Building Serverless Web Applications

Book excerpt: Build scalable, efficient, and highly available web apps using AWS About This Book Get an in-depth understanding of the serverless model Build a complete serverless web application end to end Learn how to use the Serverless Framework to improve your productivity Who This Book Is For If you're looking to learn more about scalable and cost-efficient architectures, this book is for you. Basic knowledge of Node.js skills or familiarity with cloud services is required. For other topics, we cover the basics. What You Will Learn Get a grasp of the pros and cons of going serverless and its use cases Discover how you can use the building blocks of AWS to your advantage Set up the environment and create a basic app with the Serverless Framework Host static files on S3 and CloudFront with HTTPS support Build a sample application with a frontend using React as an SPA Develop the Node.js backend to handle requests and connect to a SimpleDB database Secure your applications with authentication and authorization Implement the publish-subscribe pattern to handle notifications in a serverless application Create tests, define the workflow for deployment, and monitor your app In Detail This book will equip you with the knowledge needed to build your own serverless apps by showing you how to set up different services while making your application scalable, highly available, and efficient. We begin by giving you an idea of what it means to go serverless, exploring the pros and cons of the serverless model and its use cases. Next, you will be introduced to the AWS services that will be used throughout the book, how to estimate costs, and how to set up and use the Serverless Framework. From here, you will start to build an entire serverless project of an online store, beginning with a React SPA frontend hosted on AWS followed by a serverless backend with API Gateway and Lambda functions. You will also learn to access data from a SimpleDB database, secure the application with authentication and authorization, and implement serverless notifications for browsers using AWS IoT. This book will describe how to monitor the performance, efficiency, and errors of your apps and conclude by teaching you how to test and deploy your applications. Style and approach This book takes a step-by-step approach on how to use the Serverless Framework and AWS services to build Serverless Applications. It will give you a hands-on feeling, allowing you to practice while reading. It provides a brief introduction of concepts while keeping the focus on the practical skills required to develop applications.