Dropbox Datastore API Alternatives

Since posting this, I have migrated my app to Parse, and overall I'm really pleased. I have had to get used to my app being more reliant on a network connection, but that's a pretty common requirement nowadays anyway.

I recommend looking at Parse. They have lots of great dev tools and there is plenty of community support.

Hi Claire,

I managed to move to Firebase and I am absolutely loving the service. I have few users making many requests which would make Parse very expensive for me, plus Firebase style synchronisation works really well for me. The only downside is that it is rather difficult to store larger files such as images.

Thanks for the quick reply!

Are you using the local datastore (https://parse.com/docs/ios/guide#local-datastore)? Or maybe you did not need to use it since your app is being more reliant on a network connection now?

I looked into the local datastore but decided to not use it (for now). It's not like Dropbox's in that you have access to all your data while offline. Parse's approach is more like where you can temporarily "pin" some data to be saved once you get back online. It's not meant for extended offline use with full app functionality available (unless you don't have very much data). My users have thousands of records, so offline data isn't really feasible.

But that's exactly the reason why I used and loved Dropbox's Datastore. It's a beautiful architecture and I'm still sad that it's going away. :(

 @Denis Great to know that Firebase is working well for you. I will have a look at it too.

@Clifton thanks for the clarification. Maybe what I need to do is rethink my app and stop thinking "offline-1st". That's too bad, Dropbox datastore was working really really well for this app :\.

My pleasure, hope it helps, just wanted to let you know that I am storing all data offline too. While I do not know of a working Firebase API for this, I simply keep a local copy of all data and the whole app works on this local copy. If changes are being synced from the cloud I simply update the local copy and then reload the corresponding view taking its data from the local copy. Would that not work for you?

Indeed this could work for me too. Also the advantage of having a local copy would be having again the goodness of sqlite or CoreData queries (which IMO was the only drawback in Dropbox Datastore).

One big reason I used dropbox service: I have no idea about how to setup anything server side. 

Any links to a tutorial setting up parse and make it more datastores-y would be greatly appreciated.

"Parse is unique in that it has a huge following and tremendous financial support from Facebook, so I see it being around for a long time and only getting better."

Parse is shutting down. Clifton it seems you don't have much luck!