9 ms·

Parse 2.0

217 points by gfosco 11y ago

brudgers 11y ago
Repository: https://github.com/ParsePlatform/parse-server https://github.com/ParsePlatform/parse-server
draw_down 11y ago
It's great that the Parse server got open sourced, no doubt. But a lot of people rely/relied on Parse for sending push notifications... you know, that pesky little item listed as "unsupported" in the parse-server README.
- pbreit 11y ago
  What's the current best option for sending push notifications? Is there an equivalent to Mailgun, SendGrid, Mandrill, SES? UrbanAirship? Does Twilio do it? Or do you just go direct to Apple/Google?
  - dawson 11y ago
    We migrated to Pushwoosh – all good so far
  - newman314 11y ago
    Maybe hook things up to RethinkDB? https://rethinkdb.com/blog/realtime-web/ https://rethinkdb.com/blog/realtime-web/
  - firloop 11y ago
    I've had a lot of positive experience with Amazon SNS. It's reasonably priced ($1/million push notifications) and makes sending notifications as easy as hitting an HTTP endpoint. We deliver a couple million notifications a month and have had no problems.
    - rstupek 11y ago
      Second that with our experience sending 1m push notifications a day to android/ios
      - bschwindHN 11y ago
        Thirded. It was actually a little annoying getting the message structure right (putting an escaped JSON string inside of JSON isn't the most intuitive thing), but once I got that working it's been smooth sailing.
  - tomjen3 11y ago
    Why not make a relatively simple node app that hooks up with apples servers? It is (if I recall correctly) a very simple protocol and it is free, even if you send lots of notifications.
- gfosco 11y ago
  Take a look at the pull requests. Push is landing imminently.
- phowat 11y ago
  We relied on Parse to send push notifications and since the announcement were looking for alternatives. We decided to go with pubnub (which FWIF we were already using for other stuff). I think it's worth for anyone who was using parse to check it out.
pbreit 11y ago
Could this be even better than parse.com since you can program the server? That's what I never quite understood about Parse. It seemed like you had to do pretty much everything in the client/app which seemed like a severe limitation.
- fweespeech 11y ago
  The cost of operations on a small dev shop of 1-2 people shouldn't be underestimated. Pushing the need to be up 24/7/365 onto an external service with the manpower/funding to succeed at it reasonably well is generally worth it.
  - toomuchtodo 11y ago
    > Pushing the need to be up 24/7/365 onto an external service with the manpower/funding to succeed at it reasonably well is generally worth it. Devops here. The only service I have ever found to have anywhere close to 5 9's of reliability? S3. That's about it though.
    - fweespeech 11y ago
      Fair enough but do you think a 1-2 man shop can get better reliability than a product like Parse if they are average app developers that don't have Ops experience? EDIT Since I'm rate limited: > I don't think any product exists that's going to remove the need for ops experience. I haven't used Parse, so I can't comment on its reliability. If you are an app developer whose backend consists entirely of talking to an API, I'm uncertain exactly what "ops experience" on the server side you believe is needed?
      - toomuchtodo 11y ago
        I don't think any product exists that's going to remove the need for ops experience. I haven't used Parse, so I can't comment on its reliability.
      - seanwilson 11y ago
csmajorfive 11y ago
Fosco, you're doing a great job with this. Thanks for continuing to work so hard to help Parse developers.
didip 11y ago
Out of curiosity, I thought there were a few blog posts about how Parse is written in Go. But based on this blog post, it looks like you are re-implementing https://github.com/ParsePlatform/parse-server https://github.com/ParsePlatform/parse-server as a node app. Why not open source the original code?
- zitterbewegung 11y ago
  It could be because Parse was engineered not to be easily deployed but heavily dependent on Facebook infrastructure or the code that is there isn't fit for release.
  - ec109685 11y ago
    It didn't use Facebook's infrastructure: https://aws.amazon.com/solutions/case-studies/parse/ https://aws.amazon.com/solutions/case-studies/parse/
- aikah 11y ago
  It was originally written in Ruby , then they rewrote the API in Go. I guess they can't opensource the Go code for legal reasons. Maybe the parse-server written in Node JS was an experiment they did before when they were still choosing a new technology for the rewrite.
- supster 11y ago
  The Parse infrastructure itself was written in Ruby then in Go. But the customer facing CloudCode feature was in a Node.js environment. Thus it makes sense that Parse Server which needs to run this cloud code would be in Node.
- gedrap 11y ago
  I think there are plenty of reason for this, and the question should be 'why open source the original code rather than having a clean start without all the dependencies and ugly things that accumulated over the years?'. Once it's open, people will scrutinize everything, especially something as high profile as parse. They don't need publicity about commit message "Joe is so fucking stupid" that slipped away or something equivalent.
tlrobinson 11y ago
"Since these things happened on the same day, some have mistakenly assumed that they were related." Huh? How could you not think two announcements about the same service on the same day by the same company were related? Facebook totally could have spun this as "We're open sourcing Parse! (oh, and deprecating parse.com)" but a blog post called "Moving On" wouldn't have been the way to do it. Regardless, releasing an open source version of the service you're shutting down is a hell of a lot more than most companies would do, so kudos to Facebook/Parse for that.
- gfosco 11y ago
  I guess I was trying to be funny and make a point at the same time... Of course people would think they were related. The initial messaging could have been more positive, absolutely.
  - nashadelic 11y ago
    I do feel for your situation. It's apparent that this was the management's plan and you might not have been communicate to. Excited about Parse 2.0 nonetheless!
zyxley 11y ago
So... what is Parse? Neither the blog post nor the repo give any idea what you'd actually use the parse-server package for.
- xyzzy4 11y ago
  I guess the assumption is that anyone looking for parse-server has already used Parse in the past.
xyzzy4 11y ago
What you should've done instead is make another closed source Parse under a different name, get acquired for $X million, then do it again ad infinitum.
- err4nt 11y ago
  You can start by relabelling the open sourced Parse right now!
- err4nt 11y ago
  You can start by relabelling the open sourced Parse right now!
rglullis 11y ago
There is an alternative universe where I push https://github.com/dgrtwo/ParsePy/issues/13#issuecomment-16022336 https://github.com/dgrtwo/ParsePy/issues/13#issuecomment-160... a little bit more, and actually complete the python server implementation of the Parse API. I wonder what would be happening at this universe if it also saw this "closing née open-sourcing of Parse": would a competing implementation get sudden traction? Would I be selling bitnami images (that is what I was thinking about how to make money with it) for mobile developers who didn't want to mess with backend services? Would it land me a job on Facebook? Would I take it?
esusatyo 11y ago
I'm curious as to why you decided to left out push notification. That was one of my favourite Parse features, and I think it's why a lot of people use it. Was it too hard or time consuming to re implement?
- gfosco 11y ago
  Check the pull requests, as Push delivery is in-review and landing very soon. At least one developer has already pulled the diff and got it working.
shekyboy 11y ago
Why not open source the dashboard code as well? I have been looking at migrating options and would like to have something as close as possible to original Parse.com The dashboard was such huge help in testing, debugging etc. Suggest opening that up too so other players can run that as well.
- gfosco 11y ago
  That is in the works. https://github.com/ParsePlatform/parse-server/issues/3 https://github.com/ParsePlatform/parse-server/issues/3
  - shekyboy 11y ago
    Awesome! I would love to see one of the providers take that up and offer that in the migration process. One of the best things Parse offered was ability to purely focus on application code and not worry about anything else. Tech pundits may balk at this approach but for a startup looking for product/market fit, this works. Until we have that nothing else matters.
zamalek 11y ago
That's the great thing about open source: a project can outlive its stewardship.

217 points by gfosco 11y ago

Repository: https://github.com/ParsePlatform/parse-server https://github.com/ParsePlatform/parse-server

It's great that the Parse server got open sourced, no doubt. But a lot of people rely/relied on Parse for sending push notifications... you know, that pesky little item listed as "unsupported" in the parse-server README.

pbreit 11y ago
What's the current best option for sending push notifications? Is there an equivalent to Mailgun, SendGrid, Mandrill, SES? UrbanAirship? Does Twilio do it? Or do you just go direct to Apple/Google?
- dawson 11y ago
  We migrated to Pushwoosh – all good so far
- newman314 11y ago
  Maybe hook things up to RethinkDB? https://rethinkdb.com/blog/realtime-web/ https://rethinkdb.com/blog/realtime-web/
- firloop 11y ago
  I've had a lot of positive experience with Amazon SNS. It's reasonably priced ($1/million push notifications) and makes sending notifications as easy as hitting an HTTP endpoint. We deliver a couple million notifications a month and have had no problems.
  - rstupek 11y ago
    Second that with our experience sending 1m push notifications a day to android/ios
    - bschwindHN 11y ago
      Thirded. It was actually a little annoying getting the message structure right (putting an escaped JSON string inside of JSON isn't the most intuitive thing), but once I got that working it's been smooth sailing.
- tomjen3 11y ago
  Why not make a relatively simple node app that hooks up with apples servers? It is (if I recall correctly) a very simple protocol and it is free, even if you send lots of notifications.
gfosco 11y ago
Take a look at the pull requests. Push is landing imminently.
phowat 11y ago
We relied on Parse to send push notifications and since the announcement were looking for alternatives. We decided to go with pubnub (which FWIF we were already using for other stuff). I think it's worth for anyone who was using parse to check it out.

pbreit 11y ago

Could this be even better than parse.com since you can program the server? That's what I never quite understood about Parse. It seemed like you had to do pretty much everything in the client/app which seemed like a severe limitation.

fweespeech 11y ago
The cost of operations on a small dev shop of 1-2 people shouldn't be underestimated. Pushing the need to be up 24/7/365 onto an external service with the manpower/funding to succeed at it reasonably well is generally worth it.
- toomuchtodo 11y ago
  > Pushing the need to be up 24/7/365 onto an external service with the manpower/funding to succeed at it reasonably well is generally worth it. Devops here. The only service I have ever found to have anywhere close to 5 9's of reliability? S3. That's about it though.
  - fweespeech 11y ago
    Fair enough but do you think a 1-2 man shop can get better reliability than a product like Parse if they are average app developers that don't have Ops experience? EDIT Since I'm rate limited: > I don't think any product exists that's going to remove the need for ops experience. I haven't used Parse, so I can't comment on its reliability. If you are an app developer whose backend consists entirely of talking to an API, I'm uncertain exactly what "ops experience" on the server side you believe is needed?
    - toomuchtodo 11y ago
      I don't think any product exists that's going to remove the need for ops experience. I haven't used Parse, so I can't comment on its reliability.
    - seanwilson 11y ago

csmajorfive 11y ago

Fosco, you're doing a great job with this. Thanks for continuing to work so hard to help Parse developers.

didip 11y ago

Out of curiosity, I thought there were a few blog posts about how Parse is written in Go. But based on this blog post, it looks like you are re-implementing https://github.com/ParsePlatform/parse-server https://github.com/ParsePlatform/parse-server as a node app. Why not open source the original code?

zitterbewegung 11y ago
It could be because Parse was engineered not to be easily deployed but heavily dependent on Facebook infrastructure or the code that is there isn't fit for release.
- ec109685 11y ago
  It didn't use Facebook's infrastructure: https://aws.amazon.com/solutions/case-studies/parse/ https://aws.amazon.com/solutions/case-studies/parse/
aikah 11y ago
It was originally written in Ruby , then they rewrote the API in Go. I guess they can't opensource the Go code for legal reasons. Maybe the parse-server written in Node JS was an experiment they did before when they were still choosing a new technology for the rewrite.
supster 11y ago
The Parse infrastructure itself was written in Ruby then in Go. But the customer facing CloudCode feature was in a Node.js environment. Thus it makes sense that Parse Server which needs to run this cloud code would be in Node.
gedrap 11y ago
I think there are plenty of reason for this, and the question should be 'why open source the original code rather than having a clean start without all the dependencies and ugly things that accumulated over the years?'. Once it's open, people will scrutinize everything, especially something as high profile as parse. They don't need publicity about commit message "Joe is so fucking stupid" that slipped away or something equivalent.

tlrobinson 11y ago

"Since these things happened on the same day, some have mistakenly assumed that they were related." Huh? How could you not think two announcements about the same service on the same day by the same company were related? Facebook totally could have spun this as "We're open sourcing Parse! (oh, and deprecating parse.com)" but a blog post called "Moving On" wouldn't have been the way to do it. Regardless, releasing an open source version of the service you're shutting down is a hell of a lot more than most companies would do, so kudos to Facebook/Parse for that.

gfosco 11y ago
I guess I was trying to be funny and make a point at the same time... Of course people would think they were related. The initial messaging could have been more positive, absolutely.
- nashadelic 11y ago
  I do feel for your situation. It's apparent that this was the management's plan and you might not have been communicate to. Excited about Parse 2.0 nonetheless!

zyxley 11y ago

So... what is Parse? Neither the blog post nor the repo give any idea what you'd actually use the parse-server package for.

xyzzy4 11y ago
I guess the assumption is that anyone looking for parse-server has already used Parse in the past.

xyzzy4 11y ago

What you should've done instead is make another closed source Parse under a different name, get acquired for $X million, then do it again ad infinitum.

err4nt 11y ago
You can start by relabelling the open sourced Parse right now!
err4nt 11y ago
You can start by relabelling the open sourced Parse right now!

rglullis 11y ago

There is an alternative universe where I push https://github.com/dgrtwo/ParsePy/issues/13#issuecomment-16022336 https://github.com/dgrtwo/ParsePy/issues/13#issuecomment-160... a little bit more, and actually complete the python server implementation of the Parse API. I wonder what would be happening at this universe if it also saw this "closing née open-sourcing of Parse": would a competing implementation get sudden traction? Would I be selling bitnami images (that is what I was thinking about how to make money with it) for mobile developers who didn't want to mess with backend services? Would it land me a job on Facebook? Would I take it?

esusatyo 11y ago

I'm curious as to why you decided to left out push notification. That was one of my favourite Parse features, and I think it's why a lot of people use it. Was it too hard or time consuming to re implement?

gfosco 11y ago
Check the pull requests, as Push delivery is in-review and landing very soon. At least one developer has already pulled the diff and got it working.

shekyboy 11y ago

Why not open source the dashboard code as well? I have been looking at migrating options and would like to have something as close as possible to original Parse.com The dashboard was such huge help in testing, debugging etc. Suggest opening that up too so other players can run that as well.

gfosco 11y ago
That is in the works. https://github.com/ParsePlatform/parse-server/issues/3 https://github.com/ParsePlatform/parse-server/issues/3
- shekyboy 11y ago
  Awesome! I would love to see one of the providers take that up and offer that in the migration process. One of the best things Parse offered was ability to purely focus on application code and not worry about anything else. Tech pundits may balk at this approach but for a startup looking for product/market fit, this works. Until we have that nothing else matters.

zamalek 11y ago

That's the great thing about open source: a project can outlive its stewardship.