I’ve been having a lot of fun lately building apps with the Bubble/Node/Express stack. Basically, I’m relying on Bubble for frontend + database functionality, but building a Node/Express API for more advanced workflows or services I’d like to run in the background.
I made a video walking through how it works with one my recent apps, hope it’s helpful!
Super cool!
You run the node.js code on a different host or on bubble?
Great video - thanks!
It seems he hosts it elsewhere hence the URL of the express endpoint. Can you confirm @brentsum ? I recommend https://glitch.com to host JS code (node + express + npm deployed on one click)
yep! @gaimed I use Heroku mostly but also Glitch, which is really handy when collaborating with others.
Can i ask why don’t you use the native plugin bubble platform to host you code and extend features ?
Granted, in order to bring other devs it might be easier to link by api http calls and have a more traditional JS environment like glitch
Good question. Mostly comes down to flexibility for the functionality needed. For this product, I needed to use Node to render an image that had no-cache enabled (so it could be embedded and updated in Notion).
Another factor is cost for cron jobs. For this app I need scheduled workflow runs every 24 hrs - $129/month in Bubble, free for Heroku Scheduler or Glitch + Zapier
Just putting my 2 cents in…Pipedream has also been a fantastic platform for extending functionality
i agree with you, @bubble charging that much for a 1/24h CRON seems like a 2005 restriction; seems so easy to change and be levelling up with 2020 where free hosting of code is pretty common.
What’s a chron?
Scheduled regular task
Thanks for sharing this. It was a really interesting watch. My mind is already spinning with ideas. Is there somewhere I can check out your app, Notion? It also piqued my interest based on the video.
This is great! You should create a video series for this ! 
Awesome! Thanks for the updates.
