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MBS Xojo Plugins, version 25.3pr6

New in this prerelease of the 25.3 plugins:
  • Fixed compilation issue for console projects with ASAuthorizationAppleIDButtonMBS class (broken in pr5).
  • Changed NextHeader in ArchiveReaderMBS class to return entry object, even if a warning is issued.
  • Added Description property to VNRequestMBS and VNObservationMBS classes.
  • Updated Saxon library to version 12.8. Download
  • Changed NSControlMBS class to pass editor as variant to avoid dependency between NSControl and NSText plugin parts.
  • Added a search button to find function on documentation website.

New functions in documentation

Download: monkeybreadsoftware.de/xojo/download/plugin/Prerelease/. Or ask us to be added to our shared DropBox folder.

You can subscribe to our Xojo mailing list to get notified for new pre-release and release versions.


MBS FileMaker Plugin, version 15.3pr6

New in this prerelease of version 15.3 of the MBS FileMaker Plugin:
  • Updated Saxon library to version 12.8. Download
  • Added a search button to find function on documentation website.
  • Improved Plugin.RegisterFunction to pass parameters as they appear in prototype.
  • Changed findbar to appear automatically in database design dialog if you use it there frequently.
Download at monkeybreadsoftware.com/filemaker/files/Prerelease/

You can subscribe to our FileMaker mailing list to get notified for new pre-release and release versions.


Autoscroll the FileMaker Debugger

The MBS FileMaker Plugin 15.3 has a new feature for macOS to auto scroll the debugger in FileMaker:

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xDev Magazine 23.4

WWDC 2025 by Marc Zeedar
Last year Apple made big announcements regarding "Apple Intelligence" that were supposed to ship piecemeal throughout year; only they eventually backtracked and delayed the most significant ones. This year's WWDC was a lot more muted, though Marc argues that some of the new features are significant.

AInalyzing Documents by Marc Zeedar
While "AI" isn't intelligent, it can do pattern matching and analysis that is useful. Marc builds on last issue's Image Tagger app to send other kinds of documents to ChatGPT and be able to ask it questions about the file. You can even send it Xojo code and get back suggestions for improvements!

Installing Xojo on Raspberry Pi by Eugene Dakin
Did you know that the Xojo IDE can now run on a Raspberry Pi? It used to be that you had to compile your Pi apps on another machine and transfer them over, but now you can install Xojo itself on a Pi and program natively. Eugene shows you the steps to getting Xojo onto your Raspberry Pi device.

Plus: An interview with Christian Wheel, XAML, Xojo Tennis, unit testing, and more!

MBS Xojo Plugins, version 25.3pr5

New in this prerelease of the 25.3 plugins:

New functions in documentation

Download: monkeybreadsoftware.de/xojo/download/plugin/Prerelease/. Or ask us to be added to our shared DropBox folder.

You can subscribe to our Xojo mailing list to get notified for new pre-release and release versions.


MBS FileMaker Plugin, version 15.3pr5

New in this prerelease of version 15.3 of the MBS FileMaker Plugin: Download at monkeybreadsoftware.com/filemaker/files/Prerelease/

You can subscribe to our FileMaker mailing list to get notified for new pre-release and release versions.


SQLDatabase sample

MBS Xojo SQL Plugin connects to CubeSQL, Centura SQLBase, DB2, DuckDB, Firebird, Informix, InterBase, MariaDB, Microsoft Access, Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL, ODBC, Oracle Database Server, PostgreSQL, SQL Anywhere, SQLite, SQLCipher and Sybase)

We recently got an example project for SQLite with MBS Xojo SQL Plugin and let's explain a bit on how it works.

First you decide which database client library to use. For SQLite this can be a sqlite3.dll/dylib/so library to load or you use the built-in library inside our plugin. The one in InternalSQLiteLibraryMBS module includes various extensions and encryption support, so we can activate it with the Use method.

// use internal sqlite library call InternalSQLiteLibraryMBS.Use

Create a database connection object with SQLDatabaseMBS class. That is our MBS class subclasses from Database, so it supports the database interface in Xojo. But alternatively we also have the SQLConnectionMBS class, which implements the our own interface and works with Xojo Lite. Which side you use doesn't matter much as both can do about the same things.

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MBS @ FMTraining.TV - MBS Open Q&A

Check out the FMTraining.tv website. Richard Carlton and his team do a daily free live stream about FileMaker to watch.

A few days ago Christian Schmitz from Monkeybread Software joined a live episode to talk a bit about the MBS FileMaker Plugin. Watch it on YouTube.

A question and answer round for the MBS FileMaker Plugin. We talk about automatically installing the plugin with scripts. The we check DynaPDF functions to merge PDFs and convert HEIF/HEIC images to add them to the PDF. We render PDF pages and generate barcodes. A PDF form gets build, filled with data and exported. The user updates data and we import the changes back to FileMaker. We check toolbar functions to customize the toolbar in the FileMaker window on macOS. Finally we check email related functions like the EMailParser functions.

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Self made charts in FileMaker

Recently we had the idea that we could draw charts ourselves with the GraphicsMagick functions. It's more a fun project, but I was able to draw a simple bar chart with a few drawing commands. We use a few filled rectangles to draw bars and calculate them on the fly in the while loop.

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Filemaker: Export Text to File

In Filemaker you sometimes want to export text. For that people usually use the Export Field Contents script step in Filemaker. There you can specify a field and a filename. Filename can include variables and specify different paths on Mac and Windows. Field can be a field you select or the current field. If you export a container, you get the file written there (make sure you have right extension!) and for text it writes an UTF-16LE encoded text file.

Now sometimes you need more. Like you want to export values in a variable without putting them in a field. You may want to export text as UTF-8, MacRoman, Windows ANSI or some other text encoding instead of UTF-16LE. With Text.WriteTextFile you can specify the text encoding you want. Maybe you want to pass text before through Text.ReplaceNewLine to make sure the right newline character is used. For example CR for Classic Mac, CRLF for Windows or LF for Unix Mac OS X. Next you may want to write a log file and just append to a file with Text.AppendTextFile.

For containers you can export them with Container.Export. There you can specify a container as field or variable and a path to write to. And you select what to export. Like if your container contains a TIFF picture, you can either export the TIFF or the preview JPEG. The function Container.GetTypes tells you which types are in a container.

If you like, please check Container.Export, Text.AppendTextFile, Text.WriteTextFile or Text.ReplaceNewline.

Use complex text rendering with DynaPDF in FileMaker

Sometimes you may have a project where you need to output bidirectional text. If you output any of the following languages, you may need to think about how to handle the right to left direction:

  • Arabic
  • Aramaic
  • Azeri
  • Dhivehi/Maldivian
  • Hebrew
  • Kurdish (Sorani)
  • Persian/Farsi
  • Urdu

When you use DynaPDF in FileMaker with MBS FileMaker Plugin, you can use the DynaPDF.SetBidiMode function to enable bidirectional mode and set it to RightToLeft layout. Of course you need to load a font with unicode code page to have it cover all the characters. The bidi algorithm makes sure you can mix left to right and right to left text within a text, but you still need to define whether the layout is left to right or right to left. 


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MBS Xojo Developer Conference Update

Ten months until our MBS Xojo conference in Andernach.

First registrations are coming in and we have already the first 10 attendees from 5 countries: 🇩🇪, 🇳🇱, 🇵🇱, 🇬🇧 and 🇨🇭.

Over the summer, we are looking for interesting presentations, so if you like to become a speaker or maybe a sponsor, please contact us.

Picture of the sky bar. (more)

MBS Xojo Plugins, version 25.3pr4

New in this prerelease of the 25.3 plugins:
  • Updated mongo-c-driver to version 1.30.5.
  • Updated DynaPDF to version 4.0.102.290.
  • Updated Unikey Plugin to newer version.
  • Added Linux 64-bit ARM support for UnikeyMBS class.
Download: monkeybreadsoftware.de/xojo/download/plugin/Prerelease/.
Or ask us to be added to our shared DropBox folder.

You can subscribe to our Xojo mailing list to get notified for new pre-release and release versions.


MBS FileMaker Plugin, version 15.3pr4

New in this prerelease of version 15.3 of the MBS FileMaker Plugin:
  • Updated mongo-c-driver to version 1.30.5.
  • Improved OCR error messages to state whether tesseract or leptonica library is not loaded.
  • Added search: prefix for comment links to jump to whatever text you provide.
  • Added SystemInfo.AppResourceUsageStatistics function.
  • Improved how we scroll lists to make sure more rows below and after a visible.
  • Improved debugger in FileMaker to scroll better and show a few rows adhead on stepping.
  • Improved our CopyButton to not show the warning in console about adding a button to the title bar.
  • Updated DynaPDF to version 4.0.102.290.
Download at monkeybreadsoftware.com/filemaker/files/Prerelease/

You can subscribe to our FileMaker mailing list to get notified for new pre-release and release versions.


Rosetta timeline

Apple announced some changes for their Intel support. Version 26 is the last one to run on Macs with Intel CPUs. And for at least version 27, the Rosetta translation layer is supported. After that it may continue to run older software like games, which may never get recompiled.

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IMAP Upload Flags

When you build a mail solution using our CURL functions in MBS FileMaker Plugin, you may use sample code to do an IMAP upload. Commonly you use this to upload an email to the Sent folder when you sent it via SMTP.

New in version 15.2 is the CURL.SetOptionUploadFlags function to pass the flags for uploads. In older CURL versions there was a default to set seen flag, but now you can and shouuld control it.

For example we can use this to set the seen flag for an email, when we upload it to the sent folder, so it doesn't appear as a new email. Or you can set the Flagged flag value to mark the email as flagged.

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MBS Xojo QuickLook Extension

For years we had a QuickLook plugin to provide a preview into Xojo projects and show the version number. I don't know about you, but I have current 12 different Xojo versions installed.

Our extension shows the version number of Xojo projects and if space is available, we show the type (Binary, Text or XML) below the number.
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MBS Xojo Plugins, version 25.3pr3

New in this prerelease of the 25.3 plugins:
  • Updated DynaPDF to version 4.0.102.288.
  • Added SetActiveSigField function for DynaPDFMBS class.
  • Added isTahoe method to SystemInformationMBS module.
  • Improved DumpToStrings method to InternalSQLiteLibraryMBS module.
  • Updated SQLite to version 3.50.1.
  • Added DataTypeInt8 constant for MLMultiArrayMBS class.
  • Updated CURL library to version 8.14.1.
  • Added OptionSSLSignatureAlgorithms property to CURLSMBS class.
  • Added kWebSocketNoAutoPong constant to CURLSMBS class.
  • Improved loading LDAP library on Linux to work on Ubuntu 22 and 24.
  • Added CGDirectDisplayID property to NSScreenMBS class.
  • Added neutralValue property to NSSliderMBS class.
  • Added prefersCompactControlSizeMetrics to NSViewMBS class.
  • Added ControlSizeExtraLarge constant to NSControlMBS class.
  • Added backgroundTintColor and style properties to NSToolbarItemMBS class.
  • Added NSWritingToolsResultPresentationIntent constant to NSTextViewMBS class.
  • Added NSEventTypeMouseCancelled constant to NSEventMBS class.
  • Added placeholderStrings and placeholderAttributedStrings methods to NSTextFieldMBS class.
  • Added constants to NSButtonCellMBS class.
Download: monkeybreadsoftware.de/xojo/download/plugin/Prerelease/.
Or ask us to be added to our shared DropBox folder.

You can subscribe to our Xojo mailing list to get notified for new pre-release and release versions.


MBS FileMaker Plugin, version 15.3pr3

New in this prerelease of version 15.3 of the MBS FileMaker Plugin:
  • Updated DynaPDF to version 4.0.102.288.
  • Added DynaPDF.SetActiveSigField function.
  • Added SystemInfo.isTahoe function.
  • Fixed a problem in CompressFiles method for ZipMBS class, broken since 25.0.
  • Improved SQL.InternalSQLiteLibrary.Dump function.
  • Updated SQLite to version 3.50.1.
  • Improved our CoreML functions to handle Int8 data type in addition to Float16, Float32, Int32 and Float64 data types that your models may use.
  • Updated CURL library to version 8.14.1.
  • Added CURL.SetOptionSSLSignatureAlgorithms function.
  • Improved loading LDAP library on Linux to work on Ubuntu 22 and 24.
  • Changed copy text/selection in ScriptWorkspace to indent the lines.
  • Added SelectedOnly and EndOfLine parameters for ScriptWorkspace.StyledScriptText function.
Download at monkeybreadsoftware.com/filemaker/files/Prerelease/

You can subscribe to our FileMaker mailing list to get notified for new pre-release and release versions.


JSON as input for Saxon functions

Did you know that you can use JSON in our Saxon functions? Originally Saxon is a XML library, but it can take JSON as input in various queries. The queries internally work with maps and arrays and these can be filled by JSON.

Let us show you how to use JSON for Saxon.XPathQuery and Saxon.XQuery functions:

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Older blog entries:

2025-06-12 Base64 function for SQLite
2025-06-11 Round corners for card windows
2025-06-10 SQLite UUID extension
2025-06-09 MBS FileMaker Plugin, version 15.3pr2
2025-06-09 MBS Xojo Plugins, version 25.3pr2
2025-06-03 Shortcuts for formula result data types
2025-06-02 Create an email in Apple Mail from FileMaker
2025-06-01 MBS Xojo Plugins, version 25.3pr1
2025-06-01 MBS FileMaker Plugin, version 15.3pr1
2025-05-26 GridFS with MongoDB
2025-05-25 I quit Duolingo
2025-05-24 MBS @ FMTraining.TV - The MonkeyBread Plug-in 15.2 Update
2025-05-22 MBS @ FMTraining.TV - MBS Open Q&A
2025-05-21 LastError and LastErrorDetail in FileMaker
2025-05-20 MBS Xojo Developer Conference: Speaker wanted
2025-05-19 Saxon version 12.7
2025-05-18 Introducing the New AtomicFlagMBS Class in MBS Xojo Plugins 25.2
2025-05-16 MBS @ FMTraining.TV - The MonkeyBread Plug-in 15.1 Update
2025-05-15 News from the MBS Xojo Plugins Version 25.2
2025-05-14 Introducing AtomicIntegerMBS: Thread-Safe Integer Operations in Xojo

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