Why even experienced developers can benefit from no-code tools

As one of our main focus areas is custom software solutions, we pride ourselves on tackling complex problems with code. However, a recent project demanded a solution that was quite unusual for us. One of the key requirements was minimally impacting existing processes, ideally making use of existing tools and workflows. Furthermore, our customers shall be able to maintain the solution fully themselves. No-code tools seemed like the perfect solutions for these challenges.

Example of a simple table in Glide

Before, all data was managed in a centralized Google Sheet, which was edited manually. This approach could easily result in invalid states, making the entire process more cumbersome. The centerpiece of our solution was an interactive dashboard built with Glide. This no-code tool combines powerful data management with an easy-to-use interface, allowing us to display and manipulate the data via a simple user interface. The Glide dashboard prohibits certain invalid actions, ensuring data integrity, while simultaneously speeding up the workflow for our customer by limiting selection options. The biggest advantage of all, however, is how quickly one is able to prototype user interfaces. It only takes a few clicks to display an entire table, even with pagination, or an overlay to edit individual items!

Creation of a page to list and edit the entries of a table

While Glide was the most important part of this integration, Make also played a vital role in the process. It was used to connect ActiveCampaign, their customer relationship management tool, and Glide. Data is transferred to Glide when all required information is present. This happens via a Make webhook, which normalizes fields before creating rows in the relevant Glide tables. Once the process is marked as finished in the Glide user interface, the data is synced back to ActiveCampaign through another Make webhook. The data collection process before ActiveCampaign remains untouched, fulfilling the requirement of our customer of minimally impacting their existing workflows.

The use of no-code tools enabled us to work on-site with our customer at a very rapid pace, modifying the screens as we got new insights. The interface and flow of the app could be changed drastically within a few clicks. This would not have been possible, if we had developed this application by hand. It was also a more transparent way of working with our customer, since no-code tools reflect the changes immediately, whereas “traditional” development would have required us to code in between feedback rounds. This greatly improved our collaboration with the customer in this particular project.