Get plugins in your Dropbox

if you want to find new plugins from us regularly and automatically in a folder on your hard disc, please sign up for Dropbox account and email me to add you to our shared folder.
This way you have always the lastest plugins.

Mac OS X 10.8 User Notifications with Filemaker and Real Studio

With Mountain Lion you can now post user notifications to the user. Depending on the settings defined in system preferences, your notification shows an alert, a banner or nothing. You can play a sound and user can see the notifications. You can schedule notifications to fire while your app is in background or not running. When clicked on the notification, the system can launch your application and inform you which notification was clicked.

So let's look into it. Our plugins have functions for Filemaker (in new 2.8 plugins) and classes for Real Studio (in new 12.3 plugins).

First we need to create a new notification object. In Filemaker, we set a variable with the new reference number:

Set Variable [$ref; MBS("UserNotification.Create")]

And in Real Studio we create a new user notification object:

dim u as new NSUserNotificationMBS

Next we can define title, subtitle and the informative text. For that we use three more set variable steps in Filemaker. We pass the reference number and also put return values in result variables, so you can see the variables in debugger and notice any error message from the plugin.

Set Variable [$result; MBS("UserNotification.SetTitle"; $ref; "Hello World")]
Set Variable [$result; MBS("UserNotification.SetSubTitle"; $ref; "from Filemaker")]
Set Variable [$result; MBS("UserNotification.SetInformativeText"; $ref; "Our first Notification from Filemaker. ")]

In Real Studio we simply assign the properties with the texts:

u.Title = "Hello World"
u.subtitle = "from Real Studio."
u.informativeText = "Our first Notification from Real Studio."

You can customize the notification with an action button, but that button is only visible if user allows you to show alerts. In that case it is interesting to register a callback in Filemaker or use the NSUserNotificationCenterDelegateMBS class in Real Studio to get notified if button is pressed or notification content has been clicked.

For the notification you can also define a sound to be played and you can store user information data. That's text like a record ID which you can put into the notification and retrieve later when you get an event that button is clicked or notification has been delivered. Also you can query scheduled and delivered notifications and check the user info there to update your own database for what the user saw.

You can show a notification with the deliver function, but we really want to schedule the notification to show later. So for this example we query current date and time and simply add ten seconds. In Filemaker, you write this like this:

MBS("UserNotification.SetDeliveryDate"; $ref; Get ( CurrentHostTimeStamp ) + 10)
MBS("UserNotification.scheduleNotification"; $ref)

In Real Studio we use the date class to get current date, add ten seconds and set delivery date. To deliver or schedule we need an object of the NSUserNotificationCenterMBS class, so we create an instance and call the scheduleNotification method:

dim d as new date
d.Second = d.Second + 10
u.deliveryDate = d

dim c as new NSUserNotificationCenterMBS
c.scheduleNotification u


Finally, to free memory, you can call UserNotification.Release in Filemaker. In Real Studio simply let the objects go out of scope.

Also important: Your Filemaker solution or Real Studio applications need to have an unique application identifier. So for Real Studio, please make sure app.ApplicationIdentifier is set. On Filemaker, the app itself has an identifier, but runtimes may need to have it customized, so not all runtimes have same identifier. You find the bundle identifier in the info.plist inside the application package.

I hope you enjoy notifications and if you have questions, please do not hesitate to ask us.

MBS Filemaker Plugin, version 2.8pr9

New in this prerelease of the 2.8 plugins:
  • Added UserNotification.GetDescription for easier debugging.
  • Added Audit.SetIgnoredFieldNames function.
  • Changed Audit functions to take table name in order to find right table.
  • Changed Audit functions to ignore unstored calculation and global fields.
Download later today at monkeybreadsoftware.de/filemaker/files/.

MBS Filemaker Plugin, version 2.8pr8

New in this prerelease of the 2.8 plugins:
  • Fixed problem with CURL.AddInputPNG.
  • Added WebDownloadDelegate.SetFolder, WebDownloadDelegate.GetFolder and WebDownloadDelegate.ClearFolder functions.
  • Changed Path.FilemakerPathToNativePath to also remove filemac:, filewin: and file: prefixes.
  • Added UserNotification functions for Mac OS X 10.8.
  • Added Audit functions.
  • Added Files.RenameFile.
Download later today at monkeybreadsoftware.de/filemaker/files/. Or ask us to be added to our shared Dropbox folder.

Installing MBS Plugin on Filemaker Server

From time to time we are asked on how to install our plugin on Filemaker Server. Today we tested if this is working with Filemaker 12 Server and Mac OS X 10.8. And yes, it's working just fine.

Simply follow the steps in the documentation coming with Filemaker Server. So first copy the plugin file into the extensions folder. On Mac OS X this is "/Library/FileMaker Server/Database Server/Extensions". On Windows this is "C:\Program Files\FileMaker\FileMaker Server\Database Server\Extensions". Once you copied the plugin there, you may need to restart the server to recognize the plugin. Once the server sees it, the admin console should list the plugin. Now you can enable plugins with the upper checkbox and enable the plugins you need in the list below. Save and once the plugin is loaded, you see "MBS Plug-in" in the list.

If you have questions or problems, please do not hesitate to ask us.

You can use our plugin to automatically perform tasks on the server using server side scripts. For example you can send emails at night to people who need to do something the next day. Or you have a shop where sales people enter orders on Filemaker with an iPad and the server sits in the office and talks with our plugin to a label printer in the shop to print labels or a receipt for the order. And of course you can do a lot of networking: Like when someone finishes an order on an iPad, the server automatically pushs an invoice to paypal for payment.

MBS Filemaker Plugin, version 2.8pr7

New in this prerelease of the 2.8 plugins:
  • Added more SystemInfo functions.
  • Added Window.Update command.
  • Form utility improved: Avoids black input fields, shows HTML code, shows options for select fields and updates URL field to current URL. And code signed for Mountain Lion.
  • With backdrop window on Mac we hide other apps if you switch to Filemaker from other app and backdrop is active.
  • Normal drag handler scripts are no longer called in layout mode. We could also disable other script callings in that case if needed or make it an option.
Download later today at monkeybreadsoftware.de/filemaker/files/

Notes from today

  • Mac OS X 10.8 may come around 25th July according to some rumor webpages.
  • Our plugins are getting ready for the launch of Mountain Lion. I worked the last weekend on new classes for events, reminders and sharing services.
  • Windows 8 internally is just a Windows 6.2. Vista was 6.0 and Windows 7 is 6.1. No idea why Microsoft let version differ so much between marketing and kernel. We'll update our OS version functions for this.
  • If next Real World is in spring 2013, there may be room for another event in fall.
  • Tomorrow office may be closed due to Michael's second birthday. :-)

Filemaker Meeting in Bern/Swiss

Tonight, 7 pm at the Beaulieu (Erlachstr 3, Bern), you can meet a couple of swiss Filemaker developers.

Archives

Mar 2024
Feb 2024
Jan 2024
Dec 2023
Nov 2023
Oct 2023
Sep 2023
Aug 2023
Jul 2023
Jun 2023
May 2023
Apr 2023
Mar 2023
Feb 2023
Jan 2023
Dec 2022
Nov 2022
Oct 2022
Sep 2022
Aug 2022
Jul 2022
Jun 2022
May 2022
Apr 2022
Mar 2022
Feb 2022
Jan 2022
Dec 2021
Nov 2021
Oct 2021
Sep 2021
Aug 2021
Jul 2021
Jun 2021
May 2021
Apr 2021
Mar 2021
Feb 2021
Jan 2021
Dec 2020
Nov 2020
Oct 2020
Sep 2020
Aug 2020
Jul 2020
Jun 2020
May 2020
Apr 2020
Mar 2020
Feb 2020
Jan 2020
Dec 2019
Nov 2019
Oct 2019
Sep 2019
Aug 2019
Jul 2019
Jun 2019
May 2019
Apr 2019
Mar 2019
Feb 2019
Jan 2019
Dec 2018
Nov 2018
Oct 2018
Sep 2018
Aug 2018
Jul 2018
Jun 2018
May 2018
Apr 2018
Mar 2018
Feb 2018
Jan 2018
Dec 2017
Nov 2017
Oct 2017
Sep 2017
Aug 2017
Jul 2017
Jun 2017
May 2017
Apr 2017
Mar 2017
Feb 2017
Jan 2017
Dec 2016
Nov 2016
Oct 2016
Sep 2016
Aug 2016
Jul 2016
Jun 2016
May 2016
Apr 2016
Mar 2016
Feb 2016
Jan 2016
Dec 2015
Nov 2015
Oct 2015
Sep 2015
Aug 2015
Jul 2015
Jun 2015
May 2015
Apr 2015
Mar 2015
Feb 2015
Jan 2015
Dec 2014
Nov 2014
Oct 2014
Sep 2014
Aug 2014
Jul 2014
Jun 2014
May 2014
Apr 2014
Mar 2014
Feb 2014
Jan 2014
Dec 2013
Nov 2013
Oct 2013
Sep 2013
Aug 2013
Jul 2013
Jun 2013
May 2013
Apr 2013
Mar 2013
Feb 2013
Jan 2013
Dec 2012
Nov 2012
Oct 2012
Sep 2012
Aug 2012
Jul 2012
Jun 2012
May 2012
Apr 2012
Mar 2012
Feb 2012
Jan 2012
Dec 2011
Nov 2011
Oct 2011
Sep 2011
Aug 2011
Jul 2011
Jun 2011
May 2011
Apr 2011
Mar 2011
Feb 2011
Jan 2011
Dec 2010
Nov 2010
Oct 2010
Sep 2010
Aug 2010
Jul 2010
Jun 2010
May 2010
Apr 2010
Mar 2010
Feb 2010
Jan 2010
Dec 2009
Nov 2009
Oct 2009
Sep 2009
Aug 2009
Jul 2009
Apr 2009
Mar 2009
Feb 2009
Dec 2008
Nov 2008
Oct 2008
Aug 2008
May 2008
Apr 2008
Mar 2008
Feb 2008