Packr The suitcase checklist

Jérémie Leroy published an application made with Xojo on the iOS App Store:



You can download it for free on the iOS App Store.
And Jérémie told me attendees to our conference in Berlin next week get a free upgrade to Premium, so watch his presentation for the coupon code.

BKS Shorts Version 2.0

Bob Keeney just sent email about new release of his reporting tool BKS Shorts:

BKeeney Software (Lenexa, KS) has released version 2.0 of it’s Xojo reporting tool, BKS Shorts, today. BKS Shorts is the premier reporting tool for Xojo desktop and web applications and comes with an integrated Designer and Viewer components to make it easy for Xojo developers to get advanced reporting in their desktop and web applications.

Within a few minutes Xojo developers can incorporate the Report Designer component in their desktop applications and create rich, dynamic reports. Grouping on a field is easy as well as creating complex queries to filter data. It’s possible to ask for query parameters at runtime so end-users can filter data how they choose. Using XojoScript it’s easy to create incredibly complex reports that can vary text, visibility, and formatting at runtime based on field values.

The Report Viewer component is available for desktop and web applications. The viewer allows users to view their reports but also can ask them for parameters for the reports at runtime. For example it would be easy to allow users to specify their own date range for their reports. Reports in the viewer are searchable and with can be configured to allow for ‘drill down’ reports.

Reports can be printed and are resolution independent. They can also be exported to PDF (requires MBS DynaPDF Starter Edition), HTML, and CSV.

Shorts supports SQLite, MySQL, Postgres, CubeSQL, MS SQL Server, Informix (requires the SQL plugin from MBS), and ODBC.

Version 2 Highlights

  • Added Report Header
  • Added Report Footer
  • Now allow database fields in Report and Page Headers and Footers
  • Rewritten SQL engine that makes reports with a lot of groups faster
  • Field aggregates (sum, min, max, average, count) are now handled by the report rather than queried.
  • Barcode Fields (requires BarcodeGeneratorMBS from Monkeybread Software)
  • Project comes with a converter for On-Target Reports
  • Numerous bug fixes and tweaks

The normal price for Shorts is $300 USD and you receive the package in 100% unencrypted source code. Existing users receive a 50% discount and if they've not already received an email should contact support.

Requirements: Shorts 2.0 requires Xojo 2016 R1 and better. Windows users should avoid using Xojo 2016 R4 as there is a bug in the Xojo printing framework. Shorts works on macOS, Windows desktop environments (Linux is untested and unsupported). Shorts report viewer does work in web applications running on macOS, Windows, and Linux. Because of XojoScript 64-bit applications are not supported yet (though XojoScript can be removed to make it so)

More information at the Shorts page at bkeeney.com/allproducts/bkeeney-shorts/

You can create PDFs in Shorts by using our MBS Xojo DynaPDF Plugin.
DynaPDF Starter is included with OmegaBundle this year.

LibXL 3.8.0 has been released

LibXL version 3.8.0 is available.

What's new in the version 3.8.0:
  • added data validation feature for xlsx files
  • added Book::addPictureAsLink() method (xlsx)
  • added Book::moveSheet() method
  • improved speed of Sheet::setMerge() method (removed overlap checking)
  • improved compatibility with Apple Preview (xls)
  • fixed a bug in autofit feature for a custom format with % character
  • fixed issue with access to some worksheets for exported xlsx files from the SAS statistical package
  • fixed issue with 1900/2/1 date
  • fixed a bug with loading some xls files
  • fixed a bug in Book::load() and xlBookLoadUsingTempFile() with passing a full path with directories for temporary files (xlsx)
  • fixed a bug in Sheet::setCol() (xls)
  • fixed Sheet::getNamedRange() and Sheet::namedRange() methods for correct extracting the whole column or row as a range (xlsx)
New methods:
  • Book::moveSheet()
New methods only for xlsx format:
  • Sheet::addDataValidation()
  • Sheet::addDataValidationDouble()
  • Sheet::removeDataValidations()
  • Book::addPictureAsLink()
The LibXL library can be used with MBS Plugins in Xojo and FileMaker. Updated plugins will be available soon. As usual we add the new functions soon. If you need help or want to try the new version early, let me know.

MBS Xojo Plugins, version 17.2pr4

New in this prerelease of the 17.2 plugins:
  • Fixed bug in SQLNumericMBS.NumericWithCurrency when using small negative numbers.
  • Added PictureMBS MapInRows and RawRowPtr function.
  • Added page print functions for DynaPDF.
  • Added DynaPDFPrintParamsMBS class.
  • Updated to DynaPDF 4.0.11.27.
  • Fixed an issue with REALbasic 2007 and DynaPDF Plugin.
  • Fixed CalCalendarStoreMBS.EventsMT to work with calendars.
  • Updated to Xcode 8.3.2
Download: monkeybreadsoftware.de/xojo/download/plugin/Prerelease/.
Or ask us to be added to our shared Dropbox folder.

Save the Date for XDC 2018 in Denver

Just one year till the XDC 2018 in Denver. Mark the dates in the calendar and make sure you can join the conference!

Mark your calendar today for XDC 2018, taking place April 25 - 27, 2018, in the Mile High City itself, Denver, Colorado! We will be staying at the lovely Magnolia Hotel, located very near Union Station and Larimer Square. More information, including registration information and the call for speakers coming soon.

I am looking forward to see you all in Denver!

The big Xojo conference 2017 will be 4th/5th May 2017 in Berlin, Germany.

MBS Xojo Plugins, version 17.2pr3

New in this prerelease of the 17.2 plugins: Download: monkeybreadsoftware.de/xojo/download/plugin/Prerelease/.
Or ask us to be added to our shared Dropbox folder.

Three weeks till MBS Xojo Conference in Berlin

The conference is coming closer and just three weeks are left. If you like to come, please check soon your schedule and make your reservations for traveling.

Monkeybread Software is pleased to host the MBS Xojo Conference in metropolitan Berlin, Germany. We meet in the lovely Ellington hotel in the center of west Berlin. The hotel is near Kurfürstendamm, the Zoo and KaDeWe. Beside our two conference days we have accompanying social programme with our dinner event and optional two training days. For the evenings we have casual get-together in the hotel bar or beer garden.

Three weeks before we have 80 attendees from 17 countries.
Half of them speak German and a few came as far as USA, Canada and New Zealand!
This is the only Xojo related conference in the year 2017 an the biggest so far in Europe.

Please join us to meet special guests.
Check out discussion about sight seeing on the Xojo forum and the blog article from Ulrich.

Registration is still possible and you can join us 4th/5th May 2017 in Berlin. Rooms are available in the Ellington hotel.
See website for details: monkeybreadsoftware.de/conference

Meet Geoff Perlman in Berlin in three weeks

Last time Geoff Perlman, CEO of Xojo Inc., visited Germany for a conference was 2008. We are happy to have him back here for the upcoming MBS Xojo conference in Berlin.

The big Xojo event in the year 2017 takes place in the Ellington Hotel in West Berlin from 4th to 5th May 2017 and this is your chance to meet him and the other Xojo engineers without a trip to the USA. Geoff will of course talk in the keynote about what's new and coming for Xojo. Please bring your question for the Q&A after the presentation.

On second day Travis Hill, one of the Xojo engineers, will talk about the new Xojo framework. On the long run this will become the default framework, so be sure to learn how to use it, what benefits it has and how to adapt. Especially as the new framework can be mixed with old framework in your desktop apps. For iOS you will use the new framework exclusively.

We have 6 Xojo people at the conference in total and some come earlier and stay longer. You have the chance to talk to them beside the conference. If needed, make an extra appointment for some private meeting.

OmegaBundle 2017 available

Today started the 2017 OmegaBundle including MBS Plugins:



As usual, the bundle is a collection of various Xojo related tools. It targets new users which do not yet have all those items and like to get them all for a convenient package price. If you have a few already, it can be cheaper to just upgrade them. Please do not hesitate to contact us.

My iPhone ring tone for you: Silence

In iOS you can assign a ring tone to individual contacts. As I missed to find a way to set ring tone to silence for my special contact for ad calls, I made a new ring tone with only silence. Maybe you like it?

Download: silence.m4r

MBS Xojo Plugins, version 17.2pr2

New in this prerelease of the 17.2 plugins:
  • Fixed ECDHEMBS for 64-bit.
  • Redone option properties on TidyDocumentMBS.
  • Updated libarchive to version 3.3.1.
  • Updated PostgreSQL to version 9.6.2.
  • Removed PPC code.
  • Updated OpenSSL to 1.1.0e and 1.0.2k
Download: monkeybreadsoftware.de/xojo/download/plugin/Prerelease/.
Or ask us to be added to our shared Dropbox folder.

MBS Xojo Plugins, version 17.2pr1

New in this prerelease of the 17.2 plugins:
  • Added WinUserNotificationMBS class for notifications on Windows.
  • Added JPEGMovieMBS class.
  • Updated SQLite to 3.18.0.
  • Fixed bug in WordFile.ReplaceTag with several tags in one line.
  • Added NSBitmapImageRepMBS.bitmapImageRepByConvertingToColorSpace.
  • Updated to Xcode 8.3.
  • Fixed a bug in CURLSMBS.SetupEmail on Windows when talking to CURLEmailMBS class.
  • Fixed a memory leak in CURLSMBS.SetupEmail method.
  • Fixed an issue with writing BLOB fields into Firebird database via SQLPreparedStatementMBS class.
  • Fixed bug in CURLSMBS.SetupEmail function.
  • Added CURL methods to send/receive data over sockets connected via CURL. Like TCPSocket class, but let CURL handle IPv6 or IPv4, SSL and proxy settings.
  • Added frame functions for ChromiumBrowserMBS. CEF3 only.
  • Updated to DynaPDF version 4.0.10.26.
  • Removed dependency from Mac64bit Plugin to SnowLeopard and Leopard.
  • Added printing with DynaPDF with print dialog, save and restore of settings.
  • Added CURLSMBS.SetupAWS method for our Amazon S3 examples.
  • Added CustomNSTextViewMBS class.
  • Added more events for CustomNSTextFieldCellMBS.
  • Added 64-bit support for Rockey2MBS class. And you can now load library there.
  • Added check to make sure CheckConformance on DynaPDF is not asked to delete embedded files for ZUGFeRD invoices.
Download: monkeybreadsoftware.de/xojo/download/plugin/Prerelease/.
Or ask us to be added to our shared Dropbox folder.

Windows User Notifications

Coming soon in MBS Plugins for Xojo and FileMaker:



Will be part of next prerelease in a few days.
My coding challenge for the spare time on the weekend. The most difficult thing is to get this build in a plugin that can load on Windows XP, even those notifications are only available in Windows 8.1 and newer.

JPEGs to Movie

The last weeks, I had a little hobby project which included writing a movie out based on some picture files. Normally in the last years we used 
QTPictureMovieTrackMBS class. This works fine in Real Studio applications on Mac and Windows, but QuickTime is deprecated. You can still use it in Xojo (32-bit Mac), but you need to use our plugin classes to create movie and pass a movie handle. 
 
Newer projects on Mac should move to use AVFoundation plugin, e.g. AVAssetWriterInputPixelBufferAdaptorMBS class as you see in our examples. For example see the example project Make Video From Images.

A third way for a cross platform project is my new class JPEGMovieMBS.

This class simply writes a QuickTime Movie file without using QuickTime, so it should works cross platform. The movie has only one track with JPEG compressed picture data. You can specify the width and height, duration per picture and of course the JPEGs to include.

There is an example: 

// get a picture
dim p as Picture = LogoMBS(500)
// start movie building
dim m as new JPEGMovieMBS
m.Width = 500
m.Height = 500
m.SecondsPerFrame = 0.5
// add frames where we count up
for i as integer = 1 to 20
  dim c as new Picture(500, 500)
  dim g as Graphics = c.Graphics
  g.ForeColor = &c000000
  g.TextSize = 50
  g.DrawPicture p, 0, 0
  g.DrawString str(i), 20, 50
  
  dim j as string = c.GetData(c.FormatJPEG)
  m.AddFrame j
next
// generate movie
dim MovieData as string = m.BuildMovie
// and write to file
dim f as FolderItem = SpecialFolder.Desktop.Child("test.mov")
dim b as BinaryStream = BinaryStream.Create(f, true)
b.Write MovieData
 
Maybe someone finds it useful. For me it works nice. The videos can be played in QuickTime player and VLC. Windows Media Player can't decode them. 

Company Birthday: 17 Years

1st April 2000 I found my company. Well, I registered as a business by getting my Gewerbeanmeldung (business registration) here in Germany.

That was 2 months before I finished school (Gymnasium). While alternative civilian service (Zivildienst) and my time at the university, the company run well and I didn't have to depend on my parents or student loans. Actually the company got me so busy over the years, that I spend less time at university and since 2007 this is my full time job.

I had a few clients in that time interested in development in REALbasic, a very young development environment which started two years earlier. At that time I had a website with a few freeware utilities, so people could see that I can do development. Two years later the demand for plugins got so high, that end of 2001 I started publishing my own plugins.

Thanks everyone for supporting me over the years!

PS: If you need a license (update) this weekend, refer to this blog post and I put a 17% discount on the invoice.
The biggest plugin in space...

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