Nickenich, Germany - (September 15th, 2020) -- MonkeyBread Software today is pleased to announce MBS FileMaker Plugin 10.4 for macOS, iOS, Linux and Windows, the latest update to their product that is easily the most powerful plugin currently available for FileMaker Pro. As the leading database management solution for Windows, macOS, iOS and the web, the FileMaker Pro Integrated Development Environment supports a plugin architecture that can easily extend the feature set of the application. MBS FileMaker Plugin 10.4 has been updated and now includes over 6300 different functions, and the versatile plugin has gained more new functions:
The main feature of the newer plugin version is our move from Visual Studio 2008 to the more current version 2019. We now use universal runtime library, the same Visual Studio runtime as FileMaker. As Windows 10 includes those DLLs by default and Windows 7 and 8 can install them, the plugin should run fine there. We worked on this for over a year to get all our libraries ported and recompiled. All parts come together and we can finally ship our Windows plugins built with current tools and start to add more Windows 10 APIs over time.
You may know that FileMaker has a built-in Location function for iOS. MBS FileMaker Plugin include CoreLocation functions for macOS for years. For the new version we added WindowsLocation functions to query the location of your Windows PC. Useful for all those Windows tablet PCs running FileMaker Pro. Check also CoreLocation.requestLocation function for macOS to ask for location permissions.
For GraphicsMagick we have new functions to select a font family, stretch (condensed or expanded), style (italic or oblique) or weight (bold). Once set, you can use GMImage.Annotate to write text. We can list the font types available to a text file with GMImage.ListTypeInfo function.
Use Archive.ExtractFile to extract just one file from an archive and get it back as container value. For SSH connections use SSH.ConfigureKeepAlive to prevent the connection from timing out when an operation takes longer than 2 minutes. When tracing plugin calls on server use Trace.SetServerLogPath to have one log file per thread and not mix all calls from all scripts in one huge log file.
For CURL we added functions to query some of the options to help with debugging. You can query effective HTTP method and the retry after delay. We extended post fields to allow more than 8 MB in data size.
For iOS use iOSApp.ReadReceipt function to read the app store receipt and see what items the user purchased with the store. Check the StoreKit functions to list products and start a transaction.
We optimized speed for Audit functions, add better error handling for socket functions, rewrote Hotkey functions to use native API on Windows, improved text encoding handling for XML and restored the notifications to show errors in MBS calls (if you have notifications allowed for FileMaker).
Finally we updated bzip2 library to version 1.0.8, CURL to 7.72.0, DynaPDF to 4.0.41.118 with ZUGFeRD 2.1, GraphicsMagick to 1.3.35, JPEG library to 9d, PCRE to 8.44, SQLAPI to 5.1.1, SQLite to 3.33.0 including decimal extension and we updated Xcode to version 10.6.
15. September 2020 - Monkeybread Software veröffentlicht heute das MBS FileMaker Plugin für FileMaker in Version 10.4, mit inzwischen über 6300 Funktionen eines der größten FileMaker Plugins überhaupt. Hier einige der Neuerungen:
Das wichtigste Feature der neueren Plugin-Version ist unser Umstieg von Visual Studio 2008 auf die aktuellere Version 2019. Wir verwenden jetzt die universelle Runtime-Bibliothek in der gleichen Version wie sie FileMaker verwendet. Da Windows 10 diese DLLs standardmäßig enthält und Windows 7 und 8 sie installieren können, sollte das Plugin dort problemlos laufen. Wir haben über ein Jahr lang daran gearbeitet alle unsere Bibliotheken zu portieren und neu zu kompilieren. Jetzt können wir unsere Windows-Plugins, die mit aktuellen Tools erstellt wurden, ausliefern und im Laufe der Zeit weitere Windows 10-APIs hinzufügen.
Sie wissen vielleicht, dass FileMaker eine eingebaute Standortfunktion für iOS hat. Das MBS-Plugin enthält seit Jahren CoreLocation-Funktionen für MacOS. Für die neue Version haben wir WindowsLocation-Funktionen hinzugefügt, um den Standort Ihres Windows-PCs abzufragen. Nützlich für alle Windows-Tablet-PCs mit FileMaker Pro. Für iOS probieren Sie die CoreLocation.requestLocation-Funktion, um die Standortberechtigungen abzufragen.
Für GraphicsMagick haben wir neue Funktionen zur Auswahl einer Schriftfamilie, der Größe, dem Stil (kursiv oder schräg) oder der Gewichtung (fett). Einmal festgelegt, können Sie GMImage.Annotate verwenden, um Text zu schreiben. Wir können die verfügbaren Schriftarten mit GMImage.ListTypeInfo als Liste in eine Textdatei schreiben.
Verwenden Sie Archive.ExtractFile, um nur eine Datei aus einem Archiv zu extrahieren und sie als Containerwert zu bekommen. Für SSH-Verbindungen verwenden Sie SSH.ConfigureKeepAlive, um zu verhindern, dass die Verbindung mit einem Timeout abbricht, wenn ein Vorgang länger als 2 Minuten dauert. Beim Trace von Plugin-Aufrufen auf dem Server verwenden Sie Trace.SetServerLogPath, um eine Protokolldatei pro Thread zu bekommen und nicht alle Aufrufe aller Skripte in einer riesigen Protokolldatei zu mischen.
Für CURL haben wir Funktionen zur Abfrage einiger Optionen hinzugefügt, um bei der Fehlersuche zu helfen. Sie können die effektive HTTP-Methode abfragen und die Verzögerung bis zum nächsten Verbindungsversuch. Wir haben die POST-Felder erweitert, um eine Datengröße von mehr als 8 MB zu ermöglichen.
Unter MacOS können Sie ImageCapture.SetItemsAddedScript verwenden, um ein Skript auszulösen, wenn ein Bild mit Ihrer Digitalkamera aufgenommen wird. Für TextView-Funktionen können Sie sie jetzt mit der Funktion TextView.SetStyledText auf formatierten Text setzen oder formatierten Text mit der Funktion TextView.AppendStyledText anhängen oder den aktuellen Text mit der Funktion TextView.GetStyledText abfragen.
Für iOS verwenden Sie die Funktion iOSApp.ReadReceipt, um die Quittung des App Store zu lesen und zu sehen, welche Artikel der Benutzer mit dem Store gekauft hat. Benutzen Sie die StoreKit-Funktionen, um Produkte aufzulisten und eine Transaktion zu starten.
Wir optimieren die Geschwindigkeit für Audit-Funktionen, fügen eine bessere Fehlerbehandlung für Socket-Funktionen hinzu, schreiben die Hotkey-Funktionen mit nativer API unter Windows neu, verbesseren die Handhabung der Textkodierung für XML Funktionen und stellen die Fehler Benachrichtigungen wieder her, um Fehler in MBS-Aufrufen anzuzeigen (wenn Sie Benachrichtigungen für FileMaker zugelassen haben).
Schließlich aktualisieren wir die bzip2-Bibliothek auf Version 1.0.8, CURL auf 7.72.0, DynaPDF auf 4.0.41.118 mit ZUGFeRD 2.1, GraphicsMagick auf 1.3.35, JPEG-Bibliothek auf 9d, PCRE auf 8.44, SQLAPI auf 5.1.1, SQLite auf 3.33.0 einschließlich Dezimalerweiterung und wir aktualisieren Xcode auf Version 10.6.
Wir empfehlen allen FileMaker Anwender ein Abo vom Magazin und den Kauf der alten Ausgaben.
Das FileMaker Magazin ist eine exzellente Quelle von Informationen, Anleitungen und Profitips.
Today fourteen years ago we released the MBS FileMaker Plugin in Version 1.0.
Here the original announcement:
[ANN] MBS Plug-in For Filemaker
Make FileMaker Windows Semi Transparent!
Take Screenshots from FileMaker
Run an Applescript on field exit
and more...
Monkey Bread Software, maker of the popular MBS Plug-in for RealBasic and geist interactive have teamed up to bring the extensive MBS function library to FileMaker. The MBS RealBasic plug-in contains over 10000 functions, and this release represents the first step in a project to bring as many of those functions to FileMaker as make sense. Many many more features to com in the future.
The plug-in is available for FileMaker 8 and 8.5. It is available for Windows XP and as Universal Binary for Mac OS X There is a Developer Tool available to help you get started quickly with documentation and Calculation builder. Demos are available on the website
On my next visit to Vienna, we plan another developer meeting:
Wer hat Interesse an einem FileMaker Entwicklertreffen am 10. September in Wien?
Diesmal mit Vince Menanno von Beezwax, der gerne was zum Inspector Pro zeigt.
Vince ist seit ein paar Monaten in Deutschland und kommt gerne mal rüber nach Wien.
Und gerne zeige ich auch was zum nächsten MBS Plugin.
Einfach in gemütlicher Runde treffen in einem netten Restaurant und beim Abendessen was über FileMaker reden. Vielleicht habt ihr ja auch Fragen und Probleme, wo ich helfen kann?
Zeit wäre ca. 18 bis 22 Uhr am 10. September 2020, so dass man auch später kommen oder früher gehen kann.
Wer dabei sein möchte, bitte bei uns melden.
Falls sonst noch Bedarf an Schulung, vor Ort Entwicklung oder FileMaker/Xojo Hilfe besteht, bitte wegen Terminfindung bald melden.
New in this prerelease of version 10.4 of the MBS FileMaker Plugin:
Fixed FM.RunDatabaseDesignReport and FM.RunSaveAsXML to pass directory for macOS again. If possible we now skip the save dialog and tell FileMaker where to save directly.
Sometimes users ask what is better: a plugin or a web service?
The usual answer from your lawyer applies here, too: It depends.
If you can write your own plugin or web service, things may be different than the average user, who uses it.
The web service
The web service provides functionality over a network (usual Internet). It runs on someone else's computer who takes care about keeping it working with redundancy, load balancing and security threads. Your access to the service depends on the quality of your own network connection and the service is usually not available while being offline or without connectivity on the go in rural areas.
You may need to prepare for service being not available and have a table in your database for jobs, so when service is not available, you can store requests and process them later.
If the service gets new features, those are usually rolled out quickly. Usually first to a tester group, but over time to all users. A good service will not break functionality, but use versioning in the URLs to keep old versions running.
Your access to the service will be available as long as you pay whatever the service vendor wants to charge you. Per request, per time and with arbitrary usage limits. The service may stop being available for you if your credit card expires and you forget to update it. If the company goes out of business or decides the service is not profitable, the service may shut down with very short notice.
One question is who owns the data. Can the service provider use data you provide and for example use it for advertisement. Servers may be in a different jurisdiction and could be seized. Problematic if you use shared servers and some other customers does something illegal and your data is seized with the one of the suspect.
Finally you need to consider how big the impact is on you, in case the provider is hacked and all your data on the server is copied by the hackers. Or worse, if the hackers can read all data coming back over months. Of course you may have a contract stating how data is processed, stored, secured, backed up and shared.
The library
The library (or plugin) providing a service locally within your solution is a bit different. You get the library and you can use it locally, even offline. There is usually no per-use fee, but only a license fee to get the library once, with possible yearly maintenance cost.
A shared library has access to the hosting application, so it can work with windows and controls. It can show own dialogs within the application and provide additional functionality on the host windows.
If the vendor of the library goes out of business, the library will usually continue to work. Over time some functionality may break, e.g. with an update to the operation system. If that happens, you may look for other libraries to provide such functionality and gradually replace features as needed.
Every request can be answered by the library instantly or after some processing time. The network latency has no effect. All data can be accessed within the same memory and same disk space as no data needs to be uploaded. Performance may be higher compared to a service, as the library is usually provided as compiled code for the local CPU. And of course all data stays locally.
Finally the library may help you to access a web service. We have examples for e.g. sending emails, Amazon S3 upload/download and more for MBS Plugins.
Conclusion
What you prefer to use depends on your concrete task to solve. Think a little bit about all those factors above and decide wisely. If you have a library doing the job or you already pay for the service, you may just use that. Otherwise it is a calculation of make vs buy, pay by month for a service vs. pay one time for a license and how much work the implementation and future maintenance is.
We set the option to not replace existing values. This calculation now runs on every record creation in FileMaker Pro. The plugin function returns OK, which is written to the record.
The script will now run whenever you create a new record or duplicate one as the calculation runs. We pass the record ID so the script could check the record.
Timer Script Trigger
Other people may create records on the same database hosted on a server. So you may want to regularly check whether there are new records and we just automated it via counting records via SQL to trigger a script when the count changes. Here is the sample script:
# StartRecordCreatedTrigger
Set Variable [ $count ; Value: MBS( "FM.ExecuteFileSQL"; "Contacts"; "SELECT Count(*) FROM Contacts"; 9; 13 ) ]
As you see we query an initial count number and put it in a global variable. We schedule an evaluate and let's take a look on the expression without the backslashes needed:
Let([
$SQLCount = MBS("FM.ExecuteFileSQL"; "Contacts"; "SELECT Count(*) FROM Contacts"; 9; 13);
$e = MBS("IsError");
$r = Wenn($e = 0 AND $SQLCount≠$$LastSQLCount; MBS("FM.RunScript"; "Contacts"; "RecordCreated"));
As you see we query again the count of records via SQL and if that number changes, trigger the script and remember the new count. If an error is reported from SQL, we ignore this for now as the file may be closed currently?
To stop this later, we can release the schedule and have the plugin stop it:
Set Variable [ $$RecordCreatedScheduleRef ; Value: "" ]
As you see we just call Schedule.Release function to release if the variable is set and then clear it.
By using the MBS Plugin to schedule this, we can do the Evaluate even while a script is running already. Your scripts can use OnTimer if needed as we don't need that.
If the socket is broken due to being disconnected, we now return an error instead of zero for Socket.AvailableBytes or empty text for reading. Writing no longer returns -1 in case of error, but the error code and message. Please be aware that if you checked with MBS("IsError") already (as recommended) for all MBS calls, you would catch the error state. But in case you compare results to -1 for write, this will fail in future as you now have an error message. GetAsText() for the error message could take just the error number. You may also use Socket.LastError to get the OS specific error code.
Talking of Socket functions, for most people it is better to use CURL functions instead. If you use CURL.SetOptionConnectOnly to turn a CURL session to connect only, you can then use the socket to do whatever you like. Until you close via CURL.Cleanup, you can use CURL.ReceiveData, CURL.ReceiveText, CURL.SendData and CURL.SendText functions to read/write data on the sockets. As CURL can do proper SSL, timeouts and proxy tunneling, you benefit from those additional features.
On the way we got another nice feature: Trace.SetServerLogPath function. This allows you to tell the plugin to put trace files on server in a folder and give each individual thread executing scripts it's own log file. So if you run 100 PSoS scripts in parallel, you now can have those 100 files to see each script doing it's work. But be aware that FileMaker Server reuses threads and the logs append the files, so when a script is done, the log file gets reused for another script.
Rewrote Hotkey functions for Windows to use official API. May prevent from duplicate registration and a hotkey processed in FileMaker is no longer passed to other apps.
We got a few new ImageCapture functions to import images from camera on Mac. So if you can import in Photos.app or Image Capture.app, you can also import them in FileMaker.
On my next visit to Vienna, we plan another developer meeting:
Wer hat Interesse an einem FileMaker Entwicklertreffen im September in Wien?
Einfach in gemütlicher Runde treffen in einem netten Restaurant und beim Abendessen was über FileMaker reden. Vielleicht habt ihr ja auch Fragen und Probleme, wo ich helfen kann?
Zeit wäre ca. 18 bis 22 Uhr am 10. September 2020, so dass man auch später kommen oder früher gehen kann,
Treffpunkt steht noch nicht fest, vorzugsweise ein Biergarten.
If you like to connect to MySQL or MariaDB from FileMaker with MBS Plugin, you can set SSL options to connect through an encrypted connection. The options are named SSL, but nowadays it's all TLS v1.2 or newer.
Here is a sample script we build with a client to get this FileMaker solution to connect to a MySQL server to download data, e.g. from a web shop.
# Query parameters for connection
Set Variable [ $$SQL.DB ; Value: Test SSL::_DBName ]
Set Variable [ $$SQL.Server ; Value: Test SSL::_Host ]
Set Variable [ $$SQL.Account ; Value: Test SSL::_User ]
Set Variable [ $$SQL.Pwd ; Value: Test SSL::_Passwort ]
Set Variable [ $result ; Value: MBS("SQL.FreeConnection"; $$Connection) ]
Set Variable [ $$Connection ; Value: "" ]
Exit Script [ Text Result: $error ]
End If
If you have trouble or questions, please don't hesitate to contact us. If you need a cacert.pem file, you can go to the CURL website. As you see we pick the mysql library name based on the platform. While you can download MySQL or MariaDB servers and client software, we provide a convenient library download on our website: Libraries. The MySQL 8 files there include SSL libraries, so use the MySQL client libraries when you want to connect via SSL.
Recently a client complained that an old plugin wouldn't work with last version. We try to make our plugins as much as possible forward and backward compatible. You can use our latest plugins with FileMaker 7 or newer and Xojo 2006r4 and newer. But you probably use a newer version from this or last year, right?
While we do have clients successfully use 10 year old MBS Plugins with old license keys, that is usually an exception. In the last years we had a few breaking points:
For example applications had to move to 64-bit. FileMaker 14 and Xojo 2017r3 needed 64-bit code for plugins and everyone had to update their plugins. Currently MacOS with 32-bit is dead, most Linux distributions are now 64-bit only for servers and Microsoft fades out 32-bit versions of Windows.
We had a breaking point with Xojo 2016r2, which added new keywords to the language. As we used those keywords in the function and parameter names, the plugin had to be adjusted. Same for changes for API 2.0, GTK 3 or updated plugin SDKs, which forced users to upgrade. And when Xojo moves to WebKit 2, our HTMLViewer extensions may need newer plugins, too. See version table.
For FileMaker we had a breaking point with version 16 on macOS where Claris redid the web viewer control to use WebKit 2. For Windows this point will come later in 2021 (?) with the move to Chromium based Edge browser for the web viewer. All our WebView functions will need a rewrite then.
If you use anything related to the Internet, there were breaking points, too. All websites and services like SMTP for sending emails now need TLS v1.2. So all the older code, which did only SSL v3 or TLS 1.0/1.1 broke at some point. But we had TLS v1.2 support in for a lot of years, so that should not have hurt you. But you probably use TLS v1.2 exclusively now as anything older is not acceptable under GDPR.
The next breaking point is coming soon: For Macs the CPU will change to Apple Silicon, an ARM64 based architecture. That means once again all developers and users will have to upgrade to current versions of the software to benefit from the new computers they buy.
The conclusion?
Only if you stay current and keep licenses up to date, you can enjoy the latest versions of the software with the latest features on a moving target. And all the software you use need active development with someone taking care. Which usually requires you to keep funding them with regularly paying for updates or getting a subscription. Our plugins are not different in this regard.
If your license lapsed and you are not eligible for update pricing, maybe you want to get the license in November with Black Friday promotion.
PS: In Germany we have a temporary VAT rate change this year and some people had to come back to us to help change the software for this.
You may have enjoyed our Audit functions in MBS FileMaker Plugin, but wondered how to use them with FileMaker Go, where our plugin doesn't run. Well, you could always build an iOS app with the FileMaker iOS SDK and include the MBS FileMaker Plugin to use Audit functions on device. But with FileMaker Go, you can only use MBS FileMaker Plugin indirectly, e.g. via Perform Script on Server, so lets show it to you.
For our Audit example we have our call to Audit.Changed function to do the audit bookkeeping with the plugin. We pass the timestamp field, the table name and any custom values you like, e.g. $$InsideScript, which is a variable set in a script. You can also use an If conditions to disable audit if needed:
Perform Script on Server [ Specified: From list ; “Audit on server” ; Parameter: Get(LayoutName) & ¶ & Get(RecordID) & ¶ & Get(UserName) ; Wait for completion: Off ]
End If
As you see we turn on error capture to avoid an error for calling plugin function if it's missing. When our version function returns a question mark, the plugin is not there. In that case we perform a script on the server and pass the layout name, the record ID and the user name.
The script on the server will run as a new session, so we need to restore context and go to the right layout, the right record and perform Audit there. Some values may not be the same when PSoS runs, so you can e.g. pass an extra UserName value here.
Nickenich, Germany - (September 15th, 2020) -- MonkeyBread Software today is pleased to announce MBS FileMaker Plugin 10.4 for macOS, iOS, Linux and Windows, the latest update to their product that is easily the most powerful plugin currently available for FileMaker Pro. As the leading database management solution for Windows, macOS, iOS and the web, the FileMaker Pro Integrated Development Environment supports a plugin architecture that can easily extend the feature set of the application. MBS FileMaker Plugin 10.4 has been updated and now includes over 6300 different functions, and the versatile plugin has gained more new functions:
Today fourteen years ago we released the MBS FileMaker Plugin in Version 1.0.
On my next visit to Vienna, we plan another developer meeting:
On August 31st 2020, a group of Dutch FileMaker developers hosts a meeting of the FileMaker Developers NL meetup group:
