MBS @ FMTraining.TV - Shell Asynchronously with the FileMaker MBS Plug-in

Check out the FMTraining.tv website. Richard Carlton and his team do a daily free live stream about FileMaker to watch.

A few days ago Christian Schmitz from Monkeybread Software joined a live episode to talk a bit about the MBS FileMaker Plugin. Watch it on YouTube.

We talk about the our Shell functions and how to run command line tools asynchronously in the background.

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MBS Plugin documentation now available as Markdown files

We are happy to announce that the MBS FileMaker Plugin documentation is now available as Markdown (.md) files.

Markdown is a simple, portable format that works well with many tools, editors, documentation systems, and AI workflows. If you want to read, process, search, or automate with our documentation, you can now access the Markdown version directly.

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xDev Magazine 24.4 Issue

The July/August (24.4) issue of xDev Magazine is now available. Here's a quick preview of what's inside:

Pre-Emptive Ultrasonic Range Sensor by Eugene Dakin
Connecting an ultrasonic range sensor to a Raspberry Pi isn't too difficult, but calculating the distances accurately is tricky. Eugene shows how to do this via a pre-emptive thread, ensuring reliability and accuracy with nanosecond timestamps.

Command-Line AI by Marc Zeedar
Marc explores the use of Apfel, a command-line tool, to generate AI article summaries. He overcomes the limitations of on-device AI by trimming file sizes and removing HTML tags, eventually integrating everything into a custom Xojo app.

Locked Down: Part 1 by William O'keefe
In this new series, William covers symmetric vs. asymmetric encryption, modes like ECB, CBC, and GCM, and emphasizes the importance of authentication. He aims to help developers build secure encryption modules, ensuring compliance with standards like HIPAA.

Hidden Gems by xDev Staff
Discover hidden gems in the 2026 Xojo OmegaBundle, which provides essential third- party tools and plugins that enhance productivity and project efficiency. Examples include the MBS timer class and the scalable Valentina Report Server. xDev Magazine (ISSN 1540-3122) is the ultimate source for tutorials and advanced techniques for programming with the Xojo development environment.

Plus: Running Linux, working with files, resizing images, and more!

Omegabundle for Xojo 2026 Developer Tools Bundle Now Available

Get the top developer tools and third party components for the Xojo cross-platform development platform at a huge savings.

July 1, 2026. — Accelerate your development lifecycle and unlock professional-grade capabilities with Omegabundle for Xojo 2026, a limited time, multi-vendor bundle. This year’s curated collection includes over $7,600 worth of elite third-party tools, plugins, and resources for the Xojo cross-platform development environment—all for a one-time price of $399.99.

Xojo is an award-winning, cross-platform development tool for the Desktop (macOS, Windows, Linux), Web, iOS (iPad/iPhone) and Raspberry Pi. With Xojo, you can create native applications by using drag-and-drop to build your user interface and then one straight-forward programming language to enable the functionality. Xojo is powerful and modern, yet easy to use and learn.

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MBS Xojo Conference 2026 - What is new in the Xojo Web Framework?

We recorded the presentations at the MBS Xojo Conference in April 2026 and here is the video about what is new in the Xojo Web Framework with Ricardo Cruz.

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MBS Xojo Plugins, version 26.3pr4

New in this prerelease of the 26.3 plugins:

• Added VNHumanObservationMBS, VNHumanBodyPoseObservationMBS, VNRecognizedPointsObservationMBS, VNHumanHandPoseObservationMBS, VNDetectHumanBodyPoseRequestMBS, VNDetectHumanHandPoseRequestMBS, VNDetectHumanBodyPose3DRequestMBS and VNStatefulRequestMBS classes.
• Added VNRecognizedPointMBS, VNDetectedPointMBS and VNPointMBS classes.
• Added VNHumanBodyPose3DObservationMBS, VNRecognizedPoint3DMBS, VNPoint3DMBS, VNHumanBodyRecognizedPoint3DMBS, VNRecognizedPoints3DObservationMBS and VNRecognizedPoints3DObservationMBS classes.
• Added StringMBS and StringViewMBS classes.
• Updated CURL library to version 8.21.0.
• Deprecated OptionStreamDepends and OptionStreamDependsE in CURLSMBS class.
• Updated libarchive to version 3.8.8.
• Updated expat to version 2.8.2.
• Added SetValues method to AtomicDictionaryMBS class.
• Added CanShutdown event to WinSparkleMBS class.

New functions in documentation

Download Links: Download Mac dmg or Download Windows/Linux zip

Download: monkeybreadsoftware.de/xojo/download/plugin/Prerelease/.
Or ask us to be added to our shared DropBox folder.

You can subscribe to our Xojo mailing list to get notified for new pre-release and release versions.

MBS FileMaker Plugin, version 16.3pr4

New in this prerelease of version 16.3 of the MBS FileMaker Plugin:

• Improved display of calculation time.
• Tuned the script search.
• Updated CURL library to version 8.21.0.
• Deprecated CURL.SetOptionStreamDepends and CURL.SetOptionStreamDependsE functions.
• Updated libarchive to version 3.8.8.
• Improved script search. You can skip disabled script steps.
• Updated expat to version 2.8.2.
• Added ScriptWorkspace.Steps function.
• Improved GMImage.WriteToWebPContainer to write WEBP containers instead of FILE containers on FileMaker 26.

New functions in documentation

Download Links: Download Mac dmg or Download Windows/Linux zip

Downloads at monkeybreadsoftware.com/filemaker/files/Prerelease/:

You can subscribe to our FileMaker mailing list to get notified for new pre-release and release versions.

FileMaker Script Steps over time

We compared availability of script steps in FileMaker to see what changes from version to version.

We loaded all the script steps in a little database for version 19.0.1, 20.1.2, 21.0.1, 22.0.6 and 26.0.1 and run a few queries on the data.

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Last Chance for Early Bird Pricing at EngageU 2026

The countdown is on! Early Bird registration for EngageU 2026 ends on June 30, giving FileMaker developers one final chance to secure their spot at a reduced rate.

Taking place September 30 – October 2, 2026, in Malmö, Sweden, EngageU brings together business leaders, developers, consultants, and technology enthusiasts from across Europe and around the world for three days of learning, networking, and inspiration.

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Xcode 27

We got a sneak peek on Xcode 27. It brings the SDK for Apple's new operation systems. We can still build our plugins with Xcode 26 and still add new features for the new operation system without using Xcode 27.

We will try the new Xcode version in the next months. But we probably won't move to the new OS before spring 2027. Somewhere in April the new macOS version 27.3 or 27.4 will ship and have most of the smaller bugs fixed.

Same for Xcode. To build the plugins with Xcode, we want to have a .1 or .2 bugfix update for Xcode itself.

Beside a lot of nice new things, Xcode 27 raises the minimum supported deployment target on macOS to macOS 11. The intel target gets deprecated. Xcode 27 comes as an Apple Silicon only application. It can still build Intel code, but by default only builds for Apple Silicon.

There is the expectation, that Xcode 28 may stop building for Intel CPU. Which may mean that we stop supporting Intel Macs at that time. If you still have one in production, consider moving off to newer hardware soon.

See Xcode 27 release notes.

MBS Xojo Conference 2026 - Using Apple Foundation Models

We recorded the presentations at the MBS Xojo Conference in April 2026 and here is the Using Apple Foundation Models with Marc Zeedar.

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Secure Password Storage with Keychain Functions in MBS FileMaker Plugin 16.3

The upcoming version 16.3 of the MBS FileMaker Plugin introduces a powerful set of Keychain functions for storing and managing passwords on macOS and iOS. These functions allow FileMaker solutions to securely store credentials in the system Keychain without relying on external storage or insecure plaintext fields.

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MBS Xojo Plugins, version 26.3pr3

New in this prerelease of the 26.3 plugins:

• Fixed result of Verify() function in Argon2MBS class.
• Added NSApplicationPresentationDisableCursorLocationAssistance and NSApplicationPresentationDisableScreenCornerInteractions constants for NSApplicationMBS class.
• Added WinClassNameMBS to Window class.
• Added WebView2BrowserMBS method to HTMLViewer class.
• Added WebView2BrowserMBS class.
• Added Browser and IsInPrivateModeEnabled properties to WebView2ControlMBS class.
• Updated DynaPDF to version 5.0.3.12.
• Added kcfConvGrayToSauvola and kof2UseSauvolaFilter constants to DynaPDFMBS class.
• Added Contrast property to DynaPDFOptimizeParamsMBS class.

New functions in documentation

Download Links: Download Mac dmg or Download Windows/Linux zip

Download: monkeybreadsoftware.de/xojo/download/plugin/Prerelease/.
Or ask us to be added to our shared DropBox folder.

You can subscribe to our Xojo mailing list to get notified for new pre-release and release versions.

MBS FileMaker Plugin, version 16.3pr3

New in this prerelease of version 16.3 of the MBS FileMaker Plugin:

• Improved Command-Option-T shortcut for the calculation editor to insert the current selected table occurrence in the popup menu into the text and cut away the field name.
• Added a display of the time needed for the execution of a calculation. Shows time needed in milliseconds or microseconds.
• Improved the DPI awareness on Windows for various window functions.
• Fixed an issue with Window.PositionNextDialog not resizing the window properly.
• Updated FM.InsertRecord to delay getting the field types until we have a field type mismatch.
• When loading schema with Audit functions, we log in trace log how long the SQL requests took.
• Added Window.Screen function.
• Improved WebView.Close to close the WebView window.
• Improved WebView window to be closable with window.close in JavaScript..
• Updated the script search. Added compact view, details toggles, exclusion, RegEx help and more.
• Added List.ColumnMatchesPostfix, List.ColumnMatchesPrefix and List.ColumnMatchesSubString functions.
• Updated DynaPDF to version 5.0.3.12.
• Added ConvGrayToSauvola to the compression filter flags for DynaPDF.Optimize function.
• Added DeleteWatermarks, DeleteWatermarkAnnots and UseSauvolaFilter for DynaPDF.Optimize function.

New functions in documentation

Download Links: Download Mac dmg or Download Windows/Linux zip

Downloads at monkeybreadsoftware.com/filemaker/files/Prerelease/:

You can subscribe to our FileMaker mailing list to get notified for new pre-release and release versions.

MBS at Full Access 2026

We are happy to join the biggest US conference for FileMaker developers in 2026:

[Full Access] 2026

This year’s premier U.S. FileMaker conference.

August 6th – 10th 2026

The Jesuit Retreat Center, Los Altos, California.

Register

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Improve FileMaker Script & Calculation Readability with Custom Fonts Using MBS FileMaker Plugin

One of the small but surprisingly impactful usability improvements for FileMaker developers is choosing a better font for scripts and calculations. While FileMaker's default editor font works reasonably well, it can sometimes make it difficult to distinguish between similar-looking characters.

Have you ever spent several minutes hunting down a bug only to discover that a lowercase l was used instead of the number 1? Or perhaps a capital O was mistaken for the number 0? These subtle visual ambiguities can lead to frustrating debugging sessions and wasted development time.

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AutoMutexMBS: Automatic Mutex Management in MBS Plugins 26.3

With the upcoming MBS Xojo Plugins 26.3 release, we introduce a new helper class: AutoMutexMBS. This class makes working with mutexes safer and more convenient by automatically releasing locks when an object goes out of scope.

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MongoDB GridFS in the MBS FileMaker Plugin

Complete developer guide to storing, querying, and managing files in MongoDB GridFS

Introduction

GridFS is MongoDB’s mechanism for storing large files by splitting them into chunks and storing them across two collections. The MBS FileMaker Plugin exposes a complete API for working with GridFS directly from FileMaker scripts.

This allows developers to treat MongoDB as a scalable file storage backend for images, documents, and binary data.

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MBS Xojo Conference 2026 - Development of a tourist information system

We recorded the presentations at the MBS Xojo Conference in April 2026 and here is the Development of a tourist information system to promote local agritourism based on Xojo and Raspberry Pi installations by Paulina Drzazga, Maria Markowiak and Natalia Fiebig.

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MBS Xojo Plugins, version 26.3pr2

New in this prerelease of the 26.3 plugins:

• Added isGoldenGate function to SystemInformationMBS module.
• Added kTypeID constant to Argon2MBS class.
• Added NSRefreshControllerMBS class.
• Added preferredImageVisibility property to NSMenuItemMBS class.
• Added touchCapabilities property to NSScreenMBS class.
• Deprecated DVDPlaybackMBS class. Apple drops the framework for macOS 27 SDK.
• Updated jsoncons to version 1.8.1.
• Updated mongo-c-driver to version 2.3.1.
• Updated openssl to version 3.5.7.
• Updated the Argon2 code.
• Warning: The minimum macOS version is currently 10.15, but will change to 11.0 or 12.0 end of 2026.

New functions in documentation

Download Links: Download Mac dmg or Download Windows/Linux zip

Download: monkeybreadsoftware.de/xojo/download/plugin/Prerelease/.
Or ask us to be added to our shared DropBox folder.

You can subscribe to our Xojo mailing list to get notified for new pre-release and release versions.