Some barcode types like QR-Code support structured appends. That means you can have a series of barcodes and carry metadata to identify them as belonging to the same series. And each of them carries the index within the series and the number of barcodes in total. For example you may have 1 or 3, 2 or 3 and 3 or 3.
Our MBS FileMaker Plugin handles this with the Barcode.GenerateJSON function. You pass the StructuredAppend option with the JSON object containing index, count and Id entries for the series. The index is one based up to the value in count. Please note that the ID is limited to a few characters or numbers and this depends on the barcode type.
JSON has become the universal data format for APIs, configuration, and data exchange.
It’s precise, machine-friendly, and everywhere. But when JSON is fed into Large Language
Models (LLMs), it’s not always ideal: braces, quotes, and repeated field names can waste
tokens and obscure the structure that models need to reason about the data.
That’s where Token-Oriented Object Notation (TOON) comes in.
TOON is a compact, human-readable encoding of the JSON data model, designed specifically
for LLM input. It is a lossless representation of JSON, meaning you can round-trip
between JSON and TOON without losing information.
Some barcode types like QR-Code support structured appends. That means you can have a series of barcodes and carry metadata to identify them as belonging to the same series. And each of them carries the index within the series and the number of barcodes in total. For example you may have 1 or 3, 2 or 3 and 3 or 3.
Our MBS Xojo Barcode Plugin handles this with the ZintStructuredAppendMBS class in conjunction with the BarcodeGeneratorMBS class. There you have the properties to define index, count and the ID for thes series. The index is one based up to the value in count. Please note that the ID is limited to a few characters or numbers and this depends on the barcode type.
Let's say you like to install the MBS FileMaker Plugin on your Mac for FileMaker Pro.
Download
First you download our MBSPlugin.dmg from our website.
For macOS please use the dmg file. This one is notarized, so Apple had a chance to run their malware scanner on it. While you could also load the zip archive with the same content, you would then get warnings about the plugin being unnotarized. The download may take a while.
You open the disk image and there you find a folder with the macOS plugin and inside the MBS.fmplugin file.
When using COM functions in FileMaker, you may have seen this dialog:
We saw it a lot recently with WIA for scanning. It's the default dialog for COM for the case a message can't be answered quickly. So with remote method calls, the busy app may not answer to another app quickly, because well, it's busy. The dialog is simply annoying for us and we just prefer to tell COM to wait a little bit and try again.
With our MBS FileMaker Plugin for FileMaker, you can call FM.InitMessageFilter function. It installs a message filter, which will delay & retry all calls automatically without a dialog. Please try.
Large Language Models (LLMs) love structure—but they also love brevity.
JSON gives us structure, but it isn’t exactly compact, especially when you
start feeding large arrays of similar objects into a model.
That’s where Token-Oriented Object Notation (TOON) comes in.
And starting with MBS Plugin 26.1, you can now generate TOON
directly from JSON in Xojo using a brand-new function:
JSONMBS.ToToon.
In this article I want to introduce you the new functionalities from the MBS Xojo Plugins in version 26.0.
Passwords for Excel
Some Excel files can only be opened with a password.
To make it possible to work with password-protected Excel files with LibXL,
we've added a new method SetPassword in the XLBookMBS class where you can set the password needed to open the file.
As you see, you simply set the password and then later you can call one of the Load methods:
var file asnew FolderItem("test.xlsx")
Var doc AsNew XLBookMBS(True)
doc.SetPassword "secret"If doc.Load(file) Then
MessageBox "Okay"Else
MessageBox "Failedtoload"+EndOfLine+EndOfLine+doc.ErrorMessage
EndIf
I am happy to join the February meeting and present a little bit about what is new in MBS Plugin this year:
When: Friday, February 13, 2026, 10:00 am to ~1:00 pm, (UTC-07:00) America/Los Angeles
Description: The meeting will be held ONLINE using the Zoom desktop or mobile app (see below).
FEBRUARY AGENDA
Marc Larochelle & Matt Navarre: Teaching FileMaker in an AI World
The AI bomb has made attaining an encompassing level of expertise that much heavier on trainers than any previous change in the FileMaker sphere. The pressures, the schedules, the intense focus and what we’re still figuring out will be among the topics in an informal conversation where Marc Larochelle (Productive Computing) and Matt Navarre (Navarre Training) muse about learning AI in order to teach FileMaker developers about its integration.
Chris Moyer - The Moyer Group: Tech News Roundup
In yet another gripping monthly segment, Chris Moyer will share the latest in technology news. Don’t miss this month’s key takeaways from this segment!
Christian Schmitz - Monkeybread Software: What’s New?
Christian will share some exciting new features in the MBS plugin, including language translation and script search capability.
Lui de la Parra - Claris: Introducing Claris MCP for FileMaker
Your FileMaker database already contains the business logic your users need - Claris MCP for FileMaker makes it conversational in under 30 minutes. Claris Software Engineering Manager, Lui de la Parra, will show how your database design and scripts become intelligent AI tools automatically, letting users ask natural language questions while you control exactly what they can access.
SCHEDULE
9:30-10:00 - Log in, hang out, socialize
10:00 - 11:00 - AI Training Discussion with Matt Navarre & Marc LaRochelle
11:00 - 11:20 - Tech News Roundup, Chris Moyer
11:20 - 11:40 - Breakout Rooms
11:40 -11:45 - Announcements
11:45 - 12:00 - Christian Schmitz, New Features in MBS
12:00 - 1:00 - Lui de la Parra, Claris MCP for FileMaker
Just three months until the MBS Xojo Developer Conference and our Training Day. The minimum number of attendees was reached in December, so the conference will take place. Please sign-up, book your flights and hotel nights.
Early bird ends soon
The schedule is nearly complete. Please check the session list. We have eleven great speakers and look forward to the talks.
The early bird offer got extended until 31st January 2026, so you have another week to decide and sign-up. If you don't hear from us within a day or two, please email us.
New sessions
We recently listed two sessions with David Cox:
Auto Reports — run Reports in your Sleep
Xojo is very useful for creating databases and reporting your data to the screen, a PDF, an email or a printer. Users often need to run these reports daily, weekly or monthly. But this can be a problem when staff are sick, on holidays, just too busy, we forget or when the number of reports gets too large.
Auto Reports are normal Xojo reports where your Xojo application runs the reports themselves automatically based on a time or database trigger, then send the results to email or SMS with no human intervention.
If you charge for your reports, you can have them delivered even when you are away from your computer, support more clients than you could manually manage and even have your invoices sent automatically.
Sparkler App — update Desktop or Web Apps to new Version
Xojo is easily able to create Version 1.0 Desktop and Web Apps, downloadable from your web site. But how to they get notified of a new Version 1.1? What if the user downloaded the version for Intel or ARM or the 32-bit version, and they need to keep to this version? Sparkler is written in Xojo and allows your users to be informed when a new version becomes available, see the changes, download and install the new version for their individual App type, whether Desktop or Web, Intel or ARM or Universal, or 32/64-bit version from your web site. The Sparkler Admin application is available for Desktop, Web and iOS. All code is free and unlocked (needs MBS, needs GraffitiSuite for iOS).
New in this prerelease of the 26.1 plugins:
New in this prerelease of version 16.1 of the 
Just three months until the 
