(Filemaker/Apple) Bento Integrated in iWork?

[groove-agent]

Filemaker Bento was discontinued last fall which is strange because it was such a great and easy-to-use database program.

As many of you know, Apple owns Filemaker (formally Claris) and Apple has been working hard at developing iWork as an alternative to MS Office. They've had a database program before, so Bento would round out the suite quite well. How they would integrate it in iCloud would be interesting, especially if you could create/edit via iCloud.com.

Do you feel that Bento will end up in iWork, or did Filemaker discontinue the product only to focus on their main application?

 

[Fishrrman]

[[ Do you feel that Bento will end up in iWork, or did Filemaker discontinue the product only to focus on their main application? ]]

I think you've answered your own question...

 

[Dirtyharry50]

I would love to see a reincarnation of Bento which I am still using with Mavericks with no problems. I just posted something in the sticky thread about app compatibility for Yosemite to see if anyone has tried it yet. A search of that long thread came up empty.

I may try transitioning to Tapforms which last I knew offered Bento import but I am not sure if it will also import graphic images. I hope it does at this point. I need to look into that as I have a database with over a thousand records where each of them has an associated graphic and boy is it a pain to export them one at a time out of Bento. Yikes!

Anyway, I would love to see some form of database with iWork apps but who knows if that is in the cards? I am inclined to think it is wishful thinking but I do hope I am wrong.

 

[robgendreau]

Look at it another way: would you want to commit more data to an application that might go the way of Bento?

Apple only has a few applications that are even remotely likely to last. It just isn't their emphasis. I would dispute that Apple is hard at work making iWork an alternative to Office. It isn't even close. Word is a standard; Excel is a standard.

Bento got axed so Filemaker could "concentrate" on FM Pro, which is code for "Bento was cannibalizing FMP sales so chop it." They offered a substantial discount on FMP, and that would have been the way to go. AFAIK it's the only database application that can import not just stuff like CSV records but also relationships, which would be critical for any complex Bento database. It's not that hard to learn. Meanwhile, I don't see them deciding to compete with themselves again.

 

[McCrab]

Apple have had quite a lot of history with Office suites that have periodically included a database module, including AppleWorks, ClarisWorks. Basically a simple flat database, memory resident, but with more functionality than is offered in a spreadsheet. Putting a better UI around something like Panorama would be a neat solution.

Bit like asking Apple to offer a decent home financial suite/budget manager - don't think we'll ever see it.

 

[DW78]

Yosemite and Bento

Updated to 10.10 today and found we can no longer share bento databases over the network...

 

[maflynn]

Updated to 10.10 today and found we can no longer share bento databases over the network...

Its a dead product and Apple has in the past few versions updated the network protocols, so its not surprising that this broke.