open source Airtable alternative meet NocoDB
Open Source
Airtable Alternative
NocoDB is an open source #NoCode platform that turns any database into a smart spreadsheet.
nocodbTurns any MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQL Server, SQLite & MariaDB into a smart-spreadsheet.
TL;DR
Frontend: Vue.js
Backend: express.js, knex,
Database: Any SQL (postgres, mysql, sqlite, maria DB, SQL server)
API: REST and graphql
Quick try
1-Click Deploy
Heroku
Deploy NocoDB to Heroku with 1-Click
Using Docker
docker run -d --name nocodb -p 8080:8080 nocodb/nocodb:latest
To persist data you can mount volume at /usr/app/data/.
Using Npm
npx create-nocodb-app
Using Git
git clone https://github.com/nocodb/nocodb-seed
cd nocodb-seed
npm install
npm start
GUI
Access Dashboard using : http://localhost:8080/dashboard
Join Our Community
Screenshots
Features
Rich Spreadsheet Interface
⚡ Search, sort, filter, hide columns with uber ease
⚡ Create Views : Grid, Gallery, Kanban, Gantt, Form
⚡ Share Views : public & password protected
⚡ Personal & locked Views
⚡ Upload images to cells (Works with S3, Minio, GCP, Azure, DigitalOcean, Linode, OVH, BackBlaze)
⚡ Roles : Owner, Creator, Editor, Viewer, Commenter, Custom Roles.
⚡ Access Control : Fine-grained access control even at database, table & column level.
App Store for workflow automations :
⚡ Chat : Microsoft Teams, Slack, Discord, Mattermost
⚡ Email : SMTP, SES, Mailchimp
⚡ SMS : Twilio
⚡ Whatsapp
⚡ Any 3rd Party APIs
Programmatic API access via :
⚡ REST APIs (Swagger)
⚡ GraphQL APIs.
⚡ Includes JWT Authentication & Social Auth
⚡ API tokens to integrate with Zapier, Integromat.
Production Setup
NocoDB requires a database to store metadata of spreadsheets views and external databases. And connection params for this database can be specified in NC_DB environment variable.
Docker
Example MySQL
docker run -d -p 8080:8080
-e NC_DB="mysql2://host.docker.internal:3306?u=root&p=password&d=d1"
-e NC_AUTH_JWT_SECRET="569a1821-0a93-45e8-87ab-eb857f20a010"
nocodb/nocodb:latest
Example PostgreSQL
docker run -d -p 8080:8080
-e NC_DB="pg://host:port?u=user&p=password&d=database"
-e NC_AUTH_JWT_SECRET="569a1821-0a93-45e8-87ab-eb857f20a010"
nocodb/nocodb:latest
Example SQL Server
docker run -d -p 8080:8080
-e NC_DB="mssql://host:port?u=user&p=password&d=database"
-e NC_AUTH_JWT_SECRET="569a1821-0a93-45e8-87ab-eb857f20a010"
nocodb/nocodb:latest
Docker Compose
git clone https://github.com/nocodb/nocodb
cd docker-compose
cd mysql or pg or mssql
docker-compose up
Environment variables
Variable Mandatory Comments If absent
NC_DB Yes See our database URLs A local SQLite will be created in root folder
DATABASE_URL No JDBC URL Format. Can be used instead of NC_DB. Used in 1-Click Heroku deployment
DATABASE_URL_FILE No path to file containing JDBC URL Format. Can be used instead of NC_DB. Used in 1-Click Heroku deployment
NC_PUBLIC_URL Yes Used for sending Email invitations Best guess from http request params
NC_AUTH_JWT_SECRET Yes JWT secret used for auth and storing other secrets A Random secret will be generated
NC_SENTRY_DSN No For Sentry monitoring
NC_CONNECT_TO_EXTERNAL_DB_DISABLED No Disable Project creation with external database
NC_DISABLE_TELE No Disable telemetry
NC_BACKEND_URL No Custom Backend URL http://localhost:8080 will be used
Development setup
git clone https://github.com/nocodb/nocodb
cd nocodb
run backend
cd packages/nocodb
npm install
npm run watch:run
open localhost:8080/dashboard in browser
run frontend
cd packages/nc-gui
npm install
npm run dev
open localhost:3000/dashboard in browser
Changes made to code automatically restart.
nocodb/packages/nocodb includes nc-lib-gui which is the built version of nc-gui hosted in npm registry. You can visit localhost:8000/dashboard in browser after starting the backend locally if you just want to modify the backend only.
Running Cypress tests locally
install dependencies(cypress)
npm install
run mysql database with required database using docker compose
docker-compose -f ./scripts/docker-compose-cypress.yml up
Run backend api using following command
npm run start:api
Run frontend web UI using following command
npm run start:web
wait until both 3000 and 8080 ports are available
and run cypress test using following command
npm run cypress:run
or run following command to run it with GUI
npm run cypress:open
Contributing
Please take a look at ./scripts/contribute/HowToApplyLicense.md
Ignore adding headers for .json or .md or .yml
🎯 Why are we building this?
Most internet businesses equip themselves with either spreadsheet or a database to solve their business needs. Spreadsheets are used by a Billion+ humans collaboratively every single day. However, we are way off working at similar speeds on databases which are way more powerful tools when it comes to computing. Attempts to solve this with SaaS offerings has meant horrible access controls, vendor lockin, data lockin, abrupt price changes & most importantly a glass ceiling on what's possible in future.
❤ Our Mission :
Our mission is to provide the most powerful no-code interface for databases which is open source to every single internet business in the world. This would not only democratise access to a powerful computing tool but also bring forth a billion+ people who will have radical tinkering-and-building abilities on internet.