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How the Script Merges PDFs and Inserts an Image: A Detailed Breakdown

This script utilizes the DynaPDF functions in MBS FileMaker Plugin for FileMaker to add an image into a PDF document. It initializes the DynaPDF library, imports an existing PDF, adds an image to the PDF, and saves the final version. Here’s a step-by-step breakdown of each action in the script.

1. Initializing DynaPDF

If [ MBS("DynaPDF.IsInitialized") ≠ 1 ]

    Perform Script [ Specified: From list ; “InitDynaPDF” ; Parameter: ]

End If

This section checks if the DynaPDF library is initialized. The function MBS("DynaPDF.IsInitialized") returns 1 if DynaPDF is already initialized. If not, the script calls another script (InitDynaPDF) to perform the initialization. Initializing the DynaPDF library ensures that FileMaker can interact with PDF files and make modifications like importing, editing, and saving PDFs.

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WebViewer or not?

Sometimes plugin users wonder why the plugin doesn't see the WebViewer on the layout, so let's check the various cases:

1. Empty WebViewer

Just put an empty web viewer on a layout. No URL. Does it exist?
When you go to the browse mode, you see the outline drawn, but if you ask the plugin about the web viewer, it can't find it.

Until FileMaker loads something into the WebViewer, it doesn't exist as a control with the operation system and the plugin can't see it.



2. Blank WebViewer

You can put in the URL "about:blank" and then FileMaker creates the WebViewer right away.

If you do something in the script trigger for layout entering, you may need a short pause of 0.1 seconds for FileMaker to create the WebViewer. Same when you just switched layouts. FileMaker delays building the layout on screen to avoid flickering.

3. Out of sight

If the web viewer is not in the visible area, FileMaker doesn't create it. This can mean that resizing the window may bring the WebViewer in sight and thus FileMaker creates the control and we can see from the plugin.

4. On tabs

If you have a tab control with various tabs, the WebViewer can be on a tab. But FileMaker only creates it, if you go on the right tab. If you move to a different tab, the WebViewer is removed from the window, but not freed. So if you come back later, FileMaker can put the same WebViewer on the tab and it keeps the content. Same for slide control and multiple pages there.

5. Hide object when

You can use the calculation to hide the layout object with your WebViewer. But if this hides the WebViewer, there is none in the window. Once the calculation changes to return zero, the WebViewer is created. And that may need a short pause if it happens by script, before it happens.

6. Behind something

You can have another layout object in front of the WebViewer, e.g. a rectangle. This way you can run JavaScript or interact with a website, but not show it to the user. Just put a white rectangle in front of the WebViewer.

7. Plugin based WebViewer

If you use WebView.Create in MBS FileMaker Plugin to create a WebViewer, then FileMaker doesn't know about it. Our plugin can use the WebViewer to show content, but FileMaker has no clue. The WebViewer can lay on top of your layouts. If FileMaker moved from record to record, the WebViewer from our plugin stays there and doesn't reload. But if FileMaker rebuilds the layout for the window, there is a chance, that FileMaker removed all existing controls including ours and then you may need to rebuild the plugin based WebViewer.

Check out our WebViewer functions to work with WebViewer controls in FileMaker. Let us know if you have questions!

Benefits of XSLT 2.0 and 3.0 Compared to XSLT 1.0

You have XSLT 1.0 in FileMaker and Xojo built-in as well as in our plugin function to use XSLT (XML.ApplyStylesheet). With our Saxon functions you get XSLT 3.0 and you can enjoy all the 2.0 and 3.0 features in your FileMaker solution and Xojo applications.

XSLT 2.0 and 3.0 introduce several significant improvements and new features compared to XSLT 1.0. Here are the key benefits of XSLT 2.0 and 3.0 over XSLT 1.0:

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Create QR-Codes with circles

You may have seen similar barcodes, which use circles instead of blocks to draw a barcode. We can do the same with MBS FileMaker Plugin 15.1 using Barcode.GenerateJSON function. In order to do this, we added the option to output the drawing commands as JSON instead of drawing them to an image directly. 

 

The JSON includes the width and height of the barcode, which depends on the Scale parameter in the options. For our vector drawing, we would prefer bigger numbers, so a Scale of 4 or 8 may be good. The JSON contains arrays for rectangles, strings, hexagons and circles. For the QR-Codes, we only get rectangles, but an EAN code would have a text below the code. A Maxicode barcode would have hexagons for the dots and circles in the middle.

(more)

MBS FileMaker Plugin, version 15.1pr3

New in this prerelease of version 15.1 of the MBS FileMaker Plugin: Download at monkeybreadsoftware.com/filemaker/files/Prerelease/

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


FileMaker Konferenz 2025 in Hamburg

Noch sieben Monate: Vom 14. bis 17. September 2025 findet die nächste deutschsprachige FileMaker Konferenz in Hamburg, Deutschland statt. Das JUFA Hotel Hamburg HafenCity liegt direkt neben dem Ausgang der U-Bahn Station HafenCity Universität, nur drei Stationen vom Hauptbahnhof via U4, so dass sich die Anreise per Bahn empfiehlt. FileMaker Anwender und Entwickler können ihre Teilnahme buchen.

Anmeldung mit Frühbucherrabatt

Bitte melden Sie sich an, wenn Sie Interesse an der Konferenz haben. Bis zum 30. April 2025 gibt es den Frühbucherrabatt.

Möchten Sie Sponsor oder Sprecher werden?

Aktuell sucht der FMK Verein Vorschläge für interessante Vorträge.

Die Veranstalter vom Verein FM Konferenz erwarten auch 2025 rund 120 Entwickler, Anwender, IT-Fachleute und Entscheidungsträger aus Wirtschaft, Bildung und Verwaltung. Rund um über 25 Fachvorträge und Workshops wird es viel Zeit zum Vernetzen in den gemeinsamen Pausen und beim Abendprogramm geben.

MBS Beitrag

Wir werden wieder ein paar Vorträge beisteuern. Darunter was es neues im MBS Plugin gibt und vermutlich etwas für neue Entwickler. Aktuell steht noch nicht fest, ob es ein Vorprogramm gibt. Bitte meldet euch, wenn ihr Interesse an einem MBS Workshop Tag vorher/nachher habt.


Read system information on Linux

For the 15.1 version of MBS FileMaker Plugin, we made a little change to Text.ReadTextFile to be able to read from /proc directory on Linux. This way you can read various system things. There are hundreds of things you can read there, so let us show you a few useful picks:

Memory Information

The meminfo entry provides information about memory utilization. This varies for different linux versions, but you should be able to query the text and find the entries you like.

Set Variable [ $meminfo ; Value: MBS("Text.ReadTextFile"; "/proc/meminfo") ]

The MemTotal is the total memory in the system. MemFree would be the free memory, but on a Linux system free memory is a waste as every free page could be used for file caching. So MemAvailable defines how much memory is available for use, which includes the free memory, but also memory that could be freed dirctely like file caches. Unevictable shows how much memory can't be moved to swap. You may use these values to calculate some memory statistics and watch it over time.

(more)

MBS FileMaker Plugin, version 15.1pr2

New in this prerelease of version 15.1 of the MBS FileMaker Plugin: Download at monkeybreadsoftware.com/filemaker/files/Prerelease/

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


Differences between old and new Excel file format

I got asked what the differences between XLS and XSLX formats are for our LibXL functionality. Some of the features are only available if you opted for the new or old format. In general we nowadays prefer the newer XLSX format based on XML.

Here is a table to compare:

WhatXLSXLSX
File FormatBinary Interchange File Format (BIFF)Office Open XML Format
CompatibilityReadable by all Microsoft Excel versionsReadable by Excel 2007 and later versions
Rowsup to 65,536 rowsup to 1,048,576 rows
Columnsup to 256 columnsup to 16,384 columns
FormulasSupports older Excel functionsBetter compatibility with newer Microsoft Excel functions
(such as IFERROR, XLOOKUP, TEXTAFTER)
Maximum Number of Fonts50465429
Conditions Formatsnoyes
Picturesyesyes
Picture Linksnoyes
Cell Commentsyesno
Auto Filternoyes
Data Validationnoyes
Form Controlsnoyes

Check out the XL functions for our MBS FileMaker Plugin and the XL classes in our MBS Xojo Plugins, which allow you to read and write Microsoft Excel files using LibXL library.


MBS FileMaker Plugin, version 15.1pr1

New in this prerelease of version 15.1 of the MBS FileMaker Plugin: Download at monkeybreadsoftware.com/filemaker/files/Prerelease/

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


Learn more about FileMaker and AI

I just finished the course and certification for

AI Fundamentals I: Semantic search in Claris FileMaker Associate

and I got a nice badge. This is the eighth one as I did all the certifications for Claris Academy so far. You can do this too and learn more about FileMaker!

For more training, check out the Claris FileMaker for Beginners training at FMTraining.tv. You can watch live when they record for free and ask questions. Or just pay for a course and watch the recordings.

If you prefer in-person training, how about joining Claris Engage conference? There is a training day after the conference on 27th March 2024 in Austin, Texas. And you can do the combi ticket for 2 day conference and the training day.

See you in Austin! Or at one of the other FileMaker conferences.

The failure of Digital River's MyCommerce platform, Update

You may have read about The failure of Digital River's MyCommerce platform.

The saga continues. As of today we still wait for over 100.000 Euro from them. But they fired everyone in Germany and the company is just a letter box on an office building. Mail seems to be scanned in and send to some company using AI to write their answers. Only empty promises and no real answers or accountability.

In the last days a few customers contacted us to get invoices for their purchase. At the time of order, they got one by email. But that email may have been lost in the spam folder earlier this year.

If you need an invoice, you can contact ordersupport@mycommerce.com with your order number, purchase date and name, so they can find it and send the invoice again. If and only if, someone still works there, reads the emails and actual is willing to help you. We don't have a copy of the invoices, so we can't help you. You can look into your backups for one of the order date and look if you find something in the spam folder. If you can't find the invoice, you can print the email about the order.

As of 28th January 2025, it looks like the company filed for bankruptcy. Since all the money is probably moved out of the company already and it loaded with debt, the administrator won't have much fun there. And once the computer systems get shutdown, the invoices may get lost anyway.

Well, if you like to support us, please consider ordering a license. New sales go through FastSpring or 2checkout unless you pay us directly. Thank you for your support.

Save money with multi year updates

You can pay for renewals for FileMaker licenses and MBS Plugin in advance to secure the current prices and get a discount. License prices may change in the future, so why not lock them in now?

For FileMaker licenses there are graduated prices, so it may be good to ask for 3 or 5 years when renewing. You could also just decide to renew now and append more years to the license today. If you renew, you may also qualify for a discount, e.g. 10% for second year and 20% for following years. (more)

FileMaker Conferences in 2025

We'd love to meet you at one of the various FileMaker conferences. Let us show you:

The next conference is Claris Engage in two months, the official one from Claris themselves. Stefanie and I are signed up and will be there. If you have questions about the MBS Plugin, please stop us in the hallways and chat with us. We skip the booth this year as we like to enjoy the sessions ourselves and prefer to wander around instead of sitting on the 5th floor. If you like to join, there are still a few tickets available for the early bird pricing.

(more)

MBS @ FMTraining.TV - 25 Ways to Improve Your Database Using the FileMaker MonkeyBread Plug-in - Day 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 walk over some of the doors of our advent calendar. We talk about ics files, HotkeyWIA, WindowsOCR, ImageCapture, ContinuityCamera, AVRecorder, Printer, PrintDialog, PagesetupDialog and AppleScript functions.

(more)

MBS @ FMTraining.TV - 25 Ways to Improve Your Database Using the FileMaker MonkeyBread Plug-in - Day 2

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 walk over some of the doors of our advent calendar. We talk about CURL, DynaPDF, MapView, SendMail, SharingService, XML, Calendar and UNNotification functions.

(more)

MBS @ FMTraining.TV - 15.0 MonkeyBread FileMaker Plug-in Release with Christian Schmitz

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 talk about the 15.0 release of the MBS Plugin for FileMaker. See Announcement, Release Notes and new functions. See ImagePlayground, Saxon, XL and Shell functions.

(more)

New in MBS FileMaker Plugin 15.0

In this article we want to introduce you the new functions from the MBS FileMaker Plugin in version 15.0.

Saxon

A completely new area that we plan to further expand in the next releases is the connection to the Saxon library. Saxon is a widely used and high-performance software library that specializes in the processing and transformation of XML and XSLT data. It enables developers to manipulate data efficiently and convert it into the desired formats. We would now make these functions from the library available to you in FileMaker. We have already included several functions in this release, but there will certainly be more to come in the future. To find out what the plugin can already do, take a look at the blog article Saxon in MBS FileMaker Plugin

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Send SMS with Amazon web service

You can use various Amazon web services in FileMaker using our CURL functions in MBS FileMaker Plugin. You need to build the URL and her payload and either pass data in the URL or as POST data, depending on the service. You may easily translate an existing sample call on the AWS documentation for the call you like to make and translate that to setting the various options.

 

The special thing for the AWS requests is the signature to properly encode and hash the credentials. For years we have CURL.SetupAWS function to help signing the requests. But since CURL got the AWSSigV4 Option, we can use our CURL.SetOptionAWSSigV4 function to sign the request on the fly. There we pass the names of the provider, region and service, so CURL can include this in the signature.

 

To try this, let us use the Amazon Simple Notification Service to send a text message to a mobile phone. For this we need a phone number and since people like to use brackets and spaces, we filter the text to only have the digits and the plus symbol for the country.

(more)

MBS @ FMTraining.TV - 25 Ways to Improve Your Database Using the FileMaker MonkeyBread Plug-in - Day 1

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 walk over some of the doors of our advent calendar. We talk about installation, DragDrop, DynaPDF, Contacts, web services and archive functions.

(more)

Older blog entries:

2025-01-14 MBS Plugin 15.0 for Claris FileMaker
2025-01-14 Neues MBS Plugin 15.0 für Claris FileMaker
2025-01-13 Things to do for the new year
2025-01-10 MBS FileMaker Plugin, version 15.0pr9
2025-01-09 25 Years Monkeybread Software Party
2025-01-08 New in MBS FileMaker Plugin in Version 14.5
2025-01-07 Saxon in MBS FileMaker Plugin
2025-01-07 MBS FileMaker Plugin, version 15.0pr8
2025-01-06 Backup Requirements
2025-01-05 Our statistics for FileMaker
2025-01-04 MBS Plugin Advent Calendar
2025-01-01 MBS FileMaker Plugin, version 15.0pr7
2024-12-30 Year 2024 in review
2024-12-27 PDF Rechnung mit oder ohne ZUGFeRD empfangen?
2024-12-24 Merry Christmas
2024-12-24 MBS FileMaker Advent calendar - Door 24 - Merry Christmas with Apple Script
2024-12-23 MBS FileMaker Advent calendar - Door 23 - Printing a PDF
2024-12-22 MBS FileMaker Advent calendar - Door 22 - Taking Photos
2024-12-21 MBS FileMaker Advent calendar - Door 21 - Continuity Camera and Vision
2024-12-20 MBS FileMaker Advent calendar - Door 20 - Scan and Recognize

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