MonkeybreadSoftware Blog FileMaker

Improved calculation dialog in FileMaker

2026-07-11T11:43:00+02:00

The upcoming MBS FileMaker Plugin 16.3 version will have a few improvements to the calculation dialog for macOS.

Time measurement

Whenever you develop a calculation, the MBS tools offer you additional things to do. You can check the syntax, format, execute and add or remove the table occurence names. For the first three you can press shift key to only check, format or execute the selected text.

Below the OK button, we show the time needed to execute the given calculation (or selection). Depending on how long it takes, we show µs or ms as unit. Please note that the time includes the time for FileMaker to parse the formula.

New shortcut

You can press Command-Option-T in the calculation editor. If you have no text selected, we insert the name of the current table occurence from the top left popup menu. But if you have text selected, we try to find that text in the popup and select it. This way you can quickly jump to the table occurence and FileMaker shows the field names on the left.

Please try the 16.3 beta versions if you like to test this.

To HTML functions

John — 2026-07-08T10:20:00+02:00

We have a few functions in the MBS FileMaker Plugin to convert things to HTML. That is useful to visualize HTML or JSON. You may convert text, styled text or MarkDown to HTML.

JSON

We often have to debug our code for web services and display JSON for debugging. There our JSON.ToHTML function helps a lot. We can pass the JSON and receive some HTML, which we display into a web viewer.

e.g.

MBS("JSON.ToHTML"; "{\"FirstName\": \"John\", \"id\": 123}")

Returns:



   




FirstName
John
id
123

Here is a little script to take some html, convert it to HTML and load it into a web viewer:


# now make html
Set Variable [ $html ; Value: MBS( "JSON.ToHTML"; $json) ] 
# and show in web viewer
Set Web Viewer [ Object Name: "web" ; URL: "data:text/html;charset=utf-8," & $html ]

Which looks like this:

FirstName John
id 123

XML

Similar to JSON above, you may want to display XML. Our XML.ToHTML functon builds a HTML with tables to show the various layers in an XML document. All the keys and values show up with indention to show the level. You may use a CSS for odd and even rows to colorize the cell backgrounds.

e.g.

MBS("XML.ToHTML"; "1234John"; 0; "")

Returns:



   


test


id
1234
name
John

Which looks like this:

test
id
1234
name
John

Styled Text

You may want to have users type some styled text in a field. Later you convert the styled text to HTML with our Text.TextToHTML function or GetAsCSS(). Our function does have a few options for the HTML generation.

e.g.

MBS( "Text.TextToHTML"; "Hello World¶¶Just a test¶¶😀"; 32 + 1 )

Returns:

Hello World

Just a test

😀

Which looks like this:

Hello World

Just a test

😀

Text

When you have text and you like to include it in a HTML piece, you need to encode the various special characters. Our Text.EncodeToHTML function looks for various special characters and does proper escaping. This way you guarantee that all the accents, asian characters or even smileys survive when embedding some text in HTML, e.g. for an email.

e.g.

MBS( "Text.EncodeToHTML"; "Hast Du Äpfel? 🍎" )

Returns:

Hast Du Äpfel? 🍎

Which looks like this:

Hast Du Äpfel? 🍎

MarkDown

For MarkDown text, you can use our Markdown functions to convert to html and show in a web viewer. For this you combine the MarkDown.Create function with either the MarkDown.HTML function for just the html snippet, or you use the MarkDown.HTMLDocument function to get a full document.

e.g.

Set Variable [ $r ; Value: MBS("MarkDown.Create"; "Text attributes *italic*, **bold**, `monospace`, ~~strikethrough~~ .") ] 
Set Variable [ $html ; Value: MBS("MarkDown.HTMLDocument"; $r) ] 
Set Variable [ $r ; Value: MBS("MarkDown.Release"; $r) ]

From HTML

Sometimes you need the other way around. Parse the HTML into something useful. Our Text.HTMLtoJSON parses the HTML using the tidy library and outputs the nodes as JSON. This way you can use JSON functions to work on the HTML and read values. Especially JSON.Query and JSON.Search may help here to find values in the parsed HTML.

When you like to convert the html to styled text, we have the Text.HTMLtoStyledText function. It parses the HTML and converts the styles FileMaker supports from HTML tags to something FileMaker can understand. Various CSS rules will not work, but in general it works often fine for HTML from emails with inline styles.

MBS FileMaker Plugin, version 16.3pr5

2026-07-06T11:10:00+02:00

New in this prerelease of version 16.3 of the MBS FileMaker Plugin:

Fixed an edge case in Time.Parse to work better with dates past midnight. We wrap to next day then.
Patched libssh2 for CVE-2026-55200.
Updated SQLite to version 3.53.3.
Updated Xcode to version 26.6.
Improved script search.
The context menu in the Script Workspace shows a command to open the help for a script step in English.

New functions in documentation

Download Links: Download Mac dmg or Download Windows/Linux zip

Downloads at monkeybreadsoftware.com/filemaker/files/Prerelease/:

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

MBS @ FMTraining.TV - Shell Asynchronously with the FileMaker MBS Plug-in

2026-07-04T07:52:00+02:00

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 our Shell functions and how to run command line tools asynchronously in the background.

MBS Plugin documentation now available as Markdown files

2026-07-03T07:40:00+02:00

We are happy to announce that the MBS FileMaker Plugin documentation is now available as Markdown (.md) files.

Markdown is a simple, portable format that works well with many tools, editors, documentation systems, and AI workflows. If you want to read, process, search, or automate with our documentation, you can now access the Markdown version directly.

Getting the Markdown version of any documentation page

Every MBS Plugin documentation page that normally ends with:

.shtml

now also has a Markdown version.

Simply replace:

.shtml

with:

.md

in the URL.

For example, if you are viewing a documentation page:

FunctionName.shtml

you can access:

FunctionName.md

At the bottom of every documentation page, we also added links that let you directly open the Markdown version.

Use the documentation with your favorite tools

The Markdown files make it easier to use MBS documentation in your own workflows. You can import the documentation into tools, build custom searches, create scripts, or process the information with your own utilities.

For users who like to automate things, we provide additional resources on our documentation dash page.

Dash support

You can use our plugin help directly in the Dash application.

Dash is available for macOS from: kapeli.com/dash

To install the MBS FileMaker Plugin documentation in Dash, use the installation link provided on the dashboard.

For Windows and Linux, you can use the Zeal application. You can manually download the docset and place it into your existing docsets folder.

Available downloads include:

Both archives contain the same documentation content.

Build your own database or AI assistant

If you want to create your own utility, search engine, documentation browser, or AI assistant based on MBS information, you can download our exported files.

Available resources include:

markdown-export.zip	Documentation as Markdown.
all.txt	All functions listed with description line, platforms and version.
allDeclaration.txt	All function declarations with parameters.
BlogFileMaker.json	JSON file with all FileMaker related blog articles
MBS.zip	Zip with docset, which has our documentation html files in MBS.docset/Contents/Resources/Documents folder.

The Markdown export is especially useful for AI training workflows, indexing systems, and custom documentation tools.

The function list files are also structured to make processing easy. Each function entry contains the function name, documentation file name, short description, supported platforms, version information, and a separator line.

MBS FileMaker Plugin, version 16.3pr4

2026-06-29T08:52:00+02:00

New in this prerelease of version 16.3 of the MBS FileMaker Plugin:

Improved display of calculation time.
Tuned the script search.
Updated CURL library to version 8.21.0.
Deprecated CURL.SetOptionStreamDepends and CURL.SetOptionStreamDependsE functions.
Updated libarchive to version 3.8.8.
Improved script search. You can skip disabled script steps.
Updated expat to version 2.8.2.
Added ScriptWorkspace.Steps function.
Improved GMImage.WriteToWebPContainer to write WEBP containers instead of FILE containers on FileMaker 26.

New functions in documentation

Download Links: Download Mac dmg or Download Windows/Linux zip

Downloads 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 Script Steps over time

2026-06-26T09:58:00+02:00

We compared availability of script steps in FileMaker to see what changes from version to version.

We loaded all the script steps in a little database for version 19.0.1, 20.1.2, 21.0.1, 22.0.6 and 26.0.1 and run a few queries on the data.

New steps in 20:

Commit Transaction
Open Transaction
Perform Script on Server with Callback
Revert Transaction
Set Dictionary
Set Session Identifier
Trigger Claris Connect Flow

Changes

Install Plug-In File enabled for Data API
Save Records as PDF enabled for Data
Save a Copy as XML enabled for Server

New steps in 21:

Configure AI Account
Insert Embedding
Insert Embedding in Found Set
Perform Semantic Find
Set AI Call Logging

Changes

Configure Local Notification enabled for Mac & Win
Set Error Logging enabled for Data API, Web & Server

New steps in 22:

Configure Prompt Template
Configure RAG Account
Configure Regression Model
Fine-Tune Model
Generate Response from Model
Go to List of Records
Open Settings
Perform Find by Natural Language
Perform RAG Action
Perform SQL Query by Natural Language
Save Records as JSONL
Set Revert Transaction on Error

Changes

Perform Script on Server enabled for Server

New steps in 26:

Append PDF
Cancel PDF
Close PDF
Configure Persistent Data
Create PDF
Flush Web Viewer Cookies
Insert Image Caption
Insert Image Captions in Found Set
Open PDF
Print PDF

Changes

Export Field Contents enabled for Data API and Server

And here is a list of all script steps and their availability:

id	Name	Mac	Win	iOS	Server	Data API	Web Direct
89	# (comment)	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
134	Add Account	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
31	Adjust Window	✔	✔	✔	-	-	✔
115	Allow Formatting Bar	✔	✔	-	-	-	-
85	Allow User Abort	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
244	Append PDF	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
120	Arrange All Windows	✔	✔	-	-	-	-
177	AVPlayer Play	-	-	✔	-	-	-
179	AVPlayer Set Options	-	-	✔	-	-	-
178	AVPlayer Set Playback State	-	-	✔	-	-	-
93	Beep	✔	✔	✔	-	-	-
247	Cancel PDF	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
83	Change Password	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
20	Check Found Set	✔	✔	-	-	-	-
19	Check Record	✔	✔	-	-	-	-
18	Check Selection	✔	✔	-	-	-	-
49	Clear	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
196	Close Data File	✔	✔	✔	✔	-	-
34	Close File	✔	✔	✔	-	-	-
245	Close PDF	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
169	Close Popover	✔	✔	✔	-	-	✔
121	Close Window	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
75	Commit Records/Requests	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
206	Commit Transaction	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
212	Configure AI Account	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
187	Configure Local Notification	✔	✔	✔	-	-	-
202	Configure Machine Learning Model	✔	-	✔	-	-	-
201	Configure NFC Reading	-	-	✔	-	-	-
238	Configure Persistent Data	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
226	Configure Prompt Template	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
227	Configure RAG Account	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
185	Configure Region Monitor Script	-	-	✔	-	-	-
222	Configure Regression Model	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
126	Constrain Found Set	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
139	Convert File	✔	✔	-	-	-	-
47	Copy	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
98	Copy All Records/Requests	✔	✔	✔	✔	-	-
101	Copy Record/Request	✔	✔	✔	✔	-	-
106	Correct Word	✔	✔	-	-	-	-
190	Create Data File	✔	✔	✔	✔	-	-
243	Create PDF	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
46	Cut	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
135	Delete Account	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
10	Delete All Records	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
197	Delete File	✔	✔	✔	✔	-	-
104	Delete Portal Row	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
9	Delete Record/Request	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
65	Dial Phone	-	✔	✔	-	-	-
8	Duplicate Record/Request	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
109	Edit User Dictionary	✔	✔	-	-	-	-
69	Else	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
125	Else If	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
137	Enable Account	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
174	Enable Touch Keyboard	-	✔	✔	-	-	-
70	End If	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
73	End Loop	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
55	Enter Browse Mode	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
22	Enter Find Mode	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
41	Enter Preview Mode	✔	✔	-	-	-	-
203	Execute FileMaker Data API	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
117	Execute SQL	✔	✔	-	✔	✔	✔
44	Exit Application	✔	✔	✔	✔	-	✔
72	Exit Loop If	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
103	Exit Script	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
132	Export Field Contents	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
36	Export Records	✔	✔	✔	✔	-	✔
127	Extend Found Set	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
155	Find Matching Records	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
213	Fine-Tune Model	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
102	Flush Cache to Disk	✔	✔	✔	-	-	-
237	Flush Web Viewer Cookies	✔	✔	✔	-	-	-
79	Freeze Window	✔	✔	✔	-	-	✔
220	Generate Response from Model	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
194	Get Data File Position	✔	✔	✔	✔	-	-
188	Get File Exists	✔	✔	✔	✔	-	-
189	Get File Size	✔	✔	✔	✔	-	-
181	Get Folder Path	✔	✔	-	-	-	-
17	Go to Field	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
6	Go to Layout	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
228	Go to List of Records	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
4	Go to Next Field	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
145	Go to Object	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
99	Go to Portal Row	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
5	Go to Previous Field	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
16	Go to Record/Request/Page	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
74	Go to Related Record	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
90	Halt Script	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
68	If	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
35	Import Records	✔	✔	✔	✔	-	✔
159	Insert Audio/Video	✔	✔	✔	-	-	✔
77	Insert Calculated Result	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
13	Insert Current Date	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
14	Insert Current Time	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
60	Insert Current User Name	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
215	Insert Embedding	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
216	Insert Embedding in Found Set	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
131	Insert File	✔	✔	✔	-	-	✔
161	Insert from Device	-	-	✔	-	-	-
11	Insert from Index	✔	✔	-	-	-	-
12	Insert from Last Visited	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
160	Insert from URL	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
241	Insert Image Caption	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
240	Insert Image Captions in Found Set	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
158	Insert PDF	✔	✔	✔	-	-	✔
56	Insert Picture	✔	✔	✔	-	-	✔
61	Insert Text	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
142	Install Menu Set	✔	✔	✔	-	-	-
148	Install OnTimer Script	✔	✔	✔	-	-	✔
157	Install Plug-In File	✔	✔	-	✔	✔	✔
71	Loop	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
24	Modify Last Find	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
119	Move/Resize Window	✔	✔	-	-	-	-
82	New File	✔	✔	-	-	-	-
7	New Record/Request	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
122	New Window	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
26	Omit Multiple Records	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
25	Omit Record	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
191	Open Data File	✔	✔	✔	✔	-	-
149	Open Edit Saved Finds	✔	✔	-	-	-	-
183	Open Favorites	✔	✔	-	-	-	-
33	Open File	✔	✔	✔	-	-	-
114	Open File Options	✔	✔	-	-	-	-
129	Open Find/Replace	✔	✔	-	-	-	-
32	Open Help	✔	✔	✔	-	-	-
118	Open Hosts	✔	✔	✔	-	-	-
156	Open Manage Containers	✔	✔	-	-	-	-
140	Open Manage Data Sources	✔	✔	-	-	-	-
38	Open Manage Database	✔	✔	-	-	-	-
151	Open Manage Layouts	✔	✔	-	-	-	-
165	Open Manage Themes	✔	✔	-	-	-	-
112	Open Manage Value Lists	✔	✔	-	-	-	-
246	Open PDF	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
133	Open Record/Request	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
88	Open Script Workspace	✔	✔	-	-	-	-
105	Open Settings	✔	✔	✔	-	-	-
113	Open Sharing	✔	✔	-	-	✔	✔
205	Open Transaction	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
172	Open Upload to Host	✔	✔	-	-	-	-
111	Open URL	✔	✔	✔	-	-	✔
48	Paste	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
62	Pause/Resume Script	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
67	Perform AppleScript	✔	-	-	-	-	-
28	Perform Find	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
221	Perform Find by Natural Language	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
128	Perform Find/Replace	✔	✔	-	-	-	-
175	Perform JavaScript in Web Viewer	✔	✔	✔	-	-	✔
150	Perform Quick Find	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
219	Perform RAG Action	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
1	Perform Script	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
164	Perform Script on Server	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
210	Perform Script on Server with Callback	✔	✔	✔	-	-	✔
218	Perform Semantic Find	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
214	Perform SQL Query by Natural Language	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
43	Print	✔	✔	✔	-	-	✔
242	Print PDF	✔	✔	✔	-	-	✔
42	Print Setup	✔	✔	✔	✔	-	✔
138	Re-Login	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
193	Read from Data File	✔	✔	✔	✔	-	-
95	Recover File	✔	✔	-	-	-	-
167	Refresh Object	✔	✔	✔	-	-	✔
180	Refresh Portal	✔	✔	✔	-	-	✔
80	Refresh Window	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
40	Relookup Field Contents	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
199	Rename File	✔	✔	✔	✔	-	-
91	Replace Field Contents	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
136	Reset Account Password	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
51	Revert Record/Request	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
207	Revert Transaction	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
37	Save a Copy as	✔	✔	✔	-	-	-
96	Save a Copy as Add-on Package	✔	✔	-	-	-	-
3	Save a Copy as XML	✔	✔	-	✔	-	-
143	Save Records as Excel	✔	✔	-	-	-	-
225	Save Records as JSONL	✔	✔	-	✔	✔	-
144	Save Records as PDF	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
152	Save Records as Snapshot Link	✔	✔	✔	✔	-	✔
81	Scroll Window	✔	✔	✔	-	-	-
50	Select All	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
108	Select Dictionaries	✔	✔	-	-	-	-
123	Select Window	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
64	Send DDE Execute	-	✔	-	-	-	-
57	Send Event	✔	✔	-	-	-	-
63	Send Mail	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
217	Set AI Call Logging	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
195	Set Data File Position	✔	✔	✔	✔	-	-
209	Set Dictionary	✔	✔	-	-	-	-
86	Set Error Capture	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
200	Set Error Logging	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
76	Set Field	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
147	Set Field By Name	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
168	Set Layout Object Animation	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
84	Set Multi-User	✔	✔	-	-	-	-
116	Set Next Serial Value	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
223	Set Revert Transaction on Error	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
130	Set Selection	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
208	Set Session Identifier	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
94	Set Use System Formats	✔	✔	✔	-	-	-
141	Set Variable	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
146	Set Web Viewer	✔	✔	✔	-	-	✔
124	Set Window Title	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
97	Set Zoom Level	✔	✔	✔	-	-	-
23	Show All Records	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
87	Show Custom Dialog	✔	✔	✔	-	-	✔
27	Show Omitted Only	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
166	Show/Hide Menubar	-	✔	✔	-	-	✔
92	Show/Hide Text Ruler	✔	✔	-	-	-	-
29	Show/Hide Toolbars	✔	✔	✔	✔	-	✔
39	Sort Records	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
154	Sort Records by Field	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
66	Speak	✔	-	-	-	-	-
107	Spelling Options	✔	✔	-	-	-	-
211	Trigger Claris Connect Flow	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
182	Truncate Table	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
45	Undo/Redo	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
21	Unsort Records	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
30	View As	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
192	Write to Data File	✔	✔	✔	✔	-	-

Last Chance for Early Bird Pricing at EngageU 2026

2026-06-24T12:14:00+02:00

The countdown is on! Early Bird registration for EngageU 2026 ends on June 30, giving FileMaker developers one final chance to secure their spot at a reduced rate.

Taking place September 30 – October 2, 2026, in Malmö, Sweden, EngageU brings together business leaders, developers, consultants, and technology enthusiasts from across Europe and around the world for three days of learning, networking, and inspiration.

This year's conference introduces a new Business Day, offering dedicated sessions for CTOs, decision-makers, and organizational leaders looking to maximize the value of the Claris platform. Alongside business-focused content, attendees can expect technical deep dives, real-world case studies, partner insights, and updates from the Claris ecosystem.
Early Bird full-conference tickets are available for €945 until June 30. After that, the standard conference rate of €1,095 applies.

Whether you're building solutions, leading teams, or shaping digital strategy, EngageU 2026 is the place to connect with the European Claris community.

We at Monkeybread Software are happy to sponsor this event once again.

Xcode 27

2026-06-24T07:17:00+02:00

We got a sneak peek on Xcode 27. It brings the SDK for Apple's new operation systems. We can still build our plugins with Xcode 26 and still add new features for the new operation system without using Xcode 27.

We will try the new Xcode version in the next months. But we probably won't move to the new OS before spring 2027. Somewhere in April the new macOS version 27.3 or 27.4 will ship and have most of the smaller bugs fixed.

Same for Xcode. To build the plugins with Xcode, we want to have a .1 or .2 bugfix update for Xcode itself.

Beside a lot of nice new things, Xcode 27 raises the minimum supported deployment target on macOS to macOS 11. The intel target gets deprecated. Xcode 27 comes as an Apple Silicon only application. It can still build Intel code, but by default only builds for Apple Silicon.

There is the expectation, that Xcode 28 may stop building for Intel CPU. Which may mean that we stop supporting Intel Macs at that time. If you still have one in production, consider moving off to newer hardware soon.

See Xcode 27 release notes.

Secure Password Storage with Keychain Functions in MBS FileMaker Plugin 16.3

2026-06-23T07:42:00+02:00

The upcoming version 16.3 of the MBS FileMaker Plugin introduces a powerful set of Keychain functions for storing and managing passwords on macOS and iOS. These functions allow FileMaker solutions to securely store credentials in the system Keychain without relying on external storage or insecure plaintext fields.

On macOS and iOS, Keychain entries are automatically managed by the operating system, ensuring secure storage and controlled access for your apps.

Overview of New Keychain Functions

The plugin introduces five main functions for working with generic passwords:

1. Adding a Password

Use Keychain.AddGenericPassword function to store a new credential in the system Keychain.

MBS( "Keychain.AddGenericPassword"; "test"; "john"; "secret"; "just a test" )

Parameters:

Service: Logical grouping (e.g. "test" or your solution name)
Account: Username or identifier
Password: Secret value
Description (optional): Human-readable label, shown in Keychain utility application.

Once stored, the Keychain entry is saved in the default system Keychain and can be accessed by the same app or authorized contexts.

2. Finding a Password

Retrieve a stored password using:

MBS( "Keychain.FindGenericPassword"; "test"; "john" )

If successful, the function returns the password as text. If something goes wrong, the function returns an error. Common error codes include:

-25300: Item not found
-128: User canceled authentication

You can optionally control UI prompts using the UIAllowed parameter.

3. Updating an Existing Password

To change an existing Keychain entry:

MBS( "Keychain.UpdateGenericPassword"; "test"; "john"; "new secret" )

This replaces the stored password while keeping the same service and account identifiers.

4. Listing Stored Passwords

You can query all stored entries or filter by service:

MBS( "Keychain.ListGenericPasswords"; "test" )

The result is returned as JSON metadata including accounts and services, useful for administration or debugging tools.

5. Deleting a Password

To remove a credential from the Keychain:

MBS( "Keychain.DeleteGenericPassword"; "test"; "john" )

This permanently deletes the stored entry from the system Keychain.

Why Use Keychain Integration?

Using the system Keychain on macOS and iOS provides several benefits:

Encrypted storage managed by the operating system
No need for custom encryption logic
Secure access control per application
Seamless integration with Apple security services

For developers building solutions with FileMaker, this is a major step forward in simplifying secure credential management. You may use these functions on macOS and in your iOS application built with Xcode and the FileMaker iOS SDK.

Summary

The new Keychain functions in version 16.3 make it easy to securely store, retrieve, update, list, and delete passwords directly from FileMaker scripts. This brings native macOS and iOS security capabilities into your database solutions with minimal effort.

As a result, developers can build more secure applications without relying on external password storage mechanisms.

MBS FileMaker Plugin, version 16.3pr3

2026-06-22T07:58:00+02:00

New in this prerelease of version 16.3 of the MBS FileMaker Plugin:

Improved Command-Option-T shortcut for the calculation editor to insert the current selected table occurrence in the popup menu into the text and cut away the field name.
Added a display of the time needed for the execution of a calculation. Shows time needed in milliseconds or microseconds.
Improved the DPI awareness on Windows for various window functions.
Fixed an issue with Window.PositionNextDialog not resizing the window properly.
Updated FM.InsertRecord to delay getting the field types until we have a field type mismatch.
When loading schema with Audit functions, we log in trace log how long the SQL requests took.
Added Window.Screen function.
Improved WebView.Close to close the WebView window.
Improved WebView window to be closable with window.close in JavaScript..
Updated the script search. Added compact view, details toggles, exclusion, RegEx help and more.
Added List.ColumnMatchesPostfix, List.ColumnMatchesPrefix and List.ColumnMatchesSubString functions.
Updated DynaPDF to version 5.0.3.12.
Added ConvGrayToSauvola to the compression filter flags for DynaPDF.Optimize function.
Added DeleteWatermarks, DeleteWatermarkAnnots and UseSauvolaFilter for DynaPDF.Optimize function.

New functions in documentation

Download Links: Download Mac dmg or Download Windows/Linux zip

Downloads at monkeybreadsoftware.com/filemaker/files/Prerelease/:

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

MBS at Full Access 2026

2026-06-20T11:09:00+02:00

We are happy to join the biggest US conference for FileMaker developers in 2026:

[Full Access] 2026

This year’s premier U.S. FileMaker conference.

August 6th – 10th 2026

The Jesuit Retreat Center, Los Altos, California.

Register

This conference is an unconference. Everyone is welcome to submit sessions and the schedule changes at the conference. Please consider contributing something like showing some tips and tricks you have.

Monkeybread Software sponsors the event and you will find there a booth with Christian Schmitz to ask all questions about the MBS Plugin.

We may have a MBS News session to tell you what is new. Then we may have a MBS Enhancements session to tell you about our Script Workspace enhancements. We could also have special topic sessions for XML, SQL, PDF or other topics. We could also do a live workshop to build an iOS SDK based app.

See you there!

More conferences are available for FileMaker: Events. See you in Los Altos, Christchurch and Salzburg!

Improve FileMaker Script & Calculation Readability with Custom Fonts Using MBS FileMaker Plugin

2026-06-19T10:12:00+02:00

One of the small but surprisingly impactful usability improvements for FileMaker developers is choosing a better font for scripts and calculations. While FileMaker's default editor font works reasonably well, it can sometimes make it difficult to distinguish between similar-looking characters.

Have you ever spent several minutes hunting down a bug only to discover that a lowercase l was used instead of the number 1? Or perhaps a capital O was mistaken for the number 0? These subtle visual ambiguities can lead to frustrating debugging sessions and wasted development time.

The Problem with Similar Characters

Many programming and scripting fonts are specifically designed to make potentially confusing characters visually distinct. Common examples include:

Lowercase l versus number 1
Uppercase O versus number 0
Uppercase I versus lowercase l
Quotation marks versus apostrophes

In large FileMaker solutions containing hundreds or thousands of scripts and calculations, these distinctions can significantly reduce errors and improve readability.

Using MBS FileMaker Plugin to Change Editor Fonts

The MBS FileMaker Plugin includes functionality that allows developers to customize the fonts used within FileMaker's script and calculation editors.

Instead of relying on the default font, you can select a monospaced programming font that clearly differentiates commonly confused characters. Popular choices include:

Consolas
Cascadia Code
JetBrains Mono
Fira Code
Source Code Pro
Menlo (macOS)

Many of these fonts were specifically designed for software developers and provide excellent character distinction.

Example Benefits

Consider the following variable names:

$lOrderID vs $1OrderID

$OCount   vs $0Count

With some fonts, these names can appear nearly identical. With a developer-oriented font, the differences become immediately obvious, helping prevent mistakes during development and code reviews.

Configure the Font with MBS FileMaker Plugin

The MBS FileMaker Plugin provides functions to customize the appearance of various FileMaker development dialogs, including script and calculation editors. Once you pick a new font in the preferences dialog, the selected font can make everyday development work more comfortable and reduce the chance of visual misinterpretation.

Many developers report that after switching to a dedicated coding font, they find scripts easier to read, calculations easier to maintain, and debugging faster overall.

A Small Change with Big Impact

Choosing a better editor font may seem like a minor adjustment, but development productivity is often improved through many small optimizations. Clearer character rendering reduces cognitive load, makes code reviews more effective, and helps avoid subtle mistakes before they become bugs.

If you use the MBS FileMaker Plugin during FileMaker development, consider experimenting with a font that clearly distinguishes similar characters. Your future self—and anyone maintaining your solution—will appreciate the improved readability.

Conclusion

The MBS FileMaker Plugin gives FileMaker developers additional control over their development environment. By selecting a font that clearly differentiates characters such as 0 and O or 1 and l, you can make scripts and calculations easier to read and reduce the likelihood of introducing errors.

Sometimes the simplest improvements deliver the greatest long-term benefits.

MongoDB GridFS in the MBS FileMaker Plugin

2026-06-17T09:18:00+02:00

Complete developer guide to storing, querying, and managing files in MongoDB GridFS

Introduction

GridFS is MongoDB’s mechanism for storing large files by splitting them into chunks and storing them across two collections. The MBS FileMaker Plugin exposes a complete API for working with GridFS directly from FileMaker scripts.

This allows developers to treat MongoDB as a scalable file storage backend for images, documents, and binary data.

1. Opening GridFS

MBS( "MongoDB.GridFS.Open"; MongoDBRef; db; prefix )

This initializes a GridFS bucket inside a MongoDB database. The prefix defines the internal collections used for file and chunk storage. You must open GridFS before performing any file operations.

# FileMaker Script Example

# start a new session
Set Variable [ $Mongo ; Value: MBS( "MongoDB.New" ) ] 
# where is the server?
Set Variable [ $r ; Value: MBS( "MongoDB.SetURI"; $Mongo; "mongodb://localhost/" ) ] 
# connect
Set Variable [ $r ; Value: MBS( "MongoDB.Connect"; $Mongo) ] 

# open GridFS
Set Variable [ $r ;
    Value: MBS( "MongoDB.GridFS.Open"; $Mongo; "files" )
]

If [ MBS("IsError") ]
    Show Custom Dialog [ "Error opening GridFS" ; $r ]
    Exit Script
End If

2. Writing Files

MBS( "MongoDB.GridFS.Write"; MongoDBRef; Container ; Options )

Stores a FileMaker container as a GridFS file. This is ideal for images, PDFs, and any binary data. You can optionally define filename, content type, and metadata for later filtering.

# FileMaker Script Example

Set Variable [ $file ; Value: Table::Image ]

Set Variable [ $r ;
    Value: MBS( "MongoDB.GridFS.Write";
        $Mongo;
        $file;
        "{\"filename\":\"photo.jpg\",\"contentType\":\"image/jpeg\"}"
    )
]

If [ MBS("IsError") ]
    Show Custom Dialog [ "Upload failed" ; $r ]
End If

3. Reading Files

MBS( "MongoDB.GridFS.Read"; MongoDBRef; ID )

Reads a file from GridFS using its unique ID and returns it as a FileMaker container value. This is the primary way to retrieve stored binary data.

# FileMaker Script Example

Set Variable [ $fileID ; Value: "6a1836306f6e4b6f9e03f46d" ]

Set Field [ Table::Image ;
    MBS( "MongoDB.GridFS.Read"; $Mongo; $fileID )
]

4. Finding Files

Find One by Filename

MBS( "MongoDB.GridFS.FindOneByFileName"; MongoDBRef; Filename )

Finds the first file matching a given filename. Useful for simple lookup scenarios where filenames are unique.

Find One (Flexible Query)

MBS( "MongoDB.GridFS.FindOne"; MongoDBRef; filter ; opts )

Allows advanced filtering using JSON queries such as file size, metadata, or custom fields. This is the most flexible search method in GridFS.

# FileMaker Script Example

Set Variable [ $r ;
    Value: MBS( "MongoDB.GridFS.FindOne";
        $Mongo;
        "{\"filename\":\"photo.jpg\"}";
        "{}"
    )
]

Find Many Files

MBS( "MongoDB.GridFS.Find"; MongoDBRef; filter )

Returns all files matching a filter as a JSON array. This is useful for file browsers or admin tools.

# FileMaker Script Example

Set Variable [ $list ;
    Value: MBS( "MongoDB.GridFS.Find"; $Mongo; "{}" )
]

Show Custom Dialog [ "Files" ; $list ]

5. Removing Files

Remove by ID

MBS( "MongoDB.GridFS.Remove"; MongoDBRef; ID )

Remove by Filename

MBS( "MongoDB.GridFS.RemoveByFileName"; MongoDBRef; Filename )

These functions delete both the file metadata and its chunks. Removing by filename will affect all matching files.

# FileMaker Script Example

Set Variable [ $r ;
    Value: MBS( "MongoDB.GridFS.Remove"; $Mongo; $fileID )
]

6. Inspecting GridFS Internals

MongoDB.GridFS.GetFiles

Returns the metadata collection for all stored files. This allows you to query GridFS using standard MongoDB collection functions.

MongoDB.GridFS.GetChunks

Returns the internal chunk storage collection. This is useful for debugging or advanced storage inspection.

# FileMaker Script Example

Set Variable [ $r ; Value: MBS("MongoDB.GridFS.GetFiles"; $Mongo) ]
Set Variable [ $files ; Value: MBS("MongoDB.Find"; $Mongo; "{}") ]

These functions are primarily for advanced use cases. Most applications only interact with the higher-level GridFS API.

7. Dropping GridFS

MBS( "MongoDB.GridFS.Drop"; MongoDBRef )

Drops the entire GridFS bucket, including all files and chunks. This is a destructive operation used for resets or test cleanup.

# FileMaker Script Example

Set Variable [ $r ;
    Value: MBS( "MongoDB.GridFS.Drop"; $Mongo )
]

8. Closing GridFS

MBS( "MongoDB.GridFS.Close"; MongoDBRef )

Closes the GridFS context. In most cases this is not required because MongoDB.Release automatically cleans up resources.

# FileMaker Script Example

Set Variable [ $r ;
    Value: MBS( "MongoDB.GridFS.Close"; $Mongo )
]

Conclusion

The MBS FileMaker Plugin provides a complete and production-ready interface to MongoDB GridFS. It enables FileMaker solutions to handle large files efficiently without relying on external file systems. And you benefit from automatically synchronization between various MongoDB servers.

With full support for querying, metadata filtering, and chunk-based storage, GridFS becomes a powerful backend for document management, media libraries, and archival systems.

MBS FileMaker Plugin, version 16.3pr2

2026-06-15T08:37:00+02:00

New in this prerelease of version 16.3 of the MBS FileMaker Plugin:

Added GuidedAccessState, RevertTransactionOnErrorState and WindowUUID for the get() functions help links.
Added SerialPort.Setup function.
Added SystemInfo.isGoldenGate function.
Enhanced the Command-Option-T shortcut for calculation editor: If you have no selection, we insert current table occurence name. If you selected text, we select the matching table occurence in the popup menu.
Fixed a bug in Math.FormatNumber function, introduced in pr1.
Fixed a bug in ProcessActivity.beginActivity function not passing display sleep correctly.
Improved PDFKit.Combine to copy metadata values from first document to the new document.
Improved performance of Hash.RandomHexString function.
Updated jsoncons to version 1.8.1.
Updated mongo-c-driver to version 2.3.1.
Updated openssl to version 3.5.7.
Warning: The minimum macOS version is currently 10.15, but will change to 11.0 or 12.0 end of 2026.

New functions in documentation

Download Links: Download Mac dmg or Download Windows/Linux zip

Downloads at monkeybreadsoftware.com/filemaker/files/Prerelease/:

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

MonkeybreadSoftware Blog FileMaker

Improved calculation dialog in FileMaker

Time measurement

New shortcut

To HTML functions

JSON

XML

test

test

Styled Text

Text

MarkDown

From HTML

MBS FileMaker Plugin, version 16.3pr5

MBS @ FMTraining.TV - Shell Asynchronously with the FileMaker MBS Plug-in

MBS Plugin documentation now available as Markdown files

Getting the Markdown version of any documentation page

Use the documentation with your favorite tools

Dash support

Build your own database or AI assistant

More possibilities with MBS documentation

MBS FileMaker Plugin, version 16.3pr4

FileMaker Script Steps over time

New steps in 20:

Changes

New steps in 21:

Changes

New steps in 22:

Changes

New steps in 26:

Changes

Last Chance for Early Bird Pricing at EngageU 2026

Xcode 27

Secure Password Storage with Keychain Functions in MBS FileMaker Plugin 16.3

Overview of New Keychain Functions

1. Adding a Password

2. Finding a Password

3. Updating an Existing Password

4. Listing Stored Passwords

5. Deleting a Password

Why Use Keychain Integration?

Summary

MBS FileMaker Plugin, version 16.3pr3

MBS at Full Access 2026

[Full Access] 2026

Improve FileMaker Script & Calculation Readability with Custom Fonts Using MBS FileMaker Plugin

The Problem with Similar Characters

Using MBS FileMaker Plugin to Change Editor Fonts

Example Benefits

Configure the Font with MBS FileMaker Plugin

A Small Change with Big Impact

Conclusion

MongoDB GridFS in the MBS FileMaker Plugin

Introduction

1. Opening GridFS

2. Writing Files

3. Reading Files

4. Finding Files

Find One by Filename

Find One (Flexible Query)

Find Many Files

5. Removing Files

Remove by ID

Remove by Filename

6. Inspecting GridFS Internals

7. Dropping GridFS

8. Closing GridFS

Conclusion

MBS FileMaker Plugin, version 16.3pr2