Cloud experience is not a prerequisite for this book, but experienced readers will find the content readily applicable. The examples used in this book require an AWS account. You can sign up for a free trial account via the AWS website (https://aws.amazon.com/free). The examples are written in NodeJS (https://nodejs.org) and leverage the Serverless Framework (https://serverless.com/framework). The README file in the code bundle contains installation instructions. The examples leverage the powerful HighlandJS (http://highlandjs.org) streaming library.

You can download the example code files for this book from your account at www.packtpub.com. If you purchased this book elsewhere, you can visit www.packtpub.com/support and register to have the files emailed directly to you.

You can download the code files by following these steps:

1. Log in or register at www.packtpub.com.
2. Select the SUPPORT tab.
3. Click on Code Downloads & Errata.
4. Enter the name of the book in the Search box and follow the onscreen instructions.

Once the file is downloaded, please make sure that you unzip or extract the folder using the latest version of:

• WinRAR/7-Zip for Windows
• Zipeg/iZip/UnRarX for Mac
• 7-Zip/PeaZip for Linux

The code bundle for the book is also hosted on GitHub at https://github.com/PacktPublishing/Cloud-Native-Development-Patterns-and-Best-Practices. We also have other code bundles from our rich catalog of books and videos available at https://github.com/PacktPublishing/. Check them out!

We also provide a PDF file that has color images of the screenshots/diagrams used in this book. You can download it here: https://www.packtpub.com/sites/default/files/downloads/CloudNativeDevelopmentPatternsandBestPractices_ColorImages.pdf.

There are a number of text conventions used throughout this book.

CodeInText: Indicates code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles. Here is an example: "Notice that the ItemChangeEvent format includes both the old and new image of the data."

A block of code is set as follows:

const raiseTestError = () => {
   if (Math.floor((Math.random() * 5) + 1) === 3) {
     throw new Error('Test Error'); // unhandled
   }
 }

Bold: Indicates a new term, an important word, or words that you see onscreen. 

There is a concise diagramming convention used throughout this book. Cloud-native components have many moving parts, which can clutter diagrams with a lot of arrows connecting the various parts. The following sample diagram demonstrates how we minimize the number of arrows by placing related parts adjacent to each other so that they appear to touch. The nearest arrow implies the flow of execution or data. In the sample diagram, the arrow on the left indicates that the flow moves through the API gateway to a function and into the database, while the arrow on the right indicates the flow of data out of the database stream to a function and into the event stream. These diagrams are creating using Cloudcraft (https://cloudcraft.co).