Parse was a backend as a service that allowed for a cloud hosted database to be connected with web and mobile apps with simple JavaScript. It was a lovely tool for hackathons. They could also run arbitrary JS in response to events at scale. It competed with Firebase until they were acquired by Facebook.
It all makes me feel very stupid. I did programming since childhood and web since the beginning, I was clouds (virtualization) user even before millennium, I do backends for a living, saw a lot of JS code, know something about mobile apps, but I must join this thread.
"Parse Server is an open source version of the Parse backend that can be deployed to any infrastructure that can run Node.js" - each of these words one-by-one do have some meanings, but altogether they have none, neither your explanation for me. I fully believe it's totally my fault and it's hopeless, so please no reply.
A cloud hosted database is accurate, but doesn't really describe it well. Amazon, Heroku and others also provide cloud hosted PostgreSQL, which is a very different use case.
Parse was a:
* cloud hosted nosql database,
* with client libraries for mobile platforms,
* direct write access from mobile apps, without hosting your own API backend in the middle, and
* some methods of securing this direct write access from untrusted clients.
Yes, but covering all the important parts exceeds the "couple sentences / one short paragraph" goal. First and foremost it's a DB + server + client libs (I entirely agree on that one, it's a major value-prop). Details beyond that are many.
Other important parts may include "runs on node.js", "server code in JS", "client + server define ACL per row", "push notifications", "amazingly, supports windows mobile", etc, depending on the viewer. That's what the rest of the documentation is for, e.g. in a features list.
Thank you. After reading their website, the GitHub page and all the comments down to this point, your comment is first thing which explains what Parse is/was.
I've definitely noticed of a lot of these companies that shutdown/close their doors, that it takes a long time to understand what they actually did/do. A businesses front page should explain what they do to the lay person. Even if your product is aimed at developers, most of the time it's not them buying, but their managers who will not want to guess what it is the company does.
Just 1 paragraph about what you do is all it takes.
This is so basic. It's amazing how many projects fail to do this. A common one I've noticed is to have a news feed or blog roll right at the top of the front page. It makes lots of sense to everyone involved in the project but none to potential new users.