DEV Community: Ankur Pata

Stop Wasting Dev Time on UI Tweaks – Baloon.dev Just Got Smarter (And It’s Going Open Source)

Ankur Pata — Sat, 10 May 2025 09:59:16 +0000

Stop Wasting Dev Time on UI Tweaks – Baloon.dev Just Got Smarter (And It’s Going Open Source)

If you’ve ever been pulled off real work to fix padding or update button text… this is for you.

I’m building Baloon.dev — a tool that helps tech founders, product managers, and even designers edit code directly on GitHub using simple prompts.

No setup. AI-powered. All changes go through Pull Requests.

And with Change Log v2.3, we’ve added new features and a sneak peek at something big:
🧪 An open source version is coming soon.

🚀 What’s New in v2.3?
🔸 Try Baloon Without GitHub
We now offer a sample app you can edit directly — no need to connect your own repo.
Just open it, make changes via prompt, and see the live preview.

Perfect if you want to test the experience before trusting it on your own project.

👉 Try the sample project

🔸 JIRA Integration (yes, really)
Connect your JIRA board.
Pick a ticket.
Baloon reads the title + description and generates a Pull Request for the change.

No engineers required.
Just... type and review.

🔸 Improved AI Chat & Code Search
We’ve enhanced our AI model’s understanding of your codebase — so prompts like:

"Make this button blue on hover"
"Replace the word 'subscription' with 'plan' across the UI"
"Add margin below this section"

…are more accurate and instant.

💡 Why We Built Baloon
As a dev, I know how frustrating it is to stop deep work just to adjust spacing or fix copy.

Baloon is designed to:

✅ Let non-devs handle minor changes
✅ Keep everything versioned via GitHub PRs
✅ Free you up for meaningful coding
✅ Speed up product iteration cycles

🛠️ Open Source Sneak Peek
We’re working on an open source version of Baloon.

It’ll let you:

Run locally or self-host

Connect to your own GitHub repos

Use the same AI-powered editing interface

Contribute or extend features as needed

👀 Want early access or to contribute when we launch? Drop a comment or star BaloonDev on GitHub (coming soon).

🙌 We’re Building in Public
I’d love your feedback, feature requests, and ideas for what you'd want in the open-source version.

You can follow updates on X/Twitter or reach me directly here.

TL;DR

Baloon now supports JIRA, sample project testing, and smarter AI

Open source version coming soon

Let’s stop wasting dev time on things AI can handle

👉 baloon.dev

How to Build a Marketing Page in 30 Minutes with Low Code Drag-and-Drop Widgets CMS

Ankur Pata — Wed, 07 May 2025 19:32:43 +0000

Ever wanted to change text, fix styling, or tweak a button on your site — without opening your code editor?

I built Balloon.dev for exactly that.

🚀 What Is Balloon.dev?

Balloon is an AI-powered tool that lets you make real code changes to your GitHub repo using plain prompts.

You can say things like:

"Change the hero headline to 'Built for Speed'"
"Make the CTA button green"
"Increase the font size of the navigation links"
"Center align the testimonials section"

And Balloon will:
✅ Find the right component

✅ Modify the code safely

✅ Open a clean pull request

✅ What It Can Do (Right Now)

Change text across your frontend
Edit font sizes, weight, alignment, decoration
Modify colors (buttons, sections, text)
Update spacing (padding/margin)
Auto-generate PRs — so devs can review before merge

All changes are run on your real code, not a playground — so you're editing your actual product.

🧪 Why I Built It

I was tired of small edits taking too long.

PMs, founders, and even designers often want to fix or test something simple — but it takes days to prioritize in sprints.

Balloon makes those changes instant.

🖥️ Try a Sample Project

You can test it now — no setup required.

👉 Try Balloon here

🙏 Feedback Welcome

Would love your thoughts, edge cases, or even contributions if you're interested in the open-source angle.

If you're a founder or PM — I especially want to hear how you'd want to use this.

Built with ❤️ by @ankurpata

How to Build a Marketing Page in 30 Minutes with Low Code Drag-and-Drop Widgets CMS - Sling.biz

Ankur Pata — Wed, 02 Oct 2024 13:08:45 +0000

Introduction:

Hey Dev community! 👋

Building a marketing page quickly and efficiently is something every developer or small business owner needs at some point. Today, I want to walk you through how you can build a fully functional marketing page in under 30 minutes using drag-and-drop widgets and customizable templates using a developer-friendly CMS, Sling.biz.

Whether you're working on a side project, launching a new product, or helping a client, this method will save you a ton of time! It also allows your client or marketing team to make changes on the fly without needing help from a developer.

Step-by-Step Guide

Let’s say we want to build a simple page like the one in the screenshot below—a landing page with a hero banner and some dynamic content that your marketing or content team can update at any time of the day.

Template Source

1. Setting Up the Project

To start building your page, we need to set up the project using a starter kit. Here’s how to quickly set up the foundation:

Run this command to generate the project:

  yarn create sling-app my-marketing-page

Pick the Hosted Solution to use Sling Studio directly without needing to manage one yourself.

Skip adding keys in the next step and finish the installation.

2. Creating a Sling Studio Account

Next, we're going to create a free account on Sling Studio to get the keys. You can also host your Studio locally (since it’s open source) and generate keys, but in this post, we’re going to use the hosted solution.

Head over to the Sign-Up Page and create an account.
Finish the onboarding process and go to the Settings page to get your keys.

Update the keys in your project's .env file. Restart the Sling Frontend App and visit the sample Product Listing Page, and you should see the below page.

3. Creating Custom React Widgets

Next, we are going to create small React widgets for the following functionalities:

A responsive header

A Hero Banner Widget with a dynamic prop to update the Hero Banner's image dynamically.

A ShowCaseVideo Widget – with a customizable video URL to play a video.

A CoffeeTypes Widget – shows different types of coffee based on a JSON array served from SlingStudio.

Note: For references to code, please check the YouTube video or GitHub source code.

4. Drag and Drop Widgets

Drag and drop widgets from Sling Studio in the same order as the design. This CMS comes with a set of predefined widgets, but you can also create your own! Here’s a simple example of how to add and configure widgets:

Drag a Hero Block onto your page.
Use the widget editor to customize the text, image, and CTA button.

Next, update props for the Header.

Similarly, update props for all the widgets. For the CoffeeOptions Widget, select the prop type as JSON to provide a JSON array.

Similarly, drag in other components like features, pricing, and the VideoPlayer Widget.

5. Preview and Publish

Once you’ve finished designing your marketing page, preview it to make sure everything looks just right. You can now deploy your marketing page directly from the app or export it to deploy on your preferred hosting provider.

6. References

Quick Setup:
Youtube