I've built a production app internally with app maker and it's quite nice, but you do need to know more than the bare basics of SQL/JS to really be effective with it.
App Maker, Google’s low-code tool for building business apps, comes out of beta
121–130 of 159 posts
Re: App Maker, Google’s low-code tool for building business apps, comes out of beta
#122I look forward to the consulting revenue I'll be making rebuilding the apps created by App Maker in about 3 years, when Google shuts it down.
It's a G Suite product, they aren't going to treat it like Allo.
Re: App Maker, Google’s low-code tool for building business apps, comes out of beta
#123I for one am quite excited about app maker. Finally a CRUD tool that links to just about any data source (including spreadsheets), does not require desktop software, generates properly responsive applications, needs no maintenance or upgrades to be secure and will presumably be compatible with Google forms.
It's not responsive like you think, none of the templates work right on mobile. It's very much designed for desktops.
Re: App Maker, Google’s low-code tool for building business apps, comes out of beta
#124Earlier quoted context omitted.
What aspects of Lotus Notes seemed like a good idea? Genuine question. I remember being horrified by almost everything about Lotus Notes. Sametime was great, though.
I'll bite... 1 - Document Store (iirc, CouchDB was inspired by Notes/Domino) 2 - Replication - even past the 90s, it was one of the best tools for disconnected users 3 - Low barrier to application creation (it was about as easy as building something in Filemaker Pro) 4 - Easy publication of applications to the web (this was BEFORE 2000, so kind of a big deal back then) 5 - Administration of servers was pretty easy 6…
Replication was huge, we didn't even have an internet connection when I setup a application replicating between three suppliers and a bank.
Re: App Maker, Google’s low-code tool for building business apps, comes out of beta
#125How will this not become hell on earth for software developers, al-la Microsoft Access, Oracle APEX, etc.. ??
If it doesn't lock in data access like MS Access did, it could be seen as just an interface designer. Whatever data it gets fed, could be migrated from a simple database to a proper backend if such need arises. It could even coexist with other front-ends. As long as it doesn't let too much business logic to be programed into it without a simple way to extract it, it shouldn't be a problem.
The default datasource is a regular Google SQL server, so if you want to change something later on, just plug the DB credentials into your new thing. There's no lock-in.
Re: App Maker, Google’s low-code tool for building business apps, comes out of beta
#126After more than two decades in the industry, you start getting cynical towards these kind of "programming for non-programmers" tools. All of them are trying to abstract away the complex parts of the programming problem. Guess what, it doesn't matter how many layers of abstraction you pile up, you never abstract away the need for consistent logic. You end up requiring the same kind of people that have the brain skills…
I had a lot of the same opinions, and then I actually got a job at a low-code platform vendor. The biggest thing I learned, the secret truth, is that "low-code" is intended to be a force multiplier for "real programmers". Low-code dev shops look exactly like every "real" shop I've seen: source control, sprints, Jira, "omg feature creep" meetings, insane stakeholders, the works. "low-code" developers are "real" softwa…
Yes, I consulted on such a product for a few years, all the people doing the successful projects with it were programmers. The tool was very productive in it's domain.
Re: App Maker, Google’s low-code tool for building business apps, comes out of beta
#127I suspect Google App Maker will end up effectively abandoned like Google Web Designer: https://www.google.com/webdesigner/ Google dabbles in these tools, but the business case isn't really there. If anything Web Designer should have been more likely to succeed because it had a direct application — designing rich ads — that would benefit Google's primary moneymaker.
To add some subjective constructive feedback, I think the idea behind App maker is crap.
You may need to brush up on what 'constructive feedback' means.
Re: App Maker, Google’s low-code tool for building business apps, comes out of beta
#128I started this as my 20% project many, many years ago. I since moved on to the Dart and now Polymer teams, but I'm very, very happy to see the project launch.
App Maker has been a huge force multiplier internally at Google. Hundreds of smaller internal apps, many catering to very specific business and HR tasks were created by non-engineers, often times by the owners of the process themselves. This self-determinism in custom software - not having to find and convince engineers to build something for you - is really important as software becomes critical to the long tail of business processes that have still been powered by paper, spreadsheets, emails, chat, etc...
Re: App Maker, Google’s low-code tool for building business apps, comes out of beta
#129During my first job after university, I spent a bunch of time developing apps using Lotus Notes. Because all of the company's 2000+ employees already used Lotus Notes for email and calendering, deploying these apps was easy. And in many cases I was able to develop the basic functionality of a workflow app whilst I was talking with the main user to gather requirements. And, although the platform supported a proper pro…
Very similarly was HyperCard. It was a bit before my time, but reading up on it, it seemed so powerful and yet friendly for non-programmers to use to make useful tools.
For a demonstration of HyperCard's power, play the original Myst some time. The original Myst runs on HyperCard (the Mac versions anyway; it obviously had to be ported for Windows and other releases). Incredible.
I struggle to think of tools like these that exist today. Access, perhaps? (and of course the tool in the article)
Re: App Maker, Google’s low-code tool for building business apps, comes out of beta
#130I started this as my 20% project many, many years ago. I since moved on to the Dart and now Polymer teams, but I'm very, very happy to see the project launch. App Maker has been a huge force multiplier internally at Google. Hundreds of smaller internal apps, many catering to very specific business and HR tasks were created by non-engineers, often times by the owners of the process themselves. This self-determinism in…
Congratulations on starting a great project!. I've been experimenting with App Maker for an internal Edu project and it looks great. I noticed that Drive Tables are gone; did they not scale well?