I am currently writing a lowcode platform that allows defining backend as Excel functions. The format is not visually organized as spreadsheets or cells but differently. The platform also allows connecting different data sources and targets to it. Finally, you can connect to the backend itself using a REST API!
Some problems with Excel when people have tried to achieve the "excel as a backend":
- Excel was not designed to act as a (headless) backend - you should not do it because it will crash
- million rows limitation
- understanding what a Excel tool does is almost impossible to explain to other people, which makes sharing and maintaining the tool almost impossible
Using other types of spreadsheets like Google's is quite complex due to traditional way of representing data as cells and having the 2D format that is very functional for visual inspection but somewhat challenging when you interact through API: hopefully you take my word for it because I have done it.
I know many people have implemented many tools using Excel - with or without VBA. So my question is which kind of tools or services you would create with Excel if you could turn the an Excel sheet into a backend?
Some problems with Excel when people have tried to achieve the "excel as a backend": - Excel was not designed to act as a (headless) backend - you should not do it because it will crash - million rows limitation - understanding what a Excel tool does is almost impossible to explain to other people, which makes sharing and maintaining the tool almost impossible
Using other types of spreadsheets like Google's is quite complex due to traditional way of representing data as cells and having the 2D format that is very functional for visual inspection but somewhat challenging when you interact through API: hopefully you take my word for it because I have done it.
I know many people have implemented many tools using Excel - with or without VBA. So my question is which kind of tools or services you would create with Excel if you could turn the an Excel sheet into a backend?