awsletter

Complete newsletter application that has no "old-style" backend components. See how does it look like. All features are implemented using Amazon's cloud stack.

To be more specific

Login with Amazon is used as an authentication provider
S3 bucket is used to store images
SES is used to send e-mails
DynamoDB is used to store e-mail addresses (not implemented yet, using mock)
Amazon Lambda is used to resize images and communicate with APIs (SES, Twilio)
AWS SDK for JavaScript is used to call Amazon services both in client applications and Lambda functions
additionally, Twilio can be used to send SMS notifications

Configuring AWS

It's the trickiest part of the whole setup. Steps depend on each other, so do it in presented order.

Preconditions

remember to create all services in one region (that will be yours aws.region in config file)
create "Login with Amazon" application (amazonLogin.clientId)
create S3 bucket for images (aws.imagesBucketName) and add CORS config (aws/images-bucket-cors-config.xml)
verify domain or e-mail sender address for SES (sender property in config)

Create IAM role for Lambda

this role will be used by Lambda when executing functions
create awsletter_lambda_executor role (of course you can name it as you wish)
add policy (aws/lambda-executor-policy.json) to this role; provide template with a real bucket name
add trust policy (aws/lambda-executor-trust-policy.json) to this role; it states that Lambda can assume this role

Create Lambda functions

There's a list of functions to create:

Function name	Code	Memory	Timeout	Notes
`awsletter-send-mail`	`lambdas/send-mail.js`	512	5
`awsletter-send-sms`	`lambdas/sens-sms.js`	256	10	Provide Twilio credentials
`awsletter-resize-image`	`lambdas/resize-image.js`	512	15	Provide image width

Please note:

previously created role (I call it awsletter_lambda_executor) should be used for all functions
names of functions can differ in your setup, but remember that these will be used as aws.mailFunctionName and aws.smsFunctionName in config file
memory and timeout are values that I use, no guarantee that these will work well for you

Create invocation role for resize function

this role allows S3 bucket to call resize function
create awsletter_lambda_resize_caller role
add policy (aws/lambda-resize-caller-policy.json) to this role; provide template with function name
add trust policy (aws/lambda-resize-caller-trust-policy.json) to this role; provide template with bucket name; this policy states that S3 bucket can assume this role (so it can invoke resize function)

Create web role

this role is assumed when user logs into client application
it allows to manipulate bucket and invoke functions
create awsletter_web_user role
add policy (aws/web-role-policy.json) to this role; provide template with bucket name and function names
add trust policy (aws/web-role-trust-policy.json) to this role; provide template with "Login with Amazon" Client ID

That's a lot to do

Yeah, I know. I'm working on automating this process. In case of any (project-related) problems, you can contact me, I'll try to help.

Setting up client locally

Just clone repository, copy reference config file and adjust it:

$ git clone git@github.com:jelz/awsletter.git
$ cd awsletter
$ cp config/config.js.dist public/app/config.js
$ vi public/app/config.js

Then you need to serve public/ directory. Use python -m SimpleHTTPServer or grunt (default task runs server).

mausconi / awsletter

awsletter

To be more specific

Configuring AWS

Preconditions

Create IAM role for Lambda

Create Lambda functions

Create invocation role for resize function

Create web role

That's a lot to do

Setting up client locally

How does it look like?

List of recipients

Image management

Composing an e-mail

Dispatch summary

Author

License

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