Parse Dashboard can only be remotely accessed via HTTPS

[tran-huy-phuc]

After setting up the dashboard, I get the message "Parse Dashboard can only be remotely accessed via HTTPS".
I am hosting my backend on Digital Ocean (my domain is from Godaddy, but I didn't point to my IP yet), my dashboard url format: http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:4040.
I am a mobile developer and I don't have experience on setting up https. Please tell me how to fix this!

[drew-gross]

If you are running the dashboard on your own laptop (localhost), this shouldn't be an issue. If you want to run the dashboard on a remote server, https is mandatory to prevent you from leaking your Master Key and completely compromising the security of your app. https://letsencrypt.org/ can help you get started with https for free, or you can just run the dashboard locally.

[tran-huy-phuc]

Thanks @drew-gross
If I set up a https on Godaddy and point it to my IP address, will it work?

[drew-gross]

That should work, but I haven't used SSL on GoDaddy so I can't be 100% sure. The connection to the express app that serves the dashboard must be secure, so as long as your setup on GoDaddy ensures you have a secure connection to dashboard, it will work. I'd recommend trying letsencrypt.org first, it's free so if it doesn't work then you haven't lost anything.

[kevinbluer]

Hi @thphuc, any luck getting this set this up?

[tran-huy-phuc]

Hi @kevinbluer
I followed these step and it worked:

1. Install parse-dashboard: npm install -g parse-dashboard
2. Create config file
3. Run this command: parse-dashboard --config parse-dashboard-config.json --allowInsecureHTTP
   But this is for testing only, shouldn't use http for production

[alexargo]

I just got the dashboard set up on Heroku and am also getting this error even though I set the PARSE_DASHBOARD_ALLOW_INSECURE_HTTP environment variable to 1. I'm attempting to get it set up in Heroku like this as a node app that runs both the dashboard and the api/cloud code:

var api = new ParseServer({
  databaseURI: databaseUri || 'mongodb://localhost:27017/dev',
  cloud: process.env.CLOUD_CODE_MAIN || __dirname + '/cloud/main.js',
  appId: process.env.APP_ID || 'myAppId',
  masterKey: process.env.MASTER_KEY || '', //Add your master key here. Keep it secret!
  serverURL: process.env.SERVER_URL || 'http://localhost:1337/parse',  // Don't forget to change to https if needed
  liveQuery: {
    classNames: ["Posts", "Comments"] // List of classes to support for query subscriptions
  }
});

var dashboard = new ParseDashboard({
  apps: [
    {
      appId: process.env.APP_ID || 'myAppId',
      masterKey: process.env.MASTER_KEY || 'myMasterKey',
      serverURL: process.env.SERVER_URL || 'http://localhost:1337/parse',
      appName: process.env.APP_NAME || 'MyApp',
    },
  ],
});

var app = express();

// Serve static assets from the /public folder
app.use('/public', express.static(path.join(__dirname, '/public')));

// Serve the Parse API on the /parse URL prefix
var mountPath = process.env.PARSE_MOUNT || '/parse';
app.use(mountPath, api);

// Serve the Parse API on the /dashboard
app.use('/dashboard/', dashboard);

var port = process.env.PORT || 1337;
var httpServer = require('http').createServer(app);
httpServer.listen(port, function() {
    console.log('parse-server-example running on port ' + port + '.');   
});

Any clue what I'm missing @drew-gross @kevinbluer ?

Hi, i Have a same issue, the variable "allowInsecureHTTPS" won't work in a configuration section in index.js.. where is the error?

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

var databaseUri = 'mongodb://......';

var api = new ParseServer({
databaseURI: databaseUri || 'mongodb://localhost:27017/dev',
cloud: process.env.CLOUD_CODE_MAIN || __dirname + '/cloud/main.js',
appId: process.env.APP_ID || 'xxxx',
masterKey: process.env.MASTER_KEY || yyyy', //Add your master key here. Keep it secret!
serverURL: process.env.SERVER_URL || 'http://localhost:1337/parse', // Don't forget to change to https if needed
liveQuery: {
classNames: ["Posts", "Comments"] // List of classes to support for query subscriptions
}
});

var dashboard = new ParseDashboard({
"allowInsecureHTTP": true,
"apps": [
{
"serverURL": "http://localhost:1337/parse",
"appId": "xxx",
"masterKey": "yyy",
"appName": "appName"
}
],"users": [
{
"user":"user",
"pass":"pass"
}
]
});

var app = express();
`

[warrenca]

@milonet this worked for me

var config = {
  "allowInsecureHTTP": true,
  "apps": [
    {
      "serverURL": "http://localhost:1337/parse",
      "appId": "xxx",
      "masterKey": "yyy",
      "appName": "appName"
    }
  ],"users": [
    {
      "user":"user",
      "pass":"pass"
    }
  ]
};
var dashboard = new ParseDashboard(config, config.allowInsecureHTTP);

So the ParseDashboard class constructor accepts two parameters, first one if for the config file and second for allowInsecureHTTP flag. You can check out the code here.

[alexargo]

@warrenca I came to the same solution a few days ago. Seems like the environment variables and command line argument should work when running it as middleware too. I opened an issue for it: #361

[holgerbrandl]

None of the advice above seems applicable to the dockerized usage as detailed out under https://github.com/parse-community/parse-dashboard#run-with-docker

How can I work around the http/s issue when using docker image locally as described in the link?

[paulfreeman]

@holgerbrandl I'm having the same problem, runs fine locally outside Docker, but returns the same when running in Docker locally. There needs to be a way to pass in the allowInsecureHTTP config param into docker run for local use.

[flovilmart]

Yes the same way you pass the —port.