Parse-server: File uploads over 1MB fail (Code=3840) when using AWS vs Heroku or Parse.com

[barnaclejive]

This may sound strange but I have been able to consistently reproduce it.

I have been testing using my app using 3 different backends and have noticed a difference in file upload success for files over 1MB.

• Parse.com uploads work ok for all file uploads ✔️
• Heroku hosted parse-server using S3 file adapter work ok for all file uploads ✔️
• AWS hosted parse-server using S3 file adapter fail if the image size is over 1 MB. ❌

The exception is:

Error Domain=NSCocoaErrorDomain Code=3840 "JSON text did not start with array or object and option to allow fragments not set." UserInfo={NSDebugDescription=JSON text did not start with array or object and option to allow fragments not set.}

The Heroku and AWS hosted parse-servers use the exact same configuration (fileKey, mLab db, S3 bucket, S3 credentials, etc). Both are using the same version of parse-server-example which I have configured to use parse-server 2.2.7. They are both deployed from the same git repo.

I understand this doesn't seem like it would be an issue with the parse-server itself, but in any case I would appreciate any thoughts on why parse-server would be responding with a JSON failure. The 1MB threshold makes it seem like there must be some explicit size check occurring along the way somewhere (AWS, S3, parse-server, or S3 Adapter).

[mattgoldspink]

Hi - I hit similar limits with server on AWS. Assuming you have a similar setup it's likely due to the limits on request size in the default nginx config. You can increase it following this blog post:

https://kroltech.com/2014/09/14/quick-tip-increase-upload-size-in-aws-elastic-beanstalk-node-js-env/

Hope that helps.

[barnaclejive]

@mattgoldspink - I think that did it, thanks!

[aliasad106]

@mattgoldspink What if I'm using docker ?

[aaronfranco]

I'm using EC2 for my server and s3 File Adapter. I cannot seem to resolve this issue. No matter how I set this up, I'm limited to 1MB file uploads.

Node v6.6.0
NPM v3.10.3
Parse-Server v2.3.8
body-parser v1.17.1
express v4.15.2

This is what my files adapter looks like this:

s3Adapter = new S3Adapter("xxxxx", "xxxxx", "abc",{directAccess: true});

My Parser Server set is basic standard setup using the S3 Files Adapter

var api = new ParseServer({
  databaseURI: process.env.DB_URL,
  verifyUserEmail: process.env.VERIFY_EMAIL ,
  publicServerURL: process.env.EMAIL_URL,
  appName: process.env.APP_NAME ,
  enableAnonymousUsers: false,
  mountPath: "/",
  emailAdapter: sesServer,
  cloud: process.env.CLOUD_CODE,
  appId: process.env.APP_ID,
  fileKey: process.env.FILE_KEY ,
  filesAdapter:s3Adapter,
  masterKey: process.env.MASTER_KEY,
  clientKey: process.env.CLIENT_KEY,
  restAPIKey: process.env.REST_KEY,
  javascriptKey: process.env.JS_KEY,
  dotNetKey: process.env.DOT_NET_KEY,
  serverURL: process.env.CC_SERVER_URL,
  push: pushObj
});

I have this set up for my Body Parser.

app.use(bodyParser.raw({limit:'50mb'}));
app.use(bodyParser.json({limit: '50mb', type:'application/json'}));
app.use(bodyParser.urlencoded({limit: '50mb'}));

Then I have the following Express Routing settings

var url = process.env.API_URL || "/";

app.use(function(req, res, next) {
  res.header("Access-Control-Allow-Origin", "*");
  res.header("Access-Control-Allow-Methods", "OPTIONS, POST, GET, PUT, DELETE");
  res.header("Access-Control-Allow-Headers", "X-Parse-REST-API-Key, X-Parse-Javascript-Key, X-Parse-Application-Id, X-Parse-Client-Version, X-Parse-Session-Token, X-Requested-With, X-Parse-Revocable-Session, Content-Type");
  res.header('Access-Control-Allow-Credentials', true);
  if ('OPTIONS' == req.method) {
      return res.sendStatus(200);
  } else {
      console.log("Got Request")
      next();
  }
});
app.use(url, api);


http.createServer(app).listen(app.get('port'), function(){
  console.log('Express server listening on port ' + app.get('port'));
});

[flovilmart]

Did you check nginx/apache max upload size options?

[aaronfranco]

yeah, that worked... I just forgot that we had an additional proxy using Nginx.. duh :) Thanks!

[flovilmart]

Eheh :)