Is Tap Forms a good replacement for Bento as contact manager

[Stephen Ryan]

Hi – I was wondering if someone can advise whether Tap Forms is a good replacement for my particular use of Bento. I’m a recruiter and work on my own and have a data bases of 4,000 candidates. I’ve used Bento for a very basic purpose – set up candidate data base that then can sync with my apple contacts – ie change name/address/phone details in apple contacts, it is reflected in bento database, and vice versa. The database then holds additional information that apple contacts cannot (eg. interview notes, coding for qualifications that I can search on, etc.). Ideal would be if I could access this database on my mobile as well. Does this sound like something Tap Forms would be capable of? Or is there another product that would handle that better? Cheers

[Brendan]

Hi Stephen,

Tap Forms does not sync with the Apple Contacts database like Bento did. You can import from the Contacts database into Tap Forms, but a change you make in Tap Forms will not be reflected back in the Apple Contacts database. However, if you make a change in the Apple Contacts database such as adding a new contact and re-import, then Tap Forms will update existing contacts and add the new ones it finds. It won’t delete from Tap Forms if you delete from the Apple Contacts database though.

Other than that bit, Tap Forms can do the other things you need well.

In Tap Forms Mac there is an Import Contacts function in the File menu. You can download the 10 day trial version for Mac to see if it’s something you could use:

https://vendors.paddle.com/download/product/503174

You can sync those imported contacts with iOS, but they won’t be synced to the Apple Contacts database. They’ll effectively live inside Tap Forms.

Thanks,

Brendan

[Stephen Ryan]

Thanks Brendan
Just so I make sure I understand: if I want my apple contacts to mirror my Tap Forms contacts with just the one edit, I would have to ensure all editing happens in Apple contacts, ie. all new contacts are added via Apple contacts, all contacts I delete have to be deleted via apple contacts (is this correct??), and any edits to contact details for existing contact also need to be done via apple contacts. And then I would need to do an “import contacts” which will update Tap Forms for any changes I’ve made since last import (ie. there is no auto sync)? Does that all sound right?
Also, my Bento has been unstable for a few years for sure but has always been usable, BUT as of last week it won’t open my database at all!! Is this a problem? I’m hoping you’ll tell me all I need is the bento.bentodb file!! Or am I in some trouble if I can’t open via Bento? FYI – my bento.bentodb file is 25MB!
Cheers
Stephen

[Stephen Ryan]

…and further to that last message Brendan, I’ve kind of made an assumption that I can import not just apple contacts, but also the associated Bento database details. Is that right?
When you say “import contacts”, is that just Apple contacts it’s importing (rather than the Bento contacts)? Ultimately I’m hoping I can import all 4,000 contacts to Tap Forms, AND that I can associate the database details (interview notes/check box skills, etc) that are recorded in Bento with the correct contacts.

[Brendan]

Hi Stephen,

There are some changes that are made in Contacts which won’t properly get updated in Tap Forms after re-importing. It will get a duplicate value in Tap Forms instead for that contact and value. This happens because the data that I get from Apple Contacts doesn’t have a unique identifier for the values for me to be able to properly update an existing value. It happens on multi-valued fields, such as phone number, address, etc. But something like changing a name or other single valued values work fine.

You need to be able to open your Bento database and use the Export Template file to generate a .bentoTemplate file for importing into Tap Forms. Tap Forms won’t directly import a .bentodb file.

I may be able to import your .bentodb file into my copy of Bento that I run within an OS X 10.9.5 Parallels installation. However, generally that doesn’t include the “Address Book” Bento Library because Bento simply points that to the built-in Contacts database, so therefore it would show only my own contacts. But I can try it out for you to see if it gets your own. Maybe I can export the .bentoTemplate files for you that you can then import into Tap Forms.

[Stephen Ryan]

Ouch! My own stupid fault – 4 years is long enough since Bento stopped for me to have found an alternative – I guess last week’s MacOS update just won’t read Bento files at all now?
If you could try that, it would be much appreciated! I presume I can’t just email you the 25MB .bentodb file – can I share it with you via dropbox/google drive? If so, you have my email I guess?
FYI – I did thankfully save one version of the files as .XLS about 12 months ago, so I at least have access to 15 years of interview notes via that route. I didn’t know how to do it, so think I just cut and paste into that .xls file, so can’t imagine it’s in a format that I could import it into Tap Forms – presume it would be some kind of tedious manual process! Anyway, the world continues to turn! :)
In summary – yes please, any effort you can make to save anything from my bentodb file would be much appreciated!
Stephen

[Brendan]

Yes, you can email a 25 MB file. You could also zip it first before emailing it. That’s always best. Apple’s Mail Drop built-in to Mail will allow you to email up to 5 GB files.

Just attach it to an email and send it to support@tapforms.com

I’ll see what happens when I open it in my copy of Bento.

[Stephen Ryan]

Hi Brendan
FYI – I sent you email on 14.8.
Cheers
Stephen

[Brendan]

Hi Stephen,

I don’t believe I received an email from you on the 14th of August. I just checked my email history and it’s not there.

Can you please re-send it to support@tapforms.com?

Thanks,

Brendan

[Stephen Ryan]

Thanks Brendan
I sent that again yesterday – but it sounds like you not getting them for some reason. I just sent another with subject only. Are they not going to your junk? I’m not getting a mail delivery failure notice!

[Katherine Franz]

Just want to say thank you for tap forms and Steven, I feel your pain. I used bento for my pantry manager. And I was able to move it over a year or 2 ago. It’s unfortunate that apple hasn’t enabled more interations with the contacts data. The built in contacts app hasn’t changed in 10 years. I just cleaned up my contacts 3 days ago, so I’m still grumpy about all the “should be”s around this issue.

[Stephen Ryan]

Hi Brendan
No idea why my emails are going to your junk! I write sophisticated/interesting and highly amusing emails and am known for my lightening wit and repartee! They are surely not junk! Nonetheless I suspect my email of 1 September is similarly in your junk file!
Cheers Stephen

[Brendan]

Ugh. I don’t know why that is happening. It happened to 2 other emails too. I just replied to your email and sent you the exported Bento template files.

Sorry for the trouble.

[Author]

Posts