Displaying Same Mac Custom Form on IOS

[Dan Clark]

First, my complements to Brendon! Tap Forms is EXCELLENT. After spending weeks trying to find an easy-to-use, very functional database development environment, I finally found Tap Forms. It is cost-effective and WAY better than all of the other platforms I’ve tried.

As a retired database developer but even as a Mac newbie, I found Tap Forms to be a relative breeze to create a small, two-form app. Thanks for the excellent work!

To my question…

While creating a compact custom layout is easy on the Mac, I can’t figure out how to replicate that on my iPad. Attached are two screenshots – one Mac and one iPad. I’d like to see the same Mac layout on my iPad. Is this feasible? Can you provide a pointer to some docs?

Thanks and regards,

Dan.

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[Brendan]

Hi Dan,

Thanks for your kind words!

Tap Forms for iOS does not have the custom layout engine that the macOS version has. It’s not something I’m currently working on, but I know it has been asked for many times before. So I don’t have an ETA on that at the moment.

Thanks,

Brendan

[Dan Clark]

Brendan,

Thanks for the quick reply.

That is unfortunate. Consistency between the iPad, iPhone, and Mac is important to me. As a retired software developer, I understand the difficulty of cross-platform development. That said, the differences in platforms diminishes the value of Tap Forms for me.

I started using Tap Forms with the iPad app (not the Mac), and then moved to a 2015 MacBook that was sitting unused on a shelf. Most of my work is on a large Windows workstation (128 GB memory with 7 TB internal NVME drives). Right now, it’s not cost-effective for me to move to a Mac platform. So…

I like my MacBook, but it is not with me most of the time and is not in my normal workflow. On the other hand, my iPad IS with me a huge amount of the time and my iPhone is with me virtually all the time. I’ve made many changes to my Tap Forms app using my iPad lying in bed. I can’t do that with my MacBook.

I hope you will reconsider priorities for the iPad app.

Best regards,

Dan.

[robinsiebler]

I have to agree! I just bought the Mac version today. I have had the iOS version for years because…I use my iPad for almost everything. I would love, love, love to see iOS specific enhancements like this and I would even be willing to pay for them!

Also, as he said, ‘Good Job!’. I find the program pretty easy to use and quite useful for my sometimes odd needs.

[Dan Clark]

Robinsiebler,

Regarding “I find the program pretty easy to use and quite useful for my sometimes odd needs.”, I think this covers the major benefits of Tap Forms.

There are lots of expensive, complex programs out there that solve big, complex problems – mostly for medium to larger companies. (I built those for the last 30 years.). And, there are lots of simple programs that solve simple problems – spreadsheets and paper lists for example. Unfortunately there are not a lot of cost-effective solutions for smaller to medium size problems. I.e., the “odd needs” that many of us have.

For example, I’m building a small app to capture and analyze ink data. It seemed simple at first until I realized that there were a lot of parameters to record and the combinations could easily reach into the thousands. And the data has several types of parent/child relationships. Trying to capture that data in a flat file format would be time consuming with lots of repeated data. Then add in the need to capture some of the data while on the go. So the problem grows complex. Bigger than a spreadsheet could address but not big enough to buy a big program. It’s an “odd need”.

This is where Tap Forms excels,IMO. While I wish the iPad/iPhone and Mac would be more consistent, it is still a great, cost-effective solution for my “odd needs”.

Regards,

Dan.

[robinsiebler]

lol…my odd needs are even odder….I created a simple database to keep track of every character I interacted with on a role-playing server, I have a database of all of the foods I like/dislike (so I can remember what to buy (or not)). I have a database of every gift I have ever given my wife and whether she liked it or not.

Now, I am branching out into ‘normal’ territory. I recently created a shopping list database (and matching Siri shortcut) for my wife and now…onto a packing list program (which will be a monumental effort, I am afraid).

[Brendan]

I wish I could snap my fingers and have the thousands of lines of code to do custom layouts on macOS magically work on the iOS version too. But they have significantly different graphics and layout engines which makes that impossible. And the layout engine code is probably 10 years old, so making it work on iOS is a monumental task.

There are things like SwiftUI now that you can write once and run on multiple platforms, but even with that it’s not always possible and there are still differences. Plus it’s not as mature yet as the other frameworks such as UIKit for iOS and AppKit for macOS.

And I’m currently in the middle of another big project in Tap Forms that I can’t just pause, so I wouldn’t be able to work on an iOS layout engine for a while. Plus, the macOS version is $49.99 USD for a reason. It has many more features than the iOS version. If the iOS version had the same features as the macOS version, I’d probably charge $49.99 USD for the iOS version too. Not sure how many people would want to pay that though for an iOS version of the app. People generally consider iOS versions of apps as simpler versions of desktop apps. Or at least those that have desktop equivalents.

Thanks,

Brendan

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