Think fast

Implementing an Enterprise Data Catalog

Businesses today sit on larger volumes of data than ever before. The benefits of this, including for automation, digital transformation, better-informed decision-making, and even machine learning, are well known. However, managing and administering complex data sets so that they can be leveraged to provide value to end users is incredibly challenging. That’s where enterprise data catalogs come in. Today, we’re diving deep into what data catalogs are, why they’re used, and the specific benefits they bring.

Ronan McQuillan

Jun 18, 2024

10 Microsoft Access Alternatives for 2024

For a lot of businesses, finding a suitable Microsoft Access alternative for their needs is becoming pretty urgent. See, Access has been rumored to be reaching its end-of-life for a few years now - although Microsoft hasn’t unveiled any formal plans for a retirement party. Even so, in 2023, Access feels like a bit of a product of a bygone era. Not to be outwardly critical, but in the age of cloud computing, low-code development, DBaaS tools, and even AI, it’s tough for legacy platforms to keep up with the needs of modern businesses.

Ronan McQuillan

Apr 20, 2024

How to Create a Data Model

Knowing how to create a data model is the first step toward building a successful app. This is the foundation of how you’ll transform your business requirements into reality. In fact, all other elements of your app build on your data model. However, coming up with an effective data model presents a few key challenges. This is a complex process, involving end-users, technical teams, and other business stakeholders. Today, we’re going to look at exactly how you can create a successful data model.

Ronan McQuillan

Mar 22, 2024

How to Build a Data Collection Form in 5 Steps

Data collection forms are critical to countless workflows - as diverse as client onboarding, field services, project discovery, incident responses, qualitative research, product surveys, and much more. In fact, they’re the building blocks of any data-centric process. Today, we’re diving deep into everything you need to know. Specifically, we’ll be covering the basics of what data collection forms are and where they’re used - as well as what our priorities are for creating effective solutions.

Ronan McQuillan

Feb 29, 2024

How to Send Form Data to an API in 4 Steps

Populating API requests is one of the most basic, universal use cases for web forms. However, building forms to do this manually can be a laborious, time-consuming process. It’s also beyond the skills of most non-developers. But there is a better way. Today, we’re checking how Budibase can be used to send form data to APIs. Specifically, we’re going to see how we can create and store dynamic REST requests, along with custom UIs, to populate them in a matter of minutes.

Ronan McQuillan

Feb 19, 2024

How to Create Form Validation Rules

Form validation is essential to the accuracy, integrity, and consistency of our data. It’s also one of the key ways that we can enhance user experiences around data entry and management workflows. These enable our form UIs to check that submissions comply with any rules that we have as part of our data model - as well as giving feedback to users where submitted values aren’t acceptable. However, implementing this can present some pretty serious challenges.

Ronan McQuillan

Feb 15, 2024

How to Send Form Data to JSON: 4 Methods

Web forms are some of the most basic applications around. But the value we get from them really depends on what we can do with the data we gather. Most form builders are kind of limited in this regard - largely restricting us to their built-in databases. We can also go down the route of building fully custom forms. This provides greater flexibility, but it also requires a lot more from us in terms of time, effort, and expertise.

Ronan McQuillan

Feb 14, 2024

How to Create Forms for SQL Databases in 3 Steps

Databases are vital for every business. But as soon as you create your database, a question arises. How can you maintain the information you store? Of course, you could write out queries manually, but you’ll also want a way for less technical staff to enter data. This means building forms. Today we’ll look at how to create forms for SQL databases. You can also use forms to limit access to your database.

Ronan McQuillan

Jan 3, 2024