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Facebook is closing Parse

blog.parse.com

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Re: Facebook is closing Parse

#71

Post by k-mcgrady »

steffan wrote: post #35
mikegioia wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's even more ridiculous is that their homepage says: From startups to the Fortune 500, hundreds of thousands of developers *trust us*. Trust you to what? Pull the rug out at some point? Why they even put that word on the HP is a separate question.

The acquisition happened nearly 3 years ago. To their credit, they kept running it for longer than a lot of other companies would have. Anyone in the situation of seeing their platform provider acquired should see the writing on the wall. It's unfortunate, but it's the reality. Enjoy the continued services while [if] they last, but always have a Plan B.

>> "Anyone in the situation of seeing their platform provider acquired should see the writing on the wall."

In this case though FB seemed to embrace Parse and continued to develop it. It would have been much better to shut it down after acquisition. FB's support of it probably helped it gain more trust that it would stick around.

Re: Facebook is closing Parse

#72

Post by disbelief »

xd1936 wrote: post #54
zenojevski wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

…except that this just has just become an open-source API that is self-hosted?

Luckily, this time. Not all startups who provide a service like this may choose to do the same when they implode.

Also many (the majority?) of Parse users signed up with them so that they wouldn't have to self host anything.

Re: Facebook is closing Parse

#73

Post by mmastrac »

Ugh. This is why you don't build on proprietary stacks like this. I've detailed tonnes of complaints I've had about the platform itself being awkward and buggy in previous HN comments, but this is obviously the #1 reason not to.

If Facebook can shut down a service this big, Google or Amazon can too. Moving a VM is (reasonably) easy, but porting an app from proprietary backend X to another is hard.

Re: Facebook is closing Parse

#74

Post by dozy »

gdeglin wrote: post #48

One group of developers this is going to affect most are those who used Parse's GCM Server Key for push notifications. Since Parse is probably not going to reveal this key, Android developers using Parse for push will not be able to use their existing GCM push tokens with other services.

Parse authenticates with GCM using the API key that you provide, as do all other services AFAIK. So, all developers need to do is use that same key in their new push provider, and their push tokens will work.

The tricky part is actually making sure that all of your push tokens that are in the Parse database are migrated to the push provider that you've chosen.

EDIT: I stand corrected, looks like you have the option to use their key as you said, my apologies! Should have figured the founder of OneSignal would know ;-)

Re: Facebook is closing Parse

#75

Post by steffan »

u320 wrote: post #45
steffan wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Providing developer services is not Facebook's core business.

So, you're saying we should prepare for the "Oculus shuts down" announcement?

If you see my other comment regarding this, that's exactly what I'm saying.

It may never happen—I think Oculus may be closer to their core business—but if you're building on someone else's platform, you should be prepared for the possibility that the platform could disappear should it no longer be a part of that company's strategy.

If you're building on Oculus as a platform, I applaud you, and I wish you and your product a long, healthy life. But have a Plan B.

If it's not strategy, it's charity. And most corporations are not much given to that.

Re: Facebook is closing Parse

#76

Post by tmsh »

Interestingly, might've been better to:

a) release open source versions and announce pricing increase in the future. b) reduce people using the free 30 transactions / second limit. c) maintain in maintenance mode indefinitely.

I just don't get why companies shut down services unless they're folding them into open source projects (like Freebase into Wikidata). Maintenance mode seems cheap to me, but maybe I'm missing something?

I am most curious about Facebook's strategy for this. Total guesses - but maybe they have another developer platform in the works? Maybe it's just the focus on core businesses, but it is most curious.

Anyway, I love parse! Cool it's open source now.

Re: Facebook is closing Parse

#77

Post by tbrock »

gfosco wrote: post #2

Separately, we developed an open-source Parse-compatible API server for Node/Express. https://github.com/ParsePlatform/parse-server This, along with the database migration tools released earlier, allow developers a full migration path to move from Parse hosted data + API to their own infrastructure. Over the weekend, I set up a website & app on a $5 DigitalOcean box running Parse and Mongo locally.

Fosco, thank you for everything man.

Re: Facebook is closing Parse

#78

Post by mmanfrin »

dantiberian wrote: post #47

I wonder if Firebase will be next? They were acquired by Google in 2014. However they also acquired Divshot to join the Firebase team in 2015 which indicates they at least intended to continue with it then. Firebase does at least make more sense as part of Google's cloud services division rather than at Facebook.

I think Firebase's position is a bit more defensible -- Google has done well to ingratiate Firebase as a backend for angular apps.

Re: Facebook is closing Parse

#79

Post by vlucas »

gfosco wrote: post #2

Separately, we developed an open-source Parse-compatible API server for Node/Express. https://github.com/ParsePlatform/parse-server This, along with the database migration tools released earlier, allow developers a full migration path to move from Parse hosted data + API to their own infrastructure. Over the weekend, I set up a website & app on a $5 DigitalOcean box running Parse and Mongo locally.

Thank you for doing this. It is so rare not to just leave users high and dry after a set time period.

Huge kudos to Facebook for providing this for Parse users.

Re: Facebook is closing Parse

#80

Post by bdcravens »

grandalf wrote: post #39

Wow. The 30 minutes you saved by using parse turns into a major headache. This makes me hesitant to use react and react-native.

Libraries can always be forked. Services not so much (though in this case you should be able to self-host, but that's not always the case)
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