Show HN: FormBolt – Self-hosted visual builder for CRUD apps using VueJS
formbolt.comHello, OP here.
This is something I've been working on for quite some time. The goal is to make it easy for anyone to build database apps by first defining a data structure and then creating forms and UI around it. Pretty much anything can be built with FormBolt - from very basic apps to replace excel spreadsheets to complex apps for inventory management, product management, or any custom business processes/data. This is not a tool for visual programming. Instead I think of it as a visual scaffolder - users visually create the app blueprint, which the background service uses to automatically create and deploy a fully functional web app. It offers granular user permissions and it's easy to create different forms/workflows for different user groups.
FormBolt can run locally without a centralized server (all data stored locally) or you can put it on a remote server, enable networking and have your own private cloud app.
As the title it has a visual builder and doesn't require writing any code (for the most basic apps), however writing some JS and SQL is necessary for more advanced functionality. From my experience with it so far I can say that building the usual CRM/project management/invoicing app takes a few hours (from idea to working app). In fact it takes me more time to decide what forms I need for an app than actually building it.
This is what I used to create it: - Front: VueJS & Semantic UI - Back: Golang - Database: PostgreSQL
What do you think?
Can you clone a website for dev, test, prod purposes?
If you mean the web app, then yes - apps can be cloned and then merged with a single mouse click. This is done with snapshots.
looks pretty cool. Can you deploy the code to a third party host?
Yes, you can deploy an app anywhere (linux, windows, mac) as long as the FormBolt binary runs on that machine.
Can you generate React code and use React widgets?