September 2015 Summaries

We're going to build an app with dynamic dropdown elements that depend on each other. We'll create a simple country/city example where the options of the second dropdown are determined by the content of the first one, and display a picture of the selected city. To achieve this, we define our data structure in an 'admin' page, creating two types of things: Country and City. We build forms for each type, with dynamic choices for the country dropdown, allowing users to select from a list of already created countries. When a user saves a city, it is associated with the selected country. In the customer-facing page, we add two dropdown elements for country and city selection, with dynamic options that search through saved data. The second dropdown only displays cities in the selected country, and an image below them shows a picture of the selected city, retrieved dynamically from the 'City' form.

This article is about how an author built a simple app using Bubble, a no-code website builder, to upload and vote on cute puppies. The author started by designing the app's layout and features, including a leaderboard section and user-uploaded puppy images. They then created a data structure to store information about each puppy, including name, picture, total votes, and cute votes. Next, they programmed the "Add a Puppy" section, allowing users to upload a new puppy and display existing ones. The author also implemented voting functionality, displaying the next puppy to vote on after each click. Finally, they displayed the top five cutest puppies using a Repeating Group and searched for puppies sorted by cute votes in descending order.

Bubble aims to bridge the gap between programming and coding by providing a tool that enables users to design and build apps without writing a single line of code. The company's goal is to empower more people to create apps, rather than just learning how to code, by making it easier for non-programmers to understand app functionality and structure. By doing so, Bubble hopes to unleash the potential of many individuals who already know how to design an app like Facebook or Airbnb, but lack coding skills. The tool aims to reduce the attention to detail required for coding, allowing users to focus on building apps faster and more efficiently.

The Lost & Found service app aims to facilitate the reporting and searching of lost items by users. The app will have three main pages: 'index' (home), 'report', and 'search'. The data structure for the app will store information about lost objects, including description, picture, location, date found, and email of the person who found it. The index page will feature links to search or report, with hover effects for improved user experience. The report page will have an input form for users to report found items, with a map element to ensure accurate location entry. The search page will display results based on search criteria, including location, date, and description, with a list of matching lost objects and a button to send a message to the owner. Additionally, the app will feature a popup for sending messages to the owner without exposing their email address.

Building a simple Yelp-like app on Bubble takes around 30 minutes to create, starting from a blank page. The app has two main pages: one for submitting coffee shops and another to display them on a map. For the submission page, inputs include name, address, picture uploader, rating dropdown, and a map to verify addresses. After setting up the page structure, the workflow is defined to save submitted data as new coffee shop entries. The app also features a display page that shows a list of markers with ratings on a map, allowing users to see highly-rated coffee shops. With this basic setup, additional features can be added, such as refining search by location or user sign-up functionality.

Many people ask us why we're not raising money, we started working on Bubble knowing it would be a 10-year project and replacing code making programming accessible is hard and takes time to come with the right product and infrastructure. Taking external money comes with pressure of delivering metrics such as number of users which isn't the best approach for our problem. We need to offer a powerful platform so that existing users can grow their product and business on us. Our bet is that at some point we'll have enough trust from them to start generating exponential growth. Unlike many consumer ventures, our users are willing to pay for our service offering us the opportunity to bootstrap.

The concept of "higher level" and "lower level" languages in programming refers to the level of abstraction from the underlying hardware, with higher-level languages providing a simpler reality for developers to work with. Languages like C and Go are considered lower-level because they deal directly with the underlying computer hardware, while languages such as Ruby, Python, and Java provide a more abstracted and simplified interface. Higher-level languages allow developers to focus on their application's functionality without worrying about low-level details like memory management. The goal of Bubble is to create a language that speaks the "language of apps", providing an even simpler reality for development, while still allowing developers to drop down to lower-level languages when needed.

Bubble` is a platform that generates the code underneath your design, allowing users without coding knowledge to build applications in the browser. The founders' vision is to create a world where programming is self-explanatory and people can talk to computers to build software. `Bubble` claims that with its 9 lessons, users can start building applications visually within a couple of months. It offers customizability and functionality similar to what would be required to build large-scale applications like Facebook or Airbnb. The platform aims to reduce the time engineers spend reinventing the wheel for non-technical users, allowing them to focus on new products and features. With `Bubble`, people can express themselves online without needing coding skills, unleashing tremendous economic potential and empowering individuals to build their own solutions to problems.