this looks so great! congrats on the launch!
There's 200 form builders, but none do what a programmer can, so I built my own
21–30 of 82 posts
Re: There's 200 form builders, but none do what a programmer can, so I built my own
#22Re: There's 200 form builders, but none do what a programmer can, so I built my own
#23CS is so much about finding the correct abstractions. Any coder will sooner or later build a rule engine or a subset of a programming language. Thankfully, most of that never ends up in production. The reason other options lack this feature is not that no one else thought about it.
Re: There's 200 form builders, but none do what a programmer can, so I built my own
#24I've been building a form builder with a no code rules engine. Hoping to relaunch in the next couple of months. Have been redesigning the homepage and creating content to explain how it works. Here's a video of a tutorial; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDlKtyYf5Kc
Great job! Ignore the haters in the comments - I really liked the car payment calculator example and there’s definitely a market for the “excel developer” crowd. Also, not sure if it’s too late to edit the post, but consider prefixing with a “Show HN:” so that others know it’s your work and that you’re around and gathering feedback.
thanks so much. I totally plan to post SHOW HN for some of these other forms. I love the "excel for developers". I think that's a great tagline.
The haters are fine. I'll take constructive criticism, as well as accept negative attention. All press is good press right?
Re: There's 200 form builders, but none do what a programmer can, so I built my own
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
so there is a good reason for this - I've learned the hard way that you cannot trust the number input, it has some very strange behavior. I could write a blog post just about that issue. I plan to create my own custom number input that has its own increment/decrement buttons. The thing was built with react and the number input has some unanticipated side effects.
> I plan to create my own custom number input that has its own increment/decrement buttons. How will you handle users who have javascript disabled? Why reinvent the wheel? Why not fix whatever problem you have with numeric input?
The whole thing WILL NOT WORK without javascript. The rules engine runs in the browser, which is why you get that instant feedback loop.
Admittedly keenforms isn't for EVERYONE. There are built from scratch forms that use React or Angular or Javascript that provides instant feedback. Its not impossible to forgo JS but its hard to create a better UX with the instant feedback that only javascript can provide.
Re: There's 200 form builders, but none do what a programmer can, so I built my own
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
so there is a good reason for this - I've learned the hard way that you cannot trust the number input, it has some very strange behavior. I could write a blog post just about that issue. I plan to create my own custom number input that has its own increment/decrement buttons. The thing was built with react and the number input has some unanticipated side effects.
> I plan to create my own custom number input that has its own increment/decrement buttons. How will you handle users who have javascript disabled? Why reinvent the wheel? Why not fix whatever problem you have with numeric input?
If you want masking, and you DON’T want spinners, text makes just as much sense.
Think a currency input, or SSN, or zip code field. You almost never actually want the functionality of an html number input.
Re: There's 200 form builders, but none do what a programmer can, so I built my own
#27Earlier quoted context omitted.
It may be worth mentioning in a future blog post because you lose a lot of the built in behavior of browser input when you make everything a "text" input. It hurts accessibility and inclusiveness as well by ignoring these common browser behaviors.
That's fair, I might have to revisit the number input issue. I totally get your complaint. Experimenting with the number input was a learning experience. I built Keenforms with React, and both React and Angular have some strange behaviors related to number inputs.
As a web designer with a speciality in a11y, it hurts that you deemed this not important enough to find the true cause of your issue with the number input. I hope you can revisit this in a future update!
Re: There's 200 form builders, but none do what a programmer can, so I built my own
#28Re: There's 200 form builders, but none do what a programmer can, so I built my own
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's fair, I might have to revisit the number input issue. I totally get your complaint. Experimenting with the number input was a learning experience. I built Keenforms with React, and both React and Angular have some strange behaviors related to number inputs.
As a web designer with a speciality in a11y, it hurts that you deemed this not important enough to find the true cause of your issue with the number input. I hope you can revisit this in a future update!
I'll see what I can do, but HONESTLY the number input has issues. I should write an article about it.
I get what you are saying. However sometimes you have to circumvent the limitations of the browser to get it to do what you want it to. Or you have to write a ridiculous amount of code to compensate for that problem. It still accepts number values. I made a decision based on the problems I was having, I can revisit it and rectify it IF ITS POSSIBLE while maintaining existing functionality.
Re: There's 200 form builders, but none do what a programmer can, so I built my own
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
so there is a good reason for this - I've learned the hard way that you cannot trust the number input, it has some very strange behavior. I could write a blog post just about that issue. I plan to create my own custom number input that has its own increment/decrement buttons. The thing was built with react and the number input has some unanticipated side effects.
It may be worth mentioning in a future blog post because you lose a lot of the built in behavior of browser input when you make everything a "text" input. It hurts accessibility and inclusiveness as well by ignoring these common browser behaviors.
GOV.UK found that type=number actually hurts accessibility and is riddled with usability problems:
https://technology.blog.gov.uk/2020/02/24/why-the-gov-uk-des...