Early bird offer ending for MBS Xojo Conference

Just a few days left for the really early bird offer for our MBS Xojo Conference in Berlin from 4th to 5th May 2017. Join now for only 299 Euro plus VAT.

In the evenings we meet for dinner so you can meet other attendees. Registration is available and we already have over 40 people coming from ten countries.

The early bird offer available till 4th December is just 299 Euro plus VAT. Attending the conference costs regularly 499 Euro plus VAT, including food and beverage in the Ellington Hotel as well as an accompanying social program.

Registration and more Information. Training days in German and English.
For any questions, please contact Monkeybread Software directly.

Xojo Black Friday Sale

Xojo Inc. is running a black friday sale on their Xojo Store. This is your chance to renew any pending Xojo licenses with a 20% discount. Any license which is already expired or will expire later this year, should be updated now to use this discount:

Xojo, Inc. creator of Xojo, a multi-platform development tool for desktop, web, iOS and Raspberry Pi apps, today announced that their entire Xojo store will be on sale from Black Friday, November 25, 2016, to Cyber Monday, November 28, 2016, the biggest shopping weekend of the year. All new Xojo licenses, renewals and upgrades will be discounted to 20% off of their original price. Xojo 3rd party products and XDC 2015 Training Videos are also included in this sale.


If you like to get books and magazines for Xojo, please visit xDev Magazine and xDevLibrary websites. They offer 20% on all items, too. Use the coupon code CYBERMONDAY there.

While you can buy your MBS Plugin licenses from Xojo Inc. third party store, we offer you the same discount from us. For orders via Share-It, simply use coupon code BlackFriday2016. For everything else like paypal or invoices, please contact me. Especially if you are interested in bundles which allow even bigger savings.

Videos for TouchBar and MBS Plugins

Today I recorded two videos for you to show you the TouchBar features for the upcoming 6.5/16.5 plugin releases:

XojoFileMaker
Thumbnail
TouchBar in Xojo
Thumbnail
TouchBar in FileMaker

You can already download the pre-releases of the plugins and try yourself: Xojo and FileMaker

MBS Xojo / Real Studio Plugins, version 16.5pr8

New in this prerelease of the 16.5 plugins:
  • Added more CloudKit methods and documentation.
  • Changed NSAttributedStringMBS to allow constructing one with empty text.
  • Fixed bugs in TouchBar classes. Please try!
Download: monkeybreadsoftware.de/xojo/download/plugin/Prerelease/.
Or ask us to be added to our shared Dropbox folder.

Spanish Xojo Developer Meeting

As I travel to Spain soon, I want to organize a Xojo developer meeting in Madrid.

The meeting with be 2nd December 2016 somewhere in Madrid.

We meet in a nice restaurant somewhere central, so we can shop talk about Xojo and have dinner together. Time will probably be around 18 to 23 o'clock or later and you can of course come later or leave earlier. Dinner will be ordered around 20:30 o'clock, so please be there by than.

I plan to bring some presents to raffle:

Two Xojo T-Shirts, a Xojo drinking bottle, a XDC coupon and a XDC year book. Worth over 100 Euro in total.
To win, you must show up in person and stay for dinner.

Want to join? Please email me and let me know.

Backup, Backup and Backup

Yesterday I visited an meeting from the Apple Store business team in Frankfurt about backups. Very basic stuff, but I learnt a few little details I missed before and got a few new business contacts.

But please take a moment to check your backup situation. Here is my recommendation:

1. Bootable USB SSD drives
Get 2 or more USB SSD disks. Size should be bigger than your internal hard disk.
Using an application like Carbon Copy Cloner, you regularly create a clone of your boot disk (and other important data). Keep one of them at home and take one with your when traveling. In case your Mac is stolen, you can get a new one and simply boot from that disk without restoring first. Back at work in minutes!
For this you keep them separated. e.g. disk in jacket with you while laptop stays in hotel room. Just keep the separated, so one can be stolen.
And Carbon Copy Cloner can be configured to copy whenever the disk is attached. This way you can attach it before you do something else and go away.

2. Time Capsules or NAS
Get 2 or more Time Capsules or some similar NAS systems. We want automatic backups as they happen automatically and we don't need to start them manually. I recommend having at least two separate Time Capsules located in different rooms. Just to avoid having them die in the same water event. And of course having two makes it more likely that one actually is usable for restoring.
The Time Capsules can store 100+ backups from last months or years easily. And as they are local and you can use them over Ethernet, restore can be quick with 40 MByte/s copied. For restoring a folder you deleted last week that will be much faster than a download via Internet!

3. Remote Backup
Having a backup which works everywhere and even provides restoring when your house burns down, is a key element. You an either use a service like BackBlaze or crashplan or in Germany maybe Cloud Backup from Domainfactory or Telekom to do online backups.
Or be your own backup provider and use a software like Arq and provide your own hosting with your own Amazon, Google, Dropbox or SFTP storage account. This eliminates the middle man for management and can be less expensive, especially if you have that storage already. With Arq you can backup to several services in parallel. For SFTP storage in Germany, I can recommend the storage box from Hetzner with up to 20 TB.
The good thing is that even in an Internet Cafe you can work on a document and regularly it is uploaded.

4. Test Recovery
A backup is only as good as recovery. A good exercise when you buy a new Mac is to take the chance and try to restore to that new Mac for a test. Just to see if you remember the required login data, password and procedures to get back the last version of the data.

Backup should be mandatory for everyone. At least for business in Germany you can get penalties if you loose some tax relevant data. And some things I learnt over time: Have always at least two disks. When restoring, the disk is used heavily, so it is likely to die soon. And please encrypt all disks! And for software developers, additionally use version control.

What are you doing?

Clear Xojo Cache

Sometimes the compiling process in Xojo causes errors like "Can't find a class with this name" although the plugin is loaded and autocomplete sees the class. In other cases the compiler reports a plugin not being 64-bit compatible although all of MBS Plugins for a couple of versions do support 64-bit.



To clear the cache, please locate your user folder. on Windows inside that folder is an invisible AppData folder. On Mac you look into the Library folder, also hidden by default. On Windows you find the Local/Temp folder with the xojo scratch folder as well as Roaming/Xojo with the version specific cache folders. While the IDE is not running you can just delete the scratch folder and the version folders. Please leave the other Xojo folder there as it contains your license key files. For Mac in ~/Library/Caches is the Xojo cache folder and in ~/Library/Application Support/Xojo you find the same version specific folders.

You can always delete the scratch folder, the precompiled and project cache folders. Often that fixes the problems. We would be happy to find the reasons with Xojo Inc. to fix this for future releases.

MBS Xojo / Real Studio Plugins, version 16.5pr7

New in this prerelease of the 16.5 plugins:
  • Updated CURL library to version 7.51.0.
  • Updated libSSH2 library to version 1.8.
  • Updated DynaPDF to 4.0.4.13.
  • Added DynaPDFXFAStreamMBS class.
  • Changed SignalMBS class. When we get an event/flag, we unregister our handler to avoid endless signals.
  • Updated PortAudio to latest version (from 30th October 2016).
  • Added new barcode types: DotCode and HanXin.
  • Updated zint library to version 2.5.
  • Added more methods/properties/events to WKWebViewControlMBS control.
  • Fixed compilation for console/web. NSTouchBarMBS had a reference to window class which was not marked as non-console safe.(beta bug)
  • Added NSFileManagerMBS.destinationOfSymbolicLinkAtPath functions.
Download: monkeybreadsoftware.de/xojo/download/plugin/Prerelease/.
Or ask us to be added to our shared Dropbox folder.

Need a Xojo lite license for a friend?

The heise company published a new magazine issue specialized for Mac:

c't Special Mac 2016

This includes a couple of free software titles: Xojo Desktop Lite, FotoMagico, BeaTunes, Little Snitch, GraphicConverter, PhotoSweeper, StarMoney, Boxcryptor and a few coupons for other titles.

To get it, you need to go on the heise shop. Click on the green button to add to shopping card. Than click on checkout (Zur Kasse). Take the tab for guests (Gast) or create an account. Fill the order form, enter credit card, check the first and last checkbox and use the buy button (Jetzt kaufen) on the bottom. You should get a PDF and some instructions including a code for receiving licenses. For Xojo you need to send the code to an email address and the answer contains your activation code which you can activate on the xojo website to get a Xojo for Mac desktop license.

So if you have a friend, a kid or you need a license yourself, this is just 9 Euro for a Xojo Mac desktop license. Enjoy!

Video for MBS SQL Plugin presentation

Thumbnail
MBS SQL Plugin Presentation
Today I recorded my session from the XDC 2016 in Houston again.

This version is shorter and lacks probably a few details and has no questions.
But you can in a few weeks probably watch the original recording on the Xojo website.

But maybe it is interesting for a few people?

PS: If you are interested in databases, the Database Goddess herself is coming to our MBS Xojo conference in Berlin.

See You At The Next MBS Xojo Conference

Do you like to meet other Xojo users and go to conferences? Well, you are in luck! In 2017 there is a conference being organized by Monkeybread Software. Xojo developers from all over the world will meet the first week in May 2017 in metropolitan Berlin, Germany. In the center of western Berlin at the Ellington hotel, next to the nearby Kurfürstendamm, the Zoo and KaDeWe. We selected this central location in Europe for easy traveling for developers from east and west.

Beside the two conference days, we have an accompanying social programme with dinner events and an optional two training days. For the evenings we have casual get-togethers in the hotel bar and beer garden.

We are happy to have Xojo engineers join our conference. Geoff Perlman, CEO of Xojo Inc. will talk about what is new and coming in Xojo. Stéphane Pinel and Travis Hill, engineers at Xojo Inc. as well as Carol and Bob Keeney will present something. Jens Boschulte, our PDF specialist and creator of the DynaPDF library will be available for questions. And of course we have a few other well known Xojo developers coming.

All Xojo conferences are a great places to learn about Xojo, see what is new for Xojo IDE itself as well as for third-party products. You can meet other developers and get a lot of new contacts. Ask questions and discuss how you solve problems, learn from others and discover new techniques. Feel free to present yourself and your projects, so others can give you tips and learn from you. As you depend on Xojo for your business, please use this to talk to the Xojo people about what you need from them in the future.

The schedule:

May 3rd: Xojo Training in English
May 4th: Conference, first day with dinner event
May 5th: Conference, second day
May 6th: Xojo Training in German

In the evenings we meet for dinner so you can meet other attendees. Registration is available and we already have over 30 people coming from eight countries.

The early bird offer available till 4th December is just 299 Euro plus VAT. Attending the conference costs regularly 499 Euro plus VAT, including food and beverage in the Ellington 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 give a presentation, please contact us as soon as possible.

Registration and more Information. Training days in German and English.
For any questions, please contact Monkeybread Software directly.

MBS Xojo Event Kit, version 1.1

Nickenich, Germany (November 10th, 2016) -- Monkeybread Software releases version 1.1 of the MBS Xojo Event Kit.

The MBS Xojo Event Kit provides you with a few useful classes for using the calendar for your Xojo iOS application.

New in version 1.1:
  • Updated for Xojo 2016r3.
  • Added retain/release for arrays in methods to not get them freed too early.
  • Worked around Feedback case #44874 by using CFDate functions now.
Wrapper for iOS/Mac EventKit framework:
  • Query/Get access to the internal calendar and reminder database
  • Create, modify and delete reminders and events
  • Handle multiple sources of calendar data
  • Query participants for events
  • asynchronously fetch events or reminders
  • build search parameters using predicates
  • Handle recurrence rules in various aspects
Wrapper Features
  • For Xojo 2015r1 or later
  • Using exception handling to track error
  • Test code included
  • All classes with MB postfix to avoid name conflicts.
  • All module definitions are protected to avoid conflicts
  • Inline documentation
  • Full Source code, no encryption
  • Works for 32bit and 64bit targets.
Our Event Kit requires Xojo 2015r1 or newer.
If you need similar classes for OS X (32 and 64bit), you can check the MBS Xojo Cocoa Plugins from us.

The Event Kit is available for $99 USD or 79 Euro (+VAT if needed).

You can learn more on our website.

Spanish Xojo Developer Meeting

As I travel to Spain soon, I want to organize a Xojo developer meeting in Madrid.

Please vote here to find a date: Doodle Survey

We meet in a nice restaurant somewhere central in Madrid, so we can shop talk about Xojo and have dinner together.
Time will probably be around 18 to 22 o'clock and you can of course come later or leave earlier.

I may bring something to raffle with me :-)

MBS Xojo / Real Studio Plugins, version 16.5pr6

New in this prerelease of the 16.5 plugins:
  • Added AVAssetMBS.readTimeCodes function.
  • Added Bold and Italic properties to NSTextViewMBS class.
  • Added GotFocus/LostFocus events for NSTextViewControlMBS and other Cocoa based controls.
  • Added NSTextMBS.Enabled property.
Download: monkeybreadsoftware.de/xojo/download/plugin/Prerelease/.
Or ask us to be added to our shared Dropbox folder.

Xojo Workshop in Berlin

Next Wednesday, 9th November 2016, the German Xojo evangelist Ulrich Bogun organizes a Xojo programming workshop/meeting. Everyone is welcome to learn about Xojo and chat with other Xojo developers.

They meet about once a months at 19:00 o'clock in the Lernwerkstatt, Karl-Kunger-Straße 55, Alt-Treptow in Berlin.

See xojoblog.me/2016/06/18/programmierenlernen-fuer-umme/

Next year: European MBS Xojo Conference in Berlin.

Xojo Developer Magazine

Since its start the Xojo Developer Magazine has published over 80 issues with over 5000 pages. A huge library of Xojo related knowledge you won't want to miss.



The magazine is the longest available source of news, tutorials, xojo related product reviews and tips & tricks for Xojo, Real Studio and REALbasic. I still remember 13 years ago the emails from Marc Zeedar about the beginning of the magazine. I think it was a big adventure for him. How long are you subscribed?

If you have something to publish as an article or some xojo related news, be sure to email Marc Zeedar, the publisher of the magazine. For the first years I had a regular intel column with tipps about declares, windows and linux targets. Later I had an inside REALbasic column and today I publish from time to time articles around plugin features.

I recommend everyone using Xojo to subscribe as this is a valuable resource for the community and deserves our support. And if you write from time to time about an interesting topic, e.g. a blog article, think about submitting it as a short article. The community will recognize you.

Please comment, follow, retweet and like this article. On all those who refer to his article within the next fives days, we raffle three free Xojo developer magazine subscriptions off. And if you know exactly how many issues of the magazine were published, we double your chance to win!

MBS Xojo / Real Studio Plugins, version 16.5pr5

New in this prerelease of the 16.5 plugins: Download: monkeybreadsoftware.de/xojo/download/plugin/Prerelease/.
Or ask us to be added to our shared Dropbox folder.

xDev Magazine Issue 14.6

The November/December 2016 (14.6) issue of xDev Magazine is now available. Here's a quick preview of what's inside:

Xojo Past and Future by Marc Zeedar

If you missed the XDC announcements, here's where you can find out what's in the pipeline for Xojo for 2017.

XDC 2016 by Marc Zeedar

Didn't make it to Houston for XDC this year? Don't worry -- Marc takes you there and includes lots of photographs (over 40).

Xojo Compiler Optimization by Christian Schmitz

Xojo now includes some options to let the compiler work harder and create more efficient code -- but are those worth the extra time? Christian tests the feature.

Cooking with Xojo (Part 2) by Mark Strickland

Finally we get to eat steak! Or, uh, Mark does. He concludes his Raspberry Pi experiment to get Xojo to cook him a steak. Did it work? Read to find out!

Tracking Health Disorders, Part 4 by J.C. Cruz

Jose finishes his health tracking project with the final code.

Plus: Learning Database design, Colors and Licenses open source software, Iconographer, and more!
The biggest plugin in space...

Archives

Mar 2024
Feb 2024
Jan 2024
Dec 2023
Nov 2023
Oct 2023
Sep 2023
Aug 2023
Jul 2023
Jun 2023
May 2023
Apr 2023
Mar 2023
Feb 2023
Jan 2023
Dec 2022
Nov 2022
Oct 2022
Sep 2022
Aug 2022
Jul 2022
Jun 2022
May 2022
Apr 2022
Mar 2022
Feb 2022
Jan 2022
Dec 2021
Nov 2021
Oct 2021
Sep 2021
Aug 2021
Jul 2021
Jun 2021
May 2021
Apr 2021
Mar 2021
Feb 2021
Jan 2021
Dec 2020
Nov 2020
Oct 2020
Sep 2020
Aug 2020
Jul 2020
Jun 2020
May 2020
Apr 2020
Mar 2020
Feb 2020
Jan 2020
Dec 2019
Nov 2019
Oct 2019
Sep 2019
Aug 2019
Jul 2019
Jun 2019
May 2019
Apr 2019
Mar 2019
Feb 2019
Jan 2019
Dec 2018
Nov 2018
Oct 2018
Sep 2018
Aug 2018
Jul 2018
Jun 2018
May 2018
Apr 2018
Mar 2018
Feb 2018
Jan 2018
Dec 2017
Nov 2017
Oct 2017
Sep 2017
Aug 2017
Jul 2017
Jun 2017
May 2017
Apr 2017
Mar 2017
Feb 2017
Jan 2017
Dec 2016
Nov 2016
Oct 2016
Sep 2016
Aug 2016
Jul 2016
Jun 2016
May 2016
Apr 2016
Mar 2016
Feb 2016
Jan 2016
Dec 2015
Nov 2015
Oct 2015
Sep 2015
Aug 2015
Jul 2015
Jun 2015
May 2015
Apr 2015
Mar 2015
Feb 2015
Jan 2015
Dec 2014
Nov 2014
Oct 2014
Sep 2014
Aug 2014
Jul 2014
Jun 2014
May 2014
Apr 2014
Mar 2014
Feb 2014
Jan 2014
Dec 2013
Nov 2013
Oct 2013
Sep 2013
Aug 2013
Jul 2013
Jun 2013
May 2013
Apr 2013
Mar 2013
Feb 2013
Jan 2013
Dec 2012
Nov 2012
Oct 2012
Sep 2012
Aug 2012
Jul 2012
Jun 2012
May 2012
Apr 2012
Mar 2012
Feb 2012
Jan 2012
Dec 2011
Nov 2011
Oct 2011
Sep 2011
Aug 2011
Jul 2011
Jun 2011
May 2011
Apr 2011
Mar 2011
Feb 2011
Jan 2011
Dec 2010
Nov 2010
Oct 2010
Sep 2010
Aug 2010
Jul 2010
Jun 2010
May 2010
Apr 2010
Mar 2010
Feb 2010
Jan 2010
Dec 2009
Nov 2009
Oct 2009
Sep 2009
Aug 2009
Jul 2009
Apr 2009
Mar 2009
Feb 2009
Dec 2008
Nov 2008
Oct 2008
Aug 2008
May 2008
Apr 2008
Mar 2008
Feb 2008