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Show HN: Stein – Use Google Sheets as a No-Setup Database

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Re: Show HN: Stein – Use Google Sheets as a No-Setup Database

#11

Post by IloveHN84 »

Zaheer wrote: post #7
shivensinha4 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stein is completely open-source itself, and the documentation includes instructions for self-hosting. It consolidates all such features in a single API. Find it at https://github.com/SteinHQ/Stein

One benefit of approach I mentioned is that there's nothing to host. All just client-side code. Although I do see the use for hosting: latency for loading data from Google Sheets isn't great and adding a cache helped in my case.

In this case, what have you used for caching?

Re: Show HN: Stein – Use Google Sheets as a No-Setup Database

#13

Post by kristiandupont »

I have contemplated using google sheets as storage for parts of the data that I have. It would allow me to procrastinate on many admin UI things, and it would even feel much more transparent. It just feels too fragile somehow, which isn't really a rational assessment. Does anyone have experience with it in a SAAS context?

Re: Show HN: Stein – Use Google Sheets as a No-Setup Database

#14

Post by felipap »

Zaheer wrote: post #3

You can do this for free today using open source libraries. https://www.levels.fyi/comp.html used to run entirely on a Google Form + Spreadsheet and still backed by one. Submit form: https://stackoverflow.com/a/37743080 Get data from sheet: https://github.com/jsoma/tabletop Happy to answer any questions.

Reminded me of the top comment on the "Show HN" of Dropbox, back in 2007: "you can already build such a system yourself quite trivially by getting an FTP account, mounting it locally with curlftpfs, and then using SVN or CVS on the mounted filesystem." ;)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224

Re: Show HN: Stein – Use Google Sheets as a No-Setup Database

#15

Post by necovek »

Looking at the code, it seems tightly coupled to Google's offerings: just for fun, it'd be nice to have it run against NextCloud/OwnCloud.

Sure, if you host those, you might as well host a proper database (you already do), but for quick prototyping might be useful, or as I said, just fun :)

Re: Show HN: Stein – Use Google Sheets as a No-Setup Database

#16

Post by babayega2 »

mnky9800n wrote: post #12

This is what I did for a webpage I made about books I read. Just have to add a row to the sheet to update the page. Also I should read more books. https://mnky9800n.github.io/booklist/

I see you're enjoying Tom Clancy like I did back then in 2005. Good read bro.

Re: Show HN: Stein – Use Google Sheets as a No-Setup Database

#17

Post by TeMPOraL »

felipap wrote: post #14
Zaheer wrote: post #3

You can do this for free today using open source libraries. https://www.levels.fyi/comp.html used to run entirely on a Google Form + Spreadsheet and still backed by one. Submit form: https://stackoverflow.com/a/37743080 Get data from sheet: https://github.com/jsoma/tabletop Happy to answer any questions.

Reminded me of the top comment on the "Show HN" of Dropbox, back in 2007: "you can already build such a system yourself quite trivially by getting an FTP account, mounting it locally with curlftpfs, and then using SVN or CVS on the mounted filesystem." ;) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224

While this is not a good predictor of business success, it's still a viable alternative for some. Arguably, self-hosting is today more important than ever, given the unreliability and shady practices of many cloud solution vendors.

Re: Show HN: Stein – Use Google Sheets as a No-Setup Database

#18

Post by quickthrower2 »

felipap wrote: post #14
Zaheer wrote: post #3

You can do this for free today using open source libraries. https://www.levels.fyi/comp.html used to run entirely on a Google Form + Spreadsheet and still backed by one. Submit form: https://stackoverflow.com/a/37743080 Get data from sheet: https://github.com/jsoma/tabletop Happy to answer any questions.

Reminded me of the top comment on the "Show HN" of Dropbox, back in 2007: "you can already build such a system yourself quite trivially by getting an FTP account, mounting it locally with curlftpfs, and then using SVN or CVS on the mounted filesystem." ;) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224

Well the advantage of free is not just cost but freedom to modify the code, hack it and also privacy advantages. Same goes for Dropbox vs rsync.

Re: Show HN: Stein – Use Google Sheets as a No-Setup Database

#20

Post by nothrabannosir »

felipap wrote: post #14
Zaheer wrote: post #3

You can do this for free today using open source libraries. https://www.levels.fyi/comp.html used to run entirely on a Google Form + Spreadsheet and still backed by one. Submit form: https://stackoverflow.com/a/37743080 Get data from sheet: https://github.com/jsoma/tabletop Happy to answer any questions.

Reminded me of the top comment on the "Show HN" of Dropbox, back in 2007: "you can already build such a system yourself quite trivially by getting an FTP account, mounting it locally with curlftpfs, and then using SVN or CVS on the mounted filesystem." ;) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224

Instead of as a disparagement of the product, you could see this as a no-judgement PSA for anyone interested in and capable of running such an alternative.

Incidentally I am precisely looking for something like this so for me that’s valuable :)

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