Database backup

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1

Hi guys, I would like to create some sort of database backup for my- I thought about Google sheets and Zavier integrations, but wanted to know the best way to do it, One thing that I would love to do is if somebody updates their user, I’d like it reflected in the back up as well.

Any ideas?

2

Hello, Google sheets integration would work well to store your data live as a backup.

Thank you!

3

Hey @Karldandleton,

There are several options for DB backups:

  1. You can do backup manually from the App Builder. The advantage is that it’s free for you, but this requires manual work.

  2. Zapier integration. The logic is quite simple: you set up a Zap which listens to new record creation, and add this record to a Google Sheets or some other place. Another Zap could listen for Update Record events, then search for the row in Google Sheets and update this row with the new data.
    According to Adalo docs https://help.adalo.com/integrations/zapier#will-my-zaps-be-counted-against-app-actions, you won’t have to pay for App Actions when running these zaps. And this could even work on a Free plan.
    However, Zapier is quite expensive by itself. Free tier is only 100 free tasks / month and you can have a look how pricing increases on the paid tiers. As I see 1 new record or 1 updated record will consume one task execution.

  3. Make Integration. In Make (ex-Integromat) there are Adalo modules, including “Watch Records” module which listens for new records / updated records. You can easily build a scenario which adds a row to Google Sheets (create case) or finds a row and updates it (update case).
    Make is cheaper than Zapier, however, you will require Adalo Collections API access on Adalo side. For new Adalo users, they have to be on Team or Business plan to have this feature.

  4. In Make you can also create other quite flexible solutions to backup Adalo collections. E.g. you can get “snapshots”, even for collections with >1000 records, and create CSVs out of them. This will require some knowledge of Make though (and of course Team or Business plan, unless you didn’t sign up before this restriction was in place).

  5. And of course if you have Adalo Collections API access, you can go “full code” and write a cloud function(s) to get the data from Adalo. It’s not that complicated but it requires a bit of coding knowledge. I use DigitalOcean for such things, but there are lots of Cloud Functions providers out there (AWS, Google, Azure, …).

Best,
Victor.

4

Victor has given you a lot of options.

If your circumstance suits, I would advocate Xano.
IMO, the power that Xano gives you as a database and server is unmatched in Zapier or Make.

Given that it is all in one environment you have less connections to go wrong.

I would probably start with Xano external collections, each is a mirror of your Adalo collection.
When you create or update a record in your app you do the same in your Xano external collection, this will cost you an Adalo action. When you create a record in Xano you can overwrite the Xano ID with the Adalo one, so that makes updates easier. You can ref the same ID across both platforms.

You can be happy that you have a mirror image on Xano infrastructure, you can take it further by making a CSV on a time schedule that you set of each table, this is achieved via a Custom Function (available in their marketplace).

The cost can be off putting but take advantage of the Adalo / Xano deal until the end of the year, and it is good value.

Zapier is just not economical in my mind.