Argon2 password hashing for Xojo

We got a new class to calculate password hashes using argon2 algorithm. Here is an example snippet for using our new Argon2MBS class:


For more details, please check github page: github.com/p-h-c/phc-winner-argon2

MBS Xojo / Real Studio Plugins, version 16.4pr5

New in this prerelease of the 16.4 plugins:

• Reduced number of internal plugin parts for Cocoa plugins.
• Fixed a possible bug with HIDAPI on Mac when disconnecting device.
• Added CreateStringMBS function.
• Added WindowsFileStreamMBS class to list file streams on Windows.
• Added methods to LargeBinaryStreamMBS to read/write/delete file streams on Windows.
• Added Linux support to ExtendedAttributesMBS module.
• Added CalculateCRC16MemoryMBS and CalculateCRC16StringMBS functions.
• For SQLPreparedStatementMBS, the BindType is now optional. If no type is provided, we detect type by type of value.
• Added SQLPreparedStatementMBS.Bind variant taking a dictionary.
• Added SQLValueMBS.setVariant to set value (parameter) by variant.
• Added SQLCommandMBS.SetParameters to set parameters by dictionary.
• Added new methods to SQLValueMBS to prevent you from passing String/CLOB/LongText as memoryblock.
• Added new methods to SQLValueMBS to pass blob/clob/longBinary/longText as folderitem or stream directly.
• Added new methods to SQLValueMBS to pass memoryblock for BLOB, LongBinary and Bytes.
• Added variants for ReadLongOrLob method on SQLFieldMBS and SQLParamMBS to read BLOB content directly to folderitem or writeable stream.
• Changed SQL Plugin to set ODBCAddLongTextBufferSpace to false by default.
• Changed SQLDatabaseMBS.Prepare to return a SQLPreparedStatementMBS directly, so you don't need to cast it.
• Added SQLValueReadMBS.asBLobMemory and SQLValueReadMBS.asBLobString to get blob data easier.
• Added several overloads to SQLValueMBS setBlob methods to take memoryblocks directly. This avoids conversion to string.

Download: macsw.de/plugin/Prerelease. Or ask us to be added to our shared Dropbox folder.

20 years of Xojo T-Shirts

20 years of native, cross-platform apps- Xojo 20th Anniversary Shirts are available in black & grey...



You can get one when visiting Houston in October for XDC.

Upcoming Changes for our SQL Plugin

From talks with clients, we got a few cool ideas for our SQL Plugin to make live easier or give you more flexibility.

We get some new method overloads for SQLValueMBS to pass MemoryBlocks for various blob field types there as value. So if you have a memoryblock and you pass it, the value is not first converted to a string (a copy of the bytes) and passed to the plugin. Now it passes the memoryblock directly. In general we want to have all plugin functions taking a block of bytes should accept either string or memoryblock to avoid extra conversions.

To quickly get the content of a blob field, you can now use asBLobMemory and asBLobString. Next the Prepare command on SQLDatabaseMBS now returns a SQLPreparedStatementMBS object, so you don't need to cast it anymore. For ODBC, we set the ODBCAddLongTextBufferSpace option now by default to false.

For SQLFieldMBS and SQLParamMBS we add ReadLongOrLob methods so you can read a blob value and have it be written directly to a file (folderitem) or to a stream. For the stream, you can pass any object of a class implementing the Writeable interface. So binary stream is fine as well as a socket, serial port or textoutputstream. This saves you may be a line of code, but it may help people looking for such a method.

For SQLValueMBS class, we added new methods to pass folderitem, memoryblock or Readable interface, e.g. a binarystream. So you can have the plugin stream from a file to a blob field for you from a file.

Next you can pass all parameters as a Dictionary to SQLCommandMBS. Also you can use a dictionary with Bind method in SQLPreparedStatementMBS, too. So if you have data for new record already in dictionaries, you can pass them to SQL commands. With SQLValueMBS you can now set it with a variant.

Now as we can set values for parameters by variant, we detect the type from the variant. So if the variant has a string, we set the parameter to be a string parameter. The auto detection works so well here, that now for prepared statement the binding of a type is optional. So if you bind values to a prepared statement with newer plugin without specifying the actual type, the bind will now work.

There is one thing to note: Passing a memoryblock or a string without a defined encoding, we take it as bytes (BLOB). If you pass text or a string with define encoding, we pass it as a text value. Please make sure you pass either explicit type or you make sure encoding is defined or not.

Save the date for MBS Xojo Conference in Berlin 2017

The next MBS Xojo Conference in Europe will take place 3rd to 6th May 2017 in Berlin, Germany:

Thursday, 4th May 2017: Conference and dinner event.
Friday, 5th May 2017: Conference.

Wednesday, 3rd and Saturday, 6th May 2017, we will offer training for interested developers.
Topic wishes are welcome.

On all evenings, we will have casual get-togethers in the summer garden and for Thursday we'll organize a dinner with barbecue there.

Location: Ellington Hotel, Nürnberger Straße 50-55, 10789 Berlin

If you book a room, please refer to our room contingent named "Xojo" to get rooms for 108 Euro/day single and 118 Euro/day double. Please call or email the hotel for reservations.

Like to speak, sponsor or register already? Just email me. Register here

Tip of the day: DynaPDF form creation with calculation

Today I wrote the following example code for a client. This snippet creates four form fields. The last field is read only and has a calculation in javascript attached, so the PDF Viewer can calculate the sum of the three fields above. The example shows a second feature called number formats. The PDF Viewer can than format the number with the given number of digits, dot or comma as decimal or thousands separator and of course with a currency prefix/postfix. PS: Technically we could also offer this for our FileMaker Plugin if needed.

Learn about code signing

If you plan to deploy software for macOS 10.12, please read this technical note from Apple:

Technical Note TN2206
macOS Code Signing In Depth

developer.apple.com/library/prerelease/content/technotes/tn2206/

You may need to code sign your disk images when delivering software as well as the software inside.

MBS Xojo / Real Studio Plugins, version 16.4pr4

New in this prerelease of the 16.4 plugins:

• Updated to DynaPDF 4.0.2.8
• Fixed FileListMBS on Mac to work well with file names who have slash in the name.
• Merged a few plugin parts so we have less DLLs and plugins load better in the Windows Xojo IDE.
• Added linux implementation for DirectorySizeMBS class.
• Fixed an issue with FileListMBS.Item() function.
• Updated SQLite to 3.14.1.
• Fixed an issue with Twain scanners when we get several callbacks quickly.
• Added file path utility functions to NSFileManagerMBS class.
• Added NSURLRequestMBS.requestWithHandle, NSURLMBS.URLWithHandle, CFStringMBS.stringWithHandle, CFDictionaryMBS.dictionaryWithHandle and CFArrayMBS.arrayWithHandle functions.
• Added SQLite3MBS.LoadExtension function.

Download: macsw.de/plugin/Prerelease. Or ask us to be added to our shared Dropbox folder.

Office view this week

Office view this morning:


If you are in southern Germany in the area Allgäu and need some training, consulting or shop talk, please contact me.

Show download in a new tab

In a Xojo Webapp you can not just provide files for download, you can also put them on links:

dim p as Picture = LogoMBS(500)
dim w as new WebPicture(p)

w.Filename = "image.png"
file = w

myLink.Target = myLink.kTargetNewWindow
myLink.URL = w.URL

myLink is a WebLink object on the web page. File is a WebLink property defined in the webpage.
The link now opens in a new browser window or a new tab. For a PDF or image file, this will show it directly in the browser and not start a new download.

MBS Xojo / Real Studio Plugins, version 16.4pr3

New in this prerelease of the 16.4 plugins:

• Updated to DynaPDF 4.0.2.7
• Added DynaPDFImageMBS.PictureData function.
• Changed Twain plugin to also load TwainDMS if Twain is not available. This allows you to install open source twain for 64-bit.
• Changed VolResolveIDMBS, NewFolderItemMBS, NewFolderItemMBS, GetFileFlagsMBS and GetFolderFlagsMBS to work in 64-bit.
• Changed plugin linking to set install name to be name of plugin part plus .dylib on Mac.
• Added various CFURLMBS class properties.

Download: macsw.de/plugin/Prerelease. Or ask us to be added to our shared Dropbox folder.

Recent changes for DynaPDF licenses

Did you notice recent changes to the licenses and features in DynaPDF?
There were two changes which may have gone unnoticed by licensees of the DynaPDF library:

1. Extracting images is now possible with Lite edition due to the new GetImageObj function. This does not apply to inline images, but to all of the big images and those are usually the ones of interest. e.g. if the PDF is from a scanner and only contains a big JPEG stream, you can get this image with Lite instead of Pro. The Pro version still offers more details with the parser interface where you can see which image is used on which page and with what output size. This allows you to know the display resolution, so you can detect low resolution images.

2. The optimize command moved recently from being part of the PDF/A add-on down to the Pro version. You still need the PDF/A add-on to convert arbitrary PDF files to PDF/A. But if you only need to reduce file size by removing duplicate content (e.g. common fonts or images in merge PDFs), you can now just go with your Pro license. This also applies to scaling down images to reduce file size even more!
The optimize command can be used to fix errors in PDFs as it rebuilds the content streams to make them error free. Especially when you archive emails from various clients, you may want to rebuild them just to make sure they display in the future on all readers.

If you are interested in a license, be sure to contact us with your wishes, so we can see if we can build a nice bundle for you for various licenses or apply any current discount offer.
All features are available for FileMaker, Xojo and Real Studio solutions.

XDC in two months

Just two months left for the 2016 Xojo Developer Conference. If you plan to go, be sure to reserve your flight for a good rate now. And also make a hotel reservation in advance.

Only three weeks left for the cheaper registration fee. So far Xojo Inc. has over 70 developers registered and 50% of the attendees are international, with people coming all the way from the UK, Italy, Canada, Belgium, Germany, Japan, Austria, Sweden, New Zealand and Australia! Also they have a lot of first time attendees - we are really looking forward to meeting all of the new people!

XDC will take place in Houston, TX October 5-7, 2016. It features sessions on best practices, special interests and other technical topics, with content for every level of Xojo developer. Educational sessions will cover topics like Xojo iOS, Raspberry Pi, database design, user interface design, debugging techniques, writing secure apps, and much more! Want to know what XDC is like? Watch our highlights video!

Register now!

XDC Pricing:
Advanced Registration:
till August 22, 2016: $899

Late Registration:
August 23 - Conference: $999

XDC will take place at the lovely boutique Hotel Derek in the Galleria area of Houston. It's right in the middle of two airports, giving you plenty of options (and time) to find a great flight! We have negotiated a hotel room rate of $164 a night. Rooms can be reserved here.

If you have any questions about XDC, feel free to email Dana Brown.