mbsplugins.de

What It Is

Monkeybread Software’s MBS Plugins are a set of commercial plugins for Claris FileMaker and Xojo. The collected content comes from its blog and mainly highlights version updates, sample tutorials, and ecosystem activities. It is not a general-purpose IDE, but an extension library that adds lower-level capabilities to FileMaker/Xojo applications. A typical use case is triggering a script via the FileMaker Server Data API to generate a PDF, then downloading the file through a container field.

Core Capabilities and Ecosystem

The feature coverage is very broad. For PDF workflows, it integrates DynaPDF and can create, parse, and modify PDFs; the content also mentions PDF/UA, content stream parsing, certificate generation, and more. For networking, it includes CURL and CURLSMulti. For data, it covers MongoDB/GridFS and improvements to SQL thread locking. For Office documents, it integrates LibXL, supporting Excel data validation, filtering, and related features. It also includes Saxon XSLT/XPath/XQuery, Keychain, WebView, Printer, SpeechRecognition, FileMaker script search, and more. On the Xojo side, capabilities are exposed as classes and methods; on the FileMaker side, usage is mainly through MBS function calls.

Pricing and Deployment

The content explicitly mentions plugin licenses, renewal reminders, server licenses, and licensing tiers such as DynaPDF Starter/Lite/Pro/Enterprise, but does not provide specific prices. For deployment, FileMaker Server can place the plugin and dynapdf library into the Web Publishing Plugins directory and restart the WIP process, indicating that it is well suited to self-hosted server environments. Whether it is open source is not stated; based on the licensing and download model, it appears closer to a closed-source commercial plugin.

Pros and Cons

The main advantage is very frequent updates. The blog lists fine-grained additions, fixes, and dependency library versions, such as CURL, DynaPDF, LibXL, mongo-c-driver, and more. The examples are also practical, covering FileMaker scripts and curl-based workflows. The downside is that the product is broad and complex: new users need to understand licensing, modules, and platform differences. The collected pages also lack a clear pricing table, so procurement evaluation still requires checking the official website or contacting sales.

Who It’s For and Access from China

It is best suited for developers or consultants who build business systems with FileMaker or Xojo over the long term and need PDF, Excel, database, networking, or system integration capabilities. It is less compelling for teams that only use mainstream web technology stacks. The content does not provide information on access from China or payment methods, so these remain unknown. Alternatives include FileMaker’s native capabilities, other plugins in the Claris ecosystem, or directly using the corresponding SDKs such as DynaPDF, Saxon, LibXL, and libcurl.