Mixing Amplify with CDK - Building an Authenticated GraphQL API with TypeScript on AWS

[@ApoorvMote]

Thanks Nader. I switched from amplify to cdk because of lack of flexibility. Now I can use both.

[@mycraplife]

A tutorial for Amplify creating a Websocket API with API Gateway, Lambda , Dynamodb to track user status/activity would be amazing!

[@jorcastle]

Amazing Nader Dabit, you're the best

[@rorycawley8334]

Love this. Please can you make more CDK videos with Amplify?

[@lukeparker6026]

I was looking at this video specifically for referencing amplify created resources in the CDK dynamically to support multiple environments. Is there a method obtain Amplify ARNs in the CDK without copy/pasting from the aws-exports file?

[@ApoorvMote]

Can I deploy using serverless framework? We are already using Amplify and CDK and deploy Next js for SSR using serverless framework?

[@ApoorvMote]

Too bad we can't use graphql transform from Amplify with CDK. Writing full length graphql schema is pain in the behind.

[@andriys5772]

Do we have to compile .ts files from 'lambda-fs' folder to .js files before run 'cdk deploy'?

[@andriys5772]

it seems we have to run `npm run build` before run `cdk deploy`. aws.amazon.com/blogs/mobile/building-scalable-graphql-apis-on-aws-with-cdk-and-aws-appsync/ Next question -- How to exclude .ts and .d.ts files ? For now when I run `npm run build &&vcdk deploy` all files (.js, .ts, .d.ts) from folder `lambda-fs` send to lambda function (remote) ?

[@forresthopkinsa]

Could you ship other CDK resources with Amplify's built-in CI/CD with this technique? I love Amplify's frontend system but the backend is seriously lacking, and I can't have two separate CI systems running on the same repo 😓

[@ApoorvMote]

Will it work with Next js or React or any kind of front end? Any limit on which frontend to use?

[@naderdabit]

This works great with Next.js as well as pretty much any front end JS frameworks.

[@ApoorvMote]

@@naderdabit And how do you deploy to s3/cloudfront for SSR to work? serverless framework or amplify or cdk?

[@andresmontoya7852]

Thank you so much! Very interesting! Would be great if you make a video including Datastore with CDK, something like I create my Datastore instances with the Amplify CLI, and then I can use them with CDK. What do you think? :)

[@naderdabit]

This is a perfect use case actually, using the Amplify CLI for the code generation and CDK for the extra flexibility. Will definitely try to do this next!!

[@andresmontoya7852]

@@naderdabit Thank you! I'll be waiting for it :)

[@ApoorvMote]

@@naderdabit Yes I really like offline use and data sync of Datastore. So would be interested in that also.

[@davinanaya468]

Nice video but i have a question is it possible to use NodeJs framework such NestJs o SailsJs with amplify ?

[@lucaspearson35]

So is this a monorepo? I think I might have gotten a little lost with that part. Also aside of familiarity with a different tool (CDK) what are the advantages to connecting projects like this? Thanks for the great video!

[@davidlechugahuerta6325]

Hellow !!! Good video But o have some problems with amplify : 1) i cant customize with css de login and i cant put any component or html tag. . My form 2). I cant. Manage the session of the users, to show differents view (admin and users views ) Please some docs or tip about it ?

[@idobleicher]

because it's dynamic, I am not sure but it's now can work with any other database right? if we move to CDK with the graphql and any other DB, Looks legit!

[@naderdabit]

Yep, you can use any database both within AWS but also outside of AWS with an HTTP connection

[@samlaf92]

Thank you for this thought-provoking video, I hadn't thought about connecting my Amplify resources with my CDK resources. However, I still feel like you aren't answering the most central question, which is: why use both? 1. Most of the code that you have written I feel can be generated by amplify's codegen functionality. Why rewrite it all using cdk? 2. If using the cdk is necessary for other reasons, then why use amplify at all? It seems like whatever amplify is generating here is very minimal, and could be integrated into your cdk stack definition.

[@calvinbutler5517]

He mentioned two reasons you might find yourself using cdk and amplify and imo both are valid. 1. There are certainly infrastructure requirements that might not be manageable with amplify and require that you use cdk aswell. 2. Someone might not want amplify to manage their infrastructure, they might have done this in cdk, but they might want to use the amplify client libraries to interact with, say, cognito. Just because his demo isn't an example of a warranted use of cdk and amplify, doesn't mean those don't exist. Also, the purpose of a demo is to show an example of how something can be done and could be applied to other use cases. Clearly he showed a general pattern that can be applied when warranted.

[@mattkoltun]

great tutorial! i was following it and on the CDK deploy at the end it asked me to bootstrap it to the environment? I suppose it should be the amplify one, right?

[@cloud_architector]

Nader, do you have udemy course?