street

street.js

Smart Uploader for AWS S3 buckets. Generates a manifest file upon first upload; subsequent uploads only send changed files. Especially useful as a deploy tool for uploading static websites to S3. Benefits of using Street:

• Upload only changed files; reduces PUT requests.
• GZip Compressed manifest file stored on S3 is very small.
• Mime-type lookup on upload to facilitate proper browser handling.
• Non-destructive (mostly). Works with existing buckets and data. See Manifest File section below for more details.

tl;dr

• Install globally with npm install -g street to get the street cli tool.
• Put AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID and AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY in .env file at root of your project (also smart to add it to your .gitignore).
• Run street -e -b <Target S3 Bucket> path/to/upload/dir

Installation

Install with npm. A global installation is preferable:

# preferred global install 
npm install -g street
 
# local install for specific setups 
npm install street

Command Line

A helpful interface into Street is using the command line tool bin/street. If you installed globally, it should be available on your path as street. The command line tool requires a path to a directory that you want to upload to S3. Run street --help to see a list of options.

-e, --load-env, Load Environment Variables

Street includes the dotenv node package for convenient Environment Variable loading. Enter your AWS credentials into a .env file at the root of your project. Street searches for three (3) variables:

1. AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID
2. AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY
3. S3_BUCKET

Instead of using Environment Variables, you can some or all of these through the command line options --aws-key, --aws-secret, and --bucket respectively.

Example: street -e path/to/upload/dir

-b, --bucket [bucket], S3 Destination Bucket

The Amazon S3 bucket to be the destination of your uploaded files.

Example: street -b <S3 bucket name> path/to/upload/dir

-k, --aws-key [key], AWS Access Key Id

The AWS Access Key Id to be used for authenticating the S3 session. User must have PUT and GET permissions on the bucket.

Example: street -k <AWS Access Key Id> path/to/upload/dir

-s, --aws-secret [secret], AWS Secret Access Key

The AWS Secret Access Key associated with the AWS Access Key Id you are using.

Example: street -s <AWS Secret Key> path/to/upload/dir

-v, --verbose, Run with expanded messages

Shows the number of files uploaded, but not much else. This option will do more in the future.

Example: street -v /path/to/upload/dir

-n, --dry-run, Run but do not upload

Best if used in conjuction with DEBUG=street:* or --verbose option.

Example:

street -n path/to/upload/dir

street -nv path/to/upload/dir

DEBUG=street:* street -n path/to/upload/dir

Run Programmatically

Running var street = require('street') will get you access to the the underlying function. Call the exposed function with a map of parameters:

var street = require('street');
 
var params = {
  src: 'path/to/upload/dir',     // Path to directory to upload.
  isDryRun: false,               // Disable upload mechanism.
  dest: 'bucketname.com',        // Name of S3 Bucket to upload to.
  awsKey: 'AWS Access Key Id',   // AWS Access Key Id for authentication w/ S3.
  awsSecret: 'AWS Secret Key',   // AWS Secret Key for authentication w/ S3.
  loadEnv: true,                 // Load Environment Variables with 'dotenv'.
  verbose: true,                 // Trigger extra messages.
};
 
street(params); // Begins Deploy Process

You can make this part of a Grunt task or your own, standalone deploy script. Dealer's choice!

Manifest File

The manifest file is a GZipped JSON file that maps S3 Object Keys (file names) to MD5 Hashes.

The manifest file is generated each time Street is run. On the first run of Street on a specific directory, the manifest file is written to that directory (called the upload directory), and all files it found are uploaded to S3. The next time Street is run, a new manifest is generated locally, the old manifest is pulled down from S3, and the two files are compared to search for differences. The new manifest is only written if files have been changed. If files have been changed, the new manifest and changed files are then uploaded to S3 where they replace the objects of the same name.

This approach has two important effects that you should be aware of:

1. *IMPORTANT* Upon first run of Street, all files in the directory and a new manifest file will be uploaded and replace S3 objects with the same name.

2. A manifest file on S3 does not hold information on all the objects in that bucket; only on objects that Street has specifically uploaded.

Keep these in mind as you work.

Development Tasks

Street is in very early development. Here are some things that would be very helpful.

• Tests, Tests, and more Tests
• Integration story with Build/Deploy tools like Grunt, Gulp, or Broccoli
• Performance Benchmarks (because people always ask)