Learn By Doing Newsletter

Happy Friday folks!

I've got some awesome articles for you this week. First we have another awesome guide on serverless microservice patterns. We also dive into the latest developments for AWS Amplify that is going to greatly simplify developing GraphQL APIs.

Oh! And I released a new blog post this week that explores continuously building and pushing Docker images inside of AWS. Also, if you or your company are interested in sponsoring this newsletter, please reply directly to this email and I am happy to chat about it.

☁️ Cloud

How to Build Your Docker Images in AWS with EaseThis week I published a new post focused on continuously building and publishing Docker images inside of AWS. It continues on my theme of using AWS CodePipeline and CodeBuild to handle my entire CI/CD pipeline. But, instead of focusing on a static website or serverless deployment I dip my toes into the containerization world, at least for one post.

Serverless Microservice Patterns for AWSJeremy Daly is at it again, this time with a fresh take on serverless microservice patterns. I have seen quite a few of these in the wild and it is very handy to finally put a name to each of them. The most interesting one for me that I have not used or seen is The Circuit Breaker.

The serverless ⚡️ architecture powering blockimmoThis is kinda a blockchain and cloud combo article. Here BlockImmo dives into their backend serverless architecture. To no surprise the vulnerabilities of a more traditional server architecture cease to exist.

Mock promisified AWS service operation calls with Jest Mocking AWS service calls that return a promise is actually a lot harder than you might think. Last week I had to do this in TypeScript and ended up using aws-sdk-mock as well as TypeMoq. Igor demonstrates how you can get to the same solution using Jest.

Announcing the AWS Amplify CLI toolchainIt's been almost a year since AWS Amplify first launched. When it first came out it was largely viewed as a way to quickly develop GraphQL React apps. Today they are upping the game even more by releasing a slick CLI that allows you to add and remove "services" on a whim. Need auth for your application? Run amplify add auth and your done.

Jerry Hargrove is at it again, this time with a handy SNS infographicIf you have seen those awesome AWS infographics floating around from @awsgeek, you have been viewing the work of the incredible Jerry Hargrove. This week he rolled out a new graphic for SNS that is loaded with all kinds of details that most of us never knew.

2018 State of DevOps Report is outFull disclosure, this is behind an email wall. But if this years DevOps report is anything like previous ones it's probably worth a spam email or two.

A Primer on the DynamoDB NoSQL database.A common question from folks coming from a relational database background is how do I switch to NoSQL? It is a bit of a mental leap to make that switch. I think this DynamoDB guide does a great job of priming you on this topic.

Lessons from building a Serverless Data Pipeline with AWS Kinesis and LambdaThis is a fantastic read from Erica Windisch on how IOPipe processed billions of records a day using Kinesis streams and Lambda. There is some awesome bits in here about capacity planning, connection limits and stream replication.

Build a GraphQL Service the easy way with AWS Amplify Model TransformsAWS Mobile extraordinaire, Adrian Hall, rolled out this post dedicated to building a GraphQL service using AWS Amplify. With the latest enhancements to the Amplify CLI, you can practically deploy a GraphQL service in 5 lines of code and one command line operation.

Protecting your API using Amazon API Gateway and AWS WAF — Part 2In this follow up post Heitor Lessa explains how you can use API Gateway keys to create authorized requests between CloudFront and your serverless API.

Advanced Design Patterns for Amazon DynamoDBThis is a session from re:Invent 2017 that dives into advanced design patterns and how to implement them using DynamoDB. This is a more advanced look at leveraging Dynamo for those that have experience with it already.

🔨 Tools

lizzie - A script language for .NET and the CLRThis is a rather slick new scripting language for the .NET world. It allows you to execute dynamically created scripts with zero compilation or interpretation. Rather it access CLR delegates directly.

DynamoDB local is now on Docker HubFor anyone looking to test against DynamoDB locally, there is now a container image on Docker Hub to do exactly that.

Awesome WASM - Curated list of awesome things regarding WebAssembly ecosystem.I participated in a #DevDiscuss Twitter chat this week that dove into WebAssembly. It is a new technology that has the potential to really change what can and can't be run in the browser.

LiteTree: SQLite with BranchesHave you been itching to have your SQLite database behave like your Git repository? Your in luck! LiteTree looks like an interesting way to have multiple connections use different sets of commits in your database. It sounds like this could spiral out of control, but maybe not.

Code && Languages

Using API Gateways to Facilitate Your Transition from Monolith to MicroservicesThe question of the year must be how do I break down my monolith. It is possible to migrate the behemoth to a microservice based architecture, but it's not easy and it will take time. Daniel Bryant explores one strategy by leveraging API Gateways.

Python Pandas: Tricks & Features You May Not KnowI have never personally used the Pandas library that is all the rage in Python, but I hear good things. It is primarily used for analytics, data processing, and data science. This post dives into some of the lesser known features and benefits of Pandas.

Easing into Modern C++ (7 Features of C++ You Can Adopt Today)This is a lightning talk from "C++ Now" that dives into modern language features that you can use today.

A Complete Beginner's Guide to ReactAli Spittel released this new post earlier in the week that is one of the best introductions to React that I have read. Give it a read and let her know what you think.

An Intro to Web Site Testing with CypressDevon Campbell stars in this post over on CSS Tricks. He explores the Cypress framework further and gives a great overview of the power the test runner offers. Check it out if you enjoyed an earlier article on setting up Cypress in a CI/CD Pipeline.

API Gateway in a NutshellAllan Chua gives a fantastic introduction to the problems API Gateways are trying to solve in this post. Not at a specific service level, but at a higher abstract concept. This is great for folks that are trying to understand the benefits of a gateway that can proxy requests to multiple services.

😎 Cool find of the week

Pandoc - A universal document converterThe all in one file converter. Pandoc can convert multiple file formats to other formats. This is handy if you need to convert PDF files to HTML or Markdown files to Word.