Show HN: CubeWeaver, a collaborative multidimensional web-based spreadsheet

[qubex]

For somebody who misses Lotus Improv, used Quantrix Modeller, and has evaluated XCubes, this feels about right. Unfortunately web-based solution (particularly those that cannot be self-hosted) are basically verboten to those who (such as myself) manage the kind of work that probably require this kind of instrument.

I honestly wish somebody would build something like this in the spirit of Lotus Improv for modern platforms, with modern creature comforts, as a native application.

Well done though, it really looks enticing.

[denster]

We use "nested spreadsheets" that can live in any cell, and combined with aggregate functions like GROUP_BY() we're able to get this behavior.

Would be genuinely curious -- would our approach [1] help w/what you're working on?

[1] Here's an example of how we think about multiple dimensions in spreadsheets (videos + text): https://mintdata.com/docs/learn/core-mechanics/work-with-dat...

[infinite8s]

As an aside, what did you find missing from XCubes (not affiliated anyway, but I've often thought about building a similar product as Javelin or Quantrix, but sitting on top of JupyterLab).

[dd82]

Have you had a chance to check out Quantrix Qloud? Its basically Modeller in the browser, with reduced functionality, though the team is working to expand the feature set each release.

[egeria_planning]

I don't think a multidimensional spreadsheet (like Lotus Improv) makes sense for a single user. Multidimensionality introduces a lot of complexity and it is only justified by very complex models. Apart from some special cases this complexity is only there when at least 5-10 people are entering the data. Web application is much easier to rollout in a corporate environment. And I don't see any drawbacks. I don't have MS Office for example and use only Google Sheet for a long time already.

[warpech]

I can see it was previously submitted as Egeria, can you share some info how it has evolved into the new product?

[egeria_planning]

Egeria was just a technology demonstrator. CubeWeaver is a cloud application which can scale over multiple servers, supports user authentication, model sharing and redundant data storage. I also added a lot of features that the pilot users were missing (like data import, csv import, aggregation, various formatting options, etc...).

[warpech]

Congratulations on your launch. This looks like a huge endeavour. Happy to see Handsontable used in your product!

[kevincox]

It took me 5 tries to pass your register captcha. Maybe you should try something more human friendly.

[m1sta_]

I like it, but I want to be able to use it with my team before committing and that requires on premise.

[egeria_planning]

I would suggest to test the cloud version with some dummy data first, so that you know that the application is ok for you. On premise version is also available, but not for free. You will also need either some Linux know how or my support to install, maintain and keep your installation updated.

[quickthrower2]

Congrats. Nice to see some innovation in the spreadsheet space. Often you need 3D (or more) data and excel sucks as you need to create a pivot table every time. R is good but that's coding, not always in the mood for that.

[carapace]

Is it anything like Ted Nelson's ZigZag?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZigZag_(software)

[egeria_planning]

ZigZag seems like something very abstract and mathematical. CubeWeaver is just a spreadsheet with drop-down filters if you like.

[chrisweekly]

This looks tremendously useful; it's easy to imagine its adoption taking off given the obvious benefits over traditional spreadsheets. Thanks for sharing! And good luck! :)

[xiaodai]

Does anyone know if it uses web assembly?

[qubex]

I don’t know if it does or not, but I’m curious to know why this interests you, in the sense that if it works it doesn’t really matter to (potential) end-users such as ourselves how it is implemented. I’m not denouncing the question as illegitimate, I’m just... genuinely curious.

[silw001]

cloudy tm1 is quite affordable now, what is the winning point?

[michaelanckaert]

Nice work! Can you tell us a bit about your tech stack?

[egeria_planning]

Thank you. It is an Angular 9 SPA frontend with a .NET Core backend and an SQL database (MySQL or SQLITE) as a data store. I use several open source libraries. Handsontable is used to display the grid for example. A complete list is available in the help->about dialog.

[orastor]

Did they really have to choose a logo that's so similar to competitors? https://i.imgur.com/JGwS1V1.png

[egeria_planning]

I don't think AirTable is a competitor in any way. As far as it is something like Sharepoint. I think the logo was created before AirTable was there at all.

[quickthrower2]

It's a cube mate.

[lub]

it's just a cube