Three days till year's end

The year 2021 will end in around three days. Do you need some more licenses?
  • Last chance to update licenses purchased in 2019.
  • You can order licenses for 2022 or later and have delivery plus payment done in 2021.
  • And of course you can order updates for several years in advance for all your MBS products.
  • As all Xojo plugin, LibXL and DynaPDF licenses are per developer, you should check if you got a new developer in your team this year and adjust licenses to match team size.
  • For FileMaker please check if you have enough license for the number of seats or servers you have in use.
Especially if you run on a budget and you want to spend some money in 2021, you can buy updates for several years in advance.

Upcoming changes for 2022 in MBS Plugins

For the next year, we have a few little changes to do.

We may go next year to cleanup a bit. That may include moving some classes/functions to use functionality from Windows 8/8.1, so the minimum for those plugins will be that version. If you need Windows 7, you may then be required to keep older plugin versions. Also we may want to move to use more Visual Studio 2019 features, so some plugin parts may start to require the newer runtimes. Not a quick change, but more part by part, where we see benefits. And of course you could always use an older plugin for some special project running on old hardware.

On macOS we'd like to get rid of Addressbook framework. You may need to move to newer functionality provided by Contacts framework. If needed, we may add more functions for Contacts in the plugin. Let us know what you miss to make the change.

For Linux, we may ditch GTK 2 and link directly to GTK version 3. This can simplify some coding for me and since Xojo uses GTK 3 exclusively for years, it shouldn't cause trouble for developers.

Let us know if you have questions.

Merry Christmas

Frohe Weihnachten und ein gutes neues Jahr!

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

Joyeux Noël et Bonne Année

Buon Natale e Felice Anno Nuovo


Franziska, Sebastian, Michael, Monika & Christian Schmitz

MBS Xojo Plugins, version 21.6pr4

New in this prerelease of the 21.6 plugins:
  • Fixed drawing into pictures for console apps after Xojo disabled GD Drawing there, broken since Xojo 2021r2.
  • Fixed problem in ScintillaControlMBS with focus.
  • Fixed crash with ScintillaControlMBS when cursor images are missing.
  • Fixed a problem with FindRecords in FMDataMBS class not working.
  • Renamed AutoC properties in ScintillaControlMBS to AutoComplete.
  • Fixed problem from pr3 with NSImageMBS constructor in console projects.
Download: monkeybreadsoftware.com/xojo/download/plugin/Prerelease/ or from Dropbox.
Or ask us to be added to our shared Dropbox folder.

MBS Xojo Plugins, version 21.6pr3

New in this prerelease of the 21.6 plugins: Download: monkeybreadsoftware.com/xojo/download/plugin/Prerelease/ or from Dropbox.
Or ask us to be added to our shared Dropbox folder.

log4j

Since several clients asked, so we like to inform you that we do not use log4j package anywhere at Monkeybread Software.

Our plugins for FileMaker and Xojo can live very well without Java.

But we offer the functionality to use Java functions to load and execute Java software within your application. So in case you load a jar package with our plugin, please check whether it contains log4j package.

And in general it may be a good idea to make sure you have up to date software. For your server, it may be good to limit the outgoing traffic, e.g. disallow LDAP queries except maybe to your own LDAP or Active Directory server.

To all companies using open source software: Please consider to budget money and development time to contribute to the various open source projects, so they are not depending alone on someone maintaining them in their spare time. See also Dependency on xkcd.com

Christmas surprise packages

Last year we started sending out a surprise Christmas packages to clients. For 2021, we do this again with twenty different recipients.

As a special surprise for our customers we ordered 20 nice packages with delicious food. Those are present boxes from Fattoria La Vialla, which is an Italian farm producing organic food in the Toscana. Two weeks ago the palette arrived:

We picked 20 customers. A few older, a few newer, a few we know personally, a few we never met so far.

And today we sent the last packages on their way. If DHL delivers you a box, please accept it with our best wishes.

We hope all packages arrive in good condition and before Christmas. Enjoy and have a merry Christmas time!


Three weeks till year's end

The year 2021 will end in less than three weeks. Do you need some more licenses?
  • You can order licenses for 2022 or later and have invoice, delivery and payment done in 2021.
    This way you secure the current pricing and the possibility to keep upgradeability for older licenses.
  • And of course you can order updates for several years in advance for all your MBS products.
  • As all our Xojo and DynaPDF plugin licenses are per developer, you should check if you got a new developer in your team this year and adjust licenses to match team size.
  • For MBS FileMaker Plugin please check if you have enough license for the number of seats or servers you have in use.
    If you upgrade to unlimited seats or servers, the plugin won't need to check the usage counts.
Especially if you run on a budget and you want to spend some money in the old year, you can buy updates for several years in advance.
If you need help to decide what Xojo, FileMaker or plugin license you need, we may be able to assist you.

MBS Xojo Plugins, version 21.6pr2

New in this prerelease of the 21.6 plugins: Download: monkeybreadsoftware.com/xojo/download/plugin/Prerelease/ or from Dropbox.
Or ask us to be added to our shared Dropbox folder.

Adding a Scintilla based control to Xojo

In the last years we saw a lot of need for various edit controls in Xojo. The built-in TextArea is fine for a lot of people, but some need more. A couple of people extended the built-in control with various extensions, but those are always limited by what the platform can do. MacOS is quite good with NSTextView used as implementation and you see a lot of stuff via our NSTextViewMBS class to e.g. insert a picture. On Windows the RichEdit control is a bit limited, but we still got a few TextArea extensions in our plugins:
Next a few people started to write Canvas based control on their own. Like the Formatted Text Control for Xojo, which is now open source and can be used as an editor for styled text. Then recently we got notice of the Better Code Editor (BCE) Control from Garry Pettet. This may also help a few people and have it as source code in their projects and modify it.

But I looked for more and thanks to a little tip from Norman on my visit in September, I got pointed to the Scintilla project. That is am open source C++ library defining an editing component, which we can host in a plugin based Xojo control: ScintillaControlMBS
The description from their website shows what we may get in Xojo:

As well as features found in standard text editing components, Scintilla includes features especially useful when editing and debugging source code. These include support for syntax styling, error indicators, code completion and call tips. The selection margin can contain markers like those used in debuggers to indicate breakpoints and the current line. Styling choices are more open than with many editors, allowing the use of proportional fonts, bold and italics, multiple foreground and background colours and multiple fonts.

We may not get all things right into the control for the first release, but since the control seems to work fine for macOS and Windows already, I am confident we can ship this as a 1.0 with our next plugin release in January. There is still a long todo list, but we like to give interested developers a preview. Please try it in next pre-release.

Things we may do later, if possible include support for Linux. Maybe we can provide the library within the plugin instead of an external library. And we may improve the API to be more Xojo like, add printing functions, marker pictures or async loading.

This control should provide a great editor for XojoScript code in various projects. Also editing other things like SQL statements, JavaScript, JSON or HTML in your project. It has a great performance and should handle huge texts better than all the other choices.

Please try it in the next days and let us know what you think!

Windows 64-bit ARM support coming to Xojo

Have you seen the updated roadmap from Xojo Inc.?

It lists ARM 64-bit support for Windows and Linux as items they work on. And I put in a some work the last weeks into building our plugins for Windows 64-bit ARM. We had Linux 64-bit ARM completed a few months ago. Still the plugins only compiling doesn't mean they will run right away. There will certainly a new plugin SDK for those targets, so we'll have a few changes and then try them once a Xojo version ships and we can build test applications.

Since we got ARM 64-bit support, I hope adding Android in the future should be easy for all the console enabled classes. But still it may be very useful to have SQL, DynaPDF or Encryption classes available there, too.

See older blog post Linux 64-bit ARM support coming to Xojo, Build System Updates for new targets, Building for future Xojo targets and Building plugins for Linux on ARM.

Please know that the roadmap lists various items Xojo Inc. works on, but not all and not necessarily in the order they ship. The listed items tend to be the ones, which takes multiple releases to get finished. Smaller items, which can be done in a few days by an engineer, may not be listed there.

MBS Xojo Plugins, version 21.6pr1

New in this prerelease of the 21.6 plugins:
  • Added ShowAllAnnotations for MKMapViewMBS class.
  • Changed XML parsing to explicit disable network access.
  • Fixed a bug where some functions like GetWindowsColorProfileMBS returning a FolderItem cause an InvalidArgumentException when running on newer Xojo versions.
  • Updated archive library to version 3.5.2.
  • Updated CPUBrandString method in SystemInformationMBS module to work on Apple Silicon.
  • Updated cpuid library to version 0.51.
  • Updated curl to version 7.80.0.
  • Updated expat library to version 2.4.1.
  • Updated lz4 library to version 1.9.3.
  • Updated openssl to version 1.1.1l.
  • Updated ssh2 library to version 1.10.0.
  • Updated taglib library to version 1.12.
  • Fixed a bug with CTFontMBS not returning file path in older Xojo version.
  • Added PropertyName and CountProperties methods to DirectShowPropertyBagMBS class.
Download: monkeybreadsoftware.com/xojo/download/plugin/Prerelease/ or from Dropbox.
Or ask us to be added to our shared Dropbox folder.

Four months till XDC 2022 in London

Just four months till the XDC 2021 in London, England. Tickets are still available for $850 USD till 15th February 2022 instead of $950 later.

This conference was cancelled due to new rules for quarantine when entering the United Kingdom.



It will be held March 30-April 1st, 2022 in London, England at the Holiday Inn Bloomsbury. This conferences is the best place to meet Xojo developers from around the world in real live, make contacts, present yourself as expert and learn what is new in Xojo. Tickets are available in the Xojo store and if you bring your partner, you can order an extra guest ticket for the dinner events.

Check out the conference highlights video if you want to see what it's like - or ask one of the many attendees from the forum!

Wether you are full or part time Xojo developer, this is your chance to learn all about the Web 2.0 framework, the Android progress and what's new in the Xojo world.

To get there, please use public transportation. The piccadilly line brings you right from Heathrow Airport to Russell Square Station, just next to the hotel. That trip should cost about 3 £ and you may just pay by tap in/out with your NFC enabled credit card or phone. Otherwise buy an Oyster card and load money on it if you don't have such a card. If you come by Eurostar train through the tunnel from France, you can exit Pancras station and just walk to the hotel. Otherwise take one station via subway to Russell Square Station. That station is right behind the hotel block.

We hope that the whole Covid-19 trouble dissolves when spring starts and we can all meet safely. Please only make refundable travel plans to be sure in case this gets cancelled.
See you soon there!
The biggest plugin in space...

Archives

Mar 2024
Feb 2024
Jan 2024
Dec 2023
Nov 2023
Oct 2023
Sep 2023
Aug 2023
Jul 2023
Jun 2023
May 2023
Apr 2023
Mar 2023
Feb 2023
Jan 2023
Dec 2022
Nov 2022
Oct 2022
Sep 2022
Aug 2022
Jul 2022
Jun 2022
May 2022
Apr 2022
Mar 2022
Feb 2022
Jan 2022
Dec 2021
Nov 2021
Oct 2021
Sep 2021
Aug 2021
Jul 2021
Jun 2021
May 2021
Apr 2021
Mar 2021
Feb 2021
Jan 2021
Dec 2020
Nov 2020
Oct 2020
Sep 2020
Aug 2020
Jul 2020
Jun 2020
May 2020
Apr 2020
Mar 2020
Feb 2020
Jan 2020
Dec 2019
Nov 2019
Oct 2019
Sep 2019
Aug 2019
Jul 2019
Jun 2019
May 2019
Apr 2019
Mar 2019
Feb 2019
Jan 2019
Dec 2018
Nov 2018
Oct 2018
Sep 2018
Aug 2018
Jul 2018
Jun 2018
May 2018
Apr 2018
Mar 2018
Feb 2018
Jan 2018
Dec 2017
Nov 2017
Oct 2017
Sep 2017
Aug 2017
Jul 2017
Jun 2017
May 2017
Apr 2017
Mar 2017
Feb 2017
Jan 2017
Dec 2016
Nov 2016
Oct 2016
Sep 2016
Aug 2016
Jul 2016
Jun 2016
May 2016
Apr 2016
Mar 2016
Feb 2016
Jan 2016
Dec 2015
Nov 2015
Oct 2015
Sep 2015
Aug 2015
Jul 2015
Jun 2015
May 2015
Apr 2015
Mar 2015
Feb 2015
Jan 2015
Dec 2014
Nov 2014
Oct 2014
Sep 2014
Aug 2014
Jul 2014
Jun 2014
May 2014
Apr 2014
Mar 2014
Feb 2014
Jan 2014
Dec 2013
Nov 2013
Oct 2013
Sep 2013
Aug 2013
Jul 2013
Jun 2013
May 2013
Apr 2013
Mar 2013
Feb 2013
Jan 2013
Dec 2012
Nov 2012
Oct 2012
Sep 2012
Aug 2012
Jul 2012
Jun 2012
May 2012
Apr 2012
Mar 2012
Feb 2012
Jan 2012
Dec 2011
Nov 2011
Oct 2011
Sep 2011
Aug 2011
Jul 2011
Jun 2011
May 2011
Apr 2011
Mar 2011
Feb 2011
Jan 2011
Dec 2010
Nov 2010
Oct 2010
Sep 2010
Aug 2010
Jul 2010
Jun 2010
May 2010
Apr 2010
Mar 2010
Feb 2010
Jan 2010
Dec 2009
Nov 2009
Oct 2009
Sep 2009
Aug 2009
Jul 2009
Apr 2009
Mar 2009
Feb 2009
Dec 2008
Nov 2008
Oct 2008
Aug 2008
May 2008
Apr 2008
Mar 2008
Feb 2008