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Hi all, I'm looking for PMs/devs to give quick feedback on my tool if possible.

http://magsmapping.herokuapp.com/

Hi all, I'm looking for PMs/devs to give quick feedback on my tool if possible.

It is a tool that allows anyone, without code, to transform nested objects.

It is aimed at product managers looking to save their developers hours.

Instead of developers transforming a nested object that has been pulled from an API, a product manager can now select the properties they want and do it themselves. They would then send the outputted code to the developer, and the developer would then pull the API as normal.

Link (it is in pre-launch stage now):
http://magsmapping.herokuapp.com/

Would you use this?

Thanks!

#product-feedback-request

submitted this linkon February 24, 2019
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    The use case of this is, at least for now, very limited. I won't use it. It doesn't actually take me that much time to map objects. Yes, it is tedious and I don't like it but this generator doesn't help me much.

    It is a nice idea to drag and drop generate tedious work, but think about the whole workflow of programming this type of stuff.

    1. getting documentation and some preview values from the API(s) you want to use,
    2. writing the boilerplate code that initialises whatever's needed to use the API or SDK/API library (if available),
    3. send the request(s),
    4. change the data into the format you desire, possible linking more APIs or more calls together (e.g. given an user ID, get user profile from an API call and a list of comments from another call),
    5. use it to save to db, display to user, whatever.

    You address number 4 above. Given a JSON array, output a snippet of code that gives you data from that JSON array in the format you desire. However it's rather limited and I'm not sure if I'd actually use this type of code snippet. Maybe turn it into a map() function call so I can copy paster?

    You might want to consider some of the following to make this more useful:

    • change the name of fields in the output object,
    • make composite fields (e.g. create displayName from firstName and lastName),
    • generate code for different programming languages,
    • as others have said, generate database insert code as well for various languages and databases

    Some extra ideas for you to think about:

    • have you considered making this a text editor plugin instead of website?
    • how about having a list of common API responses for most popular services so you can click something like "twitter search results" and get a sample API response (or a live result sample... depends on API/effort put into this), and do the field selection, code generation. This would actually be something I'd use as it would save me time to read docs.
    1. 2

      Fitting this into the flow of pulling an API would be the tricky thing alright, I suspect for many devs the thought of even using a web app in the middle of this process would be off-putting.

      "change the name of fields in the output object,"

      • yes the first 'Object' output I have provided actually doesn't make a lot of sense in terms of helping the user with the API work.

      I'll look into generating code for different languages, just started off in my comfort zone!

      "generate database insert code as well for various languages and databases"

      • this could be an interesting one, and might make it feel like a more complete tool, in taking out more of the tedious/template work and automating it.

      "considered making this a text editor plugin instead of website"
      -I haven't considered it but will do now. I could also go down the NPM module route

      Your last suggestion of going deeper into API integration is something that has crossed my mind, but it is hard to know when a thought is a distraction or a useful intuition! I'll explore that route a bit as well though.

      Thank you for the thoughtful feedback!

      1. 2

        Good luck with the project!

        You're right about distraction vs useful intuition. I get distracted all the time by things like this. I think it just gets worse when you also start listening to ideas of others :P.

        The text editor plugin thing came from thinking it would be off-putting (/distracting) to use a website to generate code when you're coding, but that's how I understood this project was meant to be used... I guess I'm missing something, am I not? The whole product manager thing is something I don't get.

  2. 2

    Nice idea, but I put in a complex JSON, which is valid according to https://jsoneditoronline.org/ and it doesn't work.

    "VALID JSON (RFC 4627)" my json is valid according to this RFC.

    is there a problem with nested dictionaries?

    1. 1

      to more accurately answer your question it does not accept JSON objects, only object literals

      1. 2

        Oh yes that makes sense, please allow it to accept JSON objects as well!

        so anyone can copy the API result and quickly check/select fields. I believe to find an object literal you have to dive into the code. (?)

        I will keep following, I think this has a potential, not sure about the business model though.

    2. 1

      thank you for the heads up. It should take the majority of objects you throw at it but I'm not surprising that some are breaking. I'll have to work on the robustness of it now!

  3. 2

    I wouldn't say hours, but I will say that I bookmarked for the next time I need something like this :) (dev, here)

    1. 1

      that's great motivation to hear!

  4. 2

    Hey :) I work alongside a bunch of pms at https://paddle.com/ - Would you like me to ask them?

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      that would be amazing if you would be so kind! let me know if you need any more information from me.

  5. 1

    I'm a PM. Looked at the tool. Not sure what I would use it for. Maybe list a few real world examples and use cases?

    1. 1

      yea I think I'll list out a few use cases alright! it could also just be more suited to devs. Thanks!

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