WingNews logo WingNews GitHub [2]
top | item 26657803

Ask HN: Best low-/no-code solution for simple web-based database frontends

208 points| codechoir | 5 years ago | reply

I'm currently looking for a solution to provide (non-technical) team members with a way to interact with a SQL database (MySQL at the moment; PostgreSQL in the future). Basically, I want/need to build several very simple web-based CRUD-forms. Does anyone remember MS Access...

While my initial thought was to build a simple Django application, I'd prefer something non-developers could also work with. -> Low-/No-Code Solution

While I'm generally willing to pay, I'd really prefer an open and self-hosted solution.

142 comments

order
[+] arey_abhishek|5 years ago|reply
I'm a founder of Appsmith that has already been mentioned here. It's an open source project to help you build CRUD UI on top on any database(MySQL, Postgres included) or API. We give UI components to create forms, charts, tables, etc.

GitHub link: https://github.com/appsmithorg/appsmith

[+] algo_trader|5 years ago|reply
It looks great. So impressive.

I am going through the "Create Standup Application" tutorial.

Did u use a specific library to add the hints/popups or is it all manually patched in?

[+] throwaway180118|5 years ago|reply
This is really nice. Just what I was looking for, as I was suffering from CRUD fatigue
[+] codechoir|5 years ago|reply
I've just looked into Appsmith and it seems like a fantastic solution! Thanks! :)
[+] tluyben2|5 years ago|reply
We also like appsmith quite a bit: it is simple and just works.
[+] karlhughes|5 years ago|reply
I was just going to mention Appsmith. Great tool!
[+] Dwolb|5 years ago|reply
Appsmith looks incredible thank you for sharing.
[+] vimy|5 years ago|reply
It reminds me of Visual Basic 6, in a good way.
[+] kmwr|5 years ago|reply
Very Nice Job !!

Do you plan to include GraphQL queries ?

[+] shireboy|5 years ago|reply
I’ve explored lots of these and implemented a few with customers who wanted their “business analysts” to be able to build apps. My experience has been the “non technical” people can’t do these either and wind up getting developers to try, who are then frustrated with lock-in to a relatively unknown tool or expensive BPM suite. To a developer, these are often “death by a thousand clicks”. Even Visual Studio for the most part has abandoned the “Visual”.

I keep hoping that there’s ways to make low-code work without those drawbacks, and plan to try some new ones I see in this thread. In my mind it has to be a designer that a “non technical” uses to output quality code that a dev can then tweak, but not break the designer.

[+] mjlawson|5 years ago|reply
This echoes my experience with trying to leverage BPM tools to automate workflows. The biggest thing that the tools in this space neglect is how important data are. Typing is completely non-existent, and validation has to be bolted on and is invisible/non-configurable to the BA. Configuration-based rules are also incredibly difficult to implement, if not impossible through the UI without a lot of work that would be trivial to implement without the lock-in.

I think for one-off projects and workflows that aren't deeply integrated, tools like Node-RED are very interesting and something I'd definitely consider pursuing. But outside of modeling, BPM tools have been more of an obstacle than anything else.

[+] anakaine|5 years ago|reply
Visual studio also largely trended towards an MVC model + ORM which made implementing forms on a front end an absolute nightmare and led to a lot of security issues, poor usability issues, and lack of agility in changing and updating complex forms with conditional form logic etc. Not to mention that user security integration using identity providers is also an epic headache.

There is a middle ground, and that’s why low code / no code is so popular. Often a business does not need the full flexibility and nonsense that comes along with something like that.

Horses for courses. If off the shelf drag and drop helps you build enough to get your idea up and running and start using it / making money, then that’s far better than being lost neck deep in a code pile and not getting up and running. Once you’ve got the funds, then look at transitioning.

[+] Closi|5 years ago|reply
The interface between Microsoft PowerApps and Microsoft Dynamics for example seems to make sense to me - that these low-code solutions can be used to augment an existing (cloud-based) ERP with new forms/capability that wouldn't otherwise be practical.

It seems to be a case of 'right-tool-right-job' rather than a blanket rule that no-code is good/bad.

I actually think no-code is incredibly powerful when applied by the right person to the correct problem, and will run circles around a custom-developed app in terms of cost, time and flexibility. If you apply it to the wrong problem then of course you aren't going to get the same outcome, like with any technology. I think the mistake people often make is thinking that no-code aims to eliminate all-code, but like any development tool it just fits a certain niche well.

[+] devoutsalsa|5 years ago|reply
I’ve had a similar experience trying to fix up the code of someone who learned enough to code up some CRUD pages. They got some basic Rails working, and wanted me to take over. I spent a week fixing shit HTML so I could possibly take a stab at fixing the CSS. After about a week I couldn’t take it anymore.
[+] ReDeiPirati|5 years ago|reply
> I'm currently looking for a solution to provide (non-technical) team members with a way to interact with a SQL database ... While I'm generally willing to pay, I'd really prefer an open and self-hosted solution.

You should definitively check Metabase [0] then: it's open source, very easy to self-host, and democratize data access inside your team. We started using it for the same reason 3 years ago, I cannot recommend it more.

[0] https://github.com/metabase/metabase

[+] hakanensari|5 years ago|reply
Metabase is great for querying and visualising your data but won’t help you collect input like Google Forms, which sounds like what the OP is after.
[+] jeffasinger|5 years ago|reply
Why not start out by using the Django Admin features?

That allows you to start with next to no code, but you can easily add a little business logic anywhere you need it eventually, and it provides a way to long term transition to a true application if the need arises.

[+] throwmeout2141|5 years ago|reply
I'm pushing ~$120 million this year through that exact model. Use what works.

Throwaway for obvious reasons.

[+] Closi|5 years ago|reply
This is definitely the correct approach!

This will take a few minutes to implement and be significantly more stable and full-featured than any low/no-code solution.

[+] jnskender|5 years ago|reply
I find answers in this format annoying. Why not? Maybe he's never heard of it. Great answer, but let's not assume he's considered it and decided not to.
[+] ngauje|5 years ago|reply
I've tested Appsmith: https://www.appsmith.com/ and it's great! It's open source and self hostable on k8s. It's really easy to use, there is included tutorials. I mainly use it to build frontends to make APIs calls, but it supports DB backends like MySQL or PostgreSQL. Devs are available and willing to answer questions.
[+] pickle-wizard|5 years ago|reply
Hey thanks for mentioning this. I have been looking for something like Cisco Prime Service Catalog, but cheaper and easier to use. This looks to fit the bill.

I just set it up this morning in my homelab, and it was very simple to set up.

[+] peytoncasper|5 years ago|reply
I’ve tried Retool in the past. Really enjoyed it.

https://retool.com

[+] bored_hacker|5 years ago|reply
+1 on retool, my company uses retool extensively to build out admin tools for our operations and CX teams. It's incredibly straightforward and easy to hook it up directly to DB's for reading, as well as other query/requests.

Coming from building admin tools in ruby on rails previously, this is incredibly easy and straightforward. If I have the money to pay for retool I don't think I would choose another tool in the future

It's even possible to host it yourself which allows highly regulated industries to use it.

[+] JMTQp8lwXL|5 years ago|reply
Is Retool usable enough for non-technical people? "It's easy, just wire it up to your REST service" may be scary for non-technical people. Maybe the persona isn't well-defined enough. They're somewhat technical, but don't code.

Spending over a decade programming makes it extremely difficult to reason about the the precise level of "okay, I can do this" from a semi-technical perspective.

[+] glutamate|5 years ago|reply
I'm working on an open source solution: Saltcorn (https://saltcorn.com). Works against PostgreSQL and sqlite, with a drag and drop view builder and extensions for Kanban boards, maps, statistics, stripe subscriptions etc.
[+] bram2w|5 years ago|reply
You might want to take a look at Baserow (https://baserow.io), which is an open source self hosted no-code database tool and Airtable alternative. It is not possible to interact with an existing database, but the databases and tables created are stored in a PostgreSQL database. It might be possible for you to migrate your existing MySQL data to Baserow. The repository: https://gitlab.com/bramw/baserow. It is build in Django and Vue.js.
[+] gervwyk|5 years ago|reply
Hi, We've built Lowdefy [0] for exactly this reason. It it is open-source, low-code and self hosted. On our team we have data analysts and implementation engineers (non-developers) creating apps in Lowdefy. For Lowdefy I would say that the minimum tech expertise required is someone who can learn to write data queries.

We are currently working on SQL support and should have the first SQL connectors out next week. Please give me a shout if we can be of any assistance! gvw [at] lowdefy.com

[0] - https://lowdefy.com

[+] oneplane|5 years ago|reply
If there is no logic to be needed, wouldn't any of the RDBMS web-management things work out? (think: phpmyadmin etc.)

Alternatively, FileMaker still exists, including a direct web interface option.

I often find that if you truly want a 'low-code/no-code' thing, you're stuck with no-logic no-interaction software. As soon as you start adding logic, you're essentially migrating from programming in a somewhat re-usable language into 'programming' in the form of pictures and application-specific interfaces, which essentially requires the same effort but is much less reusable.

Unless the 'thing' is really a 'table' with some CRUD operations you're gonna en up in a messy situation where some undocumented macro-filled spreadsheet becomes a lynchpin.

[+] benjaminjosephw|5 years ago|reply
> if you truly want a 'low-code/no-code' thing, you're stuck with no-logic no-interaction software

I think this used to be the case but the landscape is changing quickly. Deepnote[0], for example, looks like a really interesting programming interface that's not quite traditional programming and lowers the barrier to entry significantly and is (arguably) in the low-code space.

Low-code products for data engineering show that we're not too far away from these sorts of solutions in a more generalized offering. Spreadsheets aren't the only answer.

[0] - https://deepnote.com/

[+] sombremesa|5 years ago|reply
> If there is no logic to be needed, wouldn't any of the RDBMS web-management things work out? (think: phpmyadmin etc.)

Because phpmyadmin would be too easy. It looks like this OP needs some busywork.

There's also UI tools provided by the first parties that do these things.

[+] cbm-vic-20|5 years ago|reply
I know everyone hates Oracle, but they do have an "always free" tier of Oracle APEX, which is pretty much designed to be a low/no-code environment for CRUD apps.

https://oracle.com/cloud/free/ https://apex.oracle.com

[+] larodi|5 years ago|reply
funny... as nothing is ever really free with Oracle.

APEX was created to replace Forms, which really proved itself as stable technology with some apps having a 30 years lifespan now (code quality and performance aside). but APEX has not even neared Forms in terms of speed of dev. fortunately or not - Forms is so-90-ies and quite discontinued.

...should you mention APEX, then perhaps you should also note MS Access as is pretty much the same.

[+] maxmusing|5 years ago|reply
I'm a founder of BaseDash, I started building it as a spiritual successor to Django Admin. Big focus on UX and usability for non-technical users. I like to think of it as "Airtable for your SQL database".

Some features that are especially important if you're giving access to non-technical team members:

- Edit history of all changes made through the tool

- Permission system to limit access to certain databases/tables

- Views that let you pre-filter tables and hide columns

- Request edit system so that all edits have to be approved (WIP)

We support both MySQL and PostgreSQL, planning to add support for NoSQL databases in the future.

It's paid for teams but free for 2 users.

Website link: https://www.basedash.com

[+] znpy|5 years ago|reply
The OpenOffice/LibreOffice Access alternative (called Base iirc) can use mysql/postgresql as database backend.

if that's what you want you might want to look into that.

[+] bizzleDawg|5 years ago|reply
Someone mentioned https://directus.io/ to me for this use case the other day. I've not used it, but it looks good. Open source and self hostable or SaaS.
[+] cfontes|5 years ago|reply
This looks great, I need to build a customer request management system for our construction company, it's basically a CRUD and this looks like a perfect fit.

Thanks for sharing.

[+] shivam-dev|5 years ago|reply
You can give https://frappeframework.com a try, it is MIT licensed, really powerful and comprehensive, excellent for making CRUD apps. Also has a PaaS offering on https://frappecloud.com

Full Disclosure: I worked at Frappe for the last 2 years

[+] anaganisk|5 years ago|reply
Frappe feels too heavy to get started. Ive tried it out few times over years. The flow seems very confusing for me to get started.
[+] heycesr|5 years ago|reply
Not open source nor self-hosted AFAIK, but it sounds like you're looking for something like Retool (https://retool.com)
[+] IngoK|5 years ago|reply
I've never worked with it myself, but Appsmith (appsmith.com) seems like a promising alternative to Retool.