Xano

Learn how to build an app in Noloco around your Xano api

Xano is the No-Code backend that can power and scale any app. Xano comes with everything you need to quickly launch a Backend without worrying about scale.

Overview

If you're storing data in Xano, you can easily connect your Xano workspace(s) to your Noloco apps and allow your team or customers to read, update and create database records in Xano directly from your Noloco app.

Our Xano connection is coming soon in private beta. If you would like access please contact the Noloco team through the chat or Slack

Connect your Xano account

To connect your Xano account to Noloco you will need to add a new data source to your app.

Noloco use's Xano's metadata API to sync your database schema and data to Noloco, so we will need some credentials to identify and securely access your workspace

1. Navigate to your Xano Account

2. Create a new Personal Access Token in Xano. Noloco will need read and write permissions for your data, and at least read permissions on your schema.

3. Copy the newly created access token and past it into the Access Token box input in Noloco

4. Choose the Xano workspace that you want to connect from the dropdown

Note: these instructions will be updated as we improve the connection experience and work with the Xano team to create the best no-code Xano experience.

What happens next?

Noloco will analyse the data in your Xano database base and will automatically create tables and views in your app around your data from Xano.

For example, if you have a table with Properties data in Xano, we'll automatically create a collection list view, record view to edit individual records and a form to add new Properties data. You can then use our App Builder to configure the display, add filters and set user access levels (i.e. which users can see and update what information).

Supported field types

The field types in Xano can be broken down into the types that we fully support, types that we support reading (but not updating) and types we do not support and exclude from syncs.

Fully supported field types

The following field types are fully supported by Noloco, both to display in your app and be updated by it.

Field Type	API Name(s)	Noloco field type
Integer	int	Integer
Decimal	decimal	Decimal
Timestamp (Date and Time)	timestamp	Datetime
Date	date	Date
Email	email	Text (single line)
Enum	enum	Single Option
Enum (list)	enum	Multiple Option
Bool	bool	Booleen / Checkbox
Image	blob_image	File / Attachment
Video	blob_video	File / Attachment
Audio	blob_audio	File / Attachment
Attachment	blob_attachment	File / Attachment
Object	object	These fields are split into many sub-fields
Geo Point	geo_point	Split into Field Name > lat and Field Name > lng which are both Decimal fields
Reference to table	int	Linked field (Many to One)
Reference to table (list)	int[]	Linked field (Many to Many)

Field types supported only for reading

These field types will be imported into your Noloco app to be displayed, but cannot be updated by your app.

Field Type	API Name(s)	Noloco field type
Json	json	Text (multi line)

Field types that are not supported

Any types that do not appear in one of the two sections above are not supported by Noloco. These fields will never be imported into your apps. A summary of these fields follows but please note that it may be non-exhaustive if Xano adds new field types in the future.

Field Type	API Name(s)
Geo Multi Point	geo_multipoint
Geo Linestring	geo_linestring
Geo Multilinestring	geo_multilinestring
Geo Polygon	geo_polygon
Geo Multipolygon	geo_multipolygon

In addition, any column that is a list of values that is not an enum , file or foreign key will not be synced.

FAQs

How often does my data get synced?

When your app users update data from Noloco, it will be reflected instantly in your Xano database.

If an update is made to your Xano base directly (e.g. via an automation), the updated data should be reflected in Noloco in less than 2 minutes.

Can I connect multiple Xano workspaces to my one Noloco app?

Yes - you can connect multiple Xano workspaces to the same Noloco app. You can also mix and match with other data sources as well (e.g. Noloco Collections, Google Sheets or Airtable).

Why isn't my Xano base appearing in the dropdown to connect?

This is caused by one of two scenarios:

1. Your workspace is already connected to this app.

2. Noloco doesn't have access to this workspace from your personal access token. To fix this you can check that you have given us the correct Personal Access Token.

Why won't one of my fields sync?

If you have tried doing a manual sync of your Workspace's schema but one of your fields still won't appear in Noloco this can mean one of two things:

• We don't support that type of field See the section above on which field types are and aren't supported.

• The name of the field clashes with a previous name of an existing column If you ever renamed a column and now the new field has the same name as that older column we will not be able to sync that field to Noloco until the older, existing field is deleted, or the new field's name is changed (in any way).

Why do I lose field permissions when I rename a field in Xano?

If you rename a field in Xano, unfortunately due to the how these changes are handled by Xano, we cannot persist permissions of the renamed field. These will need to be manually set again in your Noloco app. This field will also need to be re-enabled in any forms you may have.

What about the custom functions I've built on the API

Noloco doesn't use your Xano API to interact with the data, so any custom functions you have setup to add additional data to your Xano database or trigger automation based on updates won't be applied. However, if this is the case we would love to talk to you about some potential solutions and to understand how exactly you're using Xano.