foxbee

every user*

I think 'products replacing spreadsheets' is not the right angle. Spreadsheets are great but not for everything.

I think there are a lot of mis-uses of spreadsheets. When users record list type data, long-form content, relational data, etc within spreadsheets, they are probably better off using an app - they, or their IT team can build.

I once seen an enterprise org process where a health and safety check was completed on a clipboard. That user would go back to their desk, push that data into excel, another user would write a script to push that excel data into MySQL.

There are many use cases where spreadsheets are perfect - building financial models.

For transparency - I am the cofounder of a no/low-code tool called Budibase. I am also a happy spreadsheet user. https://github.com/Budibase/budibase

this impressed me too. Might be an indication to put these in front of every use as they access the page - that's my design two cents for the day

This sounds awesome. And credit to the team for creating such a nice platform. The 3d api looks real nice, and simple!

Hi HN! I'm one of the creators of Budibase, and today, we're excited to launch our new Public API.

What is Budibase: Budibase is a low code platform for creating CRUD apps, and an open-source alternative to Retool and PowerApps. Basically, you connect your data sources (Postgres, MySql, Mongo, Airtable, Spreadsheets, Rest API, and more), build your UI with our GUI and powerful pre-made blocks, then automate processes within and around your app with our automation section (like Zapier). You can run Budibase in the Budibase Cloud, or use K8s, Docker, Digital Ocean.

The Github repo is: https://github.com/Budibase/budibase

And our website is: https://budibase.com

And we previously launched on Hacker News: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29242466

Why did we launch a Public API, and why you might find this interesting: A Public API was one of our most requested features as it enables:

Budibase as a backend The Budibase backend is very powerful, and our Public API allows you to specifically use the backend API to build apps, without using, for example, our design GUI. Budibase gives you a full CRUD API for all of your SQL tables, right out of the box.

Extending apps / Interoperability Before the Public API, it was difficult to extend functionality in a lot of places, especially around data. The new Budibase API allows users to build to a point within Budibase and then extend using the API. Opening up the API allows connecting data in and out of Budibase in ways that are business-specific use cases (e.g. IoT, internal business APIs, etc).

Design: The API follows RESTful patterns of design and is fully defined using the OpenAPI specification. For schemas and API definitions this enables the spec to be pulled into tools like Postman and you can start making requests straight away once you’ve inputted your API key and App ID.

The first version of the API covers the tables, rows, users, queries, and applications resources. You have full CRUD operations on those resources as well as the ability to search any of them. This also respects the RBAC system fully. Every user can generate an API key for Budibase and it will only allow users with access to utilize the API.

Use case: To help you adopt the Budibase API, we’ve created the following example: Build an app with Budibase and Next.js - https://budibase.com/blog/building-a-crud-app-with-budibase-...

Docs: You can learn more about the Budibase API at the following places: General documentation - Learn how to get your API key, how to use spec, and how to use with Postman: https://docs.budibase.com/docs/public-api

Interactive API documentation - Learn how to interact with the API: https://docs.budibase.com/reference/post_applications

Happy to answer any questions. We have a lot more to build and would love to hear your feedback and potential use cases.

You should try Budibase

Still hoping Safari implements beforeinstallprompt!

I keep trying to write markdown. I can't get use to this!

I switched to Google and it's been great. The UI/UX around management is much better/easier.

This has stole many mornings, days, nights over the last 5 years. But it's been an incredibly fruitful journey and scratches a personal itch as a developer:

https://github.com/Budibase/budibase

Check out budibase - it's open source, and more flexible than tallyform

budibase.com

I'm confident this will be possible with Budibase very soon

Do you have any plans to commercialize this service?

Upvoting this for signal

Youtube is becoming heavily commercialised leading to the little man getting pushed out, and Youtube losing it's best asset - the wild west of videos.

On top of that, there seems to be more ads than ever and I don't see this ever stopping.

haha that is certainly not the purpose - it's to speed up the dev process so you can focus on other things.

At the highest level: Budibase - open source + self-host via docker, K8s, DO Budibase - use handlebars and JavaScript for data binding Budibase - desktop, tablet, mobile apps Budibase - public and private apps Budibase - built in automation interface

Powerapps - very reliant on microsoft ecosystem (sharepoint, excel) Powerapps - uses Power fx Powerapps - mostly made for tablet and mobile apps Powerapps - private apps + portal Powerapps - i think powerapps makes use of another Microsoft tool for automation

I feel the components and outputted apps are better within Budibase. PowerApps is more mature than Budibase so it has an ecosystem of consultants

I am the cofounder of Budibase, and I agree with the many comments here around Microsoft throwing tools at the low-code space and seeing what sticks. The most popular source of users we get are PowerApps users who are fed up with the constant change and moving states.

If you are looking for an open source alternative to Powerapps - check out Budibase [1][2]

[1] https://github.com/Budibase/budibase

[2] https://budibase.com

I am happy to remove this post, as it is slightly promotional, but I do feel it is very relevant.

The problem with many low-code platforms is three fold:

- many over-promise and under deliver. Low code platforms are great for simple CRUD apps, defined automations, etc.

- some, like Bubble, are anti-code to their own detriment - code is good, your platform was created with code

- only a few, like Budibase [1], Tooljet [2], n8n [3] are open source. I cannot understand how users are willing to bet their data and processes on closed source tooling

[1] https://github.com/Budibase/budibase

[2] https://github.com/ToolJet/ToolJet

[3] https://github.com/n8n-io/n8n

Our problem and reason for creating BB was because we were continually creating similar internal CRUD apps, time and time again. Building a SaaS platform was not our problem.

Budibase is for creating internal applications. So if you are simply building an internal app for a customer, then yes.

If you are building a SaaS platform, then Budibase is not the right platform.

This makes sense, and it's something we will consider over the next few months.

This is brilliant and will make design a tiny bit easier. The creator is continually producing helpful, and really cool resources to make development easier. Smashing work.

Thank you for your kind words. Being able to write JS is critical for some types of apps, so it's a great addition.

Thanks for the suggestion. We recently created our first templates. Accountant templates are coming.

Thank you for your kind words

This is great feedback. Thank you!

What did you feel was cringey?

I will look into it. That's a good template to start with!

https://youtu.be/xoljVpty_Kw is a promo demo. You can also try our templates: https://budibase.com/templates. The setup process is fast.

Strange - Safari supports Webp in v14. Also, I've tested the website on two computers, both Safari v14 and they appear. Apologies for this and thanks for letting us know. I'll keep digging.