How to run an existing aws amplify project

Question

I have been asked to work on an existing aws amplify reactJs project. Normally I would simply clone the project repo from either github or bitbucket, but this project is am amplify project and requires a whole set of configuration. I have several aws profiles set-up on the cli, and have access to the aws cludservices for this project, but cannot run the app locally because my aws-exports.js file does not have the required auhtentication configurations in it.

According to the amplify cli docs for an existing project, I should just be able to run amplify init --app https://bitbucket.org/brooklynva/brooklyn-ocr-poc.git. However this tried, and thankfully failed, to update the cloudformation stack on aws. It updated the aws-exports.js file but only with this:

// WARNING: DO NOT EDIT. This file is automatically generated by AWS Amplify. It will be overwritten.

const awsmobile = {
    "aws_project_region": "us-east-2"
};


export default awsmobile;

So I then found that running amplify pull --frontend with some other parameters which I put into a bash file would be the equivalent of running git pull. After running that command, still nothing was updated in the config file.

#!/bin/bash
set -e
IFS='|'

REACTCONFIG="{\
\"SourceDir\":\"src\",\
\"DistributionDir\":\"build\",\
\"BuildCommand\":\"npm run-script build\",\
\"StartCommand\":\"npm run-script start\"\
}"
FRONTEND="{\
\"frontend\":\"javascript\",\
\"framework\":\"react\",\
\"config\":$REACTCONFIG\
}"

amplify pull \
--frontend $FRONTEND \
--yes

So my question remains, how do I start an already existing aws amplify app from an existing project and generate the configuration file necessary to run the app locally without having the person who created the app, share that config file with me?

score 10 · Answer 1 · answered Apr 23 '21 at 16:26

10

For me what worked was using the amplify init command passing appId instead of the repo url. E.g. amplify init --appId YOUR_APP_ID

answered Apr 23 '21 at 16:26

Francisco Facal

101
1
2

The exact cli command is provided in your Amplify console. Log in to your Amplify console, then select the app you want to pull down. On the app screen is an expand button that will give you the command to copy and paste. – JimmyTheCode Oct 19 '22 at 16:01

score 5 · Accepted Answer · edited Oct 27 '20 at 08:27

5

You need to create or use an existing Amplify environment

Check the environments you have available

amplify env list

Similar to git, it will show the list of environments (think about this as branches on git)

Check out one of the existing environment or create a new one for you, Amplify allows you to create an environment, for example, for a specific user, i.e: dev-myuser

amplify env checkout <exising-environment>

or

amplify env add

The add command is interactive and will ask you a few questions to set up your environment

After that, you should have your aws-exports.js set

Then you push your changes

amplify push

More details about Amplify environments: https://read.acloud.guru/multiple-serverless-environments-with-aws-amplify-344759e1be08

From the official documentation: https://aws-amplify.github.io/docs/cli-toolchain/quickstart#environments-and-teams

edited Oct 27 '20 at 08:27

Darin Kolev

3,401
13
31
46

answered Apr 08 '20 at 15:25

dfranca

5,156
2
32
60

I tried checking out an existing env and still the config file was not updated. I couldn't however checkout the dev env – hyprstack Apr 08 '20 at 15:42
I can create a new env. No error happens, but now I manually need to add things like oauth? – hyprstack Apr 15 '20 at 08:00
@hyprstack no, you just push the changes and it is gonna create the stack – dfranca Apr 15 '20 at 08:45

MadaShindeInai · Answer 3 · 2023-07-09T19:30:58.357

4

In my case flow for this was:

git clone (link to project)
yarn (or npm i)
npm install -g @aws-amplify/cli
amplify configure
amplify pull --appId (your app id) --envName (env name)
yarn start / npm run start

Docs for 3,4 - https://docs.amplify.aws/cli/start/install/#option-2-follow-the-instructions
Command for 5 can be copied from amplify console

edited Jul 09 '23 at 19:30

answered May 24 '22 at 11:20

MadaShindeInai

432
4
16

1

amplify pull --appId (your app id) --envName (env name) worked for me after I erased amplify directory for a fresh pull – Dylan w Jul 05 '22 at 01:43
@Dylanw There is a nuance with erasing, because we can configure amplify in at least two ways: through the AWS Console and through configuration files. In the case of working through the console - everything is ok. In the case of working with config files, they are stored in the repository in the amplify folder and change / add settings in the AWS Console with each build. Therefore, deleting the amplify folder may reset important project settings. Example: loss of read/write permissions for custom fields added through Cognito Console and specified in cli-inputs.json manually. – MadaShindeInai Oct 10 '22 at 11:36

How to run an existing aws amplify project

3 Answers3