Might inspire you as you continue to develop your app
I exported most of my data from "Strong" into Stronk, was easy. Thanks !
The interface showed lbs, but my values were all kg, still works.
I want a simple front end that lets me log lifts to a sheet/database
For all the apps that are supposed to make this easier none of them do it right.
I’m interested in building a fitness ontology/terminology linked to a tokenizer and parser.
MM/DD/YYYY (i.e. 1/1/2025)
$sets x $reps $weight $name (i.e. 3x10 135 Bench Press)
I uploaded the log file to ChatGPT and had it spit out a Python script to parse into JSON:
``` for line in file:
date_match = re.match(r'^(\d{1,2}/\d{1,2}).\*?$', line.strip())
if date_match:
# construct a new workout entry
# continue
exercise_match = re.match(r'^(\d+)x(\d+)\s+(\d+)\s+(.+)$', line.strip())
if exercise_match:
# insert new exercise into current workout
# continuelot in google keep and copy paste, then sheet does rest
https://imgur.com/a/xoHaxFY (3 images)
notation is ColB, it'll generate relevant metrics, running total for some metrics like sets / INOL
I also have onedit in sheet where if I put $$ anywhere it will calculate for the row
if I have:
++5,10 it will generate warmups 5 reps jumps at 10%, back to 50%
+++5,10 will do ramping warmups i.e. x5, x4, x3, x2, x1
whatever last onedit row will also split up Rep PRs at top
Most useful for me is auto cycle naming and visualization, i.e. the house keeping stuff that makes all the other apps finicky vs just logging on paper or note
#### date = program name
### macrocycle (i.e. month)
## mesocycle (i.e. week)
# microcycle (i.e. day)
so it will auto generate something like
#24/12/27
#24/12/27「188/58」「3/2/4/4」「2D AGO」 (0,4,4,3)
188th session / 58th session of this program (program 3, macro 3 / meso 4/ micro 4), done XYZ days ago. (0,4,4,3) is push, pull, legs, fatigue/recovery out of 5
Visualization shows on/off days so you can get good timeline sense
box border for mesocycles (week) with how many days at corner (useful for intuitive training)
bars are volume (500lb increments) for varios tags (i.e. bp for all bench press variations)
underline shows inol status for session (none, single under line, double underline, thick underline for >0.4, 1, 2, 2+
it'll highlight extra good or bad sessions i.e. (5,4,0,3) was a very good push day
Now mostly i goto gym, log in google keep:
#YY/MM/DD (performance) comments
ex1 (reps x sets) comments
ex2 (reps x sets) comments
ex3 (reps x sets) comments
Copy and paste into sheet when I feel like it and review metrics graph when needed
MM/DD/YYYY (i.e. 1/1/2025)
$sets x $reps $weight $name (i.e. 3x10 135 Bench Press)
I uploaded the log file to ChatGPT and had it spit out a Python script to parse into JSON:
``` for line in file:
date_match = re.match(r'^(\d{1,2}/\d{1,2}).\*?$', line.strip())
if date_match:
# construct a new workout entry
# continue
exercise_match = re.match(r'^(\d+)x(\d+)\s+(\d+)\s+(.+)$', line.strip())
if exercise_match:
# insert new exercise into current workout
# continueI whipped up a spreadsheet in google sheets and added a google form that allowed me to quickly pick a medication that was just taken - it'd enter it into the sheet and an "overview" page would show me what was pending, with color coding if something was "overdue".
I felt like I was abusing what a spreadsheet was meant for but it worked quite well.
If I knew about Glide I probably could have made it look even nicer.
In Glide, we avoid code and syntax as much as possible. Our table-driven programming model also creates a nice MVC-like separation of concerns where you don’t end up with your program chaotically interspersed with controls on a canvas, so your program is easier to manage as it scales (in exchange for being less direct to create).
Ai assistants have speed up the prototype workflow for doing less code/design.
If you're using a big framework like Vite, this is somewhat easier, but then it's not a "simple html file" anymore and you spend just as much time fiddling with framework stuff.
> I can feel some people reading this article demanding that I just learn Swift or some mobile-friendly JavaScript package and make some real apps, but I steadfastly refuse. I enjoy the messy middle of programming, where I have just enough app, API, and logic knowledge to make something small for my friends and family that's always accessible on this little computer I carry everywhere, but I have no ambitions to make it "real."
I'm not normally a fan of nocode but dude, get real, the target user for this will have zero chance of understanding and maintaining the output if it's in code. Compared to pick your column and choose the type of widget you want it represented as. Below the tip of that iceberg there are also lots of non trivial features like search and sync.
> Open Glide on a large screen to build apps.
I get it - but a little ironic that one can't get started with an existing sheet...
We have a mobile experience in the works! https://glideapps.com/create
Much better loading time.
I made an app for a meetup/reunion, but 10 user limit meant everyone had to given a shared password
Like you, I would happily pay for many many services about 10/month - right where streaming subscriptions are. But none of these companies seem to understand that part…
https://www.notion.com/help/intro-to-databases
I have been looking for a way to switch from Notion since they rolled out AI features without an opt-out (besides emailing them). I don't even dislike LLMs, I just want to know what I'm sending them and when.
Another is AppSheet[1] for a more drag and drop application builder.
Important update: The Beta program is now closed Tables is no longer accepting new users for its Beta program
> Table’s features and capabilities are now integrated into AppSheet, our no-code platform that blah blah blah
Seems like a usual Google product in that if you use it, you'll be forced to migrate all your data/workflows to some shiny new thing every few years.
AppMaker was Google's AppSheet competitor that was shut down after a few years.
1. Sort/filter by columns (ex: status = not watched)
2. Add markdown like "[[Steve]] told me to watch this" and have backlinks etc. work seamlessly with the rest of my notes.
I know you can do that with Obsidian "properties" but I don't want 100 separate files for my to-watch list.
And I've tried a few of the Obsidian database plugins too, but as far as keyboard usability none of them came close to VisiData or LibreOffice.
You can create a movie template with a few props then put them anywhere and then tabularise all the entries with a query.
My use case would easily fit into the Fibery free plan. Amusingly, their own comparison page argues that Notion is a better fit for me:
“Where Fibery works better?
Processes and work management for medium and large teams. Complex processes like product management, feedback management, user research, software development tracking.
Where Notion works better?
Personal life organizer. Small/medium company wiki. Work management for teams with simple processes.”
Obsidian is a better note-taker, but Fibery is much more programmable and has the most important OOTB feature of Obsidian which is bidirectional linking (IMO).
I don’t think Fibery gives you less control except in the sense of like data ownership (which is what brought me to Obsidian back in the day).
More key bindings for Fibery would also be appreciated :)
I think Fibery is a very interesting product and an incredibly powerful platform. Developed by a small team.
Disclaim: this is not to say Access is to be despised of or anything. People found its utility for many years and the fact it is not what Boyce/Codd suggested they do with their tables, does not make it irrelevant. There was an article about how it just refuses to die and why. Worth reading for everyone interested in computer and computing history.
I haven't worked on these types of projects for nearly two years now. Folks I know use Retool or Softr with an API connectivity platform like Portable, Pipedream, or Zapier. If you're staring at a spreadsheet on a daily basis, the next step should be looking into an app builder combined with an API connection platform.
these 2 tools is great for easy/fast prototype various project and honestly its kinda hard to replace
It's so damn complicated in Google sheets. In MS Excel I could simply make a pivot chart, apply any aggregation on days/weeks and be done with it. But with Sheets I had to make a new aggregate column, filter data in another new column, and make a chart on that.
Your comment does explain that API is why they export to sheets and not excel but Google sheets is way behind in ease of use.
In excel I would not have to do any of that.
Imagine there are whole countries out there where income is public and accessible to anyone ;)
That said I don’t see a huge risk here, unless combined with lots of other data. Would probably avoid though.
Most big tech companies very rarely/never let a human review private customer data. Therefore I'm fine handing all the data over to big tech companies.
I don't really understand any other point of view - if you're worried about a machine seeing your private stuff, why did you type it into a keyboard in the first place?
Who owns that machine is important though. I don't mind putting my card details in via my phone to buy something because there's a level of trust in the whole system (it's my phone, I have a level of trust that google is not going to steal my card details via android, and a level of trust that the shop is legit and will process my order.)
If some random person off the street asked me to type my card details into their phone that's a very different ball game as I don't inherently trust them.
This isn't true. Google and Apple and others turn over user data to human analysts at NSA and FBI and others without search warrants all of the time, on hundreds of thousands of user accounts per year.
To be fine handing all the data over to big tech companies, you have to be fine handing all of the data over to US federal cops and intelligence services, too, because that's what giving the data (in non-e2ee form) to big tech means.
(Mind you; this includes device location histories due to geoip logs, unique identifiers, iMessage histories, photos, documents, everything.)
The cases they are allowed to tell you about aren’t in this category. They aren’t even allowed to say exactly how many of the secret warrantless orders they received, or exactly how many users were affectee, only 500-count ranges.
For just Apple, for just January 2023 to June 2023 (six months):
National Security - FISA Non-Content Requests
Table for National Security - FISA Non-Content Requests Data
Requests Received 0 - 499
Users/Accounts 40,500 - 40,999
National Security - FISA Content Requests
Table displaying National Security - FISA Content Requests
Requests Received 500 - 999
Users/Accounts 50,500 - 50,999
National Security Letter Requests
Table for National Security Letter Requests data
Requests Received 0 - 499
Users/Accounts 1,000 - 1,499
National Security Letters where Non-disclosure Order Lifted
0
I encourage you to read it for yourself:
These are not equivalents, nor are they similar. FISA = Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court / NSL = National Security Letter.
If a person is the target of the FISA system, there most certainly is probable cause.
National Security Letter is a gag order, given by the intelligence community, in order to protect national security.
Again, if you or your organization receives one of these, there most certainly is probable cause.
These systems may be detestable, but there's no need to make things up.
This has been well documented in the press following the Snowden disclosures. It’s called FAA702 or PRISM.
FISA “orders” are warrants and have the same requirement for probable cause as any search or seizure warrant (they aren't criminal warrants so the probable cause is not of there being evidence of a crime, but of the target being an agent of a foreign power.)
NSLs are administrative subpoenas accompanied with gag orders, not warrants, and correspondingly do not have a probable cause requirement; unlike warrants (and like other subpoenas), they are subject to precompliance challenge (and the associated gag order is challengable separately.)
>they are subject to precompliance challenge
and it's weird you go to the trouble to mention this but slough over the problems with FISA warrants. You are not arguing honestly here.
You put orders in quotes, but that’s what they are called, because it is illegal and inaccurate to call them warrants, because warrants per 4A are issued only upon probable cause. FISA orders are warrantless and do not require probable cause.
Snowden was very clear when he released the data on FAA702. No probable cause is required. They are not warrants. There is nobody in the room except a government petitioner and a government judge who rubber stamps them.
They are the #1 most used source in the US IC, and they make it possible for the FBI and DHS et al to read all of your gmail, all of your google docs, and all of your iMessages and phone photos without so much as a shred of criminal wrongdoing.
The idea that they are used only for foreign surveillance is patently false. There is ample hard documentation (again, thanks to Snowden) that they routinely use these to spy on americans. Their twisted logic is that if the data is replicated outside of the US (to say, a datacenter in Europe) then they are legally permitted to access it under the way the unconstitutional FISA Amendments Act (Section 702) is written.
Orders authorizing foreign intelligence surveillance purposes under FISA are warrants, and are often called warrants, and they, like all warrants, are issued only on probable cause. (It is not improper to call them “orders”, and they are often referred to that way, as well, it is just less specific; all warrants are [court] orders, but not all court orders, much less all orders more generally, are warrants.)
https://bja.ojp.gov/program/it/privacy-civil-liberties/autho...:
—quote—
Subchapter I of FISA established procedures for the conduct of foreign intelligence surveillance and created the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC). The Department of Justice must apply to the FISC to obtain a warrant authorizing electronic surveillance of foreign agents. For targets that are U.S. persons (U.S. citizens, permanent resident aliens, and U.S. corporations), FISA requires heightened requirements in some instances.
* Unlike domestic criminal surveillance warrants issued under Title III of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 (the “Wiretap Act”) , agents need to demonstrate probable cause to believe that the “target of the surveillance is a foreign power or agent of a foreign power,” that “a significant purpose” of the surveillance is to obtain “foreign intelligence information,” and that appropriate “minimization procedures” are in place. 50 U.S.C. § 1804.
* Agents do not need to demonstrate that commission of a crime is imminent.
* For purposes of FISA, agents of foreign powers include agents of foreign political organizations and groups engaged in international terrorism, as well as agents of foreign nations. 50 U.S.C. § 1801
—end-of-quote—
Things like drilling through, filtering/slicing, and then generating a graph, all in SaaS without having to run anything local.
Brilliant for knocking up very simple internal tooling off the back of a Google Sheet. Most importantly, there was zero fucking around with IT on it, as it was already included in our workspace package.
Supabase is free and checks all the boxes in addition to having auth, vector search, logs, security, and not being ... Google
In small business accounting, I have a persistent need for a FileMaker Pro like solution for invoices. FMP was conscious of on-screen layout and print.
ReTool has been recommended as similar replacement for FMP but they don’t have the idea of creating print-ready documented receipts and invoices. You don’t even need to print it, you just need to keep it for the IRS.
I love the idea of using Google Sheets and turnkey app building apps. But I still need documentation.
You'd think. I don't know what Claris did last week, but when I last dived into this small pool about 12 months ago their license + hosting was something like 2k/year (looking now it might have gone down, or their pricing page is hiding the fees?). Add on top you need to develop, maintain, support your project. These costs are not insignificant for a "small business"--and by the SBA definition my clients are in the bottom 2-18% by employee (size) & revenue.
I have nothing against Google Sheets, I really haven't put much thought into it in this context, but I would need some convincing that it's a better and easier way to kick things off.
If you want others to interact with it, you need to expose it to the internet through some means and think through the security implications of doing so.
The Google Sheets approach doesn't need you to manage a process or web server. It is instantly shareable while letting Google worry about security, performance, availability, etc.
The specifics of the "what's better?" ratio can shift depending on comfort level / experience with either product, or what infrastructure you may already have available to deploy to. But building on top of GApps does mean you get a lot of useful aspects "free".
You can just query a database and work with the results directly . In a dynamic language like python there is little advantage to loading rows into classes. That Django query language is so painful and opaque.
Whenever I see articles like these and comments like yours, I can't stop thinking about that meeting.
Edit: to clarify, I am not accusing you of anything. But I do suspect the article to be part of a Google marketing campaign.
I'm still trying to rewrite it as a self hosted web app this year because the aforementioned permissions glitches and the difficulty of doing versioned deployments has made me reluctant to continue relying on google, but overall sheets has been a huge boon and we have gotten years of use out of it.
I got 1 sheet to work well with like 1k rows and thought woohoo this is great! So I went all-in, put 25k rows in and Google pooped the bed. It gave errors all the time, rows and columns were funky. API issues galore.
SQLite however handled 25k rows without any errors, always rock solid.
I gave up. Overall a terrible experience once I got past 1k rows. I'm glad it's worked well for you.
I only had like 10 columns, so it wasn't like massive amounts of data. I was linking to a file out in Google Drive and that was where most of my issues were. Google drive's API was 99.99% completely useless.
My takeaway from the experience was, Google proclaims they have an API, but it seems more like nobody tests it or cares about it. Perhaps it's malicious compliance, they have it because they have to have an API, but not because they expect anyone to actually use it.
Perhaps I'm just not cool enough for Google.
You probably just saved me about 20 hours of coding.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02211-4?error=coo...
Few years have passed, and there are currently 470 THOUSAND rows with 20+ columns in that spreadsheet which is used almost daily.
Rewriting this into a proper web app would take maybe a week (the API is already there and used by GS), but was never deemed a priority, so it will keep existing in the backlog until we hit row or cell limits - after which it will suddenly become urgent...
Just to be precise, Google Sheets might be the wrong tool for the job. Other spreadsheet applications can handle "more than a few thousand records" easily, seems this is a Google Sheets specific issue.
It is 99% static data, it would be updated maybe once a year if that. The point was to give users something they were familiar with to look at the data, search it, etc. While being in the "cloud" so I only had to update one place whenever I do get tasked with an update and to handle authn/z easily with no hassles.
Anyways, I used SQLite and a very simple web frontend(it had 3 screens: search, table view and record view). Solved the problem and moved on. Search just filtered the table view.
https://github.com/x2bool/xlite
It's read-only and mounts spreadsheets as virtual tables. Very fast.
Perhaps more relevant to this thread, libgsqlite loads Google Sheets as virtual tables:
https://github.com/0x6b/libgsqlite
(I haven't tested it though.)
Yes, many of our customers hit the issues you mentioned as they scale spreadsheet-based applications. We built Big Tables for this case: https://www.glideapps.com/big-tables
You keep most of the convenience and programmability of a spreadsheet, but you get Postgres scale and a first-class API (which includes atomic table swapping for updating large datasets). It also supports live updating of any views displaying that data.
It was honestly a great experience- all the players had a great mobile experience with obvious forms and leaderboards, while the storage and compute was hidden inside the Google Sheet. The pricing was pretty reasonable- considering we could split the bill among us all, and we only needed it for about 4 months.
There’s still hope for good, quality SaaS! However, I hope Glide (or another) can figure out the pricing for the hobbyist tier.
Most of these no-code solutions target internal company Intranets.
But, I want to use them for apps I can sell to customers.
Does anyone have recommendations?
There are now quite a few reliable FOSS version of no-code tools (but the mobile space seems to be missing alternatives). Few nice no-code FOSS that I love using are listed at https://blog.n0c0de.com/articles/1635ef6f-f616-8023-b336-ff3...
Seriously how does anyone make money with a website where the actual content is so obscured by ads that users don’t bother coming back?
What began as a DIY project during lockdown scaled quickly to Mexico City, the Dominican Republic, and Barcelona, processing over 30,000 tests the day after New Year’s Eve. Using Airtable, an Airtable extension called miniextensions.com, and tools like Docusign, Make, Sendgrid, and Twilio, the solution ended up supporting over 1 million tests. I handled all technical aspects, support, and training myself.
Since the solution was meant to be temporary, I prioritized speed and reliability. Airtable’s relational database capabilities were crucial, especially compared to spreadsheets, for managing multiple linked tables and automations. Airtable also offers a REST API and a pretty amazing self- actualizing database schema that can be copied into tools like GPT or Claude for added context. You can build powerful tools with its scripts, interfaces, and automations.
That said, Airtable is best for use cases with fewer than 250,000 records per month. Above 100,000 records, the web platform’s performance can suffer, though there are workarounds. It’s perfect for small to medium-sized businesses needing custom API integrations for CRMs or internal tools.
If you’re interested, I wrote a brief case study about the project here: https://rashidazarang.com/covid-testing.
On a related note, today I built a cool Airtable automation using ChatGPT and custom scripts. By filling out a corporate email in a form, the system scrapes the web for details like company name, address, phone, fax, and more, which then populates the CRM automatically. I’m still experimenting and plan to make a YouTube video about it soon. Here’s the loom video I sent to a friend about it: https://www.loom.com/share/b9ddbefbdce5434da378667fc2079d00?...
didn't even know you can embed videos on HN!
In the demo Loom video, the part where you are scheduling an appointment, it looks very calendly like but it is not. Did you build the entire UI and UX yourself?
OT nitpick, but isn’t this “New Year’s Day?” Or did you mean January 2nd?
Unfortunately I got pissed off badly because I found out that ordering directly I was treated like a second class customer - where I expected the opposite.
If I order directly they know I will not leave negative reviews.
I really wanted to pay directly for the same service. I wasn’t expecting to get better service and definitely I wasn’t expecting being treated like dirt.
So sorry but I will keep using app ordering services because I simply get better quality of food and better delivery times.
I like Google Sheets and Google Docs but this app is so strange. Maybe it's ok for small "homemade" projects for neighbourhoods or local businesses like flower salon or fitness club. But why it is needed for these type of business if we have social media, messengers, WPA and adaptive layouts on websites.
It's interesting to think there's still a market for this type of small scale enthusiast application.
One scenarios I've been thinking about recently is the death of the generic app.
If LLMs end up being able to create software easily, why wouldn't we choose to have software that's totally aligned our specific needs?
If the persistence of something incurs a cost in storage and security, and the traditional penalties of efficiency and learning-curves are removed, why not recreate it every time its needed?
As an analogue to this; would each iteration adapt and evolve in the same way an organism might?
As a thought exercise: if I could automatically generate, at no cost in money or time, a "disposable" vehicle for every single trip I took, wouldn't it make sense that it would be different every time, even though the basic requirement (transportation) is the same? Why bother generating a car with A/C if it's cold out? Why have a passenger seat if I'm just going to the corner store for milk?
Knowing where the AC always is, could be seen as a benefit (even if you don't want to use it).
By aim for iterative improvements, the system could focus on personal contextual features; and the way we end up using a product over time.
Let's turn that on it's head: maybe we engage with AI/AI products that seem to just provide outcomes we prefer. Let's say all AI will probably be able to generate all manner of things, but we might like Z AI because when I ask for Y kind of widget it builds ones I seem to just...prefer more. It seems to "just get me".
At some point I started working on a new version that would just run with a spreadsheet as the frontend where the business analyst could add whatever rules and calculation fields they wanted, which would then link to some input of users, share values, periods etc.
It was going quite well and seemed extremely viable but unfortunately the business died due to some other issues along with Covid before the software saw the light of day.
Glide’s customers are businesses building software for internal use. During YC we called these “dark apps” but since then we call them “apps for work.” We wanted something usable by IT and operations staff (not developers) that emphasized design and UX.
Glide started as a simple spreadsheet-to-PWA trick but is now a complete programming model and runtime platform for data-driven business apps, including APIs, databases, responsive layouts, a managed AI system, and workflow automations.
One of our Crown Jewels is our data editor, where you program your app with our reactive computed columns. Our data grid has become a popular open source component: https://grid.glideapps.com/
You can also try our new AI-native builder experience, where we’re trying to simplify building even further. It’s very early but just shows our continued effort to make building software simpler: https://glideapps.com/create
Thanks again!
I favorited it back then. Glad to see it's doing well, it looks like a cool product. I haven't found a reason to use it yet but that's also because I have slowed down on coding personal projects after work in general.
The first time I tried Glide, I struggled with the interface, and unfortunately, support didn’t respond to my messages, so I had to take a different direction.
That said, I’d love to give Glide a try. It’s incredible that we have direct access to founders like you here on HN.
Congrats on your success! From your perspective, where do you see no-code and low-code heading, especially with AI dramatically lowering the barriers to coding?
AI and no code platforms will merge into new high-level software creation tools. We already view Glide as a hybrid—try our AI component for the bottoms-up view. Our top-down AI approach will soon be live in our onboarding.
They showed me what they were doing and that was absolutely incredible for people without programming experience. They integrated with spreadsheets and llms and their PDF collections of manuals for devices etc.
But as lower-income people they were stopped in their tracks and I found that really sad that there isn't an option for non money-making or business supporting applications. In their case they were all doing that for their hobbies or for supporting their aging parents and giving them tools to handle their tasks, chores and care.
https://restofworld.org/2024/elections-ai-tracker/
GS is not the best editorial interface but its not bad either, especially when it allows you to get things done quickly.
Likewise, this was another fun project (since retired) that sits on Google Sheets:
https://restofworld.org/stat-of-the-day/
We skip Google's API which I really dislike. The sheets are set to publish to the web and you can use that to pull down the data and parse it into JSON files.
It take less than a minute to set the basics up now.
Most people would just learn to code at a boot camp for $828 so they don’t need codeless.
Sheets as a database for light web apps is absolutely joyful to build with.
Is it a solution that works or is helpful is more of a bar.
I automated some IT processes this way. These were tasks that were already a bit manual (like on/off boarding hires) and needed flexible workflows but would be helped with automation.
When the scale is small it can be a nice little toolbox.
But as soon as you have to source data from multiple tables 9or sheets), they all fall down, or become exponentially more difficult to use. I do not know what it is about splitting your data (even if everything is indexed against a common id), that makes the complexity go up so much. If someone can make an easy-to-use app to deal with this situation, I would potentially throw a lot of money at it.
Hmm, interesting that he goes as far as to add a map based on an address provided (which is actually quite nice) but can't (or rather, didn't) get rid of blank items/rows.