Updating AWS Lambda Function Code when Local Files Change

For my project, we have a Node.js server deployed as an AWS Lambda function. The server’s dependencies (Node modules) are deployed in a Lambda layer. We want an easy process to deploy a new Lambda layer version when we update the Node modules and to update the Lambda function code whenever we update the local […]

How We Built a Scrappy Curriculum Editor using VSCode, TypeScript, and AWS Lambda

Great apps aren’t stuck in the mud. They change with the times. They float like oak leaves along a wide river of user expectations, business requirements, fashion trends, and platform changes. To keep floating, leaves 🍂 apps need a watchful team of developers to walk the muddy banks nudging them back toward fast water whenever […]

Handling an AWS NAT Gateway Implicit Dependency with Terraform

Terraform does a great job of automatically optimizing the creation and modification of obvious dependent resources (correctly ordering and chaining operations). However, it cannot always know about other dependencies implicit in the infrastructure.

Creating Amplify Email Campaigns in JavaScript

On my current project, we are using AWS Amplify to manage cloud infrastructure. One of the reasons we’re using Amplify is to send targeted emails to our users through AWS’s analytics tool, Pinpoint. Setting up an email channel through Amplify turned out to require extra work since, at the time of writing this blog post, […]

Creating Custom CloudWatch Alarms for AWS Lambdas

AWS allows you to setup CloudWatch alarms on many performance-related metrics. Doing this for metrics like CPU load or storage use is trivial. However, setting up custom alarms based on events or errors in a log isn’t as straightforward. By the end of this post, you should know how to set up alarms based on […]

What’s the AWS IoT Suite Like? – A Dozen Lego Kits Mixed Together

Recently, I’ve been hearing more and more chatter about Amazon’s AWS IoT tool suite, so I decided to do a bit of research to see what they have to offer. As with most Amazon development tools, there is a ton of documentation on these tools. But of course, the useful information is spread out across […]

Setting Up Amazon’s Dash Replenishment Services and Login with Amazon on Android

On my current project, we’re integrating Amazon’s Dash Replenishment Services (DRS) into an Android app. DRS allows “smart” devices to automatically reorder supplies from Amazon if users of the device (and accompanying apps) opt in. For example, a washing machine might order more detergent, or an electronic device might order more batteries. The order is triggered once […]

Amazon Lambda Auto-Deployment For Your Alexa Skill Using AWS CLI

My latest project includes integration with Amazon’s Alexa voice service. My coworker Jordan already wrote an excellent post on how to get started writing your own Alexa Custom Skill. Amazon’s API makes it relatively easy to develop a new Skill, and with a number of languages to choose from (Python, Node.js, Java, C#, etc), developers […]

Ansible Communication with AWS EC2 Instances on a VPC

I’ve recently started using Ansible to manage Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) hosts on Amazon Web Services (AWS). While it is possible to have public IP addresses for EC2 instances on an AWS Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), I opted to place the EC2 instances on a private VPC subnet which does not allow direct access from […]

Managing AWS Route 53 Hosted Zones with AWS Lambda

On AWS, I use a Route 53 private hosted zone for Amazon VPC to allow me to conveniently address EC2 instances and other resources. While all EC2 instances are automatically assigned a private DNS entry, it is usually something fairly unintelligable such as “ip-172-31-51-229.us-west-2.compute.internal.” An entry like “website-production.atomic.aws” is much more helpful, especially when trying […]

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