How to Install Parse Server with dashboard on Ubuntu 20.04

Parse Server is an open source application written on node.js programming language. The parse application is used as the Backend As A Service (BAAS) platform. Which helps developers to build their mobile application’s back-end.

Parse dashboard is another application built on node.js by the parse developers. It is an front-end web interface for managing backend parse server. You can add and manage multiple parse server from single dashboard.

This tutorial will help you to install and configure parse server and parse dashboard applications on Ubuntu system.

Prerequisites

• Setup a sudo privileged account and apply initial security by following initial server setup
• Login to instance via SSH as root account

Step 1 – Installing Node.js

The Parser server and dahsboard are build on node.js platform. So you need to install Node.js on your Ubuntu system. You can use official packages repository to install it. To configure apt repository, execute:

curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_12.x | sudo -E bash -

The run the following commands to install Node.js on your server.

sudo apt install -y nodejs

Also install yarn package manager on your system. This will be used for install node modules.

npm install -g yarn

Step 2 – Installing MongoDB

The Mongodb packages are available under the default apt repositories. You can simply update apt cache and install Mongodb database server packages by running following commands:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install mongodb-server

Step 3 – Install Parse Server

Your Ubuntu system is ready for the Parse server installation. The parse server available as nodejs modules. Use the following command to install parse-server module using yarn package manager:

yarn global add parse-server

Next create a configuration file for your Parse server. Where you can define attributes of the parse server. Create a configuration file and edit in your favorite text editor:

nano config.json

Then, add the following content to the file:

{
  "appName": "My Parse Server",
  "databaseURI": "mongodb://localhost:27017/parsedb",
  "appId": "KSDJFKASJFI3S8DSJFDH",
  "masterKey": "LASDK823JKHR87SDFJSDHF8DFHASFDF",
  "serverURL": "https://localhost:1337/parse",
  "publicServerURL": "https://0.0.0.0:1337/parse",
  "port": 1337
}

Configuration details:

appName – Set any name for your Parse server.

databaseURI – Connection string to the MongoDB database.

appID – Set a random string as appID, Which will be used to connect server

masterKey – Set a random string for master key

serverURL – Set a URL for your parse server

publicServerURL – This allow you to access parse server from public network

port – Enter a port to run on parse server. Default port is 1337

Save your file. Next run the parse server with nohup command. Also run it as background process.

nohup parse-server config.json &

Your parse server is up and running now on port 1337.

Step 4 – Setup Parse Dashboard

The Parse development team, also provides a web interface to access Parse server called Parse-dashboard. Which is also available as node module. Use below command to install parse-dashboard:

yarn global add parse-dashboard

Next, create a configuration file for the parse dashboard. Edit file in a text editor:

nano parse-darshboard-config.json

And add the following content:

{
  "apps": [
    {
      "serverURL": "http://67.205.146.114:1337/parse",
      "appId": "KSDJFKASJFI3S8DSJFDH",
      "masterKey": "LASDK823JKHR87SDFJSDHF8DFHASFDF",
      "allowInsecureHTTP": "true",
      "appName": "MyApp1"
    }
  ],
 "users": [
    {
      "user":"admin",
      "pass":"password"
    }
  ],
  "iconsFolder": "icons"
}

You can add multiple parse servers to your Parse dashboard. Add your parse server with serverURL. User the same appID and masterKey as you defined to your parse server.

Save your file and execute the following command to start parse dashboard.

nohup parse-dashboard --dev --config parse-darshboard-config.json &

The above command will start your parse server on port 4040.

Step 5 – Open Ports in FirewallD

The systems have enabled firewalld, need to allow access on ports running Parse server. We are using the port 1337 for the parse server and 4040 for the dashboard. Execute the following commands to allow access for public users for Parse server. To open port type:

sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --zone=public --add-port=1337/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --zone=public --add-port=4040/tcp

Apply the changes by running command:

firewall-cmd --reload

Step 6 – Test Setup

Now, you can access your parse dashboard web interface by accessing your server on port 4040. Login to the dashboard username and password defined in parse dashboard configuration file (parse-darshboard-config.json).

After login you will see the dashboard.

Conclusion

In this tutorial you learned about the installation of parse server and dashboard on Ubuntu system.