HORNEKS ANS

ACF Plugin 1.7.9.0 Released — One Codebase, Modernized Core, and a Stronger Future for FileMaker Development

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The new ACF Plugin 1.7.9.0 release is now available for both macOS and Windows — and while this version may look like a “maintenance release” on the surface, it actually represents one of the most important architectural upgrades we’ve done in a long time.

This release is about modernization, stabilization, and preparing the ACF ecosystem for the future.

One Unified Plugin Line

For a long time, the Mac and Windows versions of the plugin evolved somewhat independently. They shared the same core ideas, but differences in compilers, libraries, platform quirks, and build systems naturally caused some drift over time.

With version 1.7.9.0, that changes.

The Mac and Windows builds are now consolidated around a shared ACF Plugin source tree. This dramatically reduces platform drift and makes it easier to maintain feature parity across operating systems going forward.

In practical terms, this means:

  • Faster development of future features
  • Better cross-platform consistency
  • Easier debugging and testing
  • More predictable behaviour between Mac and Windows deployments

For developers working in mixed environments, this is a very important step forward.

Modernized to C++17

Internally, the plugin and compiler have now been modernized to C++17.

This has involved a substantial amount of refactoring work behind the scenes — replacing legacy constructs, modernizing memory handling, updating build pipelines, and preparing the project for current and future compiler toolchains.

This is not just “developer housekeeping.” Modernization directly affects:

  • Stability
  • Long-term maintainability
  • Compiler compatibility
  • Security
  • Performance opportunities
  • Third-party library compatibility

In short: the foundation is now significantly more future-proof.

Massive Dependency Refresh on macOS

The macOS build has also received a major update of the underlying library stack.

Several core dependencies have been rebuilt and upgraded, including:

  • Boost 1.91.0
  • ICU 78
  • Skia
  • LittleCMS 2.16
  • TIFF 4.6.0
  • libdeflate 1.20
  • bzip2 1.0.8
  • Zint 2.15.0

This work improves compatibility with modern macOS versions while also strengthening image handling, regex support, barcode rendering, Unicode handling, and general runtime reliability.

The plugin now targets:

  • macOS 11 Big Sur or later on Intel Macs
  • macOS 12.3 Monterey or later on Apple Silicon

And yes — the plugin remains Universal Binary, supporting both Intel and Apple Silicon natively.

Image Rendering Continues to Mature

The image rendering engine introduced in recent releases has now gone through another round of stabilization and testing.

Boxed text rendering, multiline text layout, inline styling, barcode drawing, shape rendering, PNG output, and TIFF generation have all been validated on both Mac and Windows.

This image subsystem has quietly evolved into something extremely powerful for FileMaker developers.

Typical use cases include:

  • Shipping labels
  • Product labels
  • Membership cards
  • Dynamic reports
  • Business cards
  • Signage
  • QR-code workflows
  • Print-ready graphics
  • Branded exports generated directly from FileMaker data

The goal has always been to allow FileMaker solutions to generate professional graphics dynamically — without depending on external rendering services.

And the engine is now reaching a level of maturity where it can confidently be used in production workflows.

Unicode-Aware Regex Support

Another important addition in 1.7.9.0 is optional Unicode-aware regex support through:

enable_unicode_regex(true);

When enabled on ICU-capable builds, regex matching now understands Unicode character classes correctly.

This improves handling of:

  • Norwegian characters
  • European languages
  • UTF-8 word matching
  • International text processing

Character classes such as:

\w
[[:alpha:]]

will now behave properly for Unicode content instead of being limited to ASCII-only matching.

For developers working with multilingual data, this is a major improvement.

The standard Windows build currently ships without full ICU regex support enabled, but the architecture is now prepared for future ICU-enabled Windows builds as well.

Stability and Regression Testing

A significant part of this release has focused on automated regression testing.

The following areas have been validated:

  • ACF runtime behaviour
  • MySQL connectivity
  • Image rendering
  • Locale-aware sorting
  • Norwegian character handling
  • Compiler/runtime compatibility

This testing effort is especially important after the large-scale modernization work done internally.

Still Compatible with Older FileMaker Versions

One thing many users appreciate about ACF Plugin is that we continue testing compatibility across a broad range of FileMaker versions.

Version 1.7.9.0 has been validated with:

  • FileMaker Pro 17
  • 18
  • 19
  • 20
  • 22 (2025)

Interestingly enough, FileMaker Pro Advanced 17 is still used internally for debugger-based development and compatibility testing.

Sometimes the old tools remain surprisingly useful.

Looking Ahead

This release may not contain a single flashy “headline feature,” but it lays down something even more important:

A modernized, unified, stable platform for the next generation of ACF Plugin development.

The work done in 1.7.9.0 enables faster future development, improved cross-platform reliability, and continued expansion of advanced functionality for FileMaker developers.

And yes — there are already more things coming.

Stay tuned.

For downloads and documentation, visit: https://horneks.no

Release notes: https://horneks.no/Files/Release-notes.html

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