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Here are two ideas for desktop apps that I think would be worthwhile: 1) A data copy app. I often need to copy data from one place to another (eg. copy data fr
by jakobegger 8y ago
Here are two ideas for desktop apps that I think would be worthwhile:
1) A data copy app. I often need to copy data from one place to another (eg. copy data from MS Access to a MySQL server, export data from PostgreSQL to CSV, fetch data from some REST API and insert it into PostgreSQL). There tools for some of those jobs (eg. CSV import / export from PostgreSQL is solved). But there are a lot of jobs where I end up needing to write a custom Python script just to batch import some data from somewhere. It would be lovely if I just had a GUI app that was built for moving data from A to B.
2) A simple reporting tool for PostgreSQL. Often I just want to create a quick report from some data in a database (eg. how many users have already updated to the latest version?), but I don't want to start learning something like Tableau. I wish there was something more lightweight and affordable for creating just an occasional graph or summary table.
Both of these could start out very simple (do just one little thing) and expand from there, so I think they would be suitable for a side project.
I also think those two ideas have a lot of potential to make money. It's a huge market, and there's plenty of money to be made if you focus on smaller customers or niches that are not interesing for the big players.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- zaphirplane 8y agoDo you really expect IT / tech people to pay?
- jakobegger 8y agoYes, of course. I sell a product to a very similar audience, and many people are absolutely happy to pay for a tool that saves them time.
- dahx4Eev 8y ago2) how about metabase?
- jakobegger 8y agoI've tried Metabase, but the desktop app feels very heavyweight -- it's not something for "casual" users. It also seems more targeted at workgroups, not so much for individuals.
- np_tedious 8y ago2 is good. I've often wishes Datagrip, Postico, Navicat, etc could draw charts / graphs. Just a handful of them would be plenty. Instead I end up exporting the data and using Google sheets. Combining the regular DB client with some lite BI style visualization is the key, I think.
- MacroChip 8y agoFor 1, are you suggesting something like a GUI for a list of data transformation recipes? I.e. specify an input format and an output format and press play? How would these recipes be created?
- jakobegger 8y agoYes, that's kind of what I have in mind. I'm not sure how the GUI for creating recipes would work. It would probably need to be pretty complex. I have an idea in my mind where you arange premade blocks on a canvas and connect them with pipes (a patch based UI like Quartz Composer), but I doubt that this would really be the best way to do it. There's also tasks that are one-off (eg. migrate data from one system to another) and things that need to happen regularly or even continuously.
- infinite8s 8y agoHave you seen https://easymorph.com/ https://easymorph.com/? The author is here on HN (dgudkov).
- MacroChip 8y agoJust saw this on Product Hunt. https://www.actiondesk.io https://www.actiondesk.io