Request/response

Requests

Requests from the bare aws-lite client and plugins accept the following parameters; only service is required.

• service (string) [required]
  • AWS service code, usually just the lowercase form of the service name (e.g. DynamoDB = dynamodb); full list can be found here
• verifyService (boolean) [default = true]
  • Verify service name against a list of known AWS services. If false, any service name will be accepted.
• awsjson (boolean or array)
  • Enables AWS-flavored JSON encoding; by default, request payloads will be encoded with AWS-flavored JSON if the request includes a content-type header similar to /application/x-amz-json...
  • If true, encode the entire request payload as AWS-flavored JSON
  • If an array, the property names specified in the array will be AWS-flavored JSON encoded, leaving other properties as normal JSON
  • If false, disable encoding of AWS-flavored JSON (even if a relevant content-type header is present)
  • If you intend to pass your own pre-serialized AWS-flavored JSON, use false
• path (string) [default = /]
  • API path your request will be made to
• headers (object)
  • Header names + values to be added to your request
  • By default, all headers are included in authentication via AWS signature v4
  • If your request includes a payload that cannot be automatically JSON-encoded and you do not specify a content-type header, the default application/octet-stream will be used
• payload (object, buffer, readable stream, string)
  • Payload to be used as the HTTP request body
  • As a convenience, any passed objects are automatically JSON-encoded (with the appropriate content-type header set, if not already present); buffers, streams, and strings simply pass through as-is
  • If an object is passed and the content-type is application/xml or text/xml, the request payload will be automatically XML-encoded
  • Readable streams are currently experimental
    • Passing a Node.js readable stream initiates an HTTP data stream to the API endpoint instead of writing a normal HTTP body
    • Streams are not automatically signed like normal HTTP bodies, and may require their own signing procedures, as in S3
• paginate (boolean) [experimental]
  • Enables (or disables) automatic result pagination
  • If pagination is enabled by default (see paginator.default), pass false to disable automatic pagination
  • Otherwise, pass true to enable automatic pagination
• paginator (object) [experimental]
  • Enable automatic pagination for service API via the following properties (examples below):
    • type (string) [default = payload]
      • Defines how the pagination cursor will be passed to the service API
      • payload (default) passes cursor via request body, query passes cursor via query string parameter
    • token (string or array) [required]
      • Name of the pagination token returned in response payloads (if any); nested tokens may used with dot delineation (e.g. TopLevelProperty.NextToken)
      • If multiple tokens are used, use an array and order them with their corresponding cursor array values
      • If the token property is found in the response payload, its value will be passed with the next request as cursor
      • Example: in S3, token would be the NextContinuationToken response body property
    • cursor (string or array) [required]
      • Name of the pagination token to be passed in the next request via type (body or query string parameter)
      • If multiple cursors are used, use an array and order them with their corresponding token array values
      • Example: in S3, cursor would be the continuation-token request query string parameter
    • accumulator (string) [required]
      • Name of the array in the response payload that will be aggregated into final result set
      • The accumulator can also be nested within and object; if so, use dot notation (see example below)
      • Example: in S3 ListObjectsV2 this would be Contents; in CloudFormation DescribeStacks this would be DescribeStacksResult.Stacks.member
    • default (string)
      • Set value to enabled to enable pagination for all applicable requests by default
      • If set to enabled, individual requests can still opt out of pagination by setting paginate to false
• rawResponsePayload (boolean) [default = false]
  • Return response payload as a buffer, disabling the automatic parsing of JSON + XML
  • Cannot be used in conjunction with streamResponsePayload
• streamResponsePayload (boolean) [default = false]
  • Return response payload as a Node.js stream, disabling the automatic parsing of JSON + XML
  • Cannot be used in conjunction with rawResponsePayload
• query (object)
  • Serialize the passed object as a query string and append it to your request’s endpoint
• xmlns (string)
  • Adds an xmlns attribute to the first property found in XML-encoded request payloads

Additionally, the following client configuration options can be specified in each request, overriding those specified by the instantiated client: region, endpoint, pathPrefix, protocol, host, and port

Example

import awsLite from '@aws-lite/client'
const aws = await awsLite()

// Make a plain JSON request
await aws({
  service: 'lambda',
  path: '/2015-03-31/functions/$function-name/invocations',
  query: { Qualifier: '1' }, // Lambda invoke API's version / alias '1'
  payload: { ok: true }, // Object will be automatically JSON-encoded
})

// Make an AWS-flavored JSON request
await aws({
  service: 'dynamodb',
  headers: { 'X-Amz-Target': `DynamoDB_20120810.GetItem` },
  awsjson: [ 'Key' ], // Ensures only payload.Key will become AWS-flavored JSON
  payload: {
    TableName: '$table-name',
    Key: { myHashKey: 'Gaal', mySortKey: 'Dornick' },
  },
})

// Make an XML request
await aws({
  service: 'cloudfront',
  headers: { 'content-type': 'application/xml' },
  path: '/2020-05-31/distribution',
  payload: { ... }, // Object will be automatically XML-encoded
})

// Paginate results
await aws({
  service: 'dynamodb',
  headers: { 'X-Amz-Target': `DynamoDB_20120810.Scan` },
  paginator: {
    cursor: 'ExclusiveStartKey',
    token: 'LastEvaluatedKey',
    accumulator: 'Items',
    default: 'enabled',
  },
  payload: {
    TableName: '$table-name',
  },
})

// Paginate results in APIs that use multiple corresponding cursors + tokens
await aws({
  service: 'route53',
  path: '/2013-04-01/hostedzone/$HostedZoneId/rrset',
  paginator: {
    cursor: [ 'name', 'type' ],
    token: [ 'NextRecordName', 'NextRecordType' ],
    accumulator: 'ResourceRecordSets.ResourceRecordSet',
    type: 'query',
  },
})

// Make a request without verifying the service name
await aws({
  service: 'newservice',
  verifyService: false,
  path: '/2025-12-31/newapi',
})

Responses

The following properties are returned with each non-error client response:

• statusCode (number)
  • HTTP status code of the response
• headers (object)
  • Response header names + values
• payload (object, string, null)
  • Response payload; as a convenience, JSON and XML-encoded responses are automatically parsed
    • Due to how XML is interpreted and parsed, aws-lite will always convert true and false strings to boolean values, and interpret ISO 8601-like strings into date values
  • Responses without an HTTP body return a null response payload

AWS errors can take many shapes depending on the service API in question. When a request fails, aws-lite will throw a normal error (with a message, stack trace + line numbers, etc.), and where possible will include the following additional properties:

• statusCode (number)
  • HTTP status code of the response
• headers (object)
  • Response header names + values

Example

import awsLite from '@aws-lite/client'
const aws = await awsLite()

await awsLite({
  service: 'lambda',
  path: '/2015-03-31/functions/$function-name/configuration',
})
// {
//   statusCode: 200,
//   headers: {
//     'content-type': 'application/json',
//     'x-amzn-requestid': 'ba3a55d2-16c2-4c2b-afe1-cf0c5523040b',
//     ...
//   },
//   payload: {
//     FunctionName: '$function-name',
//     FunctionArn: 'arn:aws:lambda:us-west-1:1234567890:function:$function-name',
//     Role: 'arn:aws:iam::1234567890:role/$function-name-role',
//     Runtime: 'nodejs18.x',
//     ...
//   }
// }