Faced an issue creating column in a new model[1] - Can't click on any of the button in image [1] (I'm on Mac & Firefox if that helps)
We are in similar space & open source : we automatically generate REST & GraphQL APIs automatically on any Microsoft SQL Server, Postgres & MySQL databases. Do give us a try. https://github.com/xgenecloud/xgenecloud
>> you shouldn't need to worry too much about re-running the generator breaking things or stomping on your code.
Can't agree more! There are code parsers which give out a DOM and then code can be manipulated. But is a bit of work. We are trying this concept in our framework.
Not exactly no-code, but the spirit is the same in what we are building at XgeneCloud. Via our GUI you can scaffold most of the repeatable code that is required in any backend and modify it to your business needs from there on.
* So by just pointing to a database via a GUI, you can generate CRUD-Aggregation APIs (REST/GraphQL) automatically for any given database. It has built in GUI to edit and manage schemas and access control as well.
In last few months, we built[1] a cross platform GUI app that generates automatic APIs over any SQL database.
Here are our key learnings :
* Building desktop apps is made up of an ecosystem which has sub optimal tools and it is very likely that it will never get better. On one end there is Electron which makes it easy to build but then if its a trivial app and your users are not likely to 've faster machines - your users are likely to suffer. Chrome the culprit is pretty much a joke. And on the other end there is QT, GTK which are awful to say the least.
* More than building, it is the publishing these apps that is painful which gets rarely discussed here. It costs you both time and money. By time, on how bureaucratic the process is involved in procuring the SSL from a licensed vendor, its verification and so on. And money to get the code signing licenses which are separate for both MAC and windows. And good luck publishing them without code signing - apss will be treated like malware by OS. However popular apps still go ahead and do this (notepad++ etc)
I would say use electron if you do not have sufficient resources to build natively for every OS. With some webpack optimizations you can squeeze in the app size to less than 300 MB but many electron apps without these optimizations go upto 650+ MB. Or else build it for MAC/Windows - release and see your adoption and take the next step.
At XgeneCloud[1], we are after the same problem.
XgeneCloud provides a desktop app that can connect to any new/existing databases to instantly generate REST & GraphQL APIs.
(Supports MySQL, Postgres, SQL server & SQLite)
Happy to share notes on discord.
[1] : https://github.com/xgenecloud/xgenecloud