The 2015 Xojo Developer Conference, early bird offer ends tomorrow

Just one day left to save $250 on a ticket with the early bird offer. Already around 50 people signed up for the conference, so it may sell out like last year.

The good news on the hotel is that plenty of rooms are still available. The bad news is that you have to call and ask for the rate for the conference. It's $169 per room and the website doesn't find it. Also there seem to be no suites available for discounted rates, just the regular ones. Anyway, as we can cancel room up to 2 days before conference, you should make your reservation early and later modify or cancel it.

The 2015 Xojo Developer Conference will take place April 29 - May 1, 2015 at the Radisson hotel in fabulous downtown Austin!

XDC is the best place for Xojo users to learn from the experts, network with other Xojo users from around the world and meet the Xojo engineers. We will have sessions for everyone wanting to get the most out of their tool - from topics for those who are just getting their feet wet, to sessions for the most advanced Xojo developer.

Omegabundle for Xojo 2014

NOT LONG UNTIL THE BEST BUNDLE FOR XOJO ARRIVES!


Yes, its almost here, and its no coincidence that Black Friday and Cyber Monday are almost here. You've been warned.

PS: Bundle extended through 9th March. This is the final end date! (more)

Xojo Consulting in German

In the last days I collected a list of German Xojo Developers available for consulting:

Newer version available
If you like to be added, please email me with details.

Xojo Developer Meeting in Birmingham

Two weeks ago I visited the UK Xojo developer group in Birmingham. This is the forth year I went there and it's a big pleasure. I enjoy meeting people, going over the christmas market and got familiar with the city center in Birmingham. There are not many cities outside Germany where I go so often.

For the meeting we first had a get together the day before (first picture) with some developers. Next day we got a presentation via screen sharing from Paul Lefebvre about current state of iOS. He presented several examples and a good overview about what works already.

In evening we went to Jimmy's spices, a good restaurant. Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Italian, Mexican and American food mixed in an giant buffet. For that evening, even more people showed up as first day was optional for those interested in iOS progress.

On the main day of the conference, we got a lot of sessions. Best for me was David's session about what you can do with our DynaPDF and ChartDirector plugins. It's always amazing to see what people built and how they find cool ways to use the plugin beyond what we show in our example projects. The other presentation also helped to understand how to get security with obesity and how to use GIT and rest web services.

So I hope to see you all again next year in Austin for XDC.

MBS Xojo / Real Studio Plugins, version 14.5pr1

New in this prerelease of the 14.5 plugins:
  • Disabled code in OpenSSL trying to load config files.
  • Added WindowsDriveNotificationMBS class.
  • Updated to GraphicsMagick 1.3.20.
  • Updated to libJPEG 9.1.
  • Updated to PCRE 8.36.
  • Updated to libPNG 1.6.14.
  • Updated to CURL 7.39.0.
  • Updated to OpenSSL 1.0.1j.
  • Updated LibXL to version 3.6.1.
  • Deprecated KAGI classes.
Download: macsw.de/plugin/Prerelease. Or ask us to be added to our shared Dropbox folder.

DynaPDF PDF/A

As you may know DynaPDF can write PDF/A and PDF/X files. For that you need have a Pro version and use a couple of special functions. First when writing a PDF you use SetPDFFunction to set the PDF Version to one of the PDF/A versions.

First you call CreateStructureTree function to start a tagged PDF. Next you can set flag ifPrepareForPDFA for import flags to tell DynaPDF you plan to create a PDF/A file. Next you can run CheckConformance to check and fix the plugin for PDF/A conformance. Finally you use AddOutputIntent to required color profiles.

The PDF above are okay when you don't import existing PDF files. For existing PDF, you can use CheckConformance. If you have our extra addition PDF/A extension for DynaPDF, the DynaPDF library can fix most of the issues with existing PDF/A to convert them to the required format. But this extension costs extra (599 Euro). So not everyone needs it, but some will certainly.

All the functions mentioned above are available for MBS Plugin users for Filemaker, Xojo and Real Studio.

More SSL Trouble

Today we had a client who wants to use our MBS Plugins to list a directory on a FTP server. It works well without encryption, but fails with SSL. The questions why?

First thing was to enable verbose (OptionVerbose) to see log and got those messages:

AUTH SSL
500 This security scheme is not implemented
AUTH TLS
234 AUTH TLS OK.
SSLv3, TLS handshake, Client hello (1):
SSLv3, TLS alert, Server hello (2):
error:14077410:SSL routines:SSL23_GET_SERVER_HELLO:sslv3 alert handshake failure

So the server does not support SSL, but only TLS. And for TLS we got a handshake error, probably because we started with SSLv2. Because with OptionSSLCipherList set to "SSLv3", we got further a step:

SSLv3, TLS handshake, Client hello (1):
SSLv3, TLS handshake, Server hello (2):
SSLv3, TLS handshake, CERT (11):
SSLv3, TLS alert, Server hello (2):
SSL certificate problem: unable to get local issuer certificate

Now we just need to disable verification of peer and host or provide the right certificate and it works!
Just one of the new challenges we got recently. Due to bugs in SSL, a lot of servers disable SSL and only allow via TLS.

CURL with GoDaddy

If you want to use CURL plugins with GoDaddy ftp service, you may see the message in the log like this: "SSL certificate problem: unable to get local issuer certificate".

Now normally we just recommend to get the cacert.pem from curl website and use it with the CAInfo option. But here this fails and gives again the same error message.

To solve it, we need the certificates from GoDaddy, but not just one, but the root and an intermediate one. So on the repository website I downloaded the gd-class2-root.crt and gd_intermediate.crt files. Now I converted them with openssl and joined both pem files into one:

openssl x509 -inform PEM -in gd_intermediate.crt -out gd_intermediate.pem -text
openssl x509 -inform PEM -in gd-class2-root.crt -out gd-class2-root.pem -text
cat gd_intermediate.pem gd-class2-root.pem > gd-bundle.pem

That got me this pem file: gd-bundle.pem

Now you can use CURL with security checks (OptionVerifyPeer and OptionVerifyHost on) and the log shows:

Server certificate:
subject: O=*.senior-systems.com; OU=Domain Control Validated; CN=*.senior-systems.com
start date: 2012-05-02 23:33:25 GMT
expire date: 2017-05-02 23:33:25 GMT
subjectAltName: ftp.senior-systems.com matched
issuer: C=US; ST=Arizona; L=Scottsdale; O=GoDaddy.com, Inc.; OU=http://certificates.godaddy.com/repository; CN=Go Daddy Secure Certification Authority; serialNumber=07969287
SSL certificate verify ok.

Works in FileMaker, Xojo and Real Studio via MBS Plugins.

Connecting to Microsoft Visual FoxPro

If you ever need to connect to a Microsoft Visual FoxPro database from FileMaker, Xojo or Real Studio, you can use our MBS Plugin to do this.

We simply use the built in ODBC driver from Microsoft to connect. Our connection string is configured to work without setting up a data source. This avoids users to configure their system and just provide the path to the database file.

The connection string looks like this:

"Driver={Microsoft Visual FoxPro Driver};SourceType=DBC;SourceDB=c:\test.dbc;Exclusive=No;NULL=NO;Collate=Machine;BACKGROUNDFETCH=NO;DELETED=NO;"

So we provide the name of there drive, the type of source (database file), the path to the database file and a few options. Maybe you don't need all those options.

Below the FIleMaker script to connect. Please notice that we pass empty username and password after the connection string. And the last parameter is the client type which is always "ODBC" here.

Set Variable [$Connection; Value: MBS("SQL.NewConnection")]
Set Variable [$result; Value: MBS("SQL.Connect"; $Connection; "Driver={Microsoft Visual FoxPro Driver};SourceType=DBC;SourceDB=c:\test.dbc"; ""; ""; "ODBC")]

In Xojo (or Real Studio) with SQL Connection we simply set database connections string and type to connect:

dim con as new SQLConnectionMBS
const db = "ODBC:Driver={Microsoft Visual FoxPro Driver};SourceType=DBC;SourceDB=c:\test.dbc"
con.Connect(db,"","",SQLConnectionMBS.kODBCClient)


In Xojo (or Real Studio) with SQL Database we have to prefix the connection string with "ODBC:" to

dim db as new SQLDatabaseMBS
db.DatabaseName = "ODBC:Driver={Microsoft Visual FoxPro Driver};SourceType=DBC;SourceDB=c:\test.dbc"
if db.Connect then


So the next time you have a client with a FoxPro Database where you need import/export from FileMaker, Xojo or Real Studio, our plugin may come to rescue!

[ANN] MonkeyBread Software Releases the MBS Xojo / Real Studio plug-ins in version 14.4

NICKENICH, Germany (November 11th, 2014) -- Monkeybread Software releases version 14.4 of the MBS plug-in for Xojo and Real Studio.

The MBS plug-in comprises a collection of several plug-in parts which extend the Real Studio development environment with 2,100 classes featuring over 54,000 documented functions. Our plugins support all three platforms Mac OS X, Windows and Linux with all project types desktop, web and console.

Some of the highlights on the 14.4 update:

Our functions to send emails got a major upgrade. Now we are fully compatible and tested with Microsoft Outlook. Also you can now specify the text encoding for the case you don't want to send UTF-8 emails.

For our Windows users with a telephone system, we have now a plugin for the telephone API. This allows you for example to show a customer record for a matching phone call. Or to dial automatically for your application user.

More windows features include new clipboard functions to get/set pictures and a new function WinOpenFolderAndSelectItemsMBS. This function can open an explorer window and select a file. For Mac OS X a similar function is available in NSWorkSpaceMBS class.

On the Mac side, we added a new QTMovieModernizerMBS class to use QTKit to translate movies in older QuickTime formats to modern MPEG 4 files. As OS X Yosemite added new features for AVFoundation, we got new methods there on a few classes. If you like to print HMTLViewer in a Cocoa application, please use the new NSPrintOperationMBS methods. For CoreWLAN we got new function to handle keychain and store WLAN passwords.

For ChartDirector we updated our controls example for retina compatibility on Mac OS X. Our AUPlayerMBS class for playing sounds got new overlap and peak locking option. Our UDP Socket can now work better on Windows and got a new ReusePort property.

Finally we updated DynaPDF to version 3.0.36.104, EyeOne plugin to latest SDK, Sparkle plugin to version 1.6.1. For SQLite we added new method for SQLite3MBS class to enable extension loading.

See release notes for a complete list of changes.
If you have questions, please don't hesitate to contact us.

App Wrapper 3

Bob Keeney just wrote a nice review about App Wrapper 3, an useful tool for code signing and packaging your application.

See blog entry:
bkeeneybriefs.com/2014/11/app-wrapper-3/

This app can be used both for FileMaker runtimes and applications created with Xojo. This way you can get your app into Mac App Store or simply avoid the Gate Keeper warning after downloading unsigned applications.

The 2015 Xojo Developer Conference

Just three weeks left to save $250 on a ticket with the early bird offer. Already over 40 people signed up for the conference, so it may sell out like last year :-)

The good news on the hotel is that plenty of rooms are still available. The bad news is that you have to call and ask for the rate for the conference. It's $169 per room and the website doesn't find it. Also there seem to be no suites available for discounted rates, just the regular ones. Anyway, as we can cancel room up to 2 days before conference, you should make your reservation early and later modify or cancel it.

The 2015 Xojo Developer Conference will take place April 29 - May 1, 2015 at the Radisson hotel in fabulous downtown Austin!

XDC is the best place for Xojo users to learn from the experts, network with other Xojo users from around the world and meet the Xojo engineers. We will have sessions for everyone wanting to get the most out of their tool - from topics for those who are just getting their feet wet, to sessions for the most advanced Xojo developer.

MBS Xojo / Real Studio Plugins, version 14.4pr10

New in this prerelease of the 14.4 plugins:
  • Added GetPicture/SetPicture methods to WindowsClipboardMBS class.
  • Added TAPI plugin.
  • Deprecated DarwinPingMBS class.
  • Changed CFDictionary conversion code to support CGPathMBS class.
  • Fixed bugs in various text functions (e.g. FileListMBS class) introduced in pr8.
  • Added option to CURLEmailMBS Constructor to specify text encoding.
  • Added new NSPrintOperationMBS methods for printing HTMLViewer in Cocoa apps.
Download: macsw.de/plugin/Prerelease. Or ask us to be added to our shared Dropbox folder.

Upcoming events in the next weeks

FileMaker
6th November 2014, tonight the monthly meeting of Rhein/Main area FileMaker developers in Lorsbach (near Frankfurt/Main, Germany).

Xojo
10th November 2014, Xojo Users Group in Atlanta, USA.
13th/14th November 2014, the Xojo event in Birmingham (UK)
2nd December 2014, the London Xojo User group meeting.

I'll be tonight in Lorsbach and next week in Birmingham.

MBS Xojo / Real Studio Plugins, version 14.4pr9

New in this prerelease of the 14.4 plugins:
  • Fixed an issue with ImageMagick plugin LoadLibrary call for Windows.
  • Updated Sparkle Plugin classes for version 1.6.1.
  • Improved CURLEmailMBS class to work with Microsoft Outlook correctly.
  • Added SQLite3MBS.EnableLoadExtension method.
  • Added NSImageMBS.imageWithHandle.
  • Added option to CURLEmailMBS Constructor to use ISO Latin1 instead of UTF-8 for encoding.
Download: macsw.de/plugin/Prerelease. Or ask us to be added to our shared Dropbox folder.

xDev Magazine Issue 12.6

The November/December 2014 (12.6) issue of xDev Magazine is now available.
Here's a quick preview of what's inside:

* More Yosemite Tricks * by Sam Rowlands
Mac OS Yosemite is now available, but not all your users will upgrade right away. Sam shows how to code your software in Xojo so it works well in both Mavericks and Yosemite operating systems.

* Writing Apps for Game Center: Part 3 * by Tom Baumgartner
In Part 3, Tom explains how to create and play turn-by-turn games.

* Protect Your Software * by Harold Halbleib
If you want to make money selling your software, you need a way to enforce your license. One option is using third-party software to protect your software. Harold explains how to use Excel Software's AppProtect and other products to do just that.

* Cheap Web Hosting * by Kevin Cully
Are you interested in experimenting with Xojo web apps, but hesitant to commit to a high monthly bill? Kevin's found an incredibly cheap web host and shows how to you can use it with Xojo for just pennies a day.

Columns topics include creating a simple web photo gallery creator app, handy type conversion tips, encouragement from an older Xojo developer, Common Table Expressions in SQL, making RegEx more readable, Craig continues his database design series, and so much more.

MBS Xojo / Real Studio Plugins, version 14.4pr8

New in this prerelease of the 14.4 plugins:
  • Updated DynaPDF to version 3.0.36.104.
  • Fixed a problem with SQLDatabaseMBS.ColumnType not being correct for all types.
  • Added LoadRaw/SaveRaw using memoryblock to XLBookMBS class to avoid conversion to/from string.
Download: macsw.de/plugin/Prerelease. Or ask us to be added to our shared Dropbox folder.
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