radva42
Joined 12 years ago
Joined 12 years ago
My library has support for @page rules, but that's actually pretty basic. I needed more advanced headers/footers and added support for in-html headers/footers like this: In your <body> you cna define headers/footers by wrapping content in a <section> tag. For example:
<body> <section> <header>... any HTML here, full CSS support</header>
<div> Some normal flow content</div>
<footer>Your footer HTML</footer>
</section>
</body>This structure is purely optional, but it's a really convinient way of designing pages with different styles in the same document. An HTML file can have any number of these sections meaning you can generate a PDF with different headers/footers.
Some other bits: It has support for 100% height that match the entire page, it can handle forced page breaks inside flexbox containers (Chrome doesn't even try ... just ignores it) and also follows page-break: avoid correctly - so it doesn't randomly split table rows for example.
I started small as a toy project, but gradually implemented full support for proper block context, flexbox layout, CSS variables, tables, etc. to the point where I have almost full support of all major CSS features (even math functions like calc(), min(), max()).
I'm cleaning up the code right now and will upload it later today or maybe tomorrow here: https://github.com/PureGoPDF
I put some pretty crude demos online about a year ago [0] ... back then the idea was to create a more general purpose no-code web app builder, but since then I decided to focus specifically on database applications.
Also putting all software in the browser doesn't necessary mean that the users have to give up control over their software and data. Maybe there's a middle ground by making it easy for the end users to run their own software in the browser. At least this is an idea I've been working on for quite some time - a self-hosted visual (no-code) software builder called FormBeaver[0] that let's users build and host their own custom database software without any code. Currently the users need to download it and run the App Builder on their own machine for it to work, but I'm hopeful that in the near future it would be possible to put it entirely in the browser thanks to WebAssembly. The one thing that's missing in the browser right now is an SQL database. I haven't found a way to run SQL in the browser.
This is something I've been working on for quite some time. The goal is to make it easy for anyone to build database apps by first defining a data structure and then creating forms and UI around it. Pretty much anything can be built with FormBolt - from very basic apps to replace excel spreadsheets to complex apps for inventory management, product management, or any custom business processes/data. This is not a tool for visual programming. Instead I think of it as a visual scaffolder - users visually create the app blueprint, which the background service uses to automatically create and deploy a fully functional web app. It offers granular user permissions and it's easy to create different forms/workflows for different user groups.
FormBolt can run locally without a centralized server (all data stored locally) or you can put it on a remote server, enable networking and have your own private cloud app.
As the title it has a visual builder and doesn't require writing any code (for the most basic apps), however writing some JS and SQL is necessary for more advanced functionality. From my experience with it so far I can say that building the usual CRM/project management/invoicing app takes a few hours (from idea to working app). In fact it takes me more time to decide what forms I need for an app than actually building it.
This is what I used to create it: - Front: VueJS & Semantic UI - Back: Golang - Database: PostgreSQL
What do you think?
For example starting with the standard CRM and invoicing apps and going to more complex apps for inventory management, product & project management - virtually any kind of database software can be built without writing code.
https://www.amazon.com/Wool-Omnibus-Kindle-Motion-Silo-ebook...
I'll try to put the demos on the site by tomorrow.
It still cannot work with any third-party APIs though, but other than that virtaully anything can be built in a matter of a few hours (maybe a day or two for the more complex and large apps).
Also I've implemented implicit workflows, where what happens is defined in the forms based on what components are inserted into it. There isn't the traditional "when A happens, do B" kind of workflows. IMO the implicit ones are much more pwoerful and flexible.
You can check it here (demos coming soon, currently one one basic tutorial): https://www.formbolt.com
An awesome sci-fi story about a software developer who wakes up in the 22nd as a computer program