I'm Andreas, CEO of toddle - a next-gen web development platform. Ask me anything!
Andreas Møller
42 replies
Hey PH Community! 👋 I'm Andreas, CEO & co-founder of toddle - a next-gen visual web development platform that rivals custom code. We built toddle because we wondered why a text editor is the best tool to build visual web apps.
Coders have long had the best development tools and are far superior to people who build visually. We wanted to build a platform that would level the playing field. You can try the tool at toddle.dev and join us tomorrow when we officially launch on Product Hunt! But before then, let's chat about what programmers need to be efficient and why it’s missing in past nocode tools or what I had for breakfast. I’m here to answer any and all of your questions; fire away! 🚀
Replies
Anders Møller@anders_moller
As a business oriented person I am curious how you see the expansion of web apps being made using toddle turn into scalable business for developers.
Will it down the line be possible to sell frontends as "kits" for other developers? And might you even provide one-click connection to backends enabling developers to offer fully functional web apps without needing to take care of the backend themselves?
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@anders_moller
We are launching "toddle packages" soon which will make it possible to build custom components and functionality for toddle, and share it with the community.
Initially it will not be possible to sell these packages, but that is something we could consider at at a later stage.
We are working with several No-code backend platforms to make it as simple as possible to get started.
How do you see the increased adoption of AI working with no-code platforms?
Do you think they will offer a copilot type interface with text based prompts, or would it be more of a visual based UX, like midjourney?
Do you think it will be a challenge to figure out if the components it writes actually work when the code is abstracted away?
@simon_holmes
I think there are a ton of opportunities to extend toddle with a lot of different AI features.
Right now we have an incredibly help fult AI that is trained on all of our documentation, Youtube videos and support channels, and is a great tool if you are just getting started with toddle.
In the future we will add more copilot like features, including autocomplete of formulas / workflows etc.
I think tools like toddle is actually positioned optimally for AI generated content, because it will be simpler for the user to understand what the AI has genrated.
As the CEO, what has been the most rewarding aspect of leading Toddle? Any personal highlights or lessons you'd like to share from your journey?
@iqra_naseem
Seeing everything our users are building is definitely the most rewarding part of building toddle:
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/up...
And hearing their feedback: https://whatistoddle.toddle.site/
Other than that I have a team who are the best people I have ever worked with.
Andreas, it's exciting to hear about toddle aiming to democratize web development—what do you see as the biggest hurdle for traditional coders transitioning to a visual development platform? Also, keen to know what breakfast fuels a CEO before a big launch!
Could you explain what the day-to-day developer experience looks like in toddle compared to regular code? And how would a team of developers/designers work together in toddle?
@erik_beuschau toddle gives you a visual interface for building your applications. This means that every change you make is immediately reflected in the editor. No more tabbing between windows and waiting for browsers to reload.
When you are working with logic, you have access to live data, so in each step of your formula, you can see what the value is going to be. Similar to working with a REPL if you are familiar with those.
This means that no matter what you are working on, you get instant feedback and can therefore iterate much faster than otherwise possible.
toddle is built for teams, so you can have your designer implement their designs, have a product manager is updating copy and media assets, while you as a developer is working on the business logic.
This means that product managers and designers no longer need to come to you for simple changes.
Do you currently have any AI helper tools in toddle, or are you planning on having some in the future?
@jacob_kofoed
We currently have an AI helper that is trained on all our documentation, youtube videos and support questions. It is a great way to quickly find an answer to a question without having to browse through a ton of content.
You can find it on our discord channel, https://toddle.dev/ask-a-robot and In side the editor it self.
Do you integrate with OpenAI to make no-code ChatGPT based apps for example a custom chatbot?
@shambhavi_mahajan1 You can absolutely do that. You could e.g. create an assistant with OpenAI and then build that chat interface for it in toddle.
@kazynski
We dont have any specific integration with metamask, but toddle works with any web technology.
You can create custom actions in toddle that can use the metamask SDK.
https://toddle.dev/docs/custom-a...
https://docs.metamask.io/wallet/...
In the world of web development, user experience is crucial. How does Toddle prioritize and enhance the user experience for both developers and end-users?
@jofra_g
People are often presenting UX(User experience) and DX(Developer experience) as being opposites.
I don't think they have to be. We try to design toddle in a way that the easiest way is also usually the "best" way.
"Best" here can mean more performant, more SEO friendly or the solution that offers better accessibility for the end user.
A lot of the common issues with frameworks like React, VUE and Angular is that you often end up loading a ton of unnecessary code up front, thereby making your pages load slower.
Because toddle is an integrated language, framework and hosting platform, we can optimize a lot of these things without the developer having to think about it.
Similarly server side rendering is often the cause of a ton of complications in these frameworks, where in toddle the developers never have to think about it.
Why Toddle?
instead of WeWeb or Bubble or other nocode web app tools?
@getsharp_au
Unlike other no-code platforms, toddle is designed from the ground up to meet the requirements of professional software teams.
This means that toddle is flexible to handle what ever requirements you have now or In the future.
This means more flexibility, better performance and more powerful collaboration features.
Hi Andreas! Did your team use any AI code assistants like JetBrains has in their products? We found it saves time on routine tasks and writing tests as well.
I played around and I really love it!! We are going to design a dashboard with toddle. In terms of security, do you store any of our data retrieved from our APIs (if we use API feature) on your servers?
Thanks! Really loved it.
@oleg_shumar Some of the team use GitHub copilot for the server side code.
Glad you like toddle!
No we don’t store any data flowing through our edge nodes.
We will let’s users use edge caching later, but it will be opt in.
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Andreas, it's exciting to see toddle aiming to democratize web development—eager to see how it compares with traditional coding tools. What do you think is the biggest challenge for programmers when transitioning to use a visual development platform like toddle?
@xyz_333
It is generally quite easy for developers to pick up toddle. It borrows a lot of concepts from modern frameworks like React and Angular so the transition is usually quite smooth.
If you know HTML and CSS, you can build UI's in toddle right away.
The biggest challenge is usually just giving it a try, since no-code tools transitionally haven't had too much to offer if you can code.
@andreas_toddle And answering my first question?
What would you recommend for Builders that are good with logic but no artists?
The classic "Backend Developer building a Frontend" Topic.
How can you build good looking Applications easily/quickly that don't look outdated or unfinished?
@patrik_hormann
We are working with a danish design agency kvalifik.dk to release their UI Kit for toddle. I think we will be announcing it this month.
Otherwise dribbble can be a good place to find inspiration, Or you are more than welcome just just copy ours :)
What does your project management flow look like?
Where do you start and how do you get started on actually building?
Like:
1. List of Key features
2. Describe each key feature
3. Flowcharts of features/pages
4. Wireframe/Design
5. Define Component in Design
6. Build Components
7. Put Components together
Or is it a completely different approach?
@patrik_hormann
Every creator or team is different, personally I am a big fan of the YAGNI principle ("You Ain't Gonna Need It") which states that you should focus on building one feature at a time.
Basically jump straight to step 7.
Create components when you need them, not before.
We mostly design directly in toddle, but for more complex UI flows we often do some brainstorming in figma first.
We e.g. dont have a complete Figma design for toddle with the different components.
@andreas_toddle
That makes sense, so start building the Page without components and when you see you repeat things you can put it into a component.
Basically - "hardcoding" the layout until you think there is a faster way and create everything from design to flow of functionality as you go.
Whats the first step to get started then?
Lets say for a User Dashboard, what would you recommend to do in the first 2h?
How did you get started with Toddle?
A big element of Toddle is: Toddle is built using Toddle.
On day 1, there was no Toddle, so how do you get started with such a project?
@patrik_hormann
Yes we get that question a lot :)
The first version of toddle was built with React js. Once that version of the editor was mature enough, we started rebuilding toddle in toddle.
This is really common for programming language such as TypeScript and Rust, where the compiler is written in the language it self.
In my eyes, Toddle is a platform that fits a fairly non technical person all the way to a full stack developer.
What would you say is the best path of getting onboarded to Toddle?
@patrik_hormann
We created a course called "Learn toddle in 7 days" which is specifically for people new to web development.
https://youtube.com/playlist?lis...
I strongly recommend building the projects from each video, so you familiarize your self with the concepts of toddle :)
How can a "rookie" become a key part of the project?
I see that in toddle a lot of developers collaborate and help each other out.
Is there a way - and if so - what is the best way to add to the project?
The goal is to excel in personal career and skillset while helping others on the way and create win-win scenarios.
@patrik_hormann
Today we have a great community that is especially supportive of newcomers. You can join here: https://discord.com/invite/QcFjj...
We are soon launching toddle packages, which lets you building components in toddle and share them with the whole community. It will be a great way to contribute and help others. Stay tuned!.
@andreas_toddle
I already joined your Discord, it has been a great experience and helped out a lot already!
Do you have a rough timeline for when packages will be available?
Do you plan to audit creators or packages to make sure they are "best practice"?
Will there be a guide on how to create a package?