Daniel Stenberg tells what's the state of CURL tool/library.
See on the CURL video website and watch on Youtube.
We use CURL extensively for our MBS Plugins and visited the CURL Up conferences in the past. We look forward to a conference next year to meet the CURL community again.
Today we managed to build new FreeTDS libraries for you.
Those are based on FreeTDS version 1.1.33 from FreeTDS.org website:
FreeTDS is a set of libraries for Unix and Linux that allows your programs to natively talk to Microsoft SQL Server and Sybase databases.
Technically speaking, FreeTDS is an open source implementation of the TDS (Tabular Data Stream) protocol used by these databases for their own clients. It supports many different flavors of the protocol and three APIs to access it. Additionally FreeTDS works with other software such as Perl and PHP, providing access from those languages as well.
If you are looking for a Java implementation, we refer you to the jTDS project on SourceForge.
FreeTDS has many possible uses. It has been used by Unix/Linux webservers to present data stored in SQL Server to the web, to port SQL Server database code from NT to Unix, to import data into SQL Server from a Unix source, and to provide database access on platforms (such as realtime systems) that have no native drivers.
The FreeTDS C libraries are available under the terms of the GNU LGPL license. Consult COPYING.LIB in the distribution for details.
We use this library in MBS Plugins to connect to Microsoft SQL Servers from MacOS and Linux.
Supporte platforms in this download include Mac 32/64bit, Linux 32/64bit for Intel/ARM and iOS for both simulator and device.
We celebrate in April 2020 the 20th anniversary of our company. The month is almost over. We got congratulations from hundreds of people, quite a few orders with the discount applied and we had a great birthday cake. Thank you all!
We hope to see a lot of clients and friends at the party next year. Invitations will go out in January for the new date.
If you need a license, get it today or tomorrow with the 20% discount applied.
Have a great spring time at home, stay healthy and see you at the next conferences!
In this article I would like to give you a short introduction to the SceneKit topic. SceneKit is a powerful graphic engine supplied by Apple as a framework and using the Metal Engine for 3D Graphics. SceneKit is available for Xojo under MacOS with the MBS Xojo Mac64bit Plugin.
Geometrical objects can be composed of basic forms. The following basic forms are available: sphere, cylinder, capsule, truncated cone, tube, torus, box, infinity plane, plane, and the pyramid.
Each of these basic forms has its own class with its own properties. Now we will looking at the constructors of the individual forms.
Here you can see the basic forms. The red bar passes through the origins of the forms)
Sphere
From an article previously published on the blog, in which we modeled together our solar system, some of you already know the basic form sphere that uses the class SCNSphereMBS. In the constructor the value for the radius is passed.
Cylinder
In the constructor of the class SCNCylinderMBS class we define the radius and the height of the cylinder
Capsule
For the creation of a capsule we use the SCNCapsuleMBS class. The capsule is a basic form, although it could also be assembled from two spheres and a cylinder. So it is not surprising that for the creation of this basic form, the radius of the capsule tip and the height of the capsule is needed.
Cone and truncate cone
For modeling a cone or a truncate cone we need the class SCNConeMBS. We define the radius of the upper surface and the lower surface, as well as the height. This results in a truncated cone. If we define the upper radius as 0, we get a perfect cone.
Tube and torus
We have also become familiar with the basic tube shape in the solar system project. In the last project we use the object of the class SCNTubeMBS to modeled the ring of Saturn. The tube is defined by an inner radius, an outer radius and height. The inner cylinder is subtracted by the outside cylinder.
This basic shape is easily confused with the torus basic shape, because both are round and have an opening in the middle. But if you cut a torus, the cut surface is a circle. For the tube, the cut surface is rectangular. The objects of the class SCNTorusMBS are defined by its ringRadius and pipeRadius.
Box
For the box we have the normal parameters width, height and length. Additionally we have an another parameter where we can specify how much our corners should be rounded. Extremely sharp edges gives the animation an unnatural look. Look at a dice for example, its corners are rounded too.
Plane and Floor
The objects of the SCNPlaneMBS class are defined by width and height. Besides the geometry of the normal plane, we also have geometry of an infinite plane. The geometry can be created as an object of the SCNFloorMBS class. The class is called Floor, because it is often used to model a floor or ceiling. It has a property that allows you to set the intensity of the reflection, that ensures that objects are reflected in this floor.
Pyramide
Last but not least we have pyramids. In the constructor of the SCNPyramidMBS class we defined the width, height and length of the pyramid. Our pyramid has a rectangular base. In the middle of this base area is also the center of gravity. This is a special thing about the pyramids. For all other basic shapes it is in the middle of the object. This information is especially important for the positioning in a scene. We will see the positioning of objects in a scene later
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With latest pre-release we added the WebView.SetInternetExplorerHiDPI function to switch on the HiDPI aware more for FileMaker application (or runtime). See comparison picture:
In your start script you can just call this function once to enable it:
When this option is active before web viewer is created, the web control will display the content high-dpi aware and zoom to 100% independent of the DPI of the display.
In earlier blog post we recommended to use JavaScript to zoom the website:
Added constructor to XMLValidatorMBS class to take folderitem.
Changed SQLDatabaseMBS RecordSet to pass time, date and timestamp to Xojo with the right type, so Xojo can handle them correctly.
Added SetInternetExplorerHiDPI and GetInternetExplorerHiDPI functions to IEWebBrowserMBS class to enable proper resolution handling in HTMLviewer on Windows.
Added TextShape class support for Object2D drawing with DynaPDFMBS class's graphics integration.
Corrected alignment issues for TextShape/StringShape class handling with DynaPDFMBS class's graphics integration.
Added ClearRectMode to DynaPDFMBS class to ignore calls to Graphics.ClearRect and allow background to show.
Changed SQL functions to return SQL date/time/timestamp to FileMaker in that type and not always as timestamp. This may help to get SQL.InsertOrUpdateRecords to work with time, date and timestamp.
You have a FileMaker Server installed, e.g. on Windows Server, and you need the MBS Plugin installed. Let us guide you though the installation process.
We expect you have a current FileMaker Server running. If you have an older/newer one, the buttons may be on a different position.
We had hired Frederik Leersch, a local cake artisan, to create us a big cake for the 20th birthday party. Sadly the party is moved to next year. But for this year, we changed the order to deliver a few smaller cakes to deliver to our staff:
We have made a ton of example code in the last decade showing how to connect to Microsoft SQL Server from MacOS or Linux using FreeTDS and our MBS FileMaker Plugin. And there are two ways to do it:
1. With loading driver directly
Set Variable [$result; Value: MBS("SQL.SetClient"; $Connection; "ODBC")]
#Tell plugin where freetds library is
Set Variable [$result; Value: MBS( "SQL.SetConnectionOption"; $Connection; "ODBC.LIBS"; "/Users/cs/Desktop/libtdsodbc.dylib")]
#Connect to database
Set Variable [$result; Value: MBS("SQL.Connect"; $Connection; "DRIVER={FREETDS};Server=192.168.2.32;UId=SA;PWD=test;Database=test;TDS_VERSION=7.2;Port=1433")]
As you see, we point to the dylib as ODBC library, load it and connect through it.
2. With loading iODBC and having driver in connection string
Set Variable [$result; Value: MBS("SQL.SetClient"; $Connection; "ODBC")]
#Tell plugin where freetds library is
Set Variable [$path; Value: "/Users/cs/Desktop/libtdsodbc.dylib" ]
#Connect to database
Set Variable [$result; Value: MBS("SQL.Connect"; $Connection; "DRIVER={" & $path & "};Server=192.168.2.32;UId=SA;PWD=test;Database=test;TDS_VERSION=7.2;Port=1433")]
As you see, we let the plugin load libiodbc.dylib (ODBC manager) and then have it load the library.
What is better?
Both ways do work, so for most customers there is no difference. But the second way is better as the libiodbc does some additional services like text encoding conversations, provide additional functions like a directory of the various database drivers, functions to browser for databases and a way to work with data sources.
So we recommend in general that all customers prefer the second way over the ODBC manager to make sure all things work well. For the next weeks, we'll try to update a couple of blog posts and examples projects.
We have made a ton of example code in the last decade showing how to connect to Microsoft SQL Server from MacOS or Linux using FreeTDS and our MBS Xojo SQL Plugin. And there are two ways to do it:
Dim libtdsodbc as Folderitem = FindFile("libtdsodbc.dylib")
Dim cs as string = "DRIVER={FREETDS};Server="+Server+";UId="+User+";PWD="+Pass+";Database="+DatabaseName+";TDS_VERSION=7.2;Port="+Port
db.SetFileOption db.kOptionLibraryODBC, libtdsodbc
db.Option("UseAPI") = "ODBC"
db.DatabaseName = "ODBC:"+cs
As you see, we point to the dylib as ODBC library, load it and connect through it.
2. With loading iODBC and having driver in connection string
Dim libtdsodbc as Folderitem = FindFile("libtdsodbc.dylib")
Dim cs as string = "DRIVER={" + libtdsodbc.nativePath + "};Server="+Server+";UId="+User+";PWD="+Pass+";Database="+DatabaseName+";TDS_VERSION=7.2;Port="+Port
db.Option("UseAPI") = "ODBC"
db.DatabaseName = "ODBC:"+cs
As you see, we let the plugin load libiodbc.dylib (ODBC manager) and then have it load the library.
What is better?
Both ways do work, so for most customers there is no difference. But the second way is better as the libiodbc does some additional services like text encoding conversations, provide additional functions like a directory of the various database drivers, functions to browser for databases and a way to work with data sources.
So we recommend in general that all customers prefer the second way over the ODBC manager to make sure all things work well. For the next weeks, we'll try to update a couple of blog posts and examples projects.
With the recent release of LibXL 3.9, we got new functions for working with styled text. For our MBS FileMaker Plugin, we added new functions for styled text:
Now you can pass directly styled text from a field in FileMaker to a cell in an Excel document. Or you build a styled text from scratch with text formatting functions in FileMaker like in the example below:
In our example database we show the styled text in two fields to check if we got them right:
For the conversion to/from styled text, we support passing font name, color, size and the following styles: bold, italic, strikethrough, single/double underline, subscript and superscript. Optionally, you can attach a format to the cell, which may define the alignment and other formatting options. We hope you enjoy this functions and use them to post process the Excel exports from FileMaker or code your own export from scratch via script.
Please try the new functionality and don't hesitate to contact us with questions. This is already included in 10.2pr4 download.
We recently moved to LibXL version 3.9, which adds support to styled text for use in Excel files. We added a new XLRichStringMBS class to have all the options available within the LibXL library. But we also added support for working with StyledText class directly. You can just pass the styled text from a TextArea control directly to be used to set a cell in your document. Same for reading, where we translate the styles back. Here is an example to write a cell:
Dim st AsNew StyledText
Dim row AsInteger = 2Dim col AsInteger = 0
st.Text = "RedTextblue"
st.TextColor(0, 8) = &cFF0000
st.TextColor(9, 4) = &c0000FF
st.Size(0,4) = 15Call sheet.WriteStyledText row, col, st
row = 3
st = New StyledText
st.Text = "HelloWorldfromXojo"
st.Italic(0,11) = True
st.Bold(0,11) = True
st.Underline(0,11) = True
st.Font(0,11) = "Calibri"
st.Bold(12,10) = TrueCall sheet.WriteStyledText row, col, st
The XLRichStringMBS class allows you to use a XLFontMBS class with the following styling properties to be used: color, italic, bold, single/double underline, strikeout, font name, sub/superscript and font size. Converting from StyledText we pass through bold, italic, underline, font name, size and color. When you call WriteStyledText, you can optionally include a format object, which defines e.g. alignment.
Please try the new functionality and don't hesitate to contact us with questions. This is already included in 20.2pr4 download.
For some time now we can sign PDFs with DynaPDF functions automatically in a script in FileMaker. For next pre-release we add a new feature to add a custom signature appearance. You define in your script how the PDF draws the signature on the page and includes the validation icon. That validation icon is a special feature of the PDF reader where they draw a checkmark to let you know the signature is valid. Like this screenshot:
We draw in the box there to show it's signed, write the name there and then tell the PDF viewer to place the icon left to the text. If the PDF viewer doesn't know or doesn't check, this should display a question mark. See picture on the right.
To do this, you do three steps:
You call DynaPDF.CreateSigField to create a signature field on the PDF and specify the coordinates. You choose where to put it on the page and yes, you can render various areas and look for white space.
To place the validation icon, please use our new DynaPDF.PlaceSigFieldValidateIcon function. This receives relative coordinates within the signature field rectangle.
Then use DynaPDF.CreateSigFieldAP to create a custom signature field appearance stream and draw some text into it. You draw what you like within the given rectangle of your signature and the icon is later placed on top over the custom drawing. Please call DynaPDF.EndTemplate when done with the drawing.
Now you save the PDF and use our DynaPDF.SaveAndSignFile function to provide the file path to the private key file and let the plugin close the file with valid signature.
PS: Also available for Xojo with DynaPDFMBS class, see signature appearance project.
Recently a client asked whether we could integrate the libPhoneNumber library into the plugins. Well, it's a big C++ library with a lot of dependencies and it looks like building a static version for our plugin or a DLL version to load at runtime is a bit tricky. But we found the JavaScript port of the library on the same website. This one has a couple of dependencies, but it can be compiled into a single file version with all required libraries embedded in one JavaScript file.
As you may know we introduced a JavaScript engine into our plugins last December for both FileMaker and Xojo. This JavaScript engine is capable to load the standalone version of libPhoneNumber and execute queries to work with phone numbers. Let us look at a few examples. First you load the library and initialize everything. Then you query for example the intlTelInputUtils.formatNumber function to format a number:
The result is "+49 175 1234567", which formats the number for international use with spaces in-between for humans. All javaScript functions used here are in the intlTelInputUtils namespace, so all function names have this as prefix. The formatNumber function itself takes three parameters with the number, the country code and the format. Possible formats are given as constants in JavaScript, so you can pass here E164, INTERNATIONAL, NATIONAL or RFC3966. The last one is the tel: URL for use in links on a website. For our test number, we would get "+491751234567" for E164, "0175 1234567" for NATIONAL and "tel:+49-175-1234567" for RFC3966.
As you may know FileMaker comes with a plugin SDK, which C++ developers like me use to develop plugins. Now the Plugin SDK offers a way to register functions and script steps and provide additional features to the FileMaker developer.
The plugin developer can get a list of parameters with the function call and inspect them, e.g. do different things for containers, texts or numbers passed in. And the plugin can return a value as result and the SDK offers functions to return texts, numbers and assemble containers. Over the years we got a few SQL functions to do queries and modify data in the database on behalf of the FileMaker developer. With the evaluate function in the SDK, we can call Get(Functions) or do calculations.
From a plugin we can trigger a script. That means the script call is put on a queue and executed later after the current script finished. But for some reason, we can't trigger a script on FileMaker Server. The plugin SDK doesn't provide the functionality to do this.
In the plugin we can work with styled text stored in FileMaker fields. We use that to format JSON and XML text now. But we can't access alignments in a styled text.
So as a plugin developer I submitted a few ideas over time:
Please vote for them if you like. Claris Inc. may look right now what to deliver in 2020 and we would appreciate if something would be picked based on popular vote.
Those ideas could help to make a better plugin SDK, which may lead a dozen plugin developers to make better plugins, which hundreds of FileMaker developers could use in thousands of solutions.
So far a couple of people updated their licenses, some even for 5 years. Thank you.
We are half through April, so our sale has another 14 days left.
If you have a license about to expire or just expired a few months ago, just order an update if you like. We really do encourage everyone to take advantage of it and make sure you have all your licenses updated to current versions. The 20% discount with coupon code 20years is a gift to all our users.
For everyone with licenses expired before 6/2019, it is usually cheaper to buy a new one with discount instead of a multi year update.
If you have an older license, you don't need any more and you don't want to get reminder emails about, please let us know so we can mark the email to not get newsletters.
For the current prerelease version 20.2pr3 we added NSURLSessionMBS and related classes to the MBS Xojo Plugins. Main reason is that we urgently needed a solution for a client to support HTTP/2 connections for a project. Long term plan is to add HTTP/2 to our CURL plugin someday, but for now it is easier to just leverage Apple's excellent NSURL Frameworks which do the heavy work for almost all network traffic in MacOS & iOS. The classes allow you to use the latest encryption settings automatically.
When using the classes, please first create an object of NSURLSessionConfigurationMBS class. Configure it to the options you need, e.g. what caching or cookie policies you like or whether to allow cellular or expensive connections.
Next you can initialize a new NSURLSessionMBS, usually via constructor and your own subclass to fill in the events. Alternatively for simple transfers you can use the sharedSession and use the default settings.
NSURLSessionDownloadTaskMBS to download a bigger file to disk. This includes support for pausing and resuming downloads.
NSURLSessionStreamTaskMBS allows you to skip the HTTP protocol and do your own streaming of whatever data you have.
NSURLSessionWebSocketTaskMBS new in MacOS 10.15 allows to connect via web socket connection and allow you to send messages.
Please try the new classes soon and let us know if you have any problems using them.
We formally deprecate NSURLConnectionMBS class, which is the older set of classes Apple provides for HTTP connections. You should move to NSURLSessionMBS soon. We won't remove them until Apple removes them, but you never know whether they will be part of next OS version.
The idea is to pass an expression to do the comparison for the sort operation. This way you can use functions like for example GetAsNumber() to convert from text to number.
If you run the function with simply comparing leftValue and rightValue like this:
This function can handle various things including sorting by date with GetAsDate(), sorting only text after first 5 characters with Middle() function or do various other operations as needed.
Finally we applied the same technique to JSON with our new JSON.SortWithEvaluate function. You can sort array values here and do the JSON comparison in the expression by using built-in JSON functions in FileMaker or our MBS JSON functions. Here an example sorting a JSON array:
Next an example to sort objects by a value of a key within each object. For example if you have records with a name as one of the fields, you can now sort by the field name:
The expression can combine multiple comparisons to look e.g. on first and last name. The following expression would look first if last name is the same and then compare first name:
If you do the standard sorting, our List.Sort, QuickList.Sort and JSON.Sort functions will be much faster. But this is for maximum flexibility. If needed we could put in some optimization of course for the future.
While staying at home, how about watching some videos for sessions from XDC 2019 and 2020?
Although the conference was cancelled this year, some sessions got recorded and may be worth to watch.
Did you know you can have a callback from JavaScript in a web viewer in FileMaker without using FMP URL scheme?
For MacOS and iOS in FileMaker 16 or newer, you can use the WebKit message handler feature. First you call Webview.AddScriptMessageHandler function to register a name:
Next you can use it in Javascript to trigger a script in FileMaker from JavaScript:
window.webkit.messageHandlers.test.postMessage({'filename':'WebView Message Handler.fmp12', 'parameter':'Hello World from JavaScript', 'scriptName':'test'});
And you can evaluate an expression in JavaScript:
window.webkit.messageHandlers.test.postMessage({'evaluate':'MBS( "Msgbox"; "Hello from Evaluate in JavaScript" )'});
As you see, we get for our message handler a new entry in the namespace called window.webkit.messageHandlers.test. This allows us to call postMessage method there and this triggers the plugin code to trigger scripts or do evaluation. The parameter to the postMessage must be a Javascript object with a few properties:
fileName: The name of the file with the script.
scriptName: The name of the script to trigger.
parameter: The parameter to pass to the script.
evaluate: The expression to evaluation.
This works nice for 2 years now and we'd love to see what you can do with this technique.
You can define a JavaScript function to wrap this and install it with WebView.RunJavaScript into the web viewer or include it in the html document:
Matt Petrowsky from the ISO FileMaker Magazine has an amazing library of video content related to FileMaker. You can subscribe on the website and enjoy a lot of tutorials and video talks about learning FileMaker.
Currently for the time of the COVID-19 pandemie he provides a new series on Youtube:
Just 12 years ago we added the ChartDirector Plugin to our MBS Xojo Plugin collection.
Thanks to Mr. Jason J. Campbell for asking me to add a charts plugin and thanks to Peter Kwan from Advanced Software Engineering Limited for his support over the years and the excellent co-operation.
PS: ChartDirector is the engine used by FileMaker Pro internally for the chart generation as you can see on the included DLLs.
We are now a Claris Partner as we just renewed our FBA membership:
It is already 8 years since we applied for this and being a Claris Partner helps:
The listing on the website as well as recommendations to prospects by Claris employers helps to bring business to your company. You get a discount for license purchase so you can make some money selling your solution bundled with the FileMaker licenses and offer one stop shopping to your clients. You can list your products on the marketplace and use Solution Bundle Agreement if you like to sell a lot of bundles. Access to beta versions, extra training sessions, exclusive partner meetings and a few test licenses are included, too.
If you like to become Claris Partner, you can read more on the FileMaker website.
Our birthday sale is a way to give every user a thank you with a 20% price reduction. We really do encourage everyone to take advantage of it and make sure you have all your licenses updated to current versions.
The special offer for 20th birthday of Monkeybread Software ends on 30th April. On 1st May we will remove all notices for it and disable thereafter the coupon codes.
If you have a license expired before June 2019, you could buy a new license with discount as that is usually cheaper than multi year updates.
Purchases going through Paypal should get the discount applied automatically, so the amount shown on Paypal website is the reduced price. If you accidentally paid full price here, we may just refund the 20% or add 3 extra months to the licenses.
For our web shows via Share-It and FastSpring, you can use the coupon code 20years and for most links on our website it should be included automatically.
Government entities or public authorities may just order via email & invoice as usual. We still prefer orders through the web shop with an official credit card as that is processed right away.
If you made a purchase in April without applying the discount, we can offer you to simply extend the license for 3 additional months as often a partial refund is not possible.
You can order multi years updates if you like for up to 5 years. If you buy a new license, you can right after buying the new license also buy the updates.
Finally, thanks for your support and for keeping the company running for another 20 years!
PS: Please make sure your license covers summer 2020, so you get current plugin to use with next FileMaker & Xojo versions.
In this article I want to show you an example with the physics of SceneKit. The physics functions of SceneKit are available in 20.2 pre-release version of our MBS Xojo Plugins.
In this example two pyramids should hit each other. We will create pyramids that move in the direction of each other. We will not only create two pyramids but several with the help of a timer.
We start with a normal and empty SceneKit Scene. The SceneKit Control is located in the middle of our window. We add a timer to our window and open its action event where we want to insert our code.
First we create our pyramid geometry. Then we place the pyramid as a normal node in the scene with the position (5,0,0) on the right side. We repeat it with the second pyramid and place it at the point (-5,0,0) on the left side:
Dim PyramidGeometry As New SCNPyramidMBS(1, 1, 1)
PyramidGeometry.firstMaterial.diffuse.contents = NSColorMBS.redColor
Dim Pyramid1 As New SCNNodeMBS(PyramidGeometry)
Pyramid1.Position = New SCNVector3MBS(5, 0, 0)
Dim Pyramid2 As New SCNNodeMBS(PyramidGeometry)
Pyramid2.Position = New SCNVector3MBS(-5, 0, 0)
Then we create another pyramid geometry. We use this one to assign the nodes physical shape. This physical shape does not necessarily have to be the same geometry as the node. For example you can use the shape of a sphere. In this case the node would be displayed as a pyramid in the scene, but would physically behave like a sphere.
But in this example we want the pyramid to behave physically like a pyramid, too.
Then we have to indicate how our pyramids should move. That means what is the start impulse the pyramids get. So we set the vector with the direction of motion. If we would only set values on the y-axis, our pyramid would first be moved upwards and then would fall down without an arc. If we additionally specify an x-vector we see that an arc movement is created. This is because the object moves forward with a certain force. During the flight the force decreases, so that the object falls down after reaching the peak.
With the method applyForce we set the previously defined vector.
Dim force1 As New SCNVector3MBS(-10, 10, 0)
Dim force2 As New SCNVector3MBS(10, 10, 0)
Pyramid1.physicsBody.applyForce(force1, True)
Pyramid2.physicsBody.applyForce(force2, True)
You can also specify other physical properties such as the mass of a node and see what effect this property has.
Pyramid1.physicsBody.mass = 3.2
Finally we insert the nodes into our scene and make settings for the timer.
If we now run our application we see that the pyramids influence each other' s fall
I wish you a lot of fun with the new physics functions in SceneKit. The example is included with 20.2 pre-release version of MBS Xojo Plugins.
by Stefanie Juchmes
To assist there we add a new GMImage.ReadFromContainerfunction to our plugin. This allows you to create the picture, configure it and then load the picture into the image. When you set background to transparent in a picture with alpha channel, you can preserve the transparency from the SVG. And as you specify a size for the picture and reading it, you can scale the SVG to the size you need:
New in this prerelease of version 10.2 of the MBS FileMaker Plugin:
For Audit.Changed and Audit.Changed2 you can now customize AuditLog table name. The table name parameter can be a list and include first the table name for the table to check and second the name of the audit table name. If second is empty, we default to AuditLog.
Since MacOS 10.10 we got links to open system preferences and point user to a specific preference panels.
In general you have "x-apple.systempreferences:" as URL scheme followed by the bundle ID of the preferences panel. Not all preference panes can be accessed this way and some have special parameters for sub panels. Here is the list:
When you need FileMaker records as JSON, you can just query them via MBS Plugin functions. Use FM.SQL.Execute first to run SQL and get reference number to result in memory. Then call FM.SQL.JSONRecords to get the records as a JSON array. This has high performance and may be faster than looping in a script to build the JSON in pure FileMaker functions.
Once you have the JSON, you may just pass it to FileMaker's data API to move records to another server or pass them as payload for a web service. Within the SQL you can make adjustments to the data. For example you insert fixed values with putting them in the SQL (text in single quotes), you can use CONCAT to concat texts or use CAST() to change data type in SQL. By passing field list to FM.SQL.JSONRecords, you can rename the fields to match whatever you target service expects.
# get related teams
Set Variable [ $r ; Value: MBS( "FM.SQL.Execute"; Get(FileName); "SELECT \"UUID\", \"ID\", \"ID_Abteilung\", \"Team.Name\", \"Txt_Anz.Mia\" FROM \"Teams\" WHERE ID_Abteilung=?"; Abteilung::ID) ] If [ MBS("IsError") ]
Show Custom Dialog [ "SQL error" ; $r ] Else # fill as json in field
Set Field [ Abteilung::JSON_Abteilung ; MBS( "FM.SQL.JSONRecords"; $r; "UUID¶ID¶ID_Abteilung¶Team.Name¶Txt_Anz.Mia") ]
Set Variable [ $e ; Value: MBS( "FM.SQL.Release"; $r ) ] End If
Don't forget to release memory when you are done by calling FM.SQL.Release function.
Check also FM.SQL.JSONRecord to just get one row as JSON object. Use FM.SQL.InsertRecords to insert records into another table in another file within FileMaker or FM.SQL.InsertRecordsToSQL to insert records to a foreign database, e.g. MySQL. You can use FM.SQL.CSV to get records as CSV for exporting.
This works in runtime applications and may be useful in all FileMaker apps to collect data to send to a web service, e.g. to FileMaker Server's DATA API.
If you have questions, please don't hesitate to contact us.
For next MBS Xojo Plugins 20.2, we will have a new set of classes to connect to SAP systems via the SAP NetWeaver RFC SDK 7.50. The SDK allows to call remote functions in the SAP application and move data to/from SAP.
By connecting Xojo applications to SAP, we enable a whole new field of collaboration. Xojo developers can lookup records or call functions to trigger actions in SAP. Developers using SAP on a daily basis can now optionally use Xojo to develop utility applications to help their daily routine. We imaging a lot of import/export applications may be doable as well as interface applications to connect to other devices. e.g. let a Xojo app measure something and send results to the SAP application.
To get the SDK and development access to SAP applications you need to be registered SAP user. The company with the SAP license needs to have user licenses for this usage. And the SDK is available for MacOS, Windows and Linux and so are our plugin classes.
Check the RFCModuleMBS module to load the libraries and check global parameters like the location of the INI file. Then use RFCConnectionMBS class for a connections, query function descriptions and call functions. Use classes for tables and structures to work on records.
Here a screenshot of the sample project we made with a client:
Please let us know if you like to learn more.
SAP and SAP NetWeaver are trademarks from SAP SE.
Generell bietet es sich an, dass FileMaker Entwickler aus dem ganzen Deutschsprachigen Raum sich regelmäßig treffen. Und reihum können verschiedene Leute die Moderation übernehmen.
Today we managed to build new FreeTDS libraries for you.
New in this prerelease of the 20.2 plugins:
New in this prerelease of version 10.2 of the MBS FileMaker Plugin:
(more)
With the recent release of LibXL 3.9, we got new functions for working with styled text. For our MBS FileMaker Plugin, we added new functions for styled text:
We draw in the box there to show it's signed, write the name there and then tell the PDF viewer to place the icon left to the text. If the PDF viewer doesn't know or doesn't check, this should display a question mark. See picture on the right.
As you may know FileMaker comes with a plugin SDK, which C++ developers like me use to develop plugins. Now the Plugin SDK offers a way to register functions and script steps and provide additional features to the FileMaker developer. 
So far a couple of people updated their licenses, some even for 5 years. Thank you.
While staying at home, how about watching some videos for sessions from XDC 2019 and 2020? 
Did you know you can have a callback from JavaScript in a web viewer in FileMaker without using FMP URL scheme?
Matt Petrowsky from the ISO FileMaker Magazine has an amazing library of video content related to FileMaker. You can subscribe on the website and enjoy a lot of tutorials and video talks about learning FileMaker.
First we create our pyramid geometry. Then we place the pyramid as a normal node in the scene with the position (5,0,0) on the right side. We repeat it with the second pyramid and place it at the point (-5,0,0) on the left side:
Since MacOS 10.10 we got links to open system preferences and point user to a specific preference panels.
For next MBS Xojo Plugins 20.2, we will have a new set of classes to connect to SAP systems via the SAP NetWeaver RFC SDK 7.50. The SDK allows to call remote functions in the SAP application and move data to/from SAP.
Da aktuell kein Restaurant oder Biergarten offen hat, verlegen sich viele Stammtische ins Internet.