Transcript
Do you ever feel like your data is just absolutely everywhere? Maybe spreadsheets that don't talk to each other, tools that can't really scale, and zero chance of building something real on top of it. But with real relational databases, you can build something that scales, from the tables to the fields, relationships, and integrations.
In this example, I'm going to start collecting speakers for a potential event I've got in the future. This is a way for me to book in speakers and build on top of the Softr platform. I want to be able to start collecting the speaker details before I start going out to marketing.
I'm going to go ahead and create a database from scratch. Inside of Softr, you can either start from scratch or you can upload a CSV to help get you going. You can also pull in from a data source like Airtable and many more.
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Note from Softr: While you can seamlessly connect to external sources, creating data natively using Softr Databases is a powerful way to manage information directly within Softr for maximum performance.
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When you get started with this, structure is important and you really want to make sure you capture what is relevant. I'm thinking about all of the fields I want to collect, such as a file field to bring in headshots without having to ask them on email. I want to be really happy with the setup before creating things like the apps and forms later.
Next, I'm going to go ahead and build an app so attendees can start managing all of their experience for this particular event. I'm going to start with a template, search for an event, and go to the speakers area. I'll delete all of these confirmed speakers because I am currently in the phase of collecting the right people to speak.
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Note from Softr: If you don't want to start manually or use traditional App templates, you can open the AI co-builder and simply prompt for what you want. It builds complete apps, pages, and data schemas instantly while still letting you tweak things manually later.
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This site will have things like user roles, a speaker directory, attendee lists, and everything I need to run this event. However, the thing that I need right now is a form. I need to build a form out that I can send directly to people or embed in the website to automatically capture those speakers that are coming in.
The form is really easy to build, and you can add theming and customize how it interacts with external apps to save you even more time. I want to get the site into a shape where it's ready to share with people and gives an idea of how long this event is going to take.
In this case, I'm going to use something called a Vibe-Coding block. We know that there are dynamic blocks and static blocks within the site, but Softr doesn't have native support for a countdown timer for the next event. So I'm just going to ask the Vibe-Coding block to do it, and it's going to go ahead and build something for me.
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Note from Softr: If a native block doesn't quite fit your advanced needs, the Vibe-Coding block lets you simply prompt for the exact custom component you want. It generates the component and connects it to your database seamlessly.
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As you can see, that's been built and created perfectly. Now that I've got that working, I can see that my homepage is great. In the meantime, I'm also going to test the form to see whether it's working, and all the details have come in.
You're probably wondering what this means for authentication, users, and user groups now that attendees can start signing up. You can manage pretty much everything based on the different experiences people have. You can set up user roles like attendee, organizer, and speaker so that everyone has a customized experience.
This is based around permissions, access, data restrictions, and user groups, all managed within the users area inside of the app panel. This is really helpful because you want a different experience for each customer working like an app without needing development time.
Next up, you can actually create workflows to save you time. In this case, I'm going to create a workflow for every time a speaker signs up to the database. It's going to send them an email saying thank you and that we've considered their request.
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Note from Softr: Using native Softr Workflows allows you to keep your automation logic as close to the design as possible. This helps consolidate tools and reduces your reliance on third-party automation platforms.
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This is a great touch point to make sure that person knows their information has been submitted correctly. You can create a workflow for anything, such as sending a reminder to all attendees 24 hours before the event date. That's incredibly helpful for everyone who has set things up.
I'm going to show you a few ways that you can use AI since things are starting to roll with speakers coming through. I'm going to use the Ask AI feature, which appears in your sidebar. This is really great because you can talk to your data naturally.
For example, you could ask which category has the most sessions, to show all the workshops in March, or to draft an email follow-up. In this case, I'm going to ask whether there's anyone from the speaker rundown who would be good speaking about YouTube AI. It recommended somebody, which is perfect.
Now, this isn't the only AI, as there are database AI agents that can help remove busy work automatically. I'm going to build an agent inside of the field type, which is going to categorize each of the items for me. It is set up to auto-assign a category generated from the information the speaker inputted inside of their bio area.
This is great because I can start saving a bit of time on which track I think each person should go on. To wrap things up, Softr is going to be really good for small to medium-sized businesses who have databases, workflows, and want to build something internally. It also works really well for any team that needs customization, as well as agencies and consultants.
