MBS FileMaker Plugin 13.5 development

Hello,

in this thread I want to post to you what's new in development of MBS Plugin, version 13.5.

Download is available as usual here:

monkeybreadsoftware.com/filemaker/files/Prerelease/

or from Dropbox: Dropbox folder

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Greetings
Christian

13.5pr1:

2 Likes

6 posts were split to a new topic: Custom Function Formatting

Is there a specific thread for feature requests or can I post here ? (also thanks @Malcolm for splitting the calc formatting discussion off, makes it a bit easier to keep track).

This request is not related to that. I'm always looking for ways to improve efficiency of coding, and MBS provides so many huge advances in that area so I really thank you for that @MonkeybreadSoftware

While working in the calc engine just before, I had a thought of 2 possible enhancements that would actually save quite a bit of time over the course of a days development, and would solve a problelm I always find frustrating.

Firstly look at this screenshot:

It's a standard calc dialog but above it is "Set Field" which it relates to.

The issue here is I'm trying to simply switch the value in a field that I'm setting. the caluclation is going to just need to reference the field I'm setting.

This is a really common thing, and the problem is I always have to go looking for that TO in the large drop-down list of TO's . My sorting scheme for TO names helps, but it seems extra hassle to have to do this.

What I'm wondering is this - can MBS look at the script step and obtain the associated TO name of the field being set. Can it then use this to provide a shortcut means to do one of the following:

a. A button/shortcut key to automatically change the selected TO on the left hand side to the same one that set field is from. OR

b. A button/shortcut key to automatically paste into the calculation dialog the exact same field reference being set in the set field.

It's such a common thing to want to quickly use the same field being set in the calculation, and I feel this should be able to be a 1 keystroke/button action.

If both of the above are possible that would be even better, as more often than not any set field on a related TO will be referencing one or more fields from that TO.

An ability to quickly toggle between the fields TO, and the current layout contexts TO (the default in that dropdown) would also be brilliant, no need to actually access to the TO switcher at all in that case.

--

Sorry I tend to ramble and come up with all these ideas and i know your time is very precious in putting in features, so no worries if this is too time consuming, hard, not on your radar, I appreciate the platform to be able to request these types of things :+1:

The thing I love most here is that it's like requesting a product feature, yet we don't need to wait 20 years until it is implemented lol.

13.5pr2

  • Added Plugin.ObjectCounts function.
  • Tuned calculation formatter.
  • Fixed plugin not loading on macOS 10.13.
  • Fixed a problem with Phidget triggers not firing for e.g. IlluminanceChange.
1 Like

Love it ! The indenting options for text lines is awesome.

I am wondering if another shortcut could possibly be added for the new calculation formatting option?

Is it possible to display during stepping through the debugger to show the content of fields, variables currently involved in each script step? (I think you have this already via tooltip but this requires interacting besides clicking on the Step through button..)

That is what the data viewer is for.
(and you can hide globals via plug-in there)

and you can copy values via Right Mouse Click and context menu.

the data viewer slows me down. always searching up and down where the current values of the step in focus. I wish and pray on the line of debugger script step would be involved values on display. would save a lot of time scanning up and down the data viewer.

@FileKraft But with longer content of a variable the code would get unreadable.

@mipiano the length of my variables is fully under my control and lengthy variables also suffer in the data viewer … dismissed

13.5pr3:

  • Added Plugin.UsedFunctionCounts function.
  • Added flag to Plugin.ObjectCounts function to skip zero values.
  • Added Command-Shift-F shortcut to show find & replace interface in calculation text field.
  • Fixed find bar in data viewer for the case you got actually two of them.
  • Fixed an edge case for shifting formula text left.
  • Fixed an issue with WebHook functions and HTTP headers sent in chunks.
  • Updated DynaPDF to version 4.0.79.231.
  • Added DynaPDF.CreateGeospatialMeasure function.
  • Updated SQLAPI to version 5.2.6.
  • Updated SQLite to version 3.42.1.
  • Fixed an issue with RtlProcessFlsData crashing on Windows.
  • Updated CURL to version 8.4.0.
1 Like

13.5pr4:

2 Likes

I really appreciate these detailed updates, thanks !

2 Likes

I will second that sentiment, just because I don't say it enough. I see every post and it's easily digestible this way.

1 Like

13.5pr5:

1 Like

13.5pr6:

13.5pr7:

and released:

MBS Plugin 13.5 for Claris FileMaker

Feature request time :slight_smile:

The relationship graph is missing key shortcuts to help quickly organise TO's, namely these:

Screenshot 2023-11-11 at 10.51.29 AM

• Align top/bottom/left/right edges
• Resize to largest/smallest width/height
• Distribute horizontal/vertical

It is incredibly tedious organising a large graph to have to click the button options for these. I've always wanted shortcuts on the graph for these but Claris have never obliged.

There are a set of custom shortcuts I currently use for these commands albeit for layout objects which would be amazing to be used on the graph also:

• Align top/bottom/left/right edges: cmd + option + up/down/left/right
• Resize to smallest width/height: cmd + option + ctrl + left/up
• Resize to largest width/height: cmd + option + ctrl + right/down
• Distribute horizontal: cmd + option + ctrl + [
• Distribute Vertical: cmd + option + ctrl + ]

These prove to be very intuitive in their arrow usage, and would be an amazing addition to the graph if at all possible.

2 Likes