The Bento public preview running on Leopard |
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| Developer(s) | FileMaker Inc. |
|---|---|
| Stable release | 4.0.5 / August 9, 2011 |
| Operating system | Mac OS X, iOS |
| Type | Database |
| License | Proprietary |
| Website | Official website |
Bento is a database application for Mac OS X made by FileMaker Inc. Bento differs significantly from the company's flagship product, FileMaker Pro, in that it relies heavily on templates and integration with other applications. By default, Bento's data sources include Apple's Address Book and iCal applications, and it can modify them directly.
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Bento is only compatible with Mac OS X 10.5 or later due to its reliance on features not available in previous versions of the operating system. Certain actions such as switching templates use Core Animation to animate the transition. It also includes integration with Time Machine for backing up and requires iCal 3.0 for live data editing.[1]
A public preview was made available along with the initial product announcement on November 13, 2007.[2] The final version was released on January 8, 2008.[3]
| Date | Version |
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Nov 13 2007 |
Bento Public Preview |
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Jan 8, 2008 |
Bento v1 |
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Oct 14, 2008 |
Bento v2 |
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Sep 29, 2009 |
Bento v3 |
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Mar 16, 2011 |
Bento v4 |
A Bento Template is a pre-made library with all the forms necessary to catalog items within a certain context. With the release of Bento 2 on October 14, 2008, Bento users could import, export and share their templates. On June 16, 2009 Filemaker launched its own template sharing site[4] where users can download a variety of templates as well as share their own. A few user created template sharing sites also exist:
On October 14, 2008, FileMaker released Bento 2.0, which contained bug fixes and new features, including integration with Apple's Mail. The new version does not offer upgrade pricing and costs the same as version 1. Many customers expressed their disappointment at the official Bento user forums,[5] where FileMaker responded that they were using the "same pricing model" as other companies' products such as Apple's iWork and iLife suites.
Further, on November 25, FileMaker provided an official statement[6] indicating that they would discontinue revisions and bug fixes for the version 1 product.
Given interest in a revision, this was neither a quick, nor an easy decision to come to.
Bento 1 received extensive beta testing, but like every software product, issues were discovered after shipment. We followed up with Bento 1.0.2 to address critical issues that had been discovered.
In addressing product issues discovered after 1.0.2 for the 2.0 release, we reworked the product in significant, and sometimes, architectural ways. Simply put, this means that there is no way to easily migrate the fixes in 2.0 backwards to 1.0. We would have to reengineer 1.0 until it effectively became 2.0. Doing so would have strongly delayed the 2.0.3 version of Bento, which we will be releasing as a free update for Bento 2.0.1/2.0.2 this week, and continued development of the Bento product line.
As of September 26, 2010, price for Bento 3 is $49 single, $99 (Family Pack of five licenses).[7]
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