Tutorial: Using an Amazon S3 trigger to create thumbnail images - AWS Lambda
PrerequisitesStep 1. Create S3 buckets and upload a sample objectStep 2. Create the IAM policyStep 3. Create the execution roleStep 4. Create the deployment packageStep 5. Create the Lambda functionStep 6. Test the Lambda functionStep 7. Configure Amazon S3 to publish eventsStep 8. Test using the Amazon S3 triggerStep 9. Clean up your resources

Tutorial: Using an Amazon S3 trigger to create thumbnail images

In this tutorial, you create a Lambda function and configure a trigger for Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3). Amazon S3 invokes the CreateThumbnail function for each image file that is uploaded to an S3 bucket. The function reads the image object from the source S3 bucket and creates a thumbnail image to save in a target S3 bucket.

Note

This tutorial requires a moderate level of AWS and Lambda domain knowledge. We recommend that you first try Tutorial: Using an Amazon S3 trigger to invoke a Lambda function.

In this tutorial, you use the AWS Command Line Interface (AWS CLI) to create the following AWS resources:

Lambda resources

  • A Lambda function. You can choose Node.js or Python for the function code.

  • A .zip file archive deployment package for the function.

  • An access policy that grants Amazon S3 permission to invoke the function.

AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) resources

  • An execution role with an associated permissions policy to grant permissions that your function needs.

Amazon S3 resources

  • A source S3 bucket with a notification configuration that invokes the function.

  • A target S3 bucket where the function saves the resized images.

Prerequisites

Step 1. Create S3 buckets and upload a sample object

Follow these steps to create S3 buckets and upload an object.

  1. Open the Amazon S3 console.

  2. Create two S3 buckets. The target bucket must be named source-resized, where source is the name of the source bucket. For example, a source bucket named sourcebucket and a target bucket named sourcebucket-resized.

    Note

    Make sure that you create the buckets in the same AWS Region that you plan to use for the Lambda function.

  3. In the source bucket, upload a .jpg or .png object, for example, HappyFace.jpg.

    You must create this sample object before you test your Lambda function. When you test the function manually in step 6, you pass sample event data to the function that specifies the source bucket name and image file name.

Step 2. Create the IAM policy

Create an IAM policy that defines the permissions for the Lambda function. The function must have permissions to:

  • Get the object from the source S3 bucket.

  • Put the resized object into the target S3 bucket.

  • Write logs to Amazon CloudWatch Logs.

To create an IAM policy

  1. Open the Policies page in the IAM console.

  2. Choose Create policy.

  3. Choose the JSON tab, and then paste the following policy. Be sure to replace sourcebucket with the name of the source bucket that you created previously.

    {
    "Version": "2012-10-17",
    "Statement": [
        {
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": [
                "logs:PutLogEvents",
                "logs:CreateLogGroup",
                "logs:CreateLogStream"
            ],
            "Resource": "arn:aws:logs:*:*:*"
        },
        {
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": [
                "s3:GetObject"
            ],
            "Resource": "arn:aws:s3:::sourcebucket/*"
        },
        {
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": [
                "s3:PutObject"
            ],
            "Resource": "arn:aws:s3:::sourcebucket-resized/*"
        }
    ]
}

  4. Choose Next: Tags.

  5. Choose Next: Review.

  6. Under Review policy, for Name, enter AWSLambdaS3Policy.

  7. Choose Create policy.

Step 3. Create the execution role

Create the execution role that gives your Lambda function permission to access AWS resources.

To create an execution role

  1. Open the Roles page in the IAM console.

  2. Choose Create role.

  3. Create a role with the following properties:

    • Trusted entity – Lambda

    • Permissions policy – AWSLambdaS3Policy

    • Role name – lambda-s3-role

Step 4. Create the deployment package

The deployment package is a .zip file archive containing your Lambda function code and its dependencies.

Node.js

  1. Open a command line terminal or shell in a Linux environment. Ensure that the Node.js version in your local environment matches the Node.js version of your function.

  2. Create a a directory named lambda-s3.

    mkdir lambda-s3

  3. Save the function code as index.js.

    // dependencies
const AWS = require('aws-sdk');
const util = require('util');
const sharp = require('sharp');
                
// get reference to S3 client
const s3 = new AWS.S3();
                
exports.handler = async (event, context, callback) => {
                
// Read options from the event parameter.
console.log("Reading options from event:\n", util.inspect(event, {depth: 5}));
const srcBucket = event.Records[0].s3.bucket.name;
// Object key may have spaces or unicode non-ASCII characters.
const srcKey    = decodeURIComponent(event.Records[0].s3.object.key.replace(/\+/g, " "));
const dstBucket = srcBucket + "-resized";
const dstKey    = "resized-" + srcKey;
                
// Infer the image type from the file suffix.
const typeMatch = srcKey.match(/\.([^.]*)$/);
if (!typeMatch) {
  console.log("Could not determine the image type.");
  return;
}
                
// Check that the image type is supported
const imageType = typeMatch[1].toLowerCase();
if (imageType != "jpg" && imageType != "png") {
  console.log(`Unsupported image type: ${imageType}`);
  return;
}
                
// Download the image from the S3 source bucket.
                
try {
  const params = {
    Bucket: srcBucket,
    Key: srcKey
  };
  var origimage = await s3.getObject(params).promise();
                
} catch (error) {
  console.log(error);
  return;
}
                
// set thumbnail width. Resize will set the height automatically to maintain aspect ratio.
const width  = 200;
                
// Use the sharp module to resize the image and save in a buffer.
try {
  var buffer = await sharp(origimage.Body).resize(width).toBuffer();
                
} catch (error) {
  console.log(error);
  return;
}
                
// Upload the thumbnail image to the destination bucket
try {
  const destparams = {
    Bucket: dstBucket,
    Key: dstKey,
    Body: buffer,
    ContentType: "image"
  };
                
  const putResult = await s3.putObject(destparams).promise();
                
  } catch (error) {
    console.log(error);
    return;
  }
                
  console.log('Successfully resized ' + srcBucket + '/' + srcKey +
    ' and uploaded to ' + dstBucket + '/' + dstKey);
  };

  4. In the lambda-s3 directory, create a node_modules directory.

    mkdir node_modules
cd node_modules

  5. In the node_modules directory, install the sharp library with npm.

    npm install sharp

    After this step, you have the following directory structure:

    lambda-s3
|- index.js
|- /node_modules/...
└ /node_modules/sharp

  6. Return to the lambda-s3 directory.

    cd lambda-s3

  7. Create a deployment package with the function code and its dependencies. Set the -r (recursive) option for the zip command to compress the subfolders. 

    zip -r function.zip .
Python

The Python deployment package for this tutorial uses the Pillow (PIL) library. You can't use the AWS CLI to upload a deployment package that contains a C or C++ library, such as Pillow. Instead, use the AWS Serverless Application Model (AWS SAM) CLI sam build command with the --use-container option to create your deployment package. Using the AWS SAM CLI with this option creates a Docker container with a Lambda-like environment that is compatible with Lambda.

Prerequisites

To create a deployment package using the AWS SAM

  1. Open a command prompt and create a lambda-s3 project directory.

    mkdir lambda-s3

  2. Navigate to the lambda-s3 project directory.

    cd lambda-s3

  3. Copy the contents of the following sample Python code and save it in a new file named lambda_function.py:

    import boto3
import os
import sys
import uuid
from urllib.parse import unquote_plus
from PIL import Image
import PIL.Image
            
s3_client = boto3.client('s3')
            
def resize_image(image_path, resized_path):
  with Image.open(image_path) as image:
    image.thumbnail(tuple(x / 2 for x in image.size))
    image.save(resized_path)
            
def lambda_handler(event, context):
  for record in event['Records']:
    bucket = record['s3']['bucket']['name']
    key = unquote_plus(record['s3']['object']['key'])
    tmpkey = key.replace('/', '')
    download_path = '/tmp/{}{}'.format(uuid.uuid4(), tmpkey)
    upload_path = '/tmp/resized-{}'.format(tmpkey)
    s3_client.download_file(bucket, key, download_path)
    resize_image(download_path, upload_path)
    s3_client.upload_file(upload_path, '{}-resized'.format(bucket), 'resized-{}'.format(key))

  4. Install the Pillow library to a new package directory.

    pip install --target ./package pillow

  5. In the lambda-s3 directory, create a new file called template.yaml. This is the AWS SAM template.

    AWSTemplateFormatVersion: '2010-09-09'
Transform: AWS::Serverless-2016-10-31
Resources:
  CreateThumbnail:
    Type: AWS::Serverless::Function
    Properties:
      Handler: lambda_function.lambda_handler
      Runtime: python3.9
      Timeout: 10
      Policies: AWSLambdaExecute
      Events:
        CreateThumbnailEvent:
          Type: S3
          Properties:
            Bucket: !Ref SrcBucket
            Events: s3:ObjectCreated:*

  SrcBucket:
    Type: AWS::S3::Bucket

  6. Create a file called requirements.txt and add the following content. This is the manifest file that specifies your dependencies. If you installed a different version of Pillow, change the version number.

    Pillow == 9.2.0

  7. Build the deployment package. The --use-container flag is required. This flag locally compiles your functions in a Docker container that behaves like a Lambda environment, so they're in the right format when you deploy them.

    sam build --use-container

Step 5. Create the Lambda function

Node.js
aws lambda create-function --function-name CreateThumbnail \
--zip-file fileb://function.zip --handler index.handler --runtime nodejs16.x \
--timeout 10 --memory-size 1024 \
--role arn:aws:iam::123456789012:role/lambda-s3-role

For the role parameter, replace 123456789012 with your AWS account ID.

The create-function command specifies the function handler as index.handler. This handler name reflects the function name as handler, and the name of the file where the handler code is stored as index.js. For more information, see AWS Lambda function handler in Node.js. The command specifies a runtime of nodejs16.x. For more information, see Lambda runtimes.

Python

Run the following AWS SAM CLI command to deploy the package and create the Lambda function. Follow the on-screen prompts. To accept the default options provided in the interactive experience, respond with Enter.

sam deploy --guided

The function configuration includes a 10-second timeout value. Depending on the size of objects that you upload, you might need to increase the timeout value using the following AWS CLI command:

aws lambda update-function-configuration --function-name CreateThumbnail --timeout 30

Step 6. Test the Lambda function

Invoke the Lambda function manually using sample Amazon S3 event data.

To test the Lambda function

  1. In the project directory that you created earlier, save the following Amazon S3 sample event data in a file named inputFile.txt. Be sure to replace the following values:

    • us-west-2 – The AWS Region where you created the Amazon S3 bucket and the Lambda function.

    • sourcebucket – The Amazon S3 source bucket that you created in step 1.

    • HappyFace.jpg – The object key of the .jpg or .png image that you uploaded to the source bucket.

    {
  "Records":[
    {
      "eventVersion":"2.0",
      "eventSource":"aws:s3",
      "awsRegion":"us-west-2",
      "eventTime":"1970-01-01T00:00:00.000Z",
      "eventName":"ObjectCreated:Put",
      "userIdentity":{
        "principalId":"AIDAJDPLRKLG7UEXAMPLE"
      },
      "requestParameters":{
        "sourceIPAddress":"127.0.0.1"
      },
      "responseElements":{
        "x-amz-request-id":"C3D13FE58DE4C810",
        "x-amz-id-2":"FMyUVURIY8/IgAtTv8xRjskZQpcIZ9KG4V5Wp6S7S/JRWeUWerMUE5JgHvANOjpD"
      },
      "s3":{
        "s3SchemaVersion":"1.0",
        "configurationId":"testConfigRule",
        "bucket":{
          "name":"sourcebucket",
          "ownerIdentity":{
            "principalId":"A3NL1KOZZKExample"
          },
          "arn":"arn:aws:s3:::sourcebucket"
        },
        "object":{
          "key":"HappyFace.jpg",
          "size":1024,
          "eTag":"d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e",
          "versionId":"096fKKXTRTtl3on89fVO.nfljtsv6qko"
        }
      }
    }
  ]
}

  2. Invoke the function with the following invoke command. Note that the command requests asynchronous execution (--invocation-type Event). Optionally, you can invoke the function synchronously by specifying RequestResponse as the invocation-type parameter value.

    aws lambda invoke --function-name CreateThumbnail \
  --cli-binary-format raw-in-base64-out \
  --invocation-type Event \
  --payload file://inputFile.txt outputfile.txt

    • The cli-binary-format option is required if you're using AWS CLI version 2. To make this the default setting, run aws configure set cli-binary-format raw-in-base64-out. For more information, see AWS CLI supported global command line options.

    • If you get the error "Error parsing parameter '--payload': Unable to load paramfile file://inputFile.txt", make sure that you're in the directory where the inputFile.txt is saved.

  3. Verify that the thumbnail is created in the target S3 bucket.

Step 7. Configure Amazon S3 to publish events

Complete the configuration so that Amazon S3 can publish object-created events to Lambda and invoke your Lambda function. In this step, you do the following:

  • Add permissions to the function access policy to allow Amazon S3 to invoke the function.

  • Add a notification configuration to your source S3 bucket. In the notification configuration, you provide the following:

    • The event type for which you want Amazon S3 to publish events. For this tutorial, specify the s3:ObjectCreated:* event type so that Amazon S3 publishes events when objects are created.

    • The function to invoke.

To add permissions to the function policy

  1. Run the following add-permission command to grant Amazon S3 service principal (s3.amazonaws.com) permissions to perform the lambda:InvokeFunction action. Note that Amazon S3 is granted permission to invoke the function only if the following conditions are met:

    • An object-created event is detected on a specific S3 bucket.

    • The S3 bucket is owned by your AWS account. If you delete a bucket, it is possible for another AWS account to create a bucket with the same Amazon Resource Name (ARN).

    aws lambda add-permission --function-name CreateThumbnail --principal s3.amazonaws.com \
--statement-id s3invoke --action "lambda:InvokeFunction" \
--source-arn arn:aws:s3:::sourcebucket \
--source-account account-id

  2. Verify the function's access policy by running the get-policy command.

    aws lambda get-policy --function-name CreateThumbnail

To have Amazon S3 publish object-created events to Lambda, add a notification configuration on the source S3 bucket.

Important

This procedure configures the S3 bucket to invoke your function every time that an object is created in the bucket. Be sure to configure this option only on the source bucket. Do not have your function create objects in the source bucket, or your function could be invoked continuously in a loop.

To configure notifications

  1. Open the Amazon S3 console.

  2. Choose the name of the source S3 bucket.

  3. Choose the Properties tab.

  4. Under Event notifications, choose Create event notification to configure a notification with the following settings:

    • Event name – lambda-trigger

    • Event types – All object create events

    • Destination – Lambda function

    • Lambda function – CreateThumbnail.

For more information on event configuration, see Enabling and configuring event notifications using the Amazon S3 console in the Amazon Simple Storage Service User Guide.

Step 8. Test using the Amazon S3 trigger

Test the setup as follows:

  1. Upload .jpg or .png objects to the source S3 bucket using the Amazon S3 console.

  2. Verify for each image object that a thumbnail is created in the target S3 bucket using the CreateThumbnail Lambda function.

  3. View logs in the CloudWatch console.

Step 9. Clean up your resources

You can now delete the resources that you created for this tutorial, unless you want to retain them. By deleting AWS resources that you're no longer using, you prevent unnecessary charges to your AWS account.

To delete the Lambda function

  1. Open the Functions page of the Lambda console.

  2. Select the function that you created.

  3. Choose Actions, then choose Delete.

  4. Choose Delete.

To delete the policy that you created

  1. Open the Policies page of the IAM console.

  2. Select the policy that you created (AWSLambdaS3Policy).

  3. Choose Policy actions, Delete.

  4. Choose Delete.

To delete the execution role

  1. Open the Roles page of the IAM console.

  2. Select the execution role that you created.

  3. Choose Delete role.

  4. Choose Yes, delete.

To delete the S3 bucket

  1. Open the Amazon S3 console.

  2. Select the bucket you created.

  3. Choose Delete.

  4. Enter the name of the bucket in the text box.

  5. Choose Confirm.