Hello everyone! Today, on the second day of Launch Week, we’re introducing the Pages feature, which allows you to build interactive data apps using markdown!

Building Interactive Data Apps with Markdown

With Morph, you can create data apps in a flash by placing your data pipeline results, built using SQL and Python, inside an MDX file - a Markdown extension. It's incredibly easy; all you have to do is specify the function names in SQL or Python for pre-built components!

Plus, you can use Tailwind CSS for styling, giving you complete freedom to create beautiful, user-friendly data applications! The pages you create are instantly accessible from the code editor or the Pages tab at the top.

Why Markdown?

When we first envisioned data app functionality, we considered a no-code editor. However, Morph's framework is incredibly robust, allowing much greater flexibility, customization, and maintainability than we originally planned. We wanted a solution that allows anyone to easily create data app pages, while keeping the power of code in the hands of the users.

That's why we chose MDX, which combines the simplicity of Markdown with the power of React.

Markdown is a widely used markup language with a great pedigree, and is accessible to users of all skill levels. Data application development often involves a variety of roles: database engineers, data engineers, analytics engineers, back-end engineers, front-end engineers, business managers, and marketers. MDX's markup foundation makes it an ideal common language for these diverse skillsets.

MDX can be extended through React, bringing the React ecosystem into the Morph workspace. You can even add React packages directly from the npm install command.

Transform SQL and Python Results into Apps in Seconds

To integrate SQL and Python results into MDX in Morph, you don't need to write data retrieval code. Just place the necessary components and you're on your way to building an interactive data application.

Morph's SQL and Python also support variables that can be passed to SQL and Python via user input components in MDX files. This feature allows you to express complex analyses - especially those too complicated for traditional drill-downs in BI tools - using Python and MDX.

Pre-Made Components

Morph offers a wide variety of pre-built components to simplify the creation of data applications.

See the documentation for more details!

We are adding to our component library all the time, so feel free to get in touch if there's a feature you'd really like that isn't there already!

Tomorrow, we’ll dive into the latest Morph AI features. Stay tuned!