MBS JavaScript Power
Living the 100% FileMaker native life is certainly possible, but can be seriously limiting when it comes to all the things possible with various other technologies. JavaScript, as one of the predominant languages used across the Internet and beyond, is quickly becoming a must-know for every serious FileMaker developer.
In this video I showcase using the MBS plug-in in order to take advantage of the VERY WIDE world of JavaScript libraries and doing it without the Web Viewer. FileMaker's Web Viewer, while providing a full runtime WebKit engine, is a bit of a liability in certain situations. Because of the Web Viewer's caching, especially if your script does any moving around between records and/or layouts, you have to be extra cautious about how you implement the use of a Web Viewer for running JavaScript. If you're not careful, you won't get the reliable results you might expect as opposed to simply executing plain old JavaScript.
The solution to finicky Web Viewer execution is to take advantage of the JavaScript offered by a plug-in. The most comprehensive plug-in regarding JavaScript is the MBS plug-in. If you've never used its raw JavaScript power, then you're in for a great surprise of how easy it can be and this video will guide you towards taking full advantage of what it has to offer!
Comments
sample file open
Could not load a JavaScript library.
second error since it could load the library to get a function error.
More details?
Your question is lacking a few details. But essentially, if I read it correctly, you're not getting the WebKit library to load. On Windows or Linux you'll need to get either the .dll (dynamiclly linked library) or .so (shared object) for Linux. If the Mac is not loading then you'll need to verify the MBS version and Mac OS version.
At the bottom of the JavaScript Engines script you'll find some code that readys False and Developer and $$_DEV.DEBUG.SHOW Change the False to True and set $$_DEV.DEBUG.SHOW to true and you'll be able to investigate the MBS Trace log to get more insights as to what is going on.
The MBS plug-in will provide a lot of details if you turn on a trace log.
-- Matt Petrowsky - ISO FileMaker Magazine Editor
Bypassing 30,000 character limit
Hi Matt, thanks for another great video. Can you please explain further how you use the clipboard and plugin functions to get the code into FM please as there is nothing online about this that I can find.
Thank you.