Thanks Brendan,
Is there any way to do this automatically when I import over 5,600 contacts from my Bento database?
Matt
I’m a former Bento user and I’m trying to configure TF for Mac to sync with iCloud Contacts.
In reading some of the other forum posts, it appears that this is possible, but I cannot seem to get it configured correctly. I have enabled iCloud Sync within TF and performed a sync with some (17) test contacts in TF. My current iCloud contacts account only has 2 contacts (I’ve been using Google Contacts with Bento currently). These 17 test contacts are not appearing in iCloud Contacts (via the iCloud web interface).
Am I missing something? Will TF really sync with Contacts for the fields that correspond?
Is it possible to use a formula and rating field? I converted my old Bento database, and had a field that used a few rating fields in an equation to produce value. All the values converted when in Tap Form, but the equation seems to work once in awhile. Here is the formula, where Clarity, Brilliance and Color are all rating fields. In the editor, the all are showing up as blue bullets, and have values between 1 and 10
( Clarity+(Brilliance*2)+Color)/3
FYI, in the next update, Tap Forms will also import the Date Created and Date Modified fields from a Bento library.
I just download the Mac version of Tap Form last night, specifically to transfer my Bento libraries. I am having several problems (inconsistently blank fields in some records, images not making the import, not able to sync to iCloud), but since I am brand new to this I am sure everything will work out. However, on problem noticed is that my date field, which in Bento included the day of the week, do not include that format in Tap Form (Sunday, December 29, 2013). To compensate I want to add a new text field with the day of the week, but when I choose EDIT LAYOUT I don’t see a way to add a new field.
Hi Brendan, thanks for the response.
re: #2,
Not quite the use case I was describing. I think in Bento what I was looking at were actually called “simple lists”. In my example, each record has some standard data like name and identifying number, but also has a list of unique effects or properties. It might have 18 or 3. I was describing a use case of adding multiple instances of the same field type, say a field called “effects”. I could then add as many unique instances of that field, each of which would have a unique value, but which would behave like the others in terms of formatting and data type.
I don’t think one to many or many to many quite accomplishes that.
Hope that makes more sense.
Hi Josh,
1. You can adjust all the fonts for the labels and values, but not individually. You can adjust the font colour of individual fields, so you could use that to distinguish your more important fields. For example, red fields are the most important, etc.
2. I believe what you are wanting here is what Bento called Related Data fields. In Tap Forms they’re called Link to Form fields. It’s where you can link one form to another via a special field type. Tapping on a Link to Form field type will let you connect your records together in two different ways. One to Many and Many to Many. Rather than going into the details about that here, I’d like to refer to you the manual for the Mac version which gives a good description of the difference and pretty much works the same way as the iPad version (other than the obvious different looks between a Mac and iPad app):
http://www.manula.com/manuals/tap-zapp/tap-forms-mac/2.0/en/topic/relationships
Thanks!
Brendan
Loving TapForms for the iPad, and thinking it is going to make a great Bento replacement.
I have two suggestions:
1. Add font size / font type in the Field Options box. It would be nice to be able to distinguish critical fields and their values automatically by making them larger or more noticeable.
2. Repeating fields. I’m cataloging various compounds for a story I am writing, and it would be nice to have a section called “interactions” or “effects” and have the ability to add multiple copies of the same field within that section. So if I have seven different interactions for a particular compound, I could add seven copies, and each would have a different value. Another compound using the same form might only have 2 interactions, and so I would only need two fields. Does this make sense? I seem to remember something like this within Bento. I know I could just add a ton of blanks for the form and only use what I need, but I’d prefer not to have a lot of dead space.
Thanks again for a fantastic app!
I added the iPhone app and it works beautifully. However, I have one request. I am building a library of exercise routines, and I need to access the music and the choreography at the same time. I can do this by Tap Forms + iTunes, but I was hoping to listen to the attachment on Tap Forms while I view the text on the same Tap Forms record. Bento had the same limitation, so this may not be possible.
Also, on testing the synchronization rules, it appears that synchronization is manual both on the Mac and iPhone, with the sending device overwriting the receiving device on a field by field basis. Is this correct? Is it possible to enable synchronization continuously, like Contacts, or perhaps on opening and closing? I plan to use multiple devices, and I am not likely to always remember to synch after I make changes.
Thanks.
Ok, I’ve just added the ability for the Bento importer to import the Date Created and Date Modified fields. The Date Created value will get populated with the value from the Bento template. But the Date Modified value will get set to the current date & time in order to support iCloud syncing.
Hi Roy,
Yes, that’s right. There is a logical reason why I did not set the data created and date modified values during a Bento import. The reason is iCloud sync. If you were to initiate an iCloud sync at any time and then import a Bento template, if I were to set the date created and date modified values from the Bento template, those records who’s dates were set to values earlier than the last time you initiated an iCloud sync would never get uploaded to iCloud because Tap Forms would wrongly assume they had already been uploaded before.
I could probably set the date created values though since it’s really only the date modified values that I use to determine if a record has been synced already.
Thanks,
Brendan
Hi Alicia,
I just tried that in Bento and it made a complete mess of my form. It seemed to randomly pick the fields to past the data into and then added a whole bunch of Field 1, Field 2, Field 3, etc. extra fields to the library.
I’m not sure how that’s any good. If I were to provide the ability to do that I would prefer preventing a paste unless there was a 100% match in the field names and types between forms. Also what if you’re copying a record that links to other forms? Does it then copy all of the related data too? Does it make a copy of all media and file attachments?
But the thing I have to ask is why do you want to copy records from one form to another? Is it for organizing records into different categories or something? It’s possible to get the same effect as that by using a text field with a Pick List and then create Saved Searches which filter your records by specific values from the pick list.
Thanks,
Brendan
Hi Brendan – thanks for your prompt reply.
It doesn’t sound as though you plan to implement any cut/copy/paste feature between forms into Tap Form, which is unfortunate. Bento has this capability, as does Filemaker, as does every other relational databases I’ve used in the past. Bento, for example, gives a warning that the type of data doesn’t match between the copy from and paste to forms and asks what the user wants to do.
It is on the user to set up the same structure in such an instance, which I have done. The lack of this feature renders Tap Form virtually unusable for me. Too bad since I bought the software and have invested time in importing and customizing my records.
Thanks, but you still do not have a simple list datatype do you? I need an expandable spreadsheet grid as one datatype and a number of other text fields. Think of each record as a song in an exercise program with choreography notes, and I want to mix and match the songs, like a playlist, to create different workouts. Bento does this quite well. Is there a way to create a 6 x 20 grid as a single datatype?
I just purchased Tap Forms. My prior data was primarily in simple lists and I have one database with multiple collections. Does Tap Forms support either of these concepts, as I do not see either anywhere in the product or in my import. Also I do not have my music files – connections to iTunes. This seems like a nice product, but probably not much use to me without this functionality.
