Build APIs using OpenAPI, the AWS CDK and AWS Solutions Constructs

APIs are the key to implementing microservices that are the building blocks of modern distributed applications. Launching a new API involves defining the behavior, implementing the business logic, and configuring the infrastructure to enforce the behavior and expose the business logic. Using OpenAPI, the AWS Cloud Development Kit (AWS CDK), and AWS Solutions Constructs to build your API lets you focus on each of these tasks in isolation, using a technology specific to each for efficiency and clarity.

The OpenAPI specification is a declarative language that allows you to fully define a REST API in a document completely decoupled from the implementation. The specification defines all resources, methods, query strings, request and response bodies, authorization methods and any data structures passed in and out of the API. Since it is decoupled from the implementation and coded in an easy-to-understand format, this specification can be socialized with stakeholders and developers to generate buy-in before development has started. Even better, since this specification is in a machine-readable syntax (JSON or YAML), it can be used to generate documentation, client code libraries, or mock APIs that mimic an actual API implementation. An OpenAPI specification can be used to fully configure an Amazon API Gateway REST API with custom AWS Lambda integration. Defining the API in this way automates the complex task of configuring the API, and it offloads all enforcement of the API details to API Gateway and out of your business logic...

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