Anything like retool for the backend?

Discussion
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Hi friends! We love retool and have built our whole system on a Postgres data store + Retool frontend. To augment it we’re using integromat to do simple workflows (receive a webhook -> get some records from SQL -> send a text with twilio -> update those SQL records).

We’re now at the point where we’re looking for something a bit more robust and well documented. In the past I’ve built simple sinatra apps to do stuff like this, but I’d much rather something hosted and extensible.

Does anyone have recommendations for tools like integromat/zapier but more sophisticated? If needed, I can write code in JS/Python/Ruby or use a GUI!

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I’ve been researching this a bit and it seems like I could use a FaaS tool to do this. I’d prefer something that’s a bit easier to understand from a UX perspective than AWS lambda… Or is that my best bet?

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I spent quite a while looking for something like this. You can consider:

Dreamfactory

If you end up going with AWS Lambda more directly, the serverless.com framework is helpful to set that up quickly. Or Refinery.io

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Hi Byron,

I’m curious to know which solution you ended up choosing.

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Hi Nacho,

My database is in Mysql and I needed REST not Graphql, so that limited my options a bit from this list unfortunately. I ended up using the serverless.com framework - if you’re comfortable with some coding it’s not too bad to get going. The weak point would be for integrations though.

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Recently found directual.com which is much closer to OP request

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If you’re OK with a Functions as a Service but you just don’t like the Lambda UX, in my opinion Firebase Functions is the easiest to use FaaS. Here is an example of code receiving a webhook and sending a request to somewhere else.

I’ll also +1 bryon’s suggestion of serverless (.com) if you’d like to be vendor-neutral (e.g. you want to be able to run on AWS).

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I am building exactly that at https://subzero.cloud/ though it's more of a JS lib that you integrate in your code then a drag & drop thing. People familiar with how PostgREST and Supabase work should feel right at home.

@byron If you've ever came across PostgREST and know the concept, here is a sample of the same thing but for mysql and much more extensible showcase/node-myrest at main · subzerocloud/showcase · GitHub

The documentation is a bit sparse at the moment but we are on discord if this peeked your interest.

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Since this post was create we've also launched our automation product, Retool Workflows!

Retool Workflows is a faster way for you to schedule jobs, alerts, and lightweight ETL tasks directly in Retool—without losing the flexibility to use code whenever you want.

To learn more, here are some docs and tutorials for more guidance and inspiration:

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