9 ms·

Show HN: Automate complicated manual business processes

83 points by mrjn 3y ago

navaneethpk 3y ago
Hey HN, Founder here, I’m excited to announce that we've just launched the beta version of ToolJet’s Workflow Automation tool! For those unfamiliar, ToolJet started its journey when we open-sourced ToolJet (https://github.com/ToolJet/ToolJet https://github.com/ToolJet/ToolJet) here on HackerNews back in June 2021 (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27421408 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27421408). When we launched ToolJet, we aimed to bridge the gap between developers and non-developers, making it easier for teams to build internal tools swiftly. Our journey began right here on HackerNews, and much of our evolution has been shaped by feedback from many of you. Today, we’re taking a step further with our new Workflow Automation tool. How it works 1. Connect your data sources: Add any of the pre-existing ~50 data sources like PGSQL, RestAPI, Zendesk, Stripe, Amazon S3 and many more. 2. Create a workflow: Create a new workflow from your ToolJet Dashboard. A workflow is a series of steps which are executed one after the other, and each step is interacting with a datasource by fetching or putting back data. 3. Business logic: Implement your business logic by creating branches based on conditions and by running JavaScript codes. 4. Debugging: You can see the logs by expanding logs panel at the bottom of the workflow builder. It will have all information you need to debug your workflow. Documentation: https://docs.tooljet.com/docs/workflows/overview?ref=blog.tooljet.com https://docs.tooljet.com/docs/workflows/overview?ref=blog.to... Availability Currently, the Workflow Automation beta is available for on self-hosted instances running Business and Enterprise editions. PS: We haven't open-sourced Workflows.
- thelittleone 3y ago
  Interesting. How is this different to the likes of make.com and process.st?
  - shubham22 3y ago
    ToolJet is a full stack platform for building internal tools where automation is one part of it. We also support creating web applications and have a data store. While make.com is focussed just on automation but for all kinds of use cases and not focussed on solving internal tooling problems for the companies. However, process street does look focussed on building software for internal applications but it is more towards no-code spectrum which has its advantages but makes it less customisable. ToolJet, on the other hand is more customisable and developer friendly because of our low-code approach.
- wanderingmind 3y ago
  Can you tell us what tooljet help me do faster and better than other tools like budibase or windmill?
  - shubham22 3y ago
    Budibase’s workflow product has been around for a while and we are directly competing with each other. We have our own strengths but would be difficult to say if we or them are better at this stage. Windmill is a great product too but it is totally pro-code and building workflow with it, one has to write a lot of code compared to ToolJet. Hence, ToolJet would be definitely faster here.
    - rubenfiszel 3y ago
      (Windmill Founder here) Windmill allows you to write code in any places but we have a hub augmented every day with pre-made integrations so that you do not have to: https://hub.windmill.dev https://hub.windmill.dev. We also have native support for BigQuery, Snorflake, Mysql, GraphQL, with dedicated editors. Hence, I fail to see how it would be any faster to build workflows in tooljet than in windmill. I do not have a business license of tooljet so I have not been able to do the comparison. Interested to hear feedbacks on that. Our workflow engine and UX seems to be a lot more advanced from what I can see because we have been iterating on it for longer. Congrats on the launch though and may the best open-source alternative to Retool win.
      - shubham22 3y ago
        I have not tried the product in depth but this comes from your website headline where it says “Turn scripts into .... “. But great to know you have inbuilt integrations now. Best of luck, may the best internal tooling platform wins.
        rubenfiszel 3y ago
        If you do not know the product then maybe instead of saying that X is simpler/faster/better than Y it would be better/fairer to say "I don't know" or "from a look at their landing" ?
- Brillaughte 3y ago
  As a non dev, I'm doing every of my front and back with chatgpt code interpreter and it's working fine. I ask him to create a simulation to test each part of his code and modify until it work. The issue with low codes tools is that I cannot ask gpt to do stuff for me, and I have the risk that gpt cannot help me as he don't know the tool.
  - shubham22 3y ago
    Can’t say for all low code tools but if you consider ToolJet, you can build apps using drag and drop UI builder and doing customisation in UI. You really don’t need GPT once you get a hang on it. Ofcourse, experience can be further improved using GPT but that is not real value as of today. Compared to GPT powered traditional development, ToolJet’s approach is still faster. IMHO, real value is when you can extend/customise ToolJet using custom code or database queries. And this is where GPT can help. We even have a inbuilt Copilot for these use cases.
- projektfu 3y ago
  Heads up: on your docs page, using Brave on Android 13, if I go to the menu and expand a section, it scrolls, but then if I click on an item, when I go back to the menu it will no longer scroll and I have to use the back button to get back to where I can use the menu again.
  - navaneethpk 3y ago
    Thank you. Will fix it asap.
ano88888 3y ago
what is the working open source alternative for retook and tooljet?
- navaneethpk 3y ago
  ToolJet is open-source - https://github.com/ToolJet/ToolJet https://github.com/ToolJet/ToolJet
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  - thomassharoon 3y ago
    From the GH repo: > You can deploy ToolJet on Heroku for free using the one-click-deployment button only until 28th November 2022. Why the limitation?
    - navaneethpk 3y ago
      Heroku removed their free tier.
  - rubenfiszel 3y ago
    > Self-hosted Business & Enterprise plans only (Windmill Founder here) Our workflow part is open-source so it's not 1:1 comparison
- foxbee 3y ago
  Budibase is open-source, including the workflow platform which has helped accelerate thousands of workflows already: https://github.com/Budibase/budibase https://github.com/Budibase/budibase
- Palmik 3y ago
  There's also https://github.com/windmill-labs/windmill https://github.com/windmill-labs/windmill and https://github.com/activepieces/activepieces https://github.com/activepieces/activepieces depending on which parts of retool and tooljet you care about.
yuppiepuppie 3y ago
Congrats on the launch. One piece of feedback, please remove all the "target="_blank" from the links in the toolbar. Its quite annoying to have a bunch of tabs created navigating your landing page. It might also confuse any analytic tools that you have installed on the site.
- navaneethpk 3y ago
  Yes, makes sense. We will remove this asap.
  - Dalewyn 3y ago
    Speaking as someone who learned how to make websites 20 years ago, target="_blank" is traditionally only for links leading to another, completely different and separate website. For example, if you have a link going to Google somewhere you might put target="_blank" on it. Otherwise, its use has always been frowned upon because it breaks the back button (it's a new window/tab!), disrupts context (unless that disruption makes sense, like above), and spams the taskbar/tab bar.
    - navaneethpk 3y ago
      Thanks. The issue is now fixed.
    - masa331 3y ago
      It's a bad practice always since the user can easily choose if he/she wants to open it in new tab by themselv but not the other way. For a user there is zero benefits in this practice
      - smokel 3y ago
        "The user" on a typical website does not know how to do this. For a user there is the benefit that they will not lose their presence on the website. Many users do not know how to navigate back. Of course, in times long gone a new window would appear, and the pattern made even more sense than with tabs. If you would have left out the word "always", I might have agreed that for this particular website and intended audience, it does not make much of a difference.
hgomersall 3y ago
Can I integrate with a third party API without spending a week understanding OAuth and front end development?
- navaneethpk 3y ago
  Yes, that should be easy. Here is the guide for using OAuth - https://docs.tooljet.com/docs/how-to/oauth2-authorization/ https://docs.tooljet.com/docs/how-to/oauth2-authorization/.
  - hgomersall 3y ago
    Does that only work for OAuth providers you've implemented, or can I use a third party provider? Specifically, can I relatively easily integrate with the Xero API? https://developer.xero.com/documentation/guides/oauth2/overview/ https://developer.xero.com/documentation/guides/oauth2/overv...
    - navaneethpk 3y ago
      It is a generic connector for OAuth. Since Xero supports OAuth 2.0, it should be a similar process to integrate. Feel free to ping us [hello@tooljet.com] if you run in to any issues.
impish9208 3y ago
How does this compare to something like Camunda?
- shubham22 3y ago
  Never got a chance to explore Camunda. Feel free to share you thoughts if you have used it.
mdorazio 3y ago
What’s the main selling point for why I should use this over the pile of existing RPA tools?
RadiozRadioz 3y ago
Tools like this are great because they make creating software less seem scary. I've found that business users are deterred from creating software because they need to write structured text & use syntax to do it. I would have thought that the problem solving part was the hard part, but for them it's the act of representing something in text; it's some kind of insurmountable barrier that I don't understand. But with WYSIWYG tools like this, the barrier is gone and they're totally content to start building reasonably complex systems. Of course it becomes a tangled mess later, but at least they managed to solve a problem.

83 points by mrjn 3y ago

Hey HN, Founder here, I’m excited to announce that we've just launched the beta version of ToolJet’s Workflow Automation tool! For those unfamiliar, ToolJet started its journey when we open-sourced ToolJet (https://github.com/ToolJet/ToolJet https://github.com/ToolJet/ToolJet) here on HackerNews back in June 2021 (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27421408 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27421408). When we launched ToolJet, we aimed to bridge the gap between developers and non-developers, making it easier for teams to build internal tools swiftly. Our journey began right here on HackerNews, and much of our evolution has been shaped by feedback from many of you. Today, we’re taking a step further with our new Workflow Automation tool. How it works 1. Connect your data sources: Add any of the pre-existing ~50 data sources like PGSQL, RestAPI, Zendesk, Stripe, Amazon S3 and many more. 2. Create a workflow: Create a new workflow from your ToolJet Dashboard. A workflow is a series of steps which are executed one after the other, and each step is interacting with a datasource by fetching or putting back data. 3. Business logic: Implement your business logic by creating branches based on conditions and by running JavaScript codes. 4. Debugging: You can see the logs by expanding logs panel at the bottom of the workflow builder. It will have all information you need to debug your workflow. Documentation: https://docs.tooljet.com/docs/workflows/overview?ref=blog.tooljet.com https://docs.tooljet.com/docs/workflows/overview?ref=blog.to... Availability Currently, the Workflow Automation beta is available for on self-hosted instances running Business and Enterprise editions. PS: We haven't open-sourced Workflows.

thelittleone 3y ago
Interesting. How is this different to the likes of make.com and process.st?
- shubham22 3y ago
  ToolJet is a full stack platform for building internal tools where automation is one part of it. We also support creating web applications and have a data store. While make.com is focussed just on automation but for all kinds of use cases and not focussed on solving internal tooling problems for the companies. However, process street does look focussed on building software for internal applications but it is more towards no-code spectrum which has its advantages but makes it less customisable. ToolJet, on the other hand is more customisable and developer friendly because of our low-code approach.
wanderingmind 3y ago
Can you tell us what tooljet help me do faster and better than other tools like budibase or windmill?
- shubham22 3y ago
  Budibase’s workflow product has been around for a while and we are directly competing with each other. We have our own strengths but would be difficult to say if we or them are better at this stage. Windmill is a great product too but it is totally pro-code and building workflow with it, one has to write a lot of code compared to ToolJet. Hence, ToolJet would be definitely faster here.
  - rubenfiszel 3y ago
    (Windmill Founder here) Windmill allows you to write code in any places but we have a hub augmented every day with pre-made integrations so that you do not have to: https://hub.windmill.dev https://hub.windmill.dev. We also have native support for BigQuery, Snorflake, Mysql, GraphQL, with dedicated editors. Hence, I fail to see how it would be any faster to build workflows in tooljet than in windmill. I do not have a business license of tooljet so I have not been able to do the comparison. Interested to hear feedbacks on that. Our workflow engine and UX seems to be a lot more advanced from what I can see because we have been iterating on it for longer. Congrats on the launch though and may the best open-source alternative to Retool win.
    - shubham22 3y ago
      I have not tried the product in depth but this comes from your website headline where it says “Turn scripts into .... “. But great to know you have inbuilt integrations now. Best of luck, may the best internal tooling platform wins.
      - rubenfiszel 3y ago
        If you do not know the product then maybe instead of saying that X is simpler/faster/better than Y it would be better/fairer to say "I don't know" or "from a look at their landing" ?
Brillaughte 3y ago
As a non dev, I'm doing every of my front and back with chatgpt code interpreter and it's working fine. I ask him to create a simulation to test each part of his code and modify until it work. The issue with low codes tools is that I cannot ask gpt to do stuff for me, and I have the risk that gpt cannot help me as he don't know the tool.
- shubham22 3y ago
  Can’t say for all low code tools but if you consider ToolJet, you can build apps using drag and drop UI builder and doing customisation in UI. You really don’t need GPT once you get a hang on it. Ofcourse, experience can be further improved using GPT but that is not real value as of today. Compared to GPT powered traditional development, ToolJet’s approach is still faster. IMHO, real value is when you can extend/customise ToolJet using custom code or database queries. And this is where GPT can help. We even have a inbuilt Copilot for these use cases.
projektfu 3y ago
Heads up: on your docs page, using Brave on Android 13, if I go to the menu and expand a section, it scrolls, but then if I click on an item, when I go back to the menu it will no longer scroll and I have to use the back button to get back to where I can use the menu again.
- navaneethpk 3y ago
  Thank you. Will fix it asap.

ano88888 3y ago

what is the working open source alternative for retook and tooljet?

navaneethpk 3y ago
ToolJet is open-source - https://github.com/ToolJet/ToolJet https://github.com/ToolJet/ToolJet
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- thomassharoon 3y ago
  From the GH repo: > You can deploy ToolJet on Heroku for free using the one-click-deployment button only until 28th November 2022. Why the limitation?
  - navaneethpk 3y ago
    Heroku removed their free tier.
- rubenfiszel 3y ago
  > Self-hosted Business & Enterprise plans only (Windmill Founder here) Our workflow part is open-source so it's not 1:1 comparison
foxbee 3y ago
Budibase is open-source, including the workflow platform which has helped accelerate thousands of workflows already: https://github.com/Budibase/budibase https://github.com/Budibase/budibase
Palmik 3y ago
There's also https://github.com/windmill-labs/windmill https://github.com/windmill-labs/windmill and https://github.com/activepieces/activepieces https://github.com/activepieces/activepieces depending on which parts of retool and tooljet you care about.

yuppiepuppie 3y ago

Congrats on the launch. One piece of feedback, please remove all the "target="_blank" from the links in the toolbar. Its quite annoying to have a bunch of tabs created navigating your landing page. It might also confuse any analytic tools that you have installed on the site.

navaneethpk 3y ago
Yes, makes sense. We will remove this asap.
- Dalewyn 3y ago
  Speaking as someone who learned how to make websites 20 years ago, target="_blank" is traditionally only for links leading to another, completely different and separate website. For example, if you have a link going to Google somewhere you might put target="_blank" on it. Otherwise, its use has always been frowned upon because it breaks the back button (it's a new window/tab!), disrupts context (unless that disruption makes sense, like above), and spams the taskbar/tab bar.
  - navaneethpk 3y ago
    Thanks. The issue is now fixed.
  - masa331 3y ago
    It's a bad practice always since the user can easily choose if he/she wants to open it in new tab by themselv but not the other way. For a user there is zero benefits in this practice
    - smokel 3y ago
      "The user" on a typical website does not know how to do this. For a user there is the benefit that they will not lose their presence on the website. Many users do not know how to navigate back. Of course, in times long gone a new window would appear, and the pattern made even more sense than with tabs. If you would have left out the word "always", I might have agreed that for this particular website and intended audience, it does not make much of a difference.

hgomersall 3y ago

Can I integrate with a third party API without spending a week understanding OAuth and front end development?

navaneethpk 3y ago
Yes, that should be easy. Here is the guide for using OAuth - https://docs.tooljet.com/docs/how-to/oauth2-authorization/ https://docs.tooljet.com/docs/how-to/oauth2-authorization/.
- hgomersall 3y ago
  Does that only work for OAuth providers you've implemented, or can I use a third party provider? Specifically, can I relatively easily integrate with the Xero API? https://developer.xero.com/documentation/guides/oauth2/overview/ https://developer.xero.com/documentation/guides/oauth2/overv...
  - navaneethpk 3y ago
    It is a generic connector for OAuth. Since Xero supports OAuth 2.0, it should be a similar process to integrate. Feel free to ping us [hello@tooljet.com] if you run in to any issues.

impish9208 3y ago

How does this compare to something like Camunda?

shubham22 3y ago
Never got a chance to explore Camunda. Feel free to share you thoughts if you have used it.

mdorazio 3y ago

What’s the main selling point for why I should use this over the pile of existing RPA tools?

RadiozRadioz 3y ago

Tools like this are great because they make creating software less seem scary. I've found that business users are deterred from creating software because they need to write structured text & use syntax to do it. I would have thought that the problem solving part was the hard part, but for them it's the act of representing something in text; it's some kind of insurmountable barrier that I don't understand. But with WYSIWYG tools like this, the barrier is gone and they're totally content to start building reasonably complex systems. Of course it becomes a tangled mess later, but at least they managed to solve a problem.