WebWidgets : a Framework for Do-It-Yourself WebApps
A Widget is a miniature webapp intended for use by individuals or small groups. By focusing on the small group use case, we can make web app development 100x easier. Now in an hour or two you can build your own note-taking app, or fitness tracker, or diet log, or finance manager, or anything else you want.
Learn to Code
When you're learning to code, the most important thing is to work on projects that you will actually use.
Building Widgets for yourself is a great way to learn the basics of software development in JavaScript - the most popular programming language in the world - as well as simple web design using HTML and CSS.
Organize your Life
Modern life is complex. If you don't have good info management tools, you're going to fall behind the people who do.
Keep track of your finances, plan your projects, schedule your workouts - any info you need to manage, can be managed with a widget.
Easy to Build
In developing the Widget framework, my goal was to make it as easy to build a Widget as it is to create a simple HTML page. I think the framework comes very close to that goal.
Widgets can be as complex as you want, but for simple things like note-taking apps or fitness trackers, it takes just 1-2 hours.
Own Your Data
A lot of apps allow you to download the data you've created, but to actually use it, you need to swim through a soup of complex JSON or XML.
With Widgets, YOU define the DB schema to be used for your data. And you can grab the SQLite file that contains your data anytime you want.
Sync to Google Sheets or Excel
All widget data is contained in a simple tabular data structure represented by an SQLite file. This format is easily converted into a spreadsheet representation, for either Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel.
You can sync your data to Google Sheets directly from the Widgets Admin UI. For Excel, you download your Widget DB and then run a converter script that we provide.
All the Features You Want
And none you don't want. Every person who uses computers has had the experience of being frustrated, annoyed or enraged by some piece of "functionality" that the designer thought was going to be helpful, but isn't.
When you build software for yourself, this never happens. This is a path to a completely new and different experience of what software can become.
Build on a Hard Rock
It's always extremely risky to invest in new technologies. Many tech frameworks that are popular today will be gone tomorrow, along with the time you spent to learn them.
Widgets are built using the most standard technologies in the world - JavaScript, HTML, CSS and SQLite. These tools are not going anywhere, so you can feel safe that your investment will pay off.
Copy Our Demos to Start Fast
We have many Demo Widgets that you can use to get started. You can make a complete copy, or you can take use our code and mash it up to suit your needs - it's up to you.
Some Widgets you can start with: a TODO List, a Workout tracker, a finance management tool, a personal link manager, or your own private Question / Answer database. Visit the demo page for videos, or check out our GitHub for code.