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AWS CloudFront URL Forwarding Function

This repository contains a CloudFront function to forward short URLs to long URLs, as well as code to generate the function code from a config file.

This implementation of a URL forwarder is a good option if:

  • You want to manage short links and forwards via code and don't need a UI
  • You don't have hundreds of links to forward
  • You don't need the forwarding function function to access external files (e.g., a file from S3) or make network calls
  • You want a low-cost method for forwarding links

If you need any of the above, you may benefit from using a CloudFront Lambda@Edge function instead.

A detailed blog post is in progress, and this README will be updated once the post is published.

Prerequisites

Ensure you have NodeJS and NPM installed locally.

  • Note: This repo uses asdf-vm's .tool-versions file to manage the NodeJs version.

Run npm install to install Handlebars and ESLint.

Optionally, install and configure the AWS CLI if you intend to interact with your CloudFront function via the terminal.

Usage

Update the config.json file with your links and the default redirect URL when the CloudFront request path does not match a specified link. For example:

{
    "links": {
        "test": "example.com",
        "foo": "example.com/bar"
    },
    "defaultRedirect": "github.com"
}

Notes:

  • Links as specified in the format "path": "forwarding-url.com".
  • The leading / from the path can be omitted in the config, as the function removes the leading / from the URI passed from CloudFront.
  • On all forwarded URLs, https:// can be omitted in the config, as the function adds it to any URL before returning the 302 redirect response.

To generate the CloudFront function with your config values, run npm run build.

This will update the url-forward-build.js function file in the dist directory.

If you haven't created a CloudFront function yet, refer to the AWS CloudFront documentation for steps to create a new function via the console or via the CLI. If creating the function via the CLI, you can pass in the generated function code directly, for example:

aws cloudfront create-function \
    --name FunctionName \
    --function-config Comment="Example function",Runtime="cloudfront-js-1.0" \
    --function-code fileb://dist/url-shortener-build.js

After making a chance, you can update your CloudFront function with the generated build code either via the AWS CloudFront Function Console or via the CLI. If using the CLI to update the function, use the ETag returned from the create-function command or run aws cloudfront describe-function --name <value> --stage DEVELOPMENT to retrieve the current ETag for the function.

Then update the function:

aws cloudfront update-function \
    --name FunctionName \
    --function-config Comment="Example function",Runtime="cloudfront-js-1.0" \
    --function-code fileb://dist/url-shortener-build.js \
    --if-match FUNCTIONETag

Testing

You can test your CloudFront function on AWS either via the AWS CloudFront Function Console or via the AWS CLI.

In the test-events directory of this repo you'll find 3 example viewer-request events: request-test-route.json and request-foo-route.json match the example short links in the config and request-base-route.json should result in the default redirect to be returned.

To test your function in the development stage via the CLI, run aws cloudfront describe-function --name <value> --stage DEVELOPMENT to retrieve the function's ETag.

With the function's ETag, you can now run:

aws cloudfront test-function \
    --name FunctionName \
    --if-match FUNCTIONETag \
    --event-object fileb://test-events/request-base-route.json
    --stage DEVELOPMENT

To-Do

I have a few next steps in mind which I'm exploring:

  • Create a script to execute the AWS CLI commands to simplify the create/update/test actions
  • Set up local testing of the function
  • Provide Terraform and CloudFront code to create and manage the CloudFront distribution and function
  • Add additional function features, such as using query strings in forwarding logic, optionally omitting the default redirect to allow the request to reach the CloudFront origin, and optionally returning a cache header

Feel free to open an issue if you have suggestions.