aws-simple

A Node.js interface for AWS that allows easy configuration and deployment of simple web apps.

Quick Overview

aws-simple allows you to easily create and deploy an API Gateway with a custom domain and optional alias record, host static web resources via S3, and provision public backend APIs via Lambda. In addition, a local DEV server can be started to emulate the resulting AWS infrastructure.

aws-simple-example

For a quick impression, an example app is available that consists essentially of a React component that retrieves text from a Lambda function using a React.useEffect hook and displays it. Parcel is used for bundling and TypeScript as language.

Motivation

In my job I mainly build web apps on top of existing backend/CMS systems. Since many of the frontend tech stacks are similar again and again, I created an abstraction for the AWS CDK/SDK for a faster and easier setup.

Since existing backend/CMS systems are used, an additional persistence layer is rarely required. Therefore, setting up such a layer (e.g. with Amazon DynamoDB) is not supported.

I deliberately kept it simple. An app with a more complex setup should be set up manually with the AWS CDK/SDK.

Getting Started

Install Dependencies

You need to install aws-simple and aws-cdk as dependencies, e.g. with:

yarn add --dev aws-simple aws-cdk

Create An AWS IAM User

You need to create an AWS IAM user with programmatic access and the following attached policy:

{
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement": [
    {
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "apigateway:*",
        "cloudformation:*",
        "iam:*",
        "lambda:*",
        "route53:*",
        "s3:*"
      ],
      "Resource": "*"
    }
  ]
}

Note: This policy has more rights than necessary and should be more specific for security.

Optional: Create An AWS Profile

You can install the aws CLI, e.g. with:

brew install awscli

You can then set up the AWS profile using the credentials from the AWS IAM user you just created:

aws configure

AWS Access Key ID [None]: ********************
AWS Secret Access Key [None]: ****************************************
Default region name [None]: eu-central-1
Default output format [None]: json

Note: If a profile other than the default profile is to be set up, the aws CLI can be called with the --profile CLI option, e.g.:

aws configure --profile my-profile

As an alternative to using the aws CLI, you can create the following files manually:

cat ~/.aws/credentials

[default]
aws_access_key_id = ********************
aws_secret_access_key = ****************************************

cat ~/.aws/config

[default]
output = json
region = eu-central-1

Set The AWS Profile

The following two environment variables AWS_PROFILE and AWS_DEFAULT_PROFILE are evaluated in the specified order. If neither of the two environment variables is set, the default profile is used.

The following is an example of setting a specific profile:

AWS_PROFILE=my-profile yarn aws-simple list

Set The AWS Credentials

The following two environment variables AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID and AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY are evaluated. If these are not set, an attempt is made to read the credentials from the AWS shared credentials file using the AWS profile. The default location of the file (~/.aws/credentials) can be overwritten by setting the environment variable AWS_SHARED_CREDENTIALS_FILE.

Set The AWS Region

The following two environment variables AWS_REGION and AWS_DEFAULT_REGION are evaluated in the specified order. If neither of the two environment variables is set, an attempt is made to read the region from the AWS config file using the AWS profile. The default location of the file (~/.aws/config) can be overwritten by setting the environment variable AWS_CONFIG_FILE.

Create A Config File

To use the aws-simple CLI you have to create a top-level config file named aws-simple.config.js which exports an object compatible to the AppConfig interface.

For example, a config file with the following content describes a simple app consisting of a single static HTML file:

exports.default = {
  appName: 'my-app',
  appVersion: 'latest',
  createStackConfig: port => ({
    s3Configs: [
      {
        type: 'file',
        publicPath: '/',
        localPath: 'dist/index.html',
        bucketPath: 'index.html'
      }
    ]
  })
};

Note: The createStackConfig function optionally gets a port argument. It is set when the function is called in the context of the aws-simple start [options] CLI command. This gives the opportunity to create different StackConfig objects for either AWS or the local DEV environment.

The createStackConfig function is only called in the context of the following CLI commands:

aws-simple create [options]
aws-simple upload [options]
aws-simple start [options]

Bootstrap Your AWS Environment

Before you can use the AWS CDK you must bootstrap your AWS environment to create the infrastructure that the AWS CDK CLI needs to deploy your app:

yarn cdk bootstrap --app 'yarn aws-simple create'

Note: This command only needs to be executed once.

Start A Local DEV Server

yarn aws-simple start

Note: When changing the aws-simple config file, the DEV server must be restarted. If a bundler such as Parcel or Webpack is used, its watcher must be started in addition to the DEV server.

Deploy A Stack To AWS

Create and deploy a stack using the CDK:

yarn cdk deploy --app 'yarn aws-simple create'

The name of the deployed stack consists of the app name (e.g. my-app) in combination with the app version (e.g. latest) such as aws-simple--my-app--latest.

Caution: Re-deploying an already deployed stack (so a stack with the same name) will remove all tags set with aws-simple tag [options].

Upload files to S3:

yarn aws-simple upload

Example package.json scripts:

{
  "scripts": {
    "deploy": "cdk deploy --app 'yarn aws-simple create'",
    "postdeploy": "aws-simple upload"
  }
}

Note: In a CI pipeline the deploy script should be called with the additional argument --require-approval never, e.g. yarn deploy --require-approval never.

Configuration

Use TypeScript For Auto-Completion Support

TypeScript 2.3 and later support type-checking in *.js files by adding a // @ts-check comment to them:

// @ts-check

/**
 * @type {import('aws-simple').AppConfig}
 */
exports.default = () => ({
  appName: 'my-app',
  appVersion: 'latest',
  createStackConfig: () => ({
    /* ... */
  })
});

Configure A Custom Domain

In order to use a custom domain, a public certificate and a public hosted zone must be created manually. You can then configure a custom domain as follows:

const appName = 'my-app';
const appVersion = process.env.APP_VERSION || 'latest';

exports.default = () => ({
  appName,
  appVersion,
  createStackConfig: () => ({
    customDomainConfig: {
      certificateArn:
        'arn:aws:acm:eu-central-1:************:certificate/********-****-****-****-************',
      hostedZoneId: '**************',
      hostedZoneName: 'example.com',
      aliasRecordName: appVersion !== 'latest' ? appVersion : undefined
    }
  })
});

Note: Different app versions allow multiple stacks of the same app to be deployed simultaneously. In this case the optional aliasRecordName property is used to give each stack its own URL, for example example.com or beta.example.com (APP_VERSION=beta).

Configure A Lambda Function

You can configure a Lambda function that can be accessed via GET request at the URL my-app.example.com/endpoint as follows:

const appVersion = process.env.APP_VERSION || 'latest';

exports.default = {
  appName: 'my-app',
  appVersion,
  createStackConfig: port => ({
    lambdaConfigs: [
      {
        httpMethod: 'GET',
        publicPath: '/endpoint',
        localPath: 'path/to/lambda.js',

        // Optional example properties
        description: 'My Lambda function.',
        memorySize: 3008,
        timeoutInSeconds: 28,
        loggingLevel: 'INFO',
        cachingEnabled: true,
        cacheTtlInSeconds: 3600,
        acceptedParameters: {
          foo: {},
          bar: {isCacheKey: true},
          baz: {required: true},
          qux: {isCacheKey: true, required: true}
        },
        environment: {
          BASE_URL: port
            ? `http://localhost:${port}` // Local DEV server
            : `https://${appVersion}.example.com`
        }
      }
    ]
  })
};

The contents of file path/to/lambda.js could look like this:

async function handler() {
  return {
    statusCode: 200,
    headers: {'Content-Type': 'application/json'},
    body: JSON.stringify('Hello, World!')
  };
}

exports.handler = handler;

If the export of the Lambda function node module has a different name than handler, this must be explicitly specified in the Lambda configuration:

exports.default = () => ({
  appName: 'my-app',
  appVersion: 'latest',
  createStackConfig: () => ({
    lambdaConfigs: [
      {
        /* ... */
        handler: 'myHandler'
      }
    ]
  })
});

Note: If external node modules are to be referenced in the Lambda function node module, it must be bundled with a bundler such as Webpack (in this case you have to set the target to node: {target: 'node'}) to create a single node module bundle.

Configure An S3 File

You can configure an S3 file that can be accessed via GET request at the URL my-app.example.com/ as follows:

exports.default = () => ({
  appName: 'my-app',
  appVersion: 'latest',
  createStackConfig: () => ({
    s3Configs: [
      {
        type: 'file',
        publicPath: '/',
        localPath: 'path/to/file.html',

        // Optional example properties
        bucketPath: 'file.html',
        cachingEnabled: true,
        cacheTtlInSeconds: 3600
      }
    ]
  })
});

Note: The file specified under the localPath is loaded into the S3 bucket associated with the stack using the aws-simple upload [options] CLI command. The optionally specified bucketPath or, if not specified, the publicPath is used as the S3 object key.

Configure A Single-page Application

Instead of specifying multiple s3Configs, you can also specify a catch-all s3Config. For example a single greedy publicPath (/{proxy+}) will intercept requests made to /, /foo, and /bar. This can be useful to deliver the same single-page Application under different paths.

exports.default = () => ({
  appName: 'my-app',
  appVersion: 'latest',
  createStackConfig: () => ({
    s3Configs: [
      {
        type: 'file',
        publicPath: '/{proxy+}',
        localPath: 'dist/index.html',
        bucketPath: 'index.html'
      }
    ]
  })
});

Configure An S3 Folder

You can configure an S3 folder whose contained files can be accessed via GET request at the URL my-app.example.com/assets/* as follows:

exports.default = () => ({
  appName: 'my-app',
  appVersion: 'latest',
  createStackConfig: () => ({
    s3Configs: [
      {
        type: 'folder',
        publicPath: '/assets',
        localPath: 'path/to/folder',

        // Optional example properties
        responseHeaders: {
          accessControlAllowOrigin: '*',
          cacheControl: 'max-age=157680000'
        },
        cachingEnabled: true,
        cacheTtlInSeconds: 3600
      }
    ]
  })
});

Note: All files contained in the folder specified under the localPath are loaded into the S3 bucket associated with the stack using the aws-simple upload [options] command. Nested folders are ignored! Thus a separate S3 config object must be created for each nested folder.

Dynamically Set Config Properties

Since the config file is a node module, individual properties can also be set dynamically. For example, you can set the appVersion based on the current Git commit SHA or Git tag ref:

const {isTagDirty, short, tag} = require('git-rev-sync');

function detectAppVersion() {
  const {GITHUB_REF, GITHUB_SHA} = process.env;

  if (GITHUB_REF) {
    return GITHUB_REF.replace(/\./g, '-');
  }

  if (GITHUB_SHA) {
    return GITHUB_SHA.slice(7);
  }

  if (isTagDirty()) {
    return short();
  }

  return tag().replace(/\./g, '-');
}

const appVersion = detectAppVersion();

exports.default = () => ({
  appName: 'my-app',
  appVersion,
  createStackConfig: () => ({
    customDomainConfig: {
      /* ... */
      hostedZoneName: 'example.com',
      aliasRecordName: appVersion
    }
  })
});

Enable Binary Support

You can specify media types (e.g. image/png, application/octet-stream, etc.) to be treated as binary as follows:

exports.default = () => ({
  appName: 'my-app',
  appVersion: 'latest',
  createStackConfig: () => ({
    binaryMediaTypes: ['font/woff2']
  })
});

Enable Payload Compression

You can enable compression for an API as follows:

exports.default = () => ({
  appName: 'my-app',
  appVersion: 'latest',
  createStackConfig: () => ({
    minimumCompressionSizeInBytes: 1000
  })
});

CLI Usage

Usage: aws-simple <command> [options]

Commands:
  aws-simple create [options]    Create a stack using the CDK
  aws-simple upload [options]    Upload files to S3
  aws-simple start [options]     Start a local DEV server
  aws-simple list [options]      List all deployed stacks
  aws-simple tag [options]       Tag a deployed stack
  aws-simple clean-up [options]  Clean up old deployed stacks

Options:
  --version   Show version number                                      [boolean]
  -h, --help  Show help                                                [boolean]

A Node.js interface for AWS that allows easy configuration and deployment of
simple web apps.

Create A Stack Using The CDK

aws-simple create [options]

Create a stack using the CDK

Options:
  --version   Show version number                                      [boolean]
  -h, --help  Show help                                                [boolean]

Examples:
  npx aws-simple create
  npx cdk deploy --app 'npx aws-simple create'

Upload Files To S3

aws-simple upload [options]

Upload files to S3

Options:
  --version   Show version number                                      [boolean]
  -h, --help  Show help                                                [boolean]

Examples:
  npx aws-simple upload

Start A Local DEV Server

aws-simple start [options]

Start a local DEV server

Options:
  --version   Show version number                                      [boolean]
  -h, --help  Show help                                                [boolean]
  --port      The port to listen on if available, otherwise listen on a random
              port                                      [number] [default: 3000]
  --cache     Enable caching of successful caching-enabled Lambda function
              results per request URL                 [boolean] [default: false]
  --verbose   Enable logging of successful Lambda function results
                                                      [boolean] [default: false]

Examples:
  npx aws-simple start
  npx aws-simple start --port 3001 --cache --verbose

List All Deployed Stacks

aws-simple list [options]

List all deployed stacks

Options:
  --version   Show version number                                      [boolean]
  -h, --help  Show help                                                [boolean]

Examples:
  npx aws-simple list

Tag A Deployed Stack

aws-simple tag [options]

Tag a deployed stack

Options:
  --version   Show version number                                      [boolean]
  -h, --help  Show help                                                [boolean]
  --add       The tags to add                              [array] [default: []]
  --remove    The tags to remove                           [array] [default: []]
  --yes       The confirmation message will automatically be answered with yes
                                                      [boolean] [default: false]

Examples:
  npx aws-simple tag --add latest release --remove prerelease
  npx aws-simple tag --add prerelease --yes

Clean Up Old Deployed Stacks

aws-simple clean-up [options]

Clean up old deployed stacks

Options:
  --version   Show version number                                      [boolean]
  -h, --help  Show help                                                [boolean]
  --min-age   The minimum age (in days) of a stack for deletion
                                                          [number] [default: 30]
  --exclude   Tags that exclude a stack from deletion      [array] [default: []]
  --yes       The confirmation message will automatically be answered with yes
                                                      [boolean] [default: false]

Examples:
  npx aws-simple clean-up
  npx aws-simple clean-up --min-age 14 --exclude release prerelease --yes

Development

Publish A New Release

yarn release patch

yarn release minor

yarn release major

After a new release has been created by pushing the tag, it must be published via the GitHub UI. This triggers the final publication to npm.

unstubbable/aws-simple

aws-simple

Contents

Quick Overview

aws-simple-example

Motivation

Getting Started

Install Dependencies

Create An AWS IAM User

Optional: Create An AWS Profile

Set The AWS Profile

Set The AWS Credentials

Set The AWS Region

Create A Config File

Bootstrap Your AWS Environment

Start A Local DEV Server

Deploy A Stack To AWS

Configuration

Use TypeScript For Auto-Completion Support

Configure A Custom Domain

Configure A Lambda Function

Configure An S3 File

Configure A Single-page Application

Configure An S3 Folder

Dynamically Set Config Properties

Enable Binary Support

Enable Payload Compression

CLI Usage

Create A Stack Using The CDK

Upload Files To S3

Start A Local DEV Server

List All Deployed Stacks

Tag A Deployed Stack

Clean Up Old Deployed Stacks

Development

Publish A New Release