In 2025, guest authors shared their expertise and real-world experience on the Xojo Blog. These posts bring fresh perspectives, practical solutions and deep technical insight that help other developers learn faster, solve problems more effectively and feel more connected to the Xojo community.

Guest posts in 2025 included:

• Martin T., Xojo MVP: Hide the Tabs in an Android MobileTabPanel Using Declares
• Martin T., Xojo MVP: Xojo for Android: A Two-Year Retrospective
• Martin T., Xojo MVP: It’s here – Android Design Extensions 4.0
• Anthony Cyphers, GraffitiSuite and Xojo MVP: Handling Feature Requests
• Kem Tekinay, Xojo MVP: MemoryBlocks For Speed: A Case Study
• Kem Tekinay, Xojo MVP: The Beauty of Binary Searches
• Jürg Otter: Build a Xojo Plugin with GitHub Actions
• Ezekiel Burke, Iron Elephant Solutions: Introduction to PocketBase: A Backend Alternative for Xojo Developers

We are always looking for users in the Xojo community who want to share a problem they’ve solved, a creative solution or an interesting project. If you’re interested in contributing a guest post or have an idea you’d like to explore, send it to me at alyssa@xojo.com.

In 2024, we introduced the Spotlight On series to highlight the work Xojo users do and their experiences using Xojo. Since many Xojo users don’t fit the mold of a traditional developer role, Spotlight On offers a fun and approachable way to learn how someone got started with Xojo and how they use it today. Spotlights can focus on an individual developer, a business or a specific Xojo-based project.

Spotlight On features in 2025:

• Spotlight On: GraffitiSuite
• Spotlight On: xDev Magazine
• Spotlight On: LX Aer
• Spotlight On: EKlectic Accounting
• Spotlight On: Raximus Studios
• Spotlight On: Richard Klingler
• Spotlight On: Enrique Contreras
• Spotlight On: Offroad Portal
• Spotlight On: Tim Dietrich
• Spotlight On: Sounds In Sync
• Spotlight On: Android Design Extensions
• Spotlight On: Aaron Andrew Hunt

If you’d like to be featured in a future Spotlight On or know someone in the Xojo community whose story would be great to share, we’d love to hear from you. Reach out with suggestions to me at alyssa@xojo.com.

The Xojo Blog is at its best when it reflects the voices, experiences and creativity of the community itself. Whether through guest posts, Spotlight On posts or shared ideas, we look forward to continuing to learn from and celebrate the people who make Xojo what it is.

Alyssa has been with Xojo for over 18 years. She loves solving problems and building community. You can reach her at alyssa@xojo.com or through any of Xojo’s social media channels. If you can’t reach her she’s probably out hiking the beautiful trails through her city of Portland, Oregon, or maybe enjoying a drink with friends by the river.

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This is where ngrok comes in: a fantastic tool that creates secure tunnels to your localhost, making your locally running Xojo web app accessible from anywhere in the world. It’s a game-changer for testing, demonstrations, and rapid development.

What is ngrok and Why Xojo Developers Need It?

At its core, ngrok is a command-line tool that creates a secure, public URL for a service running on your local machine. Think of it as a temporary bridge from the internet directly to your computer, bypassing firewalls and NAT configurations.

For Xojo Web developers, this offers a wealth of benefits:

• Real-device Testing: Test your Xojo web app’s responsiveness and functionality on actual mobile phones, tablets, or other computers, even if they’re not on your local Wi-Fi network.
• Instant Demonstrations: Share your work-in-progress with clients, colleagues, or friends without the need of deploying to a remote server. They just need the ngrok-provided URL!
• Webhook Development: Many third-party services (payment gateways, messaging platforms, etc.) use webhooks to notify your application of events. These webhooks require a public URL to send data to. ngrok provides this, making local webhook development a breeze.
• Debugging Public-Facing Issues: Sometimes, an issue only appears when your app is publicly accessible. ngrok allows you to debug such scenarios without a full deployment cycle.

It’s truly a must-have tool in your Xojo Web development toolkit!

Getting Started with ngrok

Before we connect our Xojo app, we need to get ngrok set up.

Step 1: Download ngrok

Head over to the official ngrok website: https://ngrok.com/download.

Download the version appropriate for your operating system (Windows, macOS, Linux).

Step 2: Unzip and Place

Once downloaded, you’ll get a single executable file (e.g., ngrok.exe on Windows, ngrok on macOS/Linux). Unzip it and place it in a convenient location. I recommend creating a dedicated folder for it, or placing it somewhere easily accessible from your terminal or command prompt.

Preparing Your Xojo Web App

Xojo Web applications are self-contained web servers. When you run a Xojo Web app in debug mode or build it for deployment, it listens for incoming connections on a specific port. By default, Xojo Web apps usually listen on port 8080.

Let’s quickly ensure your Xojo Web app is ready:

1. Open your Xojo Web Project: Open any existing Xojo Web project, or create a new one for testing.
2. Run in Debug Mode: Click the “Run” button in the Xojo IDE. Your web app will launch in your default browser, at http://localhost:8080.

Tunneling Your Xojo App with ngrok

Now for the magic! With your Xojo Web app running locally, we’ll open a tunnel to it using ngrok.

Step 1: Open Terminal/Command Prompt

Open your system’s terminal (macOS/Linux) or Command Prompt/PowerShell (Windows).

Step 2: Navigate to ngrok Directory (if needed)

If you didn’t place the ngrok executable in a system PATH location, navigate to the directory where you unzipped ngrok using the cd command. For example:

cd /path/to/your/ngrok/folder

Step 3: Run the ngrok Command

Now, execute the ngrok command to create the tunnel. Since Xojo Web apps typically run on port 8080, the command will be:

ngrok http 8080

• http: Specifies that we’re tunneling an HTTP service.
• 8080: This is the port your Xojo Web app is listening on. If you’ve configured your Xojo app to use a different port (e.g., in the Build Settings), make sure to use that port number instead.

After running the command, ngrok will output information about the tunnel it has created. You’ll see output similar to this:

ngrok                                                                            (Ctrl+C to quit)

Session Status                online
Account                       Account Name (Free)
Version                       3.x.x
Region                        United States (us)
Forwarding                    https://a52b-20-40-100-120.ngrok-free.app -> http://localhost:8080

Connections                   ttl     opn     rt1     rt5     p50     p90
                              0       0       0.00    0.00    0.00    0.00

The most important lines here are the Forwarding lines. These provide you with the public URLs that point to your Xojo web app.

Testing Your Public Xojo App

With the ngrok tunnel active, your Xojo web app is now live to the world!

1. Copy the HTTPS URL: Copy the https:// URL provided by ngrok.
2. Test It:
   • Paste this URL into any web browser, on any device, anywhere with an internet connection.
   • Send the URL to a friend or client to get their feedback.
   • Test it on your mobile phone’s browser using its cellular data connection (not your local Wi-Fi) to simulate a truly external connection.

You’ll see your Xojo web app load as if it were hosted on a remote server!

To stop the ngrok tunnel, press Ctrl+C in the console.

Conclusion

ngrok can be an indispensable tool for any Xojo Web developer. It transforms the challenging task of exposing a local web app into a simple, one-line command. Whether you’re testing on diverse devices, showcasing your progress to clients, or integrating with external webhook services, ngrok streamlines your workflow and lets you focus on what you do best: building amazing applications with Xojo.

Give ngrok a try on your next Xojo Web project, and prepare to be amazed by the convenience it offers!

What if we create a Build Step script to automatically run ngrok when needed? Share your experiences and tips in the Xojo forums!

Gabriel is a digital marketing enthusiast who loves coding with Xojo to create cool software tools for any platform. He is always eager to learn and share new ideas!

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I’ve had the pleasure of working with Tim multiple times over nearly 10 years now. Tim is one of those people who makes a community, he’s a connector, bringing people into a group and highlighting common ground for the benefit of us all. It’s not hard to find out what Tim is doing these days, you can read all about it on his blog, watch his videos and webinars and read his Xojo interview series in xDev Magazine. In this month’s Spotlight On feature, Tim answers questions about his latest, and biggest, project and his ongoing success using Xojo.

Mac, Windows or Linux?

All three.

I do all of my work on a MacBook Pro. That’s where I’m running the Xojo IDE, doing testing, and so on. But I’m developing apps that also run on Windows and Linux, too. When I’m developing a Windows app, I usually do my initial testing using a Windows VM running in Parallels. Over the past few years, the amount of Linux projects that I work on has increased significantly. I’m developing a lot of console apps that run on Linux.

Here’s something that I discovered about a year ago, and that your readers might find interesting. Xojo apps that are compiled for Linux (Linux x86 64-bit in particular) will run on servers that are running Oracle’s “Oracle Linux Server” operating system. Oracle’s cloud (which they call “Oracle Cloud Infrastructure” or “OCI” for short) run that version of Linux, which is similar to Fedora. A lot of companies that are running on NetSuite (which Oracle owns) are “all in” with OCI. So the fact that Xojo apps can be compiled to run on OCI servers is a pretty big deal. I think there’s a lot of opportunity for Xojo developers to meet the demand for custom software coming from companies that are in investing in OCI.

What do you wish more people would ask/talk to you about regarding programming?

I have a pretty popular blog, and I do get a lot of technical questions from readers. Occasionally, I get questions like “How can I break into the NetSuite space?” What they’re really asking about are strategies for finding opportunities, technical things that they should learn about, and so on.

But it’s the non-technical things that they don’t ask about that I think are really important. For example, learning about business in general. Learning about accounting. And if they’re looking to “go solo,” learning how to build authority, stay organized, and so on.

How would you explain your most recent project to a new developer?

One of the biggest challenges that companies face when they’re switching from one business system to another is migrating data between the two systems. Some companies think that this is the final step before “going live” with the new system – and it certainly is.

But the reality is that they’ll likely need to do this data migration several times, especially as they test the new system. In some cases, they’ll run the two systems in parallel and compare the results of the two systems, to make sure the new system is being implemented correctly.

I’m currently working on a very large, very complicated NetSuite implementation, and we ran into this need. Using Xojo, I developed an app called the “Data Bridge” which we’re using to sync data between their current system (which was developed using Progress – https://progress.com) and their NetSuite instance. It takes data that was exported from Progress as pipe-delimited files, parses and validates the data, and then makes API calls to push the data into NetSuite. This is helping us test NetSuite more thoroughly, using current, real data, so that there will be no surprises when we do go live.

What’s next on your “Learn Next” list?

For the longest time, I’ve felt that AI – and especially generative AI – is overhyped. So I mostly ignored it. Now that the excitement has settled down a bit, I’ve started to look at AI in a serious way. NetSuite recently made some generative AI APIs available to developers, so I’ve been experimenting with those. One of the projects that I’m currently working on involves developing a Xojo-based mobile app that integrates with NetSuite, leveraging the data stored in NetSuite as well as its AI functionality.

What is something that has surprised you about coding in the last 10 years?

I think that like a lot of developers that have been working professionally for awhile, I was surprised by the popularity of Javascript, and how widespread it’s used, especially for developing backend Web apps. The other thing that has surprised me is the increasing number of developers that really don’t want to write code. There seem to be a lot of people that pursue careers in software development simply because they think it’s a way to “make big money.” One of the things that
I love about the Xojo community is that most of the Xojo developers that I’ve talked to seem to find joy in writing code. (You can also see this on the Forum, too.)

Xojo isn’t the only tool in your kit. What is a piece of software more people should know about?

There are a couple of other development tools that I use and recommend, and that I encourage other Xojo developers to check out.

One is DataGrip by JetBrains, which I started using about a year ago. DataGrip is a cross- platform database tool that supports a very wide range of relational databases. I use it often in my NetSuite work, especially when I need to explore the schema of the Oracle database that a NetSuite instance is powered by.

Another tool that I recommend is RapidAPI (which was formerly known as “Paw”). I’ve been using RapidAPI since it was first released, and it’s my API tool of choice. There’s another API tool called “Postman”that is certainly much more popular, but I really prefer RapidAPI. It seems to me to be much more Mac-like.

One more tool that I want to mention – and this one is brand new – is called “Framous.” Framous makes it easy to add device frames around screenshots. So you can take a screenshot of an app – such as one running on your Mac or in a simulator – and then drop the screenshot into a device frame – such as a Mac or iPhone. It’s great for creating images to be used for marketing purposes. The app is available on the Mac App Store.

When did you start using Xojo?

I started using Xojo in August of 2015 – nearly 10 years ago!

How did you find Xojo?

Hal Gumbert encouraged me to check out Xojo, and I’m so glad that he did. At the time, we were both FileMaker developers. I had grown frustrated with the FileMaker platform and was looking for a new development tool to work with.

What did you first build with Xojo?

When I first started working with Xojo, I was interested in developing iOS apps – and Xojo’s support for the iOS framework had just been released. So the timing was perfect. In fact, then first Xojo license that I purchased was only for iOS. There were two iOS apps that I immediately developed with Xojo. One integrated with FileMaker and the other integrated with Airtable. (At the time, I was serving as Airtable’s “Developer Evangelist.”)

What do you build with it now? 

I now use Xojo to develop all kinds of apps – desktop, mobile, Web, and console apps – and for all of the platforms that Xojo supports too (macOS, Windows, Linux, iOS, and Android). When I first started using Xojo, I never would have guessed that someday I’d be developing so many different types of apps.

It surprises me that out of all of the types of apps that I develop with Xojo, these days it’s Linux console apps that I’m developing the most. These apps are primarily used to automate processes involving NetSuite, such as batch file processors, webhook listeners and senders, and more. So essentially I’m using Xojo – and console apps especially – to extend NetSuite’s capabilities.

What is something you worked on recently that you want to talk about?

I mentioned a few of my current projects earlier, but two of the more interesting projects that I’m working on are Suite.js (a JavaScript runtime that’s designed to make NetSuite integration easy) and SuiteBrowser (a Web browser designed specifically for use with NetSuite). Both of those projects might sound like crazy ideas. I mean, what kind of crazy person develops their own web browser?!? But I can tell you, based on the level of interest in them from the NetSuite community, that there’s a genuine need for both of them.

Do you earn a living with Xojo? 

Absolutely. So much of my work these days – including my NetSuite work – involves Xojo. I honestly don’t know what I’d do without it.

Also, I want to give a shout out to Christian Schmitz and MonkeyBread Software. His Xojo plug-ins have enabled me to work on Xojo projects that I never would have dreamed of working on, including projects that utilize things like MQTT, Phidgets, and more.

Do you use it for your hobbies? 

Yes, I do. My main hobby these days is developing apps that run on Raspberry Pi’s, and of course, I’m using Xojo to create them. As a side note, I recently purchased my fifth Raspberry Pi – a Raspberry Pi 500 – and I love working with it. It reminds me what it was like to use Macs and PCs “back in the day.”

What’s your biggest Xojo success?

Out of all of the apps that I’ve developed with Xojo, the one that I use every day is called SuiteTransmit. SuiteTransmit is a desktop app that monitors the files that I’m working on, detects changes to them, and automatically uploads them to NetSuite. It allows me to develop NetSuite “SuiteScript” apps using my preferred IDE (BBEdit). This simple app, which, thanks to Xojo, took only a few hours to develop, has saved me a lot of time. SuiteTransmit is one of my “secret weapons,” and I don’t think I could have, or would have ever even attempted to develop it, without Xojo.

But my biggest “Xojo success” doesn’t involve any one particular app that I’ve developed with it. Over the years, I’ve blogged about my Xojo work, and been a guest on several Xojo webinars. Last summer, a company that was looking for help implementing NetSuite stumbled upon my NetSuite / Xojo work, liked what they saw, and reached out to me for help. They’re now my biggest client, and the biggest client I’ve had throughout my entire career. And I owe that to Xojo.

Thank you to Tim Dietrich for answering questions and sharing his Xojo experience with the community. Learn more about Tim on his blog, find him on LinkedIn and read his interviews in xDev Magazine.

If you have an app, a project or a person you want to see featured in Spotlight On, tell us about it!

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1. Use Social Media to Reach More People

Social media is a powerful tool for app promotion. You can connect with your audience on platforms like X, LinkedIn, TikTok, YouTube and others. These platforms allow you to share information about your app and show how it can help users.

Create posts that are interesting and useful. For example, if your app helps with productivity, share tips and success stories. Share short videos or images that explain how your app works. People like content that teaches them something or makes them smile.

You can also join online communities where your audience spends time. Reddit, Facebook Groups, and LinkedIn Groups are good examples. Participate in conversations and share your knowledge. When the time is right, you can introduce your app to these communities.

For example, a developer of a fitness app could join a fitness subreddit. They could share workout tips and then explain how their app helps people stay fit. This approach feels natural and not too promotional.

Tips for Success:

• Post regularly to keep your audience engaged.
• Use popular hashtags to increase the visibility of your posts.
• Reply to comments and messages to build trust with your audience.

2. Improve Your App Store Listing

If people cannot find your app, they cannot download it. App Store Optimization (ASO) helps users discover your app in app stores. You can think of ASO as SEO (Search Engine Optimization) for apps.

Start with your app’s title and description. Include keywords that users are likely to search for. For example, if your app tracks habits, use words like “habit tracker” or “daily planner” in the description.

Visuals are also very important. A good app icon and clear screenshots can make your app stand out. You can also create a short video that shows how your app works. Encourage users to leave reviews and ratings. Apps with higher ratings appear higher in search results.

Updating your app listing regularly also helps. Add new features and respond to user feedback to keep your app fresh. A flexible app development tool, like Xojo, can make this updating process easier by helping you quickly adapt to user needs and marketplace trends.

Tips for Success:

• Use Google Keyword Planner to find the best keywords for your app. This free tool helps you identify terms that people search for.
• Offer small rewards in your app to encourage users to leave reviews.
• Monitor your app’s performance and make improvements based on data.

3. Work with Influencers to Promote Your App

Influencers can help more people learn about your app. You do not need to work with influencers who have millions of followers. Micro-influencers with smaller audiences are often more affordable and effective.

Find influencers whose audience matches your app’s target users. For example, if you have a cooking app, look for food bloggers or Instagram chefs. Offer them free access to your app in exchange for a review or a social media post.

Personalized messages work best when reaching out to influencers. Explain how your app can benefit their audience. Show them that you care about their work and are not just looking for free promotion.

Tips for Success:

• Focus on influencers with engaged audiences, not just large follower numbers.
• Give influencers resources like videos or promo codes to make promotion easier.
• Build long-term relationships with influencers to keep your app in the spotlight.

Conclusion

Promoting your app does not have to be expensive. By using social media, improving your app store listing, and working with influencers, you can increase your app’s visibility for free. These strategies require time and effort, but they can deliver great results.

Which strategy will you try first? Start promoting your app today and track your progress. With creativity and persistence, you can attract more users and make your app successful!

Gabriel is a digital marketing enthusiast who loves coding with Xojo to create cool software tools for any platform. He is always eager to learn and share new ideas!

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Last week, I attended the WWDC 2024 event in Cupertino. It took place in both the original Infinite Loop campus, as well as the Apple Park “spaceship” campus which opened in 2017 and cost $5 billion to build. Apple’s WWDC events are no longer a traditional developer conference. The developer session videos are all uploaded for free, and even the keynote is a prerecorded, so event attendees see it at the same time as the rest of the world. Instead, this is more of a social event – an opportunity to meet fellow developers, bump into some famous people, and take advantage of Apple’s hospitality. I found the event uplifting and exciting, and I was able to talk with many people and share perspectives with them. 

Inside the Infinite Loop campus – rumors of a free bar may or may not be greatly exaggerated

The event was a great opportunity to share ideas and plans with other developers

Now, you might think that the event is solely for Swift developers, but this is not entirely true. Of course, Apple are constantly pitching their chosen language and frameworks at the event, but there is also a recognition that many people develop software for Apple platforms in tools other than Swift and Xcode. Of the people I spoke to, quite a number of people were using something other than Swift (including an Apple engineer!). Many of the sessions from WWDC are naturally catered towards Swift developers, but there are still some that will be useful to Xojo developers. I’ve highlighted a selection of videos below, along with my own description.

I want more stuff

When browsing WWDC videos, if you come across new functionality or an API that isn’t exposed in Xojo, the best course of action is to create a feature request at https://tracker.xojo.com. But don’t stop there. Tell the community about your request on the forum and ask them to give the request a “thumbs up” if they agree. This helps the Xojo team gauge interest. For some requests, you may also want to rope in support from me or one of the other MVPs, so that we can potentially engage with the team directly on your behalf at one of our regular meetings.

At each WWDC, Apple releases beta versions of its new tools and operating systems. These are very early versions, especially at this point in the beta cycle, and should not be installed on your main machines without very good reason. Early anecdotal evidence suggestions few problems with Sequoia (the new version of macOS) and Xojo apps, but testing such software should be done in virtual machines or on machines that you don’t use for your daily coding. When Xojo support for the new OS and the new version of Xcode becomes official, the System Requirements page will be updated at https://documentation.xojo.com/resources/system_requirements_for_current_release.html

Highlighted WWDC 2024 videos

“What’s new in App Store Connect”

Take better advantage of the App Store, get your app nominated for featuring and more.

“Add personality to your app through UX writing”

This is a quintessentially Apple presentation, but it may be thought provoking. What is the tone of your app? Does it matter for your market?

“Implement App Store Offers”

Self-explanatory from the title. Most of this will require the use of MBS plugins.

“Platforms State of the Union 5-Minute Recap”

The full State of the Union presentation, which follows the main keynote each WWDC, is rather lengthy and not required viewing for Xojo developers. But the five minute recap is worth watching to get an overview.

“Build multilingual-ready apps”

A lot of this video involves Swift code but there is still useful information for everyone in this.

Notes: 

• Apple also have a “Expanding your app to new markets” document at https://developer.apple.com/localization/. 
• To take advantage of much of this in your Xojo apps, see https://documentation.xojo.com/topics/localizing_your_apps/introduction_to_app_localization.html

“What’s new in SF Symbols 6”

SF Symbols (SF stands for San Francisco) is a library of thousands of clean and simple symbols for use in Apple platforms only. Apple typically updates this yearly.

Notes:

• To take advantage of SF Symbols in your iOS apps, use the Picture.SystemImage method. See the docs at https://documentation.xojo.com/api/graphics/picture.html#picture-systemimage
• There is no built-in support for SF Symbols in Xojo Mac apps, but you can still take advantage of them. See this blog post for details: https://blog.xojo.com/2021/10/21/quicktip-using-sf-symbols-in-macos-revisited/
• Tell Xojo that this support should really be built-in! Lend your support to this case; https://tracker.xojo.com/xojoinc/xojo/-/issues/60751
• Whilst SF Symbols is Apple-only, there is also a library of images built into Xojo for Android developments, also using the Picture.SystemImage method.
• Browse SF Symbols on your Mac (and get their names for use in Xojo) by downloading the SF Symbols utility from https://developer.apple.com/sf-symbols/

More videos

Want to watch even more videos? (Shouldn’t you be coding?) Subscribe to the official Xojo YouTube channel and also see videos from the recent Monkeybread Software conference, including presentations from Xojo engineers and other MVPs. https://www.youtube.com/@MonkeybreadSoftware/videos

Gavin is a Xojo MVP and is based in the UK. He has been a Xojo developer since the first version in 1998.

If you’re familiar with the command-line tool curl, you may wonder how to use curl in Xojo effectively. Curl is a powerful tool for making HTTP requests, but it’s not always the most convenient for working within a graphical application like Xojo.

That’s where Xojo’s URLConnection class shines! It provides a simple and elegant way to make HTTP requests directly from your Xojo code, making it easy to use curl in Xojo.

In this post, you will learn how to adapt common curl commands to Xojo’s URLConnection. Let’s get started.

Basic GET Request Using Curl in Xojo

Meaning: Fetch the content of the specified URL using a GET request.

curl https://example.com

Var socket As New URLConnection
Var response As String = socket.SendSync("GET", "https://example.com", 30)

GET Request with Query Parameters

Meaning: Fetch the content of the specified URL with query parameters.

curl "https://example.com?param1=value1&param2=value2"

Var socket As New URLConnection
Var response As String = socket.SendSync("GET", "https://example.com?param1=value1&param2=value2", 30)

Var socket As New URLConnection

// Define the query parameters using Pair
Var queryParams() As Pair
queryParams.Add("param1" : "value1")
queryParams.Add("param2" : "value2")

// Construct the URL with query parameters
Var baseURL As String = "https://example.com"
Var queryString As String = "?"

For Each param As Pair In queryParams
  queryString = queryString + param.Left + "=" + param.Right + "&"
Next

// Remove the trailing '&' character
queryString = queryString.Left(queryString.Length - 1)

// Combine base URL and query string
Var fullURL As String = baseURL + queryString

Var response As String = socket.SendSync("GET", fullURL, 30)

Adding Headers

Meaning: Send a GET request with a custom header.

curl -H "Content-Type: application/json" https://example.com

Var socket As New URLConnection
socket.RequestHeader("Content-Type") = "application/json"
Var response As String = socket.SendSync("GET", "https://example.com", 30)

Sending JSON Data with POST

Meaning: Send a POST request with JSON data to the specified URL.

curl -L 'http://example.com' ^
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' ^
-d '{"key1":"value1","key2":"value2"}'

Var socket As New URLConnection
Var jsonData As String = "{""key1"":""value1"",""key2"":""value2""}"
socket.SetRequestContent(jsonData, "application/json")
Var response As String = socket.SendSync("POST", "https://example.com", 30)

Var socket As New URLConnection
// Create a new JSONItem
Var json As New JSONItem

// Add key-value pairs to the JSONItem
json.Value("key1") = "value1"
json.Value("key2") = "value2"

socket.SetRequestContent(json.ToString, "application/json")
Var response As String = socket.SendSync("POST", "https://example.com", 30)

Basic Authentication

Meaning: Send a GET request with basic authentication.

curl -u username:password http://example.com

Var socket As New URLConnection
socket.RequestHeader("Authorization") = "Basic " + EncodeBase64("username:password")
Var response As String = socket.SendSync("GET", "https://example.com", 30)

Download a File

Meaning: Download a file from the specified URL and save it with the given filename.

curl -o filename https://example.com/file.zip

Var socket As New URLConnection
Var outputFile As FolderItem = SpecialFolder.Desktop.Child("file.zip")
socket.SendSync("GET", "https://example.com/file.zip", outputFile, 30)

Custom Request Methods

Meaning: Send a DELETE request to the specified URL (you can replace DELETE with any other method required, PUT, PATCH…)

curl -X DELETE https://example.com/resource

Var socket As New URLConnection
Var response As String = socket.SendSync("DELETE", "https://example.com/resource", 30)

As you’ve seen, using curl in Xojo with the URLConnection class is a breeze.

Whether you’re fetching data, sending/receiving JSON payloads, or downloading files, the examples provided in this tutorial offer a solid foundation for integrating web services into your Xojo applications. As you continue to experiment with URLConnection, you’ll discover even more ways to enhance your projects and improve your workflow.

If you found this tutorial helpful, don’t forget to share it with your fellow developers and colleagues.

Gabriel is a digital marketing enthusiast who loves coding with Xojo to create cool software tools for any platform. He is always eager to learn and share new ideas!

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Monkeybread Software and Christian Schmitz have organized an exceptional event in Germany taking place in just 2 months – April 22nd to 27th. Take this opportunity to meet and network with members of the global Xojo Community. Meet Geoff Perlman, Xojo’s Founder & CEO and Xojo Engineers, Javier Menendez and Ricardo Cruz.

This event includes:

• Keynotes from Geoff Perlman and Christian Schmitz
• Educational, Feedback and Q&A Sessions
• Web Lab with Xojo’s Ricardo Cruz
• Performance Lab with MBS’s Christian Schmitz
• Dinners, Networking and Sightseeing

Training, Sessions & Events

6 Day Schedule

Monday          22nd April        Welcome Event
Tuesday         23rd April         Sight Seeing Tour & Dinner
Wednesday    24th April         Training Day & Reception in Hotel
Thursday        25th April         Conference & Dinner at Baggerado
Friday             26th April         Conference & Farewell Dinner
Saturday         27th April         Geyser Tour

Einstein Hotel Am Römerpark

The event will be hosted at the Einstein Hotel Am Römerpark, a modern business and conference hotel with unique ambiance and modern facilities. Located in Andernach across from the river Rhine, the hotel features a garden, lounge, terrace and the Sky Bar & Restaurant.

Visit, Attend & Network

Location: Andernach

Networking is not limited to the event hotel! Enjoy the evenings with other Xojo users at casual get-togethers. Arrive a day or two before the conference or stay over the weekend and schedule time to enjoy the area. Join the group for sightseeing and a Geyser Tour. Andernach has much to offer visitors including the “Runde Turm” (round tower), Mariendom (Cathedral of Mary), the old crane on the Rhine River front, the Mikveh or the well preserved town wall.

Learn everything else you need to know and Register Today at Monkeybread Software.

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Recently, Xojo CEO Geoff Perlman hosted a webinar about object-oriented programming. Also, Greg O’Lone hosted Xojo iOS Projects: Unlocking the Magic of Auto-Layout and Constraints that you can watch anytime from YouTube. Upcoming topics include Developing Android Apps with Xojo and A Deeper Look at Android.

Find all upcoming Xojo webinars listed at the Xojo website, scroll down to see recent webinars that you can watch on-demand. Check out the Xojo YouTube channel to watch all our previous webinars and find hundreds of other Xojo-related videos.

Your growth and success as a Xojo user is a priority to us. If you have a suggestion for a specific webinar topic or are interested in participating as a guest speaker, please reach out to us. See you at the next Xojo webinar!

William Yu grew up in Canada learning to program BASIC on a Vic-20. He is Xojo’s resident Windows and Linux engineer, among his many other skills. Some may say he has joined the dark side here in the USA, but he will always be a Canadian at heart.

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Now, please don’t worry, the Xojo Developer Conference in London is going to be an excellent event. Check out the growing list of sessions. And to keep XDC excitement high, we are releasing session videos from XDC 2022 over the coming weeks, watch them and get a feel for what a cool event a XDC is! That said, we don’t have plans for a XDC 2024. And that is why I am writing this. More than a few people have mentioned they plan to skip this event. But when attendee numbers aren’t growing like they used to, and the costs and logistics are increasing, XDC and many events like it may not be around next year. In the US, conference costs have gotten astronomically higher as hotels struggle to recover from the pandemic; this is in addition to general inflation and an increased costs of goods. Previous XDC hotels have seen more than 150% increase in cost per night. One hotel that previously hosted a XDC has seen a 300% increase in cost per night. XDC hasn’t ever been profitable, but we have always recognized its importance to the Xojo Community, and we also like it a lot ourselves. Dana works hard to keep the event big and cost low, but that isn’t feasible in a world where hotel costs are up 300%.

I’m not saying XDC is over. After all, we’ve taken breaks from XDC before. I’m saying things change and if you want to come to XDC, you should come to London. If you are thinking perhaps you will come to XDC in 2024, I highly recommend you come to London.

And for those of you who cannot be there, we are keeping an eye on all things conference related and we are listening to what the Xojo Community tells us. Currently, there is a huge demand for live webinars, Xojo has 2 planned for March, and training videos. And we may host more meetups like the one Dana hosted in London in November and the one Geoff hosted last month in California.

There is no shortage of things to see, do, eat, drink and experience in London. There is something to appease every interest – from history to food, fashion, music, the arts and everything in between. Having so much extracurricular options makes London the ideal city to host the Xojo Developer Conference.

XDC will take place from Wednesday, April 26th through Friday, April 28th at the Hilton Euston. With London being such a large city there’s no shortage of hotels. We chose this hotel because it had the right amount of meeting space and availability, is in a very accessible location and we’ve stayed there before (as recently as last week!) and it’s been positive, comfortable and the staff is friendly and helpful. There are a lot of options for food in the area, as well as coffee and breakfast, it’s just a 2 minute walk to Costa and Pret a Manger.

The rate the hotel is offering our group includes both breakfast and VAT, however, if this hotel is not in line with your budget, take a look on Google Maps- there are several hotels in the area. If you are traveling with kids, the Hilton Euston does offer family rooms, you can find those via their main booking site or on Hotels.com.

Many of you have asked for a blog post listing things to do in London and there are no shortage of those already in existence, I won’t reinvent the wheel:

• First time in London? Start here.
• Get Tickets to the London Theater
• London Hop On Hop Off Tour & Thames Cruise Information
• See what concerts are coming to London – The Flaming Lips, Blue October and Postmodern Jukebox are all performing the weekend after XDC
• 101 best shops in London
• Best day trips from London
• London Natural History Museum
• National Gallery – See Monet, Manet, Van Gogh and more!
• The British Museum
• Tate Britain
• Tower of London
• List of Museums in London
• London’s Parks
• Film locations in London
• List of guided walking tours
• Public transportation information – the stations close to the hotel are Euston, Euston Square and King’s Cross/St. Pancras

If you are a Harry Potter fan, add these to your list:

• Blog Post with details about the Harry Potter Tour
• Harry Potter Tour Information
• Tip: Check out the Harry Potter store and brick wall at King’s Cross Station

For something random, if you like optical illusions check out Twist Museum on Oxford Street. It’s not free, like many of the museums in London, but it is quite interesting and doesn’t take too long. A nice break if you’re visiting Selfridge’s for some shopping!

As you can see there is no shortage of activities and entertainment in London, this list could be so much longer! We have an exciting 3-day conference planned with great sessions and the whole Xojo Team is looking forward to seeing everyone. We hope you will join us – save on your registration when you sign up by February 14th!

William Yu grew up in Canada learning to program BASIC on a Vic-20. He is Xojo’s resident Windows and Linux engineer, among his many other skills. Some may say he has joined the dark side here in the USA, but he will always be a Canadian at heart.

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Xojo’s team was all vaxxed-up and so happy to get together in Nashville for #XDC2022. Tennessee’s Music City was a delightful backdrop for the first in-person Xojo event since 2019. Check out the short highlights video from Nashville and then join us for #XDC2023 in London, UK. You can register here.

This year the Xojo team and community welcomed a new Xojo engineer, Ricardo Cruz. Ricardo has applied his expertise to advance and improve Xojo Web. To quote one of Xojo’s engineers, “Ricardo coming in has been awesome,” a sentiment echoed on the Forum and the community in Nashville.

Xojo Web has come so far this year. Control reliability has improved, IDE previews have improved and reconnections have really improved. The web framework can now more often reconnect back to the same web session if it still exists. This is one of the things Ricardo is really happy about, “You can switch to your email app in your mobile, copy something to the clipboard, come back to the web app and it is still there, ready to continue.” Under the hood, some dependencies received updates, like jQuery. As a user, you don’t have to do anything, just use the new Xojo version! Try to tell that to another web developer, that’s sci-fi outside of Xojo. Also, thanks to the community, the memory and CPU usage continues to be improved release after release. “Honestly from my perspective it is just fun to play with little projects in it because it has really matured,” says Xojo’s Director of Engineering, Travis Hill.

Speaking of technical achievements, this year we added two new targets to Xojo: Windows on ARM 64 and Linux on ARM 64. On Windows, you can natively deploy to ARM-based tablets and laptops that run Windows. On Linux, you can deploy to 64-bit Raspberry Pi which can address significantly more RAM than 32-bit versions.

We built the Xojo Cloud Control Panel with an updated version of Xojo, and thanks to some Web framework improvements the controls now stay more responsive under load. Plus we’ve added Xojo Cloud servers in Sydney, Australia for web developers in Australia and New Zealand. We also continued improving and testing our upcoming support for Android, which is now feature complete and awaiting some remaining bug fixes before we make it available to everyone.

In addition, we want to brag about a few technical improvements, including the numerous PDF updates implemented by Xojo Engineer and now PDF expert, Javier Menéndez. Also there is the option to generate Program Database (PDB) files on Windows and improved multi-monitor support shepherded by Xojo Engineer William Yu. The list goes on: Code Assistants, on-device debugging in iOS, new Xojo Documentation site, adding Controls at runtime, loading speed faster for big projects, and the time team-Lefebvre built a web app to Calculate Combat Rolls in Twilight Imperium…

Inside Xojo we improved a lot too. Besides welcoming Ricardo and his beard to the team, we migrated Xojo’s bug and feature reporting platform from the internally managed Feedback tool to the much loved Issues. This has increased productivity, streamlined work flow, made it easier to search and find, comment, edit. The team couldn’t be happier!

This year also included Xojo’s first Bug Bash in a long time! During the Bug Bash, Xojo’s Code Editor got some much needed improvements resulting in noticeably faster updates. Plus updates to the Syntax Help Area thanks to Xojo Engineer and retro-computing expert, Paul Lefebvre. Besides the very real smashing of 100 bugs, the bash had the unintended consequence of giving the engineers an opportunity to work on things they don’t normally work on, giving engineers opportunities to collaborate and better solve things.

All in all, 2022 was a year of forward movement for Xojo. Which has us leaning into 2023 with a lot of excitement and expectation. Our team is committed to continuing to make Xojo the best cross-platform development tool and we thank you for being part of Xojo’s continued success!

The environment at XDC is one of a kind. As Marc Zeedar said of the Nashville Conference in xDev Magazine, “Xojo itself is a unique product and the community is special; we really are a family. That’s evident at events like this and it’s a connection you just can’t form online as easily. I am looking forward to whatever comes next.”

Attending an XDC you’ll find everyone, including the Xojo Team, is approachable, willing to help and eager to hear about how you use Xojo. Karen Bintz has attended XDC multiple times, she said, “I’ve found this to be one of the most open groups of developers that I’ve ever encountered. At the company level all the way up through the CEO and the other developers who are attending are all very approachable, very willing to help and have discussions. It’s a great environment!”

Another multi-year attendee is Kem Tekinay, whose popular sessions range from MemoryBlocks to Text Encodings, said “The benefit of the XDC is not just in the sessions. Those are very valuable, to be sure, as you gain information and perspective from experienced professionals. It’s not solely in the unfettered access to the Xojo engineers who are eager to share their vast knowledge of the IDE, language, and direction of the product. Perhaps more important than these are the fellow attendees, your colleagues, who arrive as strangers and leave as valuable friends. The collective experience of these seasoned pros is unmatched and irreplaceable.”

Call for Speakers

We are now accepting session proposals for XDC London. If you have ever thought about presenting at a conference, this is your chance, plus all speakers get a 50% discount on their conference ticket! Send your proposed session topic and short description to xdc@xojo.com on or before January 10th, 2023.

Why become a XDC speaker?

• Boost your resume or CV with presentation experience.
• Share a tip or helpful topic that you think others can benefit from.
• Detail your experiences so others can learn from your success (or mistakes).

Pricing

Registering early has many benefits: it guarantees you a spot, it helps us with planning and it gets you the best price. For this conference we are introducing registration at our lowest price yet. All 3 days, including lunch, dinner, sessions, evening events, and session videos, is $475 now through December 31, 2022. After that time the price increases, full price is $700. Register now!

Accommodations

The conference will take place at the Hilton London Euston. This is conveniently located a few minutes walk from St. Pancras, so if you’re coming to London via the Eurostar you won’t have far to go. It’s also very easy to get to via the Underground from Heathrow and other airports. We have an arranged rate of £229/night, which does include breakfast, and though you do not have to stay at the conference hotel, we do recommend it. The booking link will be available soon.

Getting to London

If you’re coming from Europe, flights are affordable to get to London. To make it easy here are the flight prices during our date range from a few major cities:

• Amsterdam: $138
• Berlin: $102
• Frankfurt: $126
• Brussels: $113
• Paris: $85
• Dublin: $65
• Belfast: $45
• Madrid: $89
• Vienna: $109
• Salzburg: $113
• Rome: $101
• Stockholm: $84
• Prague: $124
• Lisbon $84
• Oslo: $67
• Athens: $120

To give you some idea, Eurostar (return) from Paris is $127 and from Brussels is $116.

From North America, there are many nonstop options. Austin, for example, now has two nonstop flights (on British Airways and Virgin Atlantic) that are around $700. Some North American options to consider:

• New York: $370
• Boston: $551
• Atlanta: $684
• Houston: $638
• Los Angeles: $620
• Chicago: $488
• Vancouver: $652
• Montreal: $593

Registration

Registration for XDC London is now open! There is a discussion on the forum about it here. We will be updating the schedule soon with more information once sessions are ready to announce, etc. In the meantime if you have any questions please write us and xdc@xojo.com. Hope to see you in London!

Last week while traveling in London I hosted a Xojo meetup. This was a social event where local developers could meet, share ideas, ask questions and get to know each other. Many of us who attended the Xojo Developer Retreat in Nashville were excited we got to see each other twice in such a short timeframe.

Though a small gathering, which was slightly affected by the possibility of train strikes, it was refreshing to get the opportunity to chat with everyone there. Most people were attending locally, but Xojo Engineer Javier Menéndez flew over from Valencia, Spain and MVP Jérémie Leroy attended from Paris, France. We got a lot of great feedback, the most popular being that there is a lot of enthusiasm to finally host a London Xojo Developer Conference. All I can say at this time is… we hope to! I had a great time getting to know everyone and hope to do another meetup again soon somewhere in the world!

Day one of the conference began with breakfast and Geoff’s keynote. He talked about many of the things that happened at Xojo since the last conference, such as 302 new features, 286 changes and 1400+ bug fixes. He also talked about Android and the Bug Bash, which are summarized below:

Android – When we showed Android at the last XDC it was essentially just a proof of concept. We had three possible routes we were going to take in terms of code compilation and had not even tried the first one. We ultimately went with plan B, which worked as expected. We are now feature complete for the first Android release and are rapidly fixing bugs. More on Android was discussed by Xojo Engineer Travis Hill during his session, The ABC’s of Android.

Bug Bash – We spent the month of August doing a Bug Bash and focused on different bug criteria than we usually focus on. We typically focus on the overall impact surface and bugs that we know will impact nearly everyone in a way that can’t be worked around get the highest priority. We realize that there are some bugs that do not affect many people but are very painful for those they do affect. And that is specifically where we wanted to focus our efforts with the Bug Bash this year.

The Bug Bash gave our engineers an opportunity to work on parts of Xojo they usually don’t work on making them more comfortable working in those areas. This increases our coverage in terms of who can work on what. In fact, today more of the team is comfortable working in different parts of Xojo than ever before. Most of the engineers have worked on the compiler, for example. We felt like this Bug Bash went really well and going forward we will dedicate 2 weeks per cycle to focus on fixing those types of bugs (mentioned above) when we look at what to focus on.  

Many other topics were covered in the keynote, like the Xojo community, Xojo’s participation in the GitHub Student Developer Pack, Xojo users, our design strategy and the Xojo product roadmap.

The rest of the morning continued with a session from Paul Lefebvre about how Xojo is made, followed by William’s session about the Xojo framework.

After lunch, we heard sessions from experts in the Xojo community. Always an interesting subject, Jim Meyer talked to us about using machine learning in Xojo apps. Kem Tekinay gave an interesting talk about using MemoryBlocks. Xojo Engineer Ricardo Cruz talked about the WebSDK.

We ended the day with two non coding sessions – Amy Barnes talked about the legal side of programming and Yousaf Shah discussed things you can do to improve your business other than coding. You can review the full sessions list and descriptions of all of the sessions here.

After sessions, it was time to go out on the town! We had a nice dinner at The Stillery, right in the midst of the craziness that is the Nashville Broadway area. After dinner a group headed out to one of the local honkey tonks to enjoy some live music!

Only morning sessions on day two when we heard from Christian all about MonkeyBread Plugins, his session gave some inspiration to Tim Dietrich, read about that here. Then Derrick Donnelly gave a very interesting talk about building digital forensic apps with Xojo (watch out for your fridge!) and the educational portion of the conference wrapped with Xojo Engineer Javier Menendez talking about integrating WooCommerce into Xojo apps.

We had lunch at a local diner, appropriately named The Diner. Then it was time for some fun – we visited an Escape Room (The Escape Game)! We split into three very competitive teams and entered the themed rooms where we had to “escape” by following clues and solving puzzles before the time ran out. Since we are all excellent problem-solvers, all of the groups amazingly made it out before the time ran out and none of the attendees or employees are still there. Everyone who particiapted really enjoyed it so we may do this type of activity at a future event.

It was really nice to get back to an in-person event and we look forward to doing more! Though we don’t have any plans to announce yet for the next conference, we are hosting a Xojo social meetup in London on November 9th, so if you happen to be there please come by and say hi!

William Yu grew up in Canada learning to program BASIC on a Vic-20. He is Xojo’s resident Windows and Linux engineer, among his many other skills. Some may say he has joined the dark side here in the USA, but he will always be a Canadian at heart.

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Tim is quite familiar with the NetSuite API and created an easy to use, free and open source Xojo class that does the heavy lifting on things like authentication, so that you can focus on sending data back and forth. Check out the video of the webinar and Tim’s blog post about it for more details.

Geoff is the Founder and CEO of Xojo, Inc. He started what became Xojo in 1996 and he has been working to improve it ever since. When he’s not steering the ship at Xojo, he’s keeping the beat for the band he formed in high school and learning Korean.

One project that was just shared with me was from Tim Dietrich, a Xojo user who has spoken at our user conferences (see 2018 presentation and 2019 panel). Late last year Tim shared that he was working on a project that could get Xojo in front of a new audience and he’s blogged with some updates along the way. Yesterday he released SuiteTransmit, which is an application for NetSuite developers to monitor files they are working on and when a file is changed, it is automatically uploaded to the File Cabinet.

About the project and development process, Tim commented:

I developed SuiteTransmit so that my NetSuite development work would be more efficient, and so that I could use my preferred development tool (BBEdit). When I started working on the app, I had a basic idea of what I wanted it to do and how I wanted it to work, but I wasn’t sure what it would take to build it. 

The first version of the app (which was essentially a proof-of-concept) was a Xojo console app. It monitored files in a specific directory, and when a change was detected, the updated file was uploaded to NetSuite via a custom API. It worked, and I immediately felt more efficient. That was encouraging, and the development process was very fast. That’s one of the things I like about Xojo: You can go from a concept to a working solution in no time at all.

Then I realized that the console app approach wasn’t ideal, especially when it came to launching the app, passing parameters via the command line, and so on. So I took some of the code I had developed in the console app, and repurposed it in a Xojo desktop app. That was extremely easy to do. I then improved the interface a little, and added support for configuration files (so that I could use the app when working on multiple projects). It quickly started to feel like a “real app.” And I have to admit, as geeky as it sounds, it was cool to see my app’s icon in the macOS toolbar.

That was all back in November of last year, and I’ve been using the app ever since then. It has absolutely been a game changer for me. My NetSuite development work is now much more like the Web development work that I’ve been doing for years. SuiteTransmit empowers me to use a development approach and workflow that I’m familiar with. And because I can now make changes to my apps more quickly and efficiently, I’m much more likely to experiment and try new development techniques.

At that point, I decided that I’d make SuiteTransmit available to other NetSuite developers. I figured that if the app was helping me that much, then it might help others, too. But before releasing it, I needed to test it on Windows, and ensure that it worked properly. That was important because, based on what I know about the NetSuite development community, most developers use Windows-based PCs. During testing, there were some weird differences that I found, and they seemed to be with Windows itself (and not anything that Xojo was doing). Regardless, I was impressed by how easy Xojo made it to get the app working on both platforms. 

A lot of people ask me why I give so many of my development tools away for free. I do it for a number of reasons, but the main one is that I figure that if someone else can benefit from them, and if they make another developer’s work even a little easier, then that’s great. “A rising tide lifts all boats,” as the saying goes.

Also, I don’t feel the need to monetize these things. It’s not what I do, or what I want to do, or what I’m good at. I develop custom software. Period. That’s where I’ve found joy and success.

Like I said at the beginning of this post, we love to share what Xojo users are making! We always encourage you to add your projects to the Showcase or reach out to hello@xojo.com anytime to talk about writing a blog post about your app!

Through the years of XDCs, attendees expressed how the sessions are great, but said over and over again that the true benefit is the discussion over a meal, the quick chats in the hallway or what they learned while sitting in the hotel bar with a group of Xojo users. See our past conference highlights videos to hear what attendees said – 2019, 2018, 2016, 2015. After having to (sadly) cancel multiple conferences in recent years, we wanted to get something in-person on the schedule. Choosing Nashville again feels a bit full circle, since we were days away from hosting XDC there in 2020 when the pandemic forced us to cancel.

Some of you have asked why we’re calling this event a retreat rather than a conference. We decided to call it a retreat to signify that we are emphasizing the part that attendees over the years has told us was the best and most beneficial part of XDC, the time spent with other users – networking, troubleshooting and building relationships. We are still going to have excellent sessions from Xojo and the community, but we are also going to find ways to ramp up the “hallway talk” opportunities.

The Hyatt Centric hotel is higher priced than hotels we have held previous conferences at and there are a few reasons for that. First, we want to hold conferences at a location within walking distance to local attractions and restaurants so you won’t need to rent a car or rely on hiring transportation. Second, September is a beautiful time of the year to visit Nashville. And third, in general, hotel prices are higher as hotels try to recover from the pandemic. To counter the higher hotel price, we lowered the event registration cost. Plus, there are a number of lower cost hotels (or maybe AirBNB) in the area that you can stay at while still attending all the retreat events. You can always save even more by presenting, Xojo is offering free passes for conference speakers!

If you want to meet the Xojo Team and community members, attend some great sessions, network, collaborate, have fun and enjoy Nashville, please join us at the Xojo Developer Retreat. Tickets are discounted by $100 through May 15th. Register early to save money and help us plan the best Xojo conference! We hope to see you there!

Leisurely scroll through the alphabetically listed apps in the Showcase to see what can be made with Xojo. From AcaStat, an easy to use data analysis tool for Windows and Mac, to VersionTracker, a tool to help developers maintain and create version history logs, the Showcase includes apps of all kinds. Search by Category or Platform for something specific. Spend some time in Galactic Quizmaster, pack for your next trip with Packr, perfect your next project with Joint Angle or learn to surf with Sally’s Surf School, all Xojo-made Mobile apps you can find in the Showcase. It’s no surprise the largest group is Desktop apps- from ClaroRead, a simple, flexible and easy to use text-to-speech app for dyslexia, to Lifeboat, to help you deploy and manage Xojo Web apps on Linux servers, to UHMMM, which will auto-play elevator music when online meetings go silent, there are too many to list – good thing there’s a Showcase for them!

The purpose of the Showcase is twofold, to exhibit what can be done with Xojo and to promote what you have done with Xojo! We regularly share apps from the Showcase on Xojo’s Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn pages as well as in occasional Xojo Newsletters. There isn’t a quicker way to introduce your app to a new audience!

I look forward to seeing your newest Xojo-made app in the Xojo Showcase!

Xojo recently shipped the first pre-release supporting Android. We appreciate your enthusiasm as well as the dedication so many have shown to testing it. We will continue fixing the bugs you report and releasing updates until it’s ready for general release.

I don’t have to tell you that the pandemic has resulted in most large, in-person events being cancelled. Last year we scheduled the Xojo Developer Conference for March in Nashville. That had to be cancelled, of course, so we planned ahead for XDC in London in April 2021, then rescheduled for October, then March 2022 only to have to cancel that too. We look forward to this conference every year, not only to see Xojo users, but also to see each other. The Xojo team is distributed across North America and Europe and while we see each other on Zoom (a lot), as we all know, it’s not the same as being together in-person. We anxiously await the eventuality of the pandemic subsiding and holding the Xojo Developer Conference. What a wonderful reunion it will be!

Throughout the year we continued to work closely with the Xojo MVPs. They provide us with a lot of great feedback and ideas from their own experience and expertise, as well as from the community. The MVPs were extremely helpful in 2021, testing parts of API 2.0, Android and discussing features and improvements, like changes to Feedback. We look forward to continuing to work with them in 2022, if they continue to put up with us.

2021 really shined a light on the Xojo community! We were introduced to a few new guest bloggers on the Xojo Blog, plus multiple new YouTube Channels making videos for Xojo beginners and more. Thank you to all the creators out there talking about, teaching and sharing your experiences with Xojo! Word of mouth is always the best advertising since it comes with personal experience and we are very thankful for everyone who contributed to make the Xojo community a positive place for developers of all kinds. Follow @xojo on twitter to keep up with all the new creators and content!

This year we introduced the Xojo Educational license. This new license aims to empower educators of all kinds, whether they teach in traditional classrooms, adult education programs or clubs. We are ecstatic about the responses we’ve gotten from teachers from around the world! Xojo continues to participate in the GitHub Student Developer Pack which has resulted in thousands of young developers joining the Xojo community. We have heard of some interesting projects these students are doing such as building a college app, making a crypto currency blockchain system and more. We are excited to continue to offer resources to young developers and eager to see the creative ways they use Xojo!

We know you like the numbers so here are a few we are proud of this year. As of November 30th, Xojo license sales in 2021 are the highest they have been since Xojo was released in 2013. For those of you interested in more bug fixes, 61% more bugs were fixed in Xojo in 2021 than in 2020. We’ve learned that the vast majority of users are quite happy with Xojo. Our annual survey reflects that nearly 90% of users report they are “satisfied” with Xojo. As proof of that, the Xojo community really showed up to support us with the release of Xojo 2021r3 and the Android pre-release. In November, existing Xojo users renewed at nearly twice the rate projected!

We appreciate your continued support, it helps us to continue to push Xojo forward making it more functional, more reliable and easier to use than ever before. We’ve got a lot of exciting stuff in the works for 2022 and we look forward to sharing it with you. From all of us at Xojo, we wish you a happy and healthy holiday season and a wonderful new year!

What We Do

Xojo’s MVP page spells it out pretty well. We try to facilitate communication between Xojo the company and Xojo the community, and we advise Xojo on new features that will be coming to the language. Sometimes that’s a lot of work, sometimes not.

Facilitate Communication

Personally, I hear from a fair few members of the community about concerns they have. I spend time with these users and try to determine what they need that they aren’t getting, or how Xojo might take steps to ease whatever suffering the user is experiencing. I then distill that down, hopefully into a paragraph or two, and discuss it with the Xojo team. There are a few different ways I handle that information:

• By opening a Feedback Case — if it’s a bug or feature request, this is usually the best way forward
• By messaging an engineer to clarify how something is supposed to function — knowing which team member(s) generally work on which part(s) of Xojo, I can usually get a quick answer when there’s a question like this by sending them a direct real-time message
• By forwarding the concern on to Geoff Perlman, Dana Brown, or Alyssa Foley — when it’s major, having direct access is great
• Or by posting it in our MVP chat channel — when there’s some finer points to work out, this can be incredibly helpful as all of us MVPs are long-time users, and there are a few members of the Xojo staff constantly monitoring this as well

I’m sure I get on their nerves sometimes with all of my questions, originating both from other users and myself, but it’s a decent system that lets me help out both the company and my fellow users.

In many cases, we’ll take a forum discussion and open the topic in our MVP channel to see if there’s some way we can help or Xojo can improve. We’ve had some very long and drawn-out conversations based on forums posts.

Informal Advisory Committee

Sometimes we get to see new things before they hit the public Testers group. We tested Web 2.0 for a while, Worker, and a bunch of other features. Some things we get to see long before they’re ready to roll out in any meaningful capacity. We have video calls every once in a while where Xojo presents the early stages of new features and asks for our input. We can make suggestions for changes that might make that new feature better, or help to alter the course of a new feature simply by asking the right questions that lead to the right realizations.

For a couple of examples: Workers were added as a Desktop (rather than Pro-only) feature after much discussion in the MVP group, and we’ve been talking over details of the forthcoming Web Feedback status messages and abilities.

This is an important task, and even though things aren’t released bug-free, we help Xojo understand and account for many things they might not have otherwise considered simply by providing our point of view early in the process.

What We Don’t Do

There’s a lot that we don’t do, and maybe some things we probably should do, but we do what we can with the best intentions for Xojo’s users. We represent you, the user, not Xojo in this capacity.

Be Self-Serving

It’s tempting to harass the engineers or Geoff for a particular new feature or bug fix that would help my business, but what would that really accomplish? In the end, I probably wouldn’t be an MVP for very long, and I’d feel pretty cheap to leverage my position this way.

Be Single-Minded

As a representative of the community, I try to see multiple angles for any situation. I know that I have very different experiences and projects than others, so I try to put myself in the shoes of other users when we’re discussing. It’s not always easy — and it’s not always fruitful — but it’s what I feel is incumbent upon me to do.

Be Confrontational

I get heated about things Xojo is doing at times, just like anyone else, but I certainly endeavor to keep my cool (yeah, Geoff, I know…trying also means failing occasionally). I try to offer alternatives and constructive criticism, as do my fellow MVPs. We often come up with good stuff that users don’t realize would otherwise be missing or point out things that I’m sure Xojo would rather we didn’t. don’t think for a second that we just pat them on the back and say “good job” in our private discussion venues.

Ignore the Big Stuff

If Xojo is working on something major and they’re giving us a chance to see it first, you can bet we’re all-hands-on-deck. Web 2.0 and Android, being the biggest new features released since the inception of the MVP program, pulled us all in for days or weeks on end. Testing, offering ideas, opening Feedback Cases, you name it. We try to help Xojo get it as close to right as they can, within reason and the allotted timeframe, before the Testers get their hands on these builds.

Get Paid

We’re not Xojo employees. We don’t get paid for doing this. I know some of you are thinking “Then why would you do it?!” and the answer to that is “Because we’re morons!” Seriously, though, we see a way to help Xojo and its users, and that’s enticing enough.

What it’s Like

It’s fun most of the time. I get along well with most of the Xojo team and the other MVPs, and I like discussing and testing new stuff with them. They’re a good bunch of folks, and I’m thankful to be part of the program. There’s a massive amount of knowledge and capability in a room filled with these people.

Users who contact me as an MVP are generally thankful when I can help them, either with my own knowledge or by passing along their concerns. I get thank you notes every once in a while, and it feels good to be doing something to help out.

But not everyone is thankful. There are those who deride the program and its members, send their diatribes via email and private message, or feel obliged to call us out publicly. These are people who have no idea what we do for them and Xojo — NDAs, anyone? — and they’re just looking for a reason to tear us down. I can say for certain that Xojo would look different than it does today without the presence of the MVP program. Knowing that some people want to vilify you when you’re trying to help them requires a thick skin, but it comes with the territory.

In the end, I try to do right by Xojo users, and I’m positive my fellow MVPs feel the same way. It’s not about us, it’s about you.

Thanks for reading!

Anthony G. Cyphers is the Lead Developer and Sole Proprietor of GraffitiSuite Solutions and a Xojo MVP. He has been providing custom Xojo components and contract development since 2003.

Developer Tools

piDog DataView is a fast and flexible list viewer and includes one year of updates.

Markdown Parser for Xojo is a class that allows you to implement the ability to parse Markdown source text into HTML + the provided CSS styles, so it can be presented on the fly over an HTML control for its use “as-is”, as a starting point for invoices, reports, templates or document conversion.

If you don’t have anything from Monkeybread Software, then this is a great deal for you! Everything is 20% off from the Complete Plugin Set, which includes 54,000+ functions, to DynaPDF for creating and editing PDF documents and more.

Mime Parser is a class for parsing emails.

The OMP Plugin allows you to easily parse Microsoft Outlook Structured Storage (.MSG) files cross-platform from Xojo.

Also offered is a Spell Checker Class to easily spell check text.

User Interface

ARWaitingView is a class to prevent the user from navigating the interface while something is downloading or doing a long process.

AXControlGrid is a complete and powerful Xojo desktop UI component for macOS and Windows that it makes possible to put Canvas-based controls in a Page or a series of Pages of a given size and, optionally, their associated captions.

AXImageCanvas greatly simplifies the task of displaying a Picture with the ability to correctly display the image maintaining its original aspect ratio, and keeping the full resolution of the picture and reference to the original FolderItem.

AXNumValidatedTF is a Xojo TextField subclass (32/64 bits) for Windows and macOS allowing the input validation of a defined numeric range, using the system Locale settings for decimal and grouping text formatting.

Antonio Rinaldi offers Doughnut, which is an extension for iOSGraphics to draw circular graphs. Additionally, iOSTableViewExtended is a subclass that adds useful features including: swipe to reload, table header and footer, customer section header and footer, contextual menus, side index, TextEdit fix and more.

GraffitiSuite All Access, Desktop and Web are on sale! They are a collection of custom components for Xojo Desktop and Web.

MBS ChartDirector lets you create professional charts in Xojo, with 30 chart and gauge types.

RubberViews from Match Software maintains the place and relative size of every control when a Window or Container Control is resized. They also offer Window Placement and Screen Extensions that are modules that let you manage windows with greater control.

Database

DataViewer Component is a collection of objects for Xojo that can easily incorporate into your own projects to give SQL Query and DML functionality for SQLite and MySQL databases along with Data Export facilities. Full source code edition also available.

The MBS SQL Plugin is an alternative database interface to Xojo that gives access to SQL databases including Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, DB2, Sybase, Informix, InterBase/Firebird, SQLBase, MySQL, PostgreSQL, ODBC and SQLite. Also available is the MBS SQLite Extension is a plug-in for cubeSQL Server, a plug-in for SQLite Manager (sqlabs) and an extension for SQLite that you can use in all SQLite-based database engines, including the SQLiteDatabase class in Xojo.

SQLVue is the fast and easy way to manage your SQLite databases.

Distribution

App Wrapper from Ohanaware simplified the process of preparing applications for submission to the Mac App Store and deploying on websites. Get a 30-day or a 1 year single user or team update plan during this limited time offer.

BoxedApp Packer helps Xojo developers prepare a single executable file that contains all required files a Xojo application needs.

The GuancheMOS plug-in is a serial number creation and validation Engine. Also available is GuancheID, the easiest way to get a unique ID for macOS and Windows based computers, so you can use it in combination with GuancheMOS or your own software licensing scheme to make sure your software only runs on the computer the license has been generated for.

Quick License Manager protects your Xojo Windows application with licensing for trials, perpetual or subscription-based licenses.

Learning

AprendeXojo has 2 Spanish-language ebooks in the store available for $20 each during the sale: Programación Multiplataforma Xojo and SQLite.

xDev Magazine is an independent bimonthly publication focused on educating Xojo users through instruction, tutorials and programming. Score a 1 year subscription during the sale for just $40!

Shop Now

The Xojo Extras store has something for every kind of Xojo developer, whether you are learning something new or looking to save some time implementing something tricky. Take a look now to see what can help make your development life easier! The Xojo May Sale runs until midnight (CT) Friday, May 7th.

What you now know as Xojo came along about 18 months later. As we prepared v1.0 to ship, we wound down the custom software development part of the business. We’ve been a development tools company ever since.

It’s truly amazing to me how quickly the past 25 years have gone by. It certainly doesn’t seem like 25 years. I consider myself quite fortunate that 25 years later, I still get to do what I love. The big factor for us has been adapting to change and learning from our mistakes. In his book, “A Short History of Nearly Everything”, Bill Bryson explains what lifeforms must do to survive. He says, “You must be prepared to change everything about yourself-shape, size, color, species affiliation, everything-and do so repeatedly.” This is also true in business. I didn’t start this company to provide development tools but when the opportunity presented itself, I grabbed it. When we shipped v1.0 on July 4th, 1998 it only built desktop apps, only for what is now referred to as Classic MacOS and only for the Motorola 68000 and PowerPC processors. Today we support MacOS (that shares almost nothing with its predecessor), Windows, Linux, the web, iOS (soon Android) and Raspberry Pi. In fact, other than desktop apps as a type, we don’t support anything we supported in 1998. And despite the fact that everyone on the team has been with us for many years, the team is nearly completely different from what it was back then.

Over the last 25 years we have done what Bill Bryson said must be done – we changed nearly everything about ourselves. We have added new operating systems, new processors, new capabilities, as well as rewritten the compiler and the IDE from scratch. We have had false starts on projects but we have followed the mantra of the US Navy Seals:

“I will never quit. I persevere and thrive on adversity… If knocked down, I will get back up, every time.”

These are the reasons we are still here after 25 years. We learn, we adapt and we never give up.

As the founder and CEO, I set that tone but a company is only as good as its team. It is the people that show up every day, sometimes in the middle of the night or on a Sunday afternoon, to bring their passion, talent and experience, from customer service and marketing to tech support and engineering, in order to create and support Xojo and enable each of you to create things that perhaps might have not otherwise existed.

That’s what has made this past 25 years the best of my life and I can speak for the rest of the team when I say that we look forward to many more challenging, inspiring and rewarding years ahead.

To you who have used the fruit of our labors to create your own for so many years, we are thankful and grateful for your past and continued support. You allow us to spend each and every day doing something we love. Who could ask for more than that?

Let’s move forward with the idea that anything can happen and we’ll plan for the best – so go get your passport now and check the expiration date! If you need to renew so you can travel to London uninterrupted, I suggest you start the process now. The US Passport office is 1.2 million applications behind and processing times are months longer than expected. I experienced this personally when I had to renew my kids passports earlier this year – their applications were sent in late January with standard 6-8 weeks processing time. The passports didn’t show up until June (unfortunately our vacation was cancelled anyways).

Hope to see you all in London!

Join Xojo on Zoom today at 1pm to 3pm Eastern (10am to 12pm Pacific).

See you online!

The 2020 Xojo Design Award Winners are:

Best Consumer App – HDRtist NX

Ohanaware: A detail-oriented High Dynamic Range Imaging app for MacOS X.

Best iOS App – PropertyMe Manager

PropertyMe: The PropertyMe Manager app gives property managers access to their portfolio wherever they are.

Best Lifestyle App – Crossword Wizard

Rush Software: Create and play crossword games.

Best Developer Tool – RegExRX

MacTechnologies Consulting: A cross-platform Regular Expression development tool.

Best Vertical Market App – qwireCast

qWire: Desktop app to help Hollywood casting director make cast lists.

Best Vertical Market App – bMD Medical Software*

bMD biomedical Developments SRL: Medical practice management software.

Best Plugin – MBS Plugins

MonkeyBread Software: This huge toolbox for Xojo developers includes thousands of classes, controls and examples to extend Xojo.

*Yes, there are two Best Vertical Market Apps, they were both so good we had no choice but to award them both!