Hi Andy,
Thank you. I agree 2EmpowerFM provides instant service.
My problem is the budget. It is quite expensive to continue both licenses. I could only choose one of them.
If I have enough budget, I will continue both of them.
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Does this plug-in ever get any new features?
For example, when you "Find All", can you export that list multiple ways to, say, share with other developers or even the client? For $400, I'd expect lots of reporting capabilities.
I could be wrong, but it seems the plugin's only updates support new FMP versions. The only video on their site is from seven years ago and their last Facebook posting was five years ago. I sent them two emails with requests for information days ago but never heard back.
Are they still in business?
If this plug-in was $99, I bet everybody would buy it -- making this company a lot more money in the long run.
Anyone knows who the developer is so we could invite him/her to the conversation?
A Google search gave me the name Chris Dragon back.
From Claris Community (English)
Chris Dragon
Dracoventions
Email: [support@dracoventions.com]
Web: http://www.dracoventions.com
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at the times when I was using the plugin, Chris was very speedy when contacted
Iāve already sent an email to Chris with a link to this post
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Oliver, this has been rewritten a number of times, both for Mac and Windows. There is often a shipping and beta version available for download.
I was testing the plug-in and it crashed FileMaker after just a few searches with a
Exception Type: EXC_BAD_ACCESS (SIGSEGV)
Exception Codes: KERN_INVALID_ADDRESS at 0x0000000000000040
Exception Note: EXC_CORPSE_NOTIFY
I sent the developer a note.
That is very unusual, but as mentioned above, Chris is normally very quick to respond.
The Script Workspace in FileMaker is a moving target.
Claris has changed things from one to next release even for smaller updates and that can lead to things breaking.
And there is no official API or support from Claris for such modifications.
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It sounds like even plug-in developers aren't considered "developers" by C, still just "customers". I don't get that. Microsoft is so developer focused, as just one example, it's just mind boggling how much C doesn't seem to be.
In any case, I had to uninstall the 2EmpowerFM plug-in (v. 3.42) since it crashes FMP every time I run it on the client's solution. 
But I totally get that problems happen. And, I also get how poorly things are documented by C. so it's amazing plug-ins work as well as they do given that.
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There could be lots of mitigating circumstances given all the crazy things going on in the world right now -- COVID, for example. I'm confident he will respond as soon as he can.
Oliver I have to agree with you about Microsoft being so developer focussed.
I used to work for an independent Mac support company and we spent our whole time evangelising Macs and maximising their usage within our clients.
When we visited Apple, we were pretty much treated like cattle, but despite our minimal involvement with Microsoft, we were treated like royalty there.
It depends where the vendor places their priorities. Apple are, without doubt, consumer focussed, whereas Microsoft are business focussed.
Iām not going to comment on Claris, as there is a danger this thread will go off topic and it is not a discussion I want to be involved in. This should remain focussed on the 2EmpowerFM Developer Assistant.
Can you provide your operating system, version, hardware, etc. regarding your crashing issue?
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Sure:
Mac OS 11.2.1
RAM 128 GB
Other plugin installed: MBS (MBS has never crashed.)
Hardware: 2019 iMac
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As I wrote above in my reply to @MonkeybreadSoftware , I had to uninstall the 2EmpowerFM plug-in since it crashed FMP every time I ran it against the client's solution.
Unfortunately, we have had similar experiences with a couple of 2empowerFM's plugins. It's been a while since we used them, so maybe a thing of the past. That is the main reason we don't use the developer assistant. Our development processes, and FMPerception and FMComparison provide everything we need to quickly identify and changes things we need.
We try to make the need for a "find and replace" unnecessary.
One comment to make on that Josh, is that if using a Mac you can refresh your DDR thanks to John Renfrewās AppleScript, hence FMPerception is almost running in real time.
With Windows, to my knowledge, there is no equivalent.
Iām running 2empowerFM on both my 2019 MacBook Air and my M1 MacBook Pro on both FMPA 18 and FMP19 without any problems. Iāve not any any crashes. Normally Iām also running Dacons MailIt and 360Works Scribe and sometimes MBS, but at the moment on the M1 Iām only using 2empowerFM (for no other reason than Iāve forgotten to add the others, as most of our development is done via Windows streaming). 2empowerFM is version 3.42.
By the looks of Oliverās spec. he is probably running one of the last 2 versions of FileMaker, so no idea why this is happening. Hopefully Chris will advise accordingly.
One thought Oliver, are the plugins installed in your ~Library/Application Support/FileMaker/FileMaker Pro (Advanced?)/18 or 19/Extensions/, or ~Library/Application Support/FileMaker/Extensions/ or /Applications/FileMaker Pro 18 Advanced/Extensions/ (v19 doesnāt have this option)?
Iāve seen duplicates installed before in different places and I have also seen the plugins run better in one location than the others (I tend to always opt for the first example above, it does allow me to run different versions of the plugins for different versions of FileMaker if needed).
You saw that FM.RunDatabaseDesignReport in MBS FileMaker Plugin works on Windows, too?
Can be used to automatically create DDR on MacOS and Windows.
See also video here:
Version Tracking in FileMaker with help of MBS Plugin
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Thanks Christian, I didnāt.
I must admit, had we been aware of your plugin many (over 12) years ago and, if it had its current feature set, we almost certainly wouldnāt have bought in to the other plugins we did at the time.
However, our core CRM system was built around the plugins we found that provided the functionality we needed at the time. I know MBS was around at least in 2006, but I have no idea what functions it had.
Also, at that time we had a policy here of only using software that provided equal Mac and Windows functionality, as we providing IT support as well as FileMaker development.
Anyway, congratulations on providing feature sets, probably 10 years ago, that we are only now getting as standard.
Equally, weāve had, and continue to have, very good service and support from Dacons, 360Works and Dracoventions.