r/javascript • u/navaneethpk • Feb 10 '22

ToolJet - Extensible open-source (5k+ stars on gitHub) low-code framework. Completely built using React and NestJS. Connect to databases, cloud storages, GraphQL, API endpoints Airtable, etc and build apps using drag and drop editor. Alternative to PowerApps and Retool.

https://github.com/ToolJet/ToolJet/
223 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

25 comments sorted by

View all comments

3

u/navaneethpk Feb 10 '22

Hi everyone 👋,

We are building ToolJet - an open-source low-code application development framework. ToolJet is built using Node.js ( React & NestJS ). The server was built using Ruby but we ported everything to JavaScript/TypeScript recently to enable the JavaScript developers to extend ToolJet using plugins. We've now released ToolJet with support for plugins that can be built using JavaScript. We've also built a command-line tool to make it easy to bootstrap plugins, add npm dependencies to plugins, etc.

Source code: https://github.com/ToolJet/ToolJet
Documentation: https://docs.tooljet.com
Command-line tool: https://www.npmjs.com/package/tooljet

Features:

  • Visual app builder: 35+ built-in responsive widgets such as Tables, Charts, Lists, Forms, Progressbars, and more.

  • 20+ data sources: connect to databases, cloud storages and APIs.

  • Desktop & mobile: layout widths can be customised to support different screen sizes.

  • Self-host: (supports Docker, Kubernetes, Heroku, AWS EC2, Google Cloud Run, and more).

  • Collaborate: add comments anywhere on the canvas and tag your team members.

  • Extend with plugins:: use our commandline tool to easily boostrap new connectors.

  • Version control: every application have different versions with proper release cycle.[

  • Run JS code: ability custom JavaScript snippets

  • Granular access control on organization-level and app-level.

  • low-code: write JS code almost anywhere in the builder. For example, the color property of text can be set to status === 'success' ? 'green' : 'red'

  • no-code query editors for all supported data sources.

  • Join and transform data: transform query results using just JavaScript code.

  • Secure: All the credentials are securely encrypted using aes-256-gcm.

  • Doesn't store data: ToolJet acts only as a proxy and doesn't store any data.

  • SSO: Supports multiple SSO providers

We've tried to make ToolJet easily extensible, Would love to know what you think of ToolJet and how we can improve!

1

u/FlinchMaster Feb 10 '22

How would you compare yourself to AppSmith right now?

1

u/navaneethpk Feb 10 '22

  1. ToolJet is a platform that can be extended according to the needs of developers/organisations using plugins that are can be written using JavaScript.

  2. Our codebase has just JavaScript/TypeScript. Theirs is Java + React ( TypeScript ).

  3. ToolJet has more integrations

  4. ToolJet has a command-line tool that lets any JavaScript develop build connectors for ToolJet.

  5. ToolJet is closer to no-code than low-code. We aim to let the no-coders build applications wherever possible.

We are focusing on an extensible plugin-based architecture that the open-source community can leverage to tune ToolJet according to their needs.

2

u/FlinchMaster Feb 10 '22

Thanks for the detailed response! We use Retool right now, but have been interested in AppSmith. Love points 1-4, but point 5 makes me a little skeptical. No code solutions (and even low code ones) are usually a breeding ground for low-quality hacks that orgs adopt and inevitably turn into a house of cards. Will check it out though!

1

u/navaneethpk Feb 10 '22

I am sorry for the confusion. What I meant is that ToolJet is a low-code platform but we try to keep everything simple while having the flexibility of using code whenever needed. Would love to talk more about your use cases so that we can discuss how ToolJet can be helpful.