aws-appsync-community VS serverless

For context; the web application is built with React and TypeScript which makes calls to an AppSync API that makes use of the Lambda and DynamoDB datasources. We use Step Functions to orchestrate the flow of events for complex processing like purchasing and renewing policies, and we use S3 and SQS to process document workloads.

AWS AppSync is a serverless GraphQL offering by AWS, previously I authored a blog about AWS AppSync 101 which gets you up to speed with the capabilities of AppSync and how you can leverage them in your serverless applications.

Amplify Studio's Data allows you to define Amazon DynamoDB keeping in mind the properties with the right type and also powered with AWS AppSync where which generates a GraphQL schema under the hood.

AWS AppSync I'm keeping this section a bit shorter for you all, since AppSync is not something I have actually used personally, but have heard great things about. AppSync is another API option AWS has made available specifically for applications that want to take advantage of GraphQL or a Publish/Subscribe model. The GraphQL model may be of interest to front end developers that need to query multiple sources of data from one API endpoint, like databases or microservices. The Pub/Sub model I am more familiar with in the IoT hardware-communicates-with-software aspect, however this is also powerful for frontend developers looking to take advantage of real-time updates with serverless WebSocket connections. With AppSync, you also have caching, offline data synchronization, and real-time updates. You can learn more and check out the developer docs on the AWS Website.

5. Amazon Appsync

Amplify is a set of tools that allows full-stack web and mobile developers to create and build apps. It makes using AWS services, like our Cognito identity and access management service, or our managed GraphQL service AppSync, much simpler and straight forward to use.

This was the top-voted, long-awaited request for AppSync.

Appsync is the AWS service focus on creating flexible APIs, and Amplify is the framework that combines multiple AWS tools to help you build any type of Application.

Check out AppSync (https://aws.amazon.com/appsync/) or Apollo, you can deploy Apollo app to AWS as serverless application.

I don't know any tutorials that cover all of these, but check out: https://cdkpatterns.com/ for 1) https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cdk/v2/guide/cdk_pipeline.html for 2) 3) and 5) https://docs.aws.amazon.com/serverless-application-model/latest/developerguide/serverless-cdk-testing.html for 4)

I would like to see re-useable design patterns advocated similar to the terraform/terragrunt modules concepts. Encouraging pulumi.ComponentResource definitions multi environment structure, best practices. The cdk guys have something similar https://cdkpatterns.com/.

While writing this post, the four stacks combined are 129 lines of source code. With the help of the CDK Constructs that are being used this translates to over 1k lines of code in CloudFormation. We are only using L2 constructs here – there is way more constructs available that you can use in the Constructs Hub and also a lot of guidance regarding the usage of CDK over at CDKPatterns.

I use the "Lambda-lith" pattern, primarily because I am using Rust and deploying via CI/CD (codepipeline).

Here is a read of common lambda design pattern https://github.com/cdk-patterns/serverless/blob/main/the-lambda-trilogy/README.md

Level 3 constructs are opinionated units of reusable code which often deliver a service. Open source level 3 constructs are available from AWS Solutions Constructs - an extension to the CDK, CDK Patterns - a library of well-architected patterns, Construct Hub - a library of open-source constructs and some even come out of the box with the CDK - these are appended with 'patterns' to make them identifiable. Two examples are shown below: