 Courses from Sam Julien

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a powerful expansive cloud infrastructure platform for building modern web applications.

AWS provides services for data, presentation, authentication, security, video encoding, and much more. Offering over 175 fully-featured services from data centers globally, AWS powers a large percentage of the internet.

Now that you have a high-level understanding of AWS' most commonly used services, you are ready to move on to more advanced topics! 

In this lesson, I recommend that you learn the following: 

- Route 53
- CloudFront
- CloudFormation
- IAM
- How billing works in AWS

Course Outro: Where to Go After Learning the Cloud Infrastructure Fundamentals

Currently, the only way to run your lambda function is with the test button. In order to run the function from elsewhere, you need to create a trigger. In our case, we will be creating an HTTP endpoint with API Gateway. 

API Gateway wraps requests and responses in its own format, which you will learn how to account for when writing your lambda functions in this lesson.

Add an API Gateway HTTP Endpoint Trigger to a Lambda Function in AWS

After creating a lambda function you get access to an in-browser editor where you can write, test, and deploy your function.

When testing your function you get access to a menu where you can edit the event body that gets passed to the lambda function.

Write and Test Your First AWS Lambda Function 

Lambda functions are incredibly useful. They are affordable and can be triggered in a variety of ways. One of the most common is through an HTTP endpoint. 

You can make an entire API without ever having to manage a server by writing Lambda functions and creating HTTP endpoints for them using API Gateway.

Overview of AWS Lambda and API Gateway 

To streamline the build and deploy process it's a good idea to create a deploy script in your package.json. The script is aws s3 sync and then the path to the build folder and the URL to your S3 bucket. 

Streamline Deployments to AWS S3 with a Deploy Script in package.json 

In order to deploy your static site to S3 from the command line you need to add your generated user credentials. 

Do this by running `aws configure` and pasting in the credentials that were generated after creating the user with IAM.

Configure an AWS S3 User in the AWS CLI 

You can drag and drop files directly into your S3 bucket but that isn't the most efficient workflow most of the time. In order to upload our static site from the command line using the AWS CLI we will have to create a new user with the correct permissions using IAM. 

The IAM data model is an advanced topic that we won't be covering in this lesson. But, what will we cover is how to create a user and assign them the existing policy,  `AmazonS3FullAccess`

Create a User with Programmatic S3 Access with AWS IAM 

Creating an S3 bucket is a straightforward process. You just have to make sure that you are using a unique name. But, there are a couple of things you need to do in order to host a static site on an S3 bucket. 

First, under the properties tab, you need to enable static website hosting. Make sure to provide the index document to your app. 

Second, you need to add a bucket policy. You can find examples in the policy examples docs. In our case, we will use the example under "Granting read-only permission to an anonymous user"

Bucket policy that was copy pasted: 

```
{
    "Version": "2012-10-17",
    "Statement": [
        {
            "Sid": "PublicRead",
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Principal": "*",
            "Action":["s3:GetObject", "s3:GetObjectVersion"],
            "Resource:["arn:aws:s3:::DOC-EXAMPLE-BUCKET/*"]
        }
    ]
}
```

Create an AWS S3 Bucket for Hosting a Static React App 

S3 is short for Simple Storage Service. It uses "buckets" to store static files and sites. Buckets are basically storage containers. They are regional and each has a globally unique name.

Overview of S3 (Simple Storage Service)

**Delete your RDS instance now!** RDS instances are expensive. It would be unfortunate to create one for tutorial purposes and forget about it until you're charged a month from now. 

To delete an RDS instance select it in the list view, open the actions drop-down menu, select the delete option, go through the acknowledgments, then select the delete button.

Delete an AWS RDS Instance

There are a variety of options to choose from when creating a new RDS instance. What engine to use, the engine's version, templates, standby databases, private clouds, etc. In this video, we go over each of the options and what they mean. 

But, an RDS instance can get expensive fast. That's why you will also learn how to configure your instance so that is affordable for dev/test purposes.

Create a New AWS RDS Instance

RDS stands for Relational Database Service. You can select from database engines such as PotgreSQL, MySQL, Oracle, and amazon's Aurora. 

Pricing can get expensive but the AWS free tier, per month, gives you 750 hours of Single-AZ db.t2.micro instance running mySQL, MariaDB, PostgreSQL, Oracle, or SQL Server. You also get 20GB of general storage, and 20GB of backup storage.

Overview of AWS Relational Database Service (RDS) Features and Pricing

Amazon has a ton of options for databases. But the three most common ones that you may come across are DynamoDB, DocumentDB, and RDS. 

DynamoDB is a fully managed service. This comes at the cost of flexibility. 

DocumentDB is basically a MongoDB NoSQL database. It's more flexible than DynamoDB but requires more management from you. 

RDS stands for Relational Database Service and it is probably the most familiar to the majority of us. You can select from database engines such as PotgreSQL, MySQL, Oracle, and amazon's Aurora.

Compare AWS, DocumentDB DynamoDB and RDS

When you hit the connect button to your instance, AWS actually gives you instructions and copyable commands for you to run to connect to your instance. 

After connecting to your instance you will have access to a real live server! From there, the first thing you'll almost always want to do is check for updates and upgrade them using `sudo apt update` and `sudo apt upgrade`

Connect to an AWS EC2 Instance via SSH 

Creating an EC2 instance is straightforward but there are a few things to keep in mind. 

When you create an instance you have to choose its AMI (Amazon Machine Image). The AMI is the operating system and other software of your EC2 instance. When selecting make sure to pay attention to what is eligible for the free tier

After selecting your AMI you can go into your configure your instance and choose options for the network, public IP, etc. Then you choose your storage option, create tags, and configure the security group. In your security group configuration, you can create rules for your instance's traffic.

Create and Configure an AWS EC2 Instance 

EC2 instances are what we can think of as traditional servers. You can choose your hardware options and OS. Pricing is based on server uptime and if you control when that uptime is. 

You can see the details of their pricing here, [Amazon EC2 pricing](https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/pricing/). As you can see there is a free plan that gives you 750 hours of Linux and Windows t2.micro instances a month for the first year.

Overview of AWS Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) Purpose and Pricing 

In this lesson, you will learn the key concepts that give cloud infrastructure its edge. 

AWS trades capital expenses for ongoing variable expenses, mitigating a huge amount of financial risk when starting a new business. 

When you lose traffic, you eat the costs of both your servers and your reduced revenue. When you get an unexpected spike in traffic, you can lose a huge amount of potential revenue if your servers can't handle the traffic. Elasticity mitigates these risks by giving you the ability to acquire and release resources on demand. 

The advantages clearly explain why the cloud market has become a $100 billion dollar industry.

Understand the Advantages of AWS and Cloud Services 

In this course, you will learn what the cloud is and why AWS is so big in the industry, learn to use the AWS dashboard with confidence, and become familiar with the key services EC2, RDS, S3, and Lambda. 

To learn more about creating billing alarms check out, [Review billing dashboard and set up a billing alarm to avoid paying too much for AWS - Tomasz Łakomy](https://egghead.io/lessons/aws-review-billing-dashboard-and-set-up-a-billing-alarm-to-avoid-paying-too-much-for-aws)

Check out [this documentation](https://aws.amazon.com/cli/) to set up the AWS CLI

Introduction to Cloud Infrastructure Fundamentals with AWS

You're going to find cloud services being used at nearly any enterprise you work for. So it's important for us developers to at least have a high-level understanding of this infrastructure.

And since AWS has the dominant share of the cloud market, being familiar with it is incredibly valuable and opens a lot of doors.

But gaining that familiarity isn't easy. Just browsing through the list of 200+ services is overwhelming. 

Getting started with learning AWS usually involves having a dozen or more open tabs and the feeling that you're going down a rabbit hole that never ends.  

This course is an alternative to that stress. It has been structured like a boat tour on a river of knowledge, linearly guiding you through the core of AWS. 

By the end of this course, you will be confidently spinning up servers, creating relational databases, storing static assets, and writing serverless functions with confidence. 

So, whether you need to learn AWS for your current job or are looking to earn your cloud practitioner certification, start watching this course and gain the skills you need today.

Cloud Infrastructure Fundamentals with AWS

Bite-size video tutorials for badass web developers.

egghead

I get asked all the time how I get that cool highlight effect for my code in my talks. It's actually a technique in Keynote my friend [Mike Ryan](https://twitter.com/MikeRyanDev) taught me a few years ago. In this screencast, I'll walk you through the steps so you can add this effect to your own talks. This technique should also work in PowerPoint and Google Slides, though the steps might look a little different.

Animate and Highlight Code in Keynote Presentations

In this course, we will be setting up a server that uses Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) as well as a database through Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS). In order for these two services to talk to each other, they will need to live on the same Virtual Private Cloud (VPC).

Throughout the course, as you build out functionality, the settings for your VPC can be modified or disrupted causing painful errors. This lesson is to give you a tour of the key attributes of a VPC and show you the default settings so that you can revert back if you find yourself in a bad state.

We'll cover what a VPC looks like in the AWS console, Subnets, Internet gateways, route tables, and the Network ACL.


Understand the Default AWS Virtual Private Cloud Network



Discover how to harness the power of Cursor IDE's Composer Agent feature to optimize your code. In this lesson, you'll witness an AI agent doing all the work to generate test suites, implement performance benchmarks, and create optimized function variations - all without writing a single line of code. You'll learn how to validate performance improvements through data-driven benchmarking, ensuring that optimizations are backed by concrete metrics rather than speculation. This hands-on demonstration showcases a groundbreaking approach to automated function development that combines the precision of test-driven development with the efficiency of AI-powered optimization.


Agent-Driven Development in Cursor: Testing, Benchmarking, and Optimizing Functions

This course is aimed for using `zod` effectively in projects based on TypeScript (both browser and node.js). The benefits you gain with this course is not just simply coding, but also understanding when/why/how should you perform runtime validation.

`zod` is the missing piece to TypeScript's capabilities, which can guarantee type-safety only in compile-time.

`zod` can be used whenever the compiler cannot guarantee what happens in runtime. And... it's a very frequent usecase, such as HTTP calls, websockets, etc.

In this course you get quickly up and running by:
1. using `zod` with primitives and objects
2. adapting `zod` quickly to existing projects thanks to automatic generators
3. changing the strategy frm type-first to schema-first
4. using error-throwing `parse` or non-error-throwing `safeParse` basing on your needs
5. applying `zod` to the most common usecase - validating API responses
6. handling errors the most convenient way (out of many!)

Take advantage of runtime validation with `zod`. Take advantage of the detailed lessons in this course 🔥

Effective Runtime Type Checks with Zod


Cursor can now automatically run commands in the terminal and walk step-by-step towards building out your entire project. You give it a goal, then it will suggest the commands you need to run and the files that you need to create and you can work with it to achieve what you're building. This lesson does a quick walkthough of using a Cursor Agent to build a project from scratch and guide it along the way. Cursor Agents definitely feel like a sneak peek at the future of programming!

Cursor Agents Initial Impressions - Allow an AI to Build Your Entire Project

Mock Service Worker is an API mocking library that allows you to write client-agnostic mocks and reuse them across any frameworks, tools, and environments.



Mocking WebSocket APIs with Mock Service Worker


While using anonymous functions might seem convenient, they can create difficulties when trying to identify performance bottlenecks during profiling. This lesson will demonstrate how named functions make it easier to pinpoint and address performance issues, ultimately leading to more efficient and debuggable code. Learning this practice will greatly improve your ability to locate and fix performance issues in complex projects.

Always Name Functions in JavaScript


When attempting to load the same module twice in JavaScript you'll hit a cache and code won't re-run. In scenarios where you actually do want to have state in your modules, you'll have to use a cache-busting technique by passing a query parameter to a dynamic import. This lesson walks through how to add a query parameter, how to add the appropriate types for loading dynamic modules in TypeScript, and when these techniques are valuable.

Import the Same JavaScript Module Multiple Times with Cache Busting



The include keyword in GitHub Actions empowers you to add custom variables to your matrix strategy, providing flexibility beyond standard configurations. In this video, we'll explore how include allows you to define specific combinations of variables, enhancing control over your workflow runs. You'll see how this feature enables you to tailor jobs for unique environments or scenarios not covered by the default matrix options. By leveraging include, you can efficiently manage complex build processes with greater precision. This technique helps you streamline your CI/CD pipeline, making it more adaptable to your project's evolving needs.

Use GitHub Actions Matrix Include for Complex Job Configurations

While running `zod` schema validation agains domain-rich objects, the error message saying that _a string is not a number_ might not be really useful.

Especially, when you need to provide a meaningful feeback to the user, e.g. after they have submitted a form with lots of data.

`zod` allows to customize messages on a very granular level. We can also extract repeatable customization to `zod` error maps.

Finally, in order to process an error message further (e.g. display it to the user), we need to handle the `zod` validation errors effectively. Especially, when a big object validation has failed and we could receive a handful of errors.

That's what we learn in this lesson. 🔥

Customize zod Error Messages and Handle zod Errors Effectively

customize zod validation messages, customize zod schema property messages, reuse error maps across different schemas, navigate through zod error objects

You might want to run `zod` schema checks in different styles.

Sometimes you prefer to conditionally throw the error - that's what `parse` does. But another time you'd prefer to receive a `boolean` property that determines whether the validation was successful or not - and perform further actions accordingly.

Additionally, the error-throwing API of `parse` works extremely well with [TypeScript assertion functions](https://www.typescriptlang.org/docs/handbook/release-notes/typescript-3-7.html#assertion-functions). Their combination is just... perfect! 👌

That's what we learn in this lesson.

Use parse and safeParse Runtime Type-checks with zod

use zod parse function to conditionally throw ZodError, use zod safeParse to get a boolean value and run typescript type guard over success property

In this lesson we learn that TypeScript cannot guarantee correct shapes of responses. That's due to TS performing checks in compile-time, while the response will be availbale in runtime - when TS doesn't exist anymore.

In some situations, such as HTTP requests, runtime type checks such as `zod` are essential for providing quick feedback around data-related errors.

Understand where are the possible mistakes to make while using TypeScript with HTTP calls. Use `fetch` and `axios` along with `zod` schema checks.

Also, note that similar mistakes or mistakes could happen while using web storage (e.g. `localStorage`)

Validate HTTP API Response with zod, fetch and axios

use zod as an HTTP response validation tool along with fetch and axios in order to make sure that the response has expected data structure

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