nuBuilder Forte Database - Handy web based MS Access Alternative

Found this and have been using this for a project at work (replacing an old Access database that was not fit for purpose) to create an online batch generation/management system. Have found it to be very useful and just wanted to let other know if they were looking for something similar.

It’s open source and very actively updated. New features are being added to it fairly frequently. The forum is not as busy as RW ones but any questions I’ve asked have always been answered quite quickly and helpfully.

  • It runs as standalone site/app on an Apache web server, needs MariaDB or mysql, and needs php (can use php 8 or php7.4).
  • built in Fast builders for forms and reports, to make it a bit easier.
  • built in user management and access control (very important for the project I’m working on).
  • If you know any css, php or js (I don’t but getting to learn a bit) then you may find it a bit easier to customise.

Could be pulled in to RW sites via an iframe. There was a Word Press port of it but it’s outdated and no longer maintained.

There are a couple of handy manuals, on youtube there are very short videos that are just too short and lacking in detail.

It’s not that responsive and the form layouts can be a bit laborious to get pixel perfect placing (there is a drag and drop interface but it’s very basic).

Unfortunately can’t share my site but here are a couple of demo sites to look at:

link to a demo site showing the various content types, user = demo, password = nudemo
https://demo.nubuilder.cloud

and another site with various calculation demos, user = test, password = nutest
https://test.nubuilder.cloud

Main download site on GitHub (also available on Sourceforge)

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