That is a long title. In this article, I introduce a Gitpod workspace (cloud based ephemeral development environment) in which you can try out NocoDB – an open source low code application development platform. This is an overview of the workspace:
Note: Gitpod is a web service for developers (similar to Github Code Spaces). WIth Gitpod, you can run cloud based development environments from Git repositories. You get 50 hours (for a regular workspace) usage for free each month. The next 50 hours sets you back all of $8. The Gitpod workspace in this article will automatically start docker compose with two containers that provide you with the NocoDB environment. Every Gitpod comes with VS Code (browser based) and language runtimes and build tools for all major programming languages.
NocoDB offers browser based, no code GUI development treating data largely as stylesheets. Data resides in a relational database – either existing tables that are imported or new tables that are created by NocoDB as the user/developer works their way through the App. If you want to know it, there are tables. If you do not (have to) – well, they are still there but all you care about is the app and anything you see in the browser.
My experience with NocoDB is very limited: I bumped into it earlier this week as I was trying out the formidable Platys platform (by Trivadis) for composing data intense environments through generation of docker-compose files for selected services. The combination of NocoDB and PostgreSQL is one of the zillions supported by Platys. The Gitpod workspace I am introducing in this article is to a large extent thanks to the work of Guido and colleagues.
What you need to know: go to https://github.com/lucasjellema/nocodb-postgresql-gitpod and inspect the definition of the workspace. Even easier: click on this link – and the Gitpod workspace is launched automatically. It will take up to two minutes to get started and it will look like this when it is up and running:
The README.md document contains detailed instructions to get started with:
- enter NocoDB
- create new project
- create data source for a specific PostgreSQL database
- create a table directly in the database
- sync the new table’s definition into NocoDB and start building views on top of that table
At this point, I will let your imagination, the documentation for Nocodb, live demos and other tutorials take over. Creating a view on top of this table is trivial. Creating additional tables – that may link to COUNTRIES – is also straightforward.
