Anvil is a web-based tool for building full-stack web apps with nothing but Python. It’s great for building demos, prototypes, web forms, CRUD apps and all sorts of interactive applications.
The Anvil app builder is probably the most enjoyable developer experience I’ve ever had. Its autocomplete is incredible – you can, for the most part, guess your way around how to use it. It’s really nice to be able to drag-and-drop your form elements in place, and not worry about writing HTML, CSS and JavaScript or use a front-end framework. You can also create a database with ease, write front-end and back-end code all in Python, and quickly test your app – all without leaving the browser!
I came up with an idea for a relatively simple demo multi-page app that would show some of the key features of Anvil, and hopefully you’ll find it a useful taster of what you can build.
This is my very first screencast tutorial (so please be kind). If people like it I’ll think about doing more in future!
Click through to the video and you’ll see chapter markings along the way.
This app is running on the web at: https://location-map-demo.anvil.app/
This particular app is hosted by Anvil, but it’s now possible to self-host your own Anvil apps because they recently open-sourced the runtime!
Next week I’ll make a video on how to deploy an Anvil web app to your own server – using an Ubuntu machine, or a Raspberry Pi.