MBS Filemaker Plugin 3.2

We develop Filemaker plug-ins for Mac OS X and Windows.

Download   Getting Started   License   Order a license   Function Reference   User guide

New in version   3.2   3.1   3.0   2.9   2.8   2.7   2.6

The MBS is easily the most powerful plug-in available for FileMaker today. There are over 1600 functions that allow FileMaker developers to extend their solutions in some amazing ways. Each function does a little task and in their combination you can unleash the full power of our plugin. To learn how to use them together, please check our reference and our more than 100 example databases. A quick overview:

• Use Twain to scan images from scanner (new in 3.1)
• Enjoy syntax coloring on Mac OS X in Filemaker 11 and 12.
• List and connect to serial ports.
• Read rich text documents on Mac OS X like Word documents, OpenOffice documents or RTF files.
• Enumerate printers and get/set default printer.
• Recognize text in images using OCR functions.
• Network Sockets
  • Use TCP/UDP Sockets (new in 3.2)
  • Query other Filemaker instance with ServerSocket functions. (new in 3.2)
  • Query device status via SNMP functions.
• XL Functions.
  • Work with Excel files without Microsoft Excel by using libXL library in Filemaker.
  • Read and Write older xls files and newer xlsx files.
• Use PHP library to run PHP functions.
• Use Audit to log activities in a database.
• SQL Connectivity
  • Connect to multiple SQL databases: Oracle, SQL Server, DB2, Sybase, Informix, InterBase, SQLBase, MySQL, PostgreSQL, ODBC and SQLite.
  • Read values, changes values, add new records, call stored procedures.
  • Use prepared statements for increased security.
  • Use bulk row fetching for maximum speed.
  • Read and write blob values with images.
• CURL Library
  • Download and upload files or data from/to http/https/ftp/ftps/sftp.
  • Send emails over smtp and receive emails over pop3 or imap.
  • Perform several transfers simultaneously in background.
  • Send form data directly without Webviewer.
  • Parse and build JavaScript Object Notation encoded data with out JSON functions.
• Control the Webviewer
  • Print website, Fill and submit forms.
  • Generate image or PDF of current webpage.
  • Run Javascript in Webviewer and call back Filemaker Scripts from Javascript.
  • Disable Javascript Alerts in the Webviewer.
  • Register WebDownloadDelegate and WebPolicyDelegate scripts to control downloads in Webviewer on Mac.
• Image editing with GraphicsMagick
  • Load pictures from file, container value or create a blank one.
  • Compose pictures together, e.g. add an overlay or watermark.
  • Edit images with crop, rotate, scale and other operations.
  • Draw (round) rectangles, lines, ellipses, circles and arcs into image.
  • Use lots of image effects like blur, sharpen, swirl and others.
  • Save result to container or file.
• Use PDFKit (Mac only) or DynaPDF functions (Mac and Win, new in 3.0)
  • Render an image from a page of a PDF with PDFKit or DynaPDF.
  • Extract text from PDF with PDFKit or DynaPDF.
  • Create new PDF with pages from existing PDF with PDFKit or DynaPDF.
  • Add images and text to a page. (new in 3.1)
• Encryption and Hash
  • Calculate MD5 and SHA512 hashes for text.
  • Encrypt/Decrypt text with AES or Blowfish.
  • Encrypt/Decrypt containers with AES or Blowfish .
• Files
  • List directory content, copy, move, rename or move to trash files and folders.
  • Show file/folder selection or save dialogs.
  • Get icon from file or folder and previews with QuickLook (Mac only)
  • Set Icons on Mac with our plugin.
  • Launch files, query file size or file existents, create directories.
  • Query the last used file path in Mac file dialogs.
• Lock your app for Kiosks
  • Query which USB devices are connected and allow only the start of your runtime if special USB stick is connected.
  • Hide system GUI like Dock and menubar with System UI Functions
  • Show a backdrop behind your Filemaker window so user does not see the desktop.
  • Color window content to focus user on a dialog.
• Control windows in Filemaker
  • Show progress dialogs.
  • Add Drag and Drop functions to your Mac solutions.
  • Enumerate windows and control any window in Filemaker.
  • Disable close, minimize and maximize widgets.
  • Show and hide any window.
  • Use window transitions on Mac OS X like Apple's applications. (See video)
• Mac Integration
  • Read, change and write contacts from the Addressbook (new in 3.2)
  • Notify user with User Notifications on Mac OS X 10.8.
  • Query location of a Mac with CoreLocation functions.
  • Set your application's dock tile icon and badge text.
  • Put your solution into Apple's Mac App Store and use plugin functions to verify the package receipt.
  • Query printers and their print jobs. Cancel print jobs or send raw printer commands to raw printers, like label printers.
• Register your own URL Scheme
  • Have your solution start with a click on an email or website and process the URL as you need. Plugin calls a script with the name you define when registering.
• Query system information
  • Need to know computer name, memory size, serial number, OS Version or something else?
• Powerful text functions
  • Get/Set text on the clipboard.
  • Remove accents from texts for easier search.
  • Use SoundEx to have searches for Maier also show results for Meyer, Meier and Mayer
• Utility
  • Use remote control functions to move mouse, perform clicks and press keys.
  • Send and receive notifications from other applications or part of your solution.
  • Start a script now or after some time and pass file name, script name and parameter as texts.
  • Set and Get variables which you can see in all files of your solution.
  • List screens and take screenshot from whole screen or from rectangle.
  • Run AppleScript and WindowsScript scripts in Filemaker.
  • Store global preferences for your solution.

And a log of more stuff like Container utility functions. If you miss something, please email us and we may add another function for you.

Newest entries on our blog:

Download the MBS Filemaker Plugin
Mac OS X MBSFMPlugin32.dmg ( 55M )		Windows MBSFMPlugin32.zip ( 57M )
Installation.pdf   Individual files   Alpha and Beta releases

Tutorial videos

	Filemaker, AppleScript and iChat Example project source code AppleScriptChat project files (Mac OS X) 4:09 minutes
	Filemaker WebView Example project source code FilemakerCurrency project and database files (Mac OS X) 7:45 minutes
	Filemaker Window Transitions (Mac OS X) 1:26 minutes

For more examples see the other videos

New in version 3.2

• Added Addressbook functions to work on the Mac OS X Contacts database.
• Added ServerSocket functions.
• Added Socket functions.
• Added App.GetDockIcon, App.GetProcessName, App.SetDockIcon and App.SetProcessName
• Added Hash.SHA1, Hash.SHA1.HMAC, Hash.SHA256 and Hash.RandomString.
• Added IKSlideShow.AddImage, IKSlideShow.AddPath, IKSlideShow.AddPDF and IKSlideShow.AddURL.
• Added IKSlideShow.GetMode and IKSlideShow.SetMode.
• Added JSON.GetObjectItemTree function.
• Added Math.IsValidCC function.
• Added more DynaPDF functions for drawing graphics.
• Added new mode for Files.List for Windows to use more wildcards.
• Added oAuth example project.
• Added optional parameter to Hash functions to return either Hex or Base64.
• Added PDFKit.WriteToPath function.
• Added RunTask functions and ExtractText utility for Mac.
• Added String.DecodeURLComponent and String.EncodeURLComponent.
• Added Syntax Coloring for Script Debugger on Mac.
• Added System.Logout, System.Restart, System.Shutdown and System.Sleep.
• Added Time.UnixTimeStamp.
• Added Twain.GetCloseAfterTransfer and Twain.SetCloseAfterTransfer.
• Added Twain.GetCompressionQuality, Twain.GetFilePaths, Twain.GetFileType, Twain.GetFolderPath, Twain.SetCompressionQuality, Twain.SetFileType and Twain.SetFolderPath.
• Added Twain.GetDiscardBlankPages, Twain.GetDuplexEnabled, Twain.SetDiscardBlankPages and Twain.SetDuplexEnabled.
• Added Twain.GetImageCount function.
• Added Twain.GetPixelType and Twain.SetPixelType.
• Added UTF-16, UTF-16BE, UTF-16LE text encoding options for CURL.GetResultAsText, CURL.GetDebugAsText, CURL.GetHeaderAsText, CURL.GetInputAsText, SerialPort.Read and Socket.Read.
• Added Webview.GetPlainText and WebView.CopyFormattedText functions.
• Added Window.SetTitleIcon.
• Changed CURL FTPPort, CustomRequest and Range options to pass nil to CURL if you pass empty string in order to disable/reset the feature.
• Changed FM.ExecuteSQLOnIdle to also set values for FM.ExecuteSQL.LastErrorMessage and FM.ExecuteSQL.LastError.
• Changed GraphicsMagick Write methods to scale down jpeg previews for PNG/GIF/BMP to maximum of 600 pixels in width/height.
• Changed license key check for DynaPDF. You now can use one DynaPDF license key from us for both Filemaker and Real Studio / Xojo plugin.
• Changed Twain plugin store several images and not just the last one.
• Fixed a memory leak with ProgressDialog.SetFont on Windows.
• Fixed a problem with scanning images without GUI to a file.
• Fixed an alignment bug with Twain functions.
• Fixed bug in Bookmark functions.
• Fixed bug in Files.Rename on Windows where you could get an error dialog.
• Fixed bug in PDFKit.GetPDFAttribute with Keywords parameter.
• Fixed bug in Twain.SetDefaultDSIdentity. You can now pass text.
• Fixed problem where our plugin doesn't load on Windows XP.
• Fixed problem with SerialPort.Read when it waited for data to arrive.
• Fixed problem with Twain plugin giving white only pictures with scanning BW/Gray.
• Functions which return text and handle UTF-16 will now respect the Byte Order Mark.
• Improved multi page scanning in twain.
• Plugins are now compiled with Xcode 4.6 on Mac.
• Updated libXL to version 3.4.2
• Updated DynaPDF to version 3.0.25.65
• Updated String.ReadTextFile to also read UTF-16 files if you pass right text encoding.

Read about older releases in our release notes.

Support

You can of course send us questions by email.

Or subscribe to our mailing list: MBS Filemaker Plugin Mailinglist

Pricing

See pricing page and order page.

System requirements

The Plugin requires Mac OS X 10.4 or Windows 2000.

Filemaker version 8.5 to 12 is supported.

Last version with PowerPC support was version 2.4. This version also supported Filemaker 7 to 8.5 in PPC.

The plugin runs locally on a Filemaker installation or on a server installation. If you use Instant Web Publishing or Filemaker to Go, the plugin still needs to be run on the server, but results can be viewer on browser or iOS devices.

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Links
MBS Realbasic tutorial videos

You have a question or a problem?
Please contact us.

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