Grist | The Evolution of Spreadsheets

[kymj8]

This week I noticed this new feature in Outline which has been here in the App Wishist category:

• Added support self hosted Grist

I have been running Outline for 3 months (on a service similar to, but not as refined as Cloudron). I did do a quick test of embedding a Grist table -- not selfhosted -- into an Outline wiki post.

I am not capable of testing the selfhosted version not sure if either of these apps is the way I want to go long term. (If it is not on Cloudron, under a domain I have, getting safely backed up in a way I can recover or extract my data, it might as well not exist.)

I see above where @Aizat said in Grist | The Evolution of Spreadsheets:

Also REST API support makes it easy to integrates with other apps.

This part does sound promising. My goal for years has been to embed some simple table data with sorting/filtering in a blog post, web page, wiki/PKM tool, etc., and update that data elsewhere.

Baserow and NocoDB are already here on Cloudron. This is an exciting category.
As seen with the OIDC supported apps here, integration can bring a lot of value.

[timconsidine]

Thank you to @kymj8 for 'reviving' this topic.
Definitely would be a good addition to Cloudron.

And for those who can't wait or want to try it, I notice there is an Electron desktop app : https://github.com/gristlabs/grist-electron

[Sam_uk]

I gave up on Baserow when I realised any user could delete all the data (by design) https://community.baserow.io/t/protect-users-from-deleting-table-and-or-database/1282/10?u=sam_uk

Been playing with Nocodb which is OK, but I don't love it.

Someone mentioned this too me today, so here I am bumping it.

[jdaviescoates]

@Sam_uk said in Grist | The Evolution of Spreadsheets:

I gave up on Baserow when I realised any user could delete all the data (by design) https://community.baserow.io/t/protect-users-from-deleting-table-and-or-database/1282/10?u=sam_uk

Until, of course, you're on their Advanced plan which is $20/user/mo https://baserow.io/pricing (that's more for one user than the cost of Cloudron when paying annually!)

[ianhyzy]

I've been using their cloud version and it's great - much nicer than baserow or nocodb.

[jdaviescoates]

Now we've got Outline which integrates with Grist, I really want Grist too!

Screenshot from Outline:

[jdaviescoates]

This post is deleted!

[avatar1024]

I agree, I also think this is looking much more user friendly than both Baserow and NocoDB so it could be really useful to have (+ as @jdaviescoates pointed the Outline integration which would be fantastic to have). Looks like the future to me

[walski]

I've a version of Grist running on our Cloudron as well. It's using OIDC through oauth2-proxy (https://oauth2-proxy.github.io/oauth2-proxy/) but needs a bit more polishing. E.g. I've disabled Grist's sandboxing, which I want to fix.

Word of warning: The performance so far is not mega great in my preliminary testing. Feels quite sluggish on our little box.

[jdaviescoates]

@walski said in Grist | The Evolution of Spreadsheets:

I've a version of Grist running on our Cloudron as well.

Great stuff!

Add it to a repo to the Cloudron GitLab?

@walski said in Grist | The Evolution of Spreadsheets:

our little box.

How little?

[walski]

Ok turns out, that Grist releases after Sept. 11th come with a broken pyodide sandboxing layer (see https://github.com/gristlabs/grist-core/issues/734).

I got everything running using an earlier Grist release (1.1.4 from Sept 8th or so). Before this can be considered for the app store I need to polish the metadata, etc. But you should be able (we do) to install it to your Cloudron using the CLI.

Repo is here: https://git.cloudron.io/walski/grist-app

How little?

16GB RAM, 6 core AMD whatever virtual server. Currently running 13 apps through Cloudron.

[jdaviescoates]

@walski said in Grist | The Evolution of Spreadsheets:

16GB RAM

Yeah, that's not much RAM really (especially if you're running some RAM heavy apps), so possibly not surprising it's running slow. I wonder how it'd be if you had more resources... I guess once that issues is resolves and we get it into the Cloudron App Store we'll find out!

Thank you for your efforts, much appreciated

[walski]

Side-note: Looks like direct OIDC support just landed on Grist's main https://github.com/gristlabs/grist-core/pull/717

[plusone-nick]

@walski if its not DNS its RAM

[kymj8]

Grist is now available for YunoHost. It was announced in the Grist Community November 2023 Newsletter.

Looking for a simpler way to self-host Grist? Florent has also packaged Grist on YunoHost, a Debian-based OS designed to help democratize self-hosting. Check out Florent’s post in our forum for more information.

The post:
Self-hosting Grist made easy with Yunohost
https://community.getgrist.com/t/self-hosting-grist-made-easy-with-yunohost/3692

In the YunoHost Application Catalog:
https://apps.yunohost.org/app/grist

And on GitHub.
https://github.com/YunoHost-Apps/grist_ynh

This seems like a good sign for us here.

[walski]

Yip, they released v1.1.9 on Dec 2nd. That release includes the pyodide fix to run Grist sandboxed within Cloudron, as well as their direct OIDC support (see docs: https://support.getgrist.com/install/oidc/#openid-connect).

I'm more than happy to incorporate these onto my branch and that should then give us a decent to maybe get it into the app store? I just can't promise a timeline right now

[seeker]

New release highlights below.
I like that there is a desktop app. Has anyone been able to play with it. I assume it integrates with the cloud app? Sometimes it is nice to be able to take things offline.

Released: Grist v1.1.11
Highlights from recent releases:

Forms - design forms and surveys right within Grist and watch the data roll in live. Each field is automatically tied to a spreadsheet column so analysis is super simple. https://www.getgrist.com/forms/

New calendar widget for displaying dates. https://support.getgrist.com/widget-calendar/

Advanced Chart and JupyterLite Notebook custom widgets - very powerful for advanced dataviz and Python work.

https://support.getgrist.com/widget-custom/#advanced-charts
https://support.getgrist.com/widget-custom/#jupyterlite-notebook

Formula lookups and shortcuts for adding common formulas and lookups. https://support.getgrist.com/newsletters/2023-10/#formula-shortcuts

Record cards that make it much easier to navigate and edit referenced data (a huge part of what makes Grist useful). https://support.getgrist.com/record-cards/

GitHub repo: https://github.com/gristlabs/grist-core
Grist overview: https://www.reddit.com/r/selfhosted/comments/su6tv3/grist_free_open_source_alternative_to_airtable/ Interactive demo (no login required):
https://docs.getgrist.com/

[robi]

@walski said in Grist | The Evolution of Spreadsheets:

Repo is here: https://git.cloudron.io/walski/grist-app

How's it running these days?

Have you added the easy-install.sh script yet?

[seeker]

Just discovered grist has two pages of webinars that could be helpful for onboarding. Getting people to use tools... videos are helpful.
https://www.getgrist.com/webinars/

[jc147]

Hello, is there any progress on the integration of Grist with Cloudron? I can't wait for this to happen!