Top Resources for API Architects and Developers
AWS Architecture BlogTop Resources for API Architects and Developersby George Mao | on10 SEP 2019| inAdvanced (300),Amazon API Gateway,Architecture,AWS AppSync|Permalink|ShareWe hope you’ve enjoyed reading our series onAPI architecture and development. We wrote about best practices forREST APIswith Amazon API Gateway  andGraphQL APIswith AWS AppSync. This post will cover the top resources that all API developers should be aware of.Tech Talks, Webinars, and Twitch Live StreamThe technical staff at AWS have produced a variety of digital media that cover new service launches, best practices, and customer questions. Be sure to review these videos for tips and tricks on building APIs:Happy Little APIs: This is a multi part series produced by our awesome Developer Advocate, Eric Johnson. He leads a series of talks that demonstrate how to build a real world API.API Gateway’s WebSocket webinar: API Gateway now supports real time APIs with Websockets. This webinar covers how to use this feature and why you should let API Gateway manage your realtime APIs.Best practices for building enterprise grade APIs: API Gateway reduces the time it takes to build and deploy REST development but there are strategies that can make development, security, and management easier.An Intro to AWS AppSync and GraphQL: AppSync helps you build sophisticated data applications with realtime and offline capabilities.Gain Experience With Hands-On Workshops and ExamplesOne of the easiest ways to get started with Serverless REST API development is to use theServerless Application Model (SAM). SAM lets you run APIs and Lambda functions locally on your machine for easy development and testing.For example, you canconfigureAPI Gateway as an Event source for Lambda with just a few lines of code:Type: ApiProperties:Path: /photosMethod: postThere are many greatexampleson our GitHub page to help you get started with Authorization (IAM,Cognito), Request, Response,  variouspolicies, andCORSconfigurations for API Gateway.If you’re working with GraphQL, you should review theAmplify Framework. This is an official AWS project that helps you quickly build Web Applications with built in AuthN and backend APIs using REST or GraphQL. With just a few lines of code, you can have Amplifyaddall required configurations for your GraphQL API. You have two options to integrate your application with an AppSync API:Directly using theAmplify GraphQL ClientUsing theAWS AppSync SDKAn excellent walk through of the Amplify toolkit isavailable here, including an example showing how to create a single page web app using ReactJS powered by an AppSync GraphQL API.Finally, if you are interested in a full hands on experience, take a look at:The Amazon API GatewayWildRydes workshop. This workshop teaches you how to build a functional single page web app with a REST backend, powered by API Gateway.The AWS AppSync GraphQLPhoto Workshop. This workshop teaches you how to use Amplify to quickly build a Photo sharing web app, powered by AppSync.Useful DocumentationThe official AWS documentation is the source of truth for architects and developers. Get started with theAPI Gateway developer guide. API Gateway is currently has two APIs (V1 and V2) for managing the service. Here is where you canview the SDK and CLI reference.Get started with theAppSync developer guide, andreview the AppSync management API.SummaryAs an API architect, your job is not only to design and implement the best API for your use case, but your job is also to figure out which type of API is most cost effective for your product. For example, an application with high request volume (“chatty“) may benefit from a GraphQL implementation instead of REST.API Gateway currently charges $3.50 / million requests and provides a free tier of 1 Million requests per month. There istiered pricing that will reduce your costs as request volume rises. AppSync currently charges $4.00 / million for Query and Mutation requests.WhileAppSync pricing per requestis slightly higher, keep in mind that the nature of GraphQL APIs typically result in significantly fewer overall request numbers.Finally, we encourage you to join us in the coming weeks — we will be starting a series of posts covering messaging best practices.TAGS:amazon api gateway,API,appsync,GraphQL APIs,REST APIs,serverlessGeorge MaoGeorge Mao is a Specialist Solutions Architect at Amazon Web Services, focused on the Serverless platform. George is responsible for helping customers design and operate Serverless applications using services like Lambda, API Gateway, Cognito, and DynamoDB. He is a regular speaker at AWS Summits, re:Invent, and various tech events. George is a software engineer and enjoys contributing to open source projects, delivering technical presentations at technology events, and working with customers to design their applications in the Cloud. George holds a Bachelor of Computer Science and Masters of IT from Virginia Tech.
We hope you’ve enjoyed reading our series on API architecture and development. We wrote about best practices for REST APIs with Amazon API Gateway  and GraphQL APIs with AWS AppSync. This post will cover the top resources that all API developers should be aware of. Tech Talks, Webinars, and Twitch Live Stream The technical staff at AWS have produced a variety […]
George Mao
Advanced (300) Amazon API Gateway Architecture AWS AppSync