Interesting ideas.
All this mention of Forklift and Cyberduck reminds me that I have Transmit that I use to upload files to a remote host and that could probably work.
@Brendan: I just looked and I don’t have a Photos folder in that location. Actually, in the /Containers folder there is no /Data folder. Does Tapforms create this while doing some setup action?
At the moment I have around six simple Bento databases which reside on an iMac. From time-to-time myself and my wife both access the databases from our individual Macs (not the host iMac) and read and edit records as required. Non of the databases are held on our individual Macs.
We also sync (or rather copy) the databases to our iPads so that we have access to reading the data when out and about. (I say copy because we only sync from the iMac to the iPads, not in the other direction, out of choice).
If we migrate to Tapforms can we have the functionality we have now with Bento?
Ideally we would love a cloud based solution (similar to the spreadsheets on Google Drive) but realise that Tapforms isn’t going to be able to do this for us.
Thanks for listening.
But it’s also easier to use the Finder if you’re using the Mac version. You can just drag the photos into the Photos folder that Tap Forms uses on the Mac (not the same as your Photos folder in your Home folder). This one’s stored in ~/Library/Containers/Data/Documents/Photos
You can use ForkLift or CyberDuck FTP clients on the Mac to transfer the image files to Tap Forms on your iPad. I used ForkLift (paid app from the Mac App Store) but CyberDuck is shareware and free to download and try.
Thank you for your help, Brendan. It is indeed technical but not insurmountable. I’m up to the step that requires me to “To import your images in the mobile version, open Tap Forms on your device, start the FTP server, and copy all your images to the Photos folder.”
I assume this means going to my iPad and issuing arcane incantations…
This I will take up tomorrow when I have more energy.
-Pan
Hi Pandora,
There is a way to do it, but it’s a bit technical.
There are some instructions on one of my blog posts which describes what to do to get your images from Bento into Tap Forms Mac.
Here’s a link for you:
Exporting photos from Bento
Thanks!
Brendan
I’m new here, having recently heard about Tapforms as a replacement (and upgrade!) for the recently discontinued Bento.
I have a database that includes a field of the type “media” where i stick an image associated with each record. When I exported from Bento and imported into Tapforms, the images were not imported. I’m assuming that this is because the CSV transportation method can’t include anything not text.
Short of copy/pasting each of these images from Bento into my Tapforms form, is there any way of doing this?
thanks!
I just started using Tapforms and so far I really like it. Bento was a little hard for me and this is much more user friendly.
I’m having trouble figuring out how to make a list of records. I figured out the “saved search” function (which is kind of like a “smart list”, right?), but I want to pick and choose different records to include in a list. There’s no defining feature of these records other than that I choose them.
How can I create lists in Tapforms?
Hi Roy,
Have you watched the screencasts on importing data into Tap Forms Mac? There are some links to the Youtube videos on my support page at https://www.tapforms.com/support.html
But the important thing is to set the date format to be the same as you have for your data from Bento. For example, if your date format is something like 31/12/2013 then you would need to set Tap Forms to use dd/MM/yyyy as its date format before you import the file. On the Import Records screen you also need to select Date from the popup. If your dates also include times, then use the Date & Time field type. But in this situation you need to also set the time format to match your Date & Time data from Bento.
One other issue is that Bento puts the letter T between the date and the time values. You will need to replace that with a space character before you import. Tap Forms will then take the date format and the time format and put a space in between. It will be able to interpret the Date & Time field data properly then. The next update for Tap Forms Mac won’t require you to replace the T with a space.
Thanks,
Brendan
I’m a new user converting from Bento. I’ve purchase your Mac, IPad and iPhone products. I’m only working with Mac (Mavericks) at the moment.
I’ve exported my Bento data into Tap Forms – some – not all came in OK. I’m also a little lost in your formatting. The only option on date import is text (see below). Furthermore, many Bento fields do not survive the import.
If I enter the date time format in the import option – I get a blank field. I do get data if I use the “text” format. However, If after I import Bento data and want to enter a new item (date created) – the program format is text and not date. I need to enter new items in a date format. Secondly, I cannot sort this data properly. What am I missing?
I’m sorry, but you have no help manual so I’m lost.
I’m digging Tap Forms. I’ve been using Bento since it’s beginning and this is a nice replacement.
One minor request – How about a laptop icon in the custom icons?
I am also having iCloud sync problems. I have Version 1.5 (227) on my Mac and Version 3.5.2 (129) on my iPhone. Both devices show up as registered devices on both devices. If I make a change on the Mac and hit the sync button on the Mac, the iPhone, within seconds, downloads the change and syncs the update. However if I make a change on the iPhone and then hit the sync button on the iPhone the change never appears on the Mac.
I have tried the suggestions here, including rebooting, turning sync on and off, HappyTapper’s suggestion of copying the backup file, etc. I also tried turning off the firewall on my Mac. All to no avail.
I am a new user of Tap Form and so far, aside from this one issue, find it to be an exceptional product. I came here from Bento. Had no trouble importing my Bento data. And I have found TF better engineered — showing faster response time for large sets of data. I can see that much effort was put into the database side of the product — including appropriate indexing. Bento seems to want to read in the entire database while starting up, which always aggravated me while I was waiting! I really appreciate the efforts put into this product and hope to solve this iCloud problem, added icing to the cake.
Any ideas?
Thanks. As I figured, no “easy” way. I remember buying the Bento and Tapforms apps at the same time. I preferred the Bento interface so I entered a ton of information before I realized that there was simply not going to be a Bento or Filemaker for windows that I could sync/save the information to.
Hello Ricky,
It doesn’t look like Bento for iPhone has any kind of import or export functionality. I guess they thought you would have to use Bento for Mac to do that. I didn’t even have a Mac app before when I first released Tap Forms for iPhone way back in 2008, so I had to build in a CSV importer and exporter.
I’m not sure how you could get your data out of Bento for iPhone other than first syncing to the Mac version of Bento. Either that or digging into the phone using a tool like iExplorer to extract out the Bento SQLite database file. But then you’d have to do manual SQL queries against it using a tool like SQLite Manager.
Thanks,
Brendan
Hi, I just got TapForms, came over from Bento.
The one thing I need that I can’t currently do is create calculations based on data from linked forms.
Form A: Client info, including a linked form (Form B) of all the client’s appointments, including the rate they’ve paid.
I need to create a calculation in Form A of “Number of Appointments,” as well another for “Avg Rate.”
If I could have this functionality, I would be quite pleased.
Alice
