[HN Gopher] Retool Database
___________________________________________________________________
Retool Database
Author : antonyl
Score : 104 points
Date : 2023-03-30 07:26 UTC (15 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (retool.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (retool.com)
| dblooman wrote:
| Are there good video resources for Retool in general, I looked at
| some youtube videos and found mostly creating a basic database
| view with a form. Any more substantial examples?
| kwhinnery wrote:
| Hey there! We are actually working on a video course for Retool
| that covers more of the breadth of the platform. Definitely
| more to come. One more substantial example we released recently
| is this bookstore application, which uses about every part of
| the platform [1]. It's the app demoed at this virtual event,
| Retool Developer Day [2].
|
| 1: https://github.com/tryretool/bookstore_sample_app
|
| 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmLPdHqC0uQ
| sikan_ wrote:
| Hi HN! I'm the lead engineer on Retool Database.
|
| Spreadsheets are often used as "poor man's databases"--they're
| quick to get started, but fall apart when you need data
| integrity, validation, and the ability to query/filter data.
|
| This is why I am so excited about this launch - Retool Database
| gives you the power of Postgres with the "getting started" speed
| of a spreadsheet. No setup required.
|
| We've also spent a lot of time on the UI for interacting with the
| database as well. You can create and edit tables, columns, and
| rows quickly without writing SQL. You should be able to get the
| same speed of iteration as spreadsheets, but you are also
| starting from the get-go that can handle the increasing
| complexity of your data and scale much better with app
| development.
|
| We're giving you 5GB free storage for the first year + connection
| strings so you can access your data outside Retool.
|
| Lots of learnings as we built this--happy to answer any question
| you have!
| ithrow wrote:
| Can Retool Database be self-hosted stand-alone without Retool?
| I can see using this as a replacement for excel on some things.
| sikan_ wrote:
| We agree! The UI can be really helpful to make quick changes
| to schema, data, etc. You can't run the UI without a Retool
| account though. We have a self-hosted Retool that works with
| your own Postgres database that you connect to Retool. Docs
| here: https://docs.retool.com/docs/retool-database-self-
| hosted
| CaliAlec wrote:
| Looks cool, I'm just wondering how this compares to Google
| Tables?
| sikan_ wrote:
| Google tables is similar to Airtable, they are proprietary
| databases. You cannot query them and interface with them easily
| from another application like a regular database.
|
| Retool Database has that friendly table UI but also give you
| the full query capability via SQL (we even give you the
| Postgres connection string that let you connect to it
| externally with your favorite tool).
| sa46 wrote:
| Looks super snazzy:
|
| Can I point Retool Database to an existing Postgres database? If
| not, do y'all have any plans to add support?
|
| How's it work under the hood? Custom extensions?
| tjsavage511 wrote:
| (PM at Retool) For self-hosted deployments, you can point an
| existing Postgres DB (v14.3 or later) to Retool Database -
| though it's more specifically designed to quickly evolve a new
| database. For cloud customers, we currently don't support
| pointing your own database but it's something we're thinking
| about!
|
| No custom extensions - we wanted to make it a lightweight and
| effective layer on top of Postgres. So it's just a vanilla
| Postgres database under the hood. The UI gives you access to a
| lot of the power of Postgres, and for anything that you can't
| do via the UI you can use the connection string directly: e.g.
| create triggers, create compound unique keys, etc.
| stronglikedan wrote:
| Just helping OP keep up: https://docs.retool.com/docs/retool-
| database-self-hosted
| jimmyechan wrote:
| Curious to know your use case. Were you hoping to use Retool
| Database with your existing Postgres as a schema builder or as
| a data editor via their spreadsheet UI?
| richarlidad wrote:
| Thanks - this will improve my life
| taylorfinley wrote:
| I've been using Retool Database inside a Retool Workflow and I
| find my update queries don't seem to resolve in the workflow,
| although I can see the updates in the table. I've just chalked it
| up to beta status, but since y'all are here I thought I might ask
| if this is a known issue or if I should reach out to support.
|
| Edit to add: really killer addition to the product, keep up the
| great work
| sikan_ wrote:
| (Engineer @ Retool) Hard to tell without looking at your
| specific workflow logic - but I definitely encourage you to
| reach out to support! Could very well be a bug on our end.
| calvinmorrison wrote:
| I think Retool is awesome - though last time I think I didn't see
| a way to allow clients to have access to certain views. We have
| some databases we'd love to generate views for client access, but
| we don't need them to have full blown accounts. Is that something
| on the horizon?
| antonybello wrote:
| (PM at Retool) Yes! We recently shipped Retool Embed to enable
| you to build settings pages, dashboards, and UIs in Retool and
| embed them securely into your client-facing apps. You can learn
| more about Embed here and sign up for the beta:
| https://retool.com/products/embed We're also working on a
| solution to let you build full-stack client portals in Retool.
| I'm antony@retool.com if you want to chat!
| roozbeh18 wrote:
| I wish retool had two things, more granular permissions for
| users on team plan. right now this is reserved for enterprise.
| I can not simply share only specific apps to certain users.
|
| I wish to be able to pay yearly. We are on a hosted solution.
| tommycollison wrote:
| (Retool employee here.) Based on how we see companies using
| the different plans, we have a couple of delineations between
| the monthly and yearly plans. Happy to chat with you about
| your specific use case and discuss pricing/plan options! I'm
| tommy@retool.com
| rubenfiszel wrote:
| We have clients solving this pattern using supabase (storing
| the client's credentials on supabase and then using RLS) and
| our open-source solution Windmill to solve this exact problem.
| jallmann wrote:
| This is good news. Retool-local storage was a big missing piece
| of the puzzle for us.
|
| For self-hosted customers, is the database still on-premises? Or
| does it live in the Retool cloud?
| sikan_ wrote:
| For self-hosted customers, Retool Database operates more like a
| front-end for your own DB (though we do require specific
| versions of Postgres for it all to work smoothly). Docs here:
| https://docs.retool.com/docs/retool-database-self-hosted
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2023-03-30 23:01 UTC)