
Show HN: Dexter, an open platform for building, sharing, and deploying your hack - ilkovich
https://rundexter.com/market
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ilkovich
Hi everyone - I'm the founder of Dexter (@danielilkovich) and am excited to
share it with the Hacker News community.

We're a platform that enables users to quickly connect several third party
APIs and custom code via a visual interface. Some people have called us Yahoo
Pipes on steroids. A couple things that really set us apart:

\- We're a completely open platform. Modules can be contributed to us via a
`git push` and are subsequently made available to the community to use. We
currently support NodeJS packages, but are planning to open up Python support
soon. Docs here: [http://docs.rundexter.com](http://docs.rundexter.com)

\- We have a marketplace where you can share your creations and collaborate
with the rest of the community.

\- Everything is deployed on our infrastructure. Your hacks no longer have to
live on that old laptop in your closet.

\- We support OAuth across 20+ providers with more on the way. Native OAuth
support makes it easier to share your creations. Also, no more sifting through
API docs to find out which flavor a third-party supports.

Looking forward to hearing everyone's feedback!

~~~
captn3m0
Thanks for making this. However, I've been burned by some other services like
this shutting down. This looks like IFTTT for devs, and my only concern is
about you shutting down.

~~~
lbjustin
We're also using a very open development model - most of the code that runs
our apps is MIT licensed and easy to use elsewhere:
[https://github.com/rundexter](https://github.com/rundexter)

~~~
kordless
Having some loose set of code repos up that claim to "run your apps" is no
excuse for not having a sustainable and publicly scrutinized revenue model for
the project. Without a model in place, savvy users (like those here on HN)
will realize that your model may change later (because the VCs require you to
exit for example) and _that_ will affect how we get along holistically with
your product later.

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jeffrand
Hey Daniel, what are the plans for monetizing apps I build in the marketplace?
Will I be able to define my own prices?

~~~
ilkovich
Good question!

Yes! Eventually we will support paid modules (the building blocks of the apps
you see in the marketplace) that allow developers to define a price and a
license. That will in turn dictate how much an app would cost a user to use.

For example, you can imagine a Twilio module that costs a penny to use, so the
end user of the app would be charged a penny per use.

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kenrick95
Is this a similar service to IFTTT, but one can connect multiple API endpoints
in one script ("recipe")? Thanks.

~~~
bbilko
Indeed. You also aren't limited to what is offered to you, as you are free to
build your own and deploy to use and share with the community at large.

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pussinboots
*Enjoy exclusive free access to the Dexter compute platform while we are in beta!

nice

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phantom_oracle
Can someone explain to me exactly what this is/does?

I understand that I can link Google Docs to Slack.

Is it like a linking tool for third-party APIs?

~~~
bbilko
Put plainly, this is a platform that allows you to connect web services. So
yes, it is a linking tool for third party APIs. But there's a lot more than
that here. The differentiator is in how that manifests itself. So with
something like IFTTT, you're given the option to connect X to Y, with finite
versions of X and Y to connect. So while it fits a number of use cases,
there's a lot that's left to be desired. Dexter gives you the ability to
connect X to Y, but since you can deploy your own code, the developer / user
and the API endpoints they are using are what effectively limits the number of
permutations. Additionally, you can connect far more than two endpoints, can
switch based on expressions, can fetch from a data store, can wait for user
input and more. Hope that helps!

