[#15] My Thoughts On AppSync 🕹️

Last week, I spent a couple of days diving into AWS AppSync. Being a backend guy all my life, neither have I been comfortable with frontend dev nor was I curious enough to invest my time into it. I don't mind saying it bluntly.

Although I feel a bit envious of all the front-end devs, I secretly wish I could spend more time on that. But everyone has to make choices.

Anyway, all this while I have been looking for "short-cuts" to build a frontend of my own - by using CMS tools, frameworks, no-code tools, etc. I just needed a framework to be ready so that I carry on with the debugging and fixes.

When I came across AppSync, it looked promising. It IS promising, don't get me wrong. It supports GraphQL - which is a big plus - helps implement authentication, and also secures requests coming from clients.

What this means is that all the underlying components like DynamoDB for database, Cognito for user pool management, Lambdas - if you were to wrap the GraphQL resolver logic in them, API Gateways - if you were to use them for all the reasons, are taken care of "on-the-go".

These are essentially the core backend components that are managed by AWS using CloudFormation templates. Somewhere it is assumed that you as a dev, do not want to worry about them.

Thus I think AppSync is great for frontend devs who would like the "internal wiring" to be taken care of, just like as a backend dev I want someone to take care of the frontend wiring.

-- Sumeet

LDT | Guest Posts | Resources | Wisdom