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Show HN: Airtable, a real-time spreadsheet-database hybrid

airtable.com

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Re: Show HN: Airtable, a real-time spreadsheet-database hybrid

#31

Post by kbd »

The "instantly syncs updates with all users" bit caught my eye. I always wonder how people go about implementing that.

Asana works that way, and they have their own framework named Luna that does some functional reactive magic. Meteor, which I've been working with a lot lately and have really enjoyed using, was also created by some ex-Asana people, and enables the same type of real-time synced updates.

I was just wondering if you could share anything about your technology stack or how you accomplish the real-time updates. Are you using Meteor?

Re: Show HN: Airtable, a real-time spreadsheet-database hybrid

#33

Post by howsta »

jashkenas wrote: post #30

Gorgeous work — and from poking around in the console a bit, it looks as though you're using the latest version of Backbone.js. Any interest in having Airtable featured on the list of example apps on the Backbone homepage? If yes, drop me a line...

Couldn't find your email listed (PS your site ashkenas.com seems to be down right now). Can you email me at howie @ airtable.com?

Re: Show HN: Airtable, a real-time spreadsheet-database hybrid

#34

Post by aofstad »

addisonj wrote: post #26

Very impressed. Spreadsheets have never quite "clicked" with me, but this did. It exposes a lot of functionality that your average person would want out of a spreadsheet in a much friendlier way. I am really curious on the "database" side though, can this handle a couple of tables with 10k rows linking to one another? Maybe an API that allows me to return JSON with some query language? If so, would be a great tool fo…

Thanks for your comments! We're actively working on performance improvements needed on both the client side and server side, but right now it would be very sluggish at that scale. We do have immediate plans to expose an API, probably sometime early 2015.

Re: Show HN: Airtable, a real-time spreadsheet-database hybrid

#35

Post by [deleted] »

addisonj wrote: post #26

Very impressed. Spreadsheets have never quite "clicked" with me, but this did. It exposes a lot of functionality that your average person would want out of a spreadsheet in a much friendlier way. I am really curious on the "database" side though, can this handle a couple of tables with 10k rows linking to one another? Maybe an API that allows me to return JSON with some query language? If so, would be a great tool fo…

[deleted]

Re: Show HN: Airtable, a real-time spreadsheet-database hybrid

#37

Post by mikeknoop »

howsta wrote: post #25
orbifold wrote: post #22

Are there any plans to make this scriptable with say Javascript?

We're going to release an API in the near future ( https://airtable.com/api ), but that would be used for server-side integrations (ie you must deploy your own server to host your own code talk to Airtable's servers). We do want to support some form of scripting that would be hosted on OUR servers, but that's further out on the roadmap. We also have plans to support external integrations and triggers via Zapier/IFTTT…

Reach out if you need any help on the Zapier front :)

Re: Show HN: Airtable, a real-time spreadsheet-database hybrid

#38

Post by fdsary »

kbd wrote: post #31

The "instantly syncs updates with all users" bit caught my eye. I always wonder how people go about implementing that. Asana works that way, and they have their own framework named Luna that does some functional reactive magic. Meteor, which I've been working with a lot lately and have really enjoyed using, was also created by some ex-Asana people, and enables the same type of real-time synced updates. I was just won…

Websocket would be the solution to doing that, especially cross platform. Meteor is built on top of websockets, just saying...

Re: Show HN: Airtable, a real-time spreadsheet-database hybrid

#40

Post by aofstad »

kdr77 wrote: post #39

Why does it require Google auth?

We require that you oauth in via a Google account purely for authentication right now. We don't request permissions for your email, calendar, contacts, or other data--only your name, email, and profile picture (which is used in the UI). We're working on support for email/password based signup, as well as oauth support for other services.
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