Facebook is closing Parse • Hacker News Board

Re: Facebook is closing Parse

#221

Post by ronbrinkmann » Thu, Jan 28, 2016, 11:53 PM UTC

chasing wrote: post #18

Which alternatives would people recommend?

(Blatant self-promotion warning)

If you’ve been using Parse as part of a photo-sharing app, you might want to take a look at http://www.ostetso.com. While we’re by no means a drop-in replacement for Parse, what we DO offer are all the pieces needed to create an instagram-like app, including the image hosting, user management, code that gives you a gallery of user images, etc., etc. (iOS only at this point though.) Check out the source code for an example app on Github (at https://github.com/PrecipiceLabs/Ostetso_SharePictures) that uses the Ostetso platform.

Free until you get to a LOT of traffic/users.

Re: Facebook is closing Parse

#222

Post by jkestner » Thu, Jan 28, 2016, 11:54 PM UTC

kuzmin wrote: post #59

Currently using Parse for Push notifications (it's simple to send a request to Parse and it handles iOS vs Android issues). Is there any tool out there that has similar functionality? Ie. you register all your users devices there and they simplify the sending of push notifications.

We started using Parse for the simple push notifications, stayed for the DB.

Also had looked into Urban Airship but it's several times more expensive. I do want to pay for a service so it doesn't go away, but at those enterprise prices I'm definitely better off setting up my own APNS server.

Re: Facebook is closing Parse

#223

Post by asadlionpk » Thu, Jan 28, 2016, 11:56 PM UTC

intellegacy wrote: post #180

nodamage wrote: post #142

This announcement just underscores the importance of having full control over your backend. Yes, it's more work, but if you're writing apps that seriously depend on backend services, it's simply too much risk to depend on anyone else. Fortunately in this case Facebook offered generous lead time to migrate off Parse.com, but they were not obligated to do so, and other providers might not be so generous in the future.…

sigh, I just made my first app on Parse and now I have to migrate to another BaaS. what do you recommend? Firebase? I dont' think running my own servers with Parse is viable as Parse won't be updated from now on while other BaaS will stay updated and keep improving

Firebase is good for small hackathon-like projects and it gets ugly when your DB grows. Not much optimizations you can do.

Re: Facebook is closing Parse

#224

Post by markpiller » Thu, Jan 28, 2016, 11:56 PM UTC

It is a sad day and I feel for the developers who got caught in the situation. If migrating to your own server is not an option, consider Backendless (https://backendless.com). We are stable and healthy and we have a team to help you with the migration of your app.

Re: Facebook is closing Parse

#225

Post by j45 » Thu, Jan 28, 2016, 11:58 PM UTC

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 releasing tooling to deal with migrating as well as releasing the server itself.

Too often services don't think about the full exit / shut down strategy and as disappointing as it is to see Parse go, it's nice to see it will actually live on in a way that can't be shut down by a corporate decision.

Re: Facebook is closing Parse

#226

Post by mooreds » Thu, Jan 28, 2016, 11:58 PM UTC

zem wrote: post #217

chrisfosterelli wrote: post #23

While I'm sure this sucks for a lot of people, I'll be honest the shutdown seems pretty fair. One year notice, detailed migration path with accompanying migration tools, and an open source release of the product itself. I didn't use parse, but this seems like a reasonable way to do it.

also major props for being up-front about the fact that they're shutting down the service and they realise it sucks for their users, rather than some "incredibly journey" style bs.

From the original post:

> We have a difficult announcement to make.

Yes, you can see their sheepishiness in the announcement.

I'm sure it was a tough decision.

Re: Facebook is closing Parse

#227

Post by j45 » Thu, Jan 28, 2016, 11:58 PM UTC

crudbug wrote: post #165

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.

Are you releasing the admin dashboard code as well ? It will be easy to manage the server.

This would be tremendous.

Re: Facebook is closing Parse

#228

Post by supster » Thu, Jan 28, 2016, 11:58 PM UTC

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.

Would it be possible to open source the Parse Dashboard? Even if it's just the data browser? I really loved that part of Parse.

Re: Facebook is closing Parse

#229

Post by st3v3r » Thu, Jan 28, 2016, 11:58 PM UTC

nodamage wrote: post #142

This announcement just underscores the importance of having full control over your backend. Yes, it's more work, but if you're writing apps that seriously depend on backend services, it's simply too much risk to depend on anyone else. Fortunately in this case Facebook offered generous lead time to migrate off Parse.com, but they were not obligated to do so, and other providers might not be so generous in the future.…

No, it just underscores the importance of properly architecting your apps so that they don't directly depend on Parse or others. Keeping that stuff to the periphery of your app will make it much easier to replace when the service either shuts down or you outgrow it.

Re: Facebook is closing Parse

#230

Post by samuraicode » Fri, Jan 29, 2016, 12:00 AM UTC

Parse was how I got my first backend needing apps into the App Store. Always thought they were a great company and really set the bar for how to build and document an API. Sad to see them go, but wish them all the best.