Storing data on Parse is built around the ParseObject. Each ParseObject contains key-value pairs of JSON-compatible data. This data is schemaless, which means that you don't need to specify ahead of time what keys exist on each ParseObject. You simply set whatever key-value pairs you want, and our backend will store it.

For example, let's say you're tracking high scores for a game. A single ParseObject could contain:

score: 1337, playerName: "Sean Plott", cheatMode: false

Keys must start with a letter, and can contain alphanumeric characters and underscores. Values can be strings, numbers, booleans, or even arrays and dictionaries - anything that can be JSON-encoded.

Each ParseObject has a class name that you can use to distinguish different sorts of data. For example, we could call the high score object a GameScore. We recommend that you NameYourClassesLikeThis and nameYourKeysLikeThis, just to keep your code looking pretty.

Let's say you want to save the GameScore described above to the Parse Cloud. The interface is similar to an IDictionary<string, object>, plus the SaveAsync method:

ParseObject gameScore = new ParseObject("GameScore");
gameScore["score"] = 1337;
gameScore["playerName"] = "Sean Plott";
Task saveTask = gameScore.SaveAsync();

After this code runs, you will probably be wondering if anything really happened. To make sure the data was saved, you can look at the Data Browser in your app on Parse. You should see something like this:

{
  "objectId": "xWMyZ4YEGZ",
  "score": 1337,
  "playerName": "Sean Plott",
  "cheatMode": false,
  "createdAt":"2022-01-01T12:23:45.678Z",
  "updatedAt":"2022-01-01T12:23:45.678Z"
}

There are two things to note here. You didn't have to configure or set up a new Class called GameScore before running this code. Your Parse app lazily creates this Class for you when it first encounters it.

There are also a few fields you don't need to specify that are provided as a convenience. ObjectId is a unique identifier for each saved object. CreatedAt and UpdatedAt represent the time that each object was created and last modified in the Parse Cloud. Each of these fields is filled in by Parse, so they don't exist on a ParseObject until a save operation has completed.

So far we've used values with type string and int assigned to fields of a ParseObject. Parse also supports double, DateTime, and null. You can also nest IDictionary<string, T> and IList<T> objects to store more structured data within a single ParseObject. Overall, the following types are allowed for each field in your object:

• String => string
• Number => primitive numeric values such as doubles, longs, or floats
• Bool => bool
• Array => objects that implement IList<T>
• Object => objects that implement IDictionary<string, T>
• Date => DateTime
• File => ParseFile
• Pointer => other ParseObject
• Relation => ParseRelation
• Null => null

Some examples:

int number = 42;
string str = "the number is " + number;
DateTime date = DateTime.Now;
IList<object> list = new List<object> { str, number };
IDictionary<string, object> dictionary = new Dictionary<string, object>
{
    { "number", number },
    { "string", str }
};

var bigObject = new ParseObject("BigObject");
bigObject["myNumber"] = number;
bigObject["myString"] = str;
bigObject["myDate"] = date;
bigObject["myList"] = list;
bigObject["myDictionary"] = dictionary;
Task saveTask = bigObject.SaveAsync();

We do not recommend storing large pieces of binary data like images or documents on ParseObject. We recommend you use ParseFiles to store images, documents, and other types of files. You can do so by instantiating a ParseFile object and setting it on a field. See Files for more details.

For more information about how Parse handles data, check out our documentation on Data.

Saving data to the cloud is fun, but it's even more fun to get that data out again. If the ParseObject has been uploaded to the server, you can retrieve it with its ObjectId using a ParseQuery:

ParseQuery<ParseObject> query = ParseObject.GetQuery("GameScore");
query.GetAsync("xWMyZ4YEGZ").ContinueWith(t =>
{
    ParseObject gameScore = t.Result;
});

To get the values out of the ParseObject, use the Get<T> method.

int score = gameScore.Get<int>("score");
string playerName = gameScore.Get<string>("playerName");
bool cheatMode = gameScore.Get<bool>("cheatMode");

Here are some examples for handling the various supported data types:

ParseObject bigObject = t.Result;
int number = bigObject.Get<int>("myNumber");
string str = bigObject.Get<string>("myString");
DateTime date = bigObject.Get<DateTime>("myDate");
byte[] data = bigObject.Get<byte[]>("myData");
IList<object> list = bigObject.Get<List<object>>("myList");
IDictionary<string, object> dictionary = bigObject.Get<Dictionary<string, object>>("myDictionary");
Debug.Log ("Number: " + number);
Debug.Log ("String: " + str);
Debug.Log ("Date: " + date);
string dataString = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetString(data, 0, data.Length);
Debug.Log ("Data: " + dataString);
foreach (var item in list) {
    Debug.Log ("Item: " + item.ToString());
}
foreach (var key in dictionary.Keys) {
    Debug.Log ("Key: " + key + " Value: " + dictionary[key].ToString());
}

The four special values are provided as properties:

string objectId = gameScore.ObjectId;
DateTime? updatedAt = gameScore.UpdatedAt;
DateTime? createdAt = gameScore.CreatedAt;
ParseACL? parseACL = gameScore.ACL;

If you need to get an object's latest data from Parse, you can call the FetchAsync method like so:

Task<ParseObject> fetchTask = myObject.FetchAsync();

Updating an object is simple. Just set some new data on it and call one of the save methods. For example:

// Create the object.
var gameScore = new ParseObject("GameScore")
{
    { "score", 1337 },
    { "playerName", "Sean Plott" },
    { "cheatMode", false },
    { "skills", new List<string> { "pwnage", "flying" } },
};
gameScore.SaveAsync().ContinueWith(t =>
{
    // Now let's update it with some new data.  In this case, only cheatMode
    // and score will get sent to the cloud.  playerName hasn't changed.
    gameScore["cheatMode"] = true;
    gameScore["score"] = 1338;
    gameScore.SaveAsync();
});

The client automatically figures out which data has changed so only "dirty" fields will be sent to Parse. You don't need to worry about squashing data that you didn't intend to update.

The above example contains a common use case. The "score" field is a counter that we'll need to continually update with the player's latest score. Using the above method works but it's cumbersome and can lead to problems if you have multiple clients trying to update the same counter.

To help with storing counter-type data, Parse provides methods that atomically increment (or decrement) any number field. So, the same update can be rewritten as:

gameScore.Increment("score");
Task saveTask = gameScore.SaveAsync();

You can also increment by any amount using Increment(key, amount).

To help with storing list data, there are three operations that can be used to atomically change a list field:

• AddToList and AddRangeToList append the given objects to the end of an list field.
• AddUniqueToList and AddRangeUniqueToList add only the given objects which aren't already contained in an list field to that field. The position of the insert is not guaranteed.
• RemoveAllFromList removes all instances of each given object from an array field.

For example, we can add items to the set-like "skills" field like so:

gameScore.AddRangeUniqueToList("skills", new[] { "flying", "kungfu" });
Task saveTask = gameScore.SaveAsync();

Note that it is not currently possible to atomically add and remove items from a list in the same save. You will have to call save in between every different kind of list operation.

To delete an object from the cloud:

Task deleteTask = myObject.DeleteAsync();

You can delete a single field from an object with the Remove method:

// After this, the playerName field will be empty
myObject.Remove("playerName");

// Saves the field deletion to the Parse Cloud
Task saveTask = myObject.SaveAsync();

Objects can have relationships with other objects. To model one-to-many relationships, any ParseObject can be used as a value in other ParseObjects. Internally, the Parse framework will store the referred-to object in just one place to maintain consistency.

For example, each Comment in a blogging app might correspond to one Post. To create a new Post with a single Comment, you could write:

// Create the post
var myPost = new ParseObject("Post")
{
    { "title", "I'm Hungry" },
    { "content", "Where should we go for lunch?" }
};

// Create the comment
var myComment = new ParseObject("Comment")
{
    { "content", "Let's do Sushirrito." }
};

// Add a relation between the Post and Comment
myComment["parent"] = myPost;

// This will save both myPost and myComment
Task saveTask = myComment.SaveAsync();

You can also link objects using just their ObjectIds like so:

myComment["parent"] = ParseObject.CreateWithoutData("Post", "1zEcyElZ80");

By default, when fetching an object, related ParseObjects are not fetched. These objects' values cannot be retrieved until they have been fetched like so:

ParseObject post = fetchedComment.Get<ParseObject>("parent");
Task<ParseObject> fetchTask = post.FetchIfNeededAsync();

For a many-to-many relationship, use the ParseRelation object. This works similar to a List<ParseObject>, except that you don't need to download all the objects in a relation at once. This allows ParseRelation to scale to many more objects than the List<ParseObject> approach. For example, a ParseUser may have many Posts that they might like. In this case, you can store the set of Posts that a ParseUser likes using GetRelation. In order to add a post to the list, the code would look something like:

var user = ParseUser.CurrentUser;
var relation = user.GetRelation<ParseObject>("likes");
relation.Add(post);
Task saveTask = user.SaveAsync();

You can remove a post from the ParseRelation with something like:

relation.Remove(post);

By default, the list of objects in this relation are not downloaded. You can get the list of Posts by using calling FindAsync on the ParseQuery returned by Query. The code would look like:

relation.Query.FindAsync().ContinueWith(t =>
{
    IEnumerable<ParseObject> relatedObjects = t.Result;
});

If you want only a subset of the Posts you can add extra constraints to the ParseQuery returned by Query like this:

var query = relation.Query
    .WhereGreaterThan("createdAt", DateTime.Now - TimeSpan.FromDays(10));
    // alternatively, add any other query constraints
query.FindAsync().ContinueWith(t =>
{
    IEnumerable<ParseObject> relatedObjects = t.Result;
});

For more details on ParseQuery please look at the query portion of this guide. A ParseRelation behaves similar to a List<ParseObject>, so any queries you can do on lists of objects you can do on ParseRelations.

Parse is designed to get you up and running as quickly as possible. You can access all of your data using the ParseObject class and access any field with Get<T>(). In mature codebases, subclasses have many advantages, including terseness, extensibility, type-safety, and support for code completion. Subclassing is completely optional, but can transform this code:

// Using dictionary-initialization syntax:
var shield = new ParseObject("Armor")
{
  { "displayName", "Wooden Shield" },
  { "fireproof", false },
  { "rupees", 50 }
};

// And later:
Debug.Log(shield.Get<string>("displayName"));
shield["fireproof"] = true;
shield["rupees"] = 500;

Into this:

// Using object-initialization syntax:
var shield = new Armor
{
  DisplayName = "Wooden Shield",
  IsFireproof = false,
  Rupees = 50
};

// And later:
Debug.Log(shield.DisplayName);
shield.IsFireproof = true;
shield.Rupees = 500;

To create a ParseObject subclass:

1. Declare a subclass which extends ParseObject.
2. Add a ParseClassName attribute. Its value should be the string you would pass into the ParseObject constructor, and makes all future class name references unnecessary.
3. Ensure that your subclass has a public default (i.e. zero-argument) constructor. You must not modify any ParseObject fields in this constructor.
4. Call ParseObject.RegisterSubclass<YourClass>() in a MonoBehaviour's Awake method and attach this to your Parse initialization GameObject..

The following code sucessfully implements and registers the Armor subclass of ParseObject:

// Armor.cs
using Parse;

[ParseClassName("Armor")]
public class Armor : ParseObject
{
}

// ExtraParseInitialization.cs (attach to your Parse
// initialization GameObject)
using UnityEngine;
using Parse;

public class ExtraParseInitialization : MonoBehaviour
{
  void Awake()
  {
    ParseObject.RegisterSubclass<Armor>();
  }
}

Adding methods and properties to your ParseObject subclass helps encapsulate logic about the class. You can keep all your logic about a subject in one place rather than using separate classes for business logic and storage/transmission logic.

You can add properties for the fields of your ParseObject easily. Declare the getter and setter for the field as you normally would, but implement them in terms of GetProperty<T>() and SetProperty<T>(). Finally, add a ParseFieldName attribute to the property to fully integrate the property with Parse, enabling functionality like automatically raising INotifyPropertyChanged notifications for your objects. The following example creates a displayName field in the Armor class:

// Armor.cs
[ParseClassName("Armor")]
public class Armor : ParseObject
{
  [ParseFieldName("displayName")]
  public string DisplayName
  {
    get { return GetProperty<string>("DisplayName"); }
    set { SetProperty<string>(value, "DisplayName"); }
  }
}

You can now access the displayName field using armor.DisplayName and assign to it using armor.DisplayName = "Wooden Sword". This allows your IDE to provide autocompletion as you develop your app and allows typos to be caught at compile-time.

ParseRelation-typed properties can also be easily defined using GetRelationProperty<T>. For example:

// Armor.cs
[ParseClassName("Armor")]
public class Armor : ParseObject
{
  [ParseFieldName("attributes")]
  public ParseRelation<ArmorAttribute> Attributes
  {
    get { return GetRelationProperty<ArmorAttribute>("Attributes"); }
  }
}

If you need more complicated logic than simple field access, you can declare your own methods as well:

public void TakeDamage(int amount) {
  // Decrease the armor's durability and determine whether it has broken
  this.Increment("durability", -amount);
  if (this.Durability < 0) {
    this.IsBroken = true;
  }
}

You should create new instances of your subclasses using the constructors you have defined. Your subclass must define a public default constructor that does not modify fields of the ParseObject, which will be used throughout the Parse SDK to create strongly-typed instances of your subclass.

To create a reference to an existing object, use ParseObject.CreateWithoutData<T>():

var armorReference = ParseObject.CreateWithoutData<Armor>(armor.ObjectId);

You can get a query for objects of a particular subclass using the generic ParseQuery<T> class. The following example queries for armors that the user can afford:

var query = new ParseQuery<Armor>()
    .WhereLessThanOrEqualTo("rupees", ((Player)ParseUser.CurrentUser).Rupees);
query.FindAsync().ContinueWith(t =>
{
    IEnumerable<Armor> result = t.Result;
});