We are building a visual backend builder tool. Would you use it?
https://www.codelines.dev
Hi!
My friend and I have been building a tool that makes it easy to create backend solutions. Think "Webflow for AWS".
The goal of this tool is to make it easy and really fast to create common backend solutions. So instead of coding it all manually, you can just use our tool that will generate the code for you. Plus it will probably take you a few minutes instead of hours.
We set up a landing page where you can check it out - https://www.codelines.dev
hm define "backend" ...
Is this similar to a headless CMS where you can create your data types and enter your data?
Or is to to create something else? Like business logic?
What are some examples of these common use cases the tool solves?
Does the tool generate code that I can/have to update later or I can/have to update it on the tool (both have their pros and cons)
I think this and interesting and hard problem to solve, but it really depends on what's the scope of "backend".
No, I'm a software engineer and I generally don't trust these types of tools. They almost always: don't work for anything beyond a few basic use-cases, generate unmaintainable code, and/or become impossible to write good tests for. The only one I know of that gets any serious use is LabVIEW, but that's for industrial automation and signal processing... Not something I'm familiar with enough to vouch for.
Visual programming is something that has been tried several times over the last few decades, with very little success. Even CASE tools have largely fallen out of use. It's worth exploring why each of these past attempts have failed and how you're going to avoid doing the exact same thing. There are a couple good articles about this here and here, but they obviously don't cover the full spectrum of failed projects.
Interested to give it a try - signed up.
Thank you! Will keep you posted once its ready
I absolutely would use this. I’m such a terrible backend developer that any visual help like this would be invaluable.
That's great!
If you want to get notified once the tool is ready, please sign up on our landing page - https://www.codelines.dev :)
Signed up, interesting.
I'm trying to learn best practices for nosql backend storage, does the tool suggest common patterns or anything? At the moment I'm using firebase for all my db's and I'm still tryna figure out a decent structure...
Thanks for the signup!
The point of the tool is to get you fast going on the back end side so you don't spend time coding common use cases. Then you can play with the code.
It doesn't suggest any patterns.
The backend is what I most want fine-grained control over, and AWS is a bit pricey for my tastes, so probably not. I might use a similar tool for generating a highly interactive front-end, though.
Thanks for the feedback.
Could you share what services do you use instead of AWS?
Digital Ocean is more performance for pretty much every apparently "identical spec" EC2 I've seen, it's cheaper even when comparing claimed specs and its UX is vastly better. I use them for most things.
For projects where I'm consuming a considerable amount of bandwidth, I use Low-end Box or something similar.
Interested. I signed up. Would the tool also do the reverse, create a diagram based on a current AWS setup?
Hey Sebastien, I sent you an email yesterday and maybe it got lost in your inbox :).
Thank you!
Probably not at the launch since this feature is rather complex. But we think it might be often requested feature.
This comment was deleted 5 years ago
Thank you, Yuval, great feedback!
You're right, the landing page definitely needs more love. I set it up yesterday so I could share it on the Internet and talk to people about it