Servers are fun until they are not. Imagine, you are running a news agency which has high peaks of traffic but they happen sporadically (infrequently). It’ll be more cost effective to set up a REST API using serverless architecture with AWS Lambda to access and perform CRUD on tables in your noSQL DynamoDB database.

That’s because AWS Lambdas event driven. They are charged only when they are working unlike virtual machines (e.g., AWS EC2 instances) which are charged for always, as long as they are running. This way with Lambda, your company will pay only for peaks and in other times when there’s 0 traffic, it won’t be charged at all! Stales news get almost no traffic.

Also, your last IT Ops person is leaving to work for Google. Company can’t hire a replacement. Lambda will require almost no maintenance since they are managed app environment. All the patches, security and scaling is taken care off by AWS experts! AWS Lambda like most other serverless services (e.g., MS Azure Functions, IBM Cloud Functions) abstracts, that is hides away for good, all the complexities of creating and running a server and a virtual machine.

Task

The tutorial we will create a lambda CRUD microservice to save data in DB. We’ll build a REST API for all the tables not just one. As an example, we’ll be using and working with messages but clients can work with any table by sending a different query or payload. Later, we’ll be able to create auth and validate request and response in API Gateway (not covered in this lab).

We are going to use three Amazon Web Services:

DynamoDB

Lambda

API Gateway

The tutorial is broken down in the following steps:

Create DynamoDB table Create IAM role to access DynamoDB Create AWS Lambda Create API Gateway Test Clean up

The source code including highly useful bash scripts to create RESTful endpoints in API Gateway are in the GitHub repository for the AWS Intermediate course.

1. Create DynamoDB table

Before starting, make sure you have AWS CLI installed. If you don’t know how to do it, then follow instruction in my beginner post on AWS CLI called AWS CLI Tutorial: Creating a Web Server. You also need to configure 🔧 the AWS CLI with the proper access key and secret 🔑 which you can copy from your web console and enter using aws configure .

Firstly, create a table in AWS DynamoDB. DynamoDB is a NoSQL key-value database-as-a-service developed and offered by Amazon Web Services. There is just a single instance of DynamoDB per region, so there is no need to create a database like we would with MySQL RDS, but we will need to create a new table in DynamoDB before we can start saving data in the Lambda function.

The name of the table in these examples is messages . Feel free to modify it in the command options as you wish. The key name is id and the type is string ( S )

aws dynamodb create-table --table-name messages \ --attribute-definitions AttributeName=id,AttributeType=S \ --key-schema AttributeName=id,KeyType=HASH \ --provisioned-throughput ReadCapacityUnits=5,WriteCapacityUnits=5

We’ll get back the Arn identifier which is like a unique resource ID in AWS:

{ "TableDescription": { "TableArn": "arn:aws:dynamodb:us-west-1:161599702702:table/messages", "AttributeDefinitions": [ { "AttributeName": "id", "AttributeType": "N" } ], "ProvisionedThroughput": { "NumberOfDecreasesToday": 0, "WriteCapacityUnits": 5, "ReadCapacityUnits": 5 }, "TableSizeBytes": 0, "TableName": "messages", "TableStatus": "CREATING", "KeySchema": [ { "KeyType": "HASH", "AttributeName": "id" } ], "ItemCount": 0, "CreationDateTime": 1493219395.933 } }

We can also get this info by running another AWS CLI command:

aws dynamodb describe-table --table-name messages

We can get the list of all tables in the selected region (you can change 🔧 region using aws configure ):

aws dynamodb list-tables

Next, we can create a role for the function to access the database.

2. Create IAM role to access DynamoDB

This is a trust policy. It has a statement field:

{ "Version": "2012-10-17", "Statement": [ { "Sid": "", "Effect": "Allow", "Principal": { "Service": [ "lambda.amazonaws.com" ] }, "Action": "sts:AssumeRole" } ] }

Let’s create an IAM role with this trust policy so our lambda can access DynamoDB. First, create a role with a trust policy from a file using this command aws iam which points to a file (you can get it form the GitHub repository for the AWS Intermediate course):

aws iam create-role --role-name LambdaServiceRole --assume-role-policy-document file://lambda-trust-policy.json

If you are curious, the file lambda-trust-policy.json has the lambda service identifier lambda.amazonaws.com :

{ "Role": { "AssumeRolePolicyDocument": { "Version": "2012-10-17", "Statement": [ { "Action": "sts:AssumeRole", "Principal": { "Service": [ "lambda.amazonaws.com" ] }, "Effect": "Allow", "Sid": "" } ] }, "RoleId": "AROAJLHUFSSSWHS5XKZOQ", "CreateDate": "2017-04-26T15:22:41.432Z", "RoleName": "LambdaServiceRole", "Path": "/", "Arn": "arn:aws:iam::161599702702:role/LambdaServiceRole" } }

Write down the role Arn somewhere. We’ll need it later.

Next, add the policies so the lambda function can work with the database:

aws iam attach-role-policy --role-name LambdaServiceRole --policy-arn arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/AmazonDynamoDBFullAccess

No output is a good thing in this case. 😄

Other optional managed policy which we can use in addition to AmazonDynamoDBFullAccess is AWSLambdaBasicExecutionRole . It has the logs (CloudWatch) write permissions:

{ "Version": "2012-10-17", "Statement": [ { "Effect": "Allow", "Action": [ "logs:CreateLogGroup", "logs:CreateLogStream", "logs:PutLogEvents" ], "Resource": "*" } ] }

The commands to attach more managed policies are the same — aws iam attach-role-policy .

3. Create AWS Lambda

Now, here’s the code for the function. It’s in code/serverless/index.js in the GitHub repository for the AWS Intermediate course . It is very similar to Express request handler. It checks HTTP methods and performs CRUD on DynamoDB table accordingly. Table name comes from query string or from body.

'use strict' console.log('Loading function') const doc = require('dynamodb-doc') const dynamo = new doc.DynamoDB() // All the request info in event // "handler" is defined on the function creation exports.handler = (event, context, callback) => { // Callback to finish response const done = (err, res) => callback(null, { statusCode: err ? '400' : '200', body: err ? err.message : JSON.stringify(res), headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/json', } }) // To support mock testing, accept object not just strings if (typeof event.body == 'string') event.body = JSON.parse(event.body) switch (event.httpMethod) { // Table name and key are in payload case 'DELETE': dynamo.deleteItem(event.body, done) break // No payload, just a query string param case 'GET': dynamo.scan({ TableName: event.queryStringParameters.TableName }, done) break // Table name and key are in payload case 'POST': dynamo.putItem(event.body, done) break // Table name and key are in payload case 'PUT': dynamo.updateItem(event.body, done) break default: done(new Error(`Unsupported method "${event.httpMethod}"`)) } }

So either copy or type the code into a file and archive it with ZIP into db-api.zip . That’s right. We’ll be uploading a zip file to the cloud!

Now, we should create an AWS Lambda function from the source code. Use your IAM role Arn from the IAM step. The code for the function will come from a zip file. The handle is the name of the method in index.js for AWS to import and invoke.

aws lambda create-function --function-name db-api \ --runtime nodejs6.10 --role arn:aws:iam::161599702702:role/LambdaServiceRole \ --handler index.handler \ --zip-file fileb://db-api.zip \ --memory-size 512 \ --timeout 10

Memory size and timeout are optional. By default, they are 128 and 3 correspondingly.

Results will look similar to this but with different IDs of course:

{ "CodeSha256": "bEsDGu7ZUb9td3SA/eYOPCw3GsliT3q+bZsqzcrW7Xg=", "FunctionName": "db-api", "CodeSize": 778, "MemorySize": 512, "FunctionArn": "arn:aws:lambda:us-west-1:161599702702:function:db-api", "Version": "$LATEST", "Role": "arn:aws:iam::161599702702:role/LambdaServiceRole", "Timeout": 10, "LastModified": "2017-04-26T21:20:11.408+0000", "Handler": "index.handler", "Runtime": "nodejs6.10", "Description": "" }

Test function with this data which mocks an HTTP request ( db-api-test.json file):

{ "httpMethod": "GET", "queryStringParameters": { "TableName": "messages" } }

Run from a CLI (recommended) to execute function in the cloud:

aws lambda invoke \ --invocation-type RequestResponse \ --function-name db-api \ --payload file://db-api-test.json \ output.txt

Or testing can be done from the web console in Lambda dashboard (blue test button once you navigate to function detailed view):

The results should be 200 (ok status) and output in the output.txt file. For example, I do NOT have any record yet so my response is this:

{"statusCode":"200","body":"{\"Items\":[],\"Count\":0,\"ScannedCount\":0}","headers":{"Content-Type":"application/json"}}

The function is working and fetching from the database. We must test other HTTP methods by modifying the input. For example, to test creation of an item:

{ "httpMethod": "POST", "queryStringParameters": { "TableName": "messages" }, "body": { "TableName": "messages", "Item":{ "id":"1", "author": "Neil Armstrong", "text": "That is one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind" } } }

4. Create API Gateway

We will need to do the following:

Create REST API in API Gateway Create a resource (i.e, /db-api , e.g., /users , /accounts ) Define HTTP method(s) without auth Define integration to Lambda (proxy) Create deployment Give permissions for API Gateway resource and method to invoke Lambda

The process is not straightforward. Thus, we can use a shell script which will perform all the steps (recommended) or web console.

The shell script is in the create-api.sh file. It has inline comments to help you understand what is happening. Feel free to inspect create-api.sh . For brevity and to avoid clutter, the file is not copied into this document.

Run this command to create the API endpoint and integrate it with Lambda function (if you modified the region or the function name, you’ll need to change those values in script as well):

sh create-api.sh

In the end, script will make a GET request to check that everything is working. This is an example of running the automation script for the API Gateway (your IDs and Arns will be different):

sh create-api.sh { "id": "sdzbvm11w6", "name": "api-for-db-api", "description": "Api for db-api", "createdDate": 1493242759 } API ID: sdzbvm11w6 Parent resource ID: sdzbvm11w6 { "path": "/db-api", "pathPart": "db-api", "id": "yjc218", "parentId": "xgsraybhu2" } Resource ID for path db-api: sdzbvm11w6 { "apiKeyRequired": false, "httpMethod": "ANY", "authorizationType": "NONE" } Lambda Arn: arn:aws:lambda:us-west-1:161599702702:function:db-api { "httpMethod": "POST", "passthroughBehavior": "WHEN_NO_MATCH", "cacheKeyParameters": [], "type": "AWS_PROXY", "uri": "arn:aws:apigateway:us-west-1:lambda:path/2015-03-31/functions/arn:aws:lambda:us-west-1:161599702702:function:db-api/invocations", "cacheNamespace": "yjc218" } { "id": "k6jko6", "createdDate": 1493242768 } APIARN: arn:aws:execute-api:us-west-1:161599702702:sdzbvm11w6 { "Statement": "{\"Sid\":\"apigateway-db-api-any-proxy-9C30DEF8-A85B-4EBC-BBB0-8D50E6AB33E2\",\"Resource\":\"arn:aws:lambda:us-west-1:161599702702:function:db-api\",\"Effect\":\"Allow\",\"Principal\":{\"Service\":\"apigateway.amazonaws.com\"},\"Action\":[\"lambda:InvokeFunction\"],\"Condition\":{\"ArnLike\":{\"AWS:SourceArn\":\"arn:aws:execute-api:us-west-1:161599702702:sdzbvm11w6/*/*/db-api\"}}}" } { "responseModels": {}, "statusCode": "200" } Resource URL is https://sdzbvm11w6.execute-api.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/prod/db-api/?TableName=messages Testing... {"Items":[],"Count":0,"ScannedCount":0}%

We are all done!

5. Test

We can then manually run tests by getting resource URL and using cURL, Postman or any other HTTP client. For example, my GET looks like this (replace the URL with yours):

curl "https://sdzbvm11w6.execute-api.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/prod/db-api/?TableName=messages"

But my POST has a body and header with a unique ID:

curl "https://sdzbvm11w6.execute-api.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/prod/db-api/?TableName=messages" \ -X POST \ -H "Content-Type: application/json" \ -d '{"TableName": "messages", "Item": { "id": "'$(uuidgen)'", "author": "Neil Armstrong", "text": "That is one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind" } }'

Here’s an option: if you don’t want to copy paste your endpoint URL, then use environment variable to store URL and then CURL to it. Execute this once to store the env var API_URL :

APINAME=api-for-db-api REGION=us-west-1 NAME=db-api APIID=$(aws apigateway get-rest-apis --query "items[?name==\`${APINAME}\`].id" --output text --region ${REGION}) API_URL="https://${APIID}.execute-api.${REGION}.amazonaws.com/prod/db-api/?TableName=messages"

Then, run CURL for a GET request as many times as you want:

curl $API_URL

And for POST as many times as you want (thanks to uuidgen ):

curl ${API_URL} \ -X POST \ -H "Content-Type: application/json" \ -d '{"TableName": "messages", "Item": { "id": "'$(uuidgen)'", "author": "Neil Armstrong", "text": "That is one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind" } }'

The new items can be observed via HTTP interface by making another GET request… or in web console in DynamoDB dashboard as shown below:

Yet another option to play with your new REST API resource. A GUI Postman. Here’s how the POST request looks like in Postman. Remember to select POST, Raw and JSON (application/json):

To delete an item with DELETE HTTP request method, the payload must have a Key :

{ "TableName": "messages", "Key":{ "id":"8C968E41-E81B-4384-AA72-077EA85FFD04" } }

Congratulations! 👏🎆🎉 We’ve built an event-driven REST API for an entire database not just a single table!

Note: For auth, we can set up token-based auth on a resource and method in API Gateway. We can set up response and request rules in the API Gateway as well. Also, everything (API Gateway, Lambda and DynamoDB) can be set up in CloudFormation instead of a CLI or web console (example of Lambda with CloudFormation).

6. Clean up

Remove API Gateway API with delete-rest-api . For example here’s my command (for yours replace REST API ID accordingly):

aws apigateway delete-rest-api --rest-api-id sdzbvm11w6

Delete the function by its name:

aws lambda delete-function --function-name db-api

Finally, delete the database too by its name:

aws dynamodb delete-table --table-name messages

Troubleshooting

Internal server error: Check your JSON input. DynamoDB requires special format for Table Name and Key.

Permissions: Check the permission for API resource and method to invoke Lambda. Use test in API Gateway to debug

UnexpectedParameter: Unexpected key '0' found in params : Check that you are sending proper format, JSON vs. string

: Check that you are sending proper format, JSON vs. string <AccessDeniedException><Message>Unable to determine service/operation name to be authorized</Message></AccessDeniedException> : Make sure to use POST for integration-http-method as in the create-api script because API Gateway integration can only use POST to trigger functions even for other HTTP methods defined for this resource (like ANY).

: Make sure to use POST for integration-http-method as in the create-api script because API Gateway integration can only use POST to trigger functions even for other HTTP methods defined for this resource (like ANY). Wrong IDs: Make sure to check names and IDs if you modified the examples.

Wrap-up

AWS Lambda is an event driven service. Lambda and AWS API Gateway allow for a quick and efficient way of building RESTful APIs. Developers can setup a lambda (i.e., a function) in JavaScript, or any other major programming language, and trigger it by an HTTP request. Developer can configure the request method, such as GET, PUT, POST or DELETE, as well as authentication.

For more AWS tutorials, there are other posts in this series on Amazon Web Services:

Lastly, make sure to checkout some free preview lectures of NodeU courses: