4 ms·

Neat. How does this compare to Airtable? https://airtable.com/ https://airtable.com/

jasoncrawford 11y ago
Thanks! I think we've focused a lot more on relational support. For instance, on a detail page, you can view and edit all linked records, and add new ones inline: http://docs.fieldbook.com/docs/go-beyond-the-grid http://docs.fieldbook.com/docs/go-beyond-the-grid We have a full-fledged query UI: http://docs.fieldbook.com/docs/focus-on-relevant-items http://docs.fieldbook.com/docs/focus-on-relevant-items And we have a grouped view (think Trello meets spreadsheets), which is great for any kind of pipeline/kanban view: http://docs.fieldbook.com/docs/track-a-workflow http://docs.fieldbook.com/docs/track-a-workflow
- jamesmcintyre 11y ago
  Just an idea to share, from someone who's been building business apps using Knack's visual builder for the past year, I think a killer combination would be fieldbook's friendly UX for the database with a "marketplace" of front-end "plug-and-play" UI modules. So in fieldbook I would create and save views for the database with your current UI but then I could plug ready-made UI modules on top of that database view and then customize the front-end UI. Ideally these UI modules would be free or pay web-based or native. I know it's extremely important to strike the balance of complexity, capability and UX so this area is notoriously difficult to tread but I think whatever solution does it right without sacrificing customization extensibility is going to win big! Fieldbook looks great and I hope it keeps getting better!
  - jasoncrawford 11y ago
    Thanks! Good ideas, and yes, you nailed it: the right balance of complexity and functionality is key.
    - iheartmemcache 11y ago
      Eve's already been mentioned here, and Chris' lecture at Cal was really interesting from a UX perspective. I'm sure you've seen it but if not, go watch it. The spreadsheet model is fairly intuitive for the end-user. He and Rich Hickey both are pretty convinced that a Datalog-esque query engine is the way to go. 20 years ago, Lotus' Improv's model (where you separated the data manipulation from the data type constraints) was way ahead of its time and guaranteed so much more internal/referential integrity than 1-2-3. Modern-day Quantrix is probably the closest you'll get to it, used pretty heavily in niche finance. MSR puts out some interesting work on the PLT behind alternate spreadsheet grammars[1] which are quite interesting too. Other than the obvious issues (ETL[2], ACLs/RBAC, presentation/extensibility) MSR has put out quite a few interesting papers out there. This is a very interesting problem domain to say the least. I've developed up-to-the-Pareto-point for this in the past for clients and if you get it right, it's a license to print money. [1]http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/sumitg/pubs/pldi11-table-synthesis.pdf http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/sumitg/pubs/pl... [2][both conventional a la SSIS and Informatica, as well as a Pipes-esque query; a premium feature you could easily charge into-the-Oracle-rates would be a Pipes-esque service with an SLA. I've been in enterprise consulting long enough to know that whether you're Ingersoll Rand, Haas, an REIT or Cravath, sanitized, guaranteed data is worth a lot, integration is worth even more.
      - infinite8s 11y ago
        When you refer to Pipes-esque - are you talking about yahoo pipes?
jrsnyder 11y ago
Wow, both of these look really cool! I'm glad to see the database + friendly UI category is getting some reinvigorated attention. Last time I researched this category, the best options I could find were MS Access and FileMaker Pro. I'm often annoyed with overly use-case-specific apps, as they do not have good flexibility in interacting with the data they use. It seems like many use-case-specific apps would be better suited as templates in a generic database UI tool. Chris Granger's Eve is also tackling the database UI problem, and they are investigating wider-scoped UI patterns, beyond spreadsheets.
- jasoncrawford 11y ago
  Yes, it's time for the FileMaker/Access category to be reborn for the age of webapps, mobile, and APIs.
  - thenipper 11y ago
    Sadly it seems like whenever this happens they get acquired by someone(probably Salesforce) and you never hear about the product again...
thirdsun 11y ago
My first thought as well - while Airtable isn't for me, it seems like somehing I'd recommend to tech-savvy non-developers. Also, as far as I can tell, the author of Airtable seems to come from a FileMaker background, which shows in the product: A database for normal people.

Thanks! I think we've focused a lot more on relational support. For instance, on a detail page, you can view and edit all linked records, and add new ones inline: http://docs.fieldbook.com/docs/go-beyond-the-grid http://docs.fieldbook.com/docs/go-beyond-the-grid We have a full-fledged query UI: http://docs.fieldbook.com/docs/focus-on-relevant-items http://docs.fieldbook.com/docs/focus-on-relevant-items And we have a grouped view (think Trello meets spreadsheets), which is great for any kind of pipeline/kanban view: http://docs.fieldbook.com/docs/track-a-workflow http://docs.fieldbook.com/docs/track-a-workflow

jamesmcintyre 11y ago
Just an idea to share, from someone who's been building business apps using Knack's visual builder for the past year, I think a killer combination would be fieldbook's friendly UX for the database with a "marketplace" of front-end "plug-and-play" UI modules. So in fieldbook I would create and save views for the database with your current UI but then I could plug ready-made UI modules on top of that database view and then customize the front-end UI. Ideally these UI modules would be free or pay web-based or native. I know it's extremely important to strike the balance of complexity, capability and UX so this area is notoriously difficult to tread but I think whatever solution does it right without sacrificing customization extensibility is going to win big! Fieldbook looks great and I hope it keeps getting better!
- jasoncrawford 11y ago
  Thanks! Good ideas, and yes, you nailed it: the right balance of complexity and functionality is key.
  - iheartmemcache 11y ago
    Eve's already been mentioned here, and Chris' lecture at Cal was really interesting from a UX perspective. I'm sure you've seen it but if not, go watch it. The spreadsheet model is fairly intuitive for the end-user. He and Rich Hickey both are pretty convinced that a Datalog-esque query engine is the way to go. 20 years ago, Lotus' Improv's model (where you separated the data manipulation from the data type constraints) was way ahead of its time and guaranteed so much more internal/referential integrity than 1-2-3. Modern-day Quantrix is probably the closest you'll get to it, used pretty heavily in niche finance. MSR puts out some interesting work on the PLT behind alternate spreadsheet grammars[1] which are quite interesting too. Other than the obvious issues (ETL[2], ACLs/RBAC, presentation/extensibility) MSR has put out quite a few interesting papers out there. This is a very interesting problem domain to say the least. I've developed up-to-the-Pareto-point for this in the past for clients and if you get it right, it's a license to print money. [1]http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/sumitg/pubs/pldi11-table-synthesis.pdf http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/sumitg/pubs/pl... [2][both conventional a la SSIS and Informatica, as well as a Pipes-esque query; a premium feature you could easily charge into-the-Oracle-rates would be a Pipes-esque service with an SLA. I've been in enterprise consulting long enough to know that whether you're Ingersoll Rand, Haas, an REIT or Cravath, sanitized, guaranteed data is worth a lot, integration is worth even more.
    - infinite8s 11y ago
      When you refer to Pipes-esque - are you talking about yahoo pipes?

jrsnyder 11y ago

Wow, both of these look really cool! I'm glad to see the database + friendly UI category is getting some reinvigorated attention. Last time I researched this category, the best options I could find were MS Access and FileMaker Pro. I'm often annoyed with overly use-case-specific apps, as they do not have good flexibility in interacting with the data they use. It seems like many use-case-specific apps would be better suited as templates in a generic database UI tool. Chris Granger's Eve is also tackling the database UI problem, and they are investigating wider-scoped UI patterns, beyond spreadsheets.

jasoncrawford 11y ago
Yes, it's time for the FileMaker/Access category to be reborn for the age of webapps, mobile, and APIs.
- thenipper 11y ago
  Sadly it seems like whenever this happens they get acquired by someone(probably Salesforce) and you never hear about the product again...

thirdsun 11y ago

My first thought as well - while Airtable isn't for me, it seems like somehing I'd recommend to tech-savvy non-developers. Also, as far as I can tell, the author of Airtable seems to come from a FileMaker background, which shows in the product: A database for normal people.