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Parse launches JavaScript SDK: Parse for Websites

blog.parse.com

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Re: Parse launches JavaScript SDK: Parse for Websites

#101

Post by kenrikm »

ryan_f wrote: post #69
mortenjorck wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, sure, LAMP is easy to set up if you're working in PHP; that's one of the huge advantages PHP has over most other options. You want to set up and deploy to a Rails server, though, that's going to be a bit more effort.

It's pretty cheap to host your rails app on a server such as Heroku and that takes minutes to deploy.

Heroku is Free for most small things and reasonable if you only need one instance. Not as easy as Parse but far from rocket science.

git push heroku master - FTW.

Re: Parse launches JavaScript SDK: Parse for Websites

#102

Post by pbreit »

pbreit wrote: post #19

I'm still a little confused by what Parse does and when I would use it. It sounds neat for little, proof-of-concept demos but would I consider it for production of something significant? Does this SDK work without the Parse server?

OK, I looked at it in more depth than I usually do and I can see that there would be a decent number of use cases. But as another posted said, on one hand it looks like a great platform to build against, on the other it seems really dumb to do so (locked in, etc).

Perhaps someone could reverse engineer the APIs and provide a Python/Rails + DB back-end.

Re: Parse launches JavaScript SDK: Parse for Websites

#103

Post by nupark2 »

kenrikm wrote: post #98
nupark2 wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a substantial difference between a service and an installed product. PostgreSQL 9.3 is installed on your database server, the source is available, and it isn't going anywhere. If Oracle discontinued their database platform tomorrow (unlikely!), your licensed copy will remain valid for a long time up until you swap it out for another closely compatible database. If Parse closes their doors or exits tomorrow, t…

A few points I would like to make: 1) There is very little chance of them closing their doors in the near future as they raised a large series A and have great growth. 2) Having personally talked with Tikhon on the subject and it's clear that they plan to make this a stable platform for the longhaul. I would not hesitate to build a project on top of Parse they are a great group and would not leave their users hanging…

> 1) There is very little chance of them closing their doors in the near future as they raised a large series A and have great growth.

Until/unless they get purchased. As you said, it was a large series A.

> 2) Having personally talked with Tikhon on the subject and it's clear that they plan to make this a stable platform for the longhaul. I would not hesitate to build a project on top of Parse they are a great group and would not leave their users hanging.

If they're bought, it won't be their decision.

> 3) If you're still hesitant keep in mind you can still keep mission critical stuff on your own Servers/APIs and use Parse for Push Notifications/Location etc.. There is nothing locking you into what parts of the Parse SDK you use.

Push, etc, is the easy stuff.

> 4) You can always export your data.

It's the continued functioning of the code that I'm worried about, not the data.

Re: Parse launches JavaScript SDK: Parse for Websites

#105

Post by andwang »

nchuhoai wrote: post #99

One question to the Parse department: How do you add indecies to fields? Do you automatically create them? If I have Users for example and I frequently want retrieve them by their email, I presume you dont do a linear scan every time?

yep, database indices are created for you automatically. This is one of the details we hope app developer should never worry about.

Re: Parse launches JavaScript SDK: Parse for Websites

#106

Post by shortj »

Someone explain what I am missing... I was able to run a simple wget, and I had 100% full functionality of an app (utilizing their API Key, and App ID and all) and run it on my local machine. Data flow is seamless between the local and hosted apps. So while I don't have to worry about a backend, neither does anyone who wants to "borrow" my app. There isn't really any form of app authentication built in that I could find, the REST API master key is the closest thing.

Re: Parse launches JavaScript SDK: Parse for Websites

#108

Post by growt »

lacker wrote: post #77
rapind wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another way of wording his (and my) concern is how do you securely identify the user? Nevermind the permissions model (ACL), how do you actually ensure the user is who they say they are, and how tamper-proof is this authentication. Nothing in their documentation provides any details on this. The security section is filled with details on how to specify access levels, but I can't find anything about how they guarantee…

For secure user identification we have the typical username/password model. You don't have to expose that to end users, so you can also cross-authenticate with your own systems. The password is only stored on the server, with a client-side token. There's more documentation for this here: https://www.parse.com/docs/js_guide#users It looks like this information is in our "Users" section rather than our "Security" secti…

I have a question: Is there a possibility to "disable" the automatic creation of new classes? because if I understand the documentation right, then it would be possible for any user to spam my model with new classes.

Re: Parse launches JavaScript SDK: Parse for Websites

#109

Post by Jare »

growt wrote: post #108
lacker wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For secure user identification we have the typical username/password model. You don't have to expose that to end users, so you can also cross-authenticate with your own systems. The password is only stored on the server, with a client-side token. There's more documentation for this here: https://www.parse.com/docs/js_guide#users It looks like this information is in our "Users" section rather than our "Security" secti…

I have a question: Is there a possibility to "disable" the automatic creation of new classes? because if I understand the documentation right, then it would be possible for any user to spam my model with new classes.

Note that, as far as I can see, Classes are a SDK convenience but the data itself is completely schemaless as far as the Parse backend is concerned.

I've wondered about this aspect of Parse for months but not seen a satisfactory answer yet. With the client-side credentials for a Parse app readily available, a malicious user could store any amount and type of data in that app's store, with that app footing the bill.

The easiness of hacking the existing data (say, your SpaceBucks premium currency in a game) is a secondary concern, but it's valid to say that for that extra level of security you need your own servers and logic, and Parse is not the right service.

Re: Parse launches JavaScript SDK: Parse for Websites

#110

Post by zotron »

Love this but running this JavaScript SDK in IE is a bit tricky. Basically, if you would like your solution to support 50% of internet users you would be forced to run your HTML/JS solution in a SSL-enabled server. I hope they enable a non-SSL solution soon. Oh! and forget about IE7 or IE6 users.
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