Building a List MVP app

Levels published a post a while back on how he builds his MVPs, he documented one style of MVP you can build is a List MVP. A good example of this is Submit.co, as well this is how Levels built the Nomad List originally.

The idea is you represent data in a table view and then have a button to allow people to enter in new information, This could be a member list, list of interesting locations to work from or any type of list.

In the original workflow, people would go to a form system on a site such as typeform or wufoo, this works but takes people away from your site, so I wanted to put the form where it was easy to work it, and not to mess with exporting to JSON files as the original idea followed.

You can find the completed code here.

In this sample, we have two HTML files, and one javascript file. We’re using Yeti.css for the CSS rather than bootstrap, you should take a look at that framework as it’s nice.

First, let’s create our index.html file:

<html>
<head>
	<title>List MVP</title>
	<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://cdn.flybase.io/css/base.css">
	<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://cdn.flybase.io/css/light.css">
	<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/octicons/3.5.0/octicons.min.css">
</head>
<body>
<header role="banner">
    <div class="container">
		<div class="cf"><a href="new.html" class="button button-primary pull-right"><span class="octicon octicon-plus"></span> Add your info</a></div>
		<h1><span class="mega-octicon octicon-beaker"></span> List MVP</h1>
		<p>Quick and easy List-based MVP page</p>
    </div>
</header>
<div class="container">
	<section>
		<table id="view_table" class="table-outlined table-striped">
		<thead></thead>
		<tbody></tbody>
		</table>
	</section>		
</div>
<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.2.0/jquery.min.js"></script>
<script src="https://cdn.flybase.io/flybase.js"></script>
<script src="app.js"></script>
<script>
	var app = new listApp();
	app.start().view( "view_table" );
</script>
</body>
</html>

This index file will consist of an empty table when first loaded, the main thing to look at is the javascript at the bottom:

<script src="app.js"></script>
<script>
	var app = new listApp();
	app.start().view( "view_table" );
</script>

This snippet will include app.js, and then load our listApp, it then tells it to create a view table on the table with the ID of view_table, the app will then read from your Flybase table and output the table.

Now, let’s create our new.html file, which is the form people will use to add data:

<html>
<head>
	<title>Add - List MVP</title>
	<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://cdn.flybase.io/css/base.css">
	<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://cdn.flybase.io/css/light.css">
	<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/octicons/3.5.0/octicons.min.css">
</head>
<body>
<header role="banner">
    <div class="container">
		<div class="cf"><a href="index.html" title="" class="button button-primary pull-right"><span class="octicon octicon-home"></span> Back to Home</a></div>
		<h1><span class="mega-octicon octicon-beaker"></span> List MVP</h1>
		<p>Quick and easy List-based MVP page</p>
    </div>
</header>
<div class="container">
	<section>
		<div class='message' style="display: none;" id="flash"></div>
		<div class='message message-error' style="display: none;" id="revflash"></div>
		<form id="new_form">
			<fieldset>
				<legend>Add Your Info</legend>
				<div class='form-element'>
					<label for='blog'>What is your website's homepage URL?</label>
					<input type="url" id='url' data-label="URL" data-order="1" placeholder='http://' class='form-input' required>
				</div>
				<div class='form-element'>
					<label for='blog'>What is your Twitter account?</label>
					<input type="text" id='twitter' data-label="Twitter Username" data-order="2" placeholder='@' class='form-input'>
				</div>
				<div class='form-element'>
					<label for='bio'>Write a short bio</label>
					<textarea id='bio' data-label="Bio" class='form-input' data-order="3" placeholder='This is a sample bio'></textarea>
				</div>
				<button type='submit' class='button button-primary'>Save</button>
			</fieldset>
		</form>
	</section>
</div>
<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.2.0/jquery.min.js"></script>
<script src="https://cdn.flybase.io/flybase.js"></script>
<script src="./assets/app.js"></script>
<script>
	var app = new listApp();
	app.start().save("new_form");
</script>
</body>
</html>

There are a few details about how this form works, we wanted it to be as automated as possible, so when you add form fields, you add two data- records:

data-label will tell the app the actual Label to display in the index
data-order is the sort order to display it by.

When data is saved, it will save a _meta field which contains sort order, etc for displaying.

If a table field does not have data-label then the field will not get saved into the system, as it doesn’t know what to do with it.

Ok, let’s look at the brains of this app, app.js:

var listApp = function(){
	this.url = document.location.pathname;
	return this;
}

listApp.prototype.start = function(){
	var api_key = "YOUR-FLYBASE-API-KEY";
	var app_name = "listmvp";

	this.flybaseRef = new Flybase(api_key, app_name, "people");
	return this;
};

listApp.prototype.view = function( table_name ){
	var self = this;
	var table_name = "#" + table_name;
	var table_headers = [];
	var table_data = [];
	var first = true;
	self.flybaseRef.orderBy({"_id":-1}).on('value').then( function( data ){
		$(table_name).find("tbody").html("");
		data.forEach( function( row ){
			var btr = $('<tr>');
			var row = row.value();
			var meta = row['_meta'];
			if( first ){
				var htr = $('<tr>');
				for( var key in meta ){
					var val = meta[key];
					$('<th>' + val + '</th>').appendTo( htr );				
				}
				$(table_name).find("thead").html("").append( htr );
			}
			first = false;
			table_data.push( row );
			for( var i in meta ){
				var key = meta[i];
				var val = row[key];
				if( val === '' ){
					val = '---';
				}
				$('<th>' + val.linkify() + '</th>').appendTo( btr );
			}
			$(table_name).find("tbody").append( btr );
		});
		console.log( "done " );
	});
	return this;
};

//	save the form into your flybase app.
listApp.prototype.save = function( form_name ){
	var self = this;
	var form_name = "#" + form_name;
	$( form_name ).submit(function( event ) {
		$("#flash").hide();
		$("#revflash").hide();
		var record = {};
		var meta = {};
		$(this).find(':input').each(function(){
			var field_id = $(this).attr('id');
			var label = $(this).data('label');
			var order = $(this).data('order');
			var value = $(this).val();
			if( typeof label !== 'undefined' ){
				meta[order] = label;
				record[label] = value;
			}
			$(this).val("");
		});

		record['_meta'] = meta;
		self.flybaseRef.push( record ).then( function(){
			$("#flash").html("<p>Your message has been saved</p>").show();
		});
		event.preventDefault();
	});
	return this;
};

if(!String.linkify) {
	String.prototype.linkify = function() {
		// http://, https://, ftp://
		var urlPattern = /\b(?:https?|ftp):\/\/[a-z0-9-+&@#\/%?=~_|!:,.;]*[a-z0-9-+&@#\/%=~_|]/gim;

		// www. sans http:// or https://
		var pseudoUrlPattern = /(^|[^\/])(www\.[\S]+(\b|$))/gim;

		// Email addresses
		var emailAddressPattern = /[\w.]+@[a-zA-Z_-]+?(?:\.[a-zA-Z]{2,6})+/gim;


		return this
			.replace(urlPattern, '<a href="$&" target="_new">$&</a>')
			.replace(pseudoUrlPattern, '$1<a href="http://$2">$2</a>')
			.replace(emailAddressPattern, '<a href="mailto:$&">$&</a>');
	};
}

This app really consists of two main functions, view and save:

listApp.prototype.view = function( table_name ){
	var self = this;
	var table_name = "#" + table_name;
	var table_headers = [];
	var table_data = [];
	var first = true;
	self.flybaseRef.orderBy({"_id":-1}).on('value').then( function( data ){
		$(table_name).find("tbody").html("");
		data.forEach( function( row ){
			var btr = $('<tr>');
			var row = row.value();
			var meta = row['_meta'];
			if( first ){
				var htr = $('<tr>');
				for( var key in meta ){
					var val = meta[key];
					$('<th>' + val + '</th>').appendTo( htr );				
				}
				$(table_name).find("thead").html("").append( htr );
			}
			first = false;
			table_data.push( row );
			for( var i in meta ){
				var key = meta[i];
				var val = row[key];
				if( val === '' ){
					val = '---';
				}
				$('<th>' + val.linkify() + '</th>').appendTo( btr );
			}
			$(table_name).find("tbody").append( btr );
		});
		console.log( "done " );
	});
	return this;
};

The view function loads data from your Flybase app, ordered by the _id field, so the newest is shown on top and outputs it to the table.

Data is sorted by the order field in the form fields above and displayed using the label field we used, this helps us make a table that’s nice and easy to read, rather than just form fields in alphabetical order.

We also parse the text on display so any links become clickable links.

//	save the form into your flybase app.
listApp.prototype.save = function( form_name ){
	var self = this;
	var form_name = "#" + form_name;
	$( form_name ).submit(function( event ) {
		$("#flash").hide();
		$("#revflash").hide();
		var record = {};
		var meta = {};
		$(this).find(':input').each(function(){
			var field_id = $(this).attr('id');
			var label = $(this).data('label');
			var order = $(this).data('order');
			var value = $(this).val();
			if( typeof label !== 'undefined' ){
				meta[order] = label;
				record[label] = value;
			}
			$(this).val("");
		});

		record['_meta'] = meta;
		self.flybaseRef.push( record ).then( function(){
			$("#flash").html("<p>Your message has been saved</p>").show();
		});
		event.preventDefault();
	});
	return this;
};

The save function reads the submitted form, grabs the data-label and data-order fields to store as a _meta record and then saves the submitted data as a new document inside the people table.

Finishing Up#

This is a really simple app, you can take it and expand on it how ever you want, it was designed for the sole purpose of being fast to work with.

You can add form fields, do whatever you want and have it all work nicely.

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