Looking through some of the examples[1], it seems the WebUI is pretty underwhelming and demands much optimization and modernization. Are there alternative UIs available?
Datasette is my data hammer
51–60 of 71 posts
Re: Datasette is my data hammer
#52I see there is a Mac desktop app, is there plans for similar for Linux or Windows? I'm assuming I can just install an run similar to jupyter notebooks in any case.
Re: Datasette is my data hammer
#53Is there something equivalent to Datasette but with duckdb as the sql engine?
Re: Datasette is my data hammer
#54Datasette is such a neat project & tool. Simon, its developer, has built an entire ecosystem of tools around sqlite [1], Datasette [2], and automation through GH Actions, like git-scraping [3]. Also, he has been actively blogging for 20+ years [4]. I particularly enjoy his short TIL posts [5]. [1] https://github.com/simonw?tab=repositories&q=sqlite&sort=sta... [2] https://github.com/simonw?tab=repositories&q=datasett…
He's also the co-creator of django!
Re: Datasette is my data hammer
#55Two things I love about this post: 1. It's by a data journalist. Datasette was originally designed for data journalism (though it's useful for all sorts of other things) so it's really great to see it being enthusiastically used in this way 2. Jeremia talks at length about Datastte's URLs! This is a key design principle of Datasette: anything you see (a filtered table, SQL query results, a configure chart visualizati…
As for 2:
I think this is quite generally a quality feature for web apps and dynamic web interfaces, that should always be considered.
If they get too large/unwieldy there is always the option to use base64 encoding or other formats and tricks. Human readable URLs are always nice but I rather have something ugly than no URL state at all in many cases.
If the output changes frequently over time, so it might get stale, then one can still add a timestamp and an additional warning in the UI with a link to recent data.
What I'm saying is that there is rarely a good excuse to not do this.
In fact I think when I haven't been following this principle it was typically due to self-inflicted, bad decisions paired with time constraints.
Re: Datasette is my data hammer
#56Looking through some of the examples[1], it seems the WebUI is pretty underwhelming and demands much optimization and modernization. Are there alternative UIs available? [1] https://datasette.io/examples
What specifically would you want to be different?
It seems to me to serve the purpose well:
https://global-power-plants.datasettes.com/global-power-plan...
Re: Datasette is my data hammer
#57Interesting project. I would've liked to have heard a brief comparison with Excel - what makes Datasette something that one should reach for over that? Is it just the ability to use SQL in-place?
I think the best comparison would be with Access, seems to be the all-in-one data tool that tried to be.
Re: Datasette is my data hammer
#58I see there is a Mac desktop app, is there plans for similar for Linux or Windows? I'm assuming I can just install an run similar to jupyter notebooks in any case.
Yes, if you know how to use pip you can run "pip install datasette" and use it that way.
I'd love to get the desktop app working on Linux and Windows.
I did manage to get a prototype working on Windows, despite having VERY little experience working on that platform: https://github.com/simonw/datasette-app/issues/71
The bit I'm stuck on is how to turn that prototype into an application with an installer that's signed so people can download and run it.
Re: Datasette is my data hammer
#59Is there something equivalent to Datasette but with duckdb as the sql engine?
I've been contemplating adding a plugin hook to Datasette so that it can work against engines other than SQLite, and my first two goals if I get that working are DuckDB and PostgreSQL.
It's not on my immediate roadmap though.
Re: Datasette is my data hammer
#60Looking through some of the examples[1], it seems the WebUI is pretty underwhelming and demands much optimization and modernization. Are there alternative UIs available? [1] https://datasette.io/examples
I'm definitely keen on suggestions for improvements I can make to the default UI.
Datasette provides both a JSON API (easily enabled for CORS access) and supports custom templates, so it's possible to customize the UI any way you like.
So far I've not seen many examples of extensive customization. I use the custom templates a lot myself - these four sites are all just regular Datasette with some custom templates:
- https://til.simonwillison.net/
- https://www.niche-museums.com/
- https://www.rockybeaches.com/us/pillar-point
Source code is on GitHub for all four.