If you like to get styled text on your labels in iOS, you can use our NSAttributedStringMBS class in our MBS Xojo MacCocoa Plugin like below.
As you see we create a NSMutableAttributedStringMBS object for some string and add attributes with zero based ranges there. We then use a declare to setAttributedText to assign the attributed string. Currently our classes for Cocoa controls are not ported to iOS in the plugin, but a quick declare helps us here.
EventHandler Sub Open()
// create some text from a string. Could also read in RTF
Dim a As NSAttributedStringMBS = NSAttributedStringMBS.attributedStringWithString("Hello World")
// make a mutable copy
Dim m As NSMutableAttributedStringMBS = a.mutableCopy
// now add bold font
Dim r1 As New NSRangeMBS(0,5)
m.addAttribute(m.NSFontAttributeName, NSFontMBS.boldSystemFontOfSize(13), r1)
// and underline
Dim r2 As New NSRangeMBS(6,5)
m.addAttribute(m.NSUnderlineStyleAttributeName, m.NSUnderlineStyleSingle, r2)
// assign new styled text
Declare Sub setAttributedText Lib "UIKit" Selector "setAttributedText:" (NSTextViewRef As ptr, AttributedStringHandle As Integer )
setAttributedText Label1.Handle, m.Handle
End EventHandler
Not all styled are available on iOS. You can for example use NSForegroundColorAttributeName with NSColorMBS (actually UIColor on iOS internally) to color the text. Since superscript and subscript are not available, you can emulate it with using NSBaselineOffsetAttributeName to change the base line and then use a smaller font for the words.
New in this prerelease of the 21.5 plugins:
- Fixed code to return FolderItem in various functions on iOS.
- Updated DynaPDF to version 4.0.59.157.
- Changed MLFeatureValueMBS.featureValueWithPicture to convert picture to bitmap if needed.
- Enabled ConsoleExecuteMBS method for desktop projects.
- Fixed issue with CloudKit classes, where CKShareMBS was returned CKRecordMBS.
- Added CacheInsertStatement flag for SQLDatabaseMBS to cache insert statements for InsertRecord to speed those up.
- Added StartIndex parameter to FindValueInArray and FindValueInObjectArray methods in JSONMBS class, so you can repeat search until nothing more is found.
- Added new constructor for DirectShowEnumMonikerMBS to find all filters available.
- Added new events for NSSharingServiceDelegateMBS class for cloud sharing.
Download:
monkeybreadsoftware.com/xojo/download/plugin/Prerelease/ or
from Dropbox.
Or ask us to be added to our shared Dropbox folder.
We got a new example for our MBS Xojo DynaPDF Plugin for using DynaPDFMBS class to create a gradient with DeviceN color space. We use DynaPDFExtGStateMBS to set the extended graphics state and enable overprint mode. Then we create the DevcieN colorspace based on a CMYK fallback. And within that colorspace we define an axial shading to get a gradient to fill an area in the PDF page. Here is the new sample code:
// Draw something in background so that we can see whether it works
Call pdf.SetColorSpace(pdf.kcsDeviceCMYK)
Call pdf.SetFillColor(PDF.CMYK(0, 0, 255, 0))
Call pdf.Rectangle(0.0, 0.0, 595.0, 842.0, pdf.kfmFill)
Dim gs As New DynaPDFExtGStateMBS
gs.OverPrintMode = 1
gs.OverPrintFill = 1
Dim gsHandle As Integer = pdf.CreateExtGState(gs)
Call pdf.SetExtGState(gsHandle)
// In this example, we emulate a CMYK color space with a DeviceN color space.
// The required Postscript calculator function is super simple, it consists of only two braces"{}".
Dim cls() As String = Array("Cyan", "Magenta", "Yellow", "Black")
Dim cs As Integer = pdf.CreateDeviceNColorSpace(cls, "{}", pdf.kesDeviceCMYK, -1)
Call pdf.SetExtFillColorSpace(cs)
Dim sh As Integer = pdf.CreateAxialShading( 50.0, 50.0, 550.0, 50.0, 0.5, PDF.CMYK(60, 0, 0, 0), PDF.CMYK(255, 0, 0, 0), False, False)
Call pdf.ApplyShading(sh)
This needs a DynaPDF Pro license from us for the plugin. Feel free to try the example project included with future MBS Plugin releases and send us questions.
Due to current events in an office nearby, here again an announcement announcement for all database developers:
Please treat the following numbers as text for processing and storing in a database.
Zip codes
While we call them zip numbers in Germany and they are just five digits here, a zip code may contain various other characters like letters, spaces and dashes. e.g. "SW1A 1AA" is a valid zip code in the United Kingdom. The length of post codes may be over 10 characters in some places and contain leading zeros. In Argentina even a plus may be used like "46C2+32".
Invoice Numbers
The number on an invoice, an offer or an order often has a scheme defined by the used software. Some companies use dashes to separate sections of the number like year-branch-number to give each shop branch their own running count for invoices. We have seen invoices numbers with prefix or postfix to indicate branches or types of invoices.
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When to initialize what is always a good question. Doing a custom constructor for Application, a Window or Control allows you to initialize some things before Xojo does some setup steps. For example if you like to have custom delegates for Cocoa frameworks, like our
NSApplicationDelegateMBS class. The MBS Plugin registration can also either go into the constructor or App.Open event.
The constructor of a control allows you to do initialization steps before the control is added to the window. The open event of the control then allows you to do things after the control is initialized. And the open event of the window allows you to setup something after all controls are setup, e.g. connect a window splitter to the left and right controls.
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New in this prerelease of the 21.5 plugins:
- Added AddSort method to XLAutoFilterMBS class.
- Added DynaPDFVersionInfoMBS class.
- Added ErrCode and ErrType properties to DynaPDFErrorMBS class.
- Added GetPDFVersionEx function for DynaPDFMBS class.
- Added IsAutoFilter function to XLSheetMBS class.
- Added ScreenResolution property to DynaPDFRasterizerMBS class.
- Added XLSFormControlMBS class and related methods.
- Changed a few old deprecated controls to hide in the control library.
- Changed DynaPDF examples to use kcpUnicode instead of kcp1252.
- Changed PermissionsMBS class to be marked as console safe.
- Changed SQLPreparedStatementMBS class to raise TypeMismatchException if you pass array of variant for param array, e.g. array in array.
- Deprecated LoadString in ChromiumFrameMBS class since CEF deprecated the method.
- Fixed memory leak for ZintVectorStringMBS and ZintVectorStringMBS classes.
- Fixed memory leak in BarcodeGeneratorMBS class.
- Fixed NSSearchFieldControlMBS class to fire KeyDown/KeyUp events for return/enter keys, too.
- Fixed passing of numbers for SetStrokeColorEx() taking param array.
- Fixed socket methods for PacketSocketMBS class.
- Updated Chromium classes to newer CEF version.
- Updated CURL library to version 7.79.1.
- Updated DynaPDF to version 4.0.59.156.
- Updated LibXL to version 4.0.
- Updated SQLAPI to version 5.1.6.
Download:
monkeybreadsoftware.com/xojo/download/plugin/Prerelease/ or
from Dropbox.
Or ask us to be added to our shared Dropbox folder.
Today we update our Xojo developer Kits for Updater, Bugreporter and Web Starter. They all got a few bug fixes and changes over time and can be used in Xojo 2021. This includes a Web 2 variant for Web Starter Kit.
- Bug Reporter Kit 1.5
- Fixed some localization bugs.
- Fixed compilation bugs for Xojo 2019r3
- Changed email script to mark email as UTF-8.
- Add list of current visible windows with focused control to the report.
- Updated to Xojo 2021
- Web Starter Kit 1.6
- Fixed over 300 changes for Xojo Web 2.0 API
- Added ErrorName and ErrorStack for JavaScriptErrors table and removed UserDetails
- Updated for Xojo 2021
- Updater Kit 2.3
- Changed HTTPSocket to URLConnection class for newer API.
- Updated Sparkle framework
- Moved projects to 64-bit
- Uses Info.plist added to project
- Uses Build Step for MacOS to copy Sparkle.framework and key file.
- Changed some URLs to https:// for app transport security.
- Replaced updated app on server to be signed.
- Using SSLConnectionTypes.TLSv12 now for socket.
- Fixed kCheckSumNodeName to not include 32 as bit number is added later.
- Updated to Xojo 2021.
If you use one of this components, you may want to download and compare. We recommend an app like
Arbed to compare between two projects.
When you purchase those Kits, you receive a download link with a year of updates included. If you let your maintenance expire, you may just grab a new license to get a new download login.
Just six months till the
XDC 2021 in London, England. Tickets are still available for $750 USD till
1st October 2021 instead of $950 later.
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.
See you soon there!
In this article I want to introduce you the new functionalities from the MBS Xojo Plugins in version 21.4.
DynaPDF
Let's starts with the news from DynaPDF. With the methods CreateTraceFile and AppendTraceFile you can create and append a file that log debugging information. The plugin writes debug messages to this file so you can check which methods you called. The AppendTraceFile method is practical because with this method it is possible to append debug information and not need to override it.
Another new method from the DynaPDFMBS class is the GetInIsTaggedPDF method. It returns true if the currently opened PDF is a tagged PDF.
Memory Block
We have the new method ReadFileMBS for FolderItems to allow you the transfer of a file into a memory block. In the parameters we specify the memory block element in which the result should be stored. As return of the method we get a true if the file was read as a memory block.
In this context, the new method FindByteMBS for memory blocks is also interesting . With this method we can search for given characters in a memory block. In the parameters we specify an array with the characters to be searched in UInt8. Additionally we can specify from which position in the memory block to search. The default is 0 (At the beginning). The method returns the first position in the memory block where there was a hit. In the following example the positions of the first two hits are determined.
Dim m As MemoryBlock = "Hello World"
Dim u() As UInt8
u.Append Asc("e")
u.Append Asc("o")
Dim pos1 As Integer = m.FindByteMBS(u)
Dim pos2 As Integer = m.FindByteMBS(u, pos1+1)
MsgBox "Found position: "+Str(pos1)+" and „+Str(pos2)
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Stefanie shows how to use our MBS Xojo DynaPDF Plugin in Xojo.
Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have questions.
We like to explain everyone how to setup TeamViewer on macOS for remote support.
Go to teamviewer.com and download the Teamviewer app, e.g. teamviewer.dmg. As far as I see you can directly click download on the cookie dialog and then close the website, but the webdesign may change. No need to allow cookies!
Once downloaded, you open the disk image.
Please make sure the domain shown in the GateKeeper dialog is only www.teamviewer.com and nothing different.
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The end is coming for
OmegaBundle 2021. Don't miss the chance to get this wonderful pack of add-ons for Xojo:
Once the day is done for the last time zones (greetings to our Hawaiian Xojo developers), we can tear down the ads and close the store.
Please make sure all pending orders are paid full until Monday.
Nickenich, Germany - (September 7th, 2021) -- MonkeyBread Software today is pleased to announce
MBS Xojo Plugins 21.4 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 2900 classes and 73,000 documented features, and the versatile plugins have gained more new functions:
We updated our
WordFileMBS class to substitute any text in the word file with Substitute method or check if some text is there with Contains method.
In this release we add thread pooling for Windows. This highly benefits some methods using threads like PerformMT in
CURLSMBS to recycle threads and lower the memory footprint.
For Windows we added a
WinMouseFilterMBS class to universally get mouse events for all controls in your applications. Our
WebView2ControlMBS control to use Microsoft Edge/Chrome browser control got new properties for preferences, e.g. to decide whether password fields auto fill.
Our DynaPDF plugin got a DeleteOCGFromDisplayTree method to delete optional content. The GetInIsTaggedPDF method can tell you whether your import PDF is a tagged one. For our Graphics.DrawString integration in PDF we added better code to draw text condensed. Finally we enhanced our tracing feature to append to a log file.
For iOS we got a new
SharingPanelMBS class to show the sharing panel and e.g. post multiple pictures to photos application or send several files via AirDrop. We improved
NSViewMBS class for iOS (using UIView of course) and fixed issues with submitting to the App Store.
We added FieldExists method for
SQLCommandMBS class, the
FindByteMBS method for MemoryBlock taking an array of bytes to look for and we added HEAD as verb for SetupAWS and SetupOAuth method in
CURLSMBS class. The new isWindows11 function in
SystemInformationMBS module may be helpful in the future,
WKPreferencesMBS got more properties and
NSComboBoxControlMBS class got working keydown events.
Finally we updated CURL library to version 7.78.0, DynaPDF to 4.0.58.153 and SQLAPI to 5.1.5.
See
release notes for a complete list of changes.
Today we want to look on seven different ways on how to implement a function to count the number of space characters in a string. Sounds simple, but depending how you code it, the performance will be much different.
All examples here use BackgroundTasks and NilObjectChecking disabled to avoid extra overhead. If background tasks are enabled, Xojo would insert a call to check for other threads due and we usually disable that in a tight loop as the check needed could take more than what the code inside the loop does. And when we deal with memory blocks below, we don't need to check whether the Memoryblock is nil on every access.
Using Middle
Let's start with the most high level view by using String.Middle function:
Private Function Count1(s as string) As Integer
#Pragma BackgroundTasks False
#Pragma NilObjectChecking False
Dim l As Integer = s.Length-1
Dim c As Integer = 0
For i As Integer = 0 To l
If s.Middle(i, 1) = " " Then
c = c + 1
End If
Next
Return c
End Function
The Middle() function does some more on text processing here like looking how many bytes one UTF-8 character takes. Since our space we look for is just one byte, we don't need that and can optimize by using MiddleBytes later.
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Since some of you are on vacation, the offer got a final extension till 10th September 2021:
Get the top developer tools and third party components for the Xojo cross-platform development platform at a huge savings.
Omegabundle for Xojo 2021 is a collection of the most useful tool sets, add-ons, digital books and components for use with Xojo Inc's Xojo development environment. If purchased separately and not including any additional offers, the total cost would be over $3871. Omegabundle for Xojo 2021 costs $399.99.
Xojo is an award-winning, cross-platform development tool for the Desktop (macOS, Windows, Linux), Web, iOS (iPad/iPhone) and Raspberry Pi. With Xojo, you can create native applications by using drag-and-drop to build your user interface and then one straight-forward programming language to enable the functionality. Xojo is powerful and modern, yet easy to use and learn.
Included Products
- Ohanaware App Wrapper (UPDATED). Prepare your application for the Mac App Store or Web Distribution (macOS only app)
- Ohanaware App Kit (UPDATED). A huge collection of declares and objects that Ohanaware has created over the years to help us with crafting better macOS applications. Your next macOS app starts here!
- ExeWrapper (NEW). Microsoft Authenticode Signing - right from Mac! ExeWrapper enables you to code sign Windows executables on a macOS machine. (macOS only app)
- DMG Canvas (NEW). Drag, drop and design your disk image's appearance and to easily and quickly create a fully assembled disk image ready to ship. (macOS only app)
- GrafittiSuite Desktop Edition (UPDATED). 55 (up from 53 from 2020!) incredible user interface controls for Xojo that add value and improve the professional appeal of your Xojo applications.
- XDL Library (NEW).Get some of the best articles from xDev Library, a brand-new ebook, Xojo Database Collection(XDL-0019), that weighs in at over 400 pages
- MBS Chart Director for Xojo (UPDATED). Professional, interactive, real-time charts in your Xojo applications on Mac, Windows and Linux. Desktop, Console and Web projects.
- MBS DynaPDF Starter Edition for Xojo (UPDATED). Create PDF files with your applications on Mac, Windows and Linux. Desktop, Console and Web projects.
- Paradigma Software Valentina Studio Pro 11 (UPDATED). Ultimate reports designer, database administration and forms creation tool that runs on all three operating systems - Windows, macOS, Linux. Select one OS version.
- Paradigma Software ValentinaDB ADK 10 for Xojo (UPDATED). Embed the ultra-fast, object-relational Valentina database into your applications and deploy royalty free - Windows, macOS, Linux, including Raspberry PI! Also works with local SQLite files and as a client to Valentina Server.
- Paradigma Software Valentina Reports ADK 10for Xojo (UPDATED). Generate visually rich reports as graphics, web pages or PDF from your Xojo applications on Windows, macOS, Linux including Raspberry PI! Also works with local SQLite files and as a client to Valentina Server.
- Paradigma Software Valentina Server Unlimited (UPDATED). 4-in-1 Reports Server, Forms Server along with two database servers: one built on object-relational Valentina Database and the other on SQLite. Report and forms serving works with MySQL, PostgreSQL, MS SQL Server and the included Valentina and SQLite servers
- xDev Magazine (UPDATED). Get back issues and a year’s subscription to xDev Magazine, the professional's magazine for developing with Xojo.
- XDC Developer Conference Coupon (NEW). Save $100 off of the XDC Developer Conference 2022 in London! Coupon must be used before the end of 2021.
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New in this prerelease of the 21.4 plugins:
- Added ReadFileMBS for reading file data into MemoryBlock.
- Updated SQLAPI to version 5.1.5.
- Added FieldExists method to SQLCommandMBS class.
- Fixed Graphics.DrawString to better draw condensed text for DynaPDFMBS class.
- Added isWindows11 function to SystemInformationMBS module.
- Fixed problems with AVFoundation Plugin and a conflicting function name for iOS apps.
Download:
monkeybreadsoftware.com/xojo/download/plugin/Prerelease/ or
from Dropbox.
Or ask us to be added to our shared Dropbox folder.
The September/October (19.5) issue of xDev Magazine is now available. Here's a quick preview of what's inside:
Often-Used Calculations by Markus Winter
Markus explores how to create an interface for frequently-used calcuations.
How to Make a Bad App by Marc Zeedar
It takes great effort to make a truly bad app. Marc explains just how to do it!
A Xojo Business Solutions Platform by Steve Pardoe
More than a year in the making, Steve explains how he built a business platform using Xojo.
Exploring Cryptography, Part 3 by Eugene Dakin
In his series on cryptography, Eugene explores something called the Polyalphabetic Substitution Cipher.
An Idea Xojo's Future by Markus Winter
Markus presents a radical proposal for Xojo's future.
Plus: Xojo 2021R2.1, rotating PDFs, SQLite, embedded Javascripts, native versus not, machine unlearning, and much more!
About 14 years ago we started the development of our DynaPDF Plugin.
After a year of development, the plugin was released to the public on 1st Sep 2007 with MBS Plugin 7.6pr1.
This plugin has been a big success for us and provides the PDF engine to thousands of Xojo applications around the world. Based on user feedback we got a lot of functions over the years like the raster engine, PDF/A conversion and ZUGFeRD support.
Please make sure you try the plugin, make it part of your toolbox and start to enjoy all the PDF features you can add to your application.
PS: The
OmegaBundle 2021 includes a DynaPDF Starter license and is a great way to get a license.
Have you noticed changes in the
Xojo Roadmap?
There is a new item showing up since today:
Build macOS apps from Windows and Linux
The ability to build and remote debug macOS apps from Windows and Linux
As you may know running the macOS linker running on Windows was not supported by LLVM for the last years. Since Xojo uses LLVM to power their compiler, they had to wait till this project comes to a point, where it is working.
This change may also help to get remote debugging working from Windows to macOS.
Also on the horizon is the dark mode support for Windows, which is also listed there.
Let's look what shows up in the 2021r3 pre-release version soon.
If you like to be pre-release tester, you can contact Xojo as shown in
this blog post.
New in this prerelease of the 21.4 plugins:
- Add thread pooling for Windows to be used for multi threaded methods.
- Added SharingPanelMBS class for sharing on iOS.
- Fixed a crash in JSONMBS class returning big JSON arrays.
- Fixed problem on Windows with GraphicsMagick initialization.
- Updated DynaPDF to version 4.0.58.153.
- Moved WindowsQOSMBS class into its own plugin part, split from WindowsProxy plugin part.
- Implemented thread pool for Windows to be used for our MT methods, so threads get reused.
Download:
monkeybreadsoftware.com/xojo/download/plugin/Prerelease/ or
from Dropbox.
Or ask us to be added to our shared Dropbox folder.
