[HN Gopher] Show HN: Tablum.io - No-Code Self-Service BI/Data An...
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Show HN: Tablum.io - No-Code Self-Service BI/Data Analytics Tool
Author : instad
Score : 32 points
Date : 2021-11-11 12:46 UTC (10 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (tablum.io)
(TXT) w3m dump (tablum.io)
| hermitcrab wrote:
| Feedback - the music on the demo video is horrible (IMHO).
| instad wrote:
| Thanks for watching.
| Bishonen88 wrote:
| Not only the music, but the whole video was lacklustre. The
| effects used were not really fitting the whole vibe of a BI
| tool (personal opinion).
|
| Contrast this with a video like this one:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuIS-m0B2cY
|
| After watching the above, I'm more curious to check out the
| real product.
| rexreed wrote:
| Not to be flippant, but in what way is Excel not a no-code /
| self-service BI / Data Analytics tool? Or where Google Sheets is
| heading? Serious question. The average non-technical user goes
| first to Excel or Excel-like things.
| waxdotrun wrote:
| This was my observation as well. Sheets is actually quite good,
| but what's missing is connectivity to other tools (e.g. your
| database). This is exactly the problem we're going after with
| Wax[0]. We let you deeply integrate Sheets into your other
| apps.
|
| 0 - https://www.wax.run/
| Frost1x wrote:
| Excel doesn't have a lot of visual based development features
| aside from the tabular structure and graphical data and
| function reference. People still have to understand function
| calls and conditionals which aren't represented in what I would
| call verging on "no-code" ideals.
|
| Excel applications also tend to start rather innocently where
| something rather simple is programmed in the cellular
| structure. People quickly feel empowered and begin adding more
| and more dynamic aspects. At some point spreadsheet based
| applications turn more into some unmaintainble monstrosity that
| have all sorts of business and application logic embedded in
| them that need to get handed elsewhere and someone else
| familiar with "code" or software design has to translate
| everything to.
|
| I've been involved in more of this than I care to admit for
| business applications and it's usually a nightmare because the
| applications become more critical to the business than anyone
| but the spreadsheet maintainer is aware of. Suddenly something
| new and time critical is needed or an error is discovered and
| the person who created it largely can't remember everything
| they created and why, so it turns into an software
| archeological endeavor.
|
| I've seen notebooks with dozens of sheets containing all sorts
| of embedded data structures on different sheet with all sorts
| of relationships inside and outside of sheets and nightmare
| chains of conditionals added in that I've had to sift through.
|
| Sometimes the user then discovers macros or VBA and it becomes
| a dice roll if things are better or worse (usually better
| because at least you can quickly follow all the embedded
| relationships even if they're not well structured unlike logic
| embedded in cells with all sorts of spatial references you need
| 10 copies open to trace and debug).
|
| Excel is hardly "no code" it just has a nice beginner learning
| curve that gets people into dangerous situations before they
| know they are. I'm not entirely sure about the direction of
| Google Sheets as I haven't used it in years.
| eatonphil wrote:
| My workflow for the longest time has been: use a SQL GUI to run
| SQL queries but then dump that to CSV so I could load in Excel
| and make graphics I could embed in a presentation or sent in an
| email.
|
| I don't think Excel or Google Sheets are the right interface
| for diverse data sources that have different query styles and
| different connection types. Visually the space in each Cell is
| just pretty constrained.
|
| I am building an open source tool [0] for these kinds of
| workflows where you need to combine queries, scripting in
| Python/JavaScript/etc, graphing, dashboards, email exports in
| one place. It's very similar to tablum.io (this post) but
| instead of doing any ETL it's just a smart client for joining
| data client-side.
|
| [0] https://github.com/multiprocessio/datastation
| TekMol wrote:
| The site wants me to log in via Google or Facebook.
|
| No, thanks.
| instad wrote:
| We will enable email registration and authorization soon. Stay
| tuned. And thanks for commenting.
| roystonvassey wrote:
| Cool stuff.
|
| Just curious- how does it stack against Metabase
| (https://www.metabase.com/product/) for example? I used Metabase
| a few years back and was really blown away with the ease of use.
| instad wrote:
| Thanks! Well, in general they both are self-service BIs, and
| have common features. Yet, TABLUM.IO is focused more on faster
| data extraction from files e.g. you can just drag and drop
| JSON, XML or CSV file to load data from it. Or specify an URL
| for data loading from remote host. Then it is stored in a local
| storage as a "view" (similar to sql table). And you can work
| with it like it is an SQL table using sqlite syntax: JOIN with
| other loaded data, filter, clean up, export or generate charts.
| Of cause, it has connectors to popular DBs such as postgres,
| mysql and clickhouse.
|
| Ultimately, we're working towards a faster data analysis so you
| won't spend too much time setting up connectors to files and
| databases. Just get the results as fast as possible.
|
| Same with data analysis: it has embedded support for aggregate
| - and window-functions. You can get "MOVING AVERAGE" just
| clicking the table columns (no keystrokes required).
|
| Dashboards are not yet implemented, but we're working on it.
|
| Thanks!
| roystonvassey wrote:
| Got it! Thanks and best wishes!
| marcinzm wrote:
| This seems more of an end-to-end system including etl job
| scheduling, data loading and local storage.
| instad wrote:
| Exactly!
| eatonphil wrote:
| Metabase is primarily for sql and this system seems to support
| more than just sql.
| vladsanchez wrote:
| Agreed! Suddenly I thought of Metabase, Looker or even
| Superset.
| roystonvassey wrote:
| Ah right, thanks!
| mattm wrote:
| Good luck. I previously worked for a BI company. It's an
| extremely crowded space.
| instad wrote:
| Thanks! Yes, it's very competitive environment. So we're trying
| to stand out as a data analytics tool for developers.
| prepend wrote:
| The dream of no code lives on.
|
| I've tried many no code tools over the decades. As an individual
| and as a group.
|
| Ease of use is really important. But I think easy for Python
| programmers is better than easy for people to click. Logic is
| logic, so whether you program in code or via some wack gui, you
| still need programmers.
|
| Every time it's come down to regretting committing to a closed,
| proprietary "programming language" that is the no code tool.
|
| The exception is for simple stuff. But with data projects simple
| projects usually get complicated fast. So Id rather use a tool
| that scales well rather than one that starts easy but then is
| very hard to scale.
| goto11 wrote:
| > Logic is logic, so whether you program in code or via some
| wack gui, you still need programmers.
|
| Perhaps, depending on your definition of programmers, but lots
| of people can use logic. An accountant making complex
| calculations and forecasts in Excel is surely just as logic and
| precise as a programmer hacking something together in Python.
| prepend wrote:
| That's true. But some of the best programmers I knew were
| accountants.
|
| There's a difference between being able to program (everyone)
| and being a professional programmer.
|
| It's like everyone can cook dinner but not all can be a chef.
| This doesn't mean the solution is microwaveable meals for
| everyone.
| narush wrote:
| Totally agree with this comment. This sort of "no-lock-in"
| thinking is exactly what inspired Mito [1] (I'm a co-founder,
| FYI).
|
| Mito is low-code data analysis tool inspired by spreadsheets.
| When you edit the spreadsheet, Mito generates Python code
| directly into your Jupyter lab notebook.
|
| The benefit here is that there's no lock in. If Mito support
| the action the user wants to take, they can use Mito for a
| quick point-and-click experience. If not, they can just write
| Python code as they normally do!
|
| [1] https://trymito.io/hn
| instad wrote:
| I would call TABLUM.IO - a low-code tool. Power SQL user can
| type any complex SQL query in the SQL console. Whereas the
| beginners won't spend much time doing simple "SELECT" or
| calculating the average, they can just click on the header of
| the table and select "stats" to see the result.
|
| I agree that no-code is limited to some general scenario, but
| there're still a lot of them.
|
| Thus, we decided to leave an opportunity to choose which way to
| go: use mouse for simple / general actions or use SQL console
| by power users to archive some complex results.
| waxdotrun wrote:
| Agreed, low-code is the happy middle ground here. Code is the
| most concise way to express what you want to do with data, so
| tools should just embrace that instead of hiding it away.
|
| We're running a low-code internal tool builder and everything
| is built / configured with code, but you never start from
| scratch, so it's 50x more productive then building your own.
| hermitcrab wrote:
| No-code BI and ETL tools are intended mainly as a replacement
| for Excel, not a replacement for Python.
|
| If you are an accomplished Python programmer, you might code a
| solution or (e.g. if you want to do something ad hoc quickly)
| use a no-code tool.
|
| If you aren't a programmer, your choice is typically: learn
| Python, use Excel, wait for a programmer to do it for you or
| use a no-code tool. A no-code tool will often be by far the
| best solution.
| instad wrote:
| You are completely right. Just wanted to add that Excel is a
| great product and it can be considered as a BI tool. The only
| thing it lacks of is data merging. You can easily merge data
| across sheets but it becomes a challenging task when you need
| to merge/"join" data from databases, especially huge
| datasets. This is where the self-service BI tools come into
| play.
|
| TABLUM.IO simplifies data extraction/load/import from files,
| web and databases. You can load data from postgres, json file
| and application API, then merge data into a single table,
| display as a sheet and draw a chart for it. Wheres it is
| almost impossible with Excel or GoogleSheet.
| mercurialsolo wrote:
| The interface lacks punch. While the idea of making a self-serve
| BI tool which can plugin the gap of bringing better understanding
| around data is super-cool, the execution here for sure needs
| work. Tried it out and it's cool for someone to hack with right
| now.
|
| Early launch.
| instad wrote:
| Thanks. We've just recently announced the very first version,
| and looking forward to any feedback and feature requests. Will
| do our best to make interface punchy!
| crad wrote:
| "Try for Free" with no info about what I would pay... no thanks.
| instad wrote:
| This is the early stage product launch, the product is
| completely free for now. So no worries regarding the pricing
| and charged, you will not be asked about credit cards. Feel
| free to test it. We do it mostly to collect feedback on the
| missing features and workflow. Thanks!
| tmtwhn wrote:
| No information on pricing and social only logins?
|
| I was interested in this product, but no thanks. At the very
| least if you're not ready to commit you could provide "beta"
| pricing for a year until you get that figured out.
| instad wrote:
| There's no paid plans at the moment. Just try it out for free
| with full features.
|
| Just curious, why the social logins are bad?
| garciasn wrote:
| Because they allow third parties to build bigger ID graphs
| and audiences for ad targeting.
|
| By all means, have them for convenience for those users who
| want to use them, but for the rest of us who know better,
| we'd appreciate the option to provide you our burner/one-time
| email addresses.
| instad wrote:
| We're going to extend the way to login for the cloud
| version. Currently, email/password auth is available only
| in self-hosted version (docker image installed on your
| VPS). Feel free to reach out to me info@tablum.io, if you'd
| like to test it. Thanks.
| tmtwhn wrote:
| Glad to hear this. Marketing that you'll offer a self
| hosted version and that email logins are coming soon
| would go a long way to improving trust.
| hungryforcodes wrote:
| > There's no paid plans at the moment. Just try it out for
| free with full features.
|
| OK. That's compelling enough.
|
| > Just curious, why the social logins are bad?
|
| How uniquely identifying are they to be honest?
| abakker wrote:
| because this is a tool for doing work? Nobody (or very few)
| HN people are going to want to do BI with their facebook
| accounts, if we even have FB accounts.
| Vespasian wrote:
| Many (read most) won't have a professional Facebook or
| Google account.
|
| My boss would not be happy if I had to use a Facebook
| account on my work machine.
|
| And who evaluates BI tools in their free time?
| instad wrote:
| There's also Google login, do you have gmail? Is it OK to
| log in via a corporate gmail?
| runako wrote:
| Outlook is bigger than Google for corporate email. I
| would suggest adding that (or better yet, listen to the
| other feedback and allow a standard email login flow).
| instad wrote:
| Sure. We will add email registration soon.
| tmtwhn wrote:
| Pretty much what the others here have been pointing out, that
| I have to hand over my data before I can evaluate whether or
| not I trust you with it. Feel free to verify the email I use
| to prevent abuse.
|
| I've been evaluating a lot of products in this space in the
| past week and I think it is a space that could do with a
| developer-first approach. But to do that I still want to see
| a path towards using it at scale that's a little more fleshed
| than a "talk to sales" equivalent. Even if this were open
| source, I would be happy to pay for someone else to host and
| scale it, but at least I would know I couldn't be
| unreasonably locked in after making my business depend on it.
| hermitcrab wrote:
| There are desktop alternatives (such as Easy Data
| Transform, Alteryx and Tableau Prep) where your data stays
| on your machine. Which helps with latency, as well as
| privacy.
| tmtwhn wrote:
| In this instance I'm referring to my personal data that
| can be pulled from social profiles, not the data to be
| analysed. :)
| instad wrote:
| We're offering a self-hosted version to keep your data on
| your server.
| hermitcrab wrote:
| Understood. But I would generally be more worried about
| uploading my data to the cloud, than using a social
| profile to do it.
| runako wrote:
| +1. Given that prices for products in this space range over
| several orders of magnitude, I wouldn't spend time evaluating
| without knowing whether my budget is even in the same ballpark.
|
| Would I expect to spend $1k annually? $10k? $100k? More?
| instad wrote:
| Got you. We will add the pricing soon just for the sake of
| right budgeting.
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