Hi I am new to Adalo, I have a sizable project coming up which I am preparing for, hopefully using Adalo. The DB needs to be MySQL, which I am also setting up now on a new webhost. I know that to connect to MySQL from Adalo, I need an Rest API overlay on MYSQL. I believe this can be done is a number of ways…
Write custom PHP APIs
Use Node.js to install a API package eg Directus, Strapi, or xgeneCloud (any others?)
Use Node.js and Laravel
My question is, given that Adalo has excellent support and a freelance community behind it, which of these options (or any others that I do not know about) will have the best familiarity and knowledge of, within the Adalo community.
I expect that the project will be too big for a beginner like me, so for me to create a DB environment that has some familiarity from other developers is very important.
All help, discussions and advise accepted.
BruceX
Hi @BruceX ,
How heavy the app will be? If you can build as an MVP, I suggest using integromat for MySQL. I would say this is the quickest way to build your app with mySQL. In order to go differently, you would need to create a custom component for this.
Hi JL_LJ
Thank you for your reply. Your answer had many puzzles which I expect will become clearer as I get more into Adalo tutorials, documentation etc. To answer your question the project is still in planning stage but may consist of many pages (can’t guess how many yet). The Entity-Relationship model in MYSQL will probably be sizable.
MVP, I presume means Most Valuable Person, which in the Adalo context, means there is some sort of ranking of skill levels, which is good.
I looked up integromet, which appears to be a zapier like tool. Rather than having a connector, like Zapier or Integromet, would it be possible to connect directly with MySQL via an API. The $50 per month subscription of Adalo seems allow this (or have I missed something),
As yet I am not sure how custom components work in Adalo and you seem to imply it will be necessary to develop one in order to have CRUD operations in Adalo from an API.
I feel as though I have misinterpreted some of your answer, please feel free to expand more.
BruceX
Couple of comments from my side:
→ MVP = Minimal Viable Product. It is the product which is usually built to test the product/business hypothesis.
→ If you’d like to use external collections in Adalo, that’s not possible with MySQL, unfortunately. You will need a wrapper which provides REST API for MySQL DB. You can search the forum with “MySQL” keyword, there were several threads about it with some workarounds as far as I remember. If you can write this wrapper by yourself - that solves all the problems. Also I think this link could be useful: How To Create A Simple REST API in PHP - Step By Step Guide!
Great reply, that is the best tutorial on a PHP API I have seen,
I take it that you have not come across Strapi, Directus or xGeneCloud, which are API packages for MySQL that run in node.js, and theoretically can be used for this project.
Hi Brucex, I went through an equal problem, and due to the lack of options I had to create my API Rest JS to connect to my Mysql Database. If you want, I can provide you, it is not completely done because I only use a few Selects, but it can help with your tests.
Wow, thank you for reaching out. Over the next weeks I will be exploring options, and it would be great to swap notes. My first mini project, just to explore Adalo itself is going to be a small ticketing system that may become useful later on. I know there are plenty of ticketing systems out there, I just need a focus to get used to Adalo.
No, I haven’t come across any of these I’m not a proffesional in node.js, sorry
There is one concern reg. external collections though. Adalo DB has built-in relationships in the collections, which help a lot in development. With external collections you’ll have to maintain the relationships between tables by yourself, and you’ll not have quite a big part of sorting/filtering capabilities built in Adalo.
Hello,
I’m using external db and my main issue is the “advanced option” of list. You just can’t use it if when you are not using adalo API. The filters are not important, you can create better ones inside your external web API, but the real problem is to update data on a screen.
If you do a chat for exemple, when someone create a new message you will use a POST request to create it inside your DB, OK. But how can you notifie others users that you have a new message ?
You will have problem with reload too. Adalo do NOT have component or methode to refresh a screen.
Users must leave the page and open it again to get news messages.
You will have the problem with users registrations too, you can’t use external collection to manage login or user base.
Conclusion : If you want to ONLY use an external collection you can’t… just don’t create your app with Adalo.
But if you want to use both, this will be great for many points, because you will be much more flexible with your external DB and you will sometime need to use adalo DB to unlock specific fonctionnality and to simplifie your life ^^
Ps : i recommend you to use the software Insomnia (Download - Insomnia) to test and debug your API calls, this kind of software are just necessary to create external API =)
Hi Nicholas, thank your so much for your hints. I am committed to MySQL, so it will be good to swap notes as we explore and progress. I will check out Insomnia.
BruceX
Hi @BruceX,
Apologies, I forget often people are not used to technical terms.
MVP = Minimum Viable Product. Basically means what is the minimum requirements to put a product live (As opposed to a fully featured product). E.g. You launch a food App, but you don’t need immediately takeaway service, but you do need a delivery service.
MVP, I presume means Most Valuable Person, which in the Adalo context, means there is some sort of ranking of skill levels, which is good.
Didn’t mean this, but I like your approach to this
I looked up integromet, which appears to be a zapier like tool. Rather than having a connector, like Zapier or Integromet, would it be possible to connect directly with MySQL via an API. The $50 per month subscription of Adalo seems allow this (or have I missed something),
yes like zapier, but much cheaper and better than Zapier in my opinion.
As yet I am not sure how custom components work in Adalo and you seem to imply it will be necessary to develop one in order to have CRUD operations in Adalo from an API.
I’m brand new to Adalo and am going down a similar path to what you describe. In my case, I’ve built a simple REST API and am looking to Adalo to leverage that API get me to a mobile app MVP in the next month or so. I’ll be sure to share experiences as I go forward!
I’m not a proffesional in node.js, sorry 
