In this beginner’s guide, we’ll briefly describe the “Serverless” software architecture, and then create a RESTful API using AWS, Node.js, and Swagger in a few short minutes.

So what’s Serverless?

The term Serverless (a.k.a. Functions-as-a-Service) describes a type of architecture that allows code to be deployed to, and run on, ephemeral and stateless containers from third-party vendors (like Azure or AWS).

Serverless Benefits

Reduced operational management. Serverless architectures allows developers to focus on writing code, and not worry about configuring and managing the infrastructure that their code runs on.

Serverless architectures allows developers to focus on writing code, and not worry about configuring and managing the infrastructure that their code runs on. Easy, flexible scaling. Since Serverless “functions” (your Serverless applications) are stateless and always invoked by an event (like an HTTP request), you can run as many, or as few, functions as you need. More invocations mean more containers. Depending on the scale and shape of your traffic, this can be very cost efficient, since Serverless functions are typically billed per invocation.

Serverless Drawbacks

Latency for initial requests (known as “cold starts”). If the Serverless function is inactive (has not been run in a while), then handling the first invocation can require extra time to complete because the container will have to initialize (that is, allocate host, load code, and so on).

If the Serverless function is inactive (has not been run in a while), then handling the first invocation can require extra time to complete because the container will have to initialize (that is, allocate host, load code, and so on). Lack of system control. Since your code is running in an environment managed by a vendor, you won’t be able to control system upgrades, or dependencies outside of your code base.

And what’s CloudFormation?

CloudFormation is a service from Amazon that allows you to build AWS resources using templates. A template is a configuration file (YML or JSON) for provisioning all your AWS resources such as EC2 instances, DynamoDB tables, IAM roles and permissions, or anything else.

Let’s Start Coding!

In this tutorial, we are going to make a simple RESTful API with the following two endpoints:

POST /users/${userId}/hello

The request body will be saved in a DynamoDB table. In this tutorial, the request body must have this structure: { "email": "any@email.com" }

GET /users/${userId}/hello

The response will contain the value for "email" set in the POST request.

A simplified system architecture for what we’re going to build.

Step 1: Clone the repo

There are two files that you need for this tutorial: index.js (the NodeJS code for our Lambda function) and stack.yml (the CloudFormation stack template). To get these files, visit this Github link.

Step 2: Examine the stack.yml file

Pay attention to the stack.yml in the repo, as it is the config file that will be used by CloudFormation to create everything our application will require.

Below is a detailed diagram of all the AWS resources our stack.yml will need to create. The names that are used in the YML are in the red boxes.

All the AWS resources (grey boxes) that will be provisioned by our `stack.yml` CloudFormation file.

Step 3: Upload your CloudFormation Template

After you check out the YML, head over to this link and click the Create Stack button. Choose Upload a template to Amazon S3 and upload the stack.yml file.

Create your CloudFormation stack by first uploading our `stack.yml` template.

On the next screen, you will be ask to pick a Stack name (can be anything). After this, click Next and select I acknowledge that AWS CloudFormation might create IAM resources, and click Next again.

At this point, your stack is being created. Wait a minute on the Stacks page until your stack’s status becomes CREATE_COMPLETE.

The CloudFormation Stacks listing page with status.

Step 4: Find your Lambda created by CloudFormation

Once your stack is complete, go and find your stack’s new Lambda here. Your Lambda’s Function name should resemble ${StackName}-HelloLambda-XXXX.

Lambda listing page

Step 5: Deploy (copy and paste) your code to your Lambda

Once you’ve found your Lambda, click on it for more details. Then scroll to the Function Code section, change the Code entry type to Edit code inline, then open and copy index.js (from the repo) into the code editor. Click Save.

My Lambda details page with in-line code editor

At this point, your code has been “deployed” to the Lambda, and all that’s left is to deploy our API Gateway so we can send HTTP requests to it.

Step 6: Find your API Gateway that was created by CloudFormation

Find your API Gateway created by your CloudFormation template here. Your API Gateway’s name should resemble ${StackName}-MyApiGateway.

The details page for the /hello POST endpoint

Step 7: Test if your API Gateway is hooked up to Lambda

After you found your API Gateway, we can test to see if everything is hooked up by selecting the POST option under /users and then clicking TEST .

The Test page for the /hello POST endpoint after a successful test request.

On the Test page, set userId to 123, and set the Request Body to the following and click Test. If everything worked, the Status should be 200 with no data.

The Test page for the /hello GET endpoint after a successful test request.

After testing the POST endpoint, you can check to see if your data was saved by going to the /hello GET Test page and trying a request (remember to set userId to 123). The response body should contain the Request Body from the POST test (see above).

Now that you’ve verified that your API Gateway, Lambda, and DynamoDB are hooked up, you can deploy your API Gateway so you can reach it from the internet.

Step 8: Deploy your API Gateway

To deploy your API, click the Actions menu and select Deploy API. Once the confirmation pop-up appears, set Deployment stage to prod and then click Deploy.

The Deploy API option un the Actions dropdown.

Once you’ve deployed your API, you will be forwarded to the Stages page for prod. Here you will find the domain for your API Gateway in the blue highlighted area beside Invoke URL.

Find the public URL (Invoke URL) for your API Gateway in the big blue box.

Using the URL from the screenshot above, I should be able to send a GET /users/123/hello request in my web browser like below.

A successful request to my Serverless API from the outside world

And that’s it! You now have a Serverless RESTful API that is scalable, reliable, doesn’t require patching or provisioning, and doesn’t cost money when idle. I hope you’ve enjoyed this tutorial, and if you have any feedback, please leave it in the comments below. Thanks!

Other Notes and Callouts