With AWS AppSync, it’s easy to run your own serverless GraphQL service API. Thanks to Velocity Mapping Templates, DynamoDB, and AWS Lambda your can aim for an architecture without any maintenance at all.
Getting started with AppSync is not that problem; there are tons of guides and frameworks. AWS has a nice guide to add a custom domain to your API using CloudFront as well. But how do you configure a custom domain using Route 53, AWS Certificate Manager, and AppSync in a CloudFormation Template? Here’s the answer:
AWSTemplateFormatVersion: "2010-09-09"
Resources:
HostedZone:
Type: AWS::Route53::HostedZone
Properties:
Name: api.example.com
Certificate:
Type: AWS::CertificateManager::Certificate
DependsOn: HostedZone
Properties:
DomainName: api.example.com
ValidationMethod: DNS
Distribution:
Type: AWS::CloudFront::Distribution
Properties:
DistributionConfig:
Enabled: true
HttpVersion: http2
Origins:
- DomainName: !Ref AppSyncHostname
Id: !Ref AppSyncHostname
CustomOriginConfig:
HTTPPort: 80
HTTPSPort: 443
OriginKeepaliveTimeout: 5
OriginReadTimeout: 30
OriginProtocolPolicy: https-only
OriginSSLProtocols: [TLSv1, TLSv1.1, TLSv1.2]
Aliases: [api.example.com]
DefaultCacheBehavior:
AllowedMethods: [HEAD, DELETE, POST, GET, OPTIONS, PUT, PATCH]
ForwardedValues:
QueryString: false
SmoothStreaming: false
Compress: true
TargetOriginId: !Ref AppSyncHostname
ViewerProtocolPolicy: redirect-to-https
PriceClass: PriceClass_100
ViewerCertificate:
SslSupportMethod: sni-only
MinimumProtocolVersion: TLSv1.1_2016
AcmCertificateArn: !Ref Certificate
DNS:
Type: AWS::Route53::RecordSetGroup
Properties:
HostedZoneName: api.example.com
RecordSets:
- Name: api.example.com
Type: A
AliasTarget:
HostedZoneId: Z2FDTNDATAQYW2
DNSName: !GetAtt Distribution.DomainName
Parameters:
AppSyncHostname:
Type: String
After creating your AppSync API, you will end up with a random subdomain for an AWS service. Of course, you want to configure a custom and branded domain for your AppSync GraphQL endpoint. Use the CloudFormation snippet above, provide the hostname of your GraphQL service and use your AppSync API with a custom hostname.
Important: You need to deploy this CloudFormation Stack to us-east-1 region! But you can deploy the AWS AppSync GraphQL API to any AWS region.