Deploying for local user installs

🤝 Discussion
1

  • Goal: I want to build an app that users can 'download' and install. I would like to use Retool to make a UI. My users would, generally, be pretty technical so a docker deployment is fine. I can expect they know how to use a CLI or the Docker app.

  • Comments: I know this isn't how Retool is intended to be deployed. However, I am thinking I can dockerize the components my app needs and then the retool docker(s) as well.

  • Questions:

  1. While it's not intended this way, is it possible? Could I export the app and the user (or an install script) imports it to make the UI?
  2. Is there another way to do this?
  3. If this is just isn't feasible, is there another tool for the UI that would be better (I hate programming JS so don't want to build it without a RAD tool like Retool)?

Thank you!

1 Like
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Hi @BubbaHoTep,

Thanks for reaching out!

As you alluded to, it doesn't sound like this use case quite fits with typical Retool usage :thinking: Would the users have their own Retool organizations (and if so, what pricing plan would they be on)?

I don't think this is exactly what you're looking for, but one potential scenario is that you could export the json for your app. Anyone that has a Retool license key and has spun up a Retool instance could manually import the json file into a new app. The import wouldn't include any resources or resource credentials, so the users would need to connect their data as needed.

Maybe if we hear more about your use case we can recommend another approach.

I can't speak to other UI solutions, but I've moved this to discussion in case any community members want to chime in :blush: