Thoughts and ideas on how to build tools, automate workflows and speed-up the workplace.
Populating API requests is one of the most basic, universal use cases for web forms. However, building forms to do this manually can be a laborious, time-consuming process. It’s also beyond the skills of most non-developers. But there is a better way. Today, we’re checking how Budibase can be used to send form data to APIs. Specifically, we’re going to see how we can create and store dynamic REST requests, along with custom UIs, to populate them in a matter of minutes.
Ronan McQuillan
Feb 19, 2024
Form validation is essential to the accuracy, integrity, and consistency of our data. It’s also one of the key ways that we can enhance user experiences around data entry and management workflows. These enable our form UIs to check that submissions comply with any rules that we have as part of our data model - as well as giving feedback to users where submitted values aren’t acceptable. However, implementing this can present some pretty serious challenges.
Ronan McQuillan
Feb 15, 2024
Web forms are some of the most basic applications around. But the value we get from them really depends on what we can do with the data we gather. Most form builders are kind of limited in this regard - largely restricting us to their built-in databases. We can also go down the route of building fully custom forms. This provides greater flexibility, but it also requires a lot more from us in terms of time, effort, and expertise.
Ronan McQuillan
Feb 14, 2024
Databases are vital for every business. But as soon as you create your database, a question arises. How can you maintain the information you store? Of course, you could write out queries manually, but you’ll also want a way for less technical staff to enter data. This means building forms. Today we’ll look at how to create forms for SQL databases. You can also use forms to limit access to your database.
Ronan McQuillan
Jan 3, 2024
Obviously, Google Sheets is great for collaboratively managing all sorts of data. There are big downsides here too though, especially if you’re working at scale. One solution is using a form to enter data into Google Sheets. Today, we’re going to look at exactly how you can do this in Budibase. There are a bunch of other ways you could do this too, of course. We’re biased, but we think Budibase is the best option.
Ronan McQuillan
Jan 1, 2024
Databases are not new. Having ways to be able to store data, query it, and serve it back to our users has been a key focus of web application development for decades. But, that doesn’t mean things have stood still. Today, we’re checking out the future of databases - with 8 data management trends and 11 real-world examples. Relational databases that were developed in the 70s still provide the backbone of most modern IT.
Ronan McQuillan
Oct 17, 2023
The rise of serverless databases has been one of the major shifts in how we build software over the past few years. In fact, they’re increasingly becoming a core part of all sorts of application projects. See, when we build any kind of solution, a big portion of the cost is the infrastructure we use to store and host relevant data. This also has an outsized impact on the quality and success of whatever we’re building.
Ronan McQuillan
Oct 13, 2023
Businesses today deal with larger, more complex data sets than at any point in history. Obviously, this brings huge benefits. At the same time, it introduces swathes of new challenges. These include inefficiencies, unnecessary risks, poor oversight, and a whole host of other problems. One approach to solving this problem is simplifying data management. See, the problem isn’t so much the data itself, it’s how we build processes and operations around it.
Ronan McQuillan
Sep 29, 2023