What web apps come with some core functionality and data entities, and then can be greatly expanded through configuration rather than requiring coding? Such functionality and data entities would include users, roles and permissions, some sort of workflow when-x-happens-then-do-y, and scripting.
I am thinking of apps like
- Salesforce (see "Clicks and Code" about declarative versus programmatic development)
- Microsoft Dynamics ("modify or extend your default application business logic without writing code")
- Netsuite ("point-and-click core application configuration capabilities")
- PeopleSoft ("designer based development through extensive use of metadata")
How can I find others, and are there any FOSS web frameworks that would provide this without requiring a lot of technical server software installation and setup and coding?
A scriptable or codable API is a requirement, but it should be possible to create a functional app via point and click configuration, or at least relatively easy config files.
I've looked at so-called "full-stack" options like Meteor, but I have yet to find one that uses coding as an optional add-on rather than something you must do to get anywhere. Incidentally, I don't feel that setting up a data model -- identifying entities, their attributes, and relationships --- is coding. It's configuration or is at least easily configurable with the right tool.
"GraphQL" with "Relay" sounds very promising based on statements like this: "[Relay] allow[s] developers to specify what the UI should look like for a given state, and not have to worry about how to show that UI".
"Declarative" (versus algorithmic or programmatic) is a oft-used term related to apps that are largely configurable (versus those that require mostly coding).
