Parse Server 5 – Closed Beta on Back4app

Parse Platform is an open-source backend tool kit developed and maintained by a community of experts that when combined with Back4App, allows you to access a scalable backend and launch mobile or web applications in just minutes, without having to worry about server infrastructure and management.

The tool kit, offers users the most popular backend features, including easy access to databases, REST API, GraphQL API, cloud functions, authentication, notifications, and cron jobs, which can all be deployed on any infrastructure running NodeJS.

In 2022, Parse Server 5 (a core component of the Parse Platform) was released, bringing several improvements to the popular backend tool kit.

Since its launch, Back4App has been working tirelessly with the open-source community to make this, the best version ever released!

Given its popularity, Parse is constantly being updated by the open-source community with the latest security patches, performance improvements, and new features, all covered in this article.

Prereq

Before upgrading to a newer version of Parse Server, these are the most common errors to look out for:

• Parse Server 3.7.2+: Note that word id turned a reserved field and it is related to GraphQL implementations.
• Parse Server 3.1.1: There’s an update when upgrading from 2. x to 3. x related to the cloud code, and you can read more about the changes here.

Talking about the changes

Now, lets take a deeper dive into some of those changes regarding Parse Server 5.

File upload restriction

File upload is allowed for authenticated users by default for improved security. To allow file upload also for Anonymous Users or the Public, you must go to the Custom Parse Option section and add something like this:

{
"fileUpload":{
    "enableForPublic": true,
    "enableForAnonymousUser": true
  }
}

enableForPublic: This setting refers to public upload.
enableForAnonymousUser: This setting refers to anonymous user upload.

Session restricted field removed

The field was a code artifact from a feature that never existed in Open Source Parse Server; if you have been using this field for custom purposes, consider that for new Parse Server installations the field does not exist anymore in the schema, and for existing installations, the field default value false will not be set anymore when creating a new session.

New page Router (Experimental)

By enabling this option, it is possible to localize the Parse Server pages by handling an optional user locale in the query of the public API routes.

New Live Query Constraints

In this version, the LiveQuery support for $and, $nor, $containedBy, $geoWithin, $geoIntersects queries.

GraphQL

GraphQL has made some improvements available in the latest version of Parse Server, such as:

• Alphabetically ordered GraphQL API;
• GraphQL Schema cache system;
• To delete a field via the GraphQL API, the field value has to be set to null.

Security

Some security improvements have been implemented in Parse Server, including:

• Parse Server Security Check to report weak security settings;
• Bugs were fixed;
• General security improvements overall;

PostgreSQL (Beta)

PostgreSQL is an open-source object-relational database system that uses and extends the SQL language.

Beta Test Program

If you have any questions regarding Parse Server version 5, please reach out to our team on [email protected] or through our Slack Channel.

To learn how to use the latest version, click here to view our Guide.