Deploying an Express Application to AWS Lambda, the easy way

This is the source code for my Deploying an Express Application to AWS Lambda, the easy way post, where I show how to deploy an existing Express app to AWS Lambda.

Getting Started

1. Install Node.js (v4.3.2 preferred) & yarn

2. Run yarn to install project dependencies

3. Create a local postgres database (v9.5.4 preferred)

psql -c "CREATE ROLE todo_user LOGIN PASSWORD 'todo_password' SUPERUSER;" template1
psql -c "CREATE DATABASE "todo" WITH OWNER todo_user;" template1

4. Create your .env.yml file:

cp .env.example.yml .env.yml

If you used different DB credentials, modify the DATABASE_URL value

5. Run your database migrations:

npm run db:migrate:dev

6. Start the app:

npm start

Deploying the app

1. Edit your .env.yml file:

• replace accessKeyId and secretAccessKey with your AWS keys (you can get AWS Keys by following this guide: https://serverless.com/framework/docs/providers/aws/setup/).
• replace DATABASE_URL for staging and production environments (you can provision free postgres databases on https://postgres.heroku.com/databases)

2. Run npm run deploy:staging or npm run deploy:prod to deploy your changes

Models, where are you?

This app uses massive.js instead of a full-blown ORM. PostgreSQL is amazing, why not use all of its potential?

PostgreSQL CheatSheet

Connect to postgres: psql DATABASE_URL
Toggle expanded display: \x
Show available tables: \dt+
Show details for a table: \d+ table_name
Show available functions \df
Show details for a function: \df+ function_name or \ef function_name