FileMaker releases Bento 3 with iPhoto integration

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  • Reply 41 of 59
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by mstone View Post


    Unfortunately yes since 99.9% of our customers are very Windows centric and we have to run a lot of mdb files on Windows web servers. Which I have to say pretty sweet the way you can directly address the file without it being a system odbc object using asp or .Net.



    Wow - I wouldn't think that Access/Jet would provide for a very robust/reliable method of data access via the web. Certainly not for high-transaction sites. No idea if FMP is any better of course. Just think this is a job for a proper database engine...
  • Reply 42 of 59
    mstonemstone Posts: 11,510member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by djames42 View Post


    Wow - I wouldn't think that Access/Jet would provide for a very robust/reliable method of data access via the web. Certainly not for high-transaction sites. No idea if FMP is any better of course. Just think this is a job for a proper database engine...



    You'd be surprised. It holds up really well, but I don't use it for anything mission critical. Just newsletter signup, get a free sample, sales rep locator type stuff. One thing that a lot of people get messed up is forgetting to close the connection and the db after the query. Access will just leave connections open forever until it runs out of memory. But if you are careful in that respect it even works under high loads as long as you don't try to bring back huge record sets in the 10s of thousands.



    We did dabble around with FMP web export deal and it worked but we never really loaded it down. Main difference, as stated above, that it doesn't give you much flexibility to integrate it in your existing web site template.



    Of course if given a choice I'm all LAMP.
  • Reply 43 of 59
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Gilles99 View Post


    Export your FMP file as a .csv file (comma delimited) then import in Bento



    Be careful as you can select the first record as fields names, or not



    I know, but that's just data not the database. The data fields would have to be recreated in Bento. Not fun.



    Incidentally I spent some time on the Filemaker website looking for an invoicing template for Bento. Much to my surprise, they don't include one, and none are available for download. What's up with that?
  • Reply 44 of 59
    stukestuke Posts: 122member
    such as tab order, styled text, etc.?
  • Reply 45 of 59
    I am still on Palm Treo 700p, and trying to find the easiest way of migrating to iPhone.



    My biggest concern is Treo Memos/Notes that presently sync to Palm Desktop via HotSync. I am on 10.4.11



    Would Bento be better than The Missing Sync for iPhone 2.0 ? Mac Version? Are any of your using this product?

    http://www.markspace.com/iphone/mac



    Since I don't yet have iPhone, I don't know how I can try it. And I was told that I can try The Missing Sync for iPhone 2.0, iPhone would have to be live = registered with AT&T to sync with Mac via iTunes.



    EverNote, and other Cloud Solutions, are unappealing to me, cause I don't want my Data on someone's server. I want it to be strictly between my Mac and iPhone.



    It's amazing that iPhone doesn't come with a built in, native solution for Memo's, which could be Edited on either iPhone or Mac and Synced!



    Palm had that long before I bought it in 2009-1999= 10 years ago! But then again, iPhone just got Cut-Copy&Paste!



    The Missing Sync for iPhone 2.0 sounds nice, but, for matters like this, I am always reluctant to rely on the 3rd party vendors, and, in this case particularly, they don't have phone support! And mail only support was less than inspiring...



    I'd love Apple to support Memo-Notes Syncing. Better yet, being able to attach those notes to Contacts, Events, To Do's!



    Palm had that long before I bought it in 2009-1999= 10 years ago!



    I am so itching to move all my Palm Desktop/Treo Data to iPhone&Mac Paradigm! But, till this is solved, I am trapped, and not much help at Apple Stores! Those Geniuses are more of FaceBook/MySpace crowd, and thus not much into PIM stuff. Maybe cause they are just too young to remember Palm Days, which Steve referred to as part of Digital Lifestyle?!? So, here I am, having embraced that Digital Lifestyle, and now I am stuck, and can't move on to iPhone!



    Hope someone can shed some light on this...



    Thanks in advance for any and all advise!
  • Reply 46 of 59
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by macologist View Post




    It's amazing that iPhone doesn't come with a built in, native solution for Memo's, which could be Edited on either iPhone or Mac and Synced!



    Palm had that long before I bought it in 2009-1999= 10 years ago! But then again, iPhone just got Cut-Copy&Paste!



    I'd love Apple to support Memo-Notes Syncing. Better yet, being able to attach those notes to Contacts, Events, To Do's!



    Palm had that long before I bought it in 2009-1999= 10 years ago!




    It does have "Notes", and they do sync. You can email them, too. Am I missing something or are you?
  • Reply 47 of 59
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by technohermit View Post


    It does have "Notes", and they do sync. You can email them, too. Am I missing something or are you?



    That's not the same thing!



    This how those Notes were explained to me:



    Once the Note is created on iPhone, they can be Synced to Mac 1-Way to Mac, but when Edited on Mac, that Edit won't Update the Original Note on iPhone



    and same is true in reverse...



    Once the Note is created on Mac, in Mail, they can be Synced to Mac 1-Way to iPhone, but when Edited on iPhone, that Edit won't Update the Original Note on Mac in Mail...



    And those Notes can't be Attached to Contacts, Events, To Do as it's been possible to do on Palm Desktop since before 1999. Same with Entourage...



    Missing Sync has their own Echo System, but I'd rather deal directly with Apple, and their Support that one can TALK to, even Face 2 Face, vs. dragging it out via email Support with Missing Sync...



    Missing Sync does look great though, but, as I already wrote:



    Since I don't yet have iPhone, I don't know how I can try it. And I was told that I can try The Missing Sync for iPhone 2.0, iPhone would have to be live = registered with AT&T to sync with Mac via iTunes.



    Wish Missing Sync folks made a ScreenCapture Demo, since it's not so easy to do with SnowLeopard! That kind of Product Tour would be far more reassuring then slick text product description...



    BTW, I'd love to see the same 2-way Syncing possible with MSFT Word and other Office Components, and INSTANTLY, ala Push/Exchange!



    Thus far Office Apps are Read Only on iPhone! I've heard of 3rd Party Products, but that's another Detour, and Monkey In The Middle, Blame Game between the Developers and Apple, a possible scenario, that I'd rather not risk being in...



    In short, I'd like Apple to do those things In House, Natively, Built Inn, so that REAL SUPPORT would be possible, NO BLAMING 3rd parties, and more folks would have less excuses not to own iPhone! Business folks would jump in even in greater numbers!



    Hopefully this wish of mine will be granted soon!
  • Reply 48 of 59
    It sounds like a pretty sweet upgrade! Good job, Filemaker!





    On a different note, is the long accent over the "o" in Bento so that someone won't pronounce it Bentoo, or is it just a redundancy for the average person?
  • Reply 49 of 59
    mr omr o Posts: 1,046member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Gazoobee View Post


    The whole point of Bento is to make simple flat-file databases "available to the masses" by making them attractive and easy to use. Without the "attractive and easy to use" part, they might as well not bother at all.



    ? but don't you think the icons are looking way too big & clumsy? It feels like a software for toddlers.



    Wouldn't it be better and less confusing if Apple put some more thought in Addressbook and iPhoto instead?! They allready are with faces & places.



    Maybe we only need a Bento button in Mail, iCal, iPhoto and address book? Maybe Bento is just that: an overview of all person/product related info?



    To me it is really confusing to have Bento next to the other great Apple apps in Mac OSX. That was the other reason why I got rid of it. The goofy icons being the third reason.
  • Reply 50 of 59
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Frank777 View Post


    Jobs should have slapped Filemaker into submission years ago.



    The Mac database company has failed to extend its business offerings, leaving the Mac platform without a proper CRM tool like ACT or Goldmine. Given that it wouldn't take Filemaker more than 10 minutes to write an ACT clone, this is inexcusable.



    Why aren't more mobile salespeople buying the MacBook Air? Go ask Filemaker, Mr. Jobs.



    Aside from the CRM debacle, Filemaker hasn't found a way to bring their database tech to the web in any meaningful way. Filemaker doesn't integrate easily with any Web Design tools, whether one uses Dreamweaver, Freeway or iWeb.



    Lastly, the hottest thing out there right now is the iPhone, and Filemaker doesn't even have their own iApp solution. It seems to have left that market entirely to FM Touch, an outside vendor.



    So a business or community organization wanting to arm salespeople or even door-to-door people with iPod Touch machines to gather information has to rely on third party solutions to get data from the Mac to the Touch and then back to the master database? Seriously?



    Folding Filemaker into the iWork group could hardly make things worse.





    I agree with you. Since Filemaker belongs to Apple, I blame Steve Jobs for letting Filemaker languish for so long and so miserably. It could be a world beating program, but each upgrade has seen such pathetic additional features at such high prices that we refused to upgrade beyond FM 6, having previously regularly upgraded since 1989. I have seen many other like-minded posts.



    As an example of Filemaker's tardiness, it's unbelievable that there is still no Filemaker Mobile version for the iPhone or Touch after all this time. I know there is a third party FM Touch, but reading the reviews, it leaves a lot to be desired.



    We had Documents To Go and Filemaker Mobile on our old Palms, and they worked brilliantly, virtually all your computer files in the palm of your hand, with an Apple-like GUI. We are in the process of transitioning from these old Palms to iPhones and iPod touches, but the only software missing now is Filemaker Mobile.



    Come on Steve, give Filemaker a kick up the **** and inject some resources to catapult them into the 21st century. How can you expect to attract business customers without a decent database available for the iPhone or Touch?
  • Reply 51 of 59
    pxtpxt Posts: 683member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Gazoobee View Post


    This is a ridiculous comment. At least it is the way you've phrased it here. What do you even mean by "own the data"???



    Data in a database is just plain old data, it's the relationships in the data that you create with the database that determines whether you use one database or another.



    I've never seen a database where the user doesn't "own" the data, either because they put the data in there in the first place, or because they have backed it up from the database they are using, or exported it from the same database for transfer to a different one.



    The idea that a user "doesn't own" their data if they use Bento, and that this is somehow a big issue is ridiculous.



    SQL functionality should be enabled in the OS, the same way that files & directories are.

    Then 3rd parties, such as Bento can create database software on top.

    If you decide to ditch Bento ( say, it is found to have quality issues, security issues, etc ) then you still have access to all the data either via a replacement app or via simple access utilities that could be packaged with the OS.



    This is a big deal as information can have value far greater, and a lifetime far longer, than the cost/lifetime of an App.



    Data is for life, not just for Bento.
  • Reply 52 of 59
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by stuffe View Post


    You can't think of a use for a simple database application?



    Joking aside, I bought it to replace the multiplying number of 3rd party apps that I had got or were considering for single uses - password apps, home inventory, book/cd/dvd cataloguing, recording serial number and software registration details - just really basic stuff that needed something better than a spreadsheet, but wasn't worth maintaining a collection of cheap shareware to do the job in a thousand different ways. Now I just use Bento, and as a bonus can sync to the iPhone also. It's basic, but it's flexible, and it has a consistent user interface for a myriad of tasks.



    Like any normal non-geek would use a database for any of those things The only one of those things that you'd have so much data a database would be better is media cataloguing, and you have to have a lot of time on your hands to even think about that.



    Syncing your passwords to a portable device carried around with you seems like a terrible idea to me.



    The one useful thing it might be good for (for home users) is budget tracking, but even then a spreadsheet would suffice.
  • Reply 53 of 59
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by stuffe View Post


    You can't think of a use for a simple database application?



    Joking aside, I bought it to replace the multiplying number of 3rd party apps that I had got or were considering for single uses - password apps, home inventory, book/cd/dvd cataloguing, recording serial number and software registration details - just really basic stuff that needed something better than a spreadsheet, but wasn't worth maintaining a collection of cheap shareware to do the job in a thousand different ways. Now I just use Bento, and as a bonus can sync to the iPhone also. It's basic, but it's flexible, and it has a consistent user interface for a myriad of tasks.



    Interesting. I have Bento 2 and have been using it for home inventory, and I am intregued by the fact that version 3 appearently now has a ready made template to track user names/passwords as well. I also have a program called DVDPedia that catalogues CDs/DVDs. I would like to just do this witn Bento as well, but one cool thing about DVDPedia is that it can use the iSight and/or an iPhone camera to scan the bar code on the DVD/CD and instantly populate the data fields for each DVD/CD. It took me like less than an hour to enter my entire 200+ DVD collection. Does anybody know if a) is there an easy way to port this info from DVDPedia to Bento, and b) can Bento make use of the iSight/iPhone camera in a similar fasion?
  • Reply 54 of 59
    "Come on Steve, give Filemaker a kick up the **** and inject some resources to catapult them into the 21st century. How can you expect to attract business customers without a decent database available for the iPhone or Touch?"



    One can't Edit + 2 Way Sync Memos like it was possible on Palm, and same with Office Files, so never mind FM... And so, I totally agree with you! Hope Apple is reading this Thread and site in general... Do they?
  • Reply 55 of 59
    Frank777,



    Yah, without a doubt FileMaker totally supports PHP, with Dreamweaver integration of those pages...so it is completely integrated with modern web technologies, like AJAX, etc. So, yes, your earlier statements to the contrary are flatly false.



    Dr Millmoss,



    If your using FM 5.5, then some of the functionality is already starting to break with Snow Leopard. You may not be using that functionality, which is probably why you haven't noticed yet...but the problems are there. Using FM 5.5 is like having a 19 year dog sitting on your couch. If its not dead, it will be soon.



    The bottom line for people to understand is that Bento does not have reporting functionality. So most likely, in your FM 5.5 database, you have one or more reports that you activate with a button. There is no such equivalent for Bento.



    Certainly Bento cannot be made HIPAA legal, which is a U.S. Federal requirement for medical or dental practices. I didn't ask what kind of Dr. you are. Sorry. :-)



    Lastly...the folks at FileMaker are not oblivious to the iPhone phenomenon. These people are highly intelligent, and forward thinking. For most of of the readers here...this fact not something you can easily verify yourself...so you''ll have to take my word for it.
  • Reply 56 of 59
    FMP 5.5 is eight years old, and is still working on Snow Leopard -- though I realize its days are numbered. I also have a copy of FMP 7.0 which I use only rarely because it's licensed for only one Mac and I need it to run on two. Yes, I use reports but it's not clear why I can't recreate my invoice layouts in Bento. Just not possible?



    I'm not a doctor, but I play one on the internet. (It's a literary reference.)
  • Reply 57 of 59
    Ok Im a full on developer, but having said that a nice little Bento DB on my wines that would sync with mobile me to my iPhone would sell it for me.



    Having the ability to create a DB, store it in the cloud and access it and update from my iPhone would be excellent.



    Now, if it can already do this then they need to adjust the way they present it, because I can not find anywhere where the iPhone Bento can sync with a Bento DB using mobile me.



    Now this would be a feature.
  • Reply 58 of 59
    icyfogicyfog Posts: 338member
    When I buy a new Mac I think I'll buy Bento too. It seems perfect for me.

    A long time ago when I had a PC I used Microsoft Works' database feature, which seemed perfect in cataloging CDs, DVDs, movies I've seen, and other odds and ends. Sadly when that PC stopped working I switched to Macs and have not been able to access those databases, even with AppleWorks.

    So the only drawback I see in reading this thread is that Bento databases are proprietary.

    I'm a database novice; do I really need Filemaker? Are Filemaker created databases proprietary too?

    Bento's pros are iPhone compbatability, iPhoto integration, iCal integration, etc.

    Given all that, what database program should I choose?
  • Reply 59 of 59
    djames42djames42 Posts: 298member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by icyfog View Post


    When I buy a new Mac I think I'll buy Bento too. It seems perfect for me.

    A long time ago when I had a PC I used Microsoft Works' database feature, which seemed perfect in cataloging CDs, DVDs, movies I've seen, and other odds and ends. Sadly when that PC stopped working I switched to Macs and have not been able to access those databases, even with AppleWorks.

    So the only drawback I see in reading this thread is that Bento databases are proprietary.

    I'm a database novice; do I really need Filemaker? Are Filemaker created databases proprietary too?

    Bento's pros are iPhone compbatability, iPhoto integration, iCal integration, etc.

    Given all that, what database program should I choose?



    Every database is proprietary. I think what you're looking for is determining how compatible your database is with other applications. Access files can be opened with Excel, and I believe Microsoft provides Windows ODBC drivers so that many other applications can talk to Access databases.



    Bento and Filemaker are not as widespread, but does that really matter when cataloging your media collection? Bento has an iPhone conduit, Access does not. Filemaker provides some nice web tools, I believe with Access you have to roll your own.



    Despite each DB being proprietary, all of them allow you to export data such that it can be imported into another database. If you don't have access to a Windows machine running Access, I'm sure someone here or one of your friends could take your mdf file and export it to CSV or XLS, both of which can be imported using either Bento or Filemaker. I'd offer, but I don't have Access.



    As for your needs, I think Filemaker would most likely be overkill. Download the Bento demo and give it a shot! (There is not a demo for FM)
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