Build Applications Without Coding in Zoho Creator 2.0

Yesterday TechMeme featured an interesting discussion on Why (some) journalists should learn (some) code. Matt Waite, the reporter makes his case about data analysis and presentation being important parts of journalism today. He offers up small chunks of script, then explains them in plain English. Of course the problem is, you still need to know the code, the translation is one-way, from script to English, you can’t built an application the other way around… or .. can you?

Well, almost. That’s the problem the newly released version of Zoho Creator tackles. Creator, a database / custom application generator tool has been available for quite a while, Zoho claims there are over 30,000 applications built by users. Here’s a comparative review by Ismael Ghalimi at ITRedux. The key new features in Release 2.0:

Completely revamped User Interface – Now you can create your app by simple dragging & dropping elements.
Script Builder: Create code without knowing code. Add advanced processing logic by dragging chunks of script from a list of easy-to-understand functions.
Simply embed your Input Forms and Data Views in web-sites, blogs and other Zoho Applications

This video provides a short overview on using Zoho Creator. This longer, 8-minute version focuses on how to build scripts.

Here’s a good example of Christopher Conway, Professor of Literature, a non-techie in his own words building a course database in Zoho Creator – and that was in the “old” release. Getting back to the journalism question above: yes, it is useful if you can build simple database application, but you really no longer have to learn coding anymore. Don’t take my word for it: go ahead, play with it.

(Update: See Thomas’s first impressions here.)

Finally, a little bonus to my readers: I have a few free tickets to give away to Zoho’s Yacht Party at the Enterprise 2.0 Conference in Boston next week. If you’d like to attend, please register here using promo code 7410. When the promo code no longer works, tickets are sold out.