Migrating from Parse.com to MongoDB

You probably read the announcement that Parse.com is closing its hosting service. This is probably a good time to look at firebase, but if you are using my dbabstraction library, you can change to some other backend with a simple change to how you open the database. All the other query and other code remains exactly the same , regardless of the backend. 
MongoLab provide a free tier if if you want to have a go at MongoDB. 

Page Content hide
1 What changes are needed.
2 Migrating the data over
3 The result
4 More info

What changes are needed.

You are probably getting the database handle using some code like this. Here I’m picking up my parse api keys from a property store, and getting a handle for my table called ‘ColorTable’. 

 // get a parse handle
  var parse = new cDbAbstraction.DbAbstraction(cDriverParse, {
    dbid:"mp",
    siloid:"ColorTable",
    driverob:parseKeys,
  });
  if (!parse.isHappy()) throw 'could not open parse database';

If you want to change to use mongo instead, all you have to do is this – include a different driver library.

// get a mongo handle
  var mongo = new cDbAbstraction.DbAbstraction(cDriverMongoLab, {
    dbid:"mp",
    siloid:"ColorTable",
    driverob:mongoKeys,
  });
  if (!mongo.isHappy()) throw 'could not open mongo database';

The rest of your app is probably doing some queries, saves etc, but none of that needs to change. 

Migrating the data over

I’ve just migrated one of my tables – about 6000 rows over. Once you’ve got your credentials from both Parse and Mongolab, save them to your property store.

/**
* one off setting of my database credentials
*/
function OneTimeSetMyCredentials() {
  
  var store = PropertiesService.getUserProperties();
  
  // from mongolab dashboard
  store.setProperty("mongoLabKeys", JSON.stringify({
    "restAPIKey":"h3UExxxxxuY0Dcz"
  }));
  
  // from parse.com dashboard
  store.setProperty("parseKeys", JSON.stringify({
    "restAPIKey":"uHgHV7xxxxxxxMxxjMT", 
    "applicationID":"axxn8"
  }));

}

And here’s all you have to do, after creating a database using the mongolab dashboard.

function copyFromParseToMongo() {

  // key the db keys
  var store = PropertiesService.getUserProperties();
  var parseKeys = JSON.parse(store.getProperty('parseKeys'));
  var mongoKeys = JSON.parse(store.getProperty('mongoLabKeys'));

  // get a parse handle
  var parse = new cDbAbstraction.DbAbstraction(cDriverParse, {
    dbid:"mp",
    siloid:"ColorTable",
    driverob:parseKeys,
    disablecache:1
  });
  if (!parse.isHappy()) throw 'could not open parse database';

  var mongo = new cDbAbstraction.DbAbstraction(cDriverMongoLab, {
    dbid:'xliberation',
    siloid:"ColorTable",
    driverob:mongoKeys,
    disablecache:1
  });
  if (!mongo.isHappy()) throw 'could not open mongo database';

  
  // get the data from parse
  var parseResult = parse.query();
  if (parseResult.handleCode < 0) {
    throw JSON.stringify(parseResult);
  }

  // write it to mongo
  var mongoResult = mongo.save(parseResult.data);
  if (mongoResult.handleCode < 0) {
    throw JSON.stringify(mongoResult);
  }
  
  // do a count
  Logger.log (parseResult.data.length + ' read from parse');
  Logger.log (mongo.count().data[0].count + ' written to mongo');

}

The result

17 seconds later I’ve switched over to Mongolab!

[16-02-07 02:39:35:937 PST] 6719 read from parse
[16-02-07 02:39:36:062 PST] 6719 written to mongo

[16-02-07 02:39:36:192 PST] Execution succeeded [17.094 seconds total runtime]

More info

You can get the keys of all my libraries here

 

 

For this example you’ll need

Here’s a few slides on copying between databases from the Do something useful with GAS in 5 minutes series

For more like this, see Google Apps Scripts snippets and Database abstraction with google apps script. 

 

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