The latest articles on DEV Community by Kevin Cole Jr (@kevcole). https://dev.to/kevcole https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=90,height=90,fit=cover,gravity=auto,format=auto/https:%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fuser%2Fprofile_image%2F436677%2F4d14890e-d8b6-41e2-a894-d2cbf09d83af.jpg https://dev.to/kevcole en Kevin Cole Jr Wed, 09 Sep 2020 00:43:41 +0000 https://dev.to/kevcole/views-from-serverless-4bhj https://dev.to/kevcole/views-from-serverless-4bhj <p>After passing the solutions architect exam I found myself thinking “ok, now what?”. I came across the #cloudresumechallenge on Reddit and got to work. Here are some thoughts on the criteria needed to complete the challenge.</p> <p><strong>HTML/CSS</strong> - I’ve always liked front-end since the myspace era. I chose a resume design template I saw on Pinterest a while back and wanted to copy it. It’s minimalist purposely since this challenge is mostly about connecting things on the backend. I did however remember to take a mobile first design approach. Added in some flexbox for good measure.</p> <p><strong>Static S3 Website/HTTPS/DNS</strong> - While studying for the solutions architect exam, I got plenty of practice deploying a static website to S3 as well as setting up HTTPS and DNS pointing. I’m thankful I got this practice because it helped a lot. And we’re moving…</p> <p><strong>Javascript</strong>- It had been a while since I dipped my toe in the waters of javascript and all it’s quirks. But here we are. I used jQuery for an API call to my API Gateway to make it a little easier</p> <p><strong>Python / Database</strong>- I read through the docs a lot for this one. Python is new to me. It seems to be a lot cleaner than Javascript. I wasn’t too much of a database pro coming into this but the docs are pretty good at explaining. The atomic counter was an interesting solution to the problem so I went with that. I’m experimenting with some other personal projects using dynamodb to get more experience working with it.</p> <p><strong>Infrastructure as code</strong> - I have a love and hate with SAM. SAM made it really easy to setup all my resources. But indentation mistakes gave me errors galore, so it took me a while but I got it. Shoutout to SAM though. It was a pain in the beginning but I expect to use it extensively in the future.</p> <p><strong>API</strong> - API Gateway was an experience. CORS gave me the biggest issue. After going through what seemed like millions of stack-overflow answers, I came to the conclusion that everyone hates CORS. Okay maybe not everyone but I'm thankful for the experience with API Gateway issues. I gained a better understanding of CORS/Proxy troubleshooting.</p> <p><strong>CI/CD(Front end)</strong> - Setting up the CI/CD backend made things a lot simpler. I found a great blog post to guide me along the path to using Github actions for my front-end by Kyle Galbraith here .</p> <p><strong>Tests and CI/CD(Back end)</strong> - This one was a little hard to setup for me. The testing was a pain, especially dealing with Pytest. But once I figured that out I was home free.</p> <p><strong>Final Thoughts</strong> - I really appreciate the #cloudresumechallenge. Especially as a newbie to AWS. It made me work hard and read a lot but the end result is a better foundational knowledge of how some key AWS services work and integrate with each other. I plan to do more experimenting and mini projects as I go on this AWS journey.</p> <p>Check out my final project <a href="//kevincolejr.com">here</a></p> aws beginners architecture serverless