MBS Xojo / Real Studio Plugins, version 14.3pr3

New in this prerelease of the 14.3 plugins:
  • Added EncodeEmailSubjectMBS function.
  • Added more parameters to AUPlayerMBS.LoadFile.
  • Added two VAT ID check examples for your convenience.
  • Updated LibXL to version 3.6.0.
Download: macsw.de/plugin/Prerelease. Or ask us to be added to our shared Dropbox folder.

LibXL version 3.6.0

Version 3.6.0

* added autofit column width support (use -1 for width parameter in setCol method)
* added hyperlink support
* added direct access to merges
* added a possibility to create xltx and xlsm files
* added a possibility to read errors "#NULL!", "#DIV/0!", "#VALUE!", "#REF!", "#NAME?", "#NUM!", "#N/A" with readFormula method from xls files.
* added support Windows-1251 encoding in XML files
* added support RGB colors without alpha component in xlsx files
* added a cell range support in formula expressions (xls)
* improved performance of cellFormat() method (xls)
* optimized xls files reading
* fixed a bug with copying a sheet with pictures in addSheet() (xls)
* fixed a memory bug when used a second parameter in addSheet()
* fixed issue with nested quotes in formula expressions (xls)
* fixed bug with using a single quote in formula expressions (xls)
* fixed issue with loading some xlsx files which were created in Numbers on Mac ("Unknown exception")
* fixed bug with UTF-8 encoding in custom format strings (xlsx)
* fixed bug with reading some non-standard characters (xlsx)

New methods:

* Sheet MergeSize - Returns a number of merged cells in this worksheet.
* Sheet Merge - Gets the merged cells by index.
* Sheet DelMergeByIndex - Removes merged cells by index.
* Sheet HyperlinkSize - Returns the number of hyperlinks in the sheet.
* Sheet Hyperlink - Gets the hyperlink and its coordianates by index.
* Sheet DelHyperlink - Removes hyperlink by index.
* Sheet AddHyperlink - Adds the new hyperlink.
* Sheet SplitInfo - Gets the split information (position of frozen pane) in the sheet.

this will be included in next prerelease plugins in a few days.

Tip of Day: CURL with IMAP protocol

With CURL plugin functions you can use the IMAP protocol for downloading emails. The plugin connects to the imap server, performs a query and returns result, e.g. a list of email, the content of an email or something else. As you probably want to use SSL, please use "imaps://" as prefix. Our examples are normally without SSL.

So for querying folders, you can simply query URL:
URL = "imap://server/"

This gives you back a result like "." and "INBOX" or other folder names.

To query list of emails, you run a custom request to fetch flags for all emails like this:
Same URL with /INBOX to specify folder and you use OptionCustomRequest with "FETCH 1:* FLAGS".

Than to query a single email, you use no custom request, but you add to URL the postfix "/INBOX/;UID=1". 1 is here the index of the email you want to query.

Now if you need to delete email, change flags or create folders, you can check the IMAP specifications and pass commands using CustomRequest option.
For next plugin version, we'll have examples showing this.

Xojo Consulting in German

In the last days I collected a list of German Xojo Developers available for consulting:

Newer version available
If you like to be added, please email me with details.

MBS Xojo Developer Conference

Over the summer the conference is coming closer quickly. Just about 2 month left and our hotel contingent will end soon. So if you want to come and you have not yet a hotel room, please reserve one soon.

Hotel in Koblenz is reserved for 17th to 20th September 2014.

17th - training in German
18th and 19th - conference in English
20th - training in English

Registration is open and we are looking for speakers. If you are interested in coming, you can already email me to put you on the list.

MBS Xojo / Real Studio Plugins, version 14.3pr2

New in this prerelease of the 14.3 plugins:
  • Fixed a problem with Carbon apps if they create a new picture in plugin. Plugin now calls SetGWorld to make sure there is a valid gworld.
  • Fixed plugin bug in DynaPDFMBS.GetTextHeightExAnsi and others.
  • Updated to OpenSSL 1.0.1h.
  • Changed NSOpenPanelMBS/NSSavePanelMBS to keep reference of itself while sheet is open to avoid trouble with objects being destroyed to early.
  • Added IKCameraDeviceViewControlMBS, IKDeviceBrowserViewControlMBS and IKScannerDeviceViewControlMBS controls.
  • Added events for ICDeviceBrowserMBS, IKCameraDeviceViewMBS, IKDeviceBrowserViewMBS and IKScannerDeviceViewMBS classes.
  • Fixed an issue where automatic conversion to variant did return a CFObjectMBS instead of a NSFontMBS.
Download: macsw.de/plugin/Prerelease. Or ask us to be added to our shared Dropbox folder.

Customer Distribution

for our MBS Complete plugin users, we have this distribution:

Spain: 2%
Switzerland: 3%
Netherlands: 3%
Canada: 3%
Japan: 3%
Australia: 3%
France: 4%
Italy: 4%
United Kingdom: 8%
Germany: 12%
United States: 40%

and just a few in Egypt, Colombia, South Korea, Iceland, Latvia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ireland, Macau, Kuwait, Madagaskar, Jamaica, Jordan, Estonia, Cyprus, Uruguay, New Caledonia, Pakistan, Malaysia, Argentina, Croatia, Puerto Rico, Slovakia, Chile, Serbia, Israel, Georgia, Turkey, Romania, Czech republic, Namibia, Slovenia, Ukraine, Indonesia, Luxembourg, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Portugal, Greece, India, Thailand, Poland, South Africa, Hungary, Finland, Russia, China, Singapore, United Arab Emirates, Norway, Denmark, Brazil, New Zealand, Mexico, Austria, Sweden and Belgium.

In general plugin users are living where a lot of people live, who speak some english (to read documentation) and have enough knowledge to do software development and know about Xojo.

Xojo dropping Carbon support on Mac!

I always expected Apple to drop it at some date, but now it seems like Xojo Inc. drops Carbon for 2014r3 release later this year.

For us, we will continue to provide plugin with carbon code and also continue to build our own projects for Carbon using existing Xojo versions for some years.

See blog: xojo.com/blog/en/2014/07/the-end-of-carbon-support.php

Mac App Store submission and RegEx Plugin

Just a quick note that in Xojo 2014r2 the RegEx plugin from Xojo links to the pcre library in /usr/lib. That's a reason for Apple to reject your application.

So if you want to submit an app to Mac App Store, you have a few choices:
  • Wait for a 2014r2.1 or r3 release to fix it.
  • Do not use RegEx class.
  • Use MBS RegExMBS class instead.
And our MBS RegEx plugin has a few other advantages.

Ad the links to forum thread and the feedback case 34392.

Tip of the day: DynaPDF duplicate check

If you import PDF files into DynaPDF for combining or editing, you may want to use the if2DuplicateCheck flag for SetImportFlags2. This enables the engine to replace duplicate items in the PDFs with one common item. e.g. avoid storing images or fonts twice if referenced on several places.

With next FileMaker plugin we enable it by default. Xojo developers please use a line like this:

call pdf.SetImportFlags2( bitwiseor(pdf.kif2DuplicateCheck, pdf.kif2Normalize))

Upcoming change of VAT rules in European Union

From 2015 on some things change in VAT rules. The VAT collected is now the VAT of the country of client and no longer the VAT of the seller's country.

One of the good things is that companies like Apple now need to bill us with German VAT instead of Luxembourg or Ireland VAT. They have a different percentage so it was cheaper for Apple, but we had to do a lot of paper work to reclaim the VAT for our business.

Now from 2015 Apple and also MBS need to charge VAT for EU customers based on their country. But as our company wants to keep things simply and not report VAT for 28 countries, we simply delegate this to Share-it.

So if you are located in the European Union (but not in Germany) and you want to order something from us and you have no VAT ID, we will send you to Share-It. We will no longer process those orders ourself via bank transfer or Paypal.

xDev Magazine Issue 12.4

The July/August 2014 (12.4) issue of xDev Magazine is now available. Here's
a quick preview of what's inside:

* What About Swift? * by Marc Zeedar
Apple has introduced a new programming language. How does it compare to Xojo? Marc takes a quick first look at Swift.

* Inside ServerSocket * by Christian Schmitz
Christian explains how to use the ServerSocket control in your own apps, to let you process your own network connections.

* Writing OS X Apps for Game Center * by Tom Baumgartner
Apple's Game Center provides developers with an API for connecting gamers. However, creating a Game Center app with Xojo requires extensive steps. Never fear: Tom's figured it out and will show you how to get started.

* Mercurial and Xojo * by Craig Boyd
Mercurial is a power version control system. Craig likes its command-line interface and shows how to use it with your Xojo projects.

Plus columns on OOP, database design, optimization tricks, creating usable
code, Regex lookarounds, and much more.

* World Cup Sale! *
Don't forget about our World Cup sale -- there's only a couple of weeks left until the 2014 World Cup (and the sale) ends on July 13, 2014. Until then, just use coupon code WORLDCUP to save 15% on your order! (A $25 minimum order is required, but there are no other restrictions. It even works on renewals!)

* * * Print Edition * * *

Would you prefer xDev in print? Now you can! We've partnered with MagCloud, a third party print-on-demand service, and now you can obtain xDev in a full-color printed copy (much higher quality than anything we've offered in the past). Issues 6.5-12.3 are available now (12.4 will be available shortly): rbd.magcloud.com

MBS Xojo / Real Studio Plugins, version 14.3pr1

New in this prerelease of the 14.3 plugins:
  • Added ChromiumBrowserMBS.LibVersion function.
  • Added several IK and IC classes to cover all the Cocoa ImageCapture classes from Apple.
  • Adjusted plugin to work better with Chromium in future Xojo versions.
  • DynaPDF plugin no longer complains about a required Pro license for the InsertMetaFile functions. Those required years ago a Pro license, but today only a Lite one.
  • Added WinRTFDataMBS and WinInsertImageMBS to TextArea control.
  • Deprecated a few of the controls like oval and rectangle as I think the built in onces are better long term.
  • Added more methods to NSSoundMBS class.
  • Added events willOpen, willHighlightItem and DidClose event to NSMenuMBS class.
  • Updated DynaPDF to version 3.0.33.96.
  • You can now set offsets in PictureMBS class.
  • Fixed byte order for PictureMBS when using pictures with alpha channel on Windows.
  • Added folderitem.WinThumbnailMBS to get thumbnails of files on Windows.
  • Added parameters to Picture.CombineMBS to select area.
Download: macsw.de/plugin/Prerelease. Or ask us to be added to our shared Dropbox folder.

Tip of the day: Connect to MS SQL Server from Mac without ODBC setup

You can always connect via ODBC on a Mac with setting up an ODBC driver for MS SQL. But using the freetds open source library, we can actually connect from Xojo or FileMaker to the MS SQL Server without a special setup.
  • you get the freetds library, e.g. precompiled from our website
  • you start a SQL Connection
  • you set the OptionLibraryODBC with the file path to the library.
  • you use an ODBC connecting string like "DRIVER={FREETDS" + pathToLib + "};Server=192.168.2.32;UId=SA;PWD=manager;Database=test;TDS_VERSION=7.2;Port=1433".
That should work. Of course firewall must let the port open and your server actually must be configured to use this port (or some other).

Update for Xojo:
If you want to place the libtdsodbc.dylib into the Apps Resources Folder (Mac) within the Bundle, add a Build Step to copy the File (Build & Debug Mode) to the Resources Folder and use the following code to access it:

dim libtdsodbc as FolderItem
libtdsodbc = App.ExecutableFile.Parent.Parent.Child("Resources").Child("libtdsodbc.dylib")
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