📚 WordPress Generator – An Educational Sandbox for Terraform Backends

This repository serves as a structured learning environment for provisioning and decommissioning AWS infrastructure by integrating Python automation, Jinja2 templating, and Terraform in the AWS Platform.

Rather than simply providing static code, this repository is intended to demonstrate key operational concepts in an accessible manner. It is designed for students and professionals who wish to gain a deeper understanding of backend state management and dynamic infrastructure generation, as well as anyone wanting to have their one website.

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🌋 Repository Structure

The following structure exists at the root level:

aws-website-generator/
├── generate.py          # Python script to create backend (S3/DynamoDB) and generate Terraform files
├── destroy.py           # Python script to remove backend or site folders
├── README.md
│
├── templates/           # Jinja2 templates used by generate.py
│   ├── providers.tf.j2
│   ├── main.tf.j2
│   ├── data.tf.j2
│   ├── outputs.tf.j2
│
├── website-types/       # Startup scripts for each website type
│   ├── apache.sh
│   ├── wordpress.sh
│   └── (add new types, e.g., ghost.sh)
│
├── sites/               # Populated dynamically with generated site folders
    ├── example-apache/  # Example generated folder containing Terraform files
    ├── example-wordpress/
    │   ├── providers.tf
    │   ├── main.tf
    │   └── ...

✅ Prerequisites

Prior to running, ensure the following:

• A valid AWS account.
• An IAM user with programmatic access and AdministratorAccess permissions, configured on your local machine:

aws configure

Provide the following when prompted:

• AWS Access Key ID and Secret Access Key
• Default region (e.g., us-east-1)
• Default output format (json recommended)

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📦 Dependencies

Ensure the following are installed prior to use:

• Python 3.x
• Terraform
• AWS CLI
• pip
• Git (optional but recommended)

Python packages in use:

External Packages
- boto3
- jinja2
- InquirerPy

Standard Library Packages
- shutil
- os
- random
- string

It is recommended to run this environment in Visual Studio Code with a Python virtual environment for optimal workflow.

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🚀 Quickstart

1. Generating the Site

   cd /aws-website-generator
   python generate.py
   # Prompts for Website Name (Cosmetic e.g. "test")
   # Prompts for Website Type (Selects from website-types)

2. Deployment of the Site

   cd sites/<your-site-folder>/
   terraform init
   terraform apply
   # Confirm with "yes"

3. Decommissioning the Site

   terraform destroy
   # Confirm with "yes"

4. Cleanup of Website Resources

   python destroy.py
   # Select your site

5. Full Cleanup

   python destroy.py
   # Select "core" to remove top level S3/DynamoDB backend resources

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🔧 Extending the System

The repository is designed to be extensible. To add a new website type (e.g., Ghost):

1. Create a new startup script in website-types/ (e.g., ghost.sh).
2. Edit generate.py to include "ghost" in the websites list for InquirerPy selection.
3. Execute python generate.py and select the new type to generate your configuration.

Terraform files will be rendered into a new folder under sites/ (e.g., sites/my-ghost/).

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📚 Key Learning Objectives

• Terraform Remote Backends: S3 for state storage and DynamoDB for state locking.
• Python Automation: Use boto3 to manage AWS resources programmatically.
• Jinja2 Templating: Generate Terraform files dynamically.
• Extensibility: Modify or add new website types with minimal effort.

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🌱 Future Enhancements

• Additional website types (Ghost, Hugo, Nginx static hosting)
• IAM least privilege
• Cloudformation for user credentials
• Azure Capabilities
• Underlying server access
• requirements.txt file

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