AWS CodeCatalyst: Building Apps in the Amazon Cloud Computing

Amazon CodeCatalyst is a service that streamlines the entire software development and delivery process by allowing teams to effortlessly collaborate on the design, development, testing, and deployment of applications hosted on AWS. CodeCatalyst provides a centralized platform for managing projects, coordinating with teammates on code, and leveraging CI/CD tools for app creation, testing, and release. AWS CodeCatalyst provides project layouts for a variety of programming languages and development environments. When a project is created from a project blueprint, it contains a variety of resources, such as sample code, build scripts, deployment processes, virtual servers, serverless resources, and more. Those in charge of a certain workspace or project can decide which team members have permission to create, view, or alter those spaces' resources.

How useful is AWS CodeCatalyst, and what can it do?

CodeCatalyst can be used for the entirety of the software development process, from initial ideation to the finished product. With CodeCatalyst, you may do the following:

• Engage in iterative and collaborative coding by making use of source code repositories' branches, merges, pull requests, and comments. Without the hassle of repository cloning or setting up access.
• Managing the integration and delivery of applications in a continuous manner requires the establishment of workflows involving build, test, and deploy procedures. Workflows can be started either manually or automatically in response to events like code commits and pull requests opens and closes.
• Make sure your team's tasks are completed in order of importance by using an issue-tracking system. CodeCatalyst's problem backlogs are easy to create, and its boards make it simple to monitor the development of open tickets.
• Set up monitoring software to keep tabs on utilization and team activities, and create alerts to be informed of any significant shifts.

Limitations of AWS CodeCatalyst's Spaces

To indicate the corporation, department, or organization, aws CodeCatalyst requires the creation of a space before any projects, members, or Amazon cloud computing resources may be added. If a user accepts a project invitation in CodeCatalyst, they will be added to the project's area automatically. Those who have been given the role of Space administrator are responsible for managing the area. It is possible to join many spaces in Amazon CodeCatalyst, or only one. Each space in CodeCatalyst is an independent entity with its own set of users and resources.

• Accounts are limited to a maximum of 10 slots.
• Monthly quota for new user-created spaces is 10.
• One Amazon Web Services account is the bare minimum required.
• You can only have a maximum of a thousand projects in orbit.
• An individual can participate in a maximum of one thousand projects.

Space Creation Steps

1.To access the Amazon CodeCatalyst dashboard, go to https://codecatalyst.aws/

Once your AWS account has been authenticated, you can next create space by giving it a name and entering your 12-digit account ID.

2.  Click Space Verification in the Amazon Management Console.

3. It will be in pending while we verify it, but once it's ready, you can click on it.

4. If you name your project in space and then pick a blueprint labeled with that name, you will automatically construct the project.

5. When a project is created in CodeCatalyst from a blueprint, everything from the project's source repository to its CI/CD processes, sample code, build and test results, and integrated issue-tracking tools are created. Each blueprint comes with a summary and README file that detail the resources that are deployed as a result of the blueprint's execution and provide guidance on how to use them. In order to standardize development environments, a devfile was created as an open standard for encoding all of the essential development tools into a YAML file.

6. To reduce the amount of time spent on initializing and maintaining a local development environment, dev environments use a devfile to list all of the necessary tools for writing code, running tests, and debugging the project. This allows it to swiftly establish a development environment, switch between projects, and replicate the development system configuration for all members of the team. The next step is to go to the Dev environment and start writing code in an IDE that CodeCatalyst supports in a Dev Environment tailored to your project (IDE).

All of the following IDEs can be used in conjunction with Dev Environments:

1. Amazon Web Services Cloud9 Amazon Web Services Cloud9 
2. Android Studio Code
3. Development Environments (IDEs) by JetBrains

1. 1. IntelliJ IDEA Premium
   2. Professional Version of PyCharm 

7. Set up a development setting in AWS Cloud9 by picking the appropriate repository, branch, computing, and storage choices.

8. The Cloud9 instance will now be provided with the appropriate packages and repositories specified, making it ready for coding as soon as it boots up.

Coding Environment: Visual Studio

• With the AWS IDE toolkit for VS Code, an open-source plug-in, you can communicate with AWS services from within the IDE.

1. You can set up a development environment in VS Code by installing the AWS IDE toolbox.
2. Verify in the AWS Control Panel whether or not the Development Environment has been set up.

Pricing- AWS CodeCatalyst

The following pricing tiers are available for Amazon CodeCatalyst. The monthly allotment of bundled resources is the same across all pricing tiers. Allotted resources are provided on a per-CodeCatalyst-space basis. Each firm, organization, or group can have its own CodeCatalyst "space" to house its teams and their projects. For each AWS Region, you're allowed to create one Free Tier space and up to five Standard Tier spaces. For accounting considerations, Amazon Web Services (AWS) requires that each location have its own account. It is not necessary to create a separate AWS services account for each space in which you deploy. There is a monthly cap on the total quantity of resources that can be used in each space, and that cap is reflected in the table below. At the start of each new calendar month, they will begin anew. There is no carryover of unused funds from one month to the next. Upgrading to the Standard tier is required if you anticipate using more than the allotted number of resources for the Free tier. When more resources are used than what is provided for under the Standard tier, you will be charged the following premium rate per unit of use. Pricing for Amazon CodeCatalyst does not include the fees associated with the services supplied in your AWS account. In the typical fashion, all charges for Amazon CodeCatalyst-provisioned services within an AWS services account are made within that account.

Services	Free	Standard
	$0/user/month	$4/user/month
	Free use of CodeCatalyst's features is possible up to the limits indicated. You'll have to move up to the Standard package if you want access to more features.	In this case, your monthly fee will be calculated based on the number of users who are really logging in. Any resources used above and above the specified minimum and maximum will be added to your bill. In the event that you require any of the listed resources over and above what is included in your base plan, you will be charged at the prices shown below.
Compute minutes	Time Period: Two Hours (per space)	3000 minutes (per space)
Pre-provisioned compute	No	Yes
Available instances(Linux, Windows)	2 vCPU/4GB (Linux only	2 vCPU/4GB (Linux only) 4 vCPU/8GB 8 vCPU/16GB

 

InDepth Explanation

When a person logs into CodeCatalyst anytime within a given calendar month, they are counted as active for that month.

For determining how much time you'll be charged for, workflow actions are timed from their start to finish and then rounded up to the nearest minute.

Dev Environments computation duration is based on the elapsed time from when an instance is started and when it is stopped or deleted and is billed on a per-minute basis. Time spent computing in the Dev Environment is billed at an hourly rate, and charges are prorated accordingly. 

When a processing activity requires computing resources, On-Demand computes will automatically provision those resources for you. A pre-provisioned fleet is a group of dedicated compute instances that have already been started up in advance so that they are available and ready to go as soon as a build is started. Initiating and ending operations of provided fleets is under your purview. You have complete control over the size and composition of your pre-provisioned fleet of instances.

The monthly cost of your storage (whether source storage or Dev Environment storage) is proportional to the amount of data you keep in your space (measured in GB) and the length of time you keep it there (in days). Consider the following scenarios, each of which would result in a charge of one gigabyte per month (assuming a 31-day billing cycle):

• So, let's say you're provisioning a 31 GB volume for a day.
• Suppose you provisioned a 1 GB volume and used it for 744 hours (the number of hours in 31 days).

Even when a Dev Environment is paused, it continues to consume storage space until it is destroyed.

Every CodeCatalyst data transfer out is factored into the total cost of the service, which includes but is not limited to source repository operations, build compute, and Dev Environments. All traffic entering and leaving Amazon CodeCatalyst is at your expense, with a few exceptions:

Obtaining information from the World Wide Web.

In-Region Syncing of Data Between CodeCatalyst and Another AWS Service