Rebrandly Pack

Rebrandly Icon

Inspiration

I am a film and media composer that is always submitting my music to directors and orchestras to find jobs or get feedback. The bad news is that every other composer does the same thing and we all use the same type of links - Soundcloud.com or Spotify. What if I could take any document or sound link and make it something like Thomasbaucom.com/mysong or Thomasbaucom.com/mydoc. Imagine how much more effective it is for a director to you see your name instead of Spotify.com/2834t827340t2. And since I manage my business in Coda, what if I could do it from Coda. I hit "pack.new" and didn't look back.

What it does

The Rebrandly Pack creates and updates branded links and gives the user the ability to gather analytics and track them. It features two sync tables for domains and links and two buttons to create and update those links.

How we built it

I do not come from a background in JavaScript so I needed some help translating my idea into code that would work. Luckily, the development resources at Coda came with several sample packs to reference and a developer advocate (Eric Koleda) that will always point you in the right direction.

Challenges we ran into

The API for Rebrandly was a bit of a struggle when trying to update a specific Link or Domain because it uses an ID that is buried in the response. I tried a lot of different approaches but the Sync Tables within Coda and the ability to "dot" into them proved to be a simple and elegant solution.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

I am proud of this whole pack! I created something that I use every day myself to further my business and know that I can continue to add and update as my needs change.

What we learned

I learned that you can use buttons (isAction:true) to make sure you have all of your information in place before the function runs in Coda. I also learned that by using a link table that syncs directly with the source API, you can make sure your data is ALWAYS that one source of truth whether it was entered from within Coda or not.

What's next for Rebrandly

I think Rebrandly will be my first monetized pack in the Coda gallery. I am really excited to get it in the hands of others and start getting some feedback!