Getting started with AWS Amplify
Tags: aws, cloud, frontend, development
Published: 2023-01-04 20:08:03

## Introduction
AWS Amplify is a powerful development platform for building secure, scalable mobile and web applications. It makes it easy for developers to authenticate users, store data, and deploy static websites. In this article, we'll go over the key features of AWS Amplify and the basics of getting started.

## Key features of AWS Amplify
Some key features of AWS Amplify includes:

### Authentication
Using providers like Amazon Cognito or Okta, AWS Amplify enables developers to quickly integrate authentication to their applications. Developers can also alter the authentication process by providing passwordless login or multi-factor authentication.

### Storage
Amplify offers a range of options for data storage, including NoSQL storage through Amazon DynamoDB and object storage through Amazon S3. These services can be used by developers to store user data, media files, and other application-specific data.

### Serverless functions
Using Amplify with AWS Lambda, developers can create and deploy serverless functions. These functions can be used to perform tasks like sending emails, image resizing, and data validation.

### GraphQL API
AWS Amplify provides a GraphQL API that allows developers to create and consume data in their applications. The API integrates with data sources such as Amazon DynamoDB and Amazon Aurora, and supports real-time subscriptions and offline data access.

### Static web hosting
With Amplify, developers can easily deploy static websites to the cloud. Developers can use Amplify's Git-based workflow to deploy their websites, which are then hosted on Amazon S3 and served via Amazon CloudFront.

### Continuous deployment
When developers push code to a repository, Amplify's continuous deployment pipeline enables them to automatically build and deploy their applications. This makes it simple to reliably and effectively deploy changes and updates to an application.

## Setting up AWS Amplify CLI

First, you'll need to install the Amplify command line interface (CLI) on your local machine. This can be done with the following command:

```
npm install -g @aws-amplify/cli
```

Next, you'll need to configure the CLI with your AWS credentials. You can do this by running the following command:

```
amplify configure
```
> Note that this will prompt you to sign in to your AWS administrator account via the console. 

Upon signing in, you will be asked to create an IAM user and complete the creation using the AWS console as shown below; 

![Terminal showing AWS Amplify Configuration](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/thjz7363phb6tdxy2syu.PNG)

The creation flow should look like this after each step;

![IAM user creation flow](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/5nfbqvs7qr1uv2phxkfa.PNG)

To create the user, click the "Create user" button, which then displays an AWS access key ID and secret access key credentials. You will be prompted to provide these credentials in your terminal in order to complete this configuration.

Once you have the CLI installed and configured, you're ready to start building your application. 

## Creating a new Amplify project

To create a new Amplify project, run the following command:

```
amplify init
```

This will ask you to enter some information about your project, such as the name and environment. You'll also need to specify the type of project you're building, such as a web application or a mobile app.


![Amplify Project](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/tx0urze5qlpoopmrq1pc.PNG)

After you've created your project, you can start adding features like authentication, database, API to it using the `amplify add <feature>` command.

For example, you can add authentication by running the following command:

```
amplify add auth
```

This will allow you to configure the authentication provider for your app, such as Amazon Cognito or Okta.

After you've added all the features you need, you can run `amplify push` to update the Amplify project's configuration to reflect the deployed changes.


## Conclusion
In this article, you've learned about some of the key features of AWS Amplify, how to install the CLI and configure the platform. To further deepen your knowledge, you can visit the official documentation [here](https://docs.amplify.aws/).