Cycle 2: Vote for what we build next

[joebudi]

Cycle 2 starts 10th March. If you are eager for us to build a feature I have not mentioned, please comment below.

[poirazis]

Hard to pick between Saved Components and Header / Footer slots.
I wen for Saved Components this time !

[joebudi]

Saved components are a popular choice!

[poirazis]

I would also like to propose Datasource Export / Import capabilities so we can reuse complex datasource definitions with queries etc across apps and also take snapshots before making major changes to our datasources

[oliviertassinari]

Pushing the AI feature to create the app much further?

[benaunt]

It would be great to be able to design app pages using AI, then use the already good low code editor to fine tune.

[joebudi]

Hey! How would you expect this to work? A "prompt" box within the central apps interface within Budibase?

[benaunt]

Hi Joe,

There would probably be several aspects to it, just like if you were currently coding an application using an AI chat.

1. Broad scaffolding of the entire app based on a detailed prompt of what you are after. The prompt within Budibase would be designed to ask specific questions required by Budibase to structure the app. This would attempt to generate the database tables, basic screens, forms within screens etc. Probably will act as a guided wizard.
2. Page specific designer, chat about what you want a specific page to do and have the AI propose changes with ability to accept/deny. Including analysing and editing existing pages.
3. Handlebars/JS code generator, we already typically do this via AI and just paste the code back in, if that was in-build it could pass in rules to be more aware of how Budibase requires its code.
4. Automation generator - With context aware of the app, ask the AI to generate workflows to perform specific automations.
5. Generate app from an existing database structure.

Importantly the AI would need to have context awareness of the application, and the AI integration should have some type of configurability to restrict actual DB table data from being passed to it for customers that would find it hard to get approved.

While not perfect, its actually quite ridiculous how decent some of these AI's are at developing software already via code, without the "developer" even having to type any code themself. I see the existence of them as potential future competition to traditional low code tools like this.

But if a team could leverage both technologies that would be amazing.

[joebudi]

Thank you for the detailed comment, @benaunt. There are many opportunities to improve the current app-building process with AI. The points you've listed are all great ideas, and if the design/security is correct, they could lead to a faster app-building process - which is always our goal.

[Ykenne]

I would also like to offer export capabilities in various formats other than csv (excel, pdf etc).

[joebudi]

Hey! Could you provide more info about your specific use case, and what you would expect the experience to be?

[Ykenne]

Hi Joe,
hope you re well.
the goal is to create like PIM tool in Budibase that allows customizing product catalog templates and editing content directly in the app.The catalogs should be exportable in bulk to Excel and PDF, alongside the existing CSV format, with more flexibility for editing before export.

[joebudi]

Thank you for the quick response.

[joebudi]

If you voted for PDF, I would love to learn more about your expectations around the experience:

• What is your use case? (letter, report, etc)
• How do you expect a PDF solution to work? (where does experience live, and what settings does it involve)
• What level of PDF customization do you need?

Please comment below. Or, if you fancy a chat, book a slot in my calendar:
https://calendar.app.google/CZG2QBjegBz4swbC7

[benaunt]

Yes, the ability to either have a defined word/pdf template, that you can map Budibase bindings to via a step in a workflow or button action will be good.

Alternative ability or write HTML with the bindings, with a preview etc that can then be converted to a word or pdf.

[turnerzzzz]

Hi Joe, this is fantastic news! I’ve been dreaming of the day when Budibase could generate PDFs.

The current way around using Carbon Studio is quite challenging for average users like me.

My use cases include generating invoices, receipts, and signed forms into PDFs so that we can provide copies via email. For a school, we sometimes need to generate PDFs for forms filled out by our students and provide them to the department of education as proof (where Excel is not sufficient).

I’m not sure how I want it to work, but as long as it doesn’t require API setting or customization, I’d be grateful.
Cheers!

[Elestara]

In my case it will be reports and other printed documentation connected to SQL data (inventorization sheets for example). I agree with all replies above, Carbone API was quite challenging to set up for non-professional but system with template where you can map data to defined fields is really intuitive. I moved to Sheets now, but they are not perfect for officially looking printed documents. Much appreciated for this initiative!

[joebudi]

Can anyone share an image of their PDF?

[turnerzzzz]

I couldn't get it to work, but it should look like this according to the tutorial by Jamie Birss: https://budibase.com/blog/updates/2024/files-in-automation/

[NicolasFabre81]

I think the point is not to generate pdf file as we can always print a webpage as pdf, put what becomes tricky is to handle the layout of the document, especially page break , margins...
Maybe it would bu sufficient to add some customisation related to page printing : force page break, avoid page break, margins ...
Then we deal with containers, paragraphs .... to make our page layout.

[ArdianHajdini]

Yes, I would also love if we could design teh pdf output.

[IchthysMaranatha]

Some features I'd like other than mentioned above:
Form table/rows component, add rows as needed, ability to perform calculation across entire columns etc. Useful for scenarios where multiple records need to be entered and saved to db in one go, as in the case of order/invoice items
Access to id token fields from sso login, direct mapping with roles/groups to Budibase roles would also be nice

[IchthysMaranatha]

It's like the form input companion for the present table component which represents existing db table data. Form table would have the schema of an existing table but does not display the current table data, it's for input only. We input the data in row or rows as needed and then save the row/rows to the table in the end. Column calcs would be available through bindings eg sum of the amount column.

[IchthysMaranatha]

Other than input, also useful for flexible display in tabular format as each cell would not be restricted to only the cell value binding as is for the present table component

[joebudi]

In re to adding a form for input only, you could:

• add a modal component
• add a form block (nested within the modal component)
• select the table as your data option
  -add a button to your screen to open the modal (button action)

This should work if I understand correctly. Here's a screenshot.

[IchthysMaranatha]

Oh yes, data can be entered into the table one record at a time through side panel, modal, inline etc. This is for multiple rows of input data at a time without entering it into a db table first. And as added, for flexible tabular display, form table would not be restricted as the table is to cell value binding

[joebudi]

Ahhh. Ok. Apologies. I picked you up wrong. You want the ability to add multiple records at the same time. I've heard this before. Thanks for the idea!

[gravyplaya]

I would say a good use case that I have is prefilling a PDF like jotform or fillout.com. Where you have a PDF template that needs to be populated with data. Then generate the PDF.

[gravyplaya]

We already have all the components in Budibase forms even the signature field. Just need a way to map the text fields in the pdf to the data.

[joebudi]

Thank you. We've spec'd a solution that I believe fits this use case.

[joebudi]

To everyone who voted - thank you. We released:

• SQL attachments [free plan]
  And very soon, we will release:
• PDF [premium plan]
• PWA support [enterprise plan]