Daily-NYT

A serverless application that fetches and converts the New York Times front page to JPEG format using AWS SAM (Serverless Application Model).

Architecture

This application uses:

• AWS Lambda (Python 3.9) - Fetches NYT front page PDF and converts to JPEG
• API Gateway - REST API endpoint for accessing the Lambda function
• Lambda Layer - Poppler library for PDF processing
• Custom Domain - nyt.lachlanteale.com

Prerequisites

• AWS CLI configured with appropriate credentials
• AWS SAM CLI installed (Installation Guide)
• Python 3.9
• Docker (for building with --use-container)

Local Development

Install Dependencies

pip install -r requirements.txt

Build the Application

# Build locally
sam build

# Or build using Docker (recommended for consistent builds)
sam build --use-container

Test Locally

# Start local API Gateway
sam local start-api

# Invoke function directly
sam local invoke MainFunction

Validate Template

sam validate --lint

Deployment

Automated Deployment (GitHub Actions)

The application automatically deploys to AWS when code is pushed to the master or main branch.

Required GitHub Secrets:

• AWS_ROLE_ARN - ARN of IAM role for OIDC authentication (recommended)

OR

• AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID - AWS Access Key
• AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY - AWS Secret Key

Manual Deployment

# Deploy using default configuration
sam deploy

# Deploy with guided prompts (first time)
sam deploy --guided

# Deploy to production environment
npm run deploy:prod

NPM Scripts

npm run validate          # Validate SAM template
npm run build            # Build application locally
npm run build:container  # Build using Docker
npm run deploy           # Deploy to AWS
npm run deploy:prod      # Deploy to production
npm run deploy:guided    # Deploy with guided setup
npm run local:api        # Start local API Gateway
npm run local:invoke     # Invoke function locally
npm run logs             # Tail Lambda logs
npm run delete           # Delete CloudFormation stack

API Endpoint

Production URL: https://nyt.lachlanteale.com/

Method: GET

Response: Base64-encoded JPEG image of the NYT front page

Example Usage

curl https://nyt.lachlanteale.com/ | base64 -d > nyt_frontpage.jpg

Project Structure

Daily-NYT/
├── .github/
│   └── workflows/
│       └── deploy.yml          # GitHub Actions workflow
├── layers/
│   └── poppler.zip            # Poppler PDF library Lambda Layer
├── handler.py                  # Lambda function code
├── requirements.txt            # Python dependencies
├── template.yaml              # SAM template (CloudFormation)
├── samconfig.toml            # SAM CLI configuration
└── package.json              # NPM scripts and metadata

Configuration

Custom Domain Setup

To use a custom domain, you need to:

1. Have an ACM certificate in the same region as your API
2. Configure the following parameters in template.yaml:
   • DomainCertificateArn - ARN of your ACM certificate
   • HostedZoneId - Route53 Hosted Zone ID

Or update the template to remove the custom domain configuration.

Environment Variables

Lambda environment variables can be configured in template.yaml under Globals.Function.Environment.Variables.

Monitoring

View Lambda logs:

# Tail logs in real-time
npm run logs

# View logs in AWS CloudWatch Console
aws logs tail /aws/lambda/daily-nyt-main --follow

Migration from Serverless Framework

This project was migrated from Serverless Framework to AWS SAM. Key changes:

• serverless.yml → template.yaml (SAM template)
• Removed Serverless Framework plugins
• Added GitHub Actions for CI/CD
• Simplified deployment process
• Better CloudFormation integration

Troubleshooting

Build Issues

If you encounter build issues, try using Docker:

sam build --use-container

Deployment Issues

Check CloudFormation stack events:

aws cloudformation describe-stack-events --stack-name daily-nyt-prod

Lambda Issues

Check Lambda logs:

npm run logs

License

See LICENSE.txt for details.

Author

MrTeale