Special

Introducing the “Welcome to Xojo” Bundle!

New to Xojo and looking for guidance? We've put together a terrific bundle to welcome you! Xojo Bundle

This bundle includes six back issues of the magazine -- all of year 21 in printed book and digital formats -- plus a one-year subscription (beginning with 22.1) so you'll be learning all about Xojo for the next year. It's the perfect way to get started programming with Xojo. And you save as much as $35 over the non-bundle price!

This offer is only available for a limited time as supplies are limited, so hurry today and order this special bundle before the offer goes away!

Article Preview


Buy Now

Issue 11.6 ('Apple About Boxes')
Instant purchase and download via GumRoad!

NEWS

News

Issue: 11.6 (November/December 2013)
Article Description: No description available.
Article Length (in bytes): 17,830
Starting Page Number: 8
Article Number: 11601
Related Web Link(s):

http://www.xojo.com/xdc/sessions.php
http://www.xojo.com/xdc
http://www.monkeybreadsoftware.de/realbasic/plugins.shtml
http://www.monkeybreadsoftware.de/realbasic/WebStarterKit/
http://www.1701software.com
http://delaneyrm.com/fpPlugin.html
http://great-white-software.com/rblibrary/index.php?main_page=index&
http://www.ohanaware.com/appwrapper/
http://thezaz.com/blog/2013/08/announcing_zirconkit_for_xojo.html

Full text of article...

2014 Xojo Developer Conference Offers 38 Sessions, Networking Opportunities and Gaming Contest

Xojo, Inc., makers of Xojo, a multi-platform development tool for the desktop and the web/web-mobile, is hosting the 2014 Xojo Developer Conference (XDC) in Las Vegas, March 26-28, 2014 at the Monte Carlo Resort and Casino. XDC expands this year with 38 technical sessions presented by the company's development staff and leading users from around the world. In addition to a keynote address from Founder and CEO Geoff Perlman, XDC will include numerous opportunities for attendees to interface with the Xojo engineers themselves, network with other Xojo users from the international community, and participate in a gaming code battle.

"XDC is the best place for Xojo developers to hone their programming skills, learn from the experts and meet other Xojo developers from all over the world. Last year at XDC we had attendees from 15 countries and this conference promises to be even larger," commented Geoff Perlman, Xojo, Inc. Founder and CEO. "We believe that the education and networking opportunities offered are invaluable to our users, and our technical staff benefits tremendously from the in-person interaction with our users."

XDC 2014 features sessions on best practices, special interests and other technical issues, with content for every level of Xojo developer. Educational sessions will cover topics like Xojo iOS, database design, user interface design, debugging techniques, writing secure apps, and more. To view a complete list of sessions please visit the XDC website at http://www.xojo.com/xdc/sessions.php.

Conference pricing:

* Early Registration Price, Ending 11/30/2013: $750

* Advanced Registration Price, 12/1/2013 - 2/14/2014: $850

* Late Registration Price, 2/15/2014 - 3/26/2014: $950

The Monte Carlo Resort and Casino is offering XDC 2014 attendees a special hotel room rate of $65/night during the conference.

Product: 2014 Xojo Developer Conference

Platforms: All

Price: $750-$950

Website: http://www.xojo.com/xdc

MBS Plugins 13.4 Released

Monkeybread Software releases version 13.4 of the MBS plug-in for Xojo and Real Studio. The MBS plug-in comprises a collection of several plug-in parts which extend the Real Studio development environment with 1,800 classes featuring over 48,000 documented functions. Our plugins support all three platforms Mac OS X, Windows and Linux with all project types desktop, web and console.

Some of the highlights on the 13.4 update:

In this plugin we created a new encryption plugin to collect all our encryption function and add new one. We now have improved AES and Blowfish encryption classes. Our new OpenSSL module has functions to digitally sign data and later verify the signature. Also the new ECDHEMBS class helps with key agreement over a network.

New functions for colorspace handling improves reading and writing CMYK pictures with JPEG classes. We improved NSColorSpace and CGColorSpace classes with new properties and methods. Especially if you like to draw into a picture with right colorspace on Cocoa targets.

Improvements to RegExMBS class for regular expressions now allow to use more captures and query information about the compiled patterns. You can disassemble your pattern to debug it and list the named captures.

The GWorldMBS class is updated to create graphics environments in other pixel formats or with existing memory. New functions to copy pixels directly to memoryblock help with fast processing of images. In the same direction point our VLC improvements. You can more easily copy the current frame into a memoryblock.

Also we updated several libraries used by our plugins including a new DynaPDF version and updates for PCRE library.

The plug-ins require Real Studio 2006r4 or newer. Also required are 1 GB hard disc space and around 512 MB of RAM in addition to the requirements of Real Studio and your operation system itself. While all plug-in parts compile on Mac OS X (universal), Linux and Windows, each function may depend on additional system requirements to work successfully.

Plugin licenses are available for components or for the complete collection. If you buy a current license, you will get free updates for one year. After that year, you can update your license to cover an additional year.

Product: MBS Xojo and Real Studio plugins 13.2

Platforms: All

Price: $29-$299

Website: http://www.monkeybreadsoftware.de/realbasic/plugins.shtml

MBS Xojo Web Starter Kit Reaches 1.1

The MBS Xojo (Real Studio) Web Starter Kit is a starting point for building your Web Applications with Real Studio or Xojo. Version 1.1 is a free update for existing users.

Especially our new Web Signature Kit allows you to easily capture signatures on a tablet device with your web application. You can of course simply use it as a drawing area, too.

New in Version 1.1:

* Added Web Signature Kit project.

* Commented out Print commands. They are useful in standalone, but cause problems in cgi mode.

* Improved code to handle database. Now the app launches when no database is found.

* Added WebLoadBalancing example code

* Added System Information page.

Existing features of our Web Starter Kit:

* Database Support including REALSQLDatabase, MySQLCommunityServer, CubeSQLServer and SQLDatabaseMBS. Other databases can be added easily.

* Simple User Management for Admins and normal users.

* Login Panel.

* Auto login, so people don't need to login each time.

* Collects Exceptions and JavaScript Errors in database and displays them to Admin..

* Allows logging to text file and database and displaying them.

* SQL Console with download of database and query result as CSV file.

* Session management for admin to see what users do..

* Chat Window.

* Creates Backup of database.

* Object browser and memory statistics.

* Messages for Admins to/from users.

* File Browser.

* Shows how to cache images/files to save memory.

* and much more...

You can use the Kit as a foundation of your new web application or simply copy the parts you need to your own web application. This Kit is the result of putting together all the goodies we developed in the last two years for various web applications. Things we believe everyone could need in their own solution. And of course in the next few years we will add more functions depending on user requests.

The Web Starter Kit requires Real Studio 2012 or newer and a license of the MBS Xojo (Real Studio) Plugins. The Kit uses a couple of plugins.

Product: MBS Real Studio Web Starter Kit

Platforms: All

Price: $149

Website: http://www.monkeybreadsoftware.de/realbasic/WebStarterKit/

Xojo Web Application Hosting

1701 Software, Inc. is proud to announce the general availability of our Xojo web application hosting services!

We use Xojo every day to build beautiful web based applications for our customers. We decided we could help the community at large by providing a service that understands the needs of Xojo apps.

Many people have gone searching for the web host who understands what makes Xojo special and unique. Many have become frustrated with poor support, inadequate libraries, incompatible versions, or restrictive policies that make shared hosting a nightmare. Going to a VPS is a wonderful improvement but requires a lot of time and patience as you learn the Linux command line and various server tools.

Now you can rely on a webhost that gets you. We offer fully managed private VPS servers that are optimized for Xojo. Everything out of the box is ready to run your Xojo app. In fact we install an example app on your box as soon as it's ready to go to demonstrate the speed. We use the latest technologies like solid state disk drives which make your apps fly. You can even choose from North American or European datacenters as we know many Xojo users hail from across the pond.

Last but not least the price is affordable. Our basic no frills developer plan is $15/month and includes 512mb of ram. If you require MySQL, PostgreSQL or email hosting you should look to our business plan at $25/month which gives you 1024mb of ram. Both plans offer two months free on a yearly payment schedule. Both plans allow you to host as many domains, Wordpress blogs, and Xojo apps as you like.

Product: Xojo Web Application Hosting

Platforms: All

Price: $15-$25/month

Website: http://www.1701software.com

fp Plugin 7.3

fp Plugin 7.3 adds the function fpPowerMod which can raise a square matrix to a very large integer power modulus an integer which also can be very large.

Using a custom fp multi-precision engine, fp Plugin for Xojo adds six new data types, BigInteger, BigFloat, BigComplex, BigFraction, BigPoly, and BigMatrix. Except for available memory, there is no limitation on the size of a BigInteger.

BigFloat is a multi—precision floating point number. You can set both the internal precision and the decimal output precision for BigFloat, with no limitation except for available memory.

BigComplex is composed of two BigFloats.

BigFraction represents num/den where num and den are BigIntegers.

BigPoly represents a polynomial with BigFraction coefficients.

BigMatrix represents a matrix with BigFraction elements.

fp Plugin itself allows you to construct programs which can handle the six new data types much like doubles and integers are handled. To a large extent the new data types can be freely used with the +, -, *, and / operators, and can be used in comparisons. And most of Xojo's functions have been overloaded to take the new data types, where it makes sense to do so. The added 7th data type is ComplexVector, which holds an array of complex numbers. Additional functions use the Laguerre method to find for a polynomial all its roots (complex or real) to any chosen precision.

Product: fp Plugin 7.2

Platforms: All

Price: Free

Website: http://delaneyrm.com/fpPlugin.html

New Xojo Book

If you need reports that can be edited after printing, or can be saved in multiple formats such as the common docx or pdf format, then this book is for you. Most business applications require the famous Windows operating system and is the standard around the world. This book provides an introductory and intermediate steps with over 100 examples to get you on your way to make successful applications.

There is one plugin which is supplied by Xojo that needs to be included in the Plugins folder. This book contains over 250 pages and explains every example in detail. Over 100 examples include: Printing Tables, Text modification, Files, Envelopes, Mail Merging... and more!

Product: I Wish I Knew How To... Program Word with Xojo in Windows

Platforms: All

Price: $8.99

Website: http://great-white-software.com/rblibrary/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=16

Ohanaware improves App Wrapper with added support for Xojo

App Wrapper is the tool that Ohanaware use to package their applications for the Mac App Store&their web site. App Wrapper is a simplified approach to performing meanial tasks that are required in order to distribute applications for Apple's Mac App Store and OS X Mountain Lion. Version 2.2 now includes a new Icon editor and several bug fixes.

Version 2.2 of App Wrapper includes a new Icon Editor, allowing more control over icon generation and updates the icon code to the latest version. It also improves support for Xojo 2013r2 and an improved version editor, not to forget numerous bug fixes.

App Wrapper simplifies the process of Code Signing, Sandboxing, Compressing applications (via OS X Installer or Zip file), generating Retina Compatible High Resolution icons, and Help Documentation preparation. Reducing the time required to prepare applications for distribution via the Mac App Store or OS X Mountain Lion.

Code signing is required for both the Mac App Store&OS X Mountain Lion. App Wrapper's Code signing engine is capable of code signing helper apps, frameworks, plugins&AppleScripts. Sandboxing is required for the Mac App Store. App Wrapper 2 features a new GUI interface to simplify the specification of Entitlement keys and their values. It includes tools to help validate a Sandboxed application and to track down Sandbox violations.

App Wrapper can add High Resolution ICNS files to the application bundle, or it can generate High Resolution ICNS files from almost any transparent image. App Wrapper also features a 'Document Icon Maker' that can generate (AHIG conforming) High Resolution ICNS files using the Application icon and a simple identifier. App Wrapper uses High Quality scaling to retain as much detail when generating icons at smaller sizes. When creating Retina compatible applications, App Wrapper can generate HiDPI ICNS files (dependant on the specified Minimum OS).

App Wrapper can add a Help folder or Help file into the application bundle, and add the correct keys to the plist. Also featured is a Help Validator which will check the help documents for simple XHTML errors, broken links, missing images and other common errors.

App Wrapper features functionality to add importable and exportable UTIs to an application, it includes a function that can generate a matching UTI from a document type. This enables developers to easily add support for "Document Packages".

Many required plist keys can be specified using the App Wrapper interface. For more advanced plist editing, App Wrapper includes a simple plist editor.

App Wrapper features GUI options for configuring the Apple About Box. Included in the App Wrapper help is code for Real Studio developers to use, that will display a genuine Apple About Box.

App Wrapper automatically saves the settings, restoring them when the application is re-opened in App Wrapper.

App Wrapper was made with Xojo (formally known as Real Software's Real Studio) and App Wrapper was used on itself, to generate a Retina compatible icon, validate and include the help, configure the about box, codesign the bundle and then to create the Zip compressed file.

Product: App Wrapper 2.2

Platforms: OSX

Price: $49.99

Website: http://www.ohanaware.com/appwrapper/

ZirconKit for Xojo

Everybody who has written a custom control knows every single one of them needs some common work to get going. The ZirconKit Foundation is a free open source set of classes designed to make custom control authoring easier. The ZirconControl class is an automatic zero-flicker canvas that also handles retina scaling and appearance notification, to name a few. Also includes methods for drawing focus rings, adjusting color brightness, drawing stretched and patterned pictures, and detecting full keyboard access. If you're writing a custom control, this is a good foundation to build from, and there is plenty more room for this package to grow.

ZirconSwitch

Built on ZirconKit, this is an iOS replica switch control. This control is fully animated—with the ability to turn the animation off—and very customizable. Supports custom captions, colors, positioning, and sizing. And, for the record, this is not the same control as used in the Xojo IDE. Built from scratch, this control supports Retina displays, animates nicer, and is more flexible than the Xojo IDE control.

ZirconSwitch is available as a free demo. The control will fully function in debug builds, but will be completely invisible and inoperable in built applications. A licensed version can be purchased for $10, and allows use in an unlimited number of applications under development by the purchaser. Both demo and licensed versions ship as encrypted classes.

ZirconBreadcrumbs

ZirconBreadcrumbs is a massively flexible path control. It can be fully themed to match any application, supports Retina displays, and supports both icons and captions per cell. Displaying filesystem navigation—or any navigation for that matter—is a piece of cake now.

ZirconBreadcrumbs is available as a free demo. The control will fully function in debug builds, but will be completely invisible and inoperable in built applications. A licensed version can be purchased for $25, and allows use in an unlimited number of applications under development by the purchaser. Both demo and licensed versions ship as encrypted classes.

Product: ZirconKit / ZirconSwitch / ZirconBreadcrumbs

Platforms: All

Price: ZirconKit (free), ZirconSwitch ($10), ZirconBreadcrumbs ($25)

Website: http://thezaz.com/blog/2013/08/announcing_zirconkit_for_xojo.html

End of article.