Working with resources

In addition to accessing AWS services that are listed by default in the AWS Explorer, you can go to Resources and choose from hundreds of resources to add to the interface. In AWS, a resource is an entity you can work with. Some of the resources that are added include Amazon AppFlow, Amazon Kinesis Data Streams, AWS IAM roles, Amazon VPC, and Amazon CloudFront distributions.

To view available resources, go to Resources and expand the resource type to list the available resources for that type. For example, if you select the AWS::Lambda::Function resource type, you can access the resources that define different functions, their properties, and their attributes.

After adding a resource type to Resources, you can interact with it and its resources in the following ways:

• View a list of existing resources that are available in the current AWS Region for this resource type.

• View a read-only version of the JSON file that describes a resource.

• Copy the resource identifier for the resource.

• View the AWS documentation that explains the purpose of the resource type and the schema (in JSON and YAML formats) for modeling a resource.

IAM permissions for accessing resources

You require specific AWS Identity and Access Management permissions to access the resources associated with AWS services. For example, an IAM entity, such as a user or a role, requires Lambda permissions to access AWS::Lambda::Function resources.

In addition to permissions for service resources, an IAM entity requires permissions to permit the AWS Toolkit to call AWS Cloud Control API operations. Cloud Control API operations allow the IAM user or role to access and update the remote resources.

You can quickly grant permissions by attaching the AWS managed policy, PowerUserAccess, to the IAM entity that's calling these API operations using the Toolkit interface. This managed policy grants a range of permissions for performing application development tasks, including calling API operations.

For specific permissions that define allowable API operations on remote resources, see the AWS Cloud Control API User Guide.

Interacting with existing resources

1. In the AWS Explorer, choose Resources.

   A list of resource types is displayed under the Resources node.

2. There's documentation describing the syntax that defines the template for a resource type. To access this documentation, open the context (right-click) menu for that resource type and choose View Documentation.

   Note

   You might be asked to switch off your browser's popup blocker so you can access the documentation page.

3. To view the resources that already exist for a resource type, expand the entry for that type.

   A list of available resources is displayed under their resource type.

4. To interact with a specific resource, open the context (right-click) menu for its name and choose one of the following options:

   • Copy Identifier: Copy the identifier for the specific resource to the clipboard. For example, the AWS::DynamoDB::Table resource can be identified using the TableName property.

   • Preview: View a read-only version of the JSON-formatted template that describes the resource.