Tutorial Summary: Building a Simple Video Hosting Service with S3, CloudFront & Amplify

This document summarizes the process outlined in the Tutorials Dojo article for creating a simple, scalable video hosting service using core AWS serverless technologies.

Project Goal & Architecture

The goal is to build a basic video-on-demand (VOD) web application. The architecture is designed to be scalable and cost-effective, separating the backend storage and delivery from the frontend application logic.

• Frontend: A React web application provides the user interface for uploading and viewing videos.

• Hosting: AWS Amplify is used to build, deploy, and host the React application.

• Storage: Amazon S3 serves as the robust, secure storage layer for the raw video files.

• Delivery: Amazon CloudFront acts as the Content Delivery Network (CDN), distributing video content globally from edge locations for low-latency streaming and reducing the load on the S3 bucket.

Part 1: Setting Up the Backend Infrastructure

This phase involves configuring the AWS services that will store and deliver the video content.

Step 1: Configure Amazon S3 for Video Storage

An S3 bucket is created to hold the video files. Key configurations include:

• Server-Side Encryption (SSE): Enabled to ensure video files are encrypted at rest.

• CORS Configuration: Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS) is configured to allow the web application (hosted on Amplify) to make requests to the S3 bucket (e.g., to upload files).

• Block Public Access: All public access settings are enabled to ensure the bucket remains private. Content will only be accessible through CloudFront.

Step 2: Create a CloudFront Distribution for Delivery

A CloudFront distribution is set up to sit in front of the S3 bucket, providing fast and secure access to the videos.

• Origin: The S3 bucket is set as the origin for the CloudFront distribution.

• Origin Access Control (OAC): This is a critical security setting. OAC is configured to restrict access to the S3 bucket so that files can only be accessed through CloudFront, not via direct S3 URLs. This prevents others from bypassing CloudFront and accessing your content directly.

• Caching Policies: Caching policies are configured to optimize how long video content is stored at edge locations, improving performance and reducing costs.

• Security: The distribution is configured to redirect all viewer HTTP requests to HTTPS, ensuring all traffic is encrypted.

Part 2: Building and Deploying the React Frontend

This phase involves creating the user-facing application that interacts with the backend infrastructure.

Step 3: Set Up the AWS Amplify Project

The Amplify CLI is used to initialize a new project and configure the necessary AWS services. This simplifies the process of connecting the React app to the AWS backend.

Step 4: Implement File Uploads

• The aws-amplify JavaScript library is installed in the React project.

• This library is configured to interact with the S3 bucket.

• A function is created in the React code to handle the file upload logic, allowing users to select a video from their local machine and upload it directly to the configured S3 bucket.

Step 5: Displaying and Viewing Videos

• The application lists the available videos, likely by fetching the object list from the S3 bucket.

• react-router-dom is used to create dynamic routes for viewing individual videos.

• When a user clicks on a video, they are routed to a view page. This page contains an HTML5 video player element whose src attribute is set to the video's CloudFront URL (not the S3 URL). This ensures the video is served quickly and securely through the CDN.

Step 6: Deploy the Application

Once the development is complete, the Amplify CLI is used to deploy the application. A command like amplify publish builds the React app and deploys it to Amplify's managed hosting service, making it publicly available.

Potential Enhancements

The tutorial notes that this simple service can be extended with more advanced features, such as:

• Authentication & Security: Adding user sign-up and sign-in to control who can upload or view content.

• Automated Video Processing: Using AWS Lambda and AWS Elemental MediaConvert to automatically compress and convert uploaded videos into various streaming formats (e.g., HLS).

• Content Moderation: Integrating services like Amazon Rekognition to moderate uploaded video content.