConvertDateTimeFromSQL not returning proper error status.

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

ListDialog for iOS

For MBS FileMaker Plugin 15.3 we added iOS support to the ListDialog functions in addition to MacOS and Windows.

You can just use it anywhere in a script or calculation to have the user pick something from a list. For example you can fill the list with a text field holding all options. or you use SQL to either go over values in a table to collect them (with distinct option) or you use FileMaker_ValueLists in SQL to query a value list content.

Here a small example script:

Set Variable [ $r ; Value: MBS("ListDialog.Reset") ]
Set Variable [ $r ; Value: MBS("ListDialog.SetPrompt"; "Please select your country:") ]
Set Variable [ $r ; Value: MBS("ListDialog.SetShowsFilter"; 1) ]
Set Variable [ $r ; Value: MBS("ListDialog.SetAllowMultipleSelection"; 0) ]
Set Variable [ $r ; Value: MBS("ListDialog.AddItemsToList"; PlaceHolder::Countries) ]
Set Variable [ $r ; Value: MBS("ListDialog.ShowDialog") ]
Set Field [ PlaceHolder::Result ; $r & ": " & MBS("ListDialog.GetSelectedTitle") ]

There are a couple of differences.

• iOS list is one column. Second column content would go into a second line below.
• There are no column headers, but groups exist.
• There are no checkboxes for iOS
• For iOS we show the dialog full screen, so no positioning.
• There is no window title on iOS.
• iOS has no window widgets, so no close box. You need to have at least a button to close the dialog.

Please try the functions and let us know if they work well for your iOS application made using the FileMaker iOS SDK.

Noch einen Monat bis zur FileMaker Konferenz 2025 in Hamburg

MBS FileMaker Plugin, version 15.4pr2

• Improved Window.SetRoundCorners function to work on iOS.
• Fixed Barcode.Generate to handle NUL characters in text better (hex encoded input), broken in 15.3.
• Improved EmailParser.HTMLToPlainText to avoid initial return character.
• Added FM.Get function.
• Added COPY and MOVE verbs for CURL.SetupAWS function.
• Improved WordFile.Texts to skip a couple of node types.

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

EngageU - FileMaker Conference in three months

Just three months until the EngageU conference. ClickWorks and Square Moon continue to organize a pan-european conference for Claris FileMaker developers from all over the world.

EngageU - FileMaker Conference   9th - 11th of November 2025, Antwerp, Belgium

Round corners for iOS

For the next version we include round corners for the iOS SDK with the Window.SetRoundCorners function in MBS FileMaker Plugin.

You can call Window.SetRoundCorners just after showing the card window. Our plugin will look for the top most card window and apply the corners.

Since there may be a short delay before FileMaker actually creates the card and shows it, we need to wait a bit. In our sample script, we perform a short script pause. Then even if FileMaker animates the card, the plugin can find it and apply the corners.

Here is a sample script for iOS:

New Window [ Style: Card ; Name: "test" ; Using layout: “PlaceHolder” ]
Pause/Resume Script [ Duration (seconds): ,1 ]
Set Variable [ $r ; Value: MBS( "Window.SetRoundCorners"; 0; 12) ]

If the pause is too short, the card may not be yet there and we may apply the corners to the main view.

To use this feature on iOS, you need to use Xcode to build yourself a branded FileMaker Go clone with our plugin embedded in the app. With a pure FileMaker Go this would not work.

For desktop and iOS you can just have the pause and the Window.SetRoundCorners call in script. If the plugin is not installed or activated, the call will just do nothing.

In MBS Plugin 15.3 you can use the function for MacOS and Windows in FileMaker Pro already. With version 15.4 we add iOS support.

Please try the function and let us know if you have questions.

MBS FileMaker Plugin, version 15.4pr1

• Deprecated Secure Transport in CURL. Will be removed later this year.
• Fixed problem with LibArchive on Windows not doing all encryptions, broken in 15.2.
• Fixed Updater.CheckForUpdates to work in FileMaker 21 and newer.
• Improved custom functions with Plugin.RegisterFunction to properly pass through errors, so Get(LastError) can see it.
• Added Plugin.UnregisterFunction and Plugin.UnregisterScriptStep functions.
• Fixed Math.BitwiseRotate to better rotate to right.
• Fixed CURL.OpenInputFile to work for files over 4 GB in size to read chunks.
• Fixed Links in syntax coloring to once again be able to disable them via preferences.
• Improved ListDialog for iOS to have more spacing around buttons and to select line on double click.
• Improved JSON.ToCSV to take an JSON array of arrays in addition to arrays of objects.
• Improved custom functions with Plugin.RegisterFunction to handle optional parameters better. Use {} in the parameters to declare optional ones.
• Added WebView.GetMemoryUsageTargetLevel and WebView.SetMemoryUsageTargetLevel for Windows.
• Added WebView.Favicon and WebView.FaviconURI functions for Windows.
• Added Menu.IsOpen function.
• Improved using Python on threads.
• Added Python.GetRecursionLimit and Python.SetRecursionLimit functions.
• Added flags for JSON.FindValueInArray and JSON.FindValueInObjectArray functions.
• Added DetectJSON flag to FM.SQL.JSONColumn, FM.SQL.JSONRecord and FM.SQL.JSONRecords.
• Added DetectJSON flag to Matrix.JSONRecord and Matrix.JSONRecords.
• Added ASF support for Files.AudioCoverArt function.
• Fixed a C++ exception in DynaPDF.Initialize if called without parameters.
• Updated DynaPDF to version 4.0.102.294.
• Added SharingService.ShareHTML function to share HTML text to a service.
• Fixed an issue when the plugin reduced the calculation font size instead of keeping the size from FileMaker.
• Added WordFile.SetSkipDeletedText and WordFile.GetSkipDeletedText functions.

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