MBS Real Studio Plugins, version 12.2pr6

New in this prerelease of the 12.2 plugins:
  • Added more security methods to WindowsWMIMBS class.
  • Changed our multithreading code for pictures to work better if you call same method on several threads.
  • Changed WindowsTaskbarStateMBS class to have AutoHide and AlwaysOnTop properties settable.
  • Added support to PictureMBS to work with Pictures on Web/Console targets.
  • Fixed a couple more leaks in NSImageMBS, OverlayMBS and QTKit classes.
  • Fixed leak in QTKitMovieMBS.AddImage.
  • Fixed leak in NSImageMBS.Constructor taking a picture.
  • The OverlayMBS.Constructor with WindowsNoActivate flag set to true should now work better on Cocoa target.
  • Fixed WebViewMBS methods canGoBack, canGoForward, canMakeTextLarger and canMakeTextSmaller.
  • Added NSLevelIndicatorMBS.
  • Fixed bug in Windows classes with passing BSTR string parameters. This affects WIA classes, WMI classes and a few others.
  • Changed RemoveAccentsMBS to work also for decomposed unicode characters.
Download: macsw.de/plugin/Prerelease

Adding NSLevelIndicatorMBS control

One user asked for using NSLevelIndicator class from Cocoa in Real Studio. So this morning I added it for next version:

Actually with all the existing plugin utility code, this was less than an hour of work.

SOLARUG April meeting

There is still a little bit of time left to sign up for the SOLARUG April online meeting. I'll be discussing Web Widgets with Web Edition. You'll learn how to make that little clock on the SOLARUG site, plus I have another surprise widget in store... a Twitter scroller.

More info here: http://www.solarug.com/next-meeting

Next Real Studio meetings

In the next months, there are a couple of Real Studio events.

Pforzheim, Germany, 26th and 27th April 2012. Real Studio meeting on thursday evening and training with Real Studio Web Edition and Database (in German) on friday.

Wiesbaden, Germany, 11th May 2012: Real Studo meeting in Rhein-Main area.

Seattle, USA, 12th May 2012: Real Studo meeting.

Atlanta, USA, 21st May 2012: Real Studo meeting.

Orlando, USA, 24th and 25th Mai 2012: Real World is the biggest Real Studio meeting in the world. Three awesome days with probably more than 100 Real Studio developers to learn new things, exchange ideas and meet the people you only know from lists or forums. More than 85 attendees from 13 countries.

Leipzig, Germany, 19th June 2012: Real Studo meeting in Leipzig.

MBS Real Studio Plugins, version 12.2pr5

New in this prerelease of the 12.2 plugins:
  • Updated DynaPDF to version 3.0.15.37.
  • Improved JSON class.
  • Fixed multithreading bug in DNSLookupMBS class (to avoid crash on Mac OS X 10.4).
Download: macsw.de/plugin/Prerelease

JSON

I want to tell you the story I had the last days with JSON classes:
We started with a need to use JSON for talking to a server. We were happy to see JSONItem class in Real Studio, but we soon realized it has problems. First it did not preserve the text encoding. All the strings we got back had no text encoding set. Well we eventually worked around that, but later we discovered that the JSONItem class is very very slow. We really didn't want to wait 10 seconds for a big JSON to be parsed. So we checked for alternatives. As the client uses both Einhugur and MBS plugins, we have also JSONNode from Einhugur and JSONMBS from MBS Plugins available. A little speed test for parsing shows that the plugins do the 10 second job in less than 0.1 seconds. The Einhugur class was a little bit faster then mine, so we tried JSONNode. But it turns out that JSONNode doesn't return strings with text encodings, too.
So finally we came to JSONMBS class. Our class is a little bit lower level as you get nodes for arrays or dictionaries which you don't see that way with the other classes. But well, our JSONMBS class has decent speed and handles encodings better. Still we need to call the unescape function manually to removes escapes.
So finally we have a solution and our parse method implemented with 3 different classes. Good if we have to switch again later :-)

Using Dropbox for plugins

Today I created two shared folders on my dropbox account: MBS Real Studio Plugins and MBS Filemaker Plugins.
I'll put in the future new plugins there and if you like I can subscribe/invite you for this. And don't change the folders!

Dropbox is a nice way to sync files. Still I'd love to have a few advanced features. Like following a folder. So people can subscribe without asking me and see the folder with readonly access.
That would be nice to provide downloads in general, especially if the folder would be available over the web for public download.

Interested? Just drop me a line by email.

Someone visiting Drupa exposition?

Drupa exposition is from 3rd to 16th May in Dusseldorf. I think about going there for a day as a visitor.

Would be nice to meet a few Real Studio developers there? Someone interested in a meeting?

Tree Size 3.1 and Logintime in menubar 1.1

as you may have seen, we uploaded Tree Size 3.1 and Logintime in menubar 1.1. Both updated for being Intel Mac apps so they run on Snow Leopard and Lion. Also we added little improvements recently. In the Login time app you can click the time to switch between login time and duration.

As the Real Studio projects are included, you can learn from us on how to make such applications. You need Real Studio 2011r4 with current MBS plugins.

Real Studio Web Edition on Sale

Just in case, you didn't see it. The coupon is WESALE and gives you 50%.
You can click here for your order.

Also you may want to check the Web Edition introduction video from Paul on youtube.

On the documentation you may have seen a few reorganization on the Web Edition items. And Paul told me he's working on a new guide which should help you even more.

Extracting text from files

A user asked today, so here an overview on what we can do currently:
MacWindowsLinux
RTF fileStyled Text Class
NSAttributedStringMBS
Styled Text ClassStyled Text Class
Word fileNSAttributedStringMBSOffice Automation
Open Office text fileNSAttributedStringMBS
Excel fileMBS XL PluginMBS XL Plugin
Office Automation
MBS XL Plugin
PDF FileMBS DynaPDF Plugin
PDFKit classes
MBS DynaPDF PluginMBS DynaPDF Plugin
HTML FileMBS Util Plugin
NSAttributedStringMBS
MBS Util PluginMBS Util Plugin

MBS Real Studio Plugins, version 12.2pr4

New in this prerelease of the 12.2 plugins:
  • Added NSDatePickerMBS class.
  • Added QTKitMovieMBS.addVideoTrackWithSize method.
  • The init methods on NSAttributedStringMBS class now work right if called on an NSMutableAttributedStringMBS instance.
  • Added insertText and textStorage methods to NSTextViewMBS class.
  • Changed NSTextStorageMBS which is now subclass os NSMutableAttributedStringMBS as it should be.
  • Updated GraphicsMagick for Windows to use version 1.3.14 of the library.
  • Improved general picture handling to better detect whether we need to lock pictures for console or desktop types. Also this should avoid some leaks.
  • Added SHA512MBS class.
  • Updated DynaPDF to version 3.0.15.36.
Download: macsw.de/plugin/Prerelease

Adding NSDatePickerMBS class.

Today we added a class for NSDatePicker, so you can now show date and time pickers in your Cocoa/Carbon app with our CocoaControlMBS control: Please try the demo project in next plugins. You can set/get times and set various properties.

Real Studio Developer Magazine's Tax Day Relief One-Day Sale!

Marc Zeedar has a sale event today:

Tuesday, April 17, 2012 is the deadline to file taxes in the U.S., so to provide you with a little relief, Real Studio Developer Magazine is having a special one-day sale. On that day all orders over $25 are 20% off!

We're keeping this simple, with no gimmicks or absurd limitations. The 20% discount is valid for all our products: printed books, subscriptions, back issues, CDs, even subscription renewals! But this coupon is only good on April 17, 2012, so hurry to take advantage of our huge Tax Day Relief sale!

To get the discount, just use the coupon code TAXDAY when placing your order on our store: www.rsdeveloper.com/orders.shtml

If you have any questions about this offer, please let me know.

Marc Zeedar, Publisher, Real Studio Developer

Using NSTextViewMBS

I had a client asking for more functions for NSTextViewMBS class. So with next plugins, we'll have a couple of new methods there including most important an insertText method. You can add normal strings, but also NSAttributedStringMBS object. This means you can read some file with data (RTF, Word Document, HTML, etc.) and insert it in some existing text. And of course you can create NSMutableAttributedStringMBS on the fly and set attributes. Also with new text storage access on the text view, you can set or get the text with attributes from the textview.

You can use our NSTextViewMBS class for both: Pimp an existing TextArea object in a Real Studio cocoa target or use the CocoaControlMBS control to add it to a Carbon or Cocoa window. So please check next plugins :-)

Some news

  • Our filemaker documentation moved to new domain mbsplugins.eu which makes it possible that you can google for it in a few weeks (once it's indexed) and use "site:mbsplugins.eu" to search only the documentation. (like we have for Real Studio)
  • For this blog, we added a side bar for latest comments. I hope it's useful and you leave a comment from time to time...
  • The Real Studio meeting in London was great. Accounting is done and everything is paid. For your information: The event costed a little over 3000 Euro with a result of 500 Euro deficit which is our sponsoring subvention.
  • The Filemaker meeting yesterday in Bern was great. A nice round table, 6 people in total and I showed a few of my plugin features.
  • Did someone try the new VLC plugin for Real Studio? I got no feedback so far!

New french Real Studio Blog

Take a look: realstudio-fr.com.

And there is now a french group for people around Paris. That's a local group to gather people interested in local meeting near Paris. I already joined it as a visit to Paris is always a pleasure.

Coming soon into the plugin of your choice

Just a quick note that we added SHA-512 cross platform for our Real Studio Plugin.
Also we added MD5 and SHA-512 functions for our Filemaker plugin, today.

Next Real Studio Meetings

Next meetings are:
  • Pforzheim, 26th April 2012: Real Studio Meeting with Geoff Perlman presenting new Real Studio IDE.
  • Pforzheim, 27th April 2012: Real Studio Training for Web Edition and Databases (in German)
  • Wiesbaden, 11th May 2012: Real Studio Meeting in Wiesbaden.
  • Orlando, 24th/25th May 2012: Real World 2012.

More details on our website: monkeybreadsoftware.de/realbasic/events/

MBS Real Studio Plugins, version 12.2pr3

New in this prerelease of the 12.2 plugins:
  • Added CGLayerMBS class.
  • Added VLC plugin.
  • Added WinUSBMBS class to talk to WinUSB.dll.
Download: macsw.de/plugin/Prerelease

Happy Easter 2012!

Michael visited the easter bunnies while we were shopping for a little present for mum:


Wir wünschen frohe Ostern

Happy Easter - Buona Pasqua - Feliz Pascua - Joyeuses Pâques

Real World Session Schedule

The session schedule has been posted: Agenda Schedule.
Beside the schedule you can also check the hotel floor plan.
You can also view a video about the hotel here: dare2scan.com/royal/

Beside the great hotel, the parks and entertainment in Orlando, you have the chance to meet a hundred Real Studio developers in once place.

More information and registration.

VLC Plugin coming

Our VLC plugin will be available soon with the next prerelease.
I updated it to VLC 2.0.1 and improved examples.
Also we are preparing some documentation for it.
Should be a nice easter present for Real Studio users :-)

First version will simply give you access to the VLC API. You can play video with it and it's working nice on Mac and Windows. Linux probably, too, but I didn't try so far. Later we may add more convenience functions and maybe a video player control instead of using a Canvas.

Listbox Cell Background Paint Example

As I just had a client asking for an example with Listbox's CellBackgroundPaint event. You can use this event to draw pictures in background as well as in each cell, like on this picture:

In order to draw a full picture in the listbox, simply draw portions of it in different cells.
And to draw custom picture in one cell or color background, simply use graphics class commands to do so in the same event. This is very powerful. You can color cells and draw them with round edges or other fancy things to give them a very unique look.
Download project here: ListboxCellBackgroundPaintExample.zip

SolarUG

Check out the video of the last meeting of the South of Los Angeles Real User Group.
It's really nice and even I see a few things I didn't know about!
Get the video on the previous meetings page.

Real World 2012 next month


Real World 2012, the Real Studio User's Conference
Real World, which will take place next month, is the biggest Real Studio event of the year! At the 2012 event you can attend informative educational sessions, network with your peers and gain industry insight all while enjoying the magic of Disney. Real World will take place May 24-25, 2012 in Orlando, Florida, one of the top recreational and conference destinations in the world! Real World will be hosted at the Royal Plaza, which boasts excellent amenities, including a beautiful pool area with poolside bar, spa, restaurant and lounge, and is conveniently located on the Walt Disney World property and is walking distance from Downtown Disney. Hotel rooms for Real World attendees will be charged at a negotiated rate of 99USD per night!

We already have over 85 people signed up from 13 countries, so reserve your spot today! Register now!




Wednesday, May 23rd
  • 7 PM - Meet & Greet in The Giraffe Lounge
  • 7 PM - Early Conference Registration
Thursday, May 24th
  • 8 - 9 AM - Registration and Breakfast
  • 9 - 12 PM - Keynote and General Session
  • 12 - 1 PM - Lunch
  • 1 - 6 PM - Educational Sessions
  • 7 PM - Evening Dinner Event, Fulton's Downtown Disney
Friday, May 25th
  • 8 - 9 AM - Registration and Breakfast
  • 9 - 12 PM - Educational Sessions
  • 12 - 1 PM - Lunch
  • 1 - 4 PM - Educational Sessions
  • 4 - 5 PM - Q&A and Feedback Session
Learn more.

This conference will be jam-packed with important information about Real Studio and unique opportunities to network with your peers. At Real World you will have the opportunity to chat one-on-one with Real Studio engineers and put a face with a name you know from the NUG or Forums. You can also stop by our third party table and hear about what's new from our featured third party developers!

We would like to thank the Real World 2012 Sponsors:



MBS Real Studio Plugins, version 12.2pr2

New in this prerelease of the 12.2 plugins:
  • Added Ptr*ToPictureMBS functions in addition to existing functions for memoryblocks.
  • Added CalCalendarItemMBS Show method.
  • Updated DynaPDF to version 3.0.15.35.
  • Fixed Folderitem.FoldersMBS and other functions there to not forget one item.
Download: macsw.de/plugin/Prerelease

Back & Birthday

We are back from London. Had a great time! Thanks for everyone who came to our event.

Our company turns 12 years old today. Maybe we should celebrate? I could imaging making a MBS Barbecue day in summer...

Also on wednesday, we may choose to not work due me having birthday :-)
The biggest plugin in space...

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