MBS Xojo Developer Conference Update

[Christian_Schmitz]

Less than four months left until we start our MBS Xojo Developer Conference in Andernach, Germany.

Since early bird pricing ends

New Sessions

We added David Cox as speaker with two presentations:

Cross-platform development using Convert to Method Pair

If you have a massively multi-platform project you quickly discover that placing code in 12 locations (in Objects, Methods and Classes for Desktop, Web, iOS and Android)) becomes nearly impossible to manage. Using Convert to Method Pair allows you to place all your source code into one external Class per Window/Container/Page/Screen making your applications work consistently and making debugging much easier.

Using URLConnection to Export to PDF across all platforms

Providing PDF reports from HTML within your applications is easy for Desktop and Web apps, but nearly impossible with Mobile apps. Including additional software to do the conversion makes your app larger and more likely to be rejected by App Stores. Instead, create a RESTful Web server to take your HTML via a URLConnection and place the result into a database as a solution that works consistently for Desktop, Web and Mobile apps.

Xojo Training

Our training day will take place. If you like to join and learn about Xojo, please join us. We take a look on Xojo development with Desktop, Web, iOS and Android projects working together. Great for beginners to intermediate developers to enhance their Xojo experience.

Invoices

We sent invoices to signed up attendees. Please note that early bird pricing applies for registrations paid on or before 24th January 2024.
If you like to sign up with early bird discount, please do it soon.

Sight Seeing Trip

For the sight seeing, we charge a 50 Euro contribution (+VAT if needed). Exact program will depend on the weather, but we hope for good weather and to do a bit of a walk, some castle, roman ruins and stop by a monastery. We plan to get a bus, visit some historic places and stop somewhere for lunch. All included in the fee we charge.

Rooms available

The conference hotel has over 25 rooms available, so let us know if you like to have one with the sign-up.

Young developers

We got the first applications for the young student tickets. As you may know we try to help young developers to meet the community and join our conference.

[Christian_Schmitz]

About three months left until we start our MBS Xojo Developer Conference in Andernach, Germany. Let’s update you what’s new this week:

New Sessions

We got a new session with Marc Zeedar and Christian Schmitz:

More Design Patterns

You may have heard about Design Patterns, but you aren’t sure what they are, how they’d help, or how to implement them in Xojo. Here Marc builds on his London 2023 presentation and covers more patterns in Xojo with practical examples.

This session will cover topics such as:

• Types of design patterns (Creational, Structural, Behavioral)
• The benefits of using patterns:
  • Reliability
  • Reusability
  • Simpler program structure and clarity
  • Flexibility
  • Better code encapsulation
  • Forces you to use a more object-oriented design
• Demos and Examples
• Exploring several patterns such as Observer, Command, Facade
• Show how a pattern can benefit a project and solve a code-structure problem in a better way

by Marc Zeedar, publisher of xDev Magazine.

Xojo Performance

Let’s check out what got faster in Xojo 2023r4. Let’s measure the changes, look for slow functions and improve projects.
by Christian Schmitz

Labs

We’ll offer various labs. This is a separate room, where people can meet to work together on something or discuss various questions. Feel free to spontaneously join there with a group to discuss a topic.

Stefanie will setup the Phidgets for demonstration on one afternoon, so you can check them out. Also we do Mobile, Web and Performance Labs.

Phidgets Lab

Stop by and check out the phidgets we have:

• wired and wireless hubs
• distance sensor
• two different types of motion sensors
• a barometer to measure air pressure
• an IR receiver
• Joysticks for a little game play
• a slider
• a light sensor
• a temperature sensor

With Stefanie Simonis-Juchmes

Bus booked

We got a bus, so the dinner event will be kind of special and out of town. Also for our sight seeing trip, we got a bus for our road trip.

Early Bird Offer

The early bird pricing ends 24th January, about three months before the conference. If you like to take advantage of the offer, please sign-up early for both the conference and the training day.

Emails sent

This week every Xojo developer in our database should have got an email about the conference. Always a busy day here sending out thousands of emails. If you didn’t get one, please sign up for our mailing list or newsletter.

[Christian_Schmitz]

We got a city map of Andernach for you:

As you see this is a smaller town and very walkable. From the train station to the hotel is just 1.2km (less than a mile).

The blue dotted line is a walking path you can do to see a lot of places

The numbered points are

1. Geyser center
2. Bollwerk
3. Saint Joseph hospital church
4. Koblenz Gate
5. Castle ruins
6. City Museum
7. Christus Church
8. Funkennarrenbrunnen
9. Historic City Hall
10. City wall with small lake
11. Maria Church
12. Big round tower
13. Roman park
14. Old crane
15. Rhine Gate

In light blue you see the main shopping area in the city.

[Christian_Schmitz]

About three months left until we start our MBS Xojo Developer Conference in Andernach, Germany. Let’s update you what’s new this week:

Early bird offer

Don’t miss the deadline for the early bird offer next week. If you planned to join the conference, three months before is a great time to plan your trip.

Hotel rooms are still available and can be cancelled up to one week before the

Dinner Event

We will go to Baggerado for the dinner event. We’ll have a grill buffet, an open bar and plenty of space to sit.

There you’ll have the chance to use one of the diggers.

We have an excavator Olympics. Solve small tasks with the excavator and win a prize.

Bus is expected to be at the hotel at 17:30 o’clock. We then drive to Baggerado where we start around 18:00 o’clock. Return departure is planned for 21:00 o’clock. This event is included in the conference ticket for all participants and those on the list who are booked for the dinner event.

[Christian_Schmitz]

It’s winter and Andernach is covered in snow:

[Christian_Schmitz]

Early bird offer is about to expire this week.
Anyone wants a ticket with lower prices?

[Christian_Schmitz]

Andernach City Outlook

Our Xojo conference in Andernach comes closer week by week and we are very excited to host you all in our homeland.

On the last weekend I walked to the Krahnenberg outlook over Andernach. That is a hike you could do if you have an hour or two of spare time in Andernach. The shortest and steepest way is 1.3 km from the Einstein Hotel, but a longer 2.4 km way over road is available or a 2.0 km way along the Rhine and up through the forest.

Same spot to the left, you can look downwards the Rhine:

You see there Leutesdorf, a small nice village with various vineries. The Geyser ship serves as ferry if you like to go there for a visit (should be a 2 Euro fee). Then you can walk up the little roads to take a look from Edmundhütte (a bar) or even work up all the way to the Brombeerschenke (Restaurant with beer garden). Check hours before you go or just walk to see the views and maybe stop by Weinbergschaukel.

I annotated a picture of Andernach with various points to show you around:

1. The Einstein Hotel. Parking garage in the basement.
2. Next gas station
3. Beer garden at Rhine
4. Big tower in the city wall.
5. St. Mary’s Cathedral
6. Marketplace
7. Geyser center
8. Shopping area with supermarkets and fast food outlets
9. Train station
10. Rhine promenade with playground, resting places and beer garden
11. Historic hospital church
12. Castle ruins

Be sure to check the area around the hotel with a lot of art exposition. The roman garden is behind the hotel and you can walk to the old town parts or to the Rhine promenade.

An additional parking garage shows below between 4 and 5 as a white block.

Please join our Xojo conference in Andernach, Germany, 24th to 26th April 2024. Training day available

[Christian_Schmitz]

We got two new countries to join this week.

[Christian_Schmitz]

About two months left until we start our MBS Xojo Developer Conference in Andernach, Germany.

More attendees

We got a few more registrations so we can add Denmark, Sweden and Austria to the country list:

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New Session

Jeremy will come and talk about handling exceptions. Of course you can ask him questions about mobile development as he has a very successful iOS app business using Xojo.

Managing exceptions like a pro
Detecting bugs and fixing them is very important as a developer.
Managing exceptions can take a lot of time to implement. This session will present Sentry.io using an open-source set of classes written in Xojo.
by Jérémie Leroy

City or nature walk

We have over ten wives joining their husband coming to Andernach, who do not join the conference sessions, but explore the area. My wife Monika offers a walking tour through the city to show a bit of nature, culture and history.

For the Friday there is the possibility to take the bus and e.g. go to the Laacher See area. Learn something about a volcano, visit the monastery, the shops there, watch the video presentation about it and walk to the lake, visit the restaurant and enjoy the nature there.

Meeting point will be 9 o’clock on 25th April 2024 downstairs in the hotel lobby.

If you have questions, you can reach Monika at post@diewaldmeisterin.com

Another Speaker?

We may have one session available for someone to fill. Please let us know if you are interested to propose an interesting topic

Hotel rooms

The hotel has a few more rooms available.

Please let us know if someone likes to join the conference or needs a reservation.

Train tickets

A quick info for anyone buying train tickets from Deutsche Bahn for their traveling:

Trains come in different levels. Local trains are cheaper and slower than the tickets for IC/EC trains, which are also cheaper than ICE trains.

We have regular flex tickets, which allow you to take earlier or later trains on the same day on the same level to reach your destination. That may be useful if you arrive by airplane and you don’t know how long it takes to get baggage.

The cheaper tickets usually are tied to a certain train. If the train is late by 20 minutes or cancelled, you can take another train (same level) to reach your destination. But if you miss that train, you buy a new one-way ticket to take the next train.

Finally it may be useful to have your tickets not just on one mobile phone, but maybe also a printed copy or as PDF on your laptop. You know, in case your battery dies, to have a second way to present it.

[Christian_Schmitz]

A few more registrations appeared. Anyone else?

[Christian_Schmitz]

We hiked a bit on the other side of the Rhine and made a few pictures of Andernach:

zoomed in

and zoomed in to the hotel on the left

and on the right you see the big city wall tower and behind the St. Maria church.

[Christian_Schmitz]

About two months left until we start our MBS Xojo Developer Conference in Andernach, Germany.

With a recent registration from Belgium, we got over 40 people from 13 countries:

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Friday dinner

For the friday dinner, we will go to the Taverne Olympus, a greek restaurant in Andernach. Family Thomopoulos runs this place successfully since 1981 and looks forward to serve us greek specialties.

We meet 17:40 o’clock outside the hotel and walk over to the restaurant. We may need 15 minutes for about 950m. Basically to the Rhein gate, op the alley and then left the Hochstraße and then walk through the Koblenz gate and follow the Koblenz street to the restaurant on the left side.

If you can’t join us for the restaurant, please let us know, so we don’t waste a spot. From the restaurant, you can leave at any time to get your train. The station is 1.1km away through Am Stadtgraben and Bahnhof street.

We may be limited to 40 people there. But we assume a few of you leave friday after the last session.

Invoices

Everyone signed up should have got their invoice. Please pay them soon, if you haven’t yet. We like to have a great conference and appreciate your support.

Campsite for caravans

If you come using the caravan, please make a reservation for the campsite at the Rhine, so you can walk to the hotel:

andernach-tourismus.de/en/accommodation/campsite-caravans

Please make sure you have a reservation if you like to camp nearby.

There are other campsites available nearby including one at the Laacher See, a big lake in a nature preserve.

Another Speaker?

We may have one session available for someone to fill. Please let us know if you are interested to propose an interesting topic.

Hotel rooms

The hotel has a few more rooms available.

Please let us know if someone likes to join the conference or needs a reservation.

[Christian_Schmitz]

Happy for another sign-up today

Let me know if someone likes to join.

We have free spots

• for the Xojo training day
• for the conference itself
• for the sight seeing trip on Tuesday
• for the Geyser trip on Saturday

and tickets for the conference are still available:

• for hobby/citizen developers from 299 Euro
• for regular professional developers for 499 Euro
• for cooperate developers for 899 Euro (if you like to support a free ticket)
• for young developers for free

If you have questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

[David_Cox]

We’ll be flying into Frankfurt. Will we need to pre-book a train from Frankfurt to Andernach, or are they freely available?

[Christian_Schmitz]

Well, I may suggest you buy the ticket at the station (at a ticket machine) as you don’t know in advance what time you arrive and how long it takes to get luggage and what trains are going that day.

I usually use the DB Navigator app to buy the tickets on the way to the station or at the platform to lookup trains and buy my ticket.

For an ICE train, you could even buy tickets form the conductor. But for local trains, you would get a 60 Euro fee if you enter it without a ticket!

e.g. a few suggestions from searching on Cheap Train Tickets | Timetables for Germany & Europe - Deutsche Bahn

Usually the connections over cologne allow you to see the cathedral and enjoy riding on an ICE with 300 km/h while the connections through Mainz go up the Rhine valley with all the nice views on the castles.

[Christian_Schmitz]

Just five weeks until the conference starts. We look forward to an intense week and meeting you all.

MBS Xojo Conference Plugin 25th to 26th April 2024 and Training day 24th April 2024 in Andernach, Germany.

Xojo Inc. recently promoted the conference in a blog post: Only 48 Days Until Monkeybread Software’s Xojo Conference. Thanks for the help!

Speakers

We reminded the speakers to start preparing their presentation. Doing a presentation is much easier if you divide it into several steps with a week of distance. Outline what you like to show, prepare slides, maybe an example project to show and refine week by week, so you can show something great.

It is still time to contact us if you have something to show. We look for a replacement sessions we can schedule if a speaker needs to cancel their presentation.

Or short presentations to fill 10 minutes if needed. Like if you can show a cool project, an add-on or some Xojo tips & tricks.

Raffle

We’ll have a raffle on the end of the conference to give away a few valuable prices. Anyone who wants to donate a gift, please let us know.

e.g. a coupon code for a free license of your app?

Hotel rooms

The hotel has a few more rooms available. Rooms can be cancelled without penalty a week before the start date of the reservation.

Our room allocation expires 31st March 2024. The rooms left will then be given to regular customers. If you like to get a room in the conference hotel, please sign up soon.

On short notice

Like with every conference, there is the question who will be the latest one to sign-up. While attendees flying over an ocean usually book months in advance, the people who can take a local train or a car to come to the conference in the morning can sign-up quite late. As well as some managers, who may decide a few days before the conference, whether they can spare a day or two between their busy schedule.

Looking in our database, we find over 45 Xojo developers in a 100 km radius, 170 in a 200 km radius and about 300 in a 300km radius. If you live in Cologne, you can just come with a train in the morning.

We look forward to see who signs up the latest, has the longest travel or has the best travel story to tell.

Cancellation

And sadly there is always a chance that someone wants to cancel. Usually a few percent or people miss a flight, get ill or have to urgently take care about someone in their family. We may give them the chance to donor the ticket to someone else. Let us know if you would be interested to pickup such a ticket, if the chance becomes available.

Please let us know if someone likes to join the conference or needs a reservation.

[Christian_Schmitz]

About four weeks left until we start our MBS Xojo Developer Conference in Andernach, Germany.

Currently we have over 40 people from 13 countries:

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Xojo 2024r1

Since the new Xojo version just launched, we will probably get an update on this in the Xojo keynote by Geoff Perlman. Then we look forward on the upcoming releases later this year and what is coming there.

The conference is your chance to directly talk to Javier, Riccardo and Geoff about the Xojo development. Ask Javier about the PDF classes, the new barcode scanning classes and pop overs. Then ask all your web framework questions to Riccardo.

Training day

We have a few tickets left for the training day. Please join to learn how to build an application in Xojo.

We combine the targets desktop, web and mobile to build a bigger solution. This may be a web app to act as a service for providing data to a Desktop, an iOS and an Android application.

Tickets & Hotel rooms

Tickets are still available for the conference. But our hotel room reservation will be released 31st March, so you then compete for rooms with other guests coming to Andernach.

[Christian_Schmitz]

And another registration today.

Happy to see even more people asking questions related to signing up and planning the trip.

If you need a hotel room, please let me know.
Even in April, we can try to make a reservation for you.

[Christian_Schmitz]

It’s conference month!
The next weeks will be full of preparation for presentations, testing the equipment for recording and maybe a few last registrations.

[Christian_Schmitz]

Another sign-up

The last? Not sure. Our hotel allocation expired so everyone can now regularly book a room.

But I kept one reserved hotel room for someone who likes to join on short notice. Who wants to get it?