Think fast
Thoughts and ideas on how to build tools, automate workflows and speed-up the workplace.
How to Build a Web App: Beginner's Guide (2025)
In this post, I’m going to show you EXACTLY how to make a web app. In fact, this is the process I’ve used, revised and perfected over the last 5 years. I’ve used this exact process, or a version of it to build over 15 applications of all shapes and sizes. For me, this is 100% the best way to build web applications. Today, we’re covering: What is a web app?
Joe Johnston
Sep 23, 2024
How to make an App from Excel Spreadsheets
We love to hate spreadsheets. They’re everywhere. We use Excel for everything from planning our vacations and weddings, to managing inventories, payroll, and just about any other business process under the sun. But, like any blunt instrument, spreadsheets are almost the most elegant solution. Today, we’re going to look at a better way to manage data, calculations, and workflows. That is, how to make an app from Excel spreadsheets. You see, spreadsheets offer a huge amount of flexibility - there’s a reason why they’re so ubiquitous.
Ronan McQuillan
Sep 21, 2024
Design Beautiful Apps With the New 'Grid' Drag & Drop Layout
Introducing an easier way to build interfaces with Â鶹AV with the new Grid layout. The Grid layout offers dynamic drag-and-drop functionality, letting you move and resize components across your screen with ease. Creating powerful and visually appealing applications in minutes has never been easier. You can now drag components around your screen and quickly resize them using the anchors on the corners and sides. As shown above, some components, such as tables, expand to fill the full container space.
Jamie Birss
Aug 24, 2024
10 Microsoft Access Alternatives for 2025
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 2024, 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
Aug 20, 2024
New Functionality for Superior Ticketing Systems
Â鶹AV is designed to build powerful apps that streamline internal processes and workflows. One workflow that we see come up time and time again is internal ticketing systems, with some very consistent requirements, regardless of what the tickets are tracking. Today, we’re taking these systems to the next level with a new set of features specifically built for users developing these ticketing systems. Whether you work in IT managing support requests, are a developer handling bug fixes, or anything in between, we think you’ll love them.
Jamie Birss
Aug 8, 2024
Unlocking Workflows with Files in Automation
Automations transform standard applications into advanced workflows, bridging the gap between Â鶹AV and your wider tech ecosystem. Today, we’re taking Automations up another level by introducing support for files and attachments. Whether you’re looking to generate and download reports, send documents to and from platforms like DocuSign or PowerBI, or even attach dynamically filled documents to emails, Â鶹AV has you covered. The door has now opened to a range of powerful new workflows that were previously out of reach.
Jamie Birss
Jul 25, 2024
What are API Headers?
API headers are central to how your request is received by the target server - and the response it produces. These can be used to provide extra context for our request, prove our permission to access resources, or for other important metadata. As such, knowing how to use request headers properly is a vital part of accessing external data via APIs. Today, we’re going to cover everything you need to know - from what API headers are, what they do, and how they work - to concrete real-world examples of how you can leverage them to build integrated solutions.
Ronan McQuillan
Jul 14, 2024
Wrapping up Q2
We spent Q2 delivering several new components and quality-of-life improvements. We also ran our first workshop! Read on to find out more. Modal component Last week, we released the new Modal component. Modals are a great way to focus the app’s interface on a specific experience. The new modal component comes in different sizes, and the design experience is similar to the existing Side Panel component. Kudos to Gerard for developing this great new feature.
Joe Johnston
Jul 3, 2024