We are pleased to release bBox version 0.88. bBox is a free utility plug-in to extend FileMaker solutions to easily use code libraries and macOS-based functions from Python, JavaScript, PHP, Ruby, AppleScript, Bash/sh, XPath, and SQLite. Included is a demo file that has over 180 examples of how you can put bBox functions to work for you.
New Features: XPath & AppleScript Improvements
The XPath engine has been updated to use libxml2 version 2.9.5, up from version 2.9.4. A number of situations where a non-terminal path reference would only return an error will now return data for all nodes. Also, sessions now have have their own private XPath contexts to avoid collisions when running multiple server-side scripts.
On the AppleScript front, error handling has been improved. In particular, error results using bBox_LastError(-6) will return more detail. For instance, if the wrong variable name is used:
-1753
The variable wrongPath is not defined.
Examples & Information
There are over 180 examples in the bBox 0.86 demo file. Some of the recently added examples demonstrate:
- 8 examples of the new JavaScript functions
- using Curl debug options and sending email
- extracting information on FileMaker layout objects in clipboard
- summarizing file usage information in FileMaker Server logs
Additionally, other developers have built example solutions using bBox, including:
You can get more details on the bBox plug-in and its functions at http://bbox.beezwax.net/bbox and the bBox Wiki.
Simon