Oct

7

Users Reject Bento 3

Filed Under Bento News | 9 Comments

I’m not the only one that found Bento 3 to be unstable, to put it mildly.
Just a few days after its release users complain everywhere on my site.
I’ll add more quotes as they come in.
If you’re still willing to stay with Bento 3, remember to back up your data before you do any important editing. As for me, as long as I’m only browsing Libraries and adding Records, Bento 3 at least didn’t crash anymore…

Here are the scary comments:

(John) I am so disappointed with Bento 3′s bugs, I finally had to chunk it.  I can’t believe they let this out the door. And here I am trying to export new records and templates out of my Bento 3 db, so that I can try to rebuild them now in Bento 2 since Bento 3 is so bug-ridden.

(Max) I was looking forward to some of the exact features that came with Bento 3.
But I have found so many bugs with Bento 3 in just a few days, it is unbelievable.
I’m really disappointed in Bento 3 and think the developers at FileMaker should’ve stayed and worked at the office a few extra weekends.

(Sandra) Bento 3 is crashing all over the place for me too!

(Aaron) I’ve been using Bento 3 for a couple of weeks now. Can’t say that the features they added were in any way worth a full version release. The one potential real great feature — home sharing — is so hobbled and limited that I won’t ever use it.

(RJ) Somebody better trace WHY this Engine is sputtering konking crashing???!! Cause it is happening also on iPhone Bento. Crashing so much can’t even use it on iPhone!!!

(Jolin) I have held off from upgrading to Bento 3 due to the information on this blog. I am very glad to have waited, because the instability that seems to come from Bento 3 would be a major problem for me in my work.

(Will) Bento 3 is the little engine that could… but probably never will, thanks to the company’s open willingness to cripple the software.
And a team of paid professionals spent a year to implement useless 2005-era no-server sharing capability, drag and drop Cocoa grid-view capability into the interface, graciously allow us to organize with folders (revolutionary), and add a field type? And they want us to pay for the favor? No thanks, Filemaker, Inc.

Oct

7

Bento Bugs: Export/Import Dialog

Filed Under Bento Bugs | 1 Comment

This post is filed under a new category: Bento Bugs. A “bug” for me is an application problem that causes crashes, unexpected results, or simply confusion.

There are several problems in the export/import dialog boxes.
Trying to export a single Collection template from iCal Events: Bento actually makes you believe that this is possible by using the name of the Collection throughout the process.
Actual result: ALL your iCal Events Collections with ALL forms and fields are exported (even from the main library)! Together with Bento’s “duplication bug” this creates a huge mess as described in this article. I will talk about duplication in a new post.

Bento 3 added another discrepancy: when you are trying to export a data file, it gives you a choice between exporting “all Table View fields” or “only fields displayed in Table View.” Since Bento can now display a media cell (pictures, videos, sound files) one would believe one could now export the media files as part of the data file.
Actual result: this is not true. No media files are exported or imported with a data file.

Finally, try exporting a data file of an iCal Collection. This gets really confusing. Bento does export just the records contained in the Collection. But if you choose “all Table View fields” it exports all fields of the main Library! It should just export all fields used by the Collection.
Actual result: When you import such a data file into the SAME template it came from, Bento issues the warning: “some data cannot be imported.”
Remedy: you have to go into Table View and make sure that only all the fields used in the iCal Collection are displayed. Then choose “only fields displayed in Table View” in the export dialog.

Comment: it is hard enough to re-build a Library on a different computer without being able to export both the media files and any data from List fields. The three described bugs in the dialog box make it even harder and more confusing!