I work for a microbial sequencing service and we have been building retool apps to intake and organize client sequencing orders, and to invoice clients.
Currently, clients fill out their sequencing order using an excel file and then we transfer that information into retool using an intake form.
We would like an app that allows our clients to sign in, and fill out their sequencing order within retool, so we don’t have the extra step of copying the information from excel to retool.
Is this possible in retool in a way that is free for our clients? If so, does this still involve Retool Portals?
This seems like a perfect use case for Retool Forms. With Retool Forms, you can create fully customizable forms that are publicly accessible via unique URLs and directly connected to your database. Your clients can fill out the form, and the data will be inserted straight into your connected database. For example:
Ok we are already using forms extensively so that would be a nice solution.
With the form approach, would customers login? Would they be able to save their order before submitting or see past orders? How do we ensure that the order form isn’t spammed?
Hey @DylanSeq! I'm going to pick up this conversation and hopefully give you any additional guidance, if you think you need it.
Retool forms are shared via a public URL, so your customers wouldn't have to go through any authentication. This also means that they wouldn't be able to return to an in-progress order or see their personalized history, so there's definitely a tradeoff.
The only way to securely connect information to a particular customer is to authenticate them, which can't be done with a public app. You would have to add them as external users at that point, which has a cost associated with it.
