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Show HN: BackendLab – Code-free web app builder

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Re: Show HN: BackendLab – Code-free web app builder

#21

Post by warent »

kown223 wrote: post #5

why people here would help them, you're just trying to steal their job.

The day our jobs as software engineers has become obsolete is the day that humanity has achieved something magnificent. In a strange way, we should strive to become obsolete (in our current roles. Of course you can always pick up a new skill)

Re: Show HN: BackendLab – Code-free web app builder

#22

Post by lucaslee »

Why only backend? You are competing with other solutions out there that have a frontend available directly from db schema. Some examples: https://www.salesforce.com/products/platform/overview/ https://github.com/sferik/rails_admin

I am not totally clear who your target customers are. I think backend alone will be a barrier for a non-technical person. For a developer, as said by others, CRUD/authentication usually isn't the most time consuming part.

With that said, congrats on shipping! I know this is a work in progress. I think your landing page needs more work/content too. Good luck!

Re: Show HN: BackendLab – Code-free web app builder

#24

Post by sctb »

kown223 wrote: post #5

why people here would help them, you're just trying to steal their job.

Since we just asked you to please stop posting dismissive comments like this, we've banned the account. We're happy to unban accounts if you email hn@ycombinator.com and commit to using the site as intended.

Re: Show HN: BackendLab – Code-free web app builder

#25

Post by tyingq »

lucaslee wrote: post #22

Why only backend? You are competing with other solutions out there that have a frontend available directly from db schema. Some examples: https://www.salesforce.com/products/platform/overview/ https://github.com/sferik/rails_admin I am not totally clear who your target customers are. I think backend alone will be a barrier for a non-technical person. For a developer, as said by others, CRUD/authentication usually isn…

Postgrest[1] is similar, and seems very popular, so this sort of thing is scratching somebody's itch.

[1] https://github.com/PostgREST/postgrest

Re: Show HN: BackendLab – Code-free web app builder

#26

Post by cies »

tyingq wrote: post #25
lucaslee wrote: post #22

Why only backend? You are competing with other solutions out there that have a frontend available directly from db schema. Some examples: https://www.salesforce.com/products/platform/overview/ https://github.com/sferik/rails_admin I am not totally clear who your target customers are. I think backend alone will be a barrier for a non-technical person. For a developer, as said by others, CRUD/authentication usually isn…

Postgrest[1] is similar, and seems very popular, so this sort of thing is scratching somebody's itch. [1] https://github.com/PostgREST/postgrest

This needs someone with db skills (yet works well for someone without BE dev skills) though.

Re: Show HN: BackendLab – Code-free web app builder

#27

Post by chris140957 »

brett40324 wrote: post #15
brett40324 wrote: post #11

Im considering signing up and trying out your service. What is holding me back are all questions I was hoping to have answered on your website. The main questions I have are important implementation details that I think customers a going to care about. What language, framework, dependencies, are handling requests? What is the performance like? How do I scale?

Also, slow down if youre shipping typos on your landing page: revolutonizes

Thanks, this is good feedback. The landing page was deployed in a hurry and will be updated soon, both to fix typos and to add some more technical information about how it's built.

For the record, it's all hosted in AWS EC2/RDS, and the backend is built in Django. The front end is nuxtjs

Re: Show HN: BackendLab – Code-free web app builder

#28

Post by chris140957 »

tinyvm wrote: post #18

>The idea is that it allows you to define your database models by specifying what fields to include and BackendLab automatically creates a CRUD API I don't see the advantage over Firebase FireRules , AWS AppSync , Azure Cosmos or MongoDB Stich all of which have advanced querying options with great SDK and integrations support. This idea is not bad , it's just it doesn't seem to bring much compared to others on the ma…

Hi, thanks for the feedback. I think the main difference between the products you mention and BackendLab is that BackendLab will soon offer the ability to export your code (this isnt yet mentioned on the landing page). So you can build your prototype, export it then build it out. The export would initially be done as a Django project, as that's how the BackendLab api is built

Re: Show HN: BackendLab – Code-free web app builder

#29

Post by chris140957 »

leowoo91 wrote: post #23

If maybe you could allow few lines of code execution that can work for many devs, then they could recommend it to beginners after community emerges :/

Eventually I'll be adding the ability to add your own endpoints to the auto generate ones, which would initially give you the ability to implement various additional functions, e.g. sending emails, integrations with other services, etc. This could very easily be expanded to allow users to call functions they have written themselves. However, I've been holding off on this one as BackendLab is primarily a no-code solution. If enough people are keen, I will implement it

Re: Show HN: BackendLab – Code-free web app builder

#30

Post by chris140957 »

hyperpape wrote: post #3

One question I have with a project like this is: suppose I used it, and got traction. What is the story if I then realize that I need to migrate to a more traditional architecture?

Hi, I've replied to this in another comment - BackendLab will soon allow you to export your app, as a Django project (the BackendLab API is built in django). That way, you can rapidly prototype using the interface, and then export and build it out further outside of the environment.

The fact that the landing page doesn't yet mention this is a big miss - will try and get that updated soon

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