Installing Parse-Dashboard on IBM Bluemix

Prerequisites:

• cf command line — to install go to https://github.com/cloudfoundry/cli/releases
• xcode and command line tools
• brew — to install use

ruby -e “$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"

• node.js — to install run

brew install node

Create the app on BlueMix

• go to “console.ng.bluemix.net”
• and go to your dashboard
• then select

• From the list find and select

• Enter an application name, a host name and select create.

Once this step is complete you should be able to see the app on your list of cloud foundry apps

Creating a local repository

We will first create everything locally and then push it to bluemix.

Open a terminal windows and run the following commands:

mkdir ParseDashboard
cd ParseDashboard
git init
npm init
npm install -save parse-dashboard

Create “parse-dashboard-config.json”

{
  "apps": [
    {
      "serverURL": "https://api.parse.com/1", // For an app still hosted on Parse.com
      "appId": "myAppId",
      "javascriptKey": "myJavascriptKey",
      "restKey": "myRestKey",
      "appName": "My Parse.Com App",
      "production": true
    },
    {
      "serverURL": "https://my-self-hosted.parse-server.com/parse",
      "appId": "myAppId",
      "masterKey": "myMasterKey",
      "appName": "My Parse Server App"
    }
  ],
  "users": [
    {
      "user":"user1",
      "pass":"pass" // change this to something secure
    }
  ]
}

Please replace all values with the one from your parse application

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On this stage I would also recommend to create a password using:

https://bcrypt-generator.com

If you do that, then change the following lines:

"users" : [
   {
      "user" : "user1",
      "pass" : "hash generated from bcrypt"
   }
],
"useEncryptedPasswords" : true

This way your password is not exposed in plain view

create “Procfile”

web: ./node_modules/.bin/parse-dashboard --config ./parse-dashboard-config.json --allowInsecureHTTP

Why allowInsecureHTTP

--allowInsecureHTTP is a flag that should not be set, as data will be sent over HTTP, which makes attacks possible. I could not find another way round it, as in bluemix all apps are behind a proxy, which terminates secure HTTPS requests for you. For more info visit:

Enforce https behind proxies · Issue #288 · ParsePlatform/parse-dashboard

Create .gitignore file

The .gitignore file should contain the following:

node_modules/

This is needed to avoid pushing node modules to the server. Node module can always be generated from the server.

Add files to git and commit

git add -A
git commit -a -m “First Commit”

Pushing changes to bluemix

Everything is in place now and we can push the changes to bluemix

cf push NameOfApplicationOnBluemix