[fookyong]

I was completely lost with AWS lambda until I discovered https://serverless.com - the fact that you haven't found them yourself suggests they need to do a much better job of marketing themselves!

I run my lambdas locally with a single command: serverless offline

If the lambda has an http endpoint, it creates the endpoint at localhost/<endpoint> and I'm good to go, it even does live reloading as I edit my code.

If the lambda runs off AWS events, I can invoke the lambda locally with a command, and point it to a JSON file of a simulated AWS event. I get my local rails app to create these AWS event JSON files, so that I can test end to end locally. Works well for my purposes.

To deploy I just run: serverless deploy --stage production

Which sets up all the necessary additional services like API Gateway, cloudwatch etc.

I can't imagine using AWS lambda any other way.

[innomatics]

I can also recommend serverless.com framework for local development and running lambdas offline.

AWS provides a docker image for emulating DynamoDB which works great for local dev and will commonly be paired with lambdas.

Another option I have used recently for implementing node web services is https://github.com/apex/up which also has a nice local dev experience.

[tdfirth]

Thanks for the recommendation, that does sound good and I'll give it a go.

[wharfjumper]

+1 for serverless offline

[elasticventures]

+1 -- yes if you must develop AWS lambda, then serverless is the BEST way.

BUT .. I should also say that while I started ~5 years ago with serverless framework, in the past year I've completely transitioned everything over to the Azure Durable Serverless Functions.

AZ has their own same-same-but-better "Core Functions Power Tools", it's got a lovely & zippy cli interface built in node that is separate/decoupled from the "az cli". Just like serverless you can run/dev/test locally, then quickly deploy to azure. The debugging integration with VS code, distributed tracing, even "AZ Remote Debugging" with "Azure Hybrid Connections" creates super fast inner/outer development loops.

If you like the "serverless model" then you also need to check-out AZ "Logic Apps". Logic custom connectors totally kick ass imho since they provide a ton of insight into how data is moving through the application, basically you deploy and you get instantaneous telemetry.

Deploying software that costs nothing (except negligible storage fees) unless you're using it AND would require an ELE (i.e. meteor strike) to break is very cool.