DEV Community: AJ Tatum

Why Azure Functions Are Fantastic & Capable For Workflow Automation

AJ Tatum — Sat, 15 Jul 2023 22:29:54 +0000

Discover the power of Azure Functions for workflow automation.

With everything happening so quickly in today’s digital world, businesses need workflow automation more than ever to keep up.

One powerful solution that stands out is Azure Functions.

With its event-driven, serverless computing platform, Azure Functions offers an incredible range of capabilities for workflow automation.

Whether you need to process data, integrate with various services, or automate tasks, Azure Functions can handle it all.

In this blog post, we will delve into the reasons why Azure Functions are fantastic and capable for workflow automation, exploring their features, benefits, and real-life use cases.

So, let’s dive in and discover the endless possibilities of Azure Functions!

Introduction to Serverless Computing & Azure Functions

What is Serverless Computing?

Serverless computing is a cloud computing model in which the cloud provider manages the infrastructure and automatically provisions and scales resources as needed.

Some examples of cloud providers include Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Google Cloud Platform (GCP). I personally find working with Azure to be the easiest, with GCP and AWS coming in second and third.

With serverless computing, developers can focus on writing code and building applications without worrying about managing servers or infrastructure.

What are Azure Functions?

Azure Functions are event-driven, serverless compute resources that allow developers to run small code components in the cloud.

They offer a flexible and scalable solution for automating tasks, business processes, and workflows.

Azure Functions can be triggered by various events, such as an HTTP request, the creation of a file in a blob store, or an event subscription from the event hub. These events serve as the initial triggers that invoke the Azure Functions.

These functions can be written in various programming languages, such as C#, F#, Java, JavaScript (Node.js), Python, and PowerShell. For Microsoft Azure, you can find out which versions are supported in their documentation.

Understanding Workflow Automation with Azure Functions

Understanding workflow automation is crucial for unlocking the full potential of Azure Functions.

Workflow automation refers to the process of automating a series of tasks or actions within a business process. It involves creating a logical sequence of activities that are executed automatically based on predefined triggers or events.

With Azure Functions, businesses can easily build and deploy event-driven workflows that automate repetitive tasks, streamline processes, and improve overall efficiency.

By leveraging event-driven design concepts, Azure Functions enables the execution of code in response to a wide range of events, such as changes in data, user actions, or system events.

Azure Functions provides a serverless computing environment, which means that businesses only pay for the resources consumed during the execution of their functions, eliminating the need to manage and provision infrastructure.

By integrating with other Azure services, such as Azure Logic Apps or Azure Event Grid, businesses can connect external services to their Azure Functions and create robust, end-to-end workflows that span multiple systems and technologies.

In summary, Azure Functions offer a fantastic and capable solution for workflow automation, enabling businesses to automate processes, reduce manual effort, and optimize resource utilization.

Key Benefits of Azure Functions for Workflow Automation

1. Cost-Effective Solution

One of the major advantages of Azure Functions is its cost-effectiveness. With the pay-per-use pricing model, you only pay for the compute resources consumed during the execution of your functions.

This eliminates the need for upfront infrastructure investment and allows for cost optimization as you only pay for what you use.

2. Flexible Language Support

Azure Functions provide a choice of languages for development, including C#, F#, JavaScript, Java, Python, and PowerShell.

This flexibility allows developers to choose the language they are most comfortable with, making it easier to leverage their existing skills and knowledge.

The open-source functions runtime further enhances the development experience by enabling developers to extend the capabilities of Azure Functions.

3. Seamless Integration with Azure Services

Azure Functions can be seamlessly integrated with other Azure services and software-as-a-service (SaaS) offerings.

This integration capability enables developers to leverage the power of various Azure services, such as Azure Storage, Azure Cosmos DB, and Azure Service Bus, to build robust and scalable automation solutions.

Whether you need to process data, send notifications, or perform complex calculations, Azure Functions can easily integrate with the necessary services to achieve your automation goals.

4. Event-Driven Architecture

Azure Functions are designed with an event-driven architecture, which means they respond to specific events or triggers.

This architecture allows for the creation of efficient and reactive workflows that respond to real-time events, such as user interactions or system events.

By leveraging Azure Functions’ event-driven model, you can build highly responsive and scalable automation solutions that adapt to changing business needs.

5. Scalability and Performance

One of the key benefits of serverless computing is its ability to scale automatically based on demand.

Azure Functions automatically scale up or down to handle the incoming workload, ensuring optimal performance and resource utilization.

This scalability feature is particularly valuable for businesses that experience fluctuating workloads or seasonal spikes in demand.

With Azure Functions, you can confidently handle high volumes of incoming events without worrying about capacity constraints.

Use Cases for Azure Functions in Workflow Automation

Azure Functions can be applied to a wide range of use cases in workflow automation. Here are a few examples:

1. Data Processing and Transformation

Azure Functions can be used to process and transform data in real-time.

For example, if you have a continuous stream of data coming from various sources, such as IoT devices or social media feeds, you can use Azure Functions to perform real-time data processing, filtering, and transformation. This enables you to extract valuable insights from the data and take immediate actions based on the processed information.

2. Notifications and Alerting

Azure Functions are ideal for sending notifications and alerts based on specific events or conditions.

For instance, you can create an Azure Function that monitors a database for new records and sends email notifications whenever a new record is added. This can be used to automate the notification process, ensuring that the relevant stakeholders are promptly informed about important updates or changes.

3. Integrating Third-Party Services

Azure Functions can integrate with various third-party services and APIs, allowing you to automate interactions with external systems.

For example, you can create an Azure Function that interacts with a marketing automation platform to automate email campaigns or social media postings. This integration capability enables you to streamline your marketing processes and improve overall efficiency.

4. Scheduled Tasks and Batch Processing

Azure Functions can be scheduled to run at specific intervals or times, making them suitable for tasks that need to be executed on a regular basis.

You can use Azure Functions to automate tasks such as data backups, report generation, or data synchronization between different systems. By automating these tasks, you can free up valuable time and resources, allowing your team to focus on more strategic initiatives.

Event-driven Architecture with Azure Functions

Event-driven design concepts play a crucial role in workflow automation using Azure Functions.

In this design approach, the focus is on triggering actions in response to specific events rather than following a rigid schedule or predefined sequence.

With the help of Azure Functions, developers can easily create small, single-purpose functions that respond to events like HTTP requests, file uploads, or database updates.

With event-driven design, businesses can automate complex workflows by chaining together multiple Azure Functions. Each function performs a specific task and passes the output to the next function, creating a seamless and dynamic flow of operations.

Key benefits of event-driven design and using Azure Functions for workflow automation include:

Scalability: Functions can scale independently based on demand, ensuring efficient resource allocation.
Cost-efficiency: Pay only for the compute resources used during function execution, saving costs during idle times.
Simplified development: Azure Functions provide a streamlined development experience, allowing developers to focus on writing code for specific tasks.
Integration capabilities: Azure Functions easily integrate with other Azure services and external systems, enabling seamless data exchange and communication.

By leveraging event-driven design and Azure Functions, businesses can achieve efficient and flexible workflow automation that adapts to real-time events and improves overall productivity.

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Getting Started with Azure Functions

Now that you understand the benefits and use cases of Azure Functions in workflow automation, let’s dive into the process of getting started with Azure Functions. Here is a step-by-step guide to help you begin your journey:

Step 1: Set up an Azure Account

To start using Azure Functions, you will need an Azure account. If you don’t have one already, you can sign up for a free Azure trial or explore the various subscription options available. Once you have your Azure account set up, you can proceed to the next step.

Step 2: Create an Azure Function App

The next step is to create an Azure Function App, which will serve as the container for your functions. The Function App provides the runtime environment and resources required to execute your functions. You can create a Function App through the Azure portal or by using the Azure CLI, Azure PowerShell, or VS Code with the Azure extension.

I personally recommend installing VS Code and then the Azure extension. After installing the extension, you’ll be prompted to log into your Azure Account. Next, open a folder in VS Code for your project and then press the Ctrl, Shift, and P keys at the same time. In the dialog box, just begin typing Azure Functions, and you’ll see the option to create one.

Step 3: Develop your Azure Functions

Once your Function App is set up, you can start developing your Azure Functions. Choose the language you are most comfortable with and begin writing the code for your functions.

Azure Functions support multiple languages, including C#, F#, JavaScript (Node.js), Java, PowerShell, Python, and TypeScript.

If you’re completely new to programming, I would highly recommend starting with JavaScript or Node.js. Not only is Node.js a powerful language, but you’ll also be learning JavaScript along the way, which can be used on the front-end and back-end of web and mobile applications.

For me, as a .NET/C# developer with over 15 years of experience, I tend to lean towards C# for most of my Azure Functions, and I encourage you to give it a try as Microsoft has done a fantastic job with documentation for you to get started.

However, I definitely believe that there are certain languages that are geared towards specific goals.

For example, if I’m doing something that involves parsing a website or HTML, using JavaScript is my go-to.

If I’m doing something that collects large amounts of data, Python tends to perform well.

Step 4: Configure Triggers and Bindings

Azure Functions rely on triggers to determine when to execute the associated code.

Triggers can be configured to respond to various events, such as HTTP requests, timer schedules, or changes in data storage.

One of the most common triggers that I’ve used is utilizing Azure Storage. You can use Azure Storage Blobs, Queues, and Tables as triggers for an Azure Function.

Additionally, bindings can be used to connect your functions to external resources, such as databases or message queues.

There are a lot of options when it comes to binding to message queues, as Azure has a variety of options, and it can get confusing really quickly. I tend towards Azure Service Bus (you typically only need the basic plan) because it offers more control, is more resilient, and offers more flexibility.

Configure the appropriate triggers and bindings for your functions to ensure they are invoked and interact with the necessary resources.

Step 5: Test and Deploy your Functions

Before deploying your functions to a production environment, it is crucial to thoroughly test them to ensure they function as expected.

If you’re developing your function in VS Code, you can easily test your function by going to the “Run” menu and selecting “Start Debugging”.

Before you start debugging, you may want to consider implementing breakpoints by going to the line of code and pressing the F9 key. Breakpoints allow you to see what a variable or function is doing while debugging, so if something goes wrong, you’ll know exactly where to look.

Step 6: Monitor and Scale your Functions

After deploying your Azure Functions, it is essential to monitor their performance and usage.

Azure provides various monitoring tools and metrics that allow you to track the execution of your functions, identify potential bottlenecks, and optimize their performance. I recommend using Azure Application Insights with every function.

Additionally, take advantage of Azure’s auto-scaling capabilities to ensure your functions can handle increased workloads and maintain optimal performance during peak periods.

Integration Capabilities of Azure Functions

Integrating with Other Azure Services

Azure Functions provide seamless integration with other Azure services, enabling developers to build powerful and interconnected workflows.

Whether it’s leveraging Azure Blob Storage for data storage, Azure Queue Storage for message queuing, or Azure Cosmos DB for NoSQL database capabilities, Azure Functions can effortlessly connect to these services to enhance workflow automation.

Azure Functions also integrates well with Azure Event Grid or Azure Service Bus, allowing you to create event-driven workflows that respond to events happening across your Azure resources.

By connecting Azure Functions to Event Grid or Service Bus, you can automate processes based on triggers such as file uploads, database changes, or service status updates.

Moreover, Azure Functions can integrate with external services through outbound HTTP calls, enabling you to incorporate third-party APIs and services into your workflows.

Whether you need to send notifications, retrieve data, or perform other actions, the ability to connect with external services expands the possibilities for workflow automation with Azure Functions.

By seamlessly integrating with other Azure services and external APIs, Azure Functions make workflow automation more comprehensive and efficient, enabling you to create tailored solutions that meet your specific business needs.

Connecting External Services to Azure Functions

Connecting external services to Azure Functions allows you to extend the functionality of your workflows by integrating with other cloud services and external APIs.

By leveraging Azure Functions, you can easily connect to various services and systems, enabling seamless data exchange and process automation.

Some key steps to connecting external services to Azure Functions include:

Setting up authentication : Configure authentication credentials or API keys required to access the external service.
Implementing connectors : Use connectors, such as Azure Logic Apps or Azure Service Bus, to facilitate communication between Azure Functions and the external service.
Writing custom code : If there is no existing connector available, you can write custom code within the Azure Function to establish the connection and handle data exchange with the external service.
Handling data mapping : Transform and map the data from the external service to ensure its compatibility with the Azure Function and subsequent workflow steps.

By connecting external services to Azure Functions, you can create powerful and comprehensive workflow automation solutions that streamline business processes and enhance productivity.

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Conclusion

Azure Functions offer a powerful and flexible solution for workflow automation.

With their event-driven architecture, seamless integration with other Azure services, and cost-effective pricing model, Azure Functions are well-suited for automating tasks, business processes, and workflows.

Whether you need to process data, send notifications, integrate with third-party services, or schedule tasks, Azure Functions provide the necessary tools and capabilities to streamline your automation efforts.

By leveraging Azure Functions, you can increase efficiency, reduce manual labor, and focus on more strategic initiatives that drive business growth.

So, why wait?

Start exploring Azure Functions today and unlock the full potential of workflow automation for your business.

As always, if you have any questions or comments please leave them below or contact me or schedule your free one-hour consultation.

Thanks for reading,
AJ

AJ TatumFollow

I am the founder of AJ Tatum Digital, whose purpose is to help people thrive with their online presence by sharing my knowledge of various online technologies and digital marketing strategies.

The post Why Azure Functions Are Fantastic & Capable For Workflow Automation appeared first on AJ Tatum Digital's Blog.

60+ No-Code Automation Tools To Spark Your Curiosity

AJ Tatum — Sat, 15 Jul 2023 21:55:21 +0000

You don’t have time to spend hours learning to code? No problem! Want to automate your repetitive stuff? Read on!

Affiliate Disclaimer: This article contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase through one of the links in this post, AJ Tatum Digital may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Learn more.

When I first heard about no-code automation tools, such as Zapier in 2012, my “developer brain” had two reactions:

This could be awesome, but it (Zapier) is kind of expensive!
Why should I use these tools when I could build it myself?

Well, let’s just say that my mind has changed dramatically since then with the rapid growth of a variety of no-code or low-code automation tools. At any point in time, I have at least 5-10 automations running for me, helping me streamline both my personal and professional life.

My attitude began changing once I discovered that no-code tools aren’t inherently expensive or complicated to implement. In fact, there are even open-source, free no-code tools available for anyone to download and host them (more on that later).

Best of all, with the surge of accessible automation technologies, anyone can take advantage of code-free approaches of automating tasks and streamlining workflows.

Moreover, for the developers or techies that don’t mind some light programming, most of these tools can be extended even further, so you can automate practically anything.

So, I decided to put together this post and take you on an exploration of some of the most popular no-code automation tools and how they can be utilized to boost your productivity and give you more time to do the things you enjoy!

But, before we get started, I’ll explain what no-code and low-code means and then point you in the direction of some key tools you may want to explore.

What’s the Difference Between No-Code and Low-Code?

What Does No-Code Mean?

No-code refers to the ability to create anything from automations, applications, and integrations without writing code.

You can do this using visual, drag-and-drop interfaces.

No-code platforms provide a way for people with no coding experience to create to their hearts content. The only limitations are what other services the platform integrates with and your imagination.

How Are No-Code Tools and Low-Code Tools Different?

Low-code automation tools go beyond no-code tools because they let you add your own code, but only for certain programming languages, like JavaScript or Python.

So, for example, let’s say you want to create a workflow that gathers data and imports that data in Azure Cosmos DB (a NoSQL database). You can leverage the platform’s existing integrations to gather the data and then use the Azure Cosmos DB NodeJS package to import the data.

The Rapid Adoption of No-Code & Low-Code Development

According to Business Wire, the future of low-code or no-code tools has an expected growth rate of 44.4% by 2022 to $27.23 billion (up from $4.32 billion in 2017).

While there are many reasons why there’s been an uptick in no-code and low-code tools, it’s mainly due to the fact that anyone can build their own applications, integrations, and automations no matter what their technical background is.

While some of these tools can help you out around the house, most of them will help you automate your business.

Complex business processes, such as order processing, sales transactions, and customer support interactions, can be readily automated using a no-code workflow automation platform. Data gathering, research, and analysis are just some of the many other applications for these tools.

In addition to automating routine business processes like email marketing, social media posting, and lead generation, they can be used to create customized workflows.

So, without further ado, here are some interesting facts to back up no-code’s growth:

A 31.1% Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) is predicted for the worldwide low-code platform industry by 2030, up from an estimated $10.3 billion in 2019 sales (2020-2030).
Since COVID-19, the percentage of CEOs citing “no-code & low-code development platforms” as their most critical automation investment has increased by more than double (from 10% to 26%).
The average forecasted market size is expected to grow from $16.1 billion in 2021 to $84.8 billion by 2027, at a CAGR of 31.9%.

Image Source from spreadsheetweb

What Does No-Code and Low-Code Have to Do With Automation?

As no-code and low-code tools have grown in popularity, automation is now more accessible than ever for two reasons:

You don’t need coding experience. It is now possible for you to create and customize automation solutions regardless of your coding ability.
You can build whatever you want faster. By providing point and click user interfaces and pre-built integrations, you can build workflows and integrate various apps much faster than building something from scratch.

Simply put, it’s possible to automate almost any task or routine using no-code and low-code tools.

Why Is No-Code & Low-Code Automation So Exciting?

No-code and low-code automation tools are exciting for a variety of reasons. By automating routine tasks, it can help you save both time and money. For developers, it can help them create new apps quickly and easily. For everyone else, it can help them automate their workflows and complete tasks faster.

Automation with no-code and low-code is also wonderful because it is empowering. It’s making it possible for anyone, regardless of their technical experience, to create new applications and integrations and automate whatever they can dream up.

For example, while I have several automation tools for AJ Tatum Digital, I also have basic productivity automations running with IFTTT (If This Then That). For example, one automation with IFTTT helps me remember to read stuff whenever I bookmark a webpage by connecting Raindrop.io to TickTick, so whenever I tag a bookmark with “To Read”, it automatically creates a task to be completed within two days.

What Are Some No-Code Automation Tools?

IFTTT is just one of an array of tools that may help you automate just about any aspect of your daily routines, business processes, and more. Although I’ll be focusing on tools for businesses in this post, IFTTT is a fantastic and simple tool that can apply to both your life and business… and it’s well worth exploring.

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General No-Code Workflow Automation Tools

Before diving into some niche tools and before you sign up for “all the things”, it’s important to understand that no-code tools have a variety of ways to determine how many “actions”, “steps”, “workflows”, etc. you can do for a certain amount of money per month; unless you’re feeling adventurous and go the open source route.

Regarding that, I’m going to say something that’s very opinionated: I don’t like Zapier. Even though they are the most popular automation tool on the market and have the biggest ecosystem, they are also the most expensive.

While I agree that their tool is extremely easy to use, it comes with a premium. The entry level plan is relatively inexpensive, but when compared to similar tools, you can get more bang for your buck elsewhere.

So, here are some automation apps I recommend checking out.

Automate.io

I was once a subscriber and found it affordable and easy to use.

They offer generous plans and integrate with pretty much every service I needed while I was using their service.

However, unfortunately, their service will be retiring on October 31, 2022, so I wouldn’t recommend investing too much time into their service.

Azure Logic Apps

I’m a long-time fan of the Azure ecosystem and 'prefer it over Google Cloud and AWS mainly because I find their platform easier to use overall.

With Azure Logic Apps it’s a breeze connecting and automating anything within Azure. In addition, they have numerous external or third-party integrations so you could create a Logic App without subscribing to any other Azure service.

If you go this route, I recommend trying it out with the “consumption plan” billing model first.

IFTTT

I use this tool frequently for both personal and professional automations as they provide a lot of integrations for home automation, online services, social media networks, and more.

While they offer a free tier, subscribing to one of their Pro Plans is worth it as you can do multiple actions in a workflow and have over one account for a service (i.e., your personal Google account and your Google Workspace account). This ability is great, for example, if you want to block off time on our Workspace calendar when you add an event to your personal calendar.

Make.com

Formerly Integromat; Make.com is definitely more robust than other tools on this list; however, with that comes a slightly steeper learning curve. If you can dedicate some time to learning their system a bit, I highly recommend it. They integrate with over 1,200 apps/services and offer plenty of prebuilt templates to help you get started.

One easy way to automate social media content curation is by connecting Make.com with a RSS Reader app, such as Feedly or Inoreader (I prefer Inoreader) with a social media platform, i.e. Facebook, or a social media marketing service, i.e. Buffer or Hopscotch.

So, for example, with Inoreader whenever I tag an item as “Social Share” it triggers an automation to add a new post to my Content Curation queue on Hopscotch.

n8n.io

They provide both a hosted version and an open source, self-hosted version; and I currently self-host n8n to perform a variety of tasks.

While there’s a learning curve, it’s one of the few, if not only, services where you can run custom JavaScript (NodeJS) in a step, which makes it truly extendable.

With n8n and WP Webhooks, I was able to create my own content aggregator for AJ Tatum Digital called "Jarvis News".

Basically, I have it check RSS feeds for new content every 30 minutes for various categories and if there’s new content, it posts a portion of the original article with a link to the source.

Technical SEO Note: If you do this, it is absolutely critical that the link to the original source has the “rel” attribute set to “canonical” as it informs Google and other search engines that your website isn’t the original source of the content.

Pabbly Connect

Pabbly Connect offers a very generous free plan and extremely inexpensive paid plans and they integrate with about 850 services.

While I don’t use their service frequently, it is in my arsenal of tools as a free option mainly because I’ve found that they integrate with some lesser-known apps and even self-hosted apps.

Either way, Pabbly Connect is worth investigating based on pricing, the number of integrations, and its ease of use.

Power Automate by Microsoft

Power Automate, formerly known as Microsoft Flow, comes with Windows 11 and there’s an online version as well.

The desktop version can automate tasks in applications like Excel, open your web browser and take a screenshot, etc.

The online version is like other tools on this list as it integrates with over 300+ apps and can be triggered remotely via webhooks, etc.

Zoho Flow

While I was trying out Zoho One and all its services, Zoho Flow stood out to me because it was easy to use and I could create automations outside of Zoho’s platform.

As a standalone product, Zoho Flow is also relatively inexpensive, with two options: Standard for $12/month and Professional for $30/month.

AJ Tatum Digital uses WP Webhooks and is an affiliate.

No-Code WordPress Automation Plugins

The following plugins are functionally the same as the above platforms, but they are WordPress plugins that work really well with WordPress and other WordPress plugins. I’ve at least tried the following services with their free plugins:

AutomatorWP

AutomatorWP is a versatile, open-source automation plugin that allows you to integrate WordPress plugins and create automated workflows with other plugins or external services.

You can build automations that are linked to registered user or anonymous visitor activities, such as when a registered user publishes a new post or when an anonymous visitor submits a form.

While the core plugin is free, if you want to get the most out of it, you’ll need to purchase an “access pass” which starts out at $149 per year.

Uncanny Automator

I currently use Uncanny Automator and love it. Like AutomatorWP, their primary focus is integrating WordPress plugins as well as external services such as Facebook, Instagram, n8n, Pabbly Connect, and much more.

The feature I use the most, though more technical, is its ability to call a Webhook when a certain action takes place.

For example, whenever a new post is published, it sends data to n8n. You could have it automatically post to Facebook, Instagram, etc. as well.

I would recommend trying out Uncanny Automator’s free version first and if you like it, you can upgrade to their paid version which starts out at $149 per year.

WP Fusion

This plugin can work wonders as it keeps your WordPress users in sync with your CRM.

So, for example, if a user performs a certain action, such as filling out a form, it can tag them, and then you can put restrictions on certain pages for users with that tag.

If you have a large user base and a CRM, this plugin is definitely worth considering.

I currently use their free version and find that it is sufficient for my needs, but if you want to have their eCommerce integration and other addons, you’ll need to upgrade to their paid plugin, which starts out at $247 per year.

WP Webhooks

While WordPress offers an API that you can use, I’ve found it frustrating to work with.

WP Webhooks not only extends WordPress’s API, but makes it much easier to integrate with and perform automations by sending or receiving data.

This is one plugin that has truly changed the way I can build custom integrations or connect to third-party services easily.

WP Webhooks paid plugin starts at $149 per year.

No-Code & Low-Code App & Website Development Tools

Building a website, much less an app, is a huge undertaking. However, thanks to no-code tools, they enable users to generate websites and apps in just a few clicks.

Here are just a few of the no-code and low-code platforms that can help you build your website or app:

AppMaster.io

AppMaster.io is a no-code platform for creating and publishing cross-platform web and mobile applications.

The platform can generate code depending on the functionality and design of the app that the user requested.

As a result, the user receives a fully functional app with source code and API documentation.

AppSheet

AppSheet is a no-code development platform for application software that lets users build mobile, tablet, and web apps using data stored in cloud-based spreadsheet and database services like Google Drive, Dropbox, Office 365, and more.

Betty Blocks

Betty Blocks is a no-code app development platform. Businesses use it to automate systems and processes with beautiful, lightning-fast apps.

Betty Blocks’ visual, drag-and-drop interface enables developers to construct powerful apps without coding.

Experienced developers can build faster using low-code features and add their own code as needed.

Bubble

Bubble is a visual programming language, no-code development platform, and an application platform as a service that allows non-technical individuals to create online apps without having to enter code.

Ninox

Ninox is a business process automation software that stores and organizes complex business data and allows users to switch to a collaborative, easily optimized platform.

Their drag-and-drop software lets you design customized apps and arrange charts, forms, and reports.

Thunkable

Thunkable is a no-code platform that allows you to create native mobile apps for any platform without writing a single line of code.

Webflow

Webflow is a visual website builder that works right in your browser, allowing you to create and launch responsive websites with ease.

It’s a comprehensive design platform where you may take your idea from conception to completion.

Zoho Creator

Zoho Creator is an integrated low-code application development platform developed for automating business processes with no custom code.

Zoho Creator allows individuals to use their own smartphones from anywhere in the world to access business data.

Disclaimer: I have not used the services above, but, based on my research, these are services I’d recommend investigating to see if they fit your needs.

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No-Code Email Marketing Automation Tools

Email marketing services are essentially no-code or low-code solutions to help you build your newsletter list, automate welcome emails, send out drip campaigns, and more.

Here are some services to check out:

ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign is an all-in-one marketing and email automation tool that empowers you to send better emails, track engagement, build customer lists, and create automated campaigns.

Beyond emails, you can leverage one of their many integrations to send SMS & WhatsApp messages. Additionally, ActiveCampaign can help you build a custom Facebook audience for social media marketing.

Read my post "How To Achieve Marketing Automation Success with ActiveCampaign" to learn more.

AWeber

AWeber is one of the leading email marketing and automation platforms for businesses and individuals. With AWeber you can create, send, and track emails, as well as follow up with leads through text messages. Additionally, they have tools to help you discover new leads, create automated campaigns, and reach new customers.

Campaign Monitor

Campaign Monitor is an email marketing and email newsletter service that helps businesses create, send, and track emails and campaigns.

Campaign Monitor offers tools to create, edit, and campaign templates, send campaigns using email marketing tools or directly through its platform, track email open rates and engagement, A/B test Email subject lines and content, and more.

Constant Contact

Constant Contact is a marketing automation platform that helps small businesses create and send marketing emails, SMS campaigns, and online ads.

With Constant Contact, you can create automated campaigns that send triggered messages to your subscribers based on their behavior or interests. You can also use the platform to create and send email campaigns and SMS messages directly from your account.

ConvertKit

ConvertKit is a robust email marketing service designed specifically for content creators. It lets you develop landing pages and attractive, responsive email templates in a matter of minutes. Emails may be sequenced, rules can be set up, and lists can be segmented based on user actions, all with the help of the tool’s robust automation features.

GetResponse

GetResponse is a platform that helps businesses build, send, and track their email marketing campaigns. But sending emails is just a part of what GetResponse offers. In addition, they can provide marketing automation, push notifications to your visitors, live chat, and even webinars!

Every now and then I’ll think about GetResponse as they have so many features, but it has been my experience that only a handful of them are well executed. That said, their email marketing service is one of the features that does stand out as they provide a great editor, a large library of pre-built templates to help you get started, and more.

Mailchimp

Mailchimp is perhaps the most well-known email marketing service when it comes to sending newsletters, but don’t let that overshadow their automation capabilities, which includes everything from welcome emails, abandoned cart reminders, birthday emails, and drip campaigns.

While Mailchimp has a lot of great things going for it, the primary reason I’ve avoided Mailchimp is because of their pricing after you surpass their free tier.

To me, the biggest drawback is that if a contact exists in two separate lists, that contact actually counts as two contacts. So, if you have a list for a CRM (“Contacts”) and a list for newsletter subscribers (“Subscribers”), if a Contact is also a Subscriber you’ll get charged twice. That’s just not right to me.

MailerLite

MailerLite is definitely one of the simplest email marketing automation services available; however, don’t let that fool you. Their email editor is by far one of the best editors I’ve come across, especially if you want to create a RSS-based automation campaign. It’s very flexible in that it allows you to select various dynamic layouts.

If you’re looking for just an email marketing service to send great looking campaigns, auto responders, etc., then they’re definitely worth a look. However, if you’re looking for a tool that can also help you manage contacts and leads, then this isn’t the service for you.

MailPoet

MailPoet stands out of this crowd as their service is actually a WordPress plugin, which opens the door to a ton of integrations with other WordPress plugins. Additionally, the plugin provides a familiar interface for creating newsletters.

Mautic

Mautic is an extensible, open-source email marketing solution that includes a CRM, the ability to send messages through various changes via integrations, and also connect to your social media accounts.

SendFox

SendFox is also a light-weight email marketing service that focuses on doing one thing and doing it well: sending newsletters and automations. Their service is extremely affordable, but is lacking a lot of “premium” functionality. If you’re just starting out and want to send simple newsletters, this could be the service for you!

Sendinblue

Sendinblue offers an attractive free-tier and their paid tiers are competitive to ActiveCampaign and GetResponse. Their feature set though is closest to ActiveCampaign, but they also offer a transactional email service as well to complement your marketing emails. Like ActiveCampaign, they also offer a live chat feature for your website.

While I like a lot of what Sendinblue offers, I prefer ActiveCampaign, especially when it comes down to marketing automation and customization. Additionally, while ActiveCampaign’s email designer leaves a lot to be desired, it is more intuitive than Sendinblue’s email editor.

No-Code Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Tools

You’ll often find that your email marketing service may have a CRM component to it. Depending on the service and your needs, you may need a separate CRM that can integrate with your mail marketing service.

Copper CRM

Copper CRM has a native integration with Google Workspace users and is best suited for small businesses looking for a solution to manage their contacts, pipeline, emails, etc.

Creatio

While I haven’t used Creatio, I have heard about them for CRMs and no-code or low-code solutions. They are an all-in-one suite of tools for marketing, sales, and service.

HubSpot

I’ve used HubSpot’s free and $50/month services but found it too limited with the free tier or overkill for my needs at $50/month, considering that I was evaluating HubSpot after already investing in ActiveCampaign.

If you have a large business and can afford to invest fully in their ecosystem, then it’s definitely worth it as it can provide a lot of value to your business and it will save you significant time with their CRM, email marketing capabilities, and social media marketing services.

FluentCRM

If you run a WordPress site and use Fluent Forms for your contact and newsletter forms, then FluentCRM may be the right solution for you.

Unlike other email marketing and CRM services, their prices remain the same regardless of how many contacts you have or how many emails you send.

While it may not be as feature-rich as ActiveCampaign or HubSpot, it provides some unique features because it integrates with other WordPress plugins. It’s definitely worth a look for $129/year.

Gist

After my experience with services that try to be an “all-in-one” solution, I haven’t given Gist a chance yet.

I’ve yet to find an all-in-one solution that isn’t crazy expensive and can do each thing very well; my experience has been that these services can do it all, but they don’t do any particular thing very well.

Gist may be different. They offer a CRM, email marketing service, marketing automation, event tracking, live chat, knowledge base, and a support bot.

They do have a free forever plan if you have under 200 contacts, then it’s $48/month or $128/month depending on what features you want.

Insightly

If you use Google Workspace, Insightly may be a good option for you as they integrate very well together.

Mautic

Besides being just an email marketing platform, Mautic can also be your CRM to manage contacts, companies, and more.

NoCRM.io

While I haven’t used NoCRM.io before, I find their service interesting and affordable if you’re looking for a lightweight no-code tool that can help you manage prospects and convert them into customers.

Vtiger

I haven’t used Vtiger before, but I figured since I mentioned Mautic I should include Vtiger as another open-source alternative that you can either host yourself or pay them to host it for you!

Zoho

Zoho, like HubSpot, has a vast ecosystem of complementary services like email marketing, social media marketing, web analytics, web chat, and so much more.

I was so intrigued by having everything I’d need in an “all-in-one” solution, called Zoho One, that I signed up for it, but eventually requested a refund within 30 days.

While certain aspects of each service did their job pretty well, I found that not one service was as “complete” when compared to a dedicated service (i.e.: ActiveCampaign is simply better at email marketing than Zoho’s email marketing service).

However, they do offer a lot of inexpensive services, such as Zoho Social, which does a pretty good job as a standalone service.

No-Code Project Management Tools

Notion

I’ve been a Notion fan since the day I discovered them. If you’ve ever used Evernote and haven’t tried Notion yet, I highly recommend you do. It replaced Evernote and many other one-off tools for note taking, project management, etc.

With Notion, you can create databases for whatever you want. There are ready-made templates for those looking for anything from to-do lists to sales pipelines.

Besides Google Docs, it’s my go-to for internal documentation management, etc.

Monday.com

Based on my limited experience, Monday is a pretty slick tool if you have a team of over 5 people.

While you can certainly use it as a solo entrepreneur, I felt it was a little overkill for my needs and stuck with Notion.

Monday offers a fantastic platform with a lot of integration possibilities.

No-Code Database Services

Setting up and managing a database can be very time-consuming, and there’s hardly any type of automation built in. Luckily, there are some solutions that make databases user-friendly to everyone.

Here are just a few:

Airtable

Airtable has an almost infinite number of possibilities; you can either build simple apps backed by Airtable or you can leverage their massive library of templates for product planning, bug tracking, product tracking, and so much more.

They integrate with popular services such as Slack, Google Sheets, and more. However, all these nice and fancy features come with a price tag that can grow unwieldy.

If there were just some alternatives’¦ Oh wait!..

Baserow

I absolutely love Baserow as they are an open-source no-code database Airtable alternative. While they may not have all the glitz and glamor of Airtable, it’s very intuitive and their team is super responsive to new ideas.

I first tried it out by using another service called Cloudron, which makes it incredibly easy to spin up a variety of self-hosted, open-source services.

NocoDB

Like Baserow, NocoDB is an open-source, no-code Airtable alternative. It can turn any database into a smart spreadsheet. It’s pretty slick, and they offer built-in integrations with Microsoft Teams, Slack, WhatsApp, Twilio, and more.

No-Code & Low-Code Text-to-Speech and Speech-to-Text Tools

Text-to-Speech and Speech-to-Text have risen in popularity dramatically over the past few years. There are seemingly new services that I stumble upon almost weekly.

Here are some of my recommendations:

Cloud Services for Text-to-Speech & Speech-to-Text

Azure Cognitive Services

Sometimes, it’s easier and cheaper to go straight to the source. If you’re already in the Azure ecosystem, their Cognitive Services are worthy of your time to try out. All you need is an Azure account, and then you can play around in their Speech Studio portal.

This is definitely a low-code solution as you’d either have to use their CLI (Command Line Interface), write a small application, or use an API.

Amazon AWS Polly

Google Cloud Text-to-Speech

Third-Party Text-to-Speech & Speech-to-Text Services

Blakify (AppSumo link)

I first heard of Blakify while browsing AppSumo and was hesitant to try their service, but $67 for a lifetime deal and a money-back guarantee is just too hard to pass up.

Their platform, the various voices, and how easy it was to use completely surprised me.

Even though Blakify is much newer to the market than Play.ht, they provide more voices and tools, such as the ability to add background music.

Play.ht

Play.ht has been in the text-to-speech arena since 2016, and, while they have an excellent reputation, I found that they didn’t live up to my expectations.

That said, they provide an all-in-one, easy-to-use solution that even includes a WordPress plugin. They can also host your podcast.

Rev.com

For speech to text, the best service I’ve come across so far is Rev.com. You can choose to have your speech converted via AI or by a human.

Even though their human transcription service is more expensive and can take longer, it will save you a considerable amount of time afterward as you won’t need to do as much editing.

Using No-Code Content Curation Tools with Artificial Intelligence

With the rise of artificial intelligence and the power of natural language processing, this area of no-code tools has been receiving a lot of attention, and for good reason.

With the proper tool at your disposal, you can speed up your content creation by generating ideas, outlines, SEO meta descriptions, and advertising copy, as well as checking your grammar while you’re typing.

I’ve tried a bunch of tools that I’ve discovered through AppSumo and some have been a hit and others have been a huge miss.

Content Writing Automation Tools

Here are some tools you may or may not have heard about:

copy.ai

copy.ai is an interesting tool, with which I’ve also had mixed experiences with. I only tried it during a trial period and was mainly curious about how it could help with generating ideas for new blog posts and short-form content.

For example, while thinking about this post, I was curious about what kind of outlines it would generate for the title of this post, and the results were pretty interesting.

For example, some headings were obvious, such as “What Does No-Code Mean?”, and then unique headings such as “Imagine having the power of code… without the headaches.” copy.ai and Jasper.ai are about the same price, and while I prefer the content output of copy.ai, I just can’t justify spending $50/month on it.

Jasper.ai

Formerly known as Jarvis.ai, Jasper.ai is perhaps the most popular service of the bunch. I’ve tried their service several times and their output is consistently mixed. It will either generate great content or complete gibberish (letters and words mashed together, sentence fragments, etc.).

They are one of the priciest options, so I expect content that matches their price tag’¦ and it never does. Perhaps I’m trying to generate something that’s for a niche demographic, but I don’t experience the same issues with other services.

Katteb - Fact Checked AI Writer

Katteb is another AppSumo find and I started off with purchasing one code and ended up stacking four codes as I found this to be one of the best AI writers available. For example, I asked it “What does Katteb Fact Checked AI Writer do?” and it produced the following result (this is only the first paragraph):

Katteb Fact Checked AI Writer is an innovative tool that aids in the creation of accurate and reliable content. It is designed to assist writers and researchers in verifying the factual accuracy of their work. With the exponential increase of information available on the internet, it has become crucial to distinguish between reliable and misleading sources. This AI writer helps users by cross-referencing information against trusted and reputable sources, providing fact-checked results in real-time. By using advanced algorithms and machine learning techniques, Katteb Fact Checked AI Writer ensures that the content produced is credible and backed by reliable sources.

Peppertype.ai

Peppertype.ai is very similar to Rytr, but the content it creates is vastly different. While I still have it in my arsenal for idea generation and short-form-content writing, it doesn’t always provide something that sounds human-like.

Rytr.me

I discovered Rytr through AppSumo and bought their lifetime deal and was astounded by the variety of templates, use cases, and, most importantly, the quality of the content it generated based on just a few words or a question.

Rytr shines brightly for short-form-content, such as SEO meta descriptions, and for generating outlines. One thing is for sure, Rytr has definitely helped me when I’ve had writer’s block.

Writesonic

Writesonic is the latest tool that I’ve stumbled upon, so I haven’t been able to truly test out its huge selection of tools to help you generate practically any type of content. However, their “Topic To Paragraph” tool generated the longest, most comprehensive, and human-like content when compared to any other tool on this list.

What makes this absolutely insane is that Writesonic offers a generous free trial and plans start out at just $10/month. It is by far the most affordable content writing tool available (excluding tools purchased with a lifetime deal).

Writesonic can generate content ranging from long-form articles, social media posts, ad captions, email subject lines, company & personal bios, an analogy maker, and much more.

WriterZen

WriterZen is a mix of several tools in one service. Their service makes researching a new topic and generating an outline for a new blog post much easier than doing it manually.

Basically, you put in your post’s keywords and it will do a search and show you similar articles and those articles’ outlines. It will then recommend keywords you should include in your post.

Finally, at the content writing stage, you can start writing your post and you’re able to use “AI Shortcuts” to automatically create transitions, rewrite sentences or paragraphs, generate outlines, and more.

Overall, while I 'use some of these services for ideas or to help with writer’s block, none of them can write an article that sounds as if someone else wrote it.

Content Editing Automation, Summarizing & Paraphraser Tools

Grammarly

Grammarly does more than simply help you with grammar mistakes; It can assist you in writing sentences that are easier to read, keep your writing style and tone in check, and make your writing sound significantly better. However, I’ve found that Grammarly works best with shorter forms of content.

ProWritingAid

If you do a lot of writing, especially longer pieces of content, and want to learn how to improve your writing, then ProWritingAid is for you.

They can do essentially everything Grammarly does, but it takes it a step further by analyzing your entire document, post, etc.

As it makes suggestions, you can click to learn more about why it’s a potential issue so you can better understand your grammar mistakes.

You can fine-tune ProWritingAid to fit your target audience so that it doesn’t flag certain mistakes such as “technical jargon.”

TLDRthis.com

TLDRthis.com ranks among the top few online tools for summarizing and paraphrasing content. It makes it simple to condense lengthy content into bite sized chunks.

The best part is that there is no need to sign up or register to use this service. Upgrade to one of their paid tiers if you find the free version insufficient; they offer very reasonable prices.

To use TLDRthis.com, just copy and paste the URL or text of an article, and it will be automatically shortened into a few sentences. This is fantastic for social media posts! TLDRthis.com even has an option to easily paraphrase long content.

Lastly, it also has a free extension for Google Chrome and Firefox that lets you summarize any article with one click.

wordtune

I know I sometimes write a sentence and think, “I wish that sounded better.” That’s where wordtune steps in: just highlight the sentence you want to rewrite and wordtune will auto-generate a variety of suggestions, and you can choose if you’d like your sentence to sound more casual or formal.

QuillBot

I saved my 'favorite writing tool for last. Like wordtune, QuillBot is a paraphrasing tool, but where it leaves wordtune in the dust is the quality of its output.

I’ve taken plenty of sentences and paragraphs that I’ve written and thought they sounded pretty good, only to then have QuillBot generate something that turned my content into something that I can only describe as jaw-dropping.

Their month-to-month plan is $15 a month, but their annual price is $100, and it’s well worth the investment.

No-Code Tools for Social Media Automation

I’m going to keep this section brief as there are so many tools & services out there, and there’s seemingly new ones popping up every week. So, instead, I want to highlight a few tools that you may not be aware of that could save you time, money, or both!

ContentStudio.io

While trying out ContentStudio.io, I was impressed with their content curation feature. Basically, you’re able to select some predefined topics, create your own “topic stream” based on a keyword or a group of keywords, and you can also import RSS feeds. Once setup, you can easily find content that has a lot of engagement, such as the number of times it’s been shared or liked. Additionally, you can easily find influencers based on topics or keywords.

However, even with this robust feature, I found that their social media poster to be flakey at times. For example, the “AI Caption Generator” couldn’t generate captions for the appropriate page if the URL was shortened via Bitly. So, I decided to stick with SocialBee.

Anyway, one thing to note is that they also have a content publishing tool that helps you write SEO-optimized articles and can then automatically publish them onto your WordPress site and Medium.

Hopscotch.social

Hopscotch recently caught my eye while browsing for new social media marketing integrations on IFTTT and Make.com. Prior to Hopscotch, the only other platform available was Buffer, so I checked out their website to see what they were all about.

Let’s just say that Hopscotch may not win any web design awards, but being integrated with IFTTT and Make.com is pretty awesome and opens a lot of doors for automation.

One particularly nice feature they have is the ability to create queues per profile with a time range of when to post, the minimum amount of time between posts, and then you can “interval randomness” as a percentage.

As explained on their page, “if you set the [minimum] interval to 10 [minutes] and randomness to 20%, the interval between posts will be randomly selected between 8-10 minutes.” I thought that was a pretty neat trick so that your posts aren’t always posted at the exact same time every day.

Publer

When I started researching social media marketing tools, pretty much all I found were people reviewing the “big players” in the game, you know, the Hootsuites of the world, etc.

However, it wasn’t until I was on a conference call for a virtual meetup did someone mention Publer. I went to their site, and fell in love almost immediately and even wrote a blog post about it.

SocialBee.io

So, Publer served its purpose but I started wanting more… more integrations, more automations, more everything, but I still didn’t want to break the bank.

Stumbling around the internet one night I discovered SocialBee.io and saw what they offered and their affordable pricing model.

After thorough research, they seemed to be legit so I gave them a try and I’m glad that I did! They are easily one of my favorite social media tools available at an affordable price point.

While they definitely have a learning curve, they offer 1-on-1 onboarding, almost daily virtual discussions, and more to help you get the most out of their tool.

MissingLettr

MissingLettr is a phenomenal tool to help you quickly and easily share your content across multiple social media platforms and they’ll automatically post them over a defined period of time.

Whats more is that MissingLettr also helps you with suggesting both content and images to share. If you’re looking for a tool that can help you setup campaigns for your social media posts, this is it!

If you use this link and discount code “AJTATUMDIGITAL20” you’ll save 20% off for 12 months!

Quuu.co

If you’re struggling to constantly post new posts on social media, you should give Quuu.co a try to handle content curation.

They integrate with Buffer, SocialBee.io, and a few others or they can post directly to your social media accounts. Basically, after signing up, you add your social media accounts and then select what categories of content you’d like Quuu to find and share for you (you can manually approve each post or have it automatically post).

I highly suggest that you manually approve each post as you’ll most likely have to tweak the categories a bit for your needs as I’ve found that their suggested content can be off sometimes; however, 90% of the time it’s great, shareable content and all I have to do is click “Approve” in SocialBee.

Why No-Code & Low-Code Automation Is Truly Badass

There’s a reason 'no-code and low-code automation tools are so exciting, and it’s not just because the technology makes things easier for developers.

It’s because these tools open up a whole new world of possibilities for everyone - from the business owner who wants to get things done quickly and efficiently to the developer who wants to focus on new projects instead of routine maintenance.

And that’s not all. These tools can help you achieve your goals faster than ever before, which is great news if you’ve ever tried to build something complex with no prior experience.

The Future of No-Code and Low-Code Automation Tools

In the absence of crystal balls, I can guarantee with certainty that no-code and low-code tools will keep rising in popularity and adoption.

Gartner’s paper on the "Top Strategic Technology Trends for 2022" tells us that the next big step for no-code automation services will be hyper-automation.

I expect this is going to be a constant stream of fresh development and implementation.

This new phase will allow businesses to “rapidly identify, vet, and automate as many business and IT processes as possible.”

Start Your Automation Journey

My goal in writing this post was to give you a solid foundation in no-code and low-code automation tools so you can get started building whatever you desire.

It will take time to set up your automations and iron out any kinks, but think of automating a task as collecting interest on money you’ve saved: Once your automation is complete and working around the clock, you’re effectively adding more hours to your day!

So, what do you say? Start your automation journey today!

As always, if you or your business need any help in setting up any type of automation, I’m here for you and ready to help. Just contact me and provide some details or schedule a free consultation today!

Thanks,
AJ

AJ TatumFollow

I am the founder of AJ Tatum Digital, whose purpose is to help people thrive with their online presence by sharing my knowledge of various online technologies and digital marketing strategies.

PS to the techies: If you’re looking to try out a bunch of open-source, free tools, I recommend setting up a small virtual server with Vultr, Linode, or Digital Ocean and installing an application called Cloudron, which allows you to create new instances of over 20 applications in a matter of seconds. Cloudron has saved me an incredible amount of time in trying out software as I didn’t have to do any configuration and, if I didn’t like the app, it’s just as easy to uninstall the application.

The post 60+ No-Code Automation Tools To Spark Your Curiosity appeared first on AJ Tatum Digital's Blog.

How to get FFProbe to run using dotnet core as an Azure Function in Docker?

AJ Tatum — Sat, 08 Aug 2020 22:34:15 +0000

Aug 7 '20 Comments: 3 Answers: 3

I am trying to get video details (length, height, width, and content type) from a video based on a URL. By using the nuget package https://www.nuget.org/packages/NReco.VideoInfo.LT I was able to create an Azure Function running locally pointing to my local install of FFProbe rather easily. However, the trick is now…

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