This document is a presentation about building APIs using serverless technologies. It introduces serverless computing and discusses how serverless can be used to create an API with no servers to manage. The presentation demonstrates building an API using the Serverless framework, AWS services like IAM, DynamoDB, and API Gateway. It shows the file structure, serverless.yml configuration file, and code for the API routes. Resources are provided for learning more about serverless and JAMstack development.

1. Building APIs the Serverless
Way
by Tessa Mero
Nov 6th, 2019 - Serverless Computing, London
The content of this presentation is proprietary information of Cloudinary. It is not intended to be distributed to any third party without the written
consent of Cloudinary. © 2019 Cloudinary inc.
@tessamero

2. Oh hai
● Developer Advocate at
Cloudinary
● Developer, Teacher, Advocate
● Community Leader
○ Past: Joomla, PHP
○ Current: API, Vue.js, JAMStack,
DevRel
● Gamer + Mom
● Cooking (<3 Korean food!)
@tessamero

3. Topics
● What is Serverless?
● Using Serverless
technologies to create an
API - End Result?
● Technologies Used
● Demo
● Resources
@tessamero

4. What are we building?

5. End Result!
● Can we get a 200 OK???
Make an API call to your own API! 200 OK!

6. What do you
need?
● We have an API!
● Prerequisites
Do I need anything installed?
● Node.js
○ v10.16.3
○ Version check: node -v
○ Nodejs.org
● AWS Account and credentials
○ for IAM, DynamoDB, and API Gateway
○ aws.amazon.com (Click Services)
● Serverless Framework
○ v1.53.0
○ Version check: serverless --version
○ serverless.com
● Postman
○ getpostman.com

7. What is Serverless?

8. What is
Serverless?
● No Servers!
● Cost
● Scale
● Time
Is there really no servers?

9. Technologies Used

10. Technologies
Used
● Serverless
Serverless Framework -First original serverless
framework. The most popular on Github with 30k stars
https://serverless.com

11. Technologies
Used
● Serverless
● IAM
Identity and Access Management (IAM) - Amazon Web
Service to securely control your resources using
permissions for users.

12. Technologies
Used
● Serverless
● IAM
● DynamoDB
DynamoDB -Amazon Web Service’s non-relational
database.

13. Technologies
Used
● Serverless
● IAM
● DynamoDB
● API Gateway
API Gateway -Amazon Web Service’s API Gateway is for
creating, publishing, maintaining, monitoring, and security
REST and WebSocket APIs at any scale.

14. Technologies
Used
● Serverless
● IAM
● DynamoDB
● API Gateway
● Postman
Postman - Postman is a collaboration platform for API development.
Postman's features simplify each step of building an API and streamline
collaboration so you can create better APIs—faster.
https://www.getpostman.com/

15. Demo

16. Install Serverless Framework
and Login
npm i -g serverless
serverless login
@tessamero

17. Create an AWS Access Key
Search for IAM in Amazon’s AWS and Set up a User
https://serverless.com/framework/docs/providers/aws/guide/credentials/
Quick Instructions:
IAM -> Users -> Add User -> Enable Programmatic Access -> Next ->
Create User
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18. Add AWS Creds to Serverless
serverless config credentials
--provider aws --key
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOP12345 --secret
abcdefg/aBcdefG12345aBcdefg
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19. Install the repo’s code and cd!
serverless install -u
https://github.com/serverless/ex
amples/tree/master/aws-node-rest
-api-with-dynamodb/ -n
api-project
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20. Install Node
npm install
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21. open serverless.yml
service: api-project
app: aws-serverlessapi (app name in
serverless.com)
tenant: tessamero (username in
serverless.com)
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22. Deploy!
serverless deploy
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23. Copy the POST request URL to test @tessamero

24. Test with Postman! @tessamero

25. Looking into the Code

26. Looking into
the Code
● File Structure
File Structure - node_modules and json
files, and serverless.yml. Then you have the
todos folder that we will take a look at.

27. Looking into
the Code
● File Structure
● Serverless.yml file
serverless.yml - the file that describes the
entire application architecture

28. Looking into
the Code
● File Structure
● Serverless.yml file
● todos folder
todos folder - create.js, delete.js, get.js,
list.js, and update.js for each method for
your API calls.

29. Looking into
the Code
● File Structure
● Serverless.yml file
● todos folder
● create.js file
create.js - a peek into create function

30. Looking into
the Code
● File Structure
● Serverless.yml file
● todos folder
● create.js file
● delete.js file
delete.js - a peek into delete function

31. Looking into
the Code
● File Structure
● Serverless.yml file
● todos folder
● create.js file
● delete.js file
● get.js
get.js - a peek into get function

32. Looking into
the Code
● File Structure
● Serverless.yml file
● todos folder
● create.js file
● delete.js file
● get.js
● list.js
list.js - a peek into list function

33. Looking into
the Code
● File Structure
● Serverless.yml file
● todos folder
● create.js file
● delete.js file
● get.js
● list.js
● update.js
update.js - a peek into update function

34. Resources:
The Serverless Revolution: Why and How The Movement Will Allow Teams to
Deploy with More Velocity and Confidence, by Ravi Lachhman
Serverless’s Sample Integration with AWS, Serverless GitHub
Anatomy of a Serverless Yaml file, by Richard Keller
List of Resources on Serverless and JAMstack, by css-tricks.com
Ready for the next level of this talk? David Reno’s talk at 2:55 PM in this room for
more goodies!

35. << end
● Twitter: https://twitter.com/tessamero
● Email.: tessa.mero@cloudinary.com
● Slides: https://slideshare.net/tessa99
THANK YOU!
@tessamero