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Posted by u/sandhya6 a year ago
Show HN: Visual DB – Web front end for your databasevisualdb.com/...
If you have a cloud-hosted database, read on: Visual DB was designed for you.

Visual DB is the fastest way to create data entry forms for your database: Starting with an Excel spreadsheet, you can import your data into the database and create a great-looking form in under 10 minutes. Watch this video: https://youtu.be/6rVD5rmrjN8

Visual DB is a comprehensive SaaS frontend for your database. In addition to data entry forms, Visual DB also has a spreadsheet-like interface for inserting and updating data in your database. You can also build interactive reports using Visual DB. Finally, although not intended as a replacement for your database's admin tool, Visual DB can browse schema, create tables, set up relationships, and import and export data.

Visual DB began as a drag-and-drop form builder for databases. Forms created with Visual DB are practically indistinguishable from those hand-coded using React. You can add client-side validation, set available values (displayed in dropdowns), define default values, and even add logic to dynamically hide or disable fields—all without writing a single line of code! With Visual DB Forms, you’ll never have to write another CRUD app again.

If you have been using Excel to manage data and running into its limits because the volume of data has grown, Visual DB Sheets may be of interest to you. With its spreadsheet-like interface, Visual DB Sheets allows users to interact with data as they would in Excel, while securely storing that data in a robust relational database. Spreadsheet-database hybrids have been around for a while now, but we believe we have one of the best implementations, with features such as advanced grouping, support for foreign keys and lookup tables, query parameters, full-text as-you-type filtering, and so on.

The newest feature of Visual DB is interactive reporting. Traditional reporting tools offer limited interactivity. For example, while most reporting tools support time series charts, they do not allow users to zoom or pan along the time axis. In contrast, Visual DB supports this capability thanks to its innovative approach: it downloads the dataset to the client and processes and visualizes data directly in the browser. This allows it to handle user interactions without a server round trip. Visual DB has excellent support for query parameters, which allows you to bring only the subset of data that's of interest (up to 100K rows), to the client.

Visual DB supports PostgreSQL (including Neon), MySQL, SQL Server and Oracle. Give it a whirl, and we look forward to getting your feedback: https://visualdb.com

BizyDev · a year ago
If your tool was available on-premise I would be really interested. Since a tool like this is primarily intended, I think, for internal use cases, making it available on-premise should be a priority from my point of view.

Beside this, the tool looks great, congrats for the job, well done!

rnavi · a year ago
Congrats to visualdb on launch.

If you are looking for free open source version try

https://github.com/nocodb/nocodb

It's fairly simple to setup. Please refer to our readme/docs

Disclaimer: founder here.

albert_e · a year ago
Thanks this seems very useful. Bookmarked.

We are building a couple of small internal applications using React and deployed on AWS.

For enabling users with UI for managing the master data tables we want to use a ready to use component - i guess somewhat like nocodb.

Could you by any chance point to some examples of how one might integrate this solution into another app within its branding and navigation.

If there ate other similar tools that might also allow power users to define the schema of new tables and constraints / pk-fk references on them etc using a similar web UI -- that would be great too.

Thanks

ktm5j · a year ago
Looks awesome! Well done, this might come in handy for folks where I was just hired. Definitely going to keep this in mind.
replwoacause · a year ago
Nice, but the AGPL-3.0 license makes this tough to use. Would love to see a MIT alternative if there is one.
leansensei · a year ago
I second this, NocoDB is great!
sandhya6 · a year ago
Thanks for the feedback. We'll make self-hosted version a high priority.
alek_me · a year ago
Yes an on premise solution is quite important for place in hired in. To add to this I’ve been doing a lot of looking into products like this and explored nocodb as a use case. Here are some limitations I’ve run into.

1) Granular user roles/permissions. Nocodb has this but it’s a little awkward with different bases. For example it’s hard to see which tables that user is limited to as you create new bases.

2) Forms. The form needs to have flexibility in required fields which nocodb (and not just based on schema) does but it’s missing a key feature. That would be “created by” field which doesn’t work on external database with different bases for different permissions. As in if you have a different base per user group (to have different permission on table access) adding a new record does not populate created by correctly.

3) relational data. The goal of these products is for non-technical people to use these and none have the option of clicking into the relation to bring up that record on its table. As in all you see is the description/id of the relational record.

4) at some point you want to possibly use the database for user management. Because you may want to write an internal tooling that scans a qr code or something or the form is client based. But then you have users that may live on a different database interacting with your main database. And then you would need to match the users with what they view and what they can create.

Essentially what I found is that with nocodb is that it is good for viewing data but to add data I need to create forms. But then nocodb lacks in “dashboard” statistics and graphs

Sorry if this is not clearly explained. I’m on holiday and tired rn.

sixtyj · a year ago
It looks nice, indeed. Upvote for on-premise version.
reneberlin · a year ago
kgodey · a year ago
I'll throw in https://github.com/mathesar-foundation/mathesar (disclaimer: I work on it).
vladsanchez · a year ago
I'm looking for Framer (WebBuilder) options/competitors that aren't SAAS subscriptions.

I'll happily pay a one-time fee for anything, than ever fall into the SAAS-hostage trap like Adobe or similar vendors.

I'll appreciate any references.

breadwinner · a year ago
Most of those products are very simple...
thih9 · a year ago
Congrats on the launch!

Product feedback: looks super useful.

Landing page feedback: clear and to the point. I love seeing lots of product screenshots. I’d like to see a section about privacy, especially when the product involves db access and AI. Please consider replacing the carousel. https://shouldiuseacarousel.com/

threatofrain · a year ago
That site argues that carousels should basically never be used, but personally I hate the design constraints and resulting UX of refresh on hitting bottom of screen (the alternative to carousels).

Something to look at how airbnb uses carousels when showing a listings. There are many listings and you're not necessarily interested enough to click yet, and there's a cognitive cost to leaving and re-entering the search experience, so you can either have a modal or allow a carousel. The carousel is the halfway point between interested enough to investigate further but not interested enough to step into a new visual scene and step back out into the search experience.

sandhya6 · a year ago
Thanks for the feedback. We have a section on data security here: https://visualdb.com/datasecurity/ We are also planning to release a self-hosted version soon, which can be used with intranet databases - this should take care of security concerns.
Multrex · a year ago
Yes please. A self hosted version would be great for companies that have strict security rules about data.
Onavo · a year ago
This is not their first time. They were previously called https://airforms.com and were posted here multiple times. No sure what HN's rules are on rebrands for Show HNs.
sandhya6 · a year ago
Not a rebrand but a pivot. It is a major overhaul with significant new features such as reporting.
TripleChecker · a year ago
Cool product - I like the idea of having my forms data stored and accessible directly via the PostgreSQL database vs having it locked in Google Forms or Typeform. BTW, noticed a few typos on the site (see here: https://triplechecker.com/s/G5LRKF/visualdb.com?v=OelKy)
sandhya6 · a year ago
Thanks for the feedback. Triplechecker seems like a cool tool, BTW!
saaaaaam · a year ago
Would give it a shot for stuff I’m working on but the free plan is too limited with only 1000 records and the paid plan is deceptively priced. It’s not $5 per user, it’s $25 if you only need one user.
block_dagger · a year ago
I agree. I think 10,000 records for free tier makes more sense.
tracker1 · a year ago
Reminds me of MS Access and InfoPath. Nice to see a more open option. SQLite support in addition to Excel spreadsheets would be nice too. A portable/desktop and self-host option would be imperative imo, as many would be hesitant to open their databases to a web tool like this.
sandhya6 · a year ago
Thanks for the feedback. Self-hosted version is now a high priority for us since many people have given us this feedback.
acomjean · a year ago
Reminds me of a mash up of Datatables editor (https://editor.datatables.net/) and phpMyAdmin.

With the nice addition of forms.

But I can see an all in one database/mini application tool making custom business applications where Lotus Notes and FileMaker used to be.

epalm · a year ago
Looks nice, both the site and the app! The first thought I had though was, here's a central place where potentially hundreds, thousands, perhaps tens of thousands (or more, depending on how successful you are) of database credentials are stored. Your https://visualdb.com/datasecurity/ page says "Database credentials are encrypted before being stored" but how do I know that? Encrypted how? This equates to "I pinky promise I won't get hacked, and even if I do, all your passwords would be impossible to crack anyways". Security-conscious users probably will need a bit more than that. Any thoughts on using other authentication methods?

Edit: as other commenters have mentioned, an on-prem version would certainly ease concerns a bit.

sandhya6 · a year ago
Thanks for raising those points. To maximize security we are prioritizing on-prem version.
gregw2 · a year ago
Don't store database credentials at all. Ensure your product and recommended database configuration supports SSO/SAML/etc with credentials managed through Okta or Active Directory. You'll need that if you go up-market into an enterprise.
anakaine · a year ago
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