Search Results for 'bento'

[stevewi]

After a very frustrating weekend of trying to add some simple fields to one of my forms that featured 5 (count ’em FIVE!) crashes, I am giving up on Tap Forms. The Mac version is just not ready for prime time.

I was hoping I could replace my now-defunct copy of Bento with Tap Forms but I can’t…too many bugs and crashes. Combine these with an indeterminate time-line for updates and bug fixes and I can see database corruption in my future…not something I want very much.

I wish you luck, Brendan! Tap Forms has great potential but it’s just not usable enough to meet my needs at the moment.

Since I have been a Tap Forms user for exactly 6 days as of this writing and there was no “try-before-you-buy” package, I hope you will consider refunding my money. You can contact me at the email address I used to register for this forum to arrange that (it’s also my account for the App Store).

Thanks.

— SteveW

[PierreBn]

Hi,

I am one of those (hopefully many) people who are switching to Tapforms. I use (used?) Bento, DVDPedia and Bookpedia from Bruji, and also a few “personal DBs” in Excel.

I have purchased the Mac version for now, and so far, it looks good!

Two immediate comments:
– When I edit a form, it seems the record list is refreshing twice (I have about 300 records, each with pictures <10Kb each). This isn’t a problem, but it “looks unclean”…maybe implementing a better “refresh” process would be good, with “hourglass” cursor/notification? I would surely feel better: for now, I am afraid editing the records too quickly after changing the form could corrupt the DB (even if unfounded, this is the impression I get as a user).
– I have one DB where I’d like to see the left column, another where I’d like the list on top. I think the display setting should be form dependent.

I have read a lot about Tapforms, and have come across Brendan’s forum contributions here and on other websites. I know you don’t want to overburden the software by implementing all requested functionalities. Frankly, this balanced approach convinced me to try Tapforms: I am an “geek” myself, and I need the developer to protect me from my love of complexity ;-)

Nevertheless, a few “low priority” suggestions:
1) Allow (basic) form layout customization
(this has been mentioned, and seems to be in the pipe already)

2) Allow language selection for the interface (override OS default)
My Mac OS Lion is in Frenc, but I occasionally need to show my records to non-French speakers. I would like to be able to set Tapforms to “English”, without having to change my OS settings.

3) Publish conversion guides for switchers!
I myself had to learn to convert DVDpedia’s Sqlite DB to Excel, then to CSV, then to Tapforms. All this while trying to understand how to “import” images with the Mac version without FTP server (to keep the cover images for 300+ records). I found the way, but I don’t think many users would have gone through the numerous google searches.
Your post about importing Bento images is very welcome. But there are many other potential switchers: Pedias from Bruji, Delicious Library… Those are all great, but I decided to switch because I did not want to have many DB management tools. I plan to use Tapform as my “one stop software” for all my personal DB needs. For that, I am ready to abandon automatic DVD/CD info fetching from Amazon.
That’s just my own view, just in case I’m not alone ;-)

Best,
Pierre

[coasterchris]

Brendan,

Thank you for the quick reply. Perhaps that could be a feature request?? :-)

Also, THANK YOU for posting the Bento to TapForms transfer process. I had many large collections in Bento and dreaded the thought of moving everything (they all had images). Thanks to that document, it was a breeze and now everything is in TapForms.

Thanks for a great and very useful program.

Chris

[GrantCee]

Just downloaded the OSX version, and despite long experience with DBMS (including FMPro and Bento), I’m having a bit of trouble with Tap Forms.

Questions:

1) Is there documentation for the OSX version? Don’t see anything on the support page.
2) Most pressing question: What is the “Section Index” and how is it used? (Searched both the blog and the forums; did not find any discussion.)

Thanks.

-=[ Grant ]=-

[stevewi]

How do I create a form based on one of the “26 included templates”? I just got TapForms for the Mac and I wanted it as a Bento replacement. I’ve puzzled out most everything except the “Mask Entry” attribute on fields. I was hoping I could create a form based on one of these templates to see an example of what this attribute does. But I can’t figure out how to use these 26 included templates. The Quick Guide only talks about the iPhone/iPad with respect to this and doesn’t talk about the “Mask” attribute at all…

Also… a bug. I created a simple form from some csv data I exported from Bento. All worked perfectly. However, when I tried to export the data to the csv file that Bento created (I expected the file to be overwritten with new data), I only got ONE line with the field titles…no data.

Thanks in advance…

SteveWi

[SSteve]

I’m looking for a Bento replacement and Tap Forms is looking like the one. One question: I keep my wine collection in Bento. It lets me save a named search so that I can see a list of, e.g., red wines whose “drink date” field is blank. It looks like the Mac version of Tap Forms does that. Does the iPad version have that feature?

[ArsAstronautica]

As a recovering Bento user, I must say that Tap Forms looks like an excellent replacement. I have converted by old Bento DBs into Tap Forms and am learning my way around it. I am especially appreciative of it being available on Mac, iPhone, & iPad, and also the iCloud syncing. That was a requirement for any Bento replacement.

Onto the issue. I have a form that has a link to a small snippet of video. All told, I have perhaps a couple dozen records, each of which has a small movie (.m4v, .mp4) linked. I did this on the Mac (I prefer to do the main editing setup on the Mac and then push the files to the iDevices. I use the iDevices to reference the DB and to make small updates/changes). When I synced via iCloud, the forms and links came across just fine.

One thing I noticed on my iDevices was that the links to the movies came across fine, but took forever to load the first time. Looking into the attachment folder, I saw that the movies are there, but not downloaded to the iDevice. They are in the cloud (yay!), just not all downloaded (not so yay). Now if I try and open the Movie, it will slowly churn and eventually open the Movie. Looking at the attachments folder, indeed the file has been downloaded. (yay!)

My question is, it will be rather laborious to have to tap to open each movie on each device to get it to download. Is there a way to force this to occur globally? Or, perhaps, I should use the web feature to load the movies from my Mac directly to the iDevice? How does that play with the links I have wrt iCloud?

I’d like to avoid having to march trough manually and I’d like to download the files now over wireless so I do not need to download them over cellular, should I call upon one. If I must download each to each iDevice from the cloud I will, but naturally I prefer not to.

[Allan]

I am looking at Tab Forms since Bento is going away. Is there any plan for a List view on the iPad version?

[prov0356]

I recently switched from Bento to Tap Forms and have not looked back! Tap Forms is a terrific application. The iCloud sync has worked flawlessly for me. I would love to see you implement a “pull to refresh” feature throughout the UI to initiate the iCloud sync.

Thanks for a great app!

[eric@vergeer.nl]

Hello, is there anybody who has developped a CRM solution where a customer can have multiple contacts? Would you be so kind to share it with we. I Would appreciate it very much.

A disappointed Bento user looking for a clever CRM solution, Kind Regards, Eric Vergeer, The Netherlands eric@vergeer.nl

[mnmcook]

I’m trying to replicate a date calculation from a database I’m porting from Bento. Are there any equivalent date functions that can be used in a calculation field (e.g. “Month()”)?

[cgranley]

Yes, I imported Bento number data that had currency symbols in it.

I have exported to a csv, cleaned out all the $ symbols, and then re-imported into a new DB with the same structure. No fix. Still have many “NaN” showing. The csv file I am importing from has no data, zero, nothing, between the commas.

This makes me think something in the database structure is causing this as I duplicated and renamed the original DB, leaving a new, empty DB prior to importing the csv.

[hmansion]

Brendan,

First let me say thanks for the iPad app – I purchased it last night. Had been evaluating different apps for a couple of weeks to store my recipes and decided making my own database would best suit my needs. While the functionality of Tap Forms HD certainly offered what I needed, the *primary* reason I chose your app over Bento and others is because of this forum. I am so impressed by your consistent, helpful and professional presence here and wanted to let you know you’re doing a great job!

First field on my form is a photo field and I can choose from 3 different thumbnail sizes in list view – perfect! Do I have any control over the image size on the actual record itself? Can you explain the display rules of an image (i.e. it’s always shown half size; it’s always full size unless it exceeds XXX x YYY pixels then it’s compressed to XXX x YYY; etc.)?

Just like with thumbnails, I would love to normalize images to a set dimension on the form if possible…

Thanks! – Steve

[enver]

Hi Brendan,
thank you for your reply. I’m using the Mac version of the app.
In my case, my calculation goes as follows:
A + B = C
(D * 2) + C = E
I can do this with Bento, even with MS Word.

Best regards,
enver

[PatrickV]

Hello,

I have two small feature requests for the Mac version.

-Moving Fields-
It would be nice to have the option to have fields side by side, as you can do form example in Bento. The Form become a canvas where you can move fields on.

For example. I created a games collection form and like to add multiple screenshots side by side instead of among each other.

-Sharing form libraries-
It would be nice to have a website where users can share Forms.