As a platform aimed at developers, we get really excited to hear about dev shops that are able to speed up their development time – and therefore their business – by using our services. It’s great to know that we’re helping to enhance the process for creative teams out there, making their lives easier and, hopefully, their companies more successful as a result. Today, Will Kelly of Lavacado Studios, LLC, tells us why he and his team love using Parse.

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David Spiro, developer of the app Elevatr, wants you and your big idea to go all the way. He developed the app based on his own experiences as a developer and business student to provide a tool that entrepreneurs could use to corral and develop their thoughts into a feasible business plan. He tells us more about the inspiration and development behind his freshly launched app.

Can I get a brief description of your company as well as your role there?

Elevatr is  a mobile-first experience designed to organize and amplify your business ideas. We’ve taken the structure of a traditional business plan and integrated the best from free-form note apps to create a product that guides your ideas into real business plans.

We just released the personal use version last week, having built the backend using Parse. Moving forward, we plan to build sharing and collaboration into the product so users can help each other build ideas into businesses.

As for my role, I am the founder and CEO. I do product strategy, and I have an eye for design. I love interacting with our target customers to learn what they need. I’m also the lead on recruiting and fundraising.

The app stemmed from your own experiences. Can you tell us more about that?

There were multiple times when I thought I had the world’s best startup idea. But, no matter how hard I focused on building that idea into a business, I kept coming up with other startup ideas. For each idea, I would jot down a quick description in Google Docs, Evernote, or Apple Notes, and do my best to map out the rest of the business plan in my head. I rarely wrote down more than a quick description because free-form note apps are not designed to structure business plans. I tried using business planning tools built for entrepreneurs by trade, but none of them were mobile first experiences. They all seemed slow and outdated.

Then, I had an epiphany. I realized that I was not alone. All around me ambitious students, successful entrepreneurs, awesome moms, and corporate employees were all coming up with the world’s best startup ideas. But, like me, everyone lacked the time to write legit plans for their ideas.

That’s how Elevatr came to be.

Did you develop the app in-house or did you work with an agency or third-party?

I founded Elevatr in September 2012, building an mvp solo for the rest of that year. I shopped it around NYC to different pro dev shops because I wanted to take it to the next level. Enter Fueled, a mobile app dev agency and startup accelerator in New York, who partnered with me to craft the core product. Fueled, who built the apps for JackThreads and Urban Daddy, bought into my vision because they too saw the growing trend towards creating startups.

What led you to use Parse in the app?

I used it a number of times while building projects as an undergrad at the University of Michigan. When Elevatr started, I knew we would use Parse at some point.

What were the key benefits you have found while working with Parse?

Parse’s value proposition is super clear. Using Parse let our development team focus on the app instead of having to split our attention and build out a backend. It saved us a bunch of time that would have gone towards building and maintaining a backend. Even things like managing email confirmations of our users was handled by Parse.

How is Parse used in the app? Do you use Parse Push, Social, or any of the other features?

All the ideas and user data created gets stored in Parse. The app constantly syncs with the cloud so that your precious data is always backed up in realtime or nearly realtime, sorta like Google Docs does. We are not yet using Parse Push, but we have big plans. We could use it for users to set reminders to work on their ideas. U0ser accounts are via Parse Social.

What do you love most about Parse?

Rapid deployment and integration. Clear value proposition to teams like Elevatr.

You can find additional info about the Elevatr story here and read the coverage of its release by TechCrunch here.

Push Notifications are a core component of Parse’s strategy to enable developers to create rich and engaging apps easily and without the need to manage servers. Push Notifications can help increase user engagement by drawing users back into an app when fresh content is available. We are excited to release a series of features which provide push support for our Windows SDKs.

Send Pushes From the Windows SDKs
Today we are releasing the ParsePush class for all Windows SDKs. This class should feel familiar to users of our other SDKs, but thanks to the beautify of C#, it is our most intuitive push library yet. To send a push to everyone, simply say:

await ParsePush.SendAlertAsync("Hello, Windows!");

The ParsePush API is easy to use with both pushes to channels and Advanced Push Targeting:

var push = new ParsePush();
push.Alert = "Hello, Windows 8 users!";
push.Query = from installation in ParseInstallation.Query
             where installation.DeviceType == "winrt"
             select installation;
await push.SendAsync();

Send Toast Notifications on Windows 8
All Windows SDKs can send notifications to iOS and Android devices. In addition, all SDKs can now send Toast Notifications to Windows 8 users. Toast Notifications are those which feel most like traditional “notifications” to users familiar with modern mobile operating systems. They present a simple dialog in the upper-right corner of the screen which eventually fades. You can send push notifications from the SDK or try out the newly upgraded Push Console:

Subscribing for pushes in a channel is easy:

await ParsePush.SubscribeAsync("ParseAnnouncements");

and the ParseInstallation class allows developers to save rich annotations with which they can target Push Notifications. The .NET ParseInstallation class also includes standard metrics users of our other SDKs may be familiar with: apiVersion, appVersion, appName, and timeZone. You will be able to schedule pushes according to the end-user’s local time or target users based on their installed app versions with no extra configuration!

Analytics on all Windows SDKs
The Parse Analytics library is now available for all of our Windows SDKs as well. In your app-opened event handler, you can add the following code:

ParseAnalytics.TrackAppOpenedAsync();

In addition, Windows 8 developers can pass the launchArgs parameter passed to their OnLaunch to track direct opens from Toast Notifications. This plugs into our existing Analytics infrastructure and can help you understand the impact of your pushes.

We hope you enjoy these changes. Be sure to check out our push guide if you have any questions.

Tell us about yourself, Jacob.

Until recently I was a Rocket Scientist at Space Systems Loral. I left Loral because I needed to bring the awesome Recipe Cloud into the world. I am currently the creator and sole developer of Recipe Cloud.

What’s Recipe Cloud all about?

Recipe Cloud is currently an iOS app designed to help users discover, share, and save recipes. The app allows users to manually input recipes or save them from their favorite websites. Users of the app are also able to follow others and find out what recipes they have been cooking. Because of the initial success of the iOS app, I have started a Kickstarter campaign to build a web app and make Recipe Cloud accessible to everyone! You can check out the Kickstarter campaign (and get freshly baked bread) here.

Going from rocket scientist to app developer is a big change; what was the inspiration behind Recipe Cloud?

The idea for Recipe Cloud came after making dinner for a friend. My friend loved the meal and wanted the recipe that I had used. I typed out the recipe and emailed it to him, and then I began to think of the need to create an easier way to share recipes. As I thought about it more, I noticed that there was also a need to store all of these recipes. I had recipes scattered all over the place: in url bookmarks, in cookbooks, in emails and on hand-written recipe cards. Whenever I wanted to cook or share one of them, I would have to go and find it. What I decided to do was create an app where users can save their recipes from all of these different sources into a single digital cookbook, to make it easy locate any recipe at any time. Users of the app can also send specific recipes to their friends, who in turn can save them right to their own digital cookbook. And, whenever a user is looking for a little inspiration, they can browse through their friends’ digital cookbooks.

That definitely sounds useful. What brought you to use Parse in the app?

I found Parse while reading through developer forums and looking for a back-end for Recipe Cloud. What sold me on Parse was just how excellent your documentation is; everything is very clearly explained and there are lots of the examples that made it very easy to learn.

Having built Recipe Cloud on your own, what do you think the biggest benefit to using Parse has been?

The biggest benefit was the amount of time it saved me. Parse made it possible for me to create a social network as a sole developer. I was able to focus on the structure of the database and the front-end and let Parse handle the back-end.

How is Parse used in Recipe Cloud?

Parse is very much the core of Recipe Cloud. It stores all of the recipe and user data, lets users connect socially and also sends out the push notifications. I use Parse to send push notifications about user activity. Whenever someone starts following you, wants you to check out a recipe, reposts, or comments on one of your recipes, push lets you know. I also love storing my data with Parse because the Data Browser makes it so easy to manage everything. Since I am storing the data with Parse, using Parse Social was a no-brainer. Recipe Cloud uses Parse to log users in via Facebook, and it also allows users to connect and share with their Facebook friends.

It’s wonderful to hear that you’re making such great use of the features. Do you use Cloud Code at all?

I am using Cloud Code and it has been a lifesaver. I implemented push notifications in one of the later versions of Recipe Cloud. The problem with doing this was that users with earlier versions of the app would not be sending out push notifications when they liked or commented on a recipe. Here is where Cloud Code came to the rescue. What I did was place my trigger for the push notification inside a Cloud Code afterSave call for the activities. This way, the push notification gets created whenever a user likes or comments on a recipe, no matter what version of Recipe Cloud they are using.

Has using Parse decreased development time and if so, do you have an idea of how much?

Parse has decreased my development time immensely. My best explanation of how much time Parse has saved me is that without parse, Recipe Cloud would not be possible by myself. With parse, Recipe Cloud is possible by myself. I was able to create the first version of Recipe Cloud in a matter of weeks.

Do you know how many downloads there have been of Recipe Cloud so far?

The app launched only a few months ago and it has already received over 12,000 downloads. I would love to see more, but this is a great start.

Do you have any plans to use Parse in the future?

When I was starting on Recipe Cloud I also created Wiki Ingredients, which is currently in open beta. Wiki Ingredients is a community where users can share information about ingredients: when they are in season, how to prepare them, how long they keep, etc. Wiki Ingredients uses Parse to store all of the ingredient data and user information. I think Wiki Ingredients will be awesome, but right now I am focusing my efforts on Recipe Cloud. I will get back to Wiki Ingredients after launching the website for Recipe Cloud.

What is your favorite thing about Parse?

I love Parse because of how easy it is to use. And, on the rare occasion that I cannot figure out how to do something with Parse, the support team helps me out right away.

You can download the free iOS version of Recipe Cloud here and help Jacob build a web version of Recipe Cloud by contributing to his Kickstarter Campaign here.

You’ve always been able to do so with our powerful REST API. But we’ve recently launched a couple of features that will make it even easier to process your data, using JavaScript running in Node.js. The Parse JavaScript SDK is available through npm, so getting started is as easy as running:

npm install parse

Remember, there are active clients out there constantly creating new data. So before you start updating existing data, you’ll probably want to add a beforeSave handler to process the new data as it comes in. Since this is all JavaScript, you can use the same code for your beforeSave handler that you do in your data migration script.

Then, you will need to iterate over all of the existing objects in your collection to update them. The new each method on Parse.Query objects allows you to do just that. Even if you have tens of thousands of objects or more in a collection, it will return each one of them, giving you an opportunity to modify them as you see fit.

We’ve also added the Parse.Cloud.useMasterKey() method to our node module. By supplying your master key and calling this method, you can transform objects belonging to all of your users without ever compromising their ACL-based security.

For example, if you have Event objects and want to transform their city field into a searchable text field called cityTokens, you could run the following node script:

var _ = require("underscore");
var Parse = require("parse").Parse;

Parse.initialize("YOUR APP ID", "YOUR JAVASCRIPT KEY", "YOUR MASTER KEY");

Parse.Cloud.useMasterKey();

var tokenize = function(str) {
  var words = str.toLowerCase().split(/\b/);
  words = _.filter(words, function(w) { return w.match(/^\w+$/); });
  return words;
};

var query = new Parse.Query("Event");
query.doesNotExist("cityTokens");

return query.each(function(event) {
  console.log("Updating object: " + event.id);
  event.set("cityTokens", tokenize(event.get("city")));
  return event.save();
});

Then just run this script on your machine with node:

$ node migrate.js 
Updating object: 4JsHZTwVBS
Updating object: MnZ4TzBDFT
Updating object: OPndkI2iRk
Updating object: WBuxcx3fHM
Updating object: duyWWKKxu3
Updating object: jPGxPhjjvg
...

At Parse, we love seeing all of the great new features our developers are adding to their apps. These new additions to our API should help you launch them even faster!

Parse customer StoreBoughtMilk Apps leads the charge with these tools, producing apps that have seen thousands of downloads as well as being embraced not just by the Crossfit community, but also by official Crossfit events. We spoke with Andrew Bucchin, CEO of the company, about their Parse-backed app, Workout Hero.

Tell us a little bit about your company, Andrew.

StoreBoughtMilk Apps is the producer of over 50 applications with a primary focus in Fitness and Survival. Our company has had 8 top 300 apps in their respective categories and plans on continuing to produce several more apps that will likely gain the same popularity as our current selection. I am the CEO of StoreBoughtMilk Apps.

Can you explain the concept behind Workout Hero for us?

Workout Hero is an advanced functional fitness application that has been in the top 100 of the iTunes Healthcare and Fitness category for over 14 months. The app has over 90,000 downloads and features TIMERS PRO which has been used 2 years in a row by CrossFit.com in the official CrossFit Open workout videos. Workout Hero is unique because not only does it educate its users on how to properly conduct functional fitness workouts and save your workout records, it also allows its users to “Link Up” with each other within the app, see their friends saved workouts, and save their friends workouts if it’s a workout they might like to do later.

What inspired the development of Workout Hero?

Workout Hero was actually created by the owner of StoreBoughtMilk Apps while he was deployed to Iraq. He was in need of an application allowing him to save and view workouts without the use of internet and wanted to have a timer on his iPad so he could easily see how much time he had left in his workout, even in low light levels. So, Workout Hero was born in a combat zone.

That’s amazing! Given that background, what led your team to Parse? 

Word of mouth is a powerful tool! While in the process of developing the new social ATHLETES section of Workout Hero we knew we would need a company that provided affordable server, data storage and simple social integration. So, we began talking to developers and after only a few days of looking, we caught wind of Parse and never looked back.

It’s great to hear that happy developers led you to us. What would you say are the benefits developers such as yourself get from using Parse?

Parse has made development so much easier! With Parse, no backend needed to be created and SDK integration was a breeze. Now the sky is the limit in regards to adding new features to the app. Social Integration was also incredibly easy to integrate and has made logging into Workout Hero as easy as clicking 1 button.

Which Parse features are used in the app currently?

Social integration and backend services. Push notifications coming soon!

It sounds like your app has been pretty successful; can you share how many times Workout Hero has been downloaded?

We are close to 100,000!

Congratulations! Do you have any plans to use Parse in the future?

We have 2 applications in development right now that will include Parse, both of which will use almost all of the offered features.

One of our biggest goals is to decrease development time for our customers. Do you feel that using Parse has cut down your development time at all?

Parse has not only decreased development time but it has also saved us a ton of money since we did not have to develop our own backend services. Saving time and money nearly doubled the speed at which we could develop the app. Our newest version of the app was out almost a month early.

That’s great to hear! Is there anything else you’d like to share with our potential, and existing, users about why you use Parse? 

The thing we love most about Parse is the customer service. Any time we had a question, we had an answer almost immediately. Not only was the customer service fast, they have also been incredibly helpful, friendly and happy to help. It’s great to see a company that has finally got customer service figured out.

You can download Workout Hero in the iTunes Store here, and view StoreBoughtMilk Apps other great offerings here.

This final webcast in our Windows Webcast Series provided a step-by-step guide for building a Windows 8 App with the Parse JavaScript SDK led by Bryan. Matt also spoke about Windows Store opportunities, resources for learning Windows 8 App development for JavaScript developers, and more.

For anyone who would like a second look, or just in case you missed it, the full video is below.

Watch the recording:

Today we’re excited to announce the addition of Parse Hosting to our family of products.

Our goal at Parse is to help you build incredible apps without running your own servers. Often, even if you’re building a mobile app using Parse, you need to create a website as well. We ran into this exact problem while developing our open source AnyPic app. When we had to maintain web servers just to host a few files for a website, we knew we could make things even simpler.

Starting today, developers can host static content like HTML, JavaScript, and CSS on parseapp.com. Along with Cloud Code and the Parse JavaScript SDK, this lets you build rich web apps without any servers.

When you deploy Cloud Code, any content in your “public” directory is uploaded to Parse and becomes accessible at your-custom-subdomain.parseapp.com. Anyone can choose a subdomain in their app settings, and Pro and Enterprise developers are also able to serve content from a custom domain name. It only takes two commands to create a website:

$ echo 'Hello World!' > public/index.html
$ parse deploy

Parse Hosting lets you develop a website without worrying about servers or scaling, whether you’re designing a landing page or building a rich web app. Be sure to check out the hosting docs for more detailed instructions, and happy coding!

The Dashboard is an essential piece of the Parse experience. We care deeply about it, and know how much you love having this web user interface to see the analytics of your apps, to follow up on your Cloud Code deploys, to visualize and edit your data in the Data Browser, and to schedule advanced Push notifications. Today, we’re very excited to introduce a redesign of the Dashboard that we hope you will love just as much as we do.

With the new design, we’ve made sure that the UI gets out of the way, so you can focus more on what you’re doing, as well as your data. We’re also very excited that the Dashboard is now stretchable, which means you can expand your Data Browser or the documentation without going into full screen mode.

We’re dedicated to making the best web application to manage your Parse apps, and we hope you like the new features in the dashboard!