Looking for some neat Server Build Projects
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@guyinpv said in Looking for some neat Server Build Projects:
Data is not uniform and standardized. We get data as outputs from web apps, product vendors, financial reports, and don't have a say in how other people's data is stored.
And Excel is the worst format to try to put that in. I'd bet $20 that most of that isn't in xlsx by default. Esp from a web app. That's 99% likely to be retrieved from an API and when you export it from the site, it comes out in CSV format.
Macros can perform more advanced data manipulation tasks like converting values, calculating and combining fields, renaming columns and moving them around, create summaries, and setting up a printable template.
Which is exactly what a database application would do.
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@stacksofplates said in Looking for some neat Server Build Projects:
Which is exactly what a database application would do.
But you're still missing the middle man. Who cares if I have a DB application? I do, I have Access and I have MySQL but that means nothing, I still have to convert the data to a format even acceptable by those, and useful for our own business logic.
If I don't do these macros and scripts in Excel, that's fine, but now I just have to do the same thing somewhere else for no real benefit.
And even if I used Access, nobody else knows how to use DB apps. I would have to set up forms and front end views for others to look and edit, which actually creates more workload for me.
Sometimes we sacrifice the "best" and the "ideal" for quick and productive.
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@guyinpv said in Looking for some neat Server Build Projects:
And even if I used Access, nobody else knows how to use DB apps.
I don't understand. They'd learn to use them just like any other app. No one knows an app until they use it. Nothing is easier than making an app for it, if made properly. Surely this would be the solution, not the problem.
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@guyinpv said in Looking for some neat Server Build Projects:
Sometimes we sacrifice the "best" and the "ideal" for quick and productive.
But often they are the same thing and we just don't realize. I see things like this often where "best" is avoided because of the assumption that it is costly or hard, when it is often "best" specifically because it is fast, easy and cheap.
Maybe not here, but I see this more often than not.
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@scottalanmiller said in Looking for some neat Server Build Projects:
@guyinpv said in Looking for some neat Server Build Projects:
Sometimes we sacrifice the "best" and the "ideal" for quick and productive.
But often they are the same thing and we just don't realize. I see things like this often where "best" is avoided because of the assumption that it is costly or hard, when it is often "best" specifically because it is fast, easy and cheap.
Maybe not here, but I see this more often than not.
In my case, not long ago, they didn't buy Office Pro and so nobody but a couple people even had Access on their computers.
Now within the last few months we finally have Office365 so indeed Access is an option. The next problem becomes storing the database files and dealing with mutli-user issues opening the same files and all that stuff.
I used to use Access for some fairly complex IT management, and it definitely wasn't very productive without creating all the right forms to be able to search and filter and create records and do exports and all that.
Nobody here has ever opened Access, let alone will understand how the database works, where files are stored, how multi-user works, how to browse, search, filter, export, prepare reports and print.But everybody knows how to make some Excel columns fit on one sheet wide and print it.
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@guyinpv said in Looking for some neat Server Build Projects:
e right forms to be able to search and filter and create records and do exports and all that.
It sounds like you need a @QuixoticJeremy to build a front end for you. This would ultimately serve you and your users a much better solution.
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@dashrender @guyinpv Always an option!
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@guyinpv said in Looking for some neat Server Build Projects:
But everybody knows how to make some Excel columns fit on one sheet wide and print it.
oh gods no they don't.
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@jaredbusch said in Looking for some neat Server Build Projects:
@guyinpv said in Looking for some neat Server Build Projects:
But everybody knows how to make some Excel columns fit on one sheet wide and print it.
oh gods no they don't.
drag and drop print margin lines like a boss
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@guyinpv said in Looking for some neat Server Build Projects:
@scottalanmiller said in Looking for some neat Server Build Projects:
@guyinpv said in Looking for some neat Server Build Projects:
Sometimes we sacrifice the "best" and the "ideal" for quick and productive.
But often they are the same thing and we just don't realize. I see things like this often where "best" is avoided because of the assumption that it is costly or hard, when it is often "best" specifically because it is fast, easy and cheap.
Maybe not here, but I see this more often than not.
In my case, not long ago, they didn't buy Office Pro and so nobody but a couple people even had Access on their computers.
Now within the last few months we finally have Office365 so indeed Access is an option. The next problem becomes storing the database files and dealing with mutli-user issues opening the same files and all that stuff.
I used to use Access for some fairly complex IT management, and it definitely wasn't very productive without creating all the right forms to be able to search and filter and create records and do exports and all that.
Nobody here has ever opened Access, let alone will understand how the database works, where files are stored, how multi-user works, how to browse, search, filter, export, prepare reports and print.But everybody knows how to make some Excel columns fit on one sheet wide and print it.
Right, but that's part of the problem. Access is WAY more complicated than making a proper app.
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@scottalanmiller said in Looking for some neat Server Build Projects:
@guyinpv said in Looking for some neat Server Build Projects:
@scottalanmiller said in Looking for some neat Server Build Projects:
@guyinpv said in Looking for some neat Server Build Projects:
Sometimes we sacrifice the "best" and the "ideal" for quick and productive.
But often they are the same thing and we just don't realize. I see things like this often where "best" is avoided because of the assumption that it is costly or hard, when it is often "best" specifically because it is fast, easy and cheap.
Maybe not here, but I see this more often than not.
In my case, not long ago, they didn't buy Office Pro and so nobody but a couple people even had Access on their computers.
Now within the last few months we finally have Office365 so indeed Access is an option. The next problem becomes storing the database files and dealing with mutli-user issues opening the same files and all that stuff.
I used to use Access for some fairly complex IT management, and it definitely wasn't very productive without creating all the right forms to be able to search and filter and create records and do exports and all that.
Nobody here has ever opened Access, let alone will understand how the database works, where files are stored, how multi-user works, how to browse, search, filter, export, prepare reports and print.But everybody knows how to make some Excel columns fit on one sheet wide and print it.
Right, but that's part of the problem. Access is WAY more complicated than making a proper app.
And making a proper app might be more complicated than Access.
I've often tried to find and test any kind of self-hosted software for managing CRUD DB projects.
I've longed for a simple way to spin up a relational DB, throw a bunch of data in it (that's the easy part), but then have a ready-to-go CRUD app that takes care of the basics of user accounts and roles/permissions, data entry/editing/deleting (forms), tracking changes in order to undo things or audit changes, export records, do searches and filtering, customized exports, and forms.And then some kind of feature that lets me build the visual reports and summaries, like a custom dashboard sort of thing.
CRUD app in a box. Is there such a thing? I've been playing with JS frameworks like Vue and Meteor and many others, just as a way to build a template CRUD app I can reused for DB projects.
There are all internal projects, so they should all be accessible through a common interface too. In that sense, each CRUD app should be relatively portable.
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@guyinpv said in Looking for some neat Server Build Projects:
@scottalanmiller said in Looking for some neat Server Build Projects:
@guyinpv said in Looking for some neat Server Build Projects:
@scottalanmiller said in Looking for some neat Server Build Projects:
@guyinpv said in Looking for some neat Server Build Projects:
Sometimes we sacrifice the "best" and the "ideal" for quick and productive.
But often they are the same thing and we just don't realize. I see things like this often where "best" is avoided because of the assumption that it is costly or hard, when it is often "best" specifically because it is fast, easy and cheap.
Maybe not here, but I see this more often than not.
In my case, not long ago, they didn't buy Office Pro and so nobody but a couple people even had Access on their computers.
Now within the last few months we finally have Office365 so indeed Access is an option. The next problem becomes storing the database files and dealing with mutli-user issues opening the same files and all that stuff.
I used to use Access for some fairly complex IT management, and it definitely wasn't very productive without creating all the right forms to be able to search and filter and create records and do exports and all that.
Nobody here has ever opened Access, let alone will understand how the database works, where files are stored, how multi-user works, how to browse, search, filter, export, prepare reports and print.But everybody knows how to make some Excel columns fit on one sheet wide and print it.
Right, but that's part of the problem. Access is WAY more complicated than making a proper app.
And making a proper app might be more complicated than Access.
I've often tried to find and test any kind of self-hosted software for managing CRUD DB projects.
I've longed for a simple way to spin up a relational DB, throw a bunch of data in it (that's the easy part), but then have a ready-to-go CRUD app that takes care of the basics of user accounts and roles/permissions, data entry/editing/deleting (forms), tracking changes in order to undo things or audit changes, export records, do searches and filtering, customized exports, and forms.And then some kind of feature that lets me build the visual reports and summaries, like a custom dashboard sort of thing.
CRUD app in a box. Is there such a thing? I've been playing with JS frameworks like Vue and Meteor and many others, just as a way to build a template CRUD app I can reused for DB projects.
There are all internal projects, so they should all be accessible through a common interface too. In that sense, each CRUD app should be relatively portable.
Drupal.
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@guyinpv said in Looking for some neat Server Build Projects:
I've often tried to find and test any kind of self-hosted software for managing CRUD DB projects.
I've longed for a simple way to spin up a relational DB, throw a bunch of data in it (that's the easy part), but then have a ready-to-go CRUD app that takes care of the basics of user accounts and roles/permissions, data entry/editing/deleting (forms), tracking changes in order to undo things or audit changes, export records, do searches and filtering, customized exports, and forms.That's like 2-4 hours of work for a software firm. As long as CRUD is all you want and no weird stuff, this is, quite literally, almost completely boilerplate.
Why do you want a relational DB? That would not normally be desired for this. Once in a while, sure, but not usually.
CRUB functionality is normally included in most modern frameworks. This amount is generally considered to be "out of the box" and not something you have to program at all. Hasn't been for a decade or so.
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@guyinpv said in Looking for some neat Server Build Projects:
There are all internal projects, so they should all be accessible through a common interface too. In that sense, each CRUD app should be relatively portable.
All modern apps do this. Since the late 1990s, modern business apps have been web based and totally portable (at least for a single web browser... but that too, was long ago solved.)
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@guyinpv said in Looking for some neat Server Build Projects:
CRUD app in a box. Is there such a thing? I've been playing with JS frameworks like Vue and Meteor and many others, just as a way to build a template CRUD app I can reused for DB projects.
Meteor, for example, totally does this. It's a bit more complicated than doing it with some others like Rails, but that's what they mostly handle for you.
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Ya, I just never get around to it.
For two reasons really.
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Some of the projects are purely made for myself, so I just use MySQL and Navicat and do my thing. Or the data is so rarely accessed, people just come to me to find out something.
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The project is temporary or purely an archive.
For those project which will be accessed by others, the data either sits in Excel because it's not that much data anyway, or I build out a little web interface using a CMS though it might lack some CUD, at least others can read/browse the data.
The problem with these things is that, when data is needed, it's needed NOW BLAST YOU! But once we're done, it's barely needed and thus not worth the time to build a crud app around it.
And my final excuse, down here around 10%, I just don't care any more. If somebody needs a report, I gather and extract the data and make a pretty report as needed. Too much other stuff happening. For example, creating a DVD video from source footage when the boss took a trip. Yes, I do that, lol
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