Show HN: CocktailCMS – in-browser database with no login or servers required (cocktailcms.com)

6 points by tarwin 2y ago ↗ HN

During the lockdown in 2020, my girlfriend, an enthusiastic mixologist, needed a tool to organize her cocktail recipes and visualize the data. Traditional spreadsheets weren't cutting it due to the deeply nested data, and this struggle led me to create 'CocktailCMS'.

Drawing inspiration from old-school databases like DBase, FoxPro, and MS Access, CocktailCMS is a browser-based database with features such as linking datasets and sub-tables. It's designed for local data storage in JSON format, but there's an option to sync with Google Drive for backup. Data can be exported in CSV and easily copy-pasted into visualizers.

To give you an idea of what it can do, I've included two example datasets: a Game of Thrones one and another one on Mixology.

The project is currently built in JS + Vue2. However, it does need a bit of renovation due to tech rot. I'm contemplating an upgrade to TS + Vue3, and also want to open source the project. But before I embark on this, I'm curious to gauge the community interest. Your feedback and suggestions are much appreciated!

4 comments

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kkoechley 2y ago ↗

This is a great idea to help keep track of all the amazing cocktails and people etc.... especially considering it might be difficult to remember after a few of said amazing cocktails!

tarwin 2y ago ↗

Haha thanks. Although I'd love to see how other people may be able to use it too.

lintim 2y ago ↗

This is very cool way to explore a database that's already been set up.

It's not clear how to set up a new db, maybe by adding fields? But the field add page is overwhelming. It is challenging to use this product at the moment.

In any case, you should be proud of the result, it's very cool !

Thanks for the feedback.

I understand that the fields page could be confusing, especially for people who are not already versed in databases. I guess this is one reason that the spreadsheet as database metaphor has taken off so well in recent years?

There are docs, but of course some kind of introduction video would probably help a lot? What do you think?

Again, thanks for the kind words and feedback. It is invaluable.