Add scripts

[mtrezza]

New Feature / Enhancement Checklist

• I am not disclosing a vulnerability.
• I am not just asking a question.
• I have searched through existing issues.

Current Limitation

Parse Dashboard allows for low-level data manipulation, but repeated manipulation of multiple fields cannot be done efficiently.

Feature / Enhancement Description

Allow to pre-define scripts that can be executed in Parse Dashboard.

• Allow to right-click on a row in the data browser to send the full object as argument to a JS function.
• Offer the script in context menu also for pointers to _User in other classes
• JS function is declared in a .js file which has the Parse JS SDK available.
• Show a pop-up message at bottom with request status for success and fail.

Example Use Case

Deleting a user, their installation and all their sessions.

Currently, these involve multiple steps in Parse Dashboard.

1. Search for user in _User and delete.
2. Search for installations of user in _Installation and delete.
3. Search for sessions of user in _Session and delete.

A JS Script using the Parse JS SDK could execute all that with:

1. Right-click on the row in _User class and in context menu choose "Scripts > Delete Account".

The JS function looks something something like this:

async func deleteAccount(req -> {
  const user = req.object;
  // Search for user in `_User` and delete.
  // Search for installations of user in `_Installation` and delete.
  // Search for sessions of user in `_Session` and delete.

  return `Deleted user with ${installations.length} installations and ${sessions.length} sessions.`;
  // or throw(error); to show an error status message in dashboard
});

The dashboard config file looks something like this:

const dashboard = ParseDashboard({
  scripts: [
      {
         title: 'Delete account', // The title in the context menu
         classes: ['_User'] // The classes for which the script will be available in the context menu
         target: './scripts/scripts.js:deleteAccount' // The JS file that contains the function
      }
  ],
});

Alternatives / Workarounds

Allow to execute Cloud Code functions with input parameters, which requires scripts to be hosted by Parse Server instead of Parse Dashboard.

[parse-github-assistant]

Thanks for opening this issue!

• 🎉 We are excited about your ideas for improvement!

[dblythy]

I like this one!!

[mtrezza]

Who do you think should host the scripts, Parse Server or Parse Dashboard?

[dblythy]

I’m not entirely sure, I think for convenience we could use the code editor on the dashboard to create the scripts and then save them to a secure database class, but I’m not sure this is the best workflow as the code editor is almost obsolete, and evaluating stringified code saved in a remote database could be problematic.

What do you think?

[mtrezza]

Regarding code editing, I think a dashboard feature would quite certainly loose against common IDEs developers are already using today. The idea of a code editor in Parse Dashboard seems to be a 2010s concept from when commercial Parse wanted to fill the gap left by underdeveloped IDEs.

Regarding code hosting, I can think of a few ways:

• a) Code hosted by Parse Dashboard in deployed repository
• b) Code hosted by Parse Dashboard in browser cookie
• c) Code hosted by Parse Server in deployed repository
• d) Code hosted by Parse Server in database
• e) Code hosted by Parse Server as Cloud Code

Choosing one:

• We don't want to couple Parse Dashboard to Parse Server; Parse Dashboard should be just another client for Parse Server, so (d) falls flat as it seems to require a special internal class and (c) as it seems to require a custom endpoint to reach these script files.
• The scripts are likely more depending on Parse Server than Parse Dashboard, for example Parse Server code and DB schema need to be in-sync with scripts. It sounds cumbersome to track changes in 2 repositories for that, so it seems (a) falls flat.
• If Parse Dashboard was a desktop app saving scripts locally with the app would be a realistic option. For a browser app that would be a browser cookie / container, but that just seems too ephemeral.

So we're left with (e):

const dashboard = ParseDashboard({
  scripts: [
      {
         title: 'Delete account', // The title in the context menu
         classes: ['_User'] // The classes for which the script will be available in the context menu
         cloudCodeFunction: 'deleteAccount' // the name of the Cloud Code Function to call
      }
  ],
});

[parseplatformorg]

🎉 This change has been released in version 5.2.0-alpha.19

[parseplatformorg]

🎉 This change has been released in version 5.3.0-beta.1

[parseplatformorg]

🎉 This change has been released in version 5.3.0-alpha.1

[parseplatformorg]

🎉 This change has been released in version 5.3.0