Large integer numbers in Xojo

As you may know we got the BigNumberMBS class with a 320 bit floating point number to calculate with really big numbers. Now we got a new class for integer calculations. The new LargeNumberMBS class provides an integer which dynamically ranges from 0 to 4128 bits depending on the size of the number. Over 4000 bits is enough for a 1200 digit integer.

In the class we provide functions to convert from/to Xojo data types and can convert number to/from strings. We provide common functions to calculate with the large numbers, so add, subtract, multiply and divide work. We also provide modulo and a combined divide and modulo operation. You can shift bitwise left and right and do bitwise AND and OR operations. We even provide convenient functions for square and square root.

The operators are overloaded for Xojo, so you can just use the numbers like others. If you pass nil for a parameter, we take it as 0 automatically. For your convenience, the numbers convert automatically to/from string, so you can pass them directly to a msgbox.

Here is a sample code snippet, which shows that we can do math with more than 64bit to avoid an overflow with really big numbers multiplied and divided:

Dim n1 As Int64 = 10000000000 Dim n2 As Int64 = 10000000000 Dim n3 As Int64 = n1 * n2 // overflow, so wrong result Dim n4 As Int64 = n3 / n2 Dim l1 As LargeNumberMBS = LargeNumberMBS.NumberWithInt64(n1) Dim l2 As LargeNumberMBS = LargeNumberMBS.NumberWithInt64(n2) Dim l3 As LargeNumberMBS = l1 * l2 Dim l4 As LargeNumberMBS = l3 / l1 Dim s4 As String = l4.StringValue // this is correct Break
Please try this with next prerelease. Please do not hesitate to contact us with questions.

Let CURL handle cookie list

A client asked about how to handle best a SOAP webservice, which handles authorization and session handling via cookie. You can query and set cookies in CURL sessions easily with the cookie functions. But the best here may be to just call MBS("CURL.SetOptionCookieFile"; $curl; "" ) and let CURL handle them. So each CURL session can include an internal cookie storeage activated by CURL.SetOptionCookieFile function. When a cookie is set on the server, CURL parses the response and adds the cookie to the cookie storage in memory. For the next query, matching cookies are automatically added to headers and send with the request. 

 

Let's take the following script to query a SOAP servcice with first a login query and than an information query. As authorization is handled via cookie, we reuse the same $curl session and benefit from automatic cookie handling:

 

# The URL of the service

Set Variable [ $url ; Value: "http://somedomain.com/PartnerService17.asmx" ] 

# Build XML for SOAP Login request, e.g. with MBS XML functions or simply subsitute()

Set Variable [ $xml ; Value: "<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"utf-8\"?> <soap:Envelope xmlns:xsi=\"http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance\" xmlns:xsd=\"http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema\" xmlns:soap=\"http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/\>..." ] 

Set Field [ Curl_Test::XML ; $xml ] 

# The SOAP action to use

Set Variable [ $action ; Value: "http://somedomain.com/partner/loginWithLicenceUnlockInfo" ] 

# Setup transfer

Set Variable [ $curl ; Value: MBS("CURL.New") ] 

Set Variable [ $result ; Value: MBS("CURL.SetOptionURL"; $curl; $url) ] 

# Put SOAP action and XML data type in the headers

Set Variable [ $result ; Value: MBS("CURL.SetOptionHTTPHeader"; $curl; "Content-Type: text/xml; charset=utf-8"; "Expect:"; "SOAPAction: \""& $action & "\"") ] 

# Ask CURL to manage cookies

Set Variable [ $result ; Value: MBS("CURL.SetOptionCookieFile"; $curl; "" ) ] 

# Set the payload for the login transfer

Set Variable [ $result ; Value: MBS("CURL.SetOptionPostFields"; $curl; $xml) ] 

# Run transfer

Set Variable [ $result ; Value: MBS("CURL.Perform"; $curl) ] 

# Let's take a look on the cookie list

Set Variable [ $$cookie ; Value: MBS("CURL.GetCookieList"; $curl ) ] 

Set Field [ Curl_Test::Cookie ; $$cookie ] 

# Check result

Set Field [ Curl_Test::Debug ; MBS("CURL.GetDebugAsText"; $curl) ] 

Set Variable [ $result ; Value: MBS("CURL.GetResultAsText"; $curl) ] 

Set Field [ Curl_Test::Resultat ; $result ] 

# Reuse same $curl for second request reusing existing cookies

# Make new XML for second request

Set Variable [ $npk ; Value: "103" ] 

# Build XML for SOAP Login request, e.g. with MBS XML functions or simply subsitute()

Set Variable [ $xml ; Value: "<soap:Envelope xmlns:xsi=\"http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance\" xmlns:xsd=\"http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema\" xmlns:soap=\"http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/\">..." ] 

Set Field [ Curl_Test::XML ; $xml ] 

Set Variable [ $action ; Value: "http://somedomain.com/partner/queryInfo" ] 

# Setup transfer

Set Variable [ $result ; Value: MBS("CURL.SetOptionURL"; $curl; $url) ] 

# Put SOAP action and XML data type in the headers

Set Variable [ $result ; Value: MBS("CURL.SetOptionHTTPHeader"; $curl; "Content-Type: text/xml; charset=utf-8"; "Expect:"; "SOAPAction: \""& $action & "\"") ] 

# Set the payload for the second transfer

Set Variable [ $result ; Value: MBS("CURL.SetOptionPostFields"; $curl; $xml) ] 

# Run transfer

Set Variable [ $result ; Value: MBS("CURL.Perform"; $curl) ] 

# Check result

Set Field [ Curl_Test::Debug ; MBS("CURL.GetDebugAsText"; $curl) ] 

Set Variable [ $result ; Value: MBS("CURL.GetResultAsText"; $curl) ] 

Set Field [ Curl_Test::Resultat ; $result ] 

# Finally end curl session

Set Variable [ $r ; Value: MBS("CURL.Cleanup"; $curl) ] 

 
If you have questions about our plugin, please do not hesitate to contact us.

MBS Workshop in Hamburg bei der FileMaker Konferenz

In Zusammenarbeit mit dem Verein FM Konferenz bieten wir eine Schulung zum MBS Plugin an. Am 16. Oktober 2019 können Sie in Hamburg, Deutschland an einer eintägigen Schulung teilnehmen. Lernen Sie die über 5000 Funktionen einmal näher kennen und wie Sie sie effektiv einsetzen. Sammeln Sie Ideen und verbessern Sie ihre FileMaker Lösungen durch den Einsatz unseres Plugins.

Das Monkeybread Software Plugin für FileMaker stellt eine vielseitige Erweiterung der eigenen Datenbank dar. Der Kurs bietet nicht nur einen tiefgreifenden Überblick in die Benutzung und Entwicklung, sondern bietet auch die Chance das Plugin günstiger zu erstehen.
  • Einführung in das MBS Plugin
  • Überblick über die Funktionsbereiche
  • Neues im MBS Plugin dieses Jahr und in der dann aktuellen Version
  • Rundgang durch ausgewählte Beispiele
  • Gemeinsames Implementieren von Plugin Funktionen in eine Datenbank.
    • Upload/Download mit CURL auf einen HTTP/FTP Server
    • Ausfüllen eines Formulars auf einer Webseite
    • Bilder bearbeiten
    • PDF Verarbeitung
    • Druckerfunktionen
    • Barcodes und Zahlungsscheine
    • Einbinden von Webservices with JSON/XML für REST/SOAP.
    • Senden und Empfangen von Emails.
  • Fragen und Antworten
Die Teilnahme kostet 119 Euro (Frühbucher bis 16. Juli 2019) bzw. 149 Euro inkl. Verpflegung und MWSt.. Trainer ist der Plugin Entwickler und Monkeybread Software Geschäftsführer Christian Schmitz persönlich. Beginn gegen 9 Uhr und Ende gegen 17 Uhr.

Anmeldung bei Monkeybread Software. Schulung findet statt. Mindestteilnehmerzahl erreicht!

Am Abend vorher treffen wir uns zum gemütlichen Beisammensein im Restaurant vom Konferenzhotel. Im Anschluss an die Schulung können Sie gleich rüber zum Apero gehen und die anderen Teilnehmer kennen lernen.

Bei Fragen und Themenwünschen melden Sie sich bitte direkt bei uns.
Weiter Schulungstermine: 7. Nov 2019 bei der Denkform in Wiesbaden, 19. November in Meilen.

MBS Xojo Plugins, version 19.1pr4

New in this prerelease of the 19.1 plugins: Download: monkeybreadsoftware.com/xojo/download/plugin/Prerelease/.
Or ask us to be added to our shared Dropbox folder.

MBS FileMaker Plugin, version 9.1pr4

New in this prerelease of version 9.1 of the MBS FileMaker Plugin: Download at monkeybreadsoftware.de/filemaker/files/Prerelease/ or ask for being added to the dropbox shared folder.

Eight months till European MBS Xojo Conference 2019 in Cologne

Monkeybread Software is pleased to announce the European MBS Xojo Conference in metropolitan Cologne, Germany. We meet in the lovely Dorint Hotel in the center of Cologne. The hotel is in the city center and in walking distance to the main station. Beside our two conference days we have accompanying social programme with our dinner event and optional two training days. For the evenings we have casual get-together in the hotel bar or beer garden.

To give you an update, we have a few attendees already, we got a few session proposals from a few potential speakers and we even got the first student to apply for a free ticket. If you like to join the conference and get one of the first 20 tickets promotion, please sign up soon. If you like to speak, please send a proposal soon and please sign up for the conference soon. As of today we have people from seven countries already signed up.

The schedule:

Oct 23rd: Xojo Training in English
Oct 24th: Conference, first day with dinner event
Oct 25th: Conference, second day
Oct 26th: Xojo Training in German

Registration is open. The early bird offer available till 24th April is just 499 Euro plus VAT. For the first 20 people we offer tickets for just 399 Euro plus VAT. Attending the conference costs regularly 699 Euro plus VAT, including food and beverage in the Dorint Hotel as well as an accompanying social program.

Sessions are to be held in English. Our conference is conceived as a networking event for the Xojo community. The conference is an ideal opportunity for sharing your thoughts and your own development experience with fellow users and developers. If you like to hold a presentation, please contact us as soon as possible. Speaker receive discounted tickets.

More details on the conference website.

New DirectShow dialogs

For next plugin we have some new standard dialogs for DirectShow. You can control properties for compression, camera control, audio mixer and stream configuration via built-in Windows dialogs.



Screenshots are in German, but you can get localized versions of course for your language.
You can show them with our Xojo and FileMaker plugins.

What a week

This week was great. We had so many things going on here.
  • First I visited a company and gave a full training day for Xojo development. Desktop and Web apps, controls and database access. Just a bit to learn Xojo and what is different to other tools.
  • Another client came to our office for a Xojo training and co-development day here. Some clients really enjoy having a helping hand on how to implement something.
  • Stefanie joined the FileMaker training day at MKV for beginners. I think that really helps her learning FileMaker.
  • I worked on two custom Xojo plugins for two companies to wrap some private C++ libraries.
  • Stefanie wrote an article for FileMaker Magazin, which will be published in the next months.
  • She also wrote an article for Xojo Developer Magazine. I hope she can be a regular writer for both magazines and regularly write something for the blog.
  • And the usual remote help for various clients. Like getting load balancer script running for a client with several Xojo web apps. Helping a client with using MBS Plugin in iOS SDK.
  • For the plugins we fix bugs and add new functions as we are contacted by customers.
Now lets enjoy the weekend a bit and maybe do a little trip with family to enjoy some time in nature, maybe walk to a castle.

Text to Webviewer Script for FileMaker

Today we got a handy script to convert text to html for the webviewer with clickable links:



The script looks like this:

Set Variable [ $text ; Value: Text To WebViewer::Text ]
Set Variable [ $html ; Value: MBS( "Text.EncodeToHTML"; $text ) ]
Set Variable [ $html ; Value: MBS( "RegEx.ReplaceAll"; $html; "(http|https)://([\w_-]+(?:(?:\.[\w_-]+)+))([\w.,@?^=%&:/~+#-]*[\w@?^=%&/~+#-])?"; "<a href=\"\0\" target=\"_blank\">\0</a>"; "Caseless¶greedy") ]
Set Variable [ $html ; Value: MBS( "Text.ReplaceNewline"; $html; 4 ) ]
Set Variable [ $html ; Value: "<html><body><p>" & $html & "</p></body></html>" ]
Set Field [ Text To WebViewer::HTML ; $html ]
Set Web Viewer [ Object Name: "web" ; URL: "data:text/html;charset=utf-8;base64," & Base64Encode ( $html ) ]

As you see, we use Text.EncodeToHTML to encode any special characters as html entities. Than we use a regular expression to find all links and make them clickable. Next we replace the line endings and load the html into the web viewer with a data URL.

This works fine for MacOS and Windows. You can even put it on the FileMaker Server and use it for Web Direct.
For iOS, you may need to have plugin in your own iOS app or do the processing via PSoS. Finally you can load html to web viewer on iOS.

XDC Video Sale

Xojo Inc. is running a sale and offers older Xojo conference videos:

As we are getting closer to XDC 2019, new conference videos are on the horizon! We are now offering some great pricing on the XDC 2018 and 2016 videos! Between now and XDC (May 1, 2019), you can get the XDC 2016 video set for $75 and the 2018 video set for $99! Buy now!

If you like to attend a conference, there is a the bigger official Xojo Developer Conference in May 2019 in Miami and our European Xojo conference in Cologne in October 2019.

Fixing a broken time machine backup

If you see a dialog like this, your backup may be broken or just have a little problem with the disk image. So usually we try to repair it instead of starting over. This are the steps necessary:

First turn of backups and mount the Time Machine disk and check what the name of the disk and the sparse bundle inside is, so you can adjust the names. hdiutil will return the disk number, which must be used for the next two calls:

sudo su -
hdiutil attach -nomount -noverify -noautofsck /Volumes/DiskName/BackupName.sparsebundle
fsck_hfs -dfy /dev/diskXs2
hdiutil detach /dev/diskXs2

After fsck_hfs repaired the disk image on your time machine, you may need to remove the nouchg flag for the sparse bundle:

chflags -R nouchg /Volumes/DiskName/BackupName.sparsebundle

In the plist file inside the bundle, you may need to remove the decline date where the backup was marked broken:

<key>RecoveryBackupDeclinedDate</key>
<date>some-data</date>

And set the VerificationState back to zero:

<key>VerificationState</key>
<integer>0</integer>

If you did all the steps, you can enable backups again and let it continue with the same time machine sparse bundle.
We did those fixes a few time already and usually fsck reported just a minor problem.

MBS Xojo Plugins, version 19.1pr3

New in this prerelease of the 19.1 plugins: Download: monkeybreadsoftware.com/xojo/download/plugin/Prerelease/.
Or ask us to be added to our shared Dropbox folder.

MBS FileMaker Plugin, version 9.1pr3

New in this prerelease of version 9.1 of the MBS FileMaker Plugin: Download at monkeybreadsoftware.de/filemaker/files/Prerelease/ or ask for being added to the dropbox shared folder.

Connecting to PostgreSQL with SSL and client certificate file in Xojo

You can pass various options when connecting to PostgreSQL server with SQLDatabaseMBS or SQLConnectionMBS classes in our MBS Xojo SQL Plugin. This includes several SSL options. If ssl mode is require, the SSL encryption is required. But only if you provide local certificate chain and the mode verify-full, the chain of certificates is validated. So if someone puts in a proxy with their own certificate, your application would not connect.

So here a sample code about how to connect with a client side certificate, a private key and the root certificates to validate against: (more)

Scroll through records with mouse wheel on MacOS

As you may know we already made functions to catch scroll wheel events for FileMaker on Windows and trigger a script to move between records.

FileMaker Pro Advanced 17 misses the feature for mouse wheel navigation for the navigation view in the toolbar.

For MBS FileMaker Plugin 9.1, we added MacOS support for FM.MouseWheelScriptTrigger function, so you can use it with the toolbar. If needed, you can enable/disable the feature at any time with FM.EnableMouseWheel and FM.DisableMouseWheel functions.

The Mac version of that function is a bit more clever than on Windows as we only capture the scroll wheel events while the mouse is over the right window area. Even works, if the window is background and you scroll with mouse over the window.

Coming soon for next plugin version. If you like to try today, you can email us.

FileMaker Stammtische diese Woche

Wer nach anderen FileMaker Entwickler sucht, kann sich FileMaker auf der Events Webseite oder auf der FileMaker Magazin Webseite nach Stammtischen suchen.

Diese Woche finden drei FileMaker Stammtische statt:

Am 13. Februar 2019 gegen 19 Uhr in den Räumen der "Studiowerk - Musikmanufaktur" in Braunschweig.
Am 14. Februar 2019 gegen 19 Uhr im Ristorante Pizzeria Capri in Neu-Ulm.
Am 14. Februar 2019 gegen 19 Uhr im Restaurant Beaulieu in Bern.

Herzliche Einladung mal vorbei zu schauen, falls ihr in der Nähe seit.

Am Besten für den jeweiligen Stammtisch beim Organisator anmelden, damit die Bescheid wissen, wer kommt. Und die Organisatoren schicken gerne regelmäßig Emails rund um an den nächsten Termin zu erinnern, die Themen bzw. Termin- oder Ortswechsel bekannt zu geben.

Move from REALSQLdatabase to SQLiteDatabase

While current SQLiteDatabase in Xojo 2018r4 uses SQLite 3.25.3, the old REALSQLdatabase is still version 3.7.14.1, about 6 years older. If you still have code with REALSQLdatabase, please move it to SQLiteDatabase. Or you move to SQLDatabaseMBS, which offers SQLite 3.27.1 currently with the recently added VACUUM INTO command.

Normally you just change the class names from REALSQLdatabase to SQLiteDatabase and RealSQLPreparedStatement to SQLitePreparedStatement. The older class sometimes added ROWID to the select statements to make edit/update/delete methods workable.

A few things SQLiteDatabase got over the six years:
  • SQLite got a backup API, so you can backup to a new SQLiteDatabase.
  • SQLite 3.25.0 got window functions
  • SQLite 3.24.0 got support for PostgreSQL-style UPSERT.
  • SQLite 3.18.0 got PRAGMA optimize command.
  • SQLite 3.15.0 got support for row values.
  • SQLite 3.9.0 got FTS 5 extension
  • Endless bug fixes including some that could corrupt the database.
  • Great performance improvements between
Finally a general tip. Please call SQLExecute "PRAGMA cache_size = 20000" early in app start to set a big enough cache size. If the tables or their indexes don't fit in memory, performance suffers.

MBS Xojo Plugins, version 19.1pr2

New in this prerelease of the 19.1 plugins:
  • Changed CarbonEventsIdleTimerMBS.available to be shared property.
  • Added CGImageSourceMBS.CreateThumbnailMT to create thumbnails threaded.
  • Added GMConvertMBS and GM16ConvertMBS classes.
  • Added HIDAPIDeviceMBS.WriteAsync method.
  • Added SQLErrorExceptionMBS.SQL property.
  • Added TiffPictureMBS.ScanlinesScaled function to scale down vertically on reading scanlines.
  • Added work around to NSColorSpaceMBS.File property to make it work better.
  • Changed UNNotification functions to return error on server.
  • Changed WebDownloadDelegateMBS and NSURLDownloadMBS classes to be thread safe.
  • Changes TiffPictureMBS.Scanlines and ScanlinesScaled to yield.
  • Fixed a problem with TiffPictureNBS.Scanlines crashing with too small buffer for some images.
  • Fixed crash with connecting to SQL Anywhere when creating connection failed. Now reports an error instead.
  • Fixed problem with UNNotification functions blocking plugin to initialize on Server. (from pr1)
  • Fixed TiffPictureNBS.Scanlines to correct parameters if RowsPerStrip > 1.
  • Removed OverlayMBS.WindowGroupHandle property.
  • Removed WindowGroupMBS class (Mac 32-bit Carbon only).
  • Updated DynaPDF to version 4.0.25.72.
  • Updated SQLAPI to 4.2.5b4.
  • Updated SQLIte to version 3.27.1.
Download: monkeybreadsoftware.com/xojo/download/plugin/Prerelease/.
Or ask us to be added to our shared Dropbox folder.

MBS FileMaker Plugin, version 9.1pr2

New in this prerelease of version 9.1 of the MBS FileMaker Plugin: Download at monkeybreadsoftware.de/filemaker/files/Prerelease/ or ask for being added to the dropbox shared folder.

CGImageSourceMBS CreateThumbnailMT method for Xojo

Today a client had questions on how to get a lot of thumbnails calculated quickly in Xojo. We do have CGImageSourceMBS class to read various image files and use Apple's image decoders with hardware acceleration, but doing one after the other in Xojo for thousands of image files would still take a long time.

To speed things up, we made a few plugin functions to use preemptive threads to create the thumbnails. You run several Xojo threads and in each process image files and call one of the following methods:

CreateThumbnailMT(file as FolderItem, ImageIndex as integer = 0, Options as dictionary = nil) as CGImageMBS
CreateThumbnailMT(data as String, ImageIndex as integer = 0, Options as dictionary = nil) as CGImageMBS
CreateThumbnailMT(data as MemoryBlock, ImageIndex as integer = 0, Options as dictionary = nil) as CGImageMBS

The main work is done on a preemptive thread, so you can get a lot of CPU cores busy if needed. The returned CGImageMBS objects can be converted to Xojo pictures (Picture method), or you get png or jpeg image data with PNGData or JPEGData methods.

You can pass various options via dictionary to select the thumbnail size or decide whether you like to use thumbnails embedded in images.

Coming soon for next 19.1 prerelease. If you like to try earlier, please email us.

PS: We also add GMConvertMBS class to do the similar things cross platform. You can use it to scale down images for thumbnails with preemptive threads.

FileMaker Developer Conference 2019

The website for the FileMaker DevCon 2019 is now online: FileMaker DevCon 2019



Please join us 5th to 8th August 2019 in Orlando, Florida, USA.
Monkeybread Software has a booth as usual and we'll be there for a whole week.

You can book the conference for 2 days ($999 USD) or 3 days ($1299), but I would suggest to add training day for ($399) and make it a 4 day conference. And if you come from far away, please make sure you have a day before/after to enjoy some extra activity with other attendees, like a visit to a Disney Park.

Hotel room is $189 including resort fee, but plus tax.

MBS FileMaker Plugin, version 9.1pr1

New in this prerelease of version 9.1 of the MBS FileMaker Plugin: Download at monkeybreadsoftware.de/filemaker/files/Prerelease/ or ask for being added to the dropbox shared folder.

MBS Xojo Plugins, version 19.1pr1

New in this prerelease of the 19.1 plugins: Download: monkeybreadsoftware.com/xojo/download/plugin/Prerelease/.
Or ask us to be added to our shared Dropbox folder.

Workshop zum MBS FileMaker Plugin @ Denkform

For our German speaking clients we have a workshop day:

In Zusammenarbeit mit der DenkForm GmbH bieten wir eine Schulung zum MBS Plugin an. Am 7. März 2019 können Sie in Wiesbaden an einer eintägigen Schulung teilnehmen. Lernen Sie die über 5700 Funktionen einmal näher kennen und wie Sie sie effektiv einsetzen. Sammeln Sie Ideen und verbessern Sie ihre FileMaker Lösungen durch den Einsatz unseres Plugins.

Das Monkeybread Software Plugin für FileMaker stellt eine vielseitige Erweiterung der eigenen Datenbank dar. Der Kurs bietet nicht nur einen tiefgreifenden Überblick in die Benutzung und Entwicklung, sondern bietet auch die Chance das Plugin günstiger zu erstehen.
  • Einführung in das MBS Plugin
  • Überblick über die Funktionsbereiche
  • Neues im MBS Plugin dieses Jahr
  • Rundgang durch ausgewählte Beispiele
  • Gemeinsames Implementieren von Plugin Funktionen in eine Datenbank:
    • Upload/Download mit CURL auf einen HTTP/FTP Server
    • Ausfüllen eines Formulares auf einer Webseite
    • Bilder bearbeiten
    • PDF Verarbeitung
    • Druckerfunktionen
    • Adressbuch und Kontakte abfragen bei Mac OS X.
    • Senden und Empfangen von Emails.
  • Fragen und Antworten
Die Teilnahme kostet 119 Euro inkl. MWSt. und Verpflegung.
Details und Anmeldung bei der Denkform.

Im Anschluss geht es noch zur Pizzeria zum FileMaker Stammtisch Rhein-Main.
An jedem ersten Donnerstag im Monat findet ab 19 Uhr der FileMaker Stammtisch Rhein-Main statt, zu dem jeder herzlichst eingeladen ist.

More SceneKit for Xojo

For next MBS Xojo Plugins, we'll get a few new SceneKit classes for 3D graphics. Here a few screenshots from new examples:

(more)

FileMaker Conference dotfmp.berlin 2019

Did you sign up for FileMaker Conference dotfmp.berlin 2019?

Only 20 tickets are left for sale and this may sell out soon.

This conference is organized by Egbert Friedrich and takes place from 6th to 8th June 2019 in Berlin, Germany.

As the conference is in english, this is your chance to meet people from around the world at a conference in Europe. And for a lot of people it's easier to get to Berlin than to cross the atlantic and deal with US immigration officers.

Who
dotfmp is an effort of various leading European FileMaker Developers. It is meant to bring all kinds of higher level developers together to share knowledge, educate and challenge each other.
When
dotfmp starts at the 5th June 2019 in the later afternoon with a relaxed "Beer and Sausages" in one of the most famous Berlin Beergarden. The session days itself last from 6th until 8th June with various socializing events in the evenings. Additionally we offer support on 10th June to see more from Berlin and its surroundings.
What
dotfmp is a 3 Day-Unconference, Meetup, Hangout or Barcamp. It is an informal and self-organized effort to meet on a personal base.
Where
dotfmp takes place in one of the most famous spots in Berlin. The GLS Campus is located in a vibrant area with a very short walking distance to all the famous restaurants.
Why
We feel there are far too few possibilities to talk to, learn from, and hangout with fellow developers in a relaxed and informal environment. And we'd like to share work and get feedback from people chewing on similar challenges.


If you like to join the conference and present something, please register soon.

Linux Icon Functions for Xojo

For next plugin prerelease, we add new LinuxIconMBS module to provide a few new functions to query icons.

The Icon function queries the picture for the icon based on a mime type, while SymbolicIcon queries the symbolic icon. The FileIcon function takes a folderitem and queries a picture for the icon. For some files, you can query a thumbnail with FileThumbnail function. You get back a path to the temporary file with the icon, in our case a png file.

Functions coming soon for MBS Xojo Linux Plugin 19.1.

Older Xojo versions

Not every project needs the newest and latest version of Xojo. Be sure to keep older versions installed in parallel for your computer.

Here is a list of our special versions kept for various tasks:

Use Xojo 2018 Release 4 for current projects in development.
Use Xojo 2018 Release 2 to build for MacOS 10.9.
Use Xojo 2017 Release 2 if you need a 32-bit IDE on Mac.
Use Xojo 2017 Release 1 to build for MacOS 10.7 or with Linux with GTK2.
Use Xojo 2016 Release 3 to use Windows GDI Graphics
Use Xojo 2016 Release 1 to build for Windows Vista.
Use Xojo 2015 Release 2 to build for Windows XP.
Use Xojo 2013 Release 4 to use QuickTime classes.
Use Xojo 2013 Release 3 to build for MacOS 10.6.
Use Xojo 2011 Release 3 to build for PowerPC Macs.

You can read about removals and deprecations on the Xojo documentation in the Deprecations section. We still have a few clients who want their software to run on older operation systems for various reasons. For example special hardware like PCI cards may not work on the latest Windows version due to missing drivers. So they may want to keep an app with ancient Windows version supported.

To download an older Xojo version, you can log into Xojo website, go to download archives. If you have a current license for Xojo, you can certainly ask them for an older license key if needed.

MBS Xojo Plugins in version 19.0 support all Xojo versions and plugins for older Real Studio are available on request.

Playing with SceneKit

For next MBS Xojo Plugins, we'll get a few new SceneKit classes for 3D graphics. This includes primitives like cylinders, spheres, tubes, cones, torus and boxes. You can create them, show them in 3D space, animate and rotate them as needed.

Today I translated an example from Swift to Xojo quickly to solve towers of Hanoi problem:



The new examples will be included with next MBS Plugin version.

FileMaker Stammtisch in Hamburg am 7. Februar

Am 7. Februar treffen sich interessierte FileMaker Entwickler in Hamburg zum Austausch von Neuigkeiten, Erfahrungen und Tipps & Tricks.

Diesmal zeigt Holger Darjus, warum Wiederholfelder oft unterschätzt werden.

Wo: K&K Verlag, Große Brunnenstraße 43, 22763 Hamburg
Wann: Donnerstag, 7. Februar 2019, ab 19 Uhr

Soweit ich sehe, sind wir dann auch in Hamburg und stehen gerne für Fragen zum MBS Plugin zur Verfügung.

siehe Einladung zum Hamburger FileMaker Stammtisch und Stammtisch Hamburg Webseite

Würde mich freuen Euch dort zu sehen.

Wenn noch Bedarf ist an Beratung/Schulung/Entwicklungshilfe vor Ort, dann bitte melden wegen Terminvereinbarung.

UserNotifications framework for Mac

The UserNotifications framework has been in iOS since version 10. With MacOS 10.14 Apple added this framework for the Mac, so we have the same classes in iOS and MacOS. With MacOS 10.14 Apple also deprecated NSUserNotification API.

To MBS Plugins, we now add UserNotifications API for MacOS in both our FileMaker and Xojo plugins.

For Xojo the new plugin part UNNotification contains all the classes to wrap the framework. As usually, we make this thread safe for Xojo, manage memory automatically and convert data types for you.

For FileMaker we compile the same code as for iOS for MacOS. Our existing UNNotification functions simply work for MacOS, too. There are a few little differences like location based notifications are not supported and there are no launch images for MacOS. If needed we could add new functions for actions beside just bringing FileMaker to front.

If you like, you can try soon those new functions with the next betas.

16 Years Xojo Developer Magazine

Did you notice that over the last 16 years we got 97 issues of the Xojo developer magazine.



As you know the magazine is more up to date than any book and we highly recommend a subscription for all Xojo developers. Keep up to date on news, development best practice and learn tips and tricks.
Today you get all 97 back issues with 6876 pages in total. Check the Welcome to Xojo bundle for new users.

You need a subscription? Contact us via form before 5th Feb 2019 to win one of three short subscriptions (3 issues).

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