Hello there! If you’re an application developer, odds are high that you’re already familiar with ReactJS, a powerful JavaScript library for building user interfaces. Now, how about deploying that nifty ReactJS application you’ve developed? You’ve stumbled upon the right place!
Today, we’re going to deep-dive into the process of deploying a ReactJS application on AWS Amplify, a set of tools and services that can be used together or on their own, to help front-end web and mobile developers build full-stack applications.
Let’s get started!
Table of Contents
Prerequisites
Before we begin, ensure you have the following:
An AWS Account. If you do not have one, you can create it here.
A ReactJS Application. If you do not have one, you can create a new React app by following the guide here.
The latest version of Node.js and npm installed.
The AWS Amplify CLI is installed. You can install it with npm by running.
npm install -g @aws-amplify/cli.Step 1: Configure the AWS Amplify CLI
The first step is to configure the Amplify CLI with your AWS Account. Open your terminal and run:
amplify configure
This will open your web browser, and you will be asked to sign in to your AWS account. After signing in, go back to your terminal and press Enter. Then, it will ask you to specify the AWS region and username, and then it will navigate you back to the AWS console to create an IAM user. Finally, it will ask you to provide the accessKeyId and secretAccessKey of the IAM user.
Step 2: Initialize AWS Amplify in your ReactJS Application
Navigate to your React project’s root directory and run:
amplify init
This will kick-start the process of initializing AWS Amplify in your application. The CLI will prompt you for some information:
- Enter a name for the project.
- Enter a name for the environment.
- Choose your preferred text editor.
- Choose the type of app that you’re building (For us, it’s
javascript). - What javascript framework are you using (
react). - Source Directory Path (
src). - Distribution Directory Path (
build). - Build Command (
npm run-script build). - Start Command (
npm run-script start).
The CLI will then set up a new AWS backend and configure your front-end project to communicate with it.
Step 3: Connect Your Repository with AWS Amplify
Now we’re ready to connect our ReactJS application with AWS Amplify. Log into your AWS console and navigate to AWS Amplify. Click on “Connect App”, then “Host web app”, and follow the prompts:
- Connect your GitHub (or other repository) account and choose your repository and branch.
- Click “Next” and then configure your build settings. AWS Amplify will automatically detect that this is a React app and provide a suggested build and test settings. If needed, adjust these settings according to your requirements.
- Click “Next” and then “Save and deploy”.
This process might take a few minutes. AWS Amplify will create a new S3 bucket and Cloudfront distribution to host your web app.
Step 4: Testing Your Deployed Application
Once the deployment is complete, Amplify will provide you with a live URL of your application. Test your application thoroughly to ensure all components are working as expected.
And voila! You’ve successfully deployed your ReactJS application on AWS Amplify.
Step 5: Continuous Deployment and Hosting
One of the benefits of AWS Amplify is that it offers a feature of Continuous Deployment. If you commit and push any changes to your connected repository, AWS Amplify will automatically detect those changes and start a new build and deployment process.
Wrapping Up
As you’ve seen, deploying a ReactJS application using AWS Amplify is not only easy but also provides numerous benefits, such as automated deployment, instant cache invalidation, HTTPS, and atomic deployments. AWS Amplify does a splendid job of abstracting away all the infrastructure and letting developers focus on writing code.
That’s it for this guide. Remember, as with any deployment tool, your specific use case may demand additional configuration or customization. But with this guide, you have a solid foundation to work with. Happy deploying!
FAQs
Q1: What is AWS Amplify?
Answer: AWS Amplify is a development platform that provides a set of tools and services that enable developers to build scalable, secure, and robust digital experiences. It offers features for developing the front end of your applications, and for connecting them with your backend services to make it easy to build full-stack applications.
Q2: Can AWS Amplify be used with other JavaScript frameworks besides React?
Answer: Absolutely! AWS Amplify supports several popular JavaScript frameworks such as Vue.js, Angular, Ionic, and others, in addition to React.
Q3: Is it possible to add backend services to the AWS Amplify application?
Answer: Yes, AWS Amplify allows you to add various AWS services to your application, such as authentication, APIs (REST and GraphQL), storage, and more using the amplify add command.
Q4: What if I have a custom domain that I want to use?
Answer: AWS Amplify allows you to use your custom domain. It manages all the HTTPS configurations for you, providing free SSL certificates and enabling HTTP to HTTPS redirection.
Q5: What are the costs associated with AWS Amplify?
Answer: AWS Amplify charges based on the features you use. It has a free tier, but after exceeding the free tier, you pay for the build & deploy feature based on build minutes, and for the hosting feature based on the bandwidth and the amount of storage used. Check out the official AWS Amplify Pricing page for detailed information.
Q6: How secure is AWS Amplify?
Answer: AWS Amplify is part of Amazon Web Services, which has robust security measures. AWS provides several layers of security measures including network firewalls, web application firewall capabilities, encryption in transit with TLS, and automatic encryption of all traffic within the AWS global and regional networks.
