Parse.com is a service that wants to provides a backend for your social media apps. It’s my opinion that Parse is the easiest and fastest way for designers to get into creating social media apps and web sites.
How do we do it now?
The standard method to create a social media app or web site is to create a database and access the database using code written in MySQL. You also need code written in PHP to facilitate transactions with MySQL and manage content from the database. Together this is called the backend. All of these processes happen on a remote computer, your web host.
To have something people can look at you use HTML, CSS, and Javascript. This is called the frontend. You use HTML to structure your web pages, CSS to style them, and javascript to add functionality.
Let’s sum that up. To make a web site that has social media features you need (from front to back):
- HTML – Structures your data in the browser
- CSS – Styles the content in the browser
- Javascript – Adds functionality to the browser
- PHP – Handles backend services and transactions with the database
- MySQL – Stores and organizes data
Parse.com
Parse.com provides a service that removes the need for backend programming from the equation. With Parse all of the backend code is handled by the front end. Parse calls itself a: BaaS, which stands for Backend as a Service. The Parse service provides a ready made and hosted backend that can be used to build just about any type of social media app or web site.
Parse saves time by not requiring that you write backend code for creating and configure databases and tables. Parse provides ready made systems for managing user accounts and login. Creating a user login with Parse is as simple as creating the login or sign up form in HTML, CSS, and adding a few lines JavaScript.
For the record, I do not works for Parse and receive nothing from them. As an educator I see Parse as being the easiest way for students to make their social ideas into truly functional apps. For anyone else trying to make their social media ideas into real functioning work, Parse removes many of the roadblocks.
Who would benefit from Parse
Anyone wanting to get started making a social media network would benefit. Parse is well suited to small groups or individuals who want to get started making a social media site. If your skills are more frontend oriented, HTML, CSS, JS, then Parse will save you the trouble of learning PHP, MySQL.
Parse is targeted at startups and small teams looking to create new social media platforms quickly and easily. I see it as a perfect fit for students, as the focus of our students is on front end design and programming. Building an app with Parse moves all of the work of creating a social media app into the front end, and concentrates programming tasks into a smaller set of more familiar tools: HTML, CSS, and JS.
How does Parse work?
In short the Parse service works with Javascript. Essentially you create objects you wish to save in Javascript, and the Parse server takes care of the rest. To display data from the server you request objects from the Parse server through Javascript. Obviously there is a more to it than those two sentences, but not much more.
What kind of things can you make with Parse?
Any social media web site or App. Parse provides libraries code for Xcode, and Android. You can make mobile Application with much less effort, and I’ll say it again, without having to create a backend service, and database. Check out this page of customers using Parse:
Hello Kitty is using Parse!