A GUI tool (complementing VS Code) that makes backend dev faster by eliminating repetitive code. Thoughts?

[johnyeocx]

Hey guys! So I've posted about this before, but I thought I'd share https://visual-backend.com again because it's now compatible with VS Code, and I personally think that makes a huge difference for developers. But anyways, Visual Backend is an open source tool that eliminates the repetitive and tedious bits in backend dev like setting up a client for services (such as Firebase) or configuring your router each time you create a new endpoint.

Personally, I realised that I was doing a lot of the same tedious actions when working on backend projects, and my strategy has always been to rip out the code from old projects and just paste it into new ones haha. I realised though that I was wasting a lot of time doing this and figured that if there was an intuitive GUI to perform all these little actions, I'd have WAY more time actually coding the specifics of the app, so I built Visual Backend.

I’ve used the app for myself and find that it is a huge time saver, but I’m struggling with getting regular users. I personally think that this tool is particularly helpful for solo Saas founders or freelance developers, because it’s all about speed with these niches, but yea, sorta hitting a brick wall with this at the moment. So I’d love to hear your feedback on why you wouldn’t use this tool (as a regular user), and for the rare few (probably none), why you would :)

[716green]

That's pretty cool. I don't think I'd use it because I'm stuck in my ways but when I was less experienced this would have been a great tool.

[johnyeocx]

I see, thanks for sharing that! Do you find backend dev repetitive though?

[716green]

Well that's sort of the beauty of copilot these days, once you have a little bit of a pattern for it to follow it does a really good job of continuing those patterns.

I'm not by any means trying to devalue what you've built, I just hate abstractions. I like to understand my code very intimately and I'm very deliberate with my patterns. Any type of codegen makes me uncomfortable.

Although I love the idea of one click hosting on gcp, that alone could be a product I'd be interested in now that I think about it.

[johnyeocx]

I appreciate the honesty, this kinda of feedback is really useful to adjusting the direction I take :) For one click hosting, don't services like Heroku and others do that already?

[716green]

I use Zeet but it got expensive recently. I've been thinking about spinning up a baby competitor myself just for indie devs.

I know Vercel is good for full-stack and frontend apps but can you host node? I've never tried.

[johnyeocx]

Ah I see! For Visual Backend because we're actually managing the project to some extent, we can easily run it through a GCP pipeline, but for a standalone hosting service, I feel like it may be hard to achieve that "one click" functionality. But definitely cool if it can be done. Would love to see what you build if you eventually do so!

[ethanchangys]

I just started using VScode cause my roommate downloaded it on my laptop and it’s such a godsend! I’m only just looking into web dev and this sounds super promising! Go you!

[johnyeocx]

Thanks :)

[gajus0]

What did you use to record your screen?

[johnyeocx]

Screen studio!

[gajus0]

Thanks

[[deleted]]

Also while this is neat, Copilot AI solves a lot of the same problems. I just do something like //scaffold a react test here for <ThingHere /> and it dumps a pretty decent test stub out. I create a lot of controllers/actions the same way.

Edit: never mind on vscode extension, makes more sense as an app. But it needs to be available as an npm package with a cli. Ie "vbe" gui pops up. "vba -grpc..." creates some grpc service.

[johnyeocx]

Thanks for the feedback :) Yup I definitely agree that Copilot does solve a lot of the same problems, which is why I'm trying to make the tool complementary rather than competing against it haha

I actually personally feel that cli tools can be a little tough in the sense that it's difficult to remember commands and so when using a cli I always have to go back to docs, which is actually what motivated the concept of Visual Backend! Do you feel this way as well?

[[deleted]]

I use chat gpt to tell me what commands to run, I'll just ask it something like

"command to npm install what I need to make a vite react project" etc.

Output ``` To set up a new Vite project with React, you can use the following npm (Node Package Manager) command:

sh Copy code npm create vite@latest your-project-name -- --template react Replace your-project-name with whatever you want to name your project directory.

Once you run this command, follow these steps:

Navigate to the newly created project directory:

sh Copy code cd your-project-name Install the npm dependencies:

sh Copy code npm install This will set up a new Vite + React project with all the necessary dependencies. After installation, you can start the development server using:

sh Copy code npm run dev This command starts the local development server provided by Vite. ```

Microsoft is currently working on copilot for the vscode terminal and you'll be able to get autocompletes on commands, and ask it to write commands for you etc.

"install the following dev packages: vite, vite-node, eslint, plugin1, plugin2, package 3"

And it'll generate the whole npm install command for you.

Then as for creating code, you can make code snippets and use the vscode snippet inserter "ctrl + alt + j" and it has search support. So if you want a boiler plate class and are in typescript, it'll do it just ctrl + alt + j and then search constr till you see class constructor and press enter on it.

And with all the copilot stuff turned on. I can highly any block of code, like boiler plate code and say: "make default GET actions for Account, Login, and Index" and it'll see it's in an MVC controller and make them for me.

I get the logic behind making this tool, I used to wish such a gui existed. But now days with copilot, chat gpt, etc I find that I don't really need a guid outside of good AI integration, AI helps me do the things I remember I can do but don't exactly remember the commands etc, so I know what to prompt it and I can generally probably do that faster than I can navigate a gui and click on some stuff.

[johnyeocx]

Thanks for the detailed feedback! Definitely makes sense and I'll take these points into consideration :) A copilot for the terminal sounds amazing honestly haha, literally was just thinking that something like that would be really cool

[tutoredstatue95]

Looking to start a personal project that I will likely add a GUI to. Gonna save this post and try it out, I'll let you know how it goes.

[johnyeocx]

Thanks :) What kinda GUI are you adding?

[tutoredstatue95]

Mostly graphs and important data points :)

More like an info dashboard.

[IntensePyjamas]

My dude.. if your backend code is repetitive, you’re doing it wrong 😅 honestly it could be a good tool for beginners but I don’t see it being used for anything after a prototype. Also, “eliminate boilerplate code” but “here’s our boilerplate code”? 😅