Parse is dying - now what?

Solar2D General Questions/Discussion
#41

It would take a day to spin up a new self managed Digital Ocean Ubuntu server with NGINX/NodeJS with MySQL/PHP with Pooled Node-MySQL connections that can handle over 15,000 database reads a minute from 2 cores over SSL.

Guide here:

http://fearby.com/article/how-to-setup-pooled-mysql-connections-in-node-js-that-dont-disconnect/

SSL Guide:

http://fearby.com/article/adding-a-commercial-ssl-certificate-to-a-digital-ocean-vm

I use PHP OpCache and and tested In Memory caching to get massive jumps from PHP too (will blog those).

#42

Parse gives source for back end. Is it possible to get source for admin panel as well?

#43

I go to api.shephertz.com

Docs for corona sdk:

http://api.shephertz.com/app42-dev/corona-backend-apis.php

#44

I have used my own backend implementations for all my personal and client projects and they work really well. There are so many library that help you connect a mobile application with a backend server with very good response time. Even though I use C# as a backend I find the articles from @simon.fearby very interesting.

It’s also probably cheaper as you can use your backend server on a site like Amazon Web Services or Azure and scale the server resources when needed which I think costs less than Parse and also you’d have full control over your server.

I have no plan to change to a service like Parse and even less when @Vince_ mention that it’s the 4th big backend provider that shut downs.

Best regards,

Tomas

#45

Tomas

I have 20 years in corporate mostly Microsoft based back ends and I thought AWS of Google would be the shiz for a backend. I mostly play with corona for fun (but have a HUGE project in development now). AWS and Google no doubt would be mega reliable in the future (unless their fibre piper get hit by mentalists (happening over San Fran now and they can’t catch rhem). I chose not to go with AWS because it seemed to be 10x more than your own server that you control (important when your app is not profitable.

Spinning up a Ubuntu domain at https://www.digitalocean.com/?refcode=99a5082b6de5 was so easy, the trick was to use the awesome http://www.c9.io to allow me to connect to the server (securely) from a web browser was great.

I first installed NGINX (because it is way faster than Apache (so I can run PHP), the. Setup NodeJs under NGINX and use a proxy to specify what URLs are sent to NodeJs. Then I installed MySQL, phpMyAdmin etc (so I have the same as a CPanel domain but one that I can tweak and speed up with (swap file/ MySQL and in memory caches).

Sure managing my own server and updates is an issue but I know I am only getting one bill and if I get stuck am only one Google away from a solution.

E.g “How to install MySQL into digital ocean”, “Dow to install NodeJs on digitalocean”, “How to optimise PHP etc”.

I hope to make more guides around digital ocean to assist anyone using corona.

#46

For the ones with more programming knowledge than just Corona SDK I think it saves money and time to use your own implementation. Maybe not after the first implemantation but for sure in the long run and especially when something goes wrong (i.e. easier to troubleshoot).

When it comes to Corona users in general I think that they don’t have that much experience with developing i.e. Corona/Lua is their first language and they start without proper understanding of designing code and this makes it easier to just use a service such as Parse instead of write their own.

Best regards,

Tomas

#47

>I have no plan to change to a service like Parse and even less when @Vince_ mention that it’s the 4th bigbackend provider that shut downs.

Don’t quote me on that! Lol. That might be hyperbole on my end, but honestly it seems like these services rise and die often. The ones that stick out in my mind are StackMob – which was acquired by PayPal, the first iteration of Corona Cloud, and now Parse.

#48

@PXL and all

You definately should try out Coronium. I can’t recommend it enough.

First time I tried it I had an instance up and running on digital ocean (including implementation of user registration, mailserver, database and file upload in my app) in less than two hours.

The backend is scriptable with lua and everything is well documented. It couldn’t be easier.

So exited develephant joined the corona team.

#49

I agree, Coronium is awesome and I love it. Super easy to use. I just don’t know how scalable it is. Chris himself said it was meant for small to medium size use cases, so it might be fine for most hobby developers out there. For anyone else that expects millions of users, you might have to look somewhere else.

#50

Vince, could you explain the limitation? I was looking at AWS to host player files and other data types a cross all devices. Is the limitation the price point? Or how much their servers can handle in terms of bandwidth and server specifications? I’m new to servers, so I have no idea what to look for, how to make them, or what would be a good fit for our app. I would greatly appreciate any advice or experiences you’ve had, if of course, you don’t mind.

#51

I’m not really an expert in servers either. But in my research to find out if Coronium fit my needs, I asked Chris about how it would work with autoscaling servers on Amazon (meaning automatically adding more servers for load balancing during peak usage times). The impression he gave me was that it wasn’t really meant to scale that way. I could be wrong however. I asked the question a while ago, it might be in the Coronium support forums. I’ll have to dig it up later.

#52

@_Vince

I have no experience with scalabilty for millions of user, but if this is the case hopefully the upcoming Corona Cloud will improve in this area. Looking forward to see what CC will bring.

#53

@Robert Burns

Here is the link to my question in the old Coronium support forums:

http://forums.coronium.io/discussion/comment/582#Comment_582

#54

Thanks Vince, I appreciate it. I’ll try to dig up some information in regards to what Develephant posted.

#55

Has anybody had a look at this?

https://playfab.com

#56

I found this link about ‘playfab’ the other day … other then what is in this article I know little about it.

http://venturebeat.com/2015/06/09/playfab-backend-ops-company-now-has-a-free-tier-for-game-developers/

I also found this possible alternative to parse:

https://heroiclabs.com

I know little more then what their website explains.

I am thinking to keep with parse for a little while and then decide wether to use one of these alternatives, or maybe I get a digital ocean droplet and manage my own.  So much of these types of stumbling-blocks distract from time needed to design and code the actual app.  ugh!!

Maybe someone, with a lot more Baas experience can chime in with some suggested options.

Bob

#57

PlayFab looks really interesting.

We’ve been using BrainCloud (http://www.getbraincloud.com) for one of our games, and so far its pretty good. Privately funded and responsive to technical questions and suggestions.

#58

Hi all,

I’d like to caution everyone to consider waiting a bit before jumping.

The fact is this (and I said it 2 years ago when I started Coronium), if you’re serious about your business, then you need to “own” your systems. Coronium currently is the most simple and easy-to-use stand-alone free  and unlimited cloud that works one-to-one with Corona SDK available. If you haven’t taken the 5 or so minutes it takes to install on AWS, I recommend you do so. It’s charm is in its deceptively simple API and parity with Corona SDK.

Coronium can scale big. It runs on Nginx (as does Netflix, Pinterest, SoundCloud, GitHub, etc.) I use a suggestion of small to medium projects because its more than just scaling. You need to know how to scale. And that went beyond the scope of what I was providing.

With all that said, don’t leave out the upcoming Corona Cloud. A project I’m so excited about that I can barely sleep. :slight_smile: By offering a hosted and self-hosted option, we’ve got you covered in any event. Stay tuned.

#screenshotsaturday

Cheers.

#59

Q1) What will the future of Coronium with Corona cloud coming along?

Q2) how does Coronium handle use based security reads and writes (app based API tokens or per user and app based tokens?

Q3) does the SQL query handle parameter based queries?

I thank you for developing Coronium my only problem is AWS is expensive (compared to your own server linked to a Mongo or CouchDB farm).

#60

Hi FearTec,

I’ll answer to the best of my knowledge at this time:

Q1 - Corona Cloud == Coronium 2. There will be a hosted and self-hosted version. Eventually Coronium 1 will reach EOL status, so there will be no more updates, or support (in general).

Q2 - If I understand the question correctly, Coronium 1 only supports a “single” app. But through the use of cloud code, other users have leveraged it for multiple apps. A token is assigned to the “app/API”, and a User registration system also employs a token for user sessions. CC offers distinct multiple apps, which are paired with an API key, app key, and optionally a client key.

Q3 - Not on Coronium 1 (as far as I know - I’m mostly Mongo), its been brought up before, but I’m not sure if a solution was found. I’ll make sure that this is on the list of requests.

Something important to note is that Coronium as it stands, is not Corona Cloud. There are advancements being made in almost every category, as well as some new features.

I thank you for developing Coronium my only problem is AWS is expensive (compared to your own server linked to a Mongo or CouchDB farm). 

There is also a Ubuntu installer available as well if you want to skip AWS.   

Hope that helps answer your questions. Suggestions and feature requests are always appreciated.

Cheers.