How to build your own apps with Nextcloud Tables

With the release of Nextcloud Hub 8, you can build apps without code to expand your Nextcloud Hub environment with many custom features. Think automating any paperwork process for employees, coordinating teams with tasks and requests organized in one place, or handling event registrations — with Nextcloud Tables app, there’s more to your Nextcloud than you know!

In this article, we explain how to organize data and collaborate using Nextcloud Tables, and how to create your own applications for any purpose.

Simplifying data processing with Nextcloud Tables

Nextcloud Tables is a no-code platform that lets you design and share tables to streamline data processing and workflow management in your team. You can create tables with individual column presets, adjust table views, and share your tables and views with other users and groups.

Available column types are quite versatile, letting you design tables for a multitude of purposes:

• Text line or rich text
• Link to URLs or other Nextcloud resources
• Numbers
• Progress bar
• Star rating
• Yes/No tick
• Date and/or time
• (Multi) selection

Create a custom table from scratch or use one of the templates for popular use cases such as checklist, team member management, customer management, and more.

You can access all your tables from the Nextcloud Tables app, filter them and add to favorites to make navigation much easier when you have a lot of data.

Want to migrate data from your spreadsheets to the Nextcloud Tables app? You can import tables from CSV and spreadsheet files, automatically detecting data format like dates, percentage, currency, and more. Just use the file upload feature or choose an option in the file menu in Nextcloud Files.

How to build apps with Nextcloud Tables

Using Nextcloud Tables, you can build apps without code and make them accessible to select user groups from your top toolbar in Nextcloud Hub. This feature allows you to combine several tables and table views in one, creating a single point of access for all the data.

Let’s assume we run a non-profit organization that needs to organize volunteer teams for our ongoing activities. Using Nextcloud Tables, we can streamline this process by creating a a dedicated Volunteer Management Application.

1. Create or select tables to combine

First, let’s create a Volunteer Registrations table to record personal and contact information of the volunteers, and the Travel Expenses table to track volunteer travel costs at the events and manage reimbursements.

To create a table, click a ➕ icon next to the table list. Give your table a name and description, then design and populate it with the data you need.

2. Create additional table views

Let’s add ‘Pending Approval’ and ‘Pending Reimbursement’ views for the Travel Expenses table to make it easier to track approvals and reimbursements for the volunteers.

To create a new view for the table, click on the table menu and click ‘Create view’. A new window will open where you add view settings. Choose columns you want to include in the view, and apply rules to filter contents, for example, only to show rows containing a certain item. You can also add custom sorting presets for items in the view.

For example, approval of the reimbursements for our volunteers is mandatory when their expenses include flights. That’s why in the ‘Pending Approval’ view we added a rule that filters out volunteers whose expense types include ‘Flight’.

3. Combine views and tables into a new app

Now, we can create our new application by combining the Volunteer Registrations table and the Travel Expenses table. We will also add the ‘Pending Approval’ and ‘Pending Reimbursement’ views from the table, giving instant access to most important filter presets.

To create an application, click a ➕ icon next to Applications. In the application menu, add a name and a description, and select one of multiple app icon designs. In Resources section, search tables and views you want to add to the app. Finally, select users and groups to share your new app and click ‘Create application’.

With the new Volunteer Management Application, we can have a more streamlined and integrated approach to managing our volunteer workforce. This application offers a one-stop solution for us to access, update, and manage all aspects of volunteer engagement and related expenditures. And importantly, everybody can build this app without code!

Other improvements in Nextcloud Tables

Besides app creation feature, with Nextcloud Hub 8 Nextcloud Tables received many other improvements, including:

• Favorites and table archiving
• Transfer table ownership in the UI
• Data import improvements

Regain control over your time with Nextcloud Hub 8

Interactive widgets are only one of the exiting new features in Nextcloud Hub 8. From new AI tools in Nextcloud Assistant to new apps and serious performance improvements throughout the platform, there are many reasons to upgrade to the latest Nextcloud Hub.

New to Nextcloud? There’s no better time to try it out! Get control over your data today with the most secure open-source collaboration platform.

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