aws-appsync-bookstore

The AWS AppSync Bookstore is an experimental AWS Amplify project built as part of MOB318 - "AWS AppSync does that: Support for alternative data sources" at re:Invent 2019. The intention of the project is to demonstrate approaches to integrating AWS AppSync with alternative data sources such as HTTP endpoints, Amazon ElastiCache, and AWS Secrets Manager.

This project makes use of the AWS Amplify CLI, making use of various escape hooks to add support for AWS resources such as VPC that are supported directly by Amplify.

Getting Started

Before you deploy, you will need to install the AWS Amplify CLI as well as Node.js. We suggest using an AWS Account for which you have Administrator access configured.

Deployment

Note: these instructions may need to be refined

To deploy the AWS AppSync Bookstore:

1. Fork this project, noting the URL of the newly created repository (FORK_GITHUB_URL).
2. Create an empty directory on your desktop / development environment.
3. Within the newly created directly, intialize the project amplify init --app <FORK_GITHUB_URL>.
4. Choose to create a new environment, for example dev.

Next, we will create a basic catalog of books using the New York Times Book API. You will need to create an NYT Dev API Key:

1. Navigate to https://developer.nytimes.com/get-started and create a new account.
2. Create a new app titled "appsync-bookstore".
3. Enable the "Books API".
4. Generate an App ID and key, making note of both.

Open the file amplify/backend/function/setup/setup-cloudformation-template.json. Search for the phrase INSERT_API_KEY_HERE and replace the value (keeping the quotes) with the newly created API key.

Next, navigate to the src directory for each function in amplify/backend/function and run npm install. There are a total of five functions for which this is currently required.

Use Amplify to deploy the infrastructure, amplify push. Note that this may take 30 minutes or more to complete.

We can use Amplify to invoke our setup Lambda function:

amplify function invoke setup

Responses are as follows:

• Provide the name of the script file that contains your handler function: index.js
• Provide the name of the handler function to invoke: handler

Once finished, you can start the local React development server: yarn start.

To do

• Add details on GoodReads API key, setting value in Secrets Manager
• Move NYT API key to Secrets Manager
• Book rating field is inoperable due to redirect by GoodReads