I really want to like Zoho Creator. It’s a WYSIWYG tool for building data driven web applications. Designing forms automatically generates data tables, whose contents may be displayed in views or used as values in list boxes on other forms. Imagine Filemaker, but for the web. Too bad it’s not ready for prime time. Views don’t update, searches cause crashes, and neither data nor design consistently persist between sessions. As soon as it works, I’m using it. It’s exactly the tool I was looking for to prototype a web-app I’d been looking to build.
Once the bugs are worked out, a few features I’d like:
- URL access to each table in XML form
- Views incorporating multiple tables
- RSS feeds and emails
- Integration with Zoho’s other web applications
Despite the problems, tech support has been very good about responding quickly to my bug reports. I hope to be using this great looking tool soon.
UPDATE: The great folks at Zoho technical support took a look at my project and were able to identify the likely culprit. I had been attempting to link two separate drop downs on one form to the data from a single form. That’s planned functionality, they say, but not implemented yet. I have an easy workaround for now, and a warm fuzzy feeling knowing what great support I get even from a free product. I like these guys! AAAAA++++++ HIGHLY RECOMMENDED WOULD DO BUSINESS AGAIN!!!!!
Thanks for writing about Zoho Creator & for your compliments, Joshua. I’m sure feedback such as yours will help Zoho Creator mature into a great service.
By: Arvind on March 16, 2006
at 9:34 am