export const meta = {
  title: `Express server`,
  description: `How to deploy an Express server to AWS using AWS Amplify`,
};

In this guide you'll learn how to deploy an [Express](https://expressjs.com/) web server complete with routing.

### Initializing the Amplify project

Initialize a new Amplify project:

```sh
amplify init

# Follow the steps to give the project a name, environment name, and set the default text editor.
# Accept defaults for everything else and choose your AWS Profile.
```

### Creating the API and function

Next, create the API and web server. To do so, you can use the Amplify `add` command:

```sh
amplify add api

? Please select from one of the below mentioned services: REST
? Provide a friendly name for your resource to be used as a label for this category in the project: myapi
? Provide a path (e.g., /items): /items (or whatever path you would like)
? Choose a Lambda source: Create a new Lambda function
? Provide a friendly name for your resource to be used as a label for this category in the project: mylambda
? Provide the AWS Lambda function name: mylambda
? Choose the function runtime that you want to use: NodeJS
? Choose the function template that you want to use: Serverless express function
? Do you want to access other resources created in this project from your Lambda function? N
? Do you want to invoke this function on a recurring schedule? N
? Do you want to edit the local lambda function now? N
? Restrict API access: N
? Do you want to add another path? N
```

The CLI has created a few things for you:

- API endpoint
- Lambda function
- Web server using [Serverless Express](https://github.com/awslabs/aws-serverless-express) in the function
- Some boilerplate code for different methods on the `/items` route

### Updating the function code

Let's open the code for the server. 

Open __amplify/backend/function/mylambda/src/index.js__.

In this file you will see the main function handler with the `event` and `context` being proxied to an express server located at `./app.js` (do not make any changes to this file):

```js
const awsServerlessExpress = require('aws-serverless-express');
const app = require('./app');

const server = awsServerlessExpress.createServer(app);

exports.handler = (event, context) => {
  console.log(`EVENT: ${JSON.stringify(event)}`);
  awsServerlessExpress.proxy(server, event, context);
};

```

Next, open __amplify/backend/function/mylambda/src/app.js__.

Here, you will see the code for the express server and some boilerplate for the different HTTP methods for the route you declared. 

Find the route for `app.get('/items')` and update it to the following:

```js
// amplify/backend/function/mylambda/src/app.js
app.get('/items', function(req, res) {
  const items = ['hello', 'world']
  res.json({ success: 'get call succeed!', items });
});
```

### Deploying the service

To deploy the API and function, you can run the `push` command:

```sh
amplify push
```

import js0 from "/src/fragments/guides/api-rest/js/express-api-call.mdx";

<Fragments fragments={{js: js0}} />

import ios1 from "/src/fragments/guides/api-rest/ios/express-api-call.mdx";

<Fragments fragments={{ios: ios1}} />

import android2 from "/src/fragments/guides/api-rest/android/express-api-call.mdx";

<Fragments fragments={{android: android2}} />

From here, you may want to add additional path. To do so, run the update command:

```sh
amplify update api
```

From there, you can add, update, or remove paths. To learn more about interacting with REST APIs using Amplify, check out the complete documentation [here](/lib/restapi/getting-started).

The API endpoint is located in the `aws-exports.js` folder.

You can also interact directly with the API using this URL and the specified path:

```sh
curl https://<api-id>.execute-api.<api-region>.amazonaws.com/<your-env-name>/items
```