Enterprises often have a lot of scattered data to manage, which is often scattered in Excel tables, databases, OA and other systems. Can we collect, display, and collaborate centrally on this data? Further, on the basis of these data, can we quickly develop some small applications for data processing, feedback, reminder?

Today, we are going to share SeaTable, a free tool, to see how it can help centralize and automate fragmented data.

A quick introduction to SeaTable, a new collaborative forms and low-code platform. It supports “file”, “picture”, “radio”, “collaborator”, “calculation formula” and other rich data types. It helps you easily organize and manage information in tabular form. It also contains a complete API, automation rules, script running capabilities, can be extended to your needs to automate data processing and business process automation.

SeaTable contains the following versions:

  • Developer edition: For users who use SeaTable as a lightweight database. Free download, private deployment!! There are no limits on the number of lines, storage, or API calls.
  • Cloud Services edition: For ordinary users with collaborative requirements, there are limits on the number of lines, storage, and API calls.
  • Enterprise edition: On the basis of the previous versions, it also provides complete rights management and user control functions, and can be used in the cloud or deployed locally.

The following uses a multi-site operation and maintenance management as an example to illustrate the recording and management of data, data visualization and automation in SeaTable.

Examples of multi-site operation and maintenance management

As a development team, we tend to operate multiple websites, some for internal use, some for external use. We should not only record all kinds of scattered information in a centralized manner for easy viewing and collaboration, but also monitor and maintain the site certificate expiration time, etc. To solve these problems, if you write your own automation tool will take a lot of time, but also difficult to maintain. With SeaTable, it can be done in a very short time and is easy to maintain.

For example, our team manages more than 20 sites, all using free Lets’ ENCRYPT certificates and scripts that automatically update the certificates before they expire. Occasionally, scripts are not configured correctly, or for other reasons, certificates are not updated properly (especially for newly deployed sites). This requires a feature to solve these problems.

Here’s how to use SeaTable one by one:

  • Collaborative recording of site data
  • Automatic update of certificate expiration time with scripts
  • Automate monitoring and reminding websites of certificate expiration dates
  • Visualize table data information

Collaborative recording of data

For collaborative recording of data, the following points are mainly shared:

1.SeaTable supports date, picture, file, radio, URL, long text, collaborator, creator, creation time and other data types. With the data type of SeaTable, information of various data types related to operation and maintenance can be recorded in a table in a centralized manner.

2. When we share the read-only or read-write permissions of the table with our colleagues, they can perform read-only or collaborative editing. In addition, the table administrator can also lock table headers, lock rows, set edit permissions for columns, and so on, as required. For example, you can set a column so that no one can edit it, or only administrators can edit it, or which shared users can edit it.

3. We can also use APIS or Python scripts to synchronize records in a database, or grab data from a third party.

Use scripts to automatically update the expiration date of website certificates

SeaTable provides an environment for Python scripts to be managed in one place without having to find a separate server. At the same time, multiple Python script files can be stored in the table for different purposes, and run with one click to achieve the desired effect. The diagram below:

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In addition to clicking to run, scripts can also be scheduled to run automatically every day.

Use reminder rules to automate reminders

SeaTable’s “Alert Rules” feature is used to automate alerts.

Click the “Reminder Rule” button in the upper right corner of the form to add a reminder rule. For example, you can set the time in the “certificate Expiration Time” column to automatically send a notification when the expiration date is in several days. In addition, under the premise that the personal wechat is bound to the form account, when there is an unread notification of the operation and maintenance management table, if you do not open the web page and read it within two minutes, the notification will be sent to the personal wechat.

Reminder rule Settings, as shown below:

Flexible viewing and visualization

SeaTable offers tabular view, calendar, timeline, gallery, map, and statistics functions for flexible data viewing, visualization, and statistical analysis. We can choose to use it according to the data characteristics. For example, you can quickly switch between multiple views to view data from different angles; The use of statistical charts, to record the fragmented data of the website operation and maintenance table for a more intuitive dynamic visualization.

Multiple views:

Statistical chart:

conclusion

SeaTable makes it easy to record and manage various types of data in a table. More importantly, we can quickly automate data processing and process management without having to develop a tool with its “scripts” and “reminder rules” features.

As a new type of collaborative forms and low code platform, it not only has a low threshold of use, but also has flexibility and versatility, even non-technical people can build their own business applications, thus no longer rely heavily on technology research and development, significantly reducing communication, labor and development costs. At ordinary times, we can use its perfect API, reminding rules and script functions to help us quickly realize the flexible requirements of data processing automation and business process automation.