MBS FileMaker Plugin 16.0 News

In this article we want to introduce you the new functions from the MBS FileMaker Plugin in version 16.0.

Search in scripts for Windows and Mac

First, I will introduce a change that will probably make Windows users' hearts beat faster, but the new feature is also an enhancement for Mac users. We have added a new search button that allows you to search through the scripts. Mac already had the option of entering a term in the search field, which would then search the individual scripts and allow you to click through them. Now there is a search function for Mac and Windows that searches all scripts at once and displays the results in a list. This allows you to check, for example, whether you have renamed all global variables when renaming one.

You can use the functions SyntaxColoring.ScriptSearchButton.SetEnabled and SyntaxColoring.ScriptSearchButton.GetEnabled to check and set whether the search is enabled.

Translation

Mac users can look forward to the new Translation component. The MBS FileMaker Plugin makes Apple's framework available for on-device translation on macOS 26 and iOS 26 or later. Machine learning is used for translation. With an older code path, it is also available for macOS 15 and iOS 18*. To learn more about this, please take a look at the blog article Translation Framework in FileMaker.

This feature will probably be improved in the next releases, so send us your feedback.

* sadly not perfect in 16.0 for the older system versions, but fixed already for next release.

CURL

With the new CURL.VersionDetails function, we can query the details of our currently used CURL version. The resulting JSON provides all the information that would otherwise have to be queried individually with several functions. Query the features, protocols, version, host, and much more in a single JSON.

Hash

We also have a new function for you in the Hash area. The Hash.CRC16 function calculates a 16-bit CRC value. The function provides you with several parameters to obtain very different CRC variations.

Set Variable [ $r ; Value: MBS("Hash.CRC16"; "Text"; "123456789"; "UTF-8"; 65535; 40961; 0; 1; 0) ]
Set Variable [ $h ; Value: MBS("Math.DecToHex"; $r) ]
Show Custom Dialog [  "CRC with MODBUS" ; "CRC16: " &  $r & "¶Hex: "& $h ]

This function gets an improvement for 16.1 for reverse input.

HotKey

You may already be familiar with our HotKeys, which allow you to execute scripts using keyboard shortcuts. Now you have the option of restricting these HotKeys so that they are only executed when a FileMaker document window is frontmost. The HotKey.SetFileMakerWindowOnly and HotKey.GetFileMakerWindowOnly functions are available for setting and querying this restriction. In the HotKey.SetFileMakerWindowOnly function, you only need to specify the already registered HotKey reference and enable this option with 1 or disable it with 0 in an additional parameter.

JSON

With the new function, you can now specify which characters you want to use to format JSON. By default, tab (Char(9)) is used for indentation and a space is used between the object key and the object. You can now change these characters with the JSON.SetFormatOptions function. If you want to return to the default settings, call the function without parameters.

Set Variable [ $JSON ; Value: "{\"test\":1234, \"values\":[2,3,4]}" ]
Set Field [ JSON::JSON1 ; $JSON ]
Set Field [ JSON::JSON2 ; MBS( "JSON.Format";$JSON ) ]
Set Variable [ $r ; Value: MBS( "JSON.SetFormatOptions"; "-"; "+" ) ]
Set Field [ JSON::JSON3 ; MBS( "JSON.Format";$JSON ) ]
Set Variable [ $r ; Value: MBS( "JSON.SetFormatOptions"; ""; "" ) ]
Set Field [ JSON::JSON4 ; MBS( "JSON.Format";$JSON ) ]
Set Variable [ $r ; Value: MBS( "JSON.SetFormatOptions"; Char ( 9 ); Char ( 9 ) ) ]
Set Field [ JSON::JSON5 ; MBS( "JSON.Format";$JSON ) ]
Set Variable [ $r ; Value: MBS( "JSON.SetFormatOptions" ) ]

MarkDown

In the last release, we added a Markdown function that returns styled text from Markdown. This time, we have the MarkDown.Colorize function. Here, we specify the Markdown text in the parameters and get the colored Markdown text back. This step can help us keep track of things while writing the text.

System Info

In this release, we would also like to introduce a new function from the SystemInfo area. The new function SystemInfo.IsiOSAppOnVision indicates whether the process is an iPhone or iPad app running on visionOS. You can use this function on macOS 26.1 or newer. On older versions it will just return 0.

Passwords for Excel

Some Excel files can only be opened with a password. To make it possible to import and process password-protected Excel files with LibXL, we've added a new parameter to our XL.LoadBook and XL.LoadBookPartially functions where you can enter the password needed to open the file.

We hope you will also find some interesting new features. We wish you a lot of fun with MBS FileMaker Plugin Version 16.0. If you need a license or have any questions, please contact us.

See also release notes here.