MBS Filemaker Plugins - FAQ

Answers

Do I need a license to develop or try your plugin?

No. You can try and develop your solution. Simply click away the nag screens. Once you have a license those dialogs will no longer show.

Do I need to order updates?

You can download newer plugins for one year after purchase of a license. If you need further updates, you need to update your license. Old plugins will of course continue to work except Filemaker, Apple or Microsoft changes something which breaks our plugins. (like a new Filemaker version with a new Plugin API).

Do I need a Mac and Windows license of the plugin?

No, our licenses are cross platform. So license price includes both Mac OS X and Windows. And sorry, we don't reduce price for the case you use only one platform.

Calculations return ? only. How to analyze and fix?

The best is to enable tracing. See Trace function. You call MBS( "Trace" ) once and all the plugin calls are logged to the debug console. Or you pass a path and a text file is created for logging. Those log entries tell you exactly what functions you call, what parameters you pass and what result you get. This way you may see that there is an error happing.

Will plugins work with Filemaker 12?

In general plugins work with new versions. We never had big problems so far. But of course some internal things can change. Like the change we needed to make for Filemaker 11 to run the callback functions. But we don't know that in advance, so please tell us if something stops working.

As Filemaker 12 is now available, we can update this: Functions to Show/Hide Scrollbars in Filemaker windows need to be updated. And for the 64 bit Server, we need to update our plugins. But everything else works fine as far as we know or tested.

Why do you have so many PDF functions for Mac OS X and none for Windows?

The answer is simply: Only Mac OS X ships with a decent PDF framework which we can use. For Windows, we need to bring our own library. We may decide to offer a PDF cross platform plugin in the future based on DynaPDF which we use already for Real Studio today.

Can we hire you for custom plugin functions?

Yes. If you want a function to be added quickly, you can simply pay for it and it's added for the next release. And we offer custom plugin development of your own plugin.

Where do I find/learn alpha/beta releases for new plugins?

You can download prerelease plugins here. To get notified about new details, please check mailing list or blog.

Can I disable the MBS plugins in Filemaker's preferences?

Sorry, no. At least not on Mac OS X. Our plugin registers Cocoa classes with the Cocoa framework and once Filemaker unloads the plugin from memory, those registered classes point to nowhere. Accessing them for any reason leads to a crash. In that case, simply move the plugin out of the extensions folder and restart Filemaker.

Should I use universal or intel only plugin?

If you still use PPC Macs, you need Universal one. If you only use Intel Macs, you can save a little bit disk space by using the intel plugin. But both variants will work on an Intel Mac. For the Mac App Store, you need to use the Intel only variant.

Version 2.4 is the last plugin coming with PPC code. Future versions will not support PPC.

What license do I need for creating runtimes?

You need a runtime license. Our per seat licenses will not work for runtimes.

What license do I need for using a Filemaker server?

You need a server license. Our per seat licenses will not work for servers.

How to send FTP commands with CURL?

With quote commands (CURL.SetOptionQuote, CURL.SetOptionPostQuote or CURL.SetOptionPreQuote) you can send FTP commands. For example DELE command to delete a file or MKD command to create directory.

Do I need to order SQLAPI license for using your plugin's SQL functions?

No, we have a license to offer SQLAPI through our plugin, so you don't need a license. Except when you want to use SQLAPI yourself in C/C++ applications. Also if you order our Real Studio SQL Plugin, you also don't need your own SQLAPI license.

Can I buy just a license for the part x and not all functions?

From time to time people ask us whether they can order a cheaper license for only a little part of the plugin collection. Well, we could do that, but in that case a part would cost what the whole collection costs today. Because nearly everyone who uses our plugins, uses only a little fraction, typically just a handful functions. We don't want to waste our time keeping track who license which part. So if you like the plugin for a few functions, please order a license. It's quite likely that you come back in a few month needing another function. And in that case you may be lucky to know that your function needs are already part of the plugin.









Links
MBS Real Studio Chart Plugins - Christians Software aus Nickenich