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Ask HN: Would you expect a NoCode Platform to give the code export?

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Re: Ask HN: Would you expect a NoCode Platform to give the code export?

#11

Post by mikewarot »

vishal_sahu wrote: post #9
mikewarot wrote: post #8

I'm addressing the doing things in code which can't be done in no-code aspect. I'm old, so allow me to bring into the present an old no-code tool from the past. (It's priced itself into irrelevance in the present) Delphi was one of the best no-code platforms I ever encountered. It allowed you to do a lot of no code-things, like set up a GUI, etc... but also allowed you to write code that interacted with that GUI, han…

Thanks for the meaningful insights. The challenge we are seeing here is that we are not generating the code on the fly (both way sync like you mentioned in Delphi) as we are also hosting the application on the SaaS cloud along with several other users apps and a lot of code will be clubbed/shared between the several layers. Users will be able to add the frontend/GUI code but we don't allow them to execute the backend…

Why not let them run code in the backend? Obviously you wouldn't let them have access to everything, but you could allow them to write event responders or things like that, which run in a VM, which you control very tightly, and only give X cycles to per second, etc.

It could allow a whole lot more flexibility.

Re: Ask HN: Would you expect a NoCode Platform to give the code export?

#13

Post by muzani »

The main reason I'm not going with Bubble is because I can't transfer users should I make another site, because of how password hashing works.

Otherwise everything else about it works fine. The nature of no code is that it scales terribly; it's often the best choice if you're building something in 10 hours, but bad if you have 1000 man hours. Code is code because it's the most efficient way to communicate. Startups are often willing to stick with it for a very long time though.

Re: Ask HN: Would you expect a NoCode Platform to give the code export?

#14

Post by vishal_sahu »

muzani wrote: post #13

The main reason I'm not going with Bubble is because I can't transfer users should I make another site, because of how password hashing works. Otherwise everything else about it works fine. The nature of no code is that it scales terribly; it's often the best choice if you're building something in 10 hours, but bad if you have 1000 man hours. Code is code because it's the most efficient way to communicate. Startups a…

I think this should be pretty straight forward as there are generic algorithms to encrypt the password, not sure the case with bubble though.

Since startups are willing to stick with the code for the longer duration, so sometime they have fear that what if the platform is not able to handle/provide what they are expecting and hence (a lot of times) decide to keep things in their control from the beginning by coding it themselves or use some open source framework, so that they can have better control going forward (what i think). Hence code can pay a major role in building the confidence. Not sure what could be the other challenges hence gathering feedback.

Re: Ask HN: Would you expect a NoCode Platform to give the code export?

#15

Post by vishal_sahu »

mikewarot wrote: post #11
vishal_sahu wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the meaningful insights. The challenge we are seeing here is that we are not generating the code on the fly (both way sync like you mentioned in Delphi) as we are also hosting the application on the SaaS cloud along with several other users apps and a lot of code will be clubbed/shared between the several layers. Users will be able to add the frontend/GUI code but we don't allow them to execute the backend…

Why not let them run code in the backend? Obviously you wouldn't let them have access to everything, but you could allow them to write event responders or things like that, which run in a VM, which you control very tightly, and only give X cycles to per second, etc. It could allow a whole lot more flexibility.

Actually we don't provision separate VM for each app, and they run in a shared environment with other Apps, so if the access is given to execute their code and if the code is consuming good CPU/RAM, then it can bring-down/affect other apps as well. Hence not seeing the option for them to execute their code.

But yes, if they want to write their code, they can always use AWS Lambda or similar services to execute their code and make an API call to pull/push the data from there and use them in the app by connecting it to that code via APIs.

Re: Ask HN: Would you expect a NoCode Platform to give the code export?

#16

Post by vishal_sahu »

speedgoose wrote: post #10
vishal_sahu wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for your feedback. What if the startup says that in case if it fails or shut down, it will make the source code public? Even in that case, it will be quite tedious and challenging to host the application due to its complexity. Will you be willing to spend some bucks (like 6/12 months subscription fee in exchange of the code?) so that there is no forced-commitment/attachment with the platform and you can host i…

> What if the startup says that in case if it fails or shut down, it will make the source code public? I don't know if marketing people will approve mentioning such a thing. And yes it's a big project to adapt a SaaS platform to self hosted or on premise. I don't see that happening after the death of a startup. Paying more to get the source code could work. But in my personal case, I usually have small projects and a…

>I don't know if marketing people will approve mentioning such a thing.

Thought to mention so that user know but no one will wait till that day or may be that day never comes.

> And yes it's a big project to adapt a SaaS platform to self hosted or on premise. I don't see that happening after the death of a startup.

Yes, that the fear that although some people may have the confidence but majorly of them will not be able to do anything with that code.

We would plan to keep the price open so as to gain the confidence. The user will know that this is also an option going forward and they also know the price in advance, so that whenever they want to switch, then they know how much to pay. Obviously the price will be dependent on the plan and the app usage, so simpler apps will be cheaper to export and vice versa.

Re: Ask HN: Would you expect a NoCode Platform to give the code export?

#17

Post by vishal_sahu »

tomjen3 wrote: post #12

If was running a business I would insist on it. I would be okay with paying for services but I would never allow any one service to be able to shut my business down if I could at all help it.

Cool. Thanks for your feedback. Planning to build this feature to gain confidence of people like you :)
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