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by mtve 3432 days ago
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.
1 comments
Groxx 3432 days ago
"a cloud hosted database" + "run arbitrary JS in response to events at scale" covers most of it. It's a hosted database and server.
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ProblemFactory 3432 days ago
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.

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Groxx 3432 days ago
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.

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