Off topic but anyone know where to start to build a UI which has the similar look and feel? I already came across websites which almost look like this and making me conclude there is a design pattern/layout/framework which allows it.
Show HN: Stein – Use Google Sheets as a No-Setup Database
31–40 of 67 posts
Re: Show HN: Stein – Use Google Sheets as a No-Setup Database
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
Reminded me of the top comment on the "Show HN" of Dropbox, back in 2007: "you can already build such a system yourself quite trivially by getting an FTP account, mounting it locally with curlftpfs, and then using SVN or CVS on the mounted filesystem." ;) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224
Instead of as a disparagement of the product, you could see this as a no-judgement PSA for anyone interested in and capable of running such an alternative. Incidentally I am precisely looking for something like this so for me that’s valuable :)
I think the idea is solid but the reliance on Google (or other provider) might be the weak point. The cloud may be great but still a gamble if you're totally at the whim of a provider that at any point can make changes that leave you out in the rain. And Google is no stranger to this kind of thing.
Dropbox came at a time when people were seeing the downsides of private solutions and the cloud was there to mitigate them. These days people are starting to see the downsides of relying on the cloud and are moving to private solutions.
The main difference is today's "private solution" is likely to be a self-hosted "cloud". So it's not that we're going back in time a decade, it's just choosing a combination of "private" and "cloud" that maximizes the advantages and minimizes the disadvantages.
Re: Show HN: Stein – Use Google Sheets as a No-Setup Database
#33You can do this for free today using open source libraries. https://www.levels.fyi/comp.html used to run entirely on a Google Form + Spreadsheet and still backed by one. Submit form: https://stackoverflow.com/a/37743080 Get data from sheet: https://github.com/jsoma/tabletop Happy to answer any questions.
Reminded me of the top comment on the "Show HN" of Dropbox, back in 2007: "you can already build such a system yourself quite trivially by getting an FTP account, mounting it locally with curlftpfs, and then using SVN or CVS on the mounted filesystem." ;) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224
Yup, and these days Dropbox seems to be doing their best to show people that they should have just gone with sshfs after all.
Re: Show HN: Stein – Use Google Sheets as a No-Setup Database
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
One benefit of approach I mentioned is that there's nothing to host. All just client-side code. Although I do see the use for hosting: latency for loading data from Google Sheets isn't great and adding a cache helped in my case.
In this case, what have you used for caching?
Re: Show HN: Stein – Use Google Sheets as a No-Setup Database
#35I’m looking for a invoicing solution in google sheets. Currently I have invoices using templates in sheets, but I also need statements.
Re: Show HN: Stein – Use Google Sheets as a No-Setup Database
#36You can do this for free today using open source libraries. https://www.levels.fyi/comp.html used to run entirely on a Google Form + Spreadsheet and still backed by one. Submit form: https://stackoverflow.com/a/37743080 Get data from sheet: https://github.com/jsoma/tabletop Happy to answer any questions.
Reminded me of the top comment on the "Show HN" of Dropbox, back in 2007: "you can already build such a system yourself quite trivially by getting an FTP account, mounting it locally with curlftpfs, and then using SVN or CVS on the mounted filesystem." ;) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224
One huge difference: Dropbox was a mass market product while this is (presumably) for developers who want to iterate fast.
Re: Show HN: Stein – Use Google Sheets as a No-Setup Database
#37Off topic but anyone know where to start to build a UI which has the similar look and feel? I already came across websites which almost look like this and making me conclude there is a design pattern/layout/framework which allows it.
This looks like Material Design.
Re: Show HN: Stein – Use Google Sheets as a No-Setup Database
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
Instead of as a disparagement of the product, you could see this as a no-judgement PSA for anyone interested in and capable of running such an alternative. Incidentally I am precisely looking for something like this so for me that’s valuable :)
I think the idea is solid but the reliance on Google (or other provider) might be the weak point. The cloud may be great but still a gamble if you're totally at the whim of a provider that at any point can make changes that leave you out in the rain. And Google is no stranger to this kind of thing. Dropbox came at a time when people were seeing the downsides of private solutions and the cloud was there to mitigate th…
> These days people are starting to see the downsides of relying on the cloud and are moving to private solutions.
All available evidence is contrary to this point.
Re: Show HN: Stein – Use Google Sheets as a No-Setup Database
#39Looks neat! Questions: - Do updates show immediately (for both directions)? - What are the limits of read/write queries? - What are the limits of rows? - Can I use formulas in the sheet? - How is the type handling? Does everything get treated as text or are there date and number types? - Do formatting options for columns (e.g. for number of decimals) survive when I alter things with the API?
How is the type handling?
Everything is converted to JSON over the API, so it's all just text and numbers.
Re: Show HN: Stein – Use Google Sheets as a No-Setup Database
#40This is what I did for a webpage I made about books I read. Just have to add a row to the sheet to update the page. Also I should read more books. https://mnky9800n.github.io/booklist/
I see you're enjoying Tom Clancy like I did back then in 2005. Good read bro.
I have an addiction and I can't help myself. I think the strangest thing about Tom Clancy is his politics. He clearly wants an egalitarian meritocracy, a laudable goal imo, then suddenly he's talking about the importance of gender roles or how government handouts are bad. I think his early books are better simply because they seem to be much better researched.