ParseResource

ParseResource makes it easy to interact with Parse.com's REST API. It adheres to the ActiveRecord pattern. ParseResource is fully ActiveModel compliant, meaning you can use validations and Rails forms.

Ruby/Rails developers should feel right at home.

If you're used to Post.create(:title => "Hello, world", :author => "Octocat"), then this is for you.

Features

ActiveRecord-like API, almost no learning curve
Validations
Rails forms and scaffolds just work

Use cases

Build a custom admin dashboard for your Parse.com data
Use the same database for your web and native apps
Pre-collect data for use in iOS and Android apps

Installation

Include in your Gemfile:

gem "parse_resource", "~> 1.7.0"

Or just gem install:

gem install parse_resource

Create an account at Parse.com. Then create an application and copy the app_id and master_key into a file called parse_resource.yml. If you're using a Rails app, place this file in the config folder.

development:
  app_id: 1234567890
  master_key: abcdefgh

test:
  app_id: 1234567890
  master_key: abcdefgh

production:
  app_id: 1234567890
  master_key: abcdefgh

You can create separate Parse databases if you want. If not, include the same info for each environment.

In a non-Rails app, include this somewhere (preferable in an initializer):

ParseResource::Base.load!("your_app_id", "your_master_key")

Usage

Create a model:

class Post < ParseResource::Base
  fields :title, :author, :body

  validates_presence_of :title
end

If you are using version 1.5.11 or earlier, subclass to just ParseResource--or just update to the most recent version.

Creating, updating, and deleting:

p = Post.new

# validations
p.valid? #=> false 
p.errors #=> #<ActiveModel::Errors:0xab71998 ... @messages={:title=>["can't be blank"]}> 
p.title = "Introducing ParseResource" #=> "Introducing ParseResource" 
p.valid? #=> true 

# setting more attributes, then saving
p.author = "Alan deLevie" 
p.body = "Ipso Lorem"
p.save #=> #<Post:0xab74864 ... > 

# checking the id generated by Parse's servers
p.id #=> "QARfXUILgY" 
p.updated_at #=> nil 
p.created_at #=> "2011-09-19T01:32:04.973Z" # does anybody want this to be a DateTime object? Let me know.

# updating
p.title = "[Update] Introducing ParseResource"
p.save
p.updated_at #=> "2011-09-19T01:32:37.930Z" # more magic from Parse's servers

# destroying an object
p.destroy #=> nil 
p.title #=> nil

Finding:

posts = Post.where(:author => "Arrington")
# the query is lazy loaded
# nothing gets sent to the Parse server until you run #all, #count, or any Array method on the query 
# (e.g. #first, #each, or #map)

posts.each do |post|
  "#{post.title}, by #{post.author}"
end

posts.map {|p| p.title} #=> ["Unpaid blogger", "Uncrunched"]

id = "DjiH4Qffke"
p = Post.find(id) #simple find by id

# you can chain method calls, just like in ActiveRecord
Post.where(:param1 => "foo").where(:param2 => "bar").all

# destroy all objects
Post.destroy_all

# limit the query
posts = Post.limit(5).where(:foo => "bar")
posts.length #=> 5

# get a count
Post.where(:bar => "foo").count #=> 1337

Associations

class Post < ParseResource::Base
  belongs_to :author
  fields :title, :body
end

class Author < ParseResource::Base
  has_many :posts
  field :name
end

author = Author.create(:name => "RL Stine")
post1 = Post.create(:title => "Goosebumps 1")
post2 = Post.create(:title => "Goosebumps 2")

# assign from parent class
author.posts << post1
author.posts << post2 

# or assign from child class
post3 = Post.create(:title => "Goosebumps 3")
post3.author = author
post3.save

Documentation

Here

To-do

User authentication
Better documentation
~~Associations~~
Callbacks
Push notifications
Better type-casting
HTTP request error handling

User authentication is my top priority feature. Several people have specifically requested it, and Parse just began exposing User objects in the REST API.

Let me know of any other features you want.

Contributing to ParseResource

Check out the latest master to make sure the feature hasn't been implemented or the bug hasn't been fixed yet
Check out the issue tracker to make sure someone already hasn't requested it and/or contributed it
Fork the project
Start a feature/bugfix branch
Commit and push until you are happy with your contribution
Make sure to add tests for it. This is important so I don't break it in a future version unintentionally.
Create parse_resource.yml in the root of the gem folder. Using the same format as parse_resource.yml in the instructions (except only creating a test environment, add your own API keys.
Please try not to mess with the Rakefile, version, or history. If you want to have your own version, or is otherwise necessary, that is fine, but please isolate to its own commit so I can cherry-pick around it.