4 ms·

To me it's still surprising that nobody has done something like MS Access or VB6 for the web. They were easy to learn but had enough power to create really comp

To me it's still surprising that nobody has done something like MS Access or VB6 for the web. They were easy to learn but had enough power to create really complex solutions. The only downside were scaling and multiple user support. These problems shouldn't be that hard to solve.

zubairq 7y ago
We are building something like that at yazz.com, but still early days
eugeniox 7y ago
DaDaBIK (https://dadabik.com/ https://dadabik.com/) is available since 2001 and I have heard people referring to it as "MS access for the Web".
mattmagoo 7y ago
You should take a look at Retool. You still need to configure the databases separately in SQL, but the user interface builder is pretty intuitive.
kls 7y ago
I love access, and pushed it at many jobs that I have been at. Many times you have small teams who just are not worth the investment of enterprise systems while they are still growing that part of the business. Access allowed them to solution their needs while the requirements are still in flux. Once a department becomes big enough the access solution serves as a working prototype to generate requirements to build a proper system. It is a shame that Access has fallen out of favor and there really are no web tools that compare to how well it enabled users.
- sverhagen 7y ago
  Except that for most of us there's probably an eternity between "big enough ... to build a proper system" and actually building one.
- chihuahua 7y ago
  One could argue that Microsoft PowerApps (Dynamics 365 CDS model apps) is the enterprise equivalent of Access. It's extremely easy to build a CRUD app without writing any code.
  - collyw 7y ago
    Access has always been relatively easy to build an app with close "to no code". The problem is that you still need to understand the principles of a relational database to use it properly and that is usually taught after basic coding.
mbesto 7y ago
There's a whole industry around this - they're called low-code environments. https://www.g2.com/categories/low-code-development-platforms https://www.g2.com/categories/low-code-development-platforms
mamcx 7y ago
Same. I'm building the foundations with a relational lang (https://github.com/Tablam/TablaM https://github.com/Tablam/TablaM), because where Access/Excel "fail" was to have a huge disconnect between how use it and how program it. Also because I think the lang could make everything else easier (for example: transform datasources). Where some tools in this space ALSO fail is to be ONLY for cloud. I think nothing will displace access/excel if don't have a native/local experience.
qpiox 7y ago
https://apex.oracle.com https://apex.oracle.com is a solution for most of the use-cases similar to MS Access and VB6. But useful only if you have an Oracle database. I mentioned OpenXava as a development tool in another post. They had their own 0 programming hosted environment with similar ease of use as APEX, but I can't find the link now.
- skanga 7y ago
  Try https://www.openxava.org/ https://www.openxava.org/
codenesium 7y ago
It's because the owner of this patent is a patent troll who sues companies out of existence for building what you're talking about. https://patents.google.com/patent/US7062502 https://patents.google.com/patent/US7062502 https://www.theregister.co.uk/AMP/2015/09/07/sunk_by_patent_troll_iron_speed_stops_ops/ https://www.theregister.co.uk/AMP/2015/09/07/sunk_by_patent_...
- potiuper 7y ago
  How is Access 97 Form Wizard not prior art?
purplesquirtle1 7y ago
We're working on a new VB6 for the web platform, and would love your feedback :). Good for quickly spinning up CRUD apps with a few new features such as embedded BI and simple ML tools. It's still in early access, but if you'd like to play around with it, please don't hesitate to message me at verygoodtool1@gmail.com.
meredydd 7y ago
We have in fact built a "VB6 for the web"! It's called Anvil (https://anvil.works https://anvil.works), and it has: - Drag'n'drop UI design (https://anvil.works/docs/client/quickstart https://anvil.works/docs/client/quickstart) - Python code (browser-side and server-side) - A built-in database (https://anvil.works/docs/data-tables/quickstart https://anvil.works/docs/data-tables/quickstart) - Multi-user support out-of-the-box (https://anvil.works/docs/users https://anvil.works/docs/users) - Built in email/cron/secrets/etc - Plug-in integration with Python code running anywhere else on the internet. You import a library, it connects via websocket to your hosted app, you get two-way RPC between your code any your app (https://anvil.works/learn/tutorials/jupyter-notebook-to-web-app https://anvil.works/learn/tutorials/jupyter-notebook-to-web-...)

zubairq 7y ago

We are building something like that at yazz.com, but still early days

eugeniox 7y ago

DaDaBIK (https://dadabik.com/ https://dadabik.com/) is available since 2001 and I have heard people referring to it as "MS access for the Web".

mattmagoo 7y ago

You should take a look at Retool. You still need to configure the databases separately in SQL, but the user interface builder is pretty intuitive.

kls 7y ago

I love access, and pushed it at many jobs that I have been at. Many times you have small teams who just are not worth the investment of enterprise systems while they are still growing that part of the business. Access allowed them to solution their needs while the requirements are still in flux. Once a department becomes big enough the access solution serves as a working prototype to generate requirements to build a proper system. It is a shame that Access has fallen out of favor and there really are no web tools that compare to how well it enabled users.

sverhagen 7y ago
Except that for most of us there's probably an eternity between "big enough ... to build a proper system" and actually building one.
chihuahua 7y ago
One could argue that Microsoft PowerApps (Dynamics 365 CDS model apps) is the enterprise equivalent of Access. It's extremely easy to build a CRUD app without writing any code.
- collyw 7y ago
  Access has always been relatively easy to build an app with close "to no code". The problem is that you still need to understand the principles of a relational database to use it properly and that is usually taught after basic coding.

mbesto 7y ago

There's a whole industry around this - they're called low-code environments. https://www.g2.com/categories/low-code-development-platforms https://www.g2.com/categories/low-code-development-platforms

mamcx 7y ago

Same. I'm building the foundations with a relational lang (https://github.com/Tablam/TablaM https://github.com/Tablam/TablaM), because where Access/Excel "fail" was to have a huge disconnect between how use it and how program it. Also because I think the lang could make everything else easier (for example: transform datasources). Where some tools in this space ALSO fail is to be ONLY for cloud. I think nothing will displace access/excel if don't have a native/local experience.

qpiox 7y ago

https://apex.oracle.com https://apex.oracle.com is a solution for most of the use-cases similar to MS Access and VB6. But useful only if you have an Oracle database. I mentioned OpenXava as a development tool in another post. They had their own 0 programming hosted environment with similar ease of use as APEX, but I can't find the link now.

skanga 7y ago
Try https://www.openxava.org/ https://www.openxava.org/

codenesium 7y ago

It's because the owner of this patent is a patent troll who sues companies out of existence for building what you're talking about. https://patents.google.com/patent/US7062502 https://patents.google.com/patent/US7062502 https://www.theregister.co.uk/AMP/2015/09/07/sunk_by_patent_troll_iron_speed_stops_ops/ https://www.theregister.co.uk/AMP/2015/09/07/sunk_by_patent_...

potiuper 7y ago
How is Access 97 Form Wizard not prior art?

purplesquirtle1 7y ago

We're working on a new VB6 for the web platform, and would love your feedback :). Good for quickly spinning up CRUD apps with a few new features such as embedded BI and simple ML tools. It's still in early access, but if you'd like to play around with it, please don't hesitate to message me at verygoodtool1@gmail.com.

meredydd 7y ago

We have in fact built a "VB6 for the web"! It's called Anvil (https://anvil.works https://anvil.works), and it has: - Drag'n'drop UI design (https://anvil.works/docs/client/quickstart https://anvil.works/docs/client/quickstart) - Python code (browser-side and server-side) - A built-in database (https://anvil.works/docs/data-tables/quickstart https://anvil.works/docs/data-tables/quickstart) - Multi-user support out-of-the-box (https://anvil.works/docs/users https://anvil.works/docs/users) - Built in email/cron/secrets/etc - Plug-in integration with Python code running anywhere else on the internet. You import a library, it connects via websocket to your hosted app, you get two-way RPC between your code any your app (https://anvil.works/learn/tutorials/jupyter-notebook-to-web-app https://anvil.works/learn/tutorials/jupyter-notebook-to-web-...)