Anybody else using Retool? I’ve been trying it out with Hailey for a data viz toolkit and I’m having enough fun that now I’m just waiting to find out why it’s going to all fall apart on me. But maybe it won’t. Maybe it rules.
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I did some prototypes with it a couple years back and was one of the first visual coding tools that made me think it might actually work well enough to be useful.
- oh, there's an update. (Updates)
- oh, wait what? My backend can't connect to the database?
(Debugs)
- oh, crap, they deprecated the data access library I was using?
(Rewrites the entire backend in Go in a day; throws the MS ecosystem in the bin)
I haven’t used it long term but I had a client project many years ago where we integrated it and I remember at the time being very fond of having a tool like that to manage queries
I’ve used it for internal dashboards and tooling at a couple places. It’s pretty good at what it does. If you build a nav component and share it across a few different retool pages it starts feeling like a reasonably coherent internal app
been using it consistently for like 5 years. love it for rapidly building internal dashboards and tools.
only thing that bugs me is the "apps" you create in retool can't be committed to a git repo, so they have to exist outside your codebase. but they do have a version control feature.
though i'll add that it can get messy and performance can start to get quite slow if you add too many components and queries to one app. i usually split things up into multiple separate apps to avoid that
I'm sure there's all kinds of amazing and important things happening behind the scenes but... is there any news or updates on features that average users can understand and get excited about? I love this platform but it kinda feels stagnant (from an average users perspective).
I built a number of apps that control live graphics for sports streaming. Only issues have been my own fault. It’s superb and the forums are very active with staff. Big fan here
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I have now moved that reporting in house.
I wrote a couple of posts on it.
https://djangoandy.com/?s=Retool
It's just a first order tool, like a spreadsheet. Not much in terms of abstraction IIRC
- oh, wait what? My backend can't connect to the database?
(Debugs)
- oh, crap, they deprecated the data access library I was using?
(Rewrites the entire backend in Go in a day; throws the MS ecosystem in the bin)
c# a=b,int =option2;
Is joke, but an integrated translator has been needed for a long time 😅
only thing that bugs me is the "apps" you create in retool can't be committed to a git repo, so they have to exist outside your codebase. but they do have a version control feature.
The only downside in 3 years of use was cost, but that was mostly an error on our procurement
Just make sure the contact is right sized