We are pleased to release bBox version 0.90. 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 200 examples of how you can put bBox functions to work for you.
New Features:
bBox_MacNotifications
Creates macOS notifications. These can optionally call a FileMaker script when a user interacts with it. Scheduled notifications and notifications with optional text field are also possible.
A call to create very basic notification, without an accompanying alert or buttons would look like this:
bBox_MacNotification ("Q1"; -1; List ("Main Title"; "Subtitle"; "Longer descriptive text."))
Check the bBox Plug-in Demo file for 5 additional examples.
bBox_PerformKeystrokes
Enter keystrokes as if typed by user.
Changes since 0.88:
- XPath engine updated to use libxml2 version 2.9.7, up from version 2.9.5
- JavaScript errors returned by bBox_LastError will include a description of error as second value, instead of just the error number as first value
Roadmap Plans
The next version will be adding Script Steps for many functions. This was a new feature added in FileMaker 16. Partly because of this, the next version will drop support for FileMaker 15. ETA is October.
Addendum – October 1, 2018
Version 0.91 released with these initial 15 scripts steps:
- bBox Bash
- bBox Execute SQL
- bBox File Read
- bBox File Status
- bBox File Symlink
- bBox File Write
- bBox Get Character Style
- bBox Grep
- bBox JavaScript
- bBox Mac Notifications
- bBox Pasteboard Flavors
- bBox Pasteboard Get
- bBox Pasteboard Set
- bBox Perform Script
The script steps completed so far are largely just a different way to execute the existing bBox functions. In fact, their internal implementation are identical in some cases. Due to how FileMaker has implemented script steps however they tend to work best with a simpler interface (fewer options) than their function counterparts, so you may still prefer to use the function versions. On the plus side, I think some of the more complicated use cases could be made easier in this format, since we can better guide the developer to supply the required parameters.
Next release is planned for early next month.