Bug report closed: Won't fix

If you filled a bug and got this status as an answer after waiting some time, it can be disappointing. Whether it's Real Software, Apple or some other software vendor.

If I report a bug, I'm never sure whether it is a bug or just my fault. I'm not sure whether it's going to be fixed or not. And if it is fixed, will I get it soon? Will they fix my old version with .1 version update or do I have to wait for the next major update?

With the decision of not fixing the bug, the status is clear. I can now find a workaround or decide myself that I won't fix it. Sometimes I would prefer if the companies answer soon that they won't fix it than if I have to wait years just to get a message that the problem is no longer reproducible.

What do you think?

Notes...

  • I'll be on the Filemaker meeting at 8th December 2011 in Ulm, Germany.
  • There is no ssh plugin. Simply because I prefer to use the shell class with the ssh command line tool. Much more efficient and easier to keep up to date.
  • Added NSFileManagerMBS class. That's the last thing needed for iCloud.
  • A Real Studio User group is starting in Sydney.
  • I'm now a sponsor for Real World 2012. Sign up now to receive early bird price.

Weekend notes...

  • Recompiling 400 plugins from scratch takes a whole day!
    (more than 10 hours on a Mac with 4 cores with VMWare for Windows and Linux compilers.)
  • Moved my Linux build machine to Ubuntu 10. Linux plugins now require glib 2.3, 2.4 or 2.7 depending on the features they use. We need 2.7 currently for OptimizePNG, PortAudio and ZipFile. If that is a problem for you, please contact us.
  • "I am considering buying Real Studio and I believe that your plugin would provide the functionality I need." I see a lot of people the last weeks writing similar emails to me and I like it.
  • Our transparent screensaver works very well on Mac OS X 10.7. I think even better than on 10.6.
  • My forum notifier crashes every few weeks and forgets some IDs, so you see duplicates on the mailing list. Sorry about that.

Notes...

  • Sending data on WinHIDMBS class fails if the size of the data doesn't match the packet size. Mac system fills up with zeros, but Windows simply silently fails.
  • Moved to Mac OS X 10.7.2. I got both Xcode 3 and Xcode 4 installed, so I can create PPC plugins. Still I may not do PPC any more for all projects. For example I may drop it for Filemaker plugin or SQLite Extension. Instructions here
  • From Mail migration I now know that I have 323443 emails on disc. Spotlight says indexing hard discs will take 3 weeks, but it finished after 10 hours.
  • We got a new third party example: EasyStatusItem. Also the CURL OAuth project is updated. Both will be in the next prerelease.
  • If you use our plugins to connect to Oracle database and you want to update a LOB field in a table, you need to use 'FOR UPDATE' in the SQLSelect to actually have the row locked for update. Else you get error 22920.

Warning: PGP WDE and Filevault 2

If you plan to use Filevault 2 in Mac OS X 10.7.2 and you had previously the PGP whole disc encryption installed, you can get intro trouble.
Because as long as PGPwde.kext is in the /System/Library/Extensions folder, your Mac will not boot.
You can of course go in target disc mode and remove the file by mounting the disc on another Mac with Lion.
For me, it's the third time PGP WDE shocked me and certainly the last day it will be allowed to exist on my Macs.

MonkeyBread Software Releases the MBS Filemaker plug-in in version 2.4

NICKENICH, Germany (October 11th, 2011) -- Monkeybread Software releases version 2.4 of the MBS plug-in for Filemaker.

The MBS plug-in extends Filemaker with over 500 functions. Very popular are our functions for controlling the webview control on your database forms. Other key features working with PDF files, controlling windows, manipulate pictures and to query system informations. In version 2.4 we improve the existing functions and add a few new functions:
  • Added new ProgressDialog functions.
  • Added Drag and Drop functions for Mac.
  • Added USB functions to find and list connected USB devices.
  • Added CGPSConverter.Convert function.
  • Added String.RemoveNewLine function.
  • Added a String.WriteTextFile function.
  • Added ShowURL function.
  • Added String.ReadTextFile.
  • Added Window.Resizable and Window.SetResizable.
  • Added Window.ShowsToolbarButton and Window.SetShowsToolbarButton to hide toolbar button on Mac OS X.
  • Added String.ReplaceNewline function.
  • Added Window.HideScrollbars and Window.ShowScrollbars function.

Read the complete release notes here:
monkeybreadsoftware.de/filemaker/releasenotes.shtml

The plug-in is available for FileMaker 7 to 11 on Windows XP, Vista, 7 and as Universal Binary for Mac OS X. Demos are available on the website, along with license and purchasing information. Not all functions are available on both platforms, so please check the documentation.

The plugins can be downloaded on our website:
monkeybreadsoftware.de/filemaker/

The online documentation can be found here:
monkeybreadsoftware.de/filemaker/reference/

Subscribe to our mailing list to keep up to date:
monkeybreadsoftware.de/filemaker/mailinglist.shtml

For questions you can send us an email or use the feedback forms on our website. Plugin licenses are available starting at just 99 Euro / $149 USD.

MBS Filemaker Plugin 2.4 release notes

  • Added new ProgressDialog functions.
  • Added Drag and Drop functions for Mac.
  • Added USB functions to find and list connected USB devices.
  • Added VersionAutoUpdate function which returns version number in format 020400xx. Same as Version, but better parsable.
  • Added type paramters to PDFKit.GetPDFPageImage and WebView.RenderImage to select type and filename for image.
  • Added resolution parameter to PDFKit.GetPDFPageImage function.
  • Added box parameter to PDFKit.GetPDFPageImage function.
  • Added PDFKit.SetIgnoreCombineErrors and PDFKit.GetIgnoreCombineErrors.
  • Added String.RemoveNewLine function.
  • Added a String.WriteTextFile function.
  • Added new optional filename parameter to Window.AsPDF, GMImage.GeticcColorProfile, GMImage.Getprofile, GMImage.GetiptcProfile, GMImage.WriteToPNGContainer, GMImage.WriteToJPEGContainer, GMImage.WriteToGIFContainer and GMImage.WriteToPNGContainer.
  • Added GMImage.WriteToGIFContainer and GMImage.WriteToPNGContainer.
  • Added a TextToRTF function.
  • Added new string functions: String.EncodeToHTML, String.DecodeFromHTML, String.EncodeToHex and String.DecodeFromHex.
  • Added Path.NativePathToFilemakerPath and Path.FilemakerPathToNativePath.
  • Added Trace function.
  • Added ShowURL function.
  • Added String.ReadTextFile.
  • Added Window.Resizable and Window.SetResizable.
  • Added Window.ShowsToolbarButton and Window.SetShowsToolbarButton to hide toolbar button on Mac OS X.
  • Added String.ReplaceNewline function.
  • Added Window.HideScrollbars and Window.ShowScrollbars function.
  • Added CGPSConverter.Convert function.
  • Fixed bug with Progress Dialog on Windows (progressbar jumped).
  • Fixed a bug with dpi value not used right for PDF image creation.
  • Window functions now only work for Mac with Cocoa. So we now require Filemaker 8.5 or newer on Mac for all functions touching windows.
  • Updated Form Utility.
  • Our Drag and Drop functions can't work on Windows as Filemaker overwrites plugin there.
  • WebView.RenderImage now really has image type optional.
  • Plugin Version function returns version now in format 2.4.0.xx where xx is the build number.
  • Now includes Intel only version of plugin. You need that for a Runtime in the Apple Mac App Store.
  • Graphicsmagick image references are now validated before being used. This avoids some trouble.
  • Graphicsmagick functions WriteTo*Container now check if compression works.
  • Window.SetCloseButton can now enable close button on runtimes on Windows.
  • RTF function now handles unicode characters.
  • Runtime solutions show first License dialog on first function call. (without license)
  • Registration dialog now shows plugin version and last called function.
  • Moving error handling so we return LastError to Filemaker instead of error message. So check lasterror of all plugin calls.

Quick notes from last week

  • If you need an html editor on Mac, you can use htmlviewer and make it editable with htmlviewer1.EditableMBS = true. For Windows, it's IEEditableMBS.
  • To give a print job a name with Carbon Print classes, use JobName property on Print Settings class.
  • DynaPDF, ChartDirector and SQL Plugins can have a different version than the other plugins, as they have their own license scheme.
  • Seems like I got Xcode 3.x working on Lion, so I can continue with PPC support once I upgradet to Mac OS X 10.7.x! I must upgrade in order to compile plugins for iCloud.
  • DynaPDF will have new page cache. Currently Windows only. I think I'll implement it for the plugins as soon as it's crossplatform (Mac+Win) at least.
  • I put the Filemaker 2.4 final plugins online. They got delayed,but are ready for some time now. If nothing goes wrong, release is tomorrow with announcement.

Rest in peace, Steve

This are moments where I think about how much he influenced my life.
Think about where mobile phones would be if Steve didn't start the iPhone project at Apple?
How would laptops look today if Steve didn't push engineers for perfection to get battery life longer or the device thinner.
I wish Apple all the best and I'm confident that Tim Cook and his team will continue to run the company successfully.

see http://www.apple.com/stevejobs/

Sandboxing

Whether you app is made with Real Studio, Filemaker, Xcode or something else, you'll need to learn about sandboxing.
First you can read Apple's Documentation.
The important thing is to write an entitlement plist file. This can be a text file saved with some text editor (like BBEdit) and saved with extension .plist. Or use the Property List Editor application coming with Xcode.

An entitlement file can look like this:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>com.apple.security.app-sandbox</key>
<true/>
<key>com.apple.security.files.user-selected.read-write</key>
<true/>
</dict>
</plist>
As you see it's simply an xml file with some special keys and values. Here we turn sandbox on and than define that we want user selected files to be read or written.

Once you have your compiled Carbon or Cocoa application and your entitlement file, you can sign your application. For that you need to name the certificate. If you are Mac Developer, you probably have already a Mac App Store 3rd party developer certificate, so you can use that one. The line goes like this:
codesign -s "certificate name" /path/to/your.app --entitlement yourfile.plist
Now you can run your app on Mac OS X 10.7 and see the sandbox: Yes in the activity monitor application.
It seems like our NSSavePanelMBS class works just fine in sandboxed application. Or do you see an issue?

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