Harlekuin

Hi HN,

Since leaving my job I've created a prototype of a project that would have helped me immensely in that job.

It is essentially a self-hosted document creator where you can chain all kinds of sources together (CSV/excel, SQL queries, API calls, user forms etc) where the output of one can be the input of the next and create 1 or more documents (Word, PDF, HTML, all kinds of outputs) using a template engine for each.

I'm wondering if anyone would have an interest in this project, and if so would then do up a Show HN demonstrating what it can do.

An example would be setting up a workflow that asks a user for an order Id (via a form), and then the order details are then collected from a SQL database using that Order ID, and then maybe you work out which disclaimers are required to be attached from some excel file, and then an invoice could be created, the relevant disclaimers attached, converted to PDF and then emailed to the client.

You could then provide the URL of this workflow to any user in the company and they could fill out that form as required.

Or even better, use the API it has to submit the order id without the form so this process can be attached to some other automatic process.

Thanks and I appreciate any feedback.

If the database knew what queries were running ahead of time and have them compiled you could easily defend against SQL injection because the SQL isn't being interpreted as it's run, and it would be possible to run analysis over the query to see if there are any indexes or implementations missing that could speed it up. Something like a stored procedure's variable substitution but not interpreted when called.