Basedash launch demo 4: Variables

The fourth launch-day demo for Basedash, after the SQL editor, was about variables. They sound kind of intimidating if you're not a developer, so we tried to make them so easy you won't even know they exist (0:13). I had the Dockhunt database connected, which is basically users and apps, and I started a blank user dashboard, what we call an entity dashboard, a dashboard for one thing in your database (0:34). Then I told Basedash to show me a user's avatar (0:44).

It knows from the database that there's such a thing as a user, and that users have an avatar column, and it hooks it up (0:56). That's why this one takes a little longer, because it's introspecting the SQL query and adding a variable to it so I can change which user it shows (1:11). The user is at the very top of the dashboard, so I searched for myself, and the query already said where ID equals user ID, with the variable defined automatically (1:37).

I'm not going to lie, I love this feature, because I've used other tools for building admin panels and dashboards in the past, and this is kind of remarkable (1:50). I added the user's details and looked up Robert Cooper, then asked for the apps in his dock, which just took a second to run (2:24). Back on the dashboard I could see the 17 apps I've docked beside my avatar and details, and rearrange them into a little profile (2:40).

User activity was a bad example, because our Dockhunt database doesn't really have events (3:25). But all I had to do was talk about "this user's" something, and I had an entity-level dashboard. We make these for users, for organizations, for chats, for any entity in our database (3:33).

When I posted it on X I wrote:

Demo 4- Variables

This is one of the most powerful parts of Basedash . Variables... well they just work.

Other tools have had the ability to add these to queries for a long time. But the thing with how we've made it in Basedash, is that you don't have to add them.

They add themselves.

Just tell the AI that you want to make a "user's avatar" and it will know enough to make that a variable.

"This user's orders"

"This organization's members"

"This chart's chats"

It just works. Yeah, you can add them the old fashioned way, but once you see them just work, it's kinda hard to ever go back.

(Also, ran into some bugs with this demo, so bear with me a bit haha. Doin these live)