We’re excited to announce a new set of UIAutomation classes for Xojo in the MBS Xojo Plugins — making it possible to automate and inspect user interfaces on Windows directly from your Xojo applications!
With these new classes, you can use Microsoft’s UI Automation API to interact with elements of other Windows applications. That means you can:
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Inspect and retrieve information about controls in other programs (windows, buttons, text fields, and more).
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Automate tasks by invoking clicks, entering text, or reading values from controls.
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Build your own accessibility or testing tools using native Windows accessibility infrastructure.
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Verify your own application’s UI behavior during automated testing.
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New in this prerelease of the 26.2 plugins:
- Added UIAutomation classes for Windows.
- Fixed broken Encryption plugin from pr1.
- Found and fixed a few memory leaks for arrays.
- Renamed ProcessColorants function in DynaPDFDeviceNAttributesMBS class to ProcessColorant as there is a new ProcessColorants function to return an array.
- Renamed Separations function in DynaPDFDeviceNAttributesMBS class to Separation as there is a new Separations function to return an array.
- Added Widths method to DynaPDFFontMBS class.
- Added DynaPDFParserContentBeginMarkedContentMBS, DynaPDFParserContentTextNodeMBS, DynaPDFParserContentSoftMaskMBS, DynaPDFParserContentShowTextMBS, DynaPDFParserContentShowTextExtMBS, DynaPDFParserContentPatternMBS, DynaPDFParserContentPageHeaderMBS, DynaPDFParserContentOutlineMBS, DynaPDFParserContentMulMatrixMBS, DynaPDFParserContentMarkedContPntMBS, DynaPDFParserContentLineDashPatternMBS setDash
DynaPDFParserContentInsertPostscriptMBS, DynaPDFParserContentInitType3GlyphMBS, DynaPDFParserContentFontMBS FontSize
DynaPDFParserContentExtGStateMBS, DynaPDFParserContentDrawTemplateMBS, DynaPDFParserContentDrawShadingMBS, DynaPDFParserContentDrawPathMBS, DynaPDFParserContentDrawPathExtMBS, DynaPDFParserContentDrawInlineImageMBS, DynaPDFParserContentDrawImageMBS Index
DynaPDFParserContentDrawGroupMBS, DynaPDFParserContentColorSpaceMBS, DynaPDFParserContentColorMBS, DynaPDFParserContentClipPathMBS, and DynaPDFParserContentClipPathExtMBS classes.
- Updated SQLAPI to version 5.4.2.
- Updated NSTextAttachmentMBS constructor taking picture to use newer APIs.
- Added more properties for NSTextAttachmentMBS class.
- Improved Text function in WordFileMBS to add more line breaks.
- Fixed a regression with GraphicsMagick where CMYK JPEG files were written as RGB due to a wrong setting.
- Updated Xcode to version 26.4.
- Added ContextSize property to SystemLanguageModelsMBS class for macOS/iOS 26.4.
- Added tokenCount methods to LanguageModelSessionsMBS class for macOS/iOS 26.4.
- Updated openssl to version 3.5.6.
- Updated mongo-c-driver to version 2.2.4.
- Updated phidgets.
- Added PortSupportsSetSpeed and PortSupportsAutoSetSpeed functions to PhidgetHubMBS class.
- Added MinDataRate and MaxDataRate properties to PhidgetGyroscopeMBS class.
- Updated zxing to 3.0.2.
- Removed returnCodabarStartEnd property and hasFormat method from ZXingReaderOptionsMBS class.
- Added new barcode formats for ZXingReaderOptionsMBS class.
- Added setFormats, formats and supportedFormats methods for ZXingReaderOptionsMBS class.
- Removed Error event for PhidgetManagerMBS class.
New functions in documentation
Download Links: Download Mac dmg or Download Windows/Linux zip
Download: monkeybreadsoftware.de/xojo/download/plugin/Prerelease/.
Or ask us to be added to our shared DropBox folder.
You can subscribe to our Xojo mailing list to get notified for new pre-release and release versions.
This year Xojo celebrates 30 years. In 1996 they started with the product under the name REALbasic. I got notice about it with an article in a printed Macwelt magazine in 1998. They wrote about REALbasic building macOS applications and having Windows support in beta version. I was keen to try it and asked my parents to get me this software for Christmas.
In 1998 and 1999 I was very busy coding my first applications in REALbasic and put them on a website for people to download and try. End of 1999 I got the first people asking to for for them as contractor and so in April 2000 I founded my company.
In June 2013 the name changed to Xojo to finally made Xojo mostly in Xojo. By using it themselves daily, a lot of things in the IDE improved. Over the years they added Linux support, the web target, iOS and later Android support.
To celebrate the anniversary, Xojo offers a sale in April. You may have got a newsletter about this. And sign-up for the special offers here:
Today through April 20th Take 20% Off Bundles of Xojo + Extras
- Take 20% off your entire cart when you bundle any Xojo license with $45+ in Extras and Merch.
- No coupon is required—the discount will be applied automatically.
We’ll have additional discounts and promotions rolling out throughout April, register to get updates about all of Xojo’s 30th anniversary offers.
If you like to meet the Xojo people, check out our upcoming conference. We'll have four Xojo people there.
See also Reflecting on 30 Years of Xojo.
In this article I want to introduce you the new functionalities from the MBS Xojo Plugins in version 26.1.
Llama
Everyone is talking about AI, and we're working to give you the most out of this technology. We've added a new topic called Llama to the Plugins section. This component provides features that let you use a local LLM on your computer. This allows you to download a model, use it locally, and query it in a chat. You can learn how this works in detail in our blog post Use Llama.cpp in Xojo
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New in this prerelease of the 26.2 plugins:
New functions in documentation
Download Links: Download Mac dmg or Download Windows/Linux zip
Download: monkeybreadsoftware.de/xojo/download/plugin/Prerelease/.
Or ask us to be added to our shared DropBox folder.
You can subscribe to our Xojo mailing list to get notified for new pre-release and release versions.
Just one month until the MBS Xojo Developer Conference and our Training Day.
So far we have over 40 attendees from 15 countries:
🇩🇪 Germany,
🇳🇱 Netherlands,
🇬🇧 United Kingdom,
🇨🇭 Switzerland,
🇺🇸 United States,
🇧🇪 Belgium,
🇵🇱 Poland,
🇬🇷 Greece,
🇫🇷 France,
🇪🇸 Spain,
🇨🇦 Canada,
🇸🇪 Sweden
🇮🇹 Italy,
🇩🇰 Denmark and
🇷🇴 Romania.
The hotel has three free rooms left. So if you like to join, please sign-up soon.
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Nickenich, Germany - (March 17th, 2026) -- Monkeybread Software today is pleased to announce MBS Xojo Plugins 26.1 for macOS, Linux and Windows, the latest update to their product that is easily the most powerful plugin collection currently available for Xojo. MBS Xojo Plugins have been updated and now includes over 3000 classes and 83,000 documented features, and the versatile plugins have gained more new functions:
We updated DynaPDF to version 5. Please note that DynaPDF 5 sets UseTransparency to false by default instead of true in version 4 and the UseImageColorSpace flag is now enabled by default, instead of disabled. The ImportPDFPage function is included in Lite.
The CURL library is updated to fix a few bugs we had in the last version. We enabled native CA to verify SSL certificates on Windows.
We updated LibXL and got new functions for querying conditional formatting rules. You can load a book only to query the metadata. Please note that AddConditionalFormatting now needs an area in LibXL 5.1. There is an Errorcode property and you can remove conditional formatting.
The phidgets classes are updated to the newer library. This adds PhidgetCurrentOutputMBS and PhidgetLEDArrayMBS classes, new constants and properties. Check out the LED array modules where you can turn LEDs on/off or run animations.
Our Llama classes allow you to load a local large language model. Use the LlamaBackendMBS and LlamaDeviceMBS classes to check what backends are available. Please check the chat example file for a local chat bot.
We added methods for NSWorkspaceMBS class to query which application opens a file or URL. Then we added methods to open URLs or files asynchronously. Use the NSWorkspaceOpenConfigurationMBS class to pass options. Find applications based on their bundle identifier with ApplicationWithBundleIdentifier method.
Smaller additions:
- Use our SetQOSClassMBS function to change the priority of a thread and move background tasks to an efficiency core.
- Use Profiles function in GMImageMBS class to check what profile data is available for an image.
- Use ProcessPages method in TessEngineMBS and the TessResultRendererMBS class to output recognized text inside an image as a PDF file.
- Use TitleIcon property in TaskDialogMBS to add an icon to the title bar.
- Use ToToon method in JSONMBS class to pass JSON in a compacter form to LLMs.
Finally we updated ChartDirector to version 7.2, CURL to 8.19.0, DynaPDF to 5.0.0.7, expat to 2.7.4, libarchive to 3.8.6, LibXL to 5.1, Llama, openssl to 3.5.5, Phidgets, SQLite to 3.51.2, taglib to 2.2.1, Xcode to 26.2 and zlib to version 1.3.2.
See release notes for a complete list of changes.
New in this prerelease of the 26.1 plugins:
- Updated libarchive to version 3.8.6.
- Fixed a crashing issue with control events.
- Updated CURL library to version 8.19.0.
- Enabled native CA for CURL on Windows.
New functions in documentation
Download Links: Download Mac dmg or Download Windows/Linux zip
Download: monkeybreadsoftware.de/xojo/download/plugin/Prerelease/.
Or ask us to be added to our shared DropBox folder.
You can subscribe to our Xojo mailing list to get notified for new pre-release and release versions.
For next MBS Xojo Util Plugin, we add new functions to get and set the quality of service level for a thread:
GetQOSClassMBS as Integer
SetQOSClassMBS(QOS as Integer) as Integer
If your thread is marked with the highest level, usually named user interactive, the threads gets more attention and a better CPU core if available. On the other side the lower levels like background moves the thread to a lower priority and if possible a more efficient CPU core. All the levels between are scheduled on depending on the work load and what is available.
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New in this prerelease of the 26.1 plugins:
- Added TitleIcon property to TaskDialogMBS class.
- Updated taglib to version 2.2.1
- Improved SSH tunnel for macOS/iOS to mark the thread with background priority.
- Added GetQOSClassMBS and SetQOSClassMBS to change the priority of a thread and move background tasks to an efficiency core.
- Added Profiles function to GMImageMBS class.
- Updated ChartDirector to version 7.2.
- Fixed a bug with newer license keys for ChartDirector.
- Fixed a crashing issue with control events.
- Fixed an issue with InstrumentIDOnChannel() for MidiPlaybackMBS class.
New functions in documentation
Download Links: Download Mac dmg or Download Windows/Linux zip
Download: monkeybreadsoftware.de/xojo/download/plugin/Prerelease/.
Or ask us to be added to our shared DropBox folder.
You can subscribe to our Xojo mailing list to get notified for new pre-release and release versions.
We got the notice that ChartDirector received a bugfix update, so we update our MBS Xojo ChartDirector Plugin in the next days.
Here the announcement from Advanced Software Engineering Ltd:
ChartDirector for C++ 7.2 is a bug fixing release. It fixes bugs discovered since
ChartDirector for C++ 7.1.
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New in this prerelease of the 26.1 plugins:
New functions in documentation
Download Links: Download Mac dmg or Download Windows/Linux zip
Download: monkeybreadsoftware.de/xojo/download/plugin/Prerelease/.
Or ask us to be added to our shared DropBox folder.
You can subscribe to our Xojo mailing list to get notified for new pre-release and release versions.
The March/April (24.2) issue of
xDev Magazine is now available. Here's a quick preview of what's inside:
Ultrasonic Range Sonar by Eugene Dakin
One cool thing about Raspberry Pi development is building physical devices that do things in the real world. How about using sonar to measure the distance to an object? Today, Eugene shows how to hook up an Ultrasonic Range Finder to your Raspberry Pi and use Xojo to calculate the distance to wherever it is pointing!
The Subclass Reflex by Tim Dietrich
When you're working on a project, it's natural to just produce a subclass of a class. But is that always the best decision? In this piece, Tim explains how subclassing can be a problem in some situations and demonstrates a superior technique. He shows how to decide when to use which approach, so in the future you'll make the right call.
Doing the Impossible by Marc Zeedar
Modern AI models are seemingly capable of helping us code just about any project. Except that the two Marc attempted are considered "impossible" by even AI. Yet he stuck with it, and after hours of technical conversations with ChatGPT, he figured out a good workaround for his technical dilemma. It turned out to be a fascinating experience with the genius and idocy of modern AI.
Plus: Happy 30th Birthday, Xojo! An introduction to Xojo Libraries, how to highlight PDFs with MBS, AI taking over, and more!
New in this prerelease of the 26.1 plugins:
- Updated zlib to version 1.3.2.
- Updated taglib to version 2.2.
- Improved DigestMBS class to raise OpenSSLExceptionMBS in case of failure instead of simply returning an empty hash.
- Added MD4 method again to DigestMBS class.
- Added XOFLen property to DigestMBS class.
New functions in documentation
Download Links: Download Mac dmg or Download Windows/Linux zip
Download: monkeybreadsoftware.de/xojo/download/plugin/Prerelease/.
Or ask us to be added to our shared DropBox folder.
You can subscribe to our Xojo mailing list to get notified for new pre-release and release versions.
In Xojo we have several scopes for accessing properties or variables
- Local variables within the method
- Me to access properties in the current control (or class)
- Self to access properties in the current window, web page or class
- Module name to access properties in a module
- App to access properties in the current application class, whatever it is named.
- Global to access things in the global namespace with the same name as a local thing.
- Xojo as the namespace that defines a lot of framework features.
The Xojo framework itself defines dozens of modules as namespaces. For example there is Xojo, System, Localization, Runtime, Introspection, Bitwise or Encodings to just name a few.
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For MBS Xojo Plugins 26.1 we include new Llama classes to use local LLMs on your computer. Instead of paying for a web service to run the LLM on someone else's computer, you can run it locally on yours.
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Just two months until the MBS Xojo Developer Conference and our Training Day.
So far we have over 40 attendees from 12 countries:
🇩🇪 Germany,
🇳🇱 Netherlands,
🇬🇧 United Kingdom,
🇨🇭 Switzerland,
🇺🇸 United States,
🇵🇱 Poland,
🇬🇷 Greece,
🇫🇷 France,
🇪🇸 Spain,
🇨🇦 Canada,
🇸🇪 Sweden and
🇮🇹 Italy.
The hotel has a few free rooms left. So if you like to join, please sign-up soon.
(more)
New in this prerelease of the 26.1 plugins:
- Changed iOS deployment target to iOS 15.0 as minimum, since that is Xcode's minimum. That is iPhone 6S and newer.
- Added NSWorkspaceOpenConfigurationMBS class.
- Added asynchronous openFile, openURL, openApplicationURL, openApplicationFile with openCompleted event to NSWorkspaceMBS class.
- Added iconForContentType method to NSWorkspaceMBS class.
- Added ApplicationWithBundleIdentifier and ApplicationsWithBundleIdentifier methods to NSWorkspaceMBS class.
- Added ApplicationsToOpenFile, ApplicationsToOpenURL, ApplicationToOpenURL, ApplicationToOpenFile to NSWorkspaceMBS class.
- Added recycleFiles and duplicateFiles methods and related events to NSWorkspaceMBS class.
- Updated DynaPDF to version 5.0.0.2.
- Added reference to DatabaseColumn to our SQL plugin to avoid crash in Xojo debugger.
New functions in documentation
Download Links: Download Mac dmg or Download Windows/Linux zip
Download: monkeybreadsoftware.de/xojo/download/plugin/Prerelease/.
Or ask us to be added to our shared DropBox folder.
You can subscribe to our Xojo mailing list to get notified for new pre-release and release versions.
DynaForms released DynaPDF 5.0, their newest version of the DynaPDF library.
Price changes
With the new release DynaForms changes the prices and we follow them. The new prices for Lite, Pro and Enterprise licenses are lower. This makes the entry more affordable. Starter costs more and is now half of the Lite price.
Maintenance updates are 15% of the product prices.
Special offer
For the introduction of version 5, we offer a 15% special discount until March 15, 2026!
Use coupon code DynaPDF5 in our web shop.
Especially you can use the coupon to upgrade the license to a higher tier:
Starter → Lite → Pro → Enterprise
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The world moves forward and so do we with our FileMaker and Xojo plugins. We used to build our iOS Plugins for iOS 11 and for the future we change the minimum to iOS 15. That is the recommended minimum deployment target for the current iOS version 26 with Xcode 26. Everyone will sooner or later this year use Xcode 26 as Apple starts requiring the use of the 26 SDK this spring.
iOS 15 should be fine for everyone as that runs on iPhone 6S and later.
There are older iPads, that won't run iOS 15, but they are also quite old.
I doubt any of our customers builds a new application and needs a plugin to support iOS 14 or older. If you still need iOS 13, 12 or 11 support, then you may use older plugins.
Supported are now iOS 15, 16, 17, 18 and 26. Plus the iPad and VisionOS variants of iOS.
When iOS 27 gets popular we may move to a newer Xcode version, which then increase the minimum to iOS 16. We'll see.
Please let us know if you have concerns.
