Serverless Single Page Apps: Fast, Scalable, and Available

200 Pages·2016·1.14 MB·English

by  Ben Rady

Serverless Single Page Apps
Fast, Scalable, and Available
by Ben Rady
Version: P1.0 (June 2016)
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Thanks for your continued support,
Dave Thomas and Andy Hunt
The Pragmatic Programmers
The team that produced this book includes: Jacquelyn Carter (editor),
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To my wife Jenny, who gives me strength;
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And my son Will, who’ll save the world
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Guiding Principles
How to Read This Book
Online Resources
1. Starting Simple
Serverless Web Applications
Using Your Workspace
Deploying to Amazon S3
First Deployment
2. Routing Views with Hash Events
Designing a Testable Router
The Router Function
Adding Routes
Adding View Parameters
Loading the Application
Deploy Again
3. Essentials of Single Page Apps
Creating a View
Defining the Data Model
Handling User Input
Creating an Application Shell
Using Custom Events
Deploy Again
4. Identity as a Service with Amazon Cognito
Connecting to External Identity Providers
Creating an Identity Pool
Fetching a Google Identity
Requesting AWS Credentials
Creating a Profile View
Deploy Again
5. Storing Data in DynamoDB
Working with DynamoDB
Creating a Table
Authorizing DynamoDB Access
Saving Documents
Fetching Documents
Data Access and Validation
Deploy Again
6. Building (Micro)Services with Lambda
Understanding Amazon Lambda
Deploy First
Writing Lambda Functions
Invoking Lambda Functions
Using the Amazon API Gateway
Deploy Again
7. Serverless Security
Securing Your AWS Account
Query Injection Attacks
Cross-Site Scripting Attacks
Cross-Site Request Forgery
Wire Attacks and Transport Layer Security
Denial-of-Service Attacks
Deploy Again
8. Scaling Up
Monitor Web Services
Analyze S3 Web Traffic
Optimize for Growth
Costs of the Cloud
Deploy Again (and Again, and Again...)
A1. Installing Node.js
A2. Assigning a Domain Name
Bibliography
Copyright © 2016, The Pragmatic Bookshelf.
Early Praise for Serverless Single
Page Apps
The software industry is the ultimate meritocracy—millions of developers
individually deciding which technologies and trends lead to better, more
testable code; simpler solutions; more reliable outcomes; and less
burdensome maintenance. Ben is one of the visionaries who has looked
forward, seen the future in the form of serverless designs, and then come
back to teach the rest of us how to build the next generation of applications.
Like having a software coach by your side, his book makes serverless
design patterns easy to understand and leads you naturally into following
best practices for deploying and testing.
→Tim Wagner
@timallenwagner
Serverless Single Page Apps is a comprehensive, approachable guide for
developers of all backgrounds. Whether or not you use AWS, you will find
the lessons on everything from security and identity to data access
indispensable.
→Will Gaul
Ben walks through just the right mix of JavaScript to build client-side logic,
Cognito for authentication and authorization, and Lambda for more
sensitive features that can’t be trusted to browsers. JavaScript developers
will find new ways to do typically server-side functions and will finish the
book with a working serverless app that costs next to nothing to run.
→ Ryan Scott Brown
Author at serverlesscode.com and Serverless Framework contributor
Your dream app will no longer be on the application server, inside of a big
computer stored in your company’s closet. It is on the cloud—secure, and
managed by a fleet of services with excellent uptime. Let this book start
your new development journey.
→Daniel Hinojosa
Author of Testing in Scala
This book is a great introduction to the bleeding-edge concept of building a
serverless web application. It will take you from having zero knowledge to
deploying serverless applications.
→Jake McCrary
Lead software developer, Outpace Systems
I read a lot of technical books. This one is the best I’ve read this year, and
one of the best of all time. Ben Rady has an authorial voice that is both
relaxed and assuring. I never get the sense that he’s bragging about his
knowledge or needlessly padding his material. He switches fluently
between “here’s what we’re doing” and “here’s why we’re doing it” without
relying too heavily on one approach over the other. His opinions and his
technical choices are well founded and sound. Read this book.
→David Rupp
RuppWorks LLC
Acknowledgments

Thanks to Jackie Carter, my editor, as well as Dave, Andy, and everyone
else at The Pragmatic Bookshelf for their time, support, and energy. I could
not have created this book without you.
Thanks to all my technical reviewers, including Alex Disney, Clinton
Begin, Daniel Hinojosa, David Rupp, Jake McCrary, James Ross, Jeff
Sacks, Joshua Graham, Lucas Ward, Rene Duquesnoy, Rob Churchwell,
Ryan Brown, and Sebastian Krueger.
Thanks to everyone at Amazon who helped me validate the ideas in this
book, including Tim Wagner, Bob Kinney, Tim Hunt, and Will Gaul.
Also, thanks to everyone who provided other feedback during the beta,
either personally, via the errata page, on the forums, or on Github.com,
including Bill Caputo, Christopher Brackert, Christopher Moeller, Dennis
Burke, Ezequiel Rangel, Fred Daoud, Hal Wine, Jerry Tang, Ron Campbell,
and Timm Knape.
Thank you all for helping me create this book! Your feedback was
invaluable to me, and I truly appreciate your time and attention.
Copyright © 2016, The Pragmatic Bookshelf.