Storing Files in AWS S3

Using the S3Adapter

Writing to S3 from Parse Server is as simple as configuring and using the S3 files adapter in your main Node/Express script. Here's what it should look like:

...
var S3Adapter = require('parse-server').S3Adapter;

var api = new ParseServer({
  databaseURI: databaseUri || 'mongodb://localhost:27017/dev',
  appId: process.env.APP_ID || 'myAppId',
  masterKey: process.env.MASTER_KEY || '',
  ...
  filesAdapter: new S3Adapter(
    "AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID",
    "AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY",
    "BUCKET_NAME",
    {directAccess: true}
  ), 
  ...
});

Don't forget to change AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID, AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY and BUCKET_NAME to their correct value.

Setup your bucket and permissions

1. Log into your AWS account or create a new one

2. Head to the S3 service and choose Create Bucket

3. Fill out a unique Bucket Name (also it should not contain any period '.' for directAccess to work) and click Create (all other defaults are OK)

4. Now head to the Identity and Access Management (IAM) service

5. Click the Users tab, then Create New User

6. Fill out at least one user name and make sure Generate an access key for each user is selected before clicking Create

7. Make sure to Download Credentials on the next screen

8. Now select the Policies tab, then Create Policy

9. Select Create Your Own Policy, fill out a Policy Name

10. Copy the following config in Policy Document, changing BUCKET_NAME for the name of the bucket you created earlier. (note: this is a little more permissive than we need, but it works for now)

    {
        "Version": "2012-10-17",
        "Statement": [
            {
                "Effect": "Allow",
                "Action": [
                    "s3:*"
                ],
                "Resource": [
                    "arn:aws:s3:::BUCKET_NAME/*"
                ]
            }
         ]
     }

11. Make sure to Validate Policy first, then click Create Policy

12. Go back to the Users tab and select the user you created earlier

13. In Permissions, select Attach Policy and find the policy we just created to attach it

S3Adapter constructor options

new S3Adapter(accessKey, secretKey, bucket, options)

Required:

• accessKey: the AWS access key for a user that has the required permissions
• secretKey: the AWS secret key for the user
• bucket: the name of your S3 bucket. Needs to be globally unique in all of S3

options is a Javascript object (map) that can contain:

• region: the AWS region to connect to. Default: 'us-east-1'
• bucketPrefix: create all the files with the specified prefix added to the filename. Can be used to put all the files for an app in a folder with 'folder/'. Default: ''
• directAccess: whether reads are going directly to S3 or proxied through your Parse Server. Default: false