Friday, November 15, 2024

Teable – SD Times Open-Source Project of the Week

Teable is a no-code database that provides a spreadsheet-like interface for entering data and creating applications from that data. It includes all of the features you’d expect from a spreadsheet application, but with the performance of a database. 

Some common use cases include building a CRM, an application for office inventory management, or an employee directory — all of which Teable has templates for getting started quickly from. 

“Databases and spreadsheets are like brothers, one is serious and high-performing, offering excellent performance and providing powerful data support for applications, but requiring developers to drive through code. The other is flexible and easy to use, a fundamental infrastructure for data processing in the modern office system, almost a basic skill for everyone. We created an organic combination of the two, not only converting ordinary editing operations into a what-you-see-is-what-you-get experience but also organically inheriting the mechanism of column data types, making it the foundation for creating powerful and stable applications,” the project’s creators wrote in a blog post.

According to the creators, while Teable looks similar to the popular tool Airtable, under the hood it is quite different, resulting in better performance and advanced capabilities. Airtable has a limit of 100,000 database rows, but because of Teable’s architecture, it has no upper limit because every table is a real database table and has the query and storage capabilities of one. They have tested a table of 1 million rows of data and were able to do complex filtering and statistical queries in around 200 milliseconds. 

Visually, users can interact with data in a number of different types of views, including a grid view where data is displayed like a normal spreadsheet, a form view where data can be collected via a form, or a Kanban board. The maintainers are also working on multiple other view types, including calendar view for tracking dates and events, gallery for displaying media, Gantt view for tracking project schedules, and a timeline view for tracking events over time. 

It also provides collaboration features where multiple team members can collaborate on the data and have the database be updated in real-time. 

Teable is built on PostgreSQL, which allows it to easily interface with other BI, low-code, and ETL tools, and supports SQL querying. 

Some upcoming features that are being worked on include extensions, the ability to bring your own database, and an AI copilot. 

“Whether you are a seasoned developer or a beginner who wants to complete your own application but does not understand databases, you can easily manage data and implement complex database applications in Teable,” the creators wrote.


Read about other recent Open-Source Projects of the Week:

Penpot | DioptraSemantic Kernel’s Agent Framework | Hoppscotch

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