New EasyDB - Dynamic Database Family of Stacks

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EasyDB Stacks

I’m pleased to announce the launch of the EasyDB family of stacks.  EasyDB fills a need that everyone has been hoping for:  A way to easily create databases & manage dynamic content - no matter what kind of site you may have.  EasyDB strikes just the right balance between ease of setup and being capable of handling really complex tasks.

EasyDB is perfect for a broad range of uses:  Providing Logistics such as product inventory, product information or delivery services or Adminstrative functions such as service scheduling or employee records.

One of the outstanding features of EasyDB is the automatic creation of tables and their related information fields.  Users never have to touch a table, manually edit information on their server or learn complicated programming interfaces to access anything.

Another great feature is TextGrid, which provides a table layout of all your dynamic content.  Controls can be optionally selected to allow admin login, adding of content, importing of files, downloading of content, deleting of row(s) & deleting all content.  The table layout supports 14 different content types which gives you an extensive range of display options.  Pop-ups are provided for viewing content in read-only mode, as well as changing content in edit mode.

To give you even more creative freedom, FreeForm allows you to place dynamic content anywhere you can drop a stack and supports 9 different content types.  Optional controls allow you to wrap text or html around your dynamic content and thus opens up addition content and styling opportunities.  Pagination controls allow you to cycle through dynamic content located anywhere on the page.

EasyDB supports all modern desktop browsers, IE9+, iOS & Android.  And yes, it requires your server running PHP 5.3+ & Stacks 3.5+.

Be sure to check out the awesome previews on the EasyDB Product Page to see how easy it is to provide dynamic content.  And don’t forget to take the free demo for a spin and see how you like it.

There’s also a ton of videos for you to watch & be sure to read about & vote on the features you want next.

EasyDB is available today on our Shop Page

Would you like to go dynamic today?

Thanks and Enjoy,

Bill

7 Likes
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It looks very good. Does the Freeform stack only display one record at a time or can it display all the records (or, better, all the filtered records) in a table one above the other? That’s the only way which would be any good for my book site.

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I’ve had early access to EasyDB and I must say that Bill’s done a great job of making the complex process of creating/populating/managing a MySQL database quite … easy:slight_smile:
The fact that everything is done from within RW is a massive achievement on his part and I look forward to seeing what others do with it.

2 Likes
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Hi Peter,

Freeform, as it stands right now, displays one record at a time. Freeform Pro, which is on the drawing board, will allow you to place multiple records on the page.

TextGrid does allow you to filter records in a table to whatever you’re visitors are looking for.

If you haven’t reviewed EasyDB & if you are reading this, then please be sure to go to my site & in the section ‘EasyDB & You : The Future’, read through the stack ideas and vote for the ones that you would like to have - that’s very important to guide future development to match the community’s needs :slight_smile:
EasyDB Webpage

Thanks,

Bill
Stack-Its

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It just hit me that maybe people would like to ask questions about EasyDB or talk about it in general, so I was thinking about doing some live chats. Please let me know if these times would work for you & then I’ll post a link a few minutes before the chat.

  • Dec 16th (Sat) 2pm Central
  • Dec 23rd (Sat) 2pm Central
  • Other Day 2pm Central

0 voters

Thanks, Bill

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Thanks! The daft thing is that I saw Easy DB and You yesterday but didn’t really take in its content!

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Here’s some great common sense questions which are thought provoking on what’s coming in EasyDB:

Q: Does TextGrid have the ability to search say surname and then if duplicate surname have the ability to NEXT | PREV records until you get the right one to edit or delete etc…?
A: Yes, you can filter a field & then you will be provided w/ results & if more than a page full, then clicking Next will show the next page of results. Multiple filters planned for TextGrid Pro.

Q: Can we have an option to turn the click sound effect off?
A: Yes. Will be in the next update.

Q: When adding a new row, can I see and update the whole record and then just click one ‘Update’ button to edit the entire record?
A: Entire row editing planned for TextGrid Pro.

Q: Is there a simplier way to setup each stack?
A: I hear ya! Currently working on an Admin stack idea to make it a lot easier to use.

Q: With an existing database, do I need to do all the database creation in Easy DB?
A: You can use an existing server table (w/ a simple caveat). The field names & field types in your existing table have to exactly match what is set up in EasyDB.

Q: In FreeForm, can we filter the content and can we sort the content in a specific way?
A: Custom filtering & sorting planned for FreeForm Pro.

Cheers,

Bill

2 Likes
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Hi guys,

Just sent out update v101 for TextGrid & FreeForm Note: for those having problems w/ FreeForm & using tags/beginning characters - this should fix it for paid versions :wink:

TextGrid:

• New Feature: Option to turn off button sound effect

FreeForm:

• New Feature: Option to turn off button sound effect

• Bug Fix: Field setup now fixed due to targeting mismatch when optional tags &/or beginning characters

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This looks like exactly what I need. I downloaded the demo and am working through it, without success (so far). But I will keep at it.

Is there any written documentation? The videos are nice, but videos don’t seem to be the best way for me to learn a new app or program. And they don’t serve troubleshooting very well.

Thanks

Terry Vosbein

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Hi Terry,

Thanks for looking into EasyDB. Written docs, well it would be very long to describe everything that can be done w/ it & since most people learn by visual, & showing is so much easier, I opted for in-depth videos :wink:

If you have watched the appropriate videos & it still isn’t happening, then please contact me by email bill @ stack-its dot com & send screenshots of what you have done & I will try my best to explain everything. In addition, most don’t realize that I am willing to do a screen share w/ folks to help them get up & running - all you have to do is ask.

Have a good holidays,

Bill
Stack-Its

1 Like
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I appreciate the quick response. I don’t feel watching 100 minutes of video in order to make a test of a product is a worthy expenditure of time. A PDF with a TOC and index would have me up and running by now.

I will follow up with a private email with my problems, but I believe it would behoove you to have at least some written instructions available. I learn much faster from a manual, not a demonstration, and I a bet I am not alone. There is no way to hunt for an issue and solve it with a video.

I’ll keep plugging away at it.

Terry

2 Likes
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What is it you are trying to achieve? There might be alternative stacks that will meet your needs more easily.

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I am trying to do exactly what this stack does, the same thing that’s in the video: easily create databases & manage dynamic content If you know of another stack that does this, especially one with a user manual,I am all ears.

I followed the steps half a dozen times, following along with the video, starting over from from the beginning each time, and it failed each time when I attempt to publish the Text Grid stack.

Interestingly, any stack I place below the stack on the page containing the EasyDB stacks is hidden upon preview or publication. Any stack above the Easy DB stacks shows.

I’ve written to Bill off-list for assistance.

Videos alone are not a good way for me to learn or troubleshoot an app. When something goes wrong there is no way to look anything up; I just have to rewatch a video to see if I missed something.

For instance, system requirements are not listed on the website (at least I couldn’t find them). I finally found them in the 7th video (why not the first?). I met all the requirements, as I had assumed.

Additionally, I like having a user manual so that I can browse through, and continue to learn a program more deeply.

I am still working this through. If I can make EasyDB work for me, it seems like a a perfect solution. And Bill at Stack-Its seems eager to help me achieve that.

Terry V

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But you definitely need a database-type solution as opposed to just a spreadsheet? A Google spreadsheet can be maintained easily and there are numerous stacks that can display/search the information from them (e.g. Grid Iron). There are also stacks that allow you to add data to a Google Spreadsheet from your website (e.g. Formloom). I don’t know what end result you want to achieve so these alternative approaches may miss the mark.

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Hi Everyone,

Just wanted to say thank you to all who have voted on the EasyDB page & emailed me w/ option ideas - Keep the suggestions coming - I’m open to anything and everything at this point.

P.S. Working on a solution to make it much easier to set things up - anticipating a week or two to get things worked out :wink:

Thanks,

Bill
Stack-Its

1 Like
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