What is AWS API Gateway ?

API Gateway is an Amazon Web Services (AWS) offering that functions as a public-facing proxy. It enables you to encapsulate your backend endpoints, regardless of the programming language used, into a unified entry point for your clients to access your API. This single entry point simplifies traffic monitoring. By creating an endpoint on the Gateway that triggers your integrated backend service when a client sends a request, you can efficiently manage your API’s incoming traffic.

How above flow works ?

Once a client sends a request to the API Gateway, the request is received by the Method Request component. This component then forwards the request to an integrated backend service, which may be a Node.js-based RESTful API, as part of the Integration Request process. Following this, the Integration Response sends the response from the Node API to the Method Response, which in turn passes the response back to the client.

What is the reason for implementing the above flow when we can directly consume the API?

It encapsulate the backend implemented business logic by wrapping it with another endpoint that enforce client to consume their required service via Gateway endpoint. It provides

Additional Security Layers:?API Gateway includes built-in authentication and authorization tools that verify the user’s credentials and role prior to forwarding the request to the integrated backend web service.

Manage concurrent requests:?API Gateway handles the parallel request threshold, which ensures that our backend API runs smoothly and does not break.

Validate the input and output schema: In AWS, we can define models for requests and responses. Whenever a user sends a request, AWS validates the input schema (JSON) against the defined model. If the request matches the model, AWS passes the request to our integrated API. This means that our Gateway invokes our backend API only when a user sends a correct request, allowing us to focus on our business logic instead of validating user requests in our API.