7 ms·

Jsonstore.io – Store your data for free without signing up

136 points by bluzi 9y ago

bluzi 9y ago
Just enter the website, copy your link, and start sending HTTP requests to store data. GitHub: https://github.com/bluzi/jsonstore https://github.com/bluzi/jsonstore
blazepunk 9y ago
Basically a https://jsonbin.io https://jsonbin.io clone?
- codezero 9y ago
  Sounds like it, though as the author of jsonbin is in this thread points out, this one is open source: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16765885 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16765885
  - blazepunk 9y ago
    gotcha
ktpsns 9y ago
So this is the same what Pastebins are for unstructured texts and image hoster for pictures. At one point, at least everybody realizes that JSON can host arbitrary data -- such as unstructured text -- and pictures as containers, can do as well. I wonder how the operators of these free services act in terms of durability. https://jsonbin.io/ https://jsonbin.io/ proudly reports: "21838 bins created". That probably does not need much storage. But what if I use it regularly from my systems? I'm not so much convinced of just another service which allows storing data for some time, probably with a nice UI. (Actually I noticed this with http://sprunge.us/ http://sprunge.us/ -- I included uploading a build log into my build systems which my team is using now. At one point, sprunge.us started to give back 500's for us, basically stopping working. Sure, switching the service takes a blink of an eye.)
- mr_ali3n 9y ago
  JSONbin.io developer here. Tracked the thread using GA after unusual spike in the traffic. Good point. We cannot trust any random service. It takes some amount of investment, dev time & server costs to keep the service up and running. The reason I developed this service is to ease the storage process for the developers developing mobile or small scale apps, so that they can focus on the app rather than spending time setting up the database. Just to keep the website up and running, I'm going to introduce nominal amount plans which developers can afford and it pays my server bills. I'll ensure that I've SLA in place when am introducing pricing. The only reason I've not introduced pricing on the website is I don't want to charge for something basic what am providing for now. Will add it when I provide more powerful features which are already under development.
  - toomuchtodo 9y ago
    What's your take on developers not putting the effort forth to use their own object store (ie S3) for this? I'm not against developer velocity (disclaimer: not a dev), but this seems to be a cycle where hosted tool comes out, people rely on it, tool becomes too expensive to run, neglected, etc, and then tool goes dark one day. Would time be better spent on client libraries that ease the difficulties of using existing durable storage systems? Or open source javascript frontends you can drop into your S3 bucket to provide a GUI for manipulating JSON in the same object store? I am seeking enlightenment, not an argument. In tech for almost 20 years now, and have seen my fair share of the cycle.
    - mr_ali3n 9y ago
      It's not just about efforts but it's more like the developer needs to maintain another piece of a service. I agree that uploading a simple Json file doesn't sound too complez to maintain but at a cost of you paying for S3 service with limited amount of features.
    - balls187 9y ago
      > What's your take on developers not putting the effort forth to use their own object store (ie S3) for this? Services like these are really geared towards the hacker mentality of getting prototype built as quick and dirty as possible. As the parent wrote--to focus on the app. Using a durable source like S3 sounds good, but now you have the additional requirement of having an AWS Account. Granted the barrier to getting an AWS account is minor, but it is still is a barrier.
jmartrican 9y ago
"Create a microservice that stores JSONs." Says the senior SE to the intern.
amelius 9y ago
How do you deal with abuse? E.g. people posting (links to) copyrighted stuff, or large amounts of data?
bluzi 9y ago
To make it clear: - jsonstore.io is intended for small projects, mostly for the open-source community. It's not a datastore you can use to store all the logs of your company, and we do have quota limits. - We do nothing with your data, it's secured and if you want to store sensitive data you may want to encrypt it. - The idea of this project is to provide the open source community a easy solution for storing casual usage data/settings for their projects.
- mr_ali3n 9y ago
  Just want to drop a big thumbs up for making the project open source unlike mine. It will really help developers who are looking for an API and want to host it themselves. I'll try to contribute to your project in the best possible way I can. Cheers.
  - bluzi 9y ago
    Thanks, appreciate it. :)
- koolba 9y ago
  > - We do nothing with your data, it's secured and if you want to store sensitive data you may want to encrypt it. You mean "it's NOT secured" right?
ulkesh 9y ago
It even has an automated assistant...who looks like he's about to beat you up and take your lunch money.
genericacct 9y ago
Be sure to check out webdis ( https://github.com/nicolasff/webdis https://github.com/nicolasff/webdis ) for a similar service you can run on your servers. It's all in C so it's superlighweight.
- bluzi 9y ago
  Thanks for sharing! fyi: You can also run jsonstore on your own servers.
dereknewsom 9y ago
Love the implementation! Would be great to eventually see pagination and parameter/ID filtering (/users?age=32, etc)
foreigner 9y ago
The curl DELETE example is wrong (it's identical to the GET example).
ChrisRus 9y ago
How does this differ from Firebase?
- romuloab42 9y ago
  It is essentially a think wrapper on Firebase: https://github.com/bluzi/jsonstore/blob/master/api/database.js https://github.com/bluzi/jsonstore/blob/master/api/database....
ChrisRus 9y ago
JavaScript developers interested in this should also take a look at https://encapsule.io/docs/ARCcore/filter https://encapsule.io/docs/ARCcore/filter that makes it simple to implement bulletproof JSON validation and normalization. Advanced application of this library additionally allows for runtime type-based metaprogramming in JavaScript (i.e. build generic algorithms that are specialized to handle specific app-defined data types at runtime).
tallanvor 9y ago
So there's no actual security on this? That is, given the knowledge of an endpoint, anyone can issue requests against it? How do you plan on responding to requests regarding GDPR requirements from EU residents? What happens when someone starts uploading content that could be covered under the DMCA? Following the links, should we assume that https://www.forter.com https://www.forter.com is the responsible company?
- sowbug 9y ago
  Yet Wikipedia exists.
  - tallanvor 9y ago
    Yes, and they have to comply with the DMCA and GDPR as well.
- bluzi 9y ago
  Not at all, it has nothing to do with Forter. It's my own personal project.
  - tallanvor 9y ago
    Ok, that's fine, but it doesn't explain how you'll ensure that GDPR requirements will be handled.
    - brazzledazzle 9y ago
      Based on this I think there’s no obligation: “...a non-EU company with a website accessible to people in the EU is not, on its own, sufficient to require the company to oblige with the GDPR.” From: http://emerging-europe.com/voices/preparing-for-gdpr/ http://emerging-europe.com/voices/preparing-for-gdpr/
      - always_good 9y ago
        The number of people invoking GDPR on HN indicates that a lot of people are going to be let down very soon.
bradhe 9y ago
Cool idea! I'm kinda jealous I didn't think of it myself. Very simply but useful. Nice work!
sehrope 9y ago
Hashing a value from Math.random() with a cryptographic hash (i.e. SHA256) doesn't make it cryptographically random[1]. If you want a random string get one directly via crypto.randomBytes(...)[2]: const id = crypto.randomBytes(32).toString('hex'); [1]: https://github.com/bluzi/jsonstore/blob/87af0d3ef6bf11222b98c00bbfda3ea48c30be57/api/routes.js#L9-L10 https://github.com/bluzi/jsonstore/blob/87af0d3ef6bf11222b98... [2]: https://nodejs.org/api/crypto.html#crypto_crypto_randombytes_size_callback https://nodejs.org/api/crypto.html#crypto_crypto_randombytes...
- bluzi 9y ago
  Thanks, feel free to create a pull request.
- cobookman 9y ago
  Why not use uuids?
  - majewsky 9y ago
    These need not be cryptographically random either.
  - sehrope 9y ago
    UUIDs are fine too. What matters is how they're generated. If you're generating v4 UUIDs server side using the "uuid" NPM module then you're fine as internally it's using crypto.randomBytes(...)[1] with an almost 16-byte random string (UUIDs are 16-bytes but a proper v4 UUID has to override some of the bits to conform to the spec[2]). If you're rolling your own UUID function or generating them client side then they may not be as random as you think. For example the same uuid NPM module silently uses Math.random()[3] on the client side if it can't find a better alternative. It's fine for something purely local to the one browser but I wouldn't rely on it being unique globally. [1]: https://github.com/kelektiv/node-uuid/blob/17d443f7d8cfb65a7d85803218df27a6b4ae8397/lib/rng.js#L7 https://github.com/kelektiv/node-uuid/blob/17d443f7d8cfb65a7... [2]: https://github.com/kelektiv/node-uuid/blob/17d443f7d8cfb65a7d85803218df27a6b4ae8397/v4.js#L15-L17 https://github.com/kelektiv/node-uuid/blob/17d443f7d8cfb65a7... [3]: https://github.com/kelektiv/node-uuid/blob/17d443f7d8cfb65a7d85803218df27a6b4ae8397/lib/rng-browser.js#L20-L28 https://github.com/kelektiv/node-uuid/blob/17d443f7d8cfb65a7...
jaequery 9y ago
this just opens up a whole new world to static websites!
jaequery 9y ago
what is the backend / infrastructure like ? is it just Mongodb?
- bluzi 9y ago
  Feel free to look at the sources: https://github.com/bluzi/jsonstore https://github.com/bluzi/jsonstore
Retr0spectrum 9y ago
Sounds like a vaguely similar project to RequestBin[0]. Just a word of warning: "We have discontinued the publicly hosted version of RequestBin due to ongoing abuse that made it very difficult to keep the site up reliably." [0]: https://github.com/Runscope/requestbin https://github.com/Runscope/requestbin
udia 9y ago
Looking at your source code, it appears you're wrapping firebase. I'm very curious to hear how much this will cost you after the HN traffic hit.
vincnetas 9y ago
If i were to host this locally, what are jsonstore benefits compared to let's say couchdb (opensource, stores and serves json documents over http)?
Krooc 9y ago
This looks handy! Thanks!
joshmarinacci 9y ago
Since we are talking about the value of an online JSON storage system, would any of you be interested in a collaborative system for common JSON data sources? Something like Wikipedia but for structured data that currently lives as files or github repos?
zaidf 9y ago
"This site is blocked due to a security threat." First time I'm seeing this message so I doubt it's a case of over-sensitive Cisco firewall. Chrome also blocked it as a threat.
- rozenmd 9y ago
  Cisco firewalls block GitHub occasionally...
captn3m0 9y ago
Another similar tool (FOSS, source is on GitHub somewhere): https://jsonblob.com/ https://jsonblob.com/ It also has the added advantage of a JSON editor with tree view.

136 points by bluzi 9y ago

Just enter the website, copy your link, and start sending HTTP requests to store data. GitHub: https://github.com/bluzi/jsonstore https://github.com/bluzi/jsonstore

blazepunk 9y ago

Basically a https://jsonbin.io https://jsonbin.io clone?

codezero 9y ago
Sounds like it, though as the author of jsonbin is in this thread points out, this one is open source: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16765885 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16765885
- blazepunk 9y ago
  gotcha

ktpsns 9y ago

So this is the same what Pastebins are for unstructured texts and image hoster for pictures. At one point, at least everybody realizes that JSON can host arbitrary data -- such as unstructured text -- and pictures as containers, can do as well. I wonder how the operators of these free services act in terms of durability. https://jsonbin.io/ https://jsonbin.io/ proudly reports: "21838 bins created". That probably does not need much storage. But what if I use it regularly from my systems? I'm not so much convinced of just another service which allows storing data for some time, probably with a nice UI. (Actually I noticed this with http://sprunge.us/ http://sprunge.us/ -- I included uploading a build log into my build systems which my team is using now. At one point, sprunge.us started to give back 500's for us, basically stopping working. Sure, switching the service takes a blink of an eye.)

mr_ali3n 9y ago
JSONbin.io developer here. Tracked the thread using GA after unusual spike in the traffic. Good point. We cannot trust any random service. It takes some amount of investment, dev time & server costs to keep the service up and running. The reason I developed this service is to ease the storage process for the developers developing mobile or small scale apps, so that they can focus on the app rather than spending time setting up the database. Just to keep the website up and running, I'm going to introduce nominal amount plans which developers can afford and it pays my server bills. I'll ensure that I've SLA in place when am introducing pricing. The only reason I've not introduced pricing on the website is I don't want to charge for something basic what am providing for now. Will add it when I provide more powerful features which are already under development.
- toomuchtodo 9y ago
  What's your take on developers not putting the effort forth to use their own object store (ie S3) for this? I'm not against developer velocity (disclaimer: not a dev), but this seems to be a cycle where hosted tool comes out, people rely on it, tool becomes too expensive to run, neglected, etc, and then tool goes dark one day. Would time be better spent on client libraries that ease the difficulties of using existing durable storage systems? Or open source javascript frontends you can drop into your S3 bucket to provide a GUI for manipulating JSON in the same object store? I am seeking enlightenment, not an argument. In tech for almost 20 years now, and have seen my fair share of the cycle.
  - mr_ali3n 9y ago
    It's not just about efforts but it's more like the developer needs to maintain another piece of a service. I agree that uploading a simple Json file doesn't sound too complez to maintain but at a cost of you paying for S3 service with limited amount of features.
  - balls187 9y ago
    > What's your take on developers not putting the effort forth to use their own object store (ie S3) for this? Services like these are really geared towards the hacker mentality of getting prototype built as quick and dirty as possible. As the parent wrote--to focus on the app. Using a durable source like S3 sounds good, but now you have the additional requirement of having an AWS Account. Granted the barrier to getting an AWS account is minor, but it is still is a barrier.

jmartrican 9y ago

"Create a microservice that stores JSONs." Says the senior SE to the intern.

amelius 9y ago

How do you deal with abuse? E.g. people posting (links to) copyrighted stuff, or large amounts of data?

bluzi 9y ago

To make it clear: - jsonstore.io is intended for small projects, mostly for the open-source community. It's not a datastore you can use to store all the logs of your company, and we do have quota limits. - We do nothing with your data, it's secured and if you want to store sensitive data you may want to encrypt it. - The idea of this project is to provide the open source community a easy solution for storing casual usage data/settings for their projects.

mr_ali3n 9y ago
Just want to drop a big thumbs up for making the project open source unlike mine. It will really help developers who are looking for an API and want to host it themselves. I'll try to contribute to your project in the best possible way I can. Cheers.
- bluzi 9y ago
  Thanks, appreciate it. :)
koolba 9y ago
> - We do nothing with your data, it's secured and if you want to store sensitive data you may want to encrypt it. You mean "it's NOT secured" right?

ulkesh 9y ago

It even has an automated assistant...who looks like he's about to beat you up and take your lunch money.

genericacct 9y ago

Be sure to check out webdis ( https://github.com/nicolasff/webdis https://github.com/nicolasff/webdis ) for a similar service you can run on your servers. It's all in C so it's superlighweight.

bluzi 9y ago
Thanks for sharing! fyi: You can also run jsonstore on your own servers.

dereknewsom 9y ago

Love the implementation! Would be great to eventually see pagination and parameter/ID filtering (/users?age=32, etc)

foreigner 9y ago

The curl DELETE example is wrong (it's identical to the GET example).

ChrisRus 9y ago

How does this differ from Firebase?

romuloab42 9y ago
It is essentially a think wrapper on Firebase: https://github.com/bluzi/jsonstore/blob/master/api/database.js https://github.com/bluzi/jsonstore/blob/master/api/database....

ChrisRus 9y ago

JavaScript developers interested in this should also take a look at https://encapsule.io/docs/ARCcore/filter https://encapsule.io/docs/ARCcore/filter that makes it simple to implement bulletproof JSON validation and normalization. Advanced application of this library additionally allows for runtime type-based metaprogramming in JavaScript (i.e. build generic algorithms that are specialized to handle specific app-defined data types at runtime).

tallanvor 9y ago

So there's no actual security on this? That is, given the knowledge of an endpoint, anyone can issue requests against it? How do you plan on responding to requests regarding GDPR requirements from EU residents? What happens when someone starts uploading content that could be covered under the DMCA? Following the links, should we assume that https://www.forter.com https://www.forter.com is the responsible company?

sowbug 9y ago
Yet Wikipedia exists.
- tallanvor 9y ago
  Yes, and they have to comply with the DMCA and GDPR as well.
bluzi 9y ago
Not at all, it has nothing to do with Forter. It's my own personal project.
- tallanvor 9y ago
  Ok, that's fine, but it doesn't explain how you'll ensure that GDPR requirements will be handled.
  - brazzledazzle 9y ago
    Based on this I think there’s no obligation: “...a non-EU company with a website accessible to people in the EU is not, on its own, sufficient to require the company to oblige with the GDPR.” From: http://emerging-europe.com/voices/preparing-for-gdpr/ http://emerging-europe.com/voices/preparing-for-gdpr/
    - always_good 9y ago
      The number of people invoking GDPR on HN indicates that a lot of people are going to be let down very soon.

bradhe 9y ago

Cool idea! I'm kinda jealous I didn't think of it myself. Very simply but useful. Nice work!

sehrope 9y ago

Hashing a value from Math.random() with a cryptographic hash (i.e. SHA256) doesn't make it cryptographically random[1]. If you want a random string get one directly via crypto.randomBytes(...)[2]: const id = crypto.randomBytes(32).toString('hex'); [1]: https://github.com/bluzi/jsonstore/blob/87af0d3ef6bf11222b98c00bbfda3ea48c30be57/api/routes.js#L9-L10 https://github.com/bluzi/jsonstore/blob/87af0d3ef6bf11222b98... [2]: https://nodejs.org/api/crypto.html#crypto_crypto_randombytes_size_callback https://nodejs.org/api/crypto.html#crypto_crypto_randombytes...

bluzi 9y ago
Thanks, feel free to create a pull request.
cobookman 9y ago
Why not use uuids?
- majewsky 9y ago
  These need not be cryptographically random either.
- sehrope 9y ago
  UUIDs are fine too. What matters is how they're generated. If you're generating v4 UUIDs server side using the "uuid" NPM module then you're fine as internally it's using crypto.randomBytes(...)[1] with an almost 16-byte random string (UUIDs are 16-bytes but a proper v4 UUID has to override some of the bits to conform to the spec[2]). If you're rolling your own UUID function or generating them client side then they may not be as random as you think. For example the same uuid NPM module silently uses Math.random()[3] on the client side if it can't find a better alternative. It's fine for something purely local to the one browser but I wouldn't rely on it being unique globally. [1]: https://github.com/kelektiv/node-uuid/blob/17d443f7d8cfb65a7d85803218df27a6b4ae8397/lib/rng.js#L7 https://github.com/kelektiv/node-uuid/blob/17d443f7d8cfb65a7... [2]: https://github.com/kelektiv/node-uuid/blob/17d443f7d8cfb65a7d85803218df27a6b4ae8397/v4.js#L15-L17 https://github.com/kelektiv/node-uuid/blob/17d443f7d8cfb65a7... [3]: https://github.com/kelektiv/node-uuid/blob/17d443f7d8cfb65a7d85803218df27a6b4ae8397/lib/rng-browser.js#L20-L28 https://github.com/kelektiv/node-uuid/blob/17d443f7d8cfb65a7...

jaequery 9y ago

this just opens up a whole new world to static websites!

jaequery 9y ago

what is the backend / infrastructure like ? is it just Mongodb?

bluzi 9y ago
Feel free to look at the sources: https://github.com/bluzi/jsonstore https://github.com/bluzi/jsonstore

Retr0spectrum 9y ago

Sounds like a vaguely similar project to RequestBin[0]. Just a word of warning: "We have discontinued the publicly hosted version of RequestBin due to ongoing abuse that made it very difficult to keep the site up reliably." [0]: https://github.com/Runscope/requestbin https://github.com/Runscope/requestbin

udia 9y ago

Looking at your source code, it appears you're wrapping firebase. I'm very curious to hear how much this will cost you after the HN traffic hit.

vincnetas 9y ago

If i were to host this locally, what are jsonstore benefits compared to let's say couchdb (opensource, stores and serves json documents over http)?

Krooc 9y ago

This looks handy! Thanks!

joshmarinacci 9y ago

Since we are talking about the value of an online JSON storage system, would any of you be interested in a collaborative system for common JSON data sources? Something like Wikipedia but for structured data that currently lives as files or github repos?

zaidf 9y ago

"This site is blocked due to a security threat." First time I'm seeing this message so I doubt it's a case of over-sensitive Cisco firewall. Chrome also blocked it as a threat.

rozenmd 9y ago
Cisco firewalls block GitHub occasionally...

captn3m0 9y ago

Another similar tool (FOSS, source is on GitHub somewhere): https://jsonblob.com/ https://jsonblob.com/ It also has the added advantage of a JSON editor with tree view.