Ask IH: All-in-one backend solution for your apps. Feedback?
Hi there IH! Long time lurker, first time poster.
I'm working on building an all-in-one backend platform for developers, startups, and agencies called Modelier (https://modelier.io). Our goal is to streamline and automate API development
I love to use Node, Mongo, Express, and Mongoose to build out simple APIs for my clients or for prototyping new projects at work. Right now the initial dev process for that looks something like:
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create Node project directories/files (many dirs/files)
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define my Mongoose schemas and initalize models
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sign up for a hosted Mongo instance somewhere (or deploy my own) and hook up Node app
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write initial Express endpoints for basic CRUD operations against Mongoose models
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deploy Node app (either manually or with a tool)
There are a lot of scaffolding tools (create-react-app, Yeoman, etc) solving #1, and there are companies solving #5 (Zeit Now, etc), but no solution yet that solves the complete process out-of-the-box.
With Modelier, this process becomes:
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define API schema w/ spec file (1 file)
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run Modelier against spec file, which
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spins up hosted MongoDB instance - auto-generates Node app source, complete w/ basic Express CRUD enpoints, automated tests, ESDoc API documentation, etc
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deploys hosted Node app
We released a (very) basic version of the scaffolding tool if you'd like to try it out (nothing gets deployed, requires existing MongoDB instance): https://www.npmjs.com/package/modelier-cli
Eventually users will be able to customize the backend stack as well as datastore of their choice - SQL via Sequelize is up next on the list.
I am looking for feedback on:
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our basic landing page and delivery at https://modelier.io
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if you will use Modelier, and why or why not?
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if not, what would really want to make you use Modelier?
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what are your biggest concerns regarding execution of this product?
Thanks for your time and consideration! Looking forward to hearing what you have to say.
This is a very cool project, from a tech perspective. Very sexy.
From this I cannot tell: Are you saying I provide an API spec and you all build out the node app? And host it? Do I get to keep the code?
If it's just a mock responses, why might I use this instead of using apiary. I know there are differences.
Is the spec file your own DSL or are you going to use something like "https://apiblueprint.org/" or some other spec?
Great work!
Thanks for taking a look Ted!
Yes, that is correct - Modelier not only scaffolds the Node app, but also deploys it to a server instance, connected to a deployed Mongo instance, so your API is live and ready to interact with.
And yes, you get to keep the code - source can be exported, Mongo instances can be swapped out, etc - you get full control of your project. We just provide a dead-simple, no hassle way to deploy it if you choose to use Modelier to host your API. We will be offering tiered hosting plans for different size projects, scale of the project, etc.
Right now we are using a custom in-house DSL, however we are exploring pre-existing options such as API Blueprint, OpenAPI, etc. Most of these projects seemed to be focused on actual API payload, with less focus on the data models themselves (I know API Blueprint does support modeling data), however what sets us apart from them as well as Apiary, Apigee, etc is our seamless, integrated database hosting.
Very cool.
It sounds like you all are doing a lot of interesting work. Putting on my tech hat, I would love to see how you approach creating non-trivial relationships, between records/objects/documents, on the backend from a spec. However, I hope that before you tackle those big problems you find p-m-f.
I wish you great success!