Share your Bento database between users and / or computers
I just downloaded the trial of Bento the other day and it’s really pretty good.
I’m using it to track recipes and some real estate property we’re looking at.
The only thing I really DON’T like about it is the fact that you can’t specify a location for the database so you can’t share it between users or computers… or can you? 
This tutorial will show you how.
The first thing you have to do is log on as the user / computer that you created your Bento DB on.
- If you want to share between computers connect to an Airdisk, network share or iDisk (not sure if the iDisk will work, I haven’t tested it).
- Using finder, go to your home directory/Library/Application Support/Bento
- Copy the bento.bentodb file out to the share you connect to in step 1.
- If you’re just sharing between users on one machine, you can copy it to a folder both users have access to (like /users/share for example)
- Open up ‘Terminal’ in the Utilities folder.
- Type (or copy and paste):
- cd ~/Library/Application\ Support/Bento
- Now you have to create a symbolic link the the new location of the bento.bentodb file.
- Type the following:
- ln -s /Volumes/sharename/bento.bentodb bento.bentodb
- Please note that you should replace sharename with the name of the share you connected to in step one.
- If you’re not connecting to a network share replace /Volumes/sharename with the path you copied the file to in step 3.
- On the machine, or user, you want to set up to share the db, you need to make sure you launch Bento once.
- On the second machine (after launching Bento once) go to ~/Library/Application Support/Bento
- Delete the bento.bentodb file
- Follow steps 4 through 7
That’s all you need to do.
As far as Bento is concerned the original file is still where it should be and will open fine.
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Comments
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!
Could you please clarify, though, so I can make sure that I get this right? (I am basing my purchase of Bento on this hack working).
If I want to save the Bento file onto an external hard drive, which I have named “ExDrive”, do I simply type into Terminal the following:
“ln -s /Volumes/VOLUMES/ExDrive/bento.bentodb bento.bentodb”
and then follow the rest of your instructions?
Thanks
Hiya’,
Basically that’s it.
You’ll need to initially create the database, then move it to your external drive then type the ln command.
After that you go to the second computer or logon, created the database there, delete it and type the same ln command.
Just make sure that both users have rights to wherever you’re storing the database and you should be good.
I have a number of old Apple works databases any idea how to put them on Bento?
Also am interested in old census material any templates on Bento for this ?
This was just a GREAT answer helped so much…I had it working the very first time I tried it, over an Airport Extreme shared USB drive - then when I tried to do it again changing it to my iDisk.
I must of messed something up because when I could not get the iDisk to work - I decided to go back to just having it over the original share, but now that won’t work.
I have deleted the entire Bento app, reinstalled and redone the whole process 5 or 6 times - But the second machine’s Bento just hangs then crashes when trying to get that shared DB.
Strange, but for a second there you were the answer to it all! Thanks for trying.
hi,
excuse me if these are obvious questions….
firstly, will it be possible for multiple users to access the database at the same time? and if yes do you have any idea how many users could potentially do this (2? 5? 10?…)?
many thanks.
t.
I haven’t tried it yet, but I would imagine that, since this is not a supported feature, you cannot have multiple users at once. I have a feeling that it would give you a ‘database in use’ error, like if multiple users try to use the iPhoto database.
But if you try it please post your results!
I also cannot get the second machine to connect to the database, the first machine has got it but the second machine just hangs and I have to force quit. Any ideas what I may be doing wrong?
Thanks in advance,
Alex
OK, I deleted the plist file on the second machine, and although it took absolutely ages to fire up it didn’t crash and eventually connected to the shared database.
Also check the file permissions match on both machines.
I now have Bento running on two machines using the same database & running simultaneously!
Thanks for the tips!
Thanks for the tips. What a hack. It took me a bit of time to get it working because of the trick on link format, but it really works. Now I can share my Bento on 2 MacBookPro with the db on a HP Media Server running Windows.
One Tips for the users out there: you can select the file on the server and drag it to the Terminal Window, it will add the link to it automatically. Just remember to put “ln -s “first.
Remember, Bento will take a few seconds longer to open each time depends on how good your network is. But it will. Have some faith.
I’m trying to implement this hack, and it sounds great! (And to repeat what Atteb said, we are basing our purchase of Bento on this hack working!) So far it’s not working on neither machine (of the 2), I get an “In: command not found” on the terminal. Any ideas?
To Ophile: it seems that you are typing In (India November) instead of ln (Lima November).
Font rendering, what a poetry!
Hey, Thanks for all the help, but I didn’t use the “lima” “I” Just a regular “I”. It’s still not working. I copied the bento file onto the network server and jsut dragged it into the In Command. Is it something that can’t be shared over a network?
Hey, I tried this method by putting a folder on a server, connected to the server over ftp in the finder, and it almost works. I get this error where:
“Bento cannot write to the file where it stores information (bento.bentodb) because there is not enough disk space or the file is damaged. Quit and clear some disk space, then start Bento again.”
I made sure the permissions on the folder were 777, and inside bento.bentodb. Any ideas on how to make this work?
Thanks. –k.lib
I’m pretty sure that when you connect to an FTP server via finder it is read only.
Do you have the file at a location that you can connect to a shared drive?
As long as you have write rights to the share it should work.
So, I transfered my database to a network share on a windows server 2003 machine. After the lm command I see the alias of the bentodb in the /library/applicationsupport/bento folder. When I open Bento, it crashes. Also, when I click on the beno.bentodb alias it says the link is broken.
I’ve checked permissions and can view the contents of the db by connecting to that share folder from my computer. Any pointers?
I’m interested in trying this out but I’m curious. What would I happen if I started up Bento but wasn’t connected to the airdisk that contains the database file? A simple error or something worse?
Just curious before I try it out.
Great workaround… I use it with DropBox… works like a charm!!!
(if you never tried DropBox, give a try, free sync between computers trhough internet, but stored locally on each, perfect for this share solution)
Thank you! Been trying to figure out a way to do this.