dabbledb.com

21May07

Dabbledb.com is a very interesting application. It’s like plugging in the power of databases into your spreadsheet.

The idea is simply this: Got a spreadsheet? Upload it! Dabbledb.com will transform it into an intelligent database. Dabbledb will make relational databases out of your data. After that, you can easily create look ups, filters, views, etc. Date-based information goes into a calendar too. All without you having to figure out how it works.

For those of us who work on spreadsheets a lot, it’s a dream come true. In the early nineties, most of us still relied heavily on importing Excel spreadsheets into Access to create relational data quickly. Then by using Access reports, we were able to get different views of the same data out to people.

There were always attempts to “duplicate” the power of Microsoft Access on the internet, even in the days when we were just using Perl scripts with flat files. ASP gave Microsoft shophouses a new lease of life on the internet. And soon, we began to see web applications featuring spreadsheets you can import and create relational databases out of. Many of these applications were part of intranets (intranets.com).

When mySQL and php emerged, more attempts were made. I have tried quite a few (their names escape me now) based on the same idea – create relational databases easily. None of them really grew on me. I think the problem is that they were built too much like Access. “Create a record”, “Delete a Record”, “Add a Record”, etc.

Dabbledb.com, on the other hand, has not taken the Access-approach. Instead, the company has embraced the ease of the spreadsheets. The result is a very intuitive application.

What’s neat

• Automatically creates tables for you
• Intelligent moving of records from one table to another
• Define one relationship and all the records are linked
• Very intuitive

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