Deploying Your Full-Stack Application on AWS: A Simple Guide for Node.js and Angular Users

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Deploying Your Full-Stack Application on AWS

Understanding the Setup

In your current development environment, you have:

Database: Postgres hosted on Amazon RDS.

Front-end: Angular application, listening on port 4200.

While this works great locally, you need a strategy for deployment that combines both components effectively.

Key Deployment Strategy: Single Port Simplicity

One of the best approaches for deploying both the front-end and back-end of your application together is to serve your static Angular files through your Express back-end. Here’s how this can benefit your deployment:

Reduced Complexity: By having both the front-end and back-end served from the same port, you eliminate the need for additional components.

Avoiding CORS Issues: When both the front-end and back-end are accessed from the same origin (host:port), CORS (Cross-Origin Resource Sharing) issues are avoided. This leads to a smoother interaction between your server and client.

Steps to Implement This Strategy

Follow these steps to deploy your application on AWS using the mentioned strategy:

Build Your Angular Application:

Use the Angular CLI to build your application. Run the following command in your Angular project directory:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

This will create a dist folder containing your production-ready files.

Serve Static Files through Express:

In your Express application (server), you need to serve the files generated by your Angular build. You can do this by adding the following code to your Express server setup:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

Deploy on AWS:

Once your setup is ready, you can deploy your combined application using services like AWS Elastic Beanstalk or any Compute service of your choice. Make sure to set your environment variables that point to your AWS RDS instance.

Test Your Deployment:

After deploying, visit your AWS URL to ensure both the front-end and back-end are functioning correctly from the same interface.

Conclusion

With these steps, you’re well on your way to launching your full-stack application on AWS smoothly. Happy deploying!