Strange question… or maybe not

Has anyone built a Softr app that allows the user to basically operate an airtable but without actually them actually using airtable?

E.g. a Softr app that a user can set their fields, projects, tasks, automations etc all through forms, and then the automations on the back-end generate the views in Softr.

I can imagine there are many people who would benefit from something like this, as they wouldn’t have the time or skills to create their own airtable and manage it.

I think this is a super interesting idea, but I would suggest separating it into two questions:

  1. Would there be value in an app that is designed for Softr users, and simplifies away most of the details that a Softr user needs to learn right now about Airtable?
  2. Could that app be built in Softr?

I think the answer to the first question is definitely yes. I think the answer to the second question is probably no. I think the app would need to talk directly to the Airtable API in order for it to do all the things. And Softr is not a good choice for building an app that needs to talk directly to a server-side API.

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I think if I were going to build an app like this, I would focus on the workflows that are very cumbersome right now and have to be done manually if they are to be done at all. For example, a one-button feature to take a snapshot of a Softr app AND its corresponding Airtable base in such a way that the pair (Softr app, Airtable) can actually run. Then maybe on top of that a feature that would let you promote an existing pair of app+base from a stage environment to a production environment.

One of the reasons I’d start here is because that’s something I’d like to have myself, but another reason is that if the app’s purpose is to manage the Airtable so users don’t have to learn them, I wonder how to do that without basically recreating the existing Airtable web app.

Ok, you sort of lost me on the second post. I’m new to all this!

So would there be another program/app builder that would do the job? If it was doable, to create an easy and intuitive platform for a user to basically create an airtable base without knowing it, it feels like it would already be out there…?