In this video I look at what I think makes up a full database app solution. Spoiler alert: Knack cuts the mustard. There are a lot of cloud data apps out there that do what they do very well ... some do this, others that. But there aren't that many that put it all together, allowing you to create custom business solutions that simply work. Please check out this video.
Here's an other post that you might like: https://www.knackbuilders.com/post/missing-scroll-bar-knack-database
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Full Transcript
0:00 Hey, Dave Parrish here coming at it with another video. By the way, I'm in Nicaragua right now. Got here this week, I'll be here in the middle of May. 0:09 But let's jump into this topic I got here. Uh, today we're going to talk about, I gotta move this up, uh What makes a full database solution? 0:22 And that's definitely one of them. There's a lot of tools, a lot of cloud tools out there. You can do a lot of things with it. 0:26 They're pretty nifty too. But they stop short at a lot of places. In my opinion, I'm going to tell you what I think. 0:32 Is a deal here. And let me get in there right now and do this. Start the slideshow. And here we go. 0:42 Components of a full database solution. The first one, how you get input. How you get data into it. There's all kinds of different ways. 0:51 Some are limited in other apps or depending on the nature of the app. Uh but this is really important how you get stuff inside of your app. 1:00 Then once you get that in there, what are you going to do with it? Uh there's all kinds of things you can do with it. 1:08 There's all kinds of ways you can manipulate it, calculate it, transform it into other stuff. Uh this is really important. 1:14 I think NAC really thrives at this by the way. Um we'll get into that and then the last part is okay now you got it in. 1:20 Come there, you've done a bunch of stuff with it, now what do you do with it? You want to see it, you want to interact with it, you want it, that it'll become insights. 1:29 And this is what I'm referring to as output. I'll be back in a minute.
0:00 Okay, let's go for this again. Uh, what makes a full database solution in my opinion. I made myself a little bit smaller here. 0:08 And let's uh, let's just jump into this slide. Uh, I'm going to go back to that first. Remember, how you get stuff in, once it's in. 0:16 Then what do you do with it, and then how do you see it, uh, or interact with it. Let's start with the first one, data input. 0:22 Input, of course forms, um, one of the most common ways. Next, you're pretty good at forms. Now you can use something like JotForm or any of the million form solutions out there. 0:32 All they do is forms, and they're pretty good, but what you get out of that is the CSV of stuff. 0:38 Now you can't connect it to other apps, but I'm going to talk about that in a minute. Imports, imports, uh, CSV, typical, uploading it. 0:49 You gotta know what you're doing, sometimes it can be tedious, but uh, I'm going to give you an example. They recently, just very recently, allowed direct input from Google Sheets. 0:58 Uh, and I used it the other day, and it worked really smooth. And I was having some issues with output. 1:04 You need either Excel or Google Sheets to a CSV, and some of the information would change the way format states, uh, some other stuff. 1:11 Uh, when I did it directly with NAC's new uh, Google Sheet functionality, it was right the first time, I didn't have to worry about it. 1:19 But that's a common way to input stuff in. Automations, again, let's say we're using JotForm, or QuickBooks, or anything, you can connect them via make, Zapier, whatever, and that, you submit a form, that's gonna become a record in NAC. 1:33 Uh, that's another way. Uh, you could if that type of make Zapier, a situation isn't available, you can write custom API, and connect to cloud apps together, very common. 1:45 Uh, and I, I mentioned user interfaces, I mentioned this again, but um, this allows Thank much. I was, I'm gonna talk about permissions, there's different uh user roles, or within user roles permissions, and it will let them do stuff, or you can prevent them doing stuff. 2:03 So my point is in terms of data input, you can put controls on that, where there's security, or just how you want to manage people and your app. 2:11 So all this is important, and AKA has all this, and it does a nice job with it. Let's talk about once that it's in there, what you can do with it. 2:18 Okay clearly there's equations, text formulas, all kinds of stuff, and you can take your data. Get him. That ain't even something else. 2:25 That's all important.
0:00 Okay, let's move on to the next one. Data management. You got your stuff in there, now let's do stuff with it. 0:07 Equations, text formulas, what have you can think of? I've done all kinds of complicated things. I did a recent one on complex commission formulas. 0:14 This thing was crazy what I put together. I'm actually able to handle it all. So, conditional rules too. You can make the value of a field based on another field's value or based on conditions or multiple values in the conditions You can determine which one it is. 0:33 I use this all the time. I don't know what I'd do without it. Mac's great at this. Record rules. You can change values when a form's submitted. 0:43 Related records too. Insert related records. This is all getting stuff in there. And I'm managing it. Uh, cross table. Sorry, there's some horses coming by here. 0:55 That's the noise. Best I can do. Uh, so you're looking at parent records or child records, or you can do that vice versa too. 1:01 Uh, you can do sums. Uh, you can draw. Draw on other information. You can do averages, counts. Counts are really good. 1:08 I do that for a lot of stuff. Uh, I won't get into that now, but it's much more than counting, by the way. 1:14 Tasks are the same thing. Uh, you can look at data, update data, insert different records. Uh, even take the data. 1:20 Produce an email. Uh, tasks allow you to manipulate data, and it's very good. And automations too. Uh, I gave the example with JotForm and Make, but another common way to do it is uh. 1:36 Nack to Nack. So Nack goes to Make, Make does something, and comes back to Nack. I'm gonna give you an example. 1:43 QR code. You create a record. It has a website, or maybe it has a product ID, or order ID, and eventually you want that scanned. 1:52 Well, you can do an automation, and Nack lets you do that. Uh, record created. Scenario is triggered. Uh, a QR code is created. 2:03 Then it goes back to Nack and inserts that QR code into, uh. Uh, the field that's for the QR code. 2:11 Very, very powerful. Uh, data output. So you got this stuff in there. You've managed, manipulated, calculated it, did whatever. So now you got data. 2:23 It's useful to you. Uh, I'll just say make insights. So, I'm gonna, one thing I'm talking about, back to login permissions or user interfaces. 2:32 You may not want some people to see certain data. Based on user roles or based on some permission within that account's field. 2:40 Yes, no, type of stuff. I do that all the time. This lets you control that. The almighty, almighty Airtable. Uh, I don't believe lets you do that. 2:51 Or it has real limitations on it. You gotta bring in some third party app. To, uh. To help you with that. 2:57 Uh, not good, not good. Uhm, same with display and page rules. Based on the type of user, based on other values in the field. 3:09 For example, you may, if it, if it voices been paid, you may not want anyone to be able to edit it. 3:15 Uh, this stuff allows you to do the, so this is putting controls on what you see the output of it. 3:21 Uh, record, let's say you have a list of customers, it's so easy to do. You have a list of customers, you go to details of that customer. 3:28 Up top is that customer, boilerplate stuff, and below is a list of all their invoices. Do it all the time, it's awesome, and easy. 3:37 Charts and graphs, those are important to getting insights. Volume of sales, number of whatever. Over time, you'll pivot tables, summing up all kinds of stuff, um. 3:48 NAC does a pretty darn good job with that. Now there's stuff out there like Power BI, if you know the charting software, GeckoBoard, tons of them that are just out of this world cool. 4:00 But a lot of them just rely on you connecting it to an external data source. I think there's something like Tableau, which you're going to pay out the nose for, uh that gives you, hey gracias, no problem, lo siento, si, um and I mean they do an awesome job, but it's not the whole deal. 4:20 NAC has it right here with it. And then of course you can do calendars, you can do maps, uh I'm only touching on some of the stuff. 4:28 This is the main thing that I deal with, um. But, bottom line here is NAC has this all in it's toolbox. 4:37 Uh, and that's why I'm saying what makes a full database of my NACs a great solution for it. Thanks.