parse-community/parse-dashboard

Parse Dashboard is a standalone dashboard for managing your Parse Server apps.

• Getting Started
  • Compatibility
    • Parse Server
    • Node.js
  • Configuring Parse Dashboard
    • Options
      • Root Options
        • App Options
        • Column Options
        • Script Options
        • Info Panel Options
        • User Options
      • CLI & Server Options
      • Helper CLI Commands
    • File
    • Environment variables
      • Multiple apps
      • Single app
  • Managing Multiple Apps
  • GraphQL Playground
  • App Icon Configuration
  • App Background Color Configuration
  • Other Configuration Options
    • Prevent columns sorting
    • Custom order in the filter popup
    • Persistent Filters
    • Keyboard Shortcuts
    • Resource Cache
• Running as Express Middleware
  • Browser Control API (Development Only)
    • ⚠️ Security Requirements
    • Configuration
    • Usage
• Deploying Parse Dashboard
  • Preparing for Deployment
  • Security Considerations
    • Security Checks
    • Configuring Basic Authentication
    • Multi-Factor Authentication (One-Time Password)
    • Running Multiple Dashboard Replicas
      • Using a Custom Session Store
  • Use Read-Only masterKey
    • Making an app read-only for all users
    • Makings users read-only
    • Making user's apps readOnly
  • Configuring Localized Push Notifications
  • Run with Docker
• Features
  • Data Browser
    • Filters
    • Info Panel
      • Response
        • Segments
        • Text Item
        • Key-Value Item
        • Table Item
        • Image Item
        • Video Item
        • Audio Item
        • Button Item
        • Panel Item
      • Auto-Scroll
      • Prefetching
    • Scripts
      • Script Response Form
        • Response Fields
        • Form Elements
          • Drop-Down
          • Checkbox
          • Toggle
          • Text Input
    • Graph
      • Calculated Values
      • Formula Operator
        • Arithmetic Operators
        • Comparison Operators
        • Conditional Operator
        • Math Functions
    • Freeze Columns
    • Browse as User
    • Change Pointer Key
      • Limitations
    • Data Export
    • Data Import
  • AI Agent
    • Configuration
    • Providers
      • OpenAI
  • Views
    • Data Sources
      • Aggregation Pipeline
      • Cloud Function
    • View Table
      • Pointer
      • Link
      • Image
      • Video
• Contributing

Getting Started

Install the dashboard from npm.

npm install -g parse-dashboard

You can launch the dashboard for an app with a single command by supplying an app ID, master key, URL, and name like this:

parse-dashboard --dev --appId yourAppId --masterKey yourMasterKey --serverURL "https://example.com/parse" --appName optionalName

You may set the host, port and mount path by supplying the --host, --port and --mountPath options to parse-dashboard. You can use anything you want as the app name, or leave it out in which case the app ID will be used.

The --dev parameter disables production-ready security features. This parameter is useful when running Parse Dashboard on Docker. Using this parameter will:

• allow insecure http connections from anywhere, bypassing the option allowInsecureHTTP
• allow the Parse Server masterKey to be transmitted in cleartext without encryption
• allow dashboard access without user authentication

⚠️ Do not use this parameter when deploying Parse Dashboard in a production environment.

After starting the dashboard, you can visit http://localhost:4040 in your browser:

Compatibility

Parse Server

Parse Dashboard is compatible with the following versions of Parse Server.

Parse Dashboard automatically checks the Parse Server version when connecting and displays a warning if the server version does not meet the minimum required version. The required Parse Server version is defined in the supportedParseServerVersion field in package.json.

Node.js

Parse Dashboard is continuously tested with the most recent releases of Node.js to ensure compatibility. We follow the Node.js Long Term Support plan and only test against versions that are officially supported and have not reached their end-of-life date.

Configuring Parse Dashboard

Options

This section provides a comprehensive reference for all Parse Dashboard configuration options that can be used in the configuration file, via CLI arguments, or as environment variables.

Root Options

App Options

Column Options

Each class in columnPreference can have an array of column configurations:

Script Options

Info Panel Options

User Options

CLI & Server Options

Helper CLI Commands

File

You can also start the dashboard from the command line with a config file. To do this, create a new file called parse-dashboard-config.json inside your local Parse Dashboard directory hierarchy. The file should match the following format:

{
  "apps": [
    {
      "serverURL": "http://localhost:1337/parse",
      "appId": "myAppId",
      "masterKey": "myMasterKey",
      "appName": "MyApp"
    }
  ]
}

You can then start the dashboard using parse-dashboard --config parse-dashboard-config.json.

Environment variables

This only works when starting the app using the parse-dashboard command

There are also two methods you can use to configure the dashboard using environment variables.

Multiple apps

Provide the entire JSON configuration in PARSE_DASHBOARD_CONFIG and it will be parsed just like the config file.

Single app

You can also define each configuration option individually.

HOST: "0.0.0.0"
PORT: "4040"
MOUNT_PATH: "/"
PARSE_DASHBOARD_TRUST_PROXY: undefined // Or "1" to trust connection info from a proxy's X-Forwarded-* headers
PARSE_DASHBOARD_SERVER_URL: "http://localhost:1337/parse"
PARSE_DASHBOARD_MASTER_KEY: "myMasterKey"
PARSE_DASHBOARD_APP_ID: "myAppId"
PARSE_DASHBOARD_APP_NAME: "MyApp"
PARSE_DASHBOARD_USER_ID: "user1"
PARSE_DASHBOARD_USER_PASSWORD: "pass"
PARSE_DASHBOARD_SSL_KEY: "sslKey"
PARSE_DASHBOARD_SSL_CERT: "sslCert"
PARSE_DASHBOARD_CONFIG: undefined // Only for reference, it must not exist
PARSE_DASHBOARD_COOKIE_SESSION_SECRET: undefined // set the cookie session secret, defaults to a random string. Use this option if you want sessions to work across multiple servers, or across restarts
PARSE_DASHBOARD_AGENT: undefined // JSON string containing the full agent configuration with models array

Managing Multiple Apps

Managing multiple apps from the same dashboard is also possible. Simply add additional entries into the parse-dashboard-config.json file's "apps" array:

{
  "apps": [
    {
      "serverURL": "http://localhost:1337/parse", // Self-hosted Parse Server
      "appId": "myAppId",
      "masterKey": "myMasterKey",
      "appName": "My Parse Server App"
    },
    {
      "serverURL": "http://localhost:1337/parse2", // Self-hosted Parse Server
      "appId": "myAppId",
      "masterKey": "myMasterKey",
      "appName": "My Parse Server App 2"
    }
  ]
}

GraphQL Playground

Parse Dashboard has a built-in GraphQL Playground to play with the auto-generated Parse GraphQL API.

You can setup the GraphQL Playground by passing the --graphQLServerURL option to the parse-dashboard CLI:

parse-dashboard --dev --appId yourAppId --masterKey yourMasterKey --serverURL "https://example.com/parse" --graphQLServerURL "https://example.com/graphql" --appName optionalName

The graphQLServerURL option is also available through an environment variable called PARSE_DASHBOARD_GRAPHQL_SERVER_URL:

HOST: "0.0.0.0"
PORT: "4040"
MOUNT_PATH: "/"
PARSE_DASHBOARD_SERVER_URL: "http://localhost:1337/parse"
PARSE_DASHBOARD_GRAPHQL_SERVER_URL: "http://localhost:1337/graphql"
PARSE_DASHBOARD_MASTER_KEY: "myMasterKey"
PARSE_DASHBOARD_APP_ID: "myAppId"
PARSE_DASHBOARD_APP_NAME: "MyApp"

You can also setup the GraphQL Playground in your parse-dashboard-config.json file:

{
  "apps": [
    {
      "serverURL": "http://localhost:1337/parse",
      "graphQLServerURL": "http://localhost:1337/graphql",
      "appId": "myAppId",
      "masterKey": "myMasterKey",
      "appName": "My Parse Server App"
    },
    {
      "serverURL": "http://localhost:1337/parse2",
      "graphQLServerURL": "http://localhost:1337/graphql2",
      "appId": "myAppId",
      "masterKey": "myMasterKey",
      "appName": "My Parse Server App 2"
    }
  ]
}

After starting the dashboard, you can visit http://0.0.0.0:4040/apps/MyTestApp/api_console/graphql in your browser:

App Icon Configuration

Parse Dashboard supports adding an optional icon for each app, so you can identify them easier in the list. To do so, you must use the configuration file, define an iconsFolder in it, and define the iconName parameter for each app (including the extension). The path of the iconsFolder is relative to the configuration file. If you have installed ParseDashboard globally you need to use the full path as value for the iconsFolder. To visualize what it means, in the following example icons is a directory located under the same directory as the configuration file:

{
  "apps": [
    {
      "serverURL": "http://localhost:1337/parse",
      "appId": "myAppId",
      "masterKey": "myMasterKey",
      "appName": "My Parse Server App",
      "iconName": "MyAppIcon.png",
    }
  ],
  "iconsFolder": "icons"
}

App Background Color Configuration

Parse Dashboard supports adding an optional background color for each app, so you can identify them easier in the list. To do so, you must use the configuration file, define an primaryBackgroundColor and secondaryBackgroundColor in it, parameter for each app. It is CSS style. To visualize what it means, in the following example backgroundColor is a configuration file:

{
  "apps": [
    {
      "serverURL": "http://localhost:1337/parse",
      "appId": "myAppId",
      "masterKey": "myMasterKey",
      "appName": "My Parse Server App",
      "primaryBackgroundColor": "#FFA500", // Orange
      "secondaryBackgroundColor": "#FF4500" // OrangeRed
    },
    {
      "serverURL": "http://localhost:1337/parse",
      "appId": "myAppId",
      "masterKey": "myMasterKey",
      "appName": "My Parse Server App [2]",
      "primaryBackgroundColor": "rgb(255, 0, 0)", // Red
      "secondaryBackgroundColor": "rgb(204, 0, 0)" // DarkRed
    }
  ]
}

Other Configuration Options

You can set appNameForURL in the config file for each app to control the url of your app within the dashboard. This can make it easier to use bookmarks or share links on your dashboard.

To change the app to production, simply set production to true in your config file. The default value is false if not specified.

Prevent columns sorting

You can prevent some columns to be sortable by adding preventSort to columnPreference options in each app configuration

"apps": [
  {
    "appId": "local_app_id",
    "columnPreference": {
        "_User": [
          {
            "name": "createdAt",
            "visible": true,
            "preventSort": true
          },
          {
            "name": "updatedAt",
            "visible": true,
            "preventSort": false
          },
        ]
      }
    }
]

Custom order in the filter popup

If you have classes with a lot of columns and you filter them often with the same columns you can sort those to the top by extending the columnPreference setting with the filterSortToTop option:

"apps": [
  {
    "columnPreference": {
        "_User": [
          {
            "name": "objectId",
            "filterSortToTop": true
          },
          {
            "name": "email",
            "filterSortToTop": true
          }
        ]
      }
    }
]

Persistent Filters

The filters you save in the data browser of Parse Dashboard are only available for the current dashboard user in the current browser session. To make filters permanently available for all dashboard users of an app, you can define filters in the classPreference setting.

For example:

"apps": [{
  "classPreference": {
    "_Role": {
      "filters": [{
        "name": "Filter Name",
        "filter": [
          {
            "field": "objectId",
            "constraint": "exists"
          }
        ]
      }]
    }
  }
}]

You can conveniently create a filter definition without having to write it by hand by first saving a filter in the data browser, then exporting the filter definition under App Settings > Export Class Preferences.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Configure custom keyboard shortcuts for dashboard actions in App Settings > Keyboard Shortcuts.

Delete a shortcut key to disable the shortcut.

Resource Cache

Parse Dashboard can cache its resources such as bundles in the browser, so that opening the dashboard in another tab does not reload the dashboard resources from the server but from the local browser cache. Caching only starts after login in the dashboard.

Example configuration:

const dashboard = new ParseDashboard({
  enableResourceCache: true,
  apps: [
    {
      serverURL: 'http://localhost:1337/parse',
      appId: 'myAppId',
      masterKey: 'myMasterKey',
      appName: 'MyApp'
    }
  ]
});

[!Warning] This feature can make it more difficult to push dashboard updates to users. Enabling the resource cache will start a browser service worker that caches dashboard resources locally only once. As long as the service worker is running, it will prevent loading any dashboard updates from the server, even if the user reloads the browser tab. The service worker is automatically stopped, once the last dashboard browser tab is closed. On the opening of the first dashboard browser tab, a new service worker is started and the dashboard resources are loaded from the server.

[!Note] For developers: during dashboard development, the resource cache should be disabled to ensure reloading the dashboard tab in the browser loads the new dashboard bundle with any changes you made in the source code. You can inspect the service worker in the developer tools of most browsers. For example in Google Chrome, go to Developer Tools > Application tab > Service workers to see whether the dashboard service worker is currently running and to debug it.

Running as Express Middleware

Instead of starting Parse Dashboard with the CLI, you can also run it as an express middleware.

var express = require('express');
var ParseDashboard = require('parse-dashboard');

var dashboard = new ParseDashboard({
  "apps": [
    {
      "serverURL": "http://localhost:1337/parse",
      "appId": "myAppId",
      "masterKey": "myMasterKey",
      "appName": "MyApp"
    }
  ]
});

var app = express();

// make the Parse Dashboard available at /dashboard
app.use('/dashboard', dashboard);

var httpServer = require('http').createServer(app);
httpServer.listen(4040);

If you want to run both Parse Server and Parse Dashboard on the same server/port, you can run them both as express middleware:

var express = require('express');
var ParseServer = require('parse-server').ParseServer;
var ParseDashboard = require('parse-dashboard');

var api = new ParseServer({
	// Parse Server settings
});

var options = { allowInsecureHTTP: false };

var dashboard = new ParseDashboard({
	// Parse Dashboard settings
}, options);

var app = express();

// make the Parse Server available at /parse
app.use('/parse', api);

// make the Parse Dashboard available at /dashboard
app.use('/dashboard', dashboard);

var httpServer = require('http').createServer(app);
httpServer.listen(4040);

Browser Control API (Development Only)

The Browser Control API allows AI agents to interact with Parse Dashboard through an automated browser during feature implementation and debugging. This is a development-only tool designed for real-time verification during active development.

⚠️ Security Requirements

The Browser Control API uses defense-in-depth with multiple security layers:

1. Config-level opt-in (Required)

   • Must set "browserControl": true in your config file
   • Prevents accidental enablement via environment variables

2. Production environment blocking

   • Automatically disabled when NODE_ENV=production
   • Cannot be overridden, even with explicit flags

3. Development-only deployment

   • Only accessible in dev mode or with PARSE_DASHBOARD_BROWSER_CONTROL=true

Configuration

Add to your parse-dashboard-config.json:

{
  "browserControl": true,
  "apps": [...],
  "users": [...]
}

⚠️ CRITICAL: Never deploy with browserControl: true in production. Remove this field or set to false before deploying.

Usage

npm run browser-control

For complete documentation, API reference, and examples, see the Browser Control README.

Deploying Parse Dashboard

Preparing for Deployment

Make sure the server URLs for your apps can be accessed by your browser. If you are deploying the dashboard, then localhost urls will not work.

Security Considerations

In order to securely deploy the dashboard without leaking your apps master key, you will need to use HTTPS and Basic Authentication.

The deployed dashboard detects if you are using a secure connection. If you are deploying the dashboard behind a load balancer or front-facing proxy, then the app won't be able to detect that the connection is secure. In this case, you can start the dashboard with the --trustProxy=1 option (or set the PARSE_DASHBOARD_TRUST_PROXY config var to 1) to rely on the X-Forwarded-* headers for the client's connection security. This is useful for hosting on services like Heroku, where you can trust the provided proxy headers to correctly determine whether you're using HTTP or HTTPS. You can also turn on this setting when using the dashboard as express middleware:

var trustProxy = true;
var dashboard = new ParseDashboard({
  "apps": [
    {
      "serverURL": "http://localhost:1337/parse",
      "appId": "myAppId",
      "masterKey": "myMasterKey",
      "appName": "MyApp"
    }
  ],
  "trustProxy": 1
});

Security Checks

You can view the security status of your Parse Server by enabling the dashboard option enableSecurityChecks, and visiting App Settings > Security.

const dashboard = new ParseDashboard({
  "apps": [
    {
      "serverURL": "http://localhost:1337/parse",
      "appId": "myAppId",
      "masterKey": "myMasterKey",
      "appName": "MyApp"
      "enableSecurityChecks": true
    }
  ],
});

Configuring Basic Authentication

You can configure your dashboard for Basic Authentication by adding usernames and passwords your parse-dashboard-config.json configuration file:

{
  "apps": [{"...": "..."}],
  "users": [
    {
      "user":"user1",
      "pass":"pass"
    },
    {
      "user":"user2",
      "pass":"pass"
    }
  ],
  "useEncryptedPasswords": true | false
}

You can store the password in either plain text or bcrypt formats. To use the bcrypt format, you must set the config useEncryptedPasswords parameter to true. You can generate encrypted passwords by using parse-dashboard --createUser, and pasting the result in your users config.

Multi-Factor Authentication (One-Time Password)

You can add an additional layer of security for a user account by requiring multi-factor authentication (MFA) for the user to login.

With MFA enabled, a user must provide a one-time password that is typically bound to a physical device, in addition to their login password. This means in addition to knowing the login password, the user needs to have physical access to a device to generate the one-time password. This one-time password is time-based (TOTP) and only valid for a short amount of time, typically 30 seconds, until it expires.

The user requires an authenticator app to generate the one-time password. These apps are provided by many 3rd parties and mostly for free.

If you create a new user by running parse-dashboard --createUser, you will be asked whether you want to enable MFA for the new user. To enable MFA for an existing user, run parse-dashboard --createMFA to generate a mfa secret that you then add to the existing user configuration, for example:

{
  "apps": [{"...": "..."}],
  "users": [
    {
      "user":"user1",
      "pass":"pass",
      "mfa": "lmvmOIZGMTQklhOIhveqkumss"
    }
  ]
}

Parse Dashboard follows the industry standard and supports the common OTP algorithm SHA-1 by default, to be compatible with most authenticator apps. If you have specific security requirements regarding TOTP characteristics (algorithm, digit length, time period) you can customize them by using the guided configuration mentioned above.

Running Multiple Dashboard Replicas

When deploying Parse Dashboard with multiple replicas behind a load balancer, you need to use a shared session store to ensure that CSRF tokens and user sessions work correctly across all replicas. Without a shared session store, login attempts may fail with "CSRF token validation failed" errors when requests are distributed across different replicas.

Using a Custom Session Store

Parse Dashboard supports using any session store compatible with express-session. The sessionStore option must be configured programmatically when initializing the dashboard.

Suggested Session Stores:

• connect-redis - Redis session store
• connect-mongo - MongoDB session store
• connect-pg-simple - PostgreSQL session store
• memorystore - Memory session store with TTL support

Example using connect-redis:

const express = require('express');
const ParseDashboard = require('parse-dashboard');
const { createClient } = require('redis');
const RedisStore = require('connect-redis').default;

// Instantiate Redis client
const redisClient = createClient({ url: 'redis://localhost:6379' });
redisClient.connect();

// Instantiate Redis session store
const cookieSessionStore = new RedisStore({ client: redisClient });

// Configure dashboard with session store
const dashboard = new ParseDashboard({
  apps: [...],
  users: [...],
}, {
  cookieSessionStore,
  cookieSessionSecret: 'your-secret-key',
});

**Important Notes:**

- The `cookieSessionSecret` option must be set to the same value across all replicas to ensure session cookies work correctly.
- If `cookieSessionStore` is not provided, Parse Dashboard will use the default in-memory session store, which only works for single-instance deployments.
- For production deployments with multiple replicas, always configure a shared session store.

#### Alternative: Using Sticky Sessions

If you cannot use a shared session store, you can configure your load balancer to use sticky sessions (session affinity), which ensures that requests from the same user are always routed to the same replica. However, using a shared session store is the recommended approach as it provides better reliability and scalability.

### Separating App Access Based on User Identity
If you have configured your dashboard to manage multiple applications, you can restrict the management of apps based on user identity.

To do so, update your `parse-dashboard-config.json` configuration file to match the following format:

```json
{
  "apps": [{"...": "..."}],
  "users": [
     {
       "user":"user1",
       "pass":"pass1",
       "apps": [{"appId": "myAppId1"}, {"appId": "myAppId2"}]
     },
     {
       "user":"user2",
       "pass":"pass2",
       "apps": [{"appId": "myAppId1"}]
     }  ]
}

The effect of such a configuration is as follows:

When user1 logs in, he/she will be able to manage myAppId1 and myAppId2 from the dashboard.

When user2 logs in, he/she will only be able to manage myAppId1 from the dashboard.

Use Read-Only masterKey

Starting parse-server 2.6.5, it is possible to provide a readOnlyMasterKey to parse-server to prevent mutations on objects from a client. If you want to protect your dashboard with this feature, just use the readOnlyMasterKey instead of the masterKey. All write calls will fail.

Making an app read-only for all users

Start your parse-server with

{
"masterKey": "YOUR_MASTER_KEY_HERE",
"readOnlyMasterKey": "YOUR_READ_ONLY_MASTER_KEY",
}

Then in your dashboard configuration:

var trustProxy = true;
var dashboard = new ParseDashboard({
  "apps": [
    {
      "serverURL": "http://localhost:1337/parse",
      "appId": "myAppId",
      "masterKey": "YOUR_READ_ONLY_MASTER_KEY",
      "appName": "MyApp"
    }
  ],
  "trustProxy": 1
});

Makings users read-only

Make sure you specify the readOnlyMasterKey for the apps that you want to use read-only feature in "apps" configuration. You can mark a user as a read-only user:

{
  "apps": [
    {
      "appId": "myAppId1",
      "masterKey": "myMasterKey1",
      "readOnlyMasterKey": "myReadOnlyMasterKey1",
      "serverURL": "myURL1",
      "port": 4040,
      "production": true
    },
    {
      "appId": "myAppId2",
      "masterKey": "myMasterKey2",
      "readOnlyMasterKey": "myReadOnlyMasterKey2",
      "serverURL": "myURL2",
      "port": 4041,
      "production": true
    }
  ],
  "users": [
    {
      "user":"user1",
      "pass":"pass1",
      "readOnly": true,
      "apps": [{"appId": "myAppId1"}, {"appId": "myAppId2"}]
    },
    {
      "user":"user2",
      "pass":"pass2",
      "apps": [{"appId": "myAppId1"}]
    }
  ]
}

This way user1 will have a readOnly access to myAppId1 and myAppId2

Making user's apps readOnly

Make sure you specify the readOnlyMasterKey for the apps that you want to use read-only feature in "apps" configuration. You can give read only access to a user on a per-app basis:

{
  "apps": [
    {
      "appId": "myAppId1",
      "masterKey": "myMasterKey1",
      "readOnlyMasterKey": "myReadOnlyMasterKey1",
      "serverURL": "myURL",
      "port": 4040,
      "production": true
    },
    {"...": "..."}
  ],
  "users": [
    {
      "user":"user",
      "pass":"pass",
      "apps": [{"appId": "myAppId", "readOnly": true}, {"appId": "myAppId2"}]
    }
  ]
}

With this configuration, user1 will have read only access to myAppId1 and read/write access to myAppId2.

Configuring Localized Push Notifications

With the latest version of the dashboard, it is possible to send localized messages for push notifications. You can provide a list of locales or languages you want to support for your dashboard users.

{
  "apps": [
    {
      "serverURL": "http://localhost:1337/parse",
      "appId": "myAppId",
      "masterKey": "myMasterKey",
      "appName": "My Parse Server App",
      "iconName": "MyAppIcon.png",
      "supportedPushLocales": ["en", "ru", "fr"]
    }
  ],
  "iconsFolder": "icons"
}

Run with Docker

The official docker image is published on docker hub

Run the image with your config.json mounted as a volume

docker run -d -p 8080:4040 -v host/path/to/config.json:/src/Parse-Dashboard/parse-dashboard-config.json parseplatform/parse-dashboard --dev

You can also pass the appId, masterKey and serverURL as arguments:

docker run -d -p 4040:4040 parseplatform/parse-dashboard --dev --appId $APP_ID --masterKey $MASTER_KEY --serverURL $SERVER_URL

By default, the container will start the app at port 4040 inside the container. However, you can run custom command as well (see Deploying in production for custom setup).

In this example, we want to run the application in production mode at port 80 of the host machine.

docker run -d -p 80:8080 -v host/path/to/config.json:/src/Parse-Dashboard/parse-dashboard-config.json parse-dashboard --port 8080 --dev

If you are not familiar with Docker, --port 8080 will be passed in as argument to the entrypoint to form the full command npm start -- --port 8080. The application will start at port 8080 inside the container and port 8080 will be mounted to port 80 on your host machine.

Features

(The following is not a complete list of features but a work in progress to build a comprehensive feature list.)

Data Browser

Filters

▶️ Core > Browser > Filter

The filter dialog allows to add relational filter conditions based on other classes that have a pointer to the current class.

For example, users in the _User class may have:

• purchases in a Purchase class with a _User pointer field
• transactions in a Payment class with a _User pointer field

A relational filter allows you filter all users who:

• purchased a specific item (in Purchase class)
• payed with a specific payment method (in Payment class)

To apply such a filter, simply go to the _User class and add the two required filter conditions with the Purchase and Payment classes.

Info Panel

▶️ Core > Browser > Show Panel / Hide Panel

The data browser offers an info panel that can display information related to the currently selected object in the data browser table. The info panel is made visible by clicking on the menu button Show Panel in the top right corner when browsing a class for which the info panel is configured in the dashboard options.

The following example dashboard configuration shows an info panel for the _User class with the title User Details, by calling the Cloud Code Function getUserDetails and displaying the returned response.

"apps": [
  {
    "infoPanel": [
      {
        "title": "User Details",
        "classes": ["_User"],
        "cloudCodeFunction": "getUserDetails",
        "prefetchObjects": 2,
        "prefetchStale": 10,
        "prefetchImage": true,
        "prefetchVideo": true,
        "prefetchAudio": true
      }
    ]
  }
]

The Cloud Code Function receives the selected object in the payload and returns a response that can include various items.

Response

Segments

The info panel can contain multiple segments to display different groups of information.

Example:

{
  "panel": {
    "segments": [
      {
        "title": "Purchases",
        "style": { "backgroundColor": "lightgray", "font-size": "10px" },
        "titleStyle": { "backgroundColor": "orange", "color": "white" },
        "items": [
          {
            "type": "text",
            "text": "This user has a high churn risk!"
          }
        ]
      }
    ]
  }
}

The items array can include various types of content such as text, key-value pairs, tables, images, videos, audios, and buttons. Each type offers a different way to display information within the info panel, allowing for a customizable and rich user experience. Below is a detailed explanation of each type.

Text Item

A simple text field.

Example:

{
  "type": "text",
  "text": "This user has a high churn risk!",
  "style": { "backgroundColor": "red" },
}

Key-Value Item

A text item that consists of a key and a value. The value can optionally be linked to a URL.

Examples:

{
  "type": "keyValue",
  "key": "Lifetime purchase value",
  "value": "$10k",
  "style": { "backgroundColor": "green" },
}

{
  "type": "keyValue",
  "key": "Last purchase ID",
  "value": "123",
  "url": "https://example.com/purchaseDetails?purchaseId=123"
}

{
  "type": "keyValue",
  "key": "Purchase",
  "value": "123",
  "url": "browser/Purchase",
  "isRelativeUrl": true
}

{
  "type": "keyValue",
  "key": "Purchase Value",
  "value": "123",
  "url": "browser/Purchase",
  "isRelativeUrl": true,
  "values": [{ "value": "456" }]
}

To navigate to a specific object using a relative URL, the query parameters must be URL encoded:

const objectId = 'abc123';
const className = 'Purchase';
const query = [{ field: 'objectId', constraint: 'eq', compareTo: objectId }];
const url = `browser/Purchase?filters=${JSON.stringify(query)}`;
const item = {
  type: 'keyValue',
  key: 'Purchase',
  value: objectId,
  url,
  isRelativeUrl: true
}

Table Item

A table with columns and rows to display data in a structured format.

Example:

{
  "type": "table",
  "columns": [
    {
      "name": "Name",
      "type": "string"
    },
    {
      "name": "Age",
      "type": "number"
    }
  ],
  "rows": [
    {
      "Name": "Alice",
      "Age": 30
    },
    {
      "Name": "Bob",
      "Age": 40
    }
  ],
  "style": { "backgroundColor": "lightGray" }
}

Image Item

An image to be displayed in the panel.

Example:

{
  "type": "image",
  "url": "https://example.com/images?purchaseId=012345",
  "style": { "backgroundColor": "white" }
}

Video Item

A video to be displayed in the panel.

Example:

{
  "type": "video",
  "url": "https://example.com/video.mp4",
  "style": { "backgroundColor": "white" }
}

Audio Item

An audio file to be played in the panel.

Example:

{
  "type": "audio",
  "url": "https://example.com/audio.mp3",
  "style": { "backgroundColor": "white" }
}

Button Item

A button that triggers an action when clicked.

Example:

{
  "type": "button",
  "text": "Click me!",
  "action": {
    "url": "https://api.example.com/click",
    "method": "POST",
    "headers": {
      "Content-Type": "application/json"
    },
    "body": {
      "key": "value"
    }
  },
  "style": { "backgroundColor": "pink", "color": "white" }
}

Panel Item

A sub-panel whose data is loaded on-demand by expanding the item.

Example:

{
  "type": "panel",
  "title": "Purchase History",
  "cloudCodeFunction": "getUserPurchaseHistory",
  "style": { "backgroundColor": "lightGray" },
}

Auto-Scroll

▶️ Core > Browser > Settings > Info Panel > Auto-scroll

The info panel supports automatic scrolling, which is useful for hands-free browsing of panel content, for example to conveniently browse through large sets of data.

How to use:

1. Enable auto-scroll via Settings > Info Panel > Auto-scroll.
2. Hold the Command (⌘) key while scrolling in the panel to record the scroll amount.
3. Release the Command key after pausing for the desired interval between scrolls.
4. Auto-scrolling begins automatically, repeating the recorded scroll amount and pause interval.

Controls:

• Escape key: Stop auto-scrolling.
• Command key: Stop current auto-scroll and start recording a new scroll pattern.
• Manual scroll: Temporarily pauses auto-scrolling, which resumes after inactivity.
• Auto-scroll button: Click the highlighted "Auto-scroll" button in the toolbar to stop.

Prefetching

To reduce the time for info panel data to appear, data can be prefetched.

Prefetching is particularly useful when navigating through lists of objects. To optimize performance and avoid unnecessary data loading, prefetching is triggered only after the user has moved through 3 consecutive rows using the keyboard down-arrow key or by mouse click.

When prefetchObjects is enabled, media content (images, videos, and audio) in the info panel can also be prefetched to improve loading performance. By default, all media types are prefetched, but you can selectively disable prefetching for specific media types using the prefetchImage, prefetchVideo, and prefetchAudio options.

Scripts

You can specify scripts to execute Cloud Functions with the scripts option:

"apps": [
  {
    "scripts": [
      {
        "title": "Delete Account",
        "classes": ["_User"],
        "cloudCodeFunction": "deleteAccount",
        "showConfirmationDialog": true,
        "confirmationDialogStyle": "critical"
      }
    ]
  }
]

You can also specify custom fields with the scripts option:

"apps": [
  {
    "scripts": [
      {
        "title": "Delete account",
        "classes": [
          {
            "name": "_User",
            "fields": [
              { "name": "createdAt", "validator": "value => value > new Date(\"2025\")" }
            ]
          }
        ],
        "cloudCodeFunction": "deleteAccount"
      }
    ]
  }
]

Next, define the Cloud Function in Parse Server that will be called. The object that has been selected in the data browser will be made available as a request parameter:

Parse.Cloud.define('deleteAccount', async (req) => {
  req.params.object.set('deleted', true);
  await req.params.object.save(null, {useMasterKey: true});
}, {
  requireMaster: true
});

The field which the script was invoked on can be accessed by selectedField:

Parse.Cloud.define('deleteAccount', async (req) => {
  if (req.params.selectedField !== 'objectId') {
    throw new Parse.Error(Parse.Error.SCRIPT_FAILED, 'Deleting accounts is only available on the objectId field.');
  }
  req.params.object.set('deleted', true);
  await req.params.object.save(null, {useMasterKey: true});
}, {
  requireMaster: true
});

⚠️ Depending on your Parse Server version you may need to set the Parse Server option encodeParseObjectInCloudFunction to true so that the selected object in the data browser is made available in the Cloud Function as an instance of Parse.Object. If the option is not set, is set to false, or you are using an older version of Parse Server, the object is made available as a plain JavaScript object and needs to be converted from a JSON object to a Parse.Object instance with req.params.object = Parse.Object.fromJSON(req.params.object);, before you can call any Parse.Object properties and methods on it.

For older versions of Parse Server:

Parse.Cloud.define('deleteAccount', async (req) => {
  req.params.object = Parse.Object.fromJSON(req.params.object);
  req.params.object.set('deleted', true);
  await req.params.object.save(null, {useMasterKey: true});
}, {
  requireMaster: true
});

Parse.Cloud.define('deleteAccount', async (req) => {
  if (!req.master || !req.params.object) {
    throw 'Unauthorized';
  }
  req.params.object = Parse.Object.fromJSON(req.params.object);
  req.params.object.set('deleted', true);
  await req.params.object.save(null, {useMasterKey: true});
});

Script Response Form

A Cloud Function invoked by a script can return a structured response that shows a modal dialog with form elements. When the user submits the form, the values are sent to a callback Cloud Function specified in the response.

Return a ScriptResponse from the Cloud Function:

Parse.Cloud.define('assignRole', async (req) => {
  return {
    __type: 'ScriptResponse',
    payload: {
      requestId: '123-456-789'
    },
    form: {
      title: 'Assign Role',
      icon: 'gears',
      cloudCodeFunction: 'assignRoleCallback',
      elements: [
        {
          element: 'dropDown',
          name: 'role',
          label: 'Role',
          items: [
            { title: 'Admin', value: 'admin' },
            { title: 'User', value: 'user' }
          ]
        }
      ]
    }
  };
}, {
  requireMaster: true
});

Then define the callback Cloud Function that receives the form data:

Parse.Cloud.define('assignRoleCallback', async (req) => {
  const { object, payload, formData } = req.params;
  const role = formData.role;
  object.set('role', role);
  await object.save(null, { useMasterKey: true });
  return `Assigned role "${role}" to ${object.id} (request ${payload.requestId}).`;
}, {
  requireMaster: true
});

[!NOTE] When executing a script on multiple selected rows, the Cloud Function is called for the first object. If the response is a ScriptResponse, the modal is shown once. On submission, the callback Cloud Function is called for all selected objects.

Response Fields

Form Elements

Drop-Down

A drop-down to select a single item from a list.

Checkbox

A checkbox for boolean input.

Toggle

A toggle switch for boolean input.

Text Input

A single-line text input.

Graph

▶️ Core > Browser > Graph

The data browser includes a graph feature that allows you to visualize data in pie charts, bar charts, or line charts. You can configure calculated values to display aggregated or computed data.

Calculated Values

Calculated values allow you to derive new values from your data. The following operators are available:

Naming Rules: Calculated value names must follow Parse field naming conventions:

• Start with a letter or underscore
• Contain only letters, numbers, and underscores
• No spaces or special characters

Formula Operator

The Formula operator allows you to define custom calculations using a safe expression syntax. You can reference field values directly by their names.

Syntax:

• Use field names directly as variables (e.g., price, quantity)
• Reference previous calculated values by name (e.g., profit, total_cost)
• Optionally prefix field names with $ (e.g., $price, $quantity)

[!TIP] If a field name conflicts with a reserved function name (like round, min, max), prefix it with $ to reference the field. For example, use $round to reference a field named "round": round($round, 2).

Example formulas:

price * quantity                              # Multiply two fields
round(revenue / cost * 100, 2)                # Calculate percentage with rounding
max(value, 0)                                 # Floor at 0 (no negatives)
min(value, 100)                               # Cap at 100
score > 50 ? score : 0                        # Conditional logic
round((revenue - cost) / revenue * 100, 1)    # Profit margin calculation

Arithmetic Operators

Comparison Operators

Comparison operators return 1 for true and 0 for false.

Conditional Operator

Math Functions

Freeze Columns

▶️ Core > Browser > Freeze column

Right-click on a table column header to freeze columns from the left up to the clicked column in the data browser. When scrolling horizontally, the frozen columns remain visible while the other columns scroll underneath.

Browse as User

▶️ Core > Browser > Browse

This feature allows you to use the data browser as another user, respecting that user's data permissions. For example, you will only see records and fields the user has permission to see.

⚠️ Logging in as another user will trigger the same Cloud Triggers as if the user logged in themselves using any other login method. Logging in as another user requires to enter that user's password.

Change Pointer Key

▶️ Core > Browser > Edit > Change pointer key

This feature allows you to change how a pointer is represented in the browser. By default, a pointer is represented by the objectId of the linked object. You can change this to any other column of the object class. For example, if class Installation has a field that contains a pointer to class User, the pointer will show the objectId of the user by default. You can change this to display the field email of the user, so that a pointer displays the user's email address instead.

Limitations

• This does not work for an array of pointers; the pointer will always display the objectId.
• System columns like createdAt, updatedAt, ACL cannot be set as pointer key.
• This feature uses browser storage; switching to a different browser resets the pointer key to objectId.

⚠️ For each custom pointer key in each row, a server request is triggered to resolve the custom pointer key. For example, if the browser shows a class with 50 rows and each row contains 3 custom pointer keys, a total of 150 separate server requests are triggered.

Data Export

▶️ Core > Browser > Export

This feature will take either selected rows or all rows of an individual class and saves them to a CSV file, which is then downloaded. CSV headers are added to the top of the file matching the column names.

⚠️ There is currently a 10,000 row limit when exporting all data. If more than 10,000 rows are present in the class, the CSV file will only contain 10,000 rows.

Data Import

▶️ Core > Browser > Data > Import

Import data into a class from a JSON or CSV file. The file format is the same as the export format, so you can export data from one class and import it into another.

• JSON — An array of objects, e.g. [{ "name": "Alice", "score": 100 }, ...]. Typed fields such as Pointer, Date, GeoPoint, and File are expected in Parse _toFullJSON() format.
• CSV — Comma-separated with a header row. Column types are reconstructed from the class schema.

The import dialog provides the following options:

⚠️ Disabling Preserve object IDs means new object IDs are generated. Any Pointer or Relation fields that reference objects within the same import file will not resolve correctly.

AI Agent

The Parse Dashboard includes an AI agent that can help manage your Parse Server data through natural language commands. The agent can perform operations like creating classes, adding data, querying records, and more.

[!Caution] The AI agent has full access to your database using the master key. It can read, modify, and delete any data. This feature is highly recommended for development environments only. Always back up important data before using the AI agent.

Configuration

To configure the AI agent for your dashboard, you need to add the agent configuration to your Parse Dashboard config:

{
  "apps": [
    // ...
  ],
  "agent": {
    "models": [
      {
        "name": "ChatGPT 4.1",
        "provider": "openai",
        "model": "gpt-4.1",
        "apiKey": "YOUR_OPENAI_API_KEY"
      },
    ]
  }
}

The agent will use the configured models to process natural language commands and perform database operations using the master key from your app configuration.

Providers

[!Note] Currently, only OpenAI models are supported. Support for additional providers may be added in future releases.

OpenAI

To get an OpenAI API key for use with the AI agent:

1. Create an OpenAI account: Visit platform.openai.com and sign up for an account if you don't already have one.

2. Access the API section: Once logged in, navigate to the API section of your OpenAI dashboard.

3. Create a new project:

   • Go to the "Projects" section
   • Click "Create project"
   • Name your project "Parse-Dashboard" (or any descriptive name)
   • Complete the project setup

4. Configure model access:

   • In your project, navigate to "Limits > Model Usage"
   • Select the AI models you want to use (e.g., gpt-4, gpt-3.5-turbo)
   • These model names will be used as the agent.models[*].model parameter in your dashboard configuration

5. Generate an API key:

   • Go to the "API Keys" page in your project settings
   • Click "Create new secret key"
   • Give your key a descriptive name (e.g., "Parse Dashboard Agent")
   • Copy the generated API key immediately (you won't be able to see it again)

6. Set up billing: Make sure you have a valid payment method added to your OpenAI account, as API usage incurs charges.

7. Configure the dashboard: Add the API key to your Parse Dashboard configuration as shown in the example above.

[!Important] Keep your API key secure and never commit it to version control. Consider using environment variables or secure configuration management for production deployments.

Views

▶️ Core > Views

Views are saved queries that display data in a table format. Saved views appear in the sidebar, where you can select, edit, or delete them. Optionally you can enable the object counter to show in the sidebar how many items match the view.

[!Caution] Values are generally rendered without sanitization in the resulting data table. If rendered values come from user input or untrusted data, make sure to remove potentially dangerous HTML or JavaScript, to prevent an attacker from injecting malicious code, to exploit vulnerabilities like Cross-Site Scripting (XSS).

Data Sources

Views can pull their data from the following data sources.

Aggregation Pipeline

Display aggregated data from your classes using a MongoDB aggregation pipeline. Create a view by selecting a class and defining an aggregation pipeline.

Cloud Function

Display data returned by a Parse Cloud Function. Create a view specifying a Cloud Function that returns an array of objects. Cloud Functions enable custom business logic, computed fields, and complex data transformations.

Cloud Function views can prompt users for text input and/or file upload when opened. Enable "Require text input" or "Require file upload" checkboxes when creating the view. The user provided data will then be available in the Cloud Function as parameters.

Cloud Function example:

Parse.Cloud.define("myViewFunction", request => {
  const text = request.params.text;
  const fileData = request.params.fileData;
  return processDataWithTextAndFile(text, fileData);
});

[!Note] Text and file data are ephemeral and only available to the Cloud Function during that request. Files are base64 encoded, increasing the data during transfer by ~33%.

View Table

When designing the aggregation pipeline, consider that some values are rendered specially in the output table.

Pointer

Parse Object pointers are automatically displayed as links to the target object.

Example:

{ "__type": "Pointer", "className": "_User", "objectId": "xWMyZ4YEGZ" }

Link

Links are rendered as hyperlinks that open in a new browser tab.

Example:

{
  "__type": "Link",
  "url": "https://example.com",
  "text": "Link"
}

Set isRelativeUrl: true when linking to another dashboard page, in which case the base URL for the relative URL will be <PROTOCOL>://<HOST>/<MOUNT_PATH>/apps/<APP_NAME>/. The key isRelativeUrl is optional and false by default.

Example:

{
  "__type": "Link",
  "url": "browser/_Installation",
  "isRelativeUrl": true,
  "text": "Link"
}

A query part of the URL can be easily added using the urlQuery key which will automatically escape the query string.

Example:

{
  "__type": "Link",
  "url": "browser/_Installation",
  "urlQuery": "filters=[{\"field\":\"objectId\",\"constraint\":\"eq\",\"compareTo\":\"xWMyZ4YEGZ\",\"class\":\"_Installation\"}]",
  "isRelativeUrl": true,
  "text": "Link"
}

In the example above, the query string will be escaped and added to the url, resulting in the complete URL:

"browser/_Installation?filters=%5B%7B%22field%22%3A%22objectId%22%2C%22constraint%22%3A%22eq%22%2C%22compareTo%22%3A%22xWMyZ4YEGZ%22%2C%22class%22%3A%22_Installation%22%7D%5D"

[!Tip] For guidance on how to create the URL query for a dashboard data browser filter, open the data browser and set the filter. Then copy the browser URL and unescape it. The query constraints in ?filters=[...] will give you an idea of the constraint syntax.

[!Note] For security reasons, the link <a> tag contains the rel="noreferrer" attribute, which prevents the target website to know the referring website which in this case is the Parse Dashboard URL. That attribute is widely supported across modern browsers, but if in doubt check your browser's compatibility.

Image

Images are rendered directly in the output table with an <img> tag. The content mode is always "scale to fit", meaning that if the image file is 100x50px and the specified dimensions are 50x50px, it would display as 50x25px, since it's scaled maintaining aspect ratio.

Example:

{
  "__type": "Image",
  "url": "https://example.com/image.png",
  "width": "50",
  "height": "50",
  "alt": "Image"
}

[!Warning] The URL will be directly invoked by the browser when trying to display the image. For security reasons, make sure you either control the full URL, including the image file name, or sanitize the URL before returning it to the dashboard. URLs containing javascript: or <script will be blocked automatically and replaced with a placeholder.

Video

Videos are rendered directly in the output table with a <video> tag that includes playback controls. The content mode is always "scale to fit", meaning that the video maintains its aspect ratio within the specified dimensions.

Example:

{
  "__type": "Video",
  "url": "https://example.com/video.mp4",
  "width": "320",
  "height": "240"
}

[!Warning] The URL will be directly invoked by the browser when trying to display the video. For security reasons, make sure you either control the full URL, including the video file name, or sanitize the URL before returning it to the dashboard. URLs containing javascript: or <script will be blocked automatically and replaced with a placeholder.

Contributing

We really want Parse to be yours, to see it grow and thrive in the open source community. Please see the Contributing to Parse Dashboard guide.

As of April 5, 2017, Parse, LLC has transferred this code to the parse-community organization, and will no longer be contributing to or distributing this code.