Can somebody please explain to me the exact differences between a ParseRole and a ParseRelation? I'm trying to figure out which one is more suitable for me to use and so far I can't see many differences. I originally thought that ParseRole was a many-to-many relationship and ParseRelation was a one-to-many, however it appears they're both many-to-many. Any light shed on the matter would be of great help!
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Manuel
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edwoollard
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ParseRole is a term used to define the role a User has, that is, what objects it can access. It is used in conjunction with ACLs (Access Control Lists) to add a layer of data security, ensuring only valid users access it.
Imagine a game whose backend is provided by Parse, this game has user generated levels and there's a group of players denoted "moderators". Moderators can delete other's levels if it breaks the game's rules. You only want them to be able to delete any level, so you create a role named moderator and assign delete permissions to it in the Level class' ACL.
ParseRelation, in the other hand, is a many-to-many relation between any kind of object.
This company is turning evil.
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Yeah that makes sense for `ParseRole` but I still don't really know when I'd use a `ParseRelation` over a `ParseRole`. – edwoollard Feb 05 '14 at 17:39
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Roles only serve the purpose of limiting access to objects, relations can express anything between two sets of objects. – This company is turning evil. Feb 05 '14 at 17:49
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So an example of using a `ParseRelation` would be? – edwoollard Feb 05 '14 at 17:54
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A Facebook user and their posts. – This company is turning evil. Feb 05 '14 at 18:30
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Thanks a bunch mate. Really helpful. I've decided to use Roles for my solution then. – edwoollard Feb 05 '14 at 18:31
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It would be useful to add more explanation of the `ParseRelation` to your answer, also bonus points for talking about arrays of pointers for lightweight use. – Timothy Walters Feb 05 '14 at 22:17