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Jamie Cuffe

Mock API Generator — Generate custom data & API to build apps in less than 30s

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Generate a REST API with read + write endpoints on top of a sample dataset in less than 30 secs. Customize your dataset with dozens of datatypes. Built for testing, BI demo data, prototypes and more.

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Dominic Whyte
Maker
Hello Product Hunt! @cuffejamie and I are engineers here at Retool. We often need to spin-up APIs for demos, testing, prototypes, etc. Getting realistic data in the right shape and hosting it over and over became tedious so we built an API Generator. Our engineering and sales teams use the API Generator to quickly define custom datasets and create read + write REST endpoints. We used it this past week to demo a content moderation dashboard for a customer. The realistic data helped our prospect relate to our product before they had connected their live database. We hope it’s useful for you all, too. Here’s how you can use the API Generator in your apps, prototypes and demos: - Build custom datasets with dozens of datatypes from cities to logos to IP addresses - Preview your dataset in a live table and download it as a CSV - Generate a REST API that persists this data with read + write endpoints We’d love any input on 1) how useful our 1.0 version is and 2) what we can add to make it better. If you have any questions, we’re here to answer! Thanks for having us :)
Andrew Mason
@cuffejamie @dominicwhyte amazing! I'm so excited you built this.
Jamie Cuffe
Maker
Thanks @andrewmason - really appreciate you taking a look! Let us know if you have any feedback as you try it out
Jackie B
@cuffejamie @dominicwhyte Really pumped about this! Issue a lot of our founders at Rosecliff have as well
Sydney Cohen
Makes sense to type the data in each of the columns in the dataset. Also the fake data is pretty useful, and helps a lot when prototyping. Someone sent me your hunt today because we made something relatable, from a JSON you can create an API in seconds, you can check it out on PH: https://www.producthunt.com/post....
Jamie Cuffe
Maker
@chnsydney Super cool tool you've built! We'll be sure to send over anyone looking for the JSON -> API route too
Shharrnam Chhatpar
Really cool product @dominicwhyte, @cuffejamie ! Really looking forward to using the tool to help us in unblock the frontend team from the backend team at AnalyticsVerse. Earlier we had to create mock endpoints on our own. This helps us save time and efforts, and enables us to move faster. Kudos to the team at Retool!
Dominic Whyte
Maker
Great to hear @sharnam19 ! Let us know know if there's anything we can add to help out your teams at AnalyticsVerse :)
Jamie Cuffe
Maker
@dominicwhyte @sharnam19 Thanks for checking this out! Yes exactly! I've been use this for prototyping my frontend progress while our backend eng team works on the infra. Curious to learn more about how you were mocking these internally on your own as we think about how to find more users with this same pain point
ayberk bozkus
I think, there are too many api builders. What is your difference ?
Dominic Whyte
Maker
@ayberkbozkus thanks for the comment! We built the API generator because we needed a tool that allows us to generate an API and define a custom dataset that we could query + write to. We found tools that would help us do some of this but not all at once. Let us know if there's anything we could add to make it more useful to you!
Jamie Cuffe
Maker
@ayberkbozkus thanks for checking this out! Two other pieces that are top of mind for me: 1. We wanted more custom datatypes so we could properly test internally and make our prototypes/demos look more realistic. We'll continue adding dozens of predefined types and ways to create your own customer datatypes 2. We were tired of paywalls, etc when using data generator products so we put this up directly on the site. No signup required and it's free!
Harshit Jain
This looks awesome! How can use this/get access?
Sid Puri
@jain_harshit Yeah you can use it directly by clicking the link (https://retool.com/api-generator/). It's free to use for anyone right from the web page :)
Jamie Cuffe
Maker
@jain_harshit For context we were tired of paywalls, etc when using data generator products so we put this up directly on the site. No signup required and it's free. Let us know if you have any questions as you try it out
Dmitriy
Congrats on launching, @dominicwhyte @cuffejamie! This looks particularly useful for prototyping applications without having to spin up a backend. Would you consider adding a GraphQL endpoint as well for those of us using Apollo client in our frontends?
Jamie Cuffe
Maker
@dominicwhyte @dmiafa Yes exactly! I've been use this for prototyping my frontend progress while our backend eng team works on the infra. Thanks for taking a look!
Dominic Whyte
Maker
@dmiafa GraphQL is next up! Do you mainly need read QraphQL operations or also writes? (We're looking into adding both but want to make sure we prioritize correctly)
Dmitriy
@dominicwhyte Reads would be great to get us started! This way we can demo our frontend components with life-like data from the get-go. However, if we were able to get write too that would be the cherry on top!
Dominic Whyte
Maker
@dmiafa got it, thanks for the feedback! We'll let you know as soon as that's out
Kevin Koste
Love this @cuffejamie @dominicwhyte! Does this tool create a SQL table for each dataset? For my use case, it would be nice to automatically generate the CREATE TABLE statement!
Jamie Cuffe
Maker
@dominicwhyte @kevinkoste Thanks for checking it out! Yes today in our backend it creates a table in our postgres DB. In V2 we're hoping to generate a postgres DB for you and give you the creds to be able to use that in Retool or anywhere else!
Jamie Cuffe
Maker
Awesome thanks @kevinkoste! Huge fan of what you all are building at Blobber too!
Tim Masek
Hey @dominicwhyte and @cuffejamie! Looks awesome. Do I need to know how to code to use this?
Sid Puri
@dominicwhyte @cuffejamie @tim_masek stepping in here. You do not need to know how to code to use this. You can generate dummy datasets just on the webpage. this would be something you could use to build out a great demo of a product you're looking to build
Jamie Cuffe
Maker
@dominicwhyte @tim_masek For some more context, we actually built this for our sales team who largely do not code. They're able to spin up custom datasets for demos and export as a CSV or using 1-click API templates. Before we needed engineers to do this. Hope it's helpful for you and the team!
Dávid Sipos
Nice tool! Congrats on your launch!!
Nazim @Koinju
It could save us a lot of time in code & maintenance, we'll give it try. Thanks for sharing !
Dominic Whyte
Maker
Thank you @nazim_m !
Jamie Cuffe
Maker
@nazim_m Thanks for taking a look! Would love to learn more about the maintenance pain as we think about how to find more users with this same pain point - we found the same thing.
Benoit Chambon
Guess we should show it to our dev team, what do you think @nazim_m ? ;) Congrats on the launch team!👏
Jamie Cuffe
Maker
@nazim_m @benoit_chambon Thanks Benoit! Hope it's helpful to you and the team at Koinju. Let us know if you have any feedback we'll be adding more datatypes and functionality over the coming days
Max Greenwald
Getting this now for @warmlycomma !
Jamie Cuffe
Maker
Thanks for checking this out @max_greenwald! Let us know if you or the @warmlycomma team need any help as you get up and running. Super excited about what you all are building too!
Eugene Hauptmann
Love it! Any plans for CLI? @dominicwhyte
Jamie Cuffe
Maker
@dominicwhyte @eugenehp Thanks Eugene! CLI support is a great idea! Currently we let you consume the API via CLI with the 1-click curl commands but you're thinking generating the dataset via CLI right? Let us know any thoughts on how you'd hope that would work - it's definitely something we'd be interested in exploring in V2
Evan Lee
Wow! Amazing work - would expect nothing less from the Retool team!
Jamie Cuffe
Maker
@theevanlee Thanks Evan, really appreciate it! Let us know if you have any feedback
Frank Long
This is an epic tool, I can see so many applications already.
Jamie Cuffe
Maker
@frank_long1 Thanks for checking it out! Let us know if we could add any more datatypes that would support the applications you have in mind. Excited to see what you build with this!
Sam Parsons
This is phenomenal! I see countless use cases in my own work
Jamie Cuffe
Maker
Thanks @sam_parsons1! Let us know if you have any feedback as you test it out
Allison Glossinger
Great idea, looking forward to trying this out!
Jamie Cuffe
Maker
Thanks @allison_glossinger - appreciate you taking a look!
Serhii
Congrats on the launch! Looking forward to testing it
Leg Warmers For Babies
Makes sense to type the data in each of the columns in the dataset. Also the fake data is pretty useful, and helps a lot when prototyping.
Dominic Whyte
Maker
@legwarmersforbabies Glad that's proving useful! Let us know if there are any datatypes you'd like us to add - we're adding a bunch of new ones in the coming days
Christo Ritter
I've been looking for something like this for my team - will be so helpful!
Jamie Cuffe
Maker
Thank you @christo_ritter! Let us know if you/your team have any feedback as you get up and running!