The unicorn-maker project is a repository that contains an end-to-end example of an AWS Cloudformation resource type.

The CloudFormation Command Line Interface (CLI) is an open-source tool that enables you to develop and test AWS and third-party resource types and register them for use in AWS CloudFormation. ]

Overview

Welcome to the unicorn-maker project!

What is a CloudFormation resource provider? Excellent question! AWS CloudFormation introduced a set of capabilities that made it easy to model and automate third-party resources such as SaaS monitoring or incident management tools with infrastructure-as-code benefits.

With this launch, you can use AWS CloudFormation as a single tool to automate the provisioning of your infrastructure and application resources, whether AWS or third party, without the need for custom scripts or manual processes. You can now create your own private AWS CloudFormation resource providers, share them with the open-source community, and leverage third-party providers developed by others.

Cool, right? How do I get started? Wow, you are full of great questions. I built this project to help you get started. In this repository, you will find an example of an AWS Cloudformation resource provider that you can use as an example.

Getting Started

Step 0: Prerequisites

You will need:

• The prerequisites for the language you will be using to create your resource type installed
• An AWS account
• The AWS CLI installed on your system

Step 1: Install AWS Cloudformation CLI

First, start by installing the AWS Cloudformation CLI and the language plugins.

Although not necessary, I recommend creating a Python virtual environment. It makes getting started a little easier:

$ python3 -m venv env
$ source env/bin/activate

Now, install the AWS CloudFormation CLI and language plugins:

(env)$ pip install cloudformation-cli cloudformation-cli-java-plugin cloudformation-cli-go-plugin cloudformation-cli-python-plugin

Step 2: Choose Your Path

What's great about creating an AWS CloudFormation provider is you can write it in JAVA, Go, Python, or TypeScript.

In this repo, you will find a folder that contains an example resource type built in the following languages:

Go

Python

TypeScript

Java (Coming soon)

No matter what path you choose, the resource design is the same. You can use this project as a "rosetta stone."

For example, if you are good at Go and want to learn how to create a Python provider, compare the projects.

Step 3: Configure The Backend Service

This provider uses CrudCrud as the backend, enabling you to focus on provider creation instead of standing up an API.

Let's setup the backend. Start by going to https://crudcrud.com/ and obtain a CrudCrud API key. Don't worry—the free version provides more than enough requests to play with this example.

Copy the API key, you well need this in the next step.

Step 4: Build the Resource Type

Now, it's time to build and deploy the provider.

Begin by picking a language and change directory into that project:

(env)$ cd language-folder

Add the API key to the source file.

• (Go)
• (Python)
• (TypeScript)

Because the repo contains an example in each language, the build process is different between them. Please follow each project's directions to learn more about the prerequisites and how to perform a build.

Step 5: Submit the Resource Type

Once the resource type is built, submit it using the CloudFormation CLI tool:

(env)$ cfn submit

After a few minutes, the Brianterry::Unicorn::Maker resource will be displayed in your AWS CloudFormation console under private Resource types:

Step 6: Create a Unicorn

Using the CloudFormation template in the deployment folder, create new stack that contains a unicorn:

The following command creates a new stack by using the cloudformation.json template.

(env)$ aws cloudformation deploy --template deployment/cloudformation.json --stack-name my-unicorn

You can view the stack's process in your AWS CloudFormation Console

Now, jump over to your crubcrud dashboard at https://crudcrud.com/api/<Your API KEY>/unicorns to see your new unicorn!

Step 7: Update your Unicorn

CloudFormation handles the lifecycle of our unicorns. So lets change the name of the unicorn by updating the CloudFormation stack.

The following command updates the stack and changes the unicorn name

(env)$ aws cloudformation update-stack --use-previous-template --stack-name my-unicorn --parameters ParameterKey=Name,ParameterValue=Valeri

jump over to your crubcrud dashboard at https://crudcrud.com/api/<Your API KEY>/unicorns to see your updated unicorn!

Step 8: Delete your Unicorn

When you delete an AWS CloudFormation Stack, the resource is deleted too.

Let's delete the stack and delete the unicorn

(env)$ aws cloudformation delete-stack --stack-name my-unicorn

crudcrud dashboard:

License

Unicorn maker is released under the MIT license. See LICENSE.txt