Add request information to FilesAdapter to be able to store files based in request info (like IP address)

[sarsonj]

Hi,

we are using S3 adapter for storing our files. Because of our app stores user's data (not public one), we wanted to store data to servers, that are close to users. It means EU users on EU servers, US users on US servers and so on. It also helps us to be GDPR complaint.

We tried to write our custom FIlesAdapter based on existing S3 adapter, but we realised, that it is not possible to get request information in FilesAdapter - we wanted to use client IP address to resolve location through GeoIP.

The proposal

I looked, that this should be relatively easy to inject additional data to FilesAdapter - in FilesRouter's createFile function we can send additional data to filesController. The FilesAdapter interface then can be extended by adding request parameter to createFile function.

Yes, this is breaking change, so that another option is to use options parameter in createFile method, that is already here.

Options considered

We were thinking about creating cloudCode function, that will emulate ParseFile functionality - it will get fileName and byte[] data and then store it. However, I am not sure, if it will not have impact on performance - doest Parse File has some special handing for large files upload or so? We will also lost functionality that Parse File provides and break code in our app, that is currently using Parse File.

[mtrezza]

Thank you for suggesting.

This would be a valuable feature addition to Parse Server. How would you want to see this implemented conceptually in more detail?

Yes, this is breaking change, so that another option is to use options parameter in createFile method, that is already here.

A breaking change in a basic functionality such as file upload would need a solid justification due to amount of deployments it affects. I would suggest to explore a solution that is not a breaking change. The options parameter seems to be a suitable approach.

It means EU users on EU servers, US users on US servers and so on. It also helps us to be GDPR complaint.

While this is not a legal forum, nor should this be considered legal advice, 2 aspects to consider:

• EU user data can be stored on US servers while being compliant with GDPR; with the invalidation of the EU-US privacy shield, the use of Standard Contractual Clauses can solve this.
• Storing Parse Server uploaded files on EU servers does not address other EU user data that is handled by Parse Server, e.g. the Parse Server _User collection that contains all users.

That being said, I think slowly developing Parse Server into a direction where user data can be stored in different geo-regions according to user properties would be a valuable addition. While some regions show a common economic interest in allowing user data exchange, albeit within certain frameworks, other regions show tendencies to categorically prevent user data to be stored outside the country and siloing off user data geographically.