Deloitte Digital Jordan StoneDeloitte Digital Jordan Stone

April 16, 2013

Backend as a Service (BaaS) for iOS

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Backend as a ServiceBaaS OptionsBuilding DwitterQuestions

Agenda

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@”%@ as a Service”, @”Backend”

Thursday, May 23, 13The “as a service” namespace has become a fill-in-the-blank of service offerings. Software as a Service, Platform as a Service, Backend as a Service

Backends as a Service (Baas) offer a variety of features.

Cloud-based

User management

Push notifications

Social network integration

What is BaaS?

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Some offer additional functionality, such as support for In-App Purchases, Passbook integration, and Analytics.

All user data lives outside of the device.

Universal applications

Users with more than one device

Data synchronization can be a concern

Cloud-Based

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Easy management for account-based apps

User registration and uniqueness

Session management

Password resets

User Management

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Remotely notify users of events

Send push notifications to devices

Certificate registration

Trigger programmatically or via console*

Push Notifications

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* Not all BaaS providers offer this, but for those that do, it’s a nice perk

Integrate with social networks

Facebook and Twitter

OAuth / Permissions

Still need to use specific SDK to communicate with social

network

Social Integration

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So many options, so little time.

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AppceleratorApplicasaHeliosKinveyKumulosParseStackMob

Popular BaaS Options

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A full-featured suite of services including back end APIs,

testing, and analytics

Appcelerator

Multiple services, one

provider

Appcelerator Marketplace

extensions

Pros Cons

Geared primarily towards

Titanium apps

Expensive to use

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Free Titanium does not include any analytics, testing, performance management, etc. Appcelerator Public Cloud Platform is $999/month, Private Cloud is $2667/month. Both require an annual subscription.

Customers include Zipcar, Ebay, Smartwool, and RayBan

Primarily focused around in-app purchases. A great mobile

platform particularly for game developers.

Applicasa

Easy-to-use virtual store

Focused on driving revenue

A/B testing for promotions

Pros Cons

Platform focused on games

Still in private beta

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Open-source backend by Mattt Thompson built on the Rack

web server interface.

Helios

Develop and test in a local

environment

Auto-generate data RESTful

services from Core Data

model

Passbook integration

Pros Cons

Setup is non-trivial compared

to other options

Multiple libraries to include

for client integration

The command line

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Rack is a Ruby web server interface that frameworks such as Rails are built upon.

CargoBay for IAP, Orbiter for Push Notifications, GroundControl and SkyLab for analytics and A/B testing

A schema-less backend system that provides services through

partnerships

Kinvey

Multiple user authentication

options

Active User and API-based

pricing models

Pros Cons

Syncing with Core Data for

offline persistence is non-

trivial

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Pronounced like Convey

* For instance, Push is done via a partnership with Urban Airship.

User authentication options in Kinvey, Facebook, Twitter, Google, and any other OAuth2 provider.

Provides its own CachedStore object so you don’t have to use Core Data

A backend service that allows you to write your own APIs.

Kumulos

Ability to hook into existing

MySQL databases

Only pay when you go live

Pros Cons

Custom API calls need to be

developed

Analytics are lacking

compared to competitors

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Custom APIs need to be built to interact with the data in your tables. Kumulos then builds those into custom libraries for your deployment target, and you include those libraries with your project. On the plus side, you’re guaranteed to only get methods in your libraries that you need, without any filler or bloat.

An established backend service with comprehensive tutorials

and documentation.

Parse

Easy to set up

Plenty of examples/

documentation

Simple pricing model

Pros Cons

Frameworks learning curve

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Provides REST APIs as well as a Core Data wrapper to easily

integrate with existing architecture.

StackMob

Free*

Marketplace for extended

functionality

Multiple environments

Pros Cons

Amazon S3 account required

for binary assets

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* Enterprise or large-scale use requires special attention. Add ons can be purchased for additional functionality.

Latest version of the SDK provides wrappers and categories around Core Data to allow you to leverage the knowledge you already have instead of learning an entirely new API from scratch.

Any binary assets (e.g. images) must be managed through Amazon web services. You’d need to create and configure a separate Amazon S3 account for those assets, and manage them through Amazon instead of StackMob.

But my app is special. These don’t do everything I need!

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Roll your own!

In that case...

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A home-grown solution built of your own volition.

Custom Backend

No API limits

Free to use

No feature restrictions

Pros Cons

Must know a backend

technology such as Rails

Startup time is much larger

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BaaS Test Drives

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Parse ~ 90 minutesHelios - > 8 hoursJSaaS ~ 5 hours

Dwitter Metrics

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Dwitter on Parse

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After pasting in the test code and launching the app, you can click the Test button to make sure you’re connecting to the Parse back end properly.

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Log In and Sign Up view controllers are extremely

convenient

Main thread warnings

Changing cached data

Fetching relational data

Parse

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Login and Signup VC’s must be subclasses to replace the Parse theme, even just for the title.

The framework will warn you if you perform fetches on the main thread. You can add the symbolic breakpoint warnParseOperationOnMainThread to have the debugger stop when you make this call and check the stack trace for where you did it.

Changing cached data requires an explicit call to refresh. Especially important using the [PFUser currentUser] convenience method

Cannot fetch the objects at the other end of a relation in a single API call. Fetching User data for Dweets is an example.

Dwitter on Helios.

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To get Helios up and running, there are a few prerequisites:

Ruby 1.9.x or greater

RubyGems

PostgreSQL 9.1 or greater

Command of the command line

Before you start...

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Mac OS X comes with Ruby 1.8 installed by default. Upgrading to 1.9.x at least will also install RubyGems. This is required in order to install the helios gem and perform all other gem dependency downloading

Postgres.app is an easy way to get a Postgres server running on your mac

You do all of the setup from the command line. At least a little familiarity is useful.

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Auto-generate RESTful web services based on Core Data

model

Scoped relationships are non-trivial to create and fetch

Reliance on third party libraries

Helios

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Dwitter on JSaaS

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High level of customization

Easy to test

Server-side configuration

Value is driven by level of complexity required

JSaaS

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Server side configuration: Easy to add query parameters, e.g. sortingValue: For 99% of apps, rolling your own back end won’t outweigh the benefits of using something like Parse.

Questions?

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Thank you.

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