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AWS4S vs. AWScala: Choosing the Best AWS SDK for Scala Development

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by

Shweta
in ,

Amazon Web Services (AWS) provides a comprehensive suite of cloud services that enable businesses and developers to build and manage scalable applications. To interact with these services programmatically, AWS offers Software Development Kits (SDKs) for various programming languages including Java, Python, JavaScript, Ruby, and more. These SDKs simplify the process of making API calls to AWS services, managing resources, and handling authentication, among other tasks.

The Need for AWS SDKs for Scala

Scala, known for its strong type system and functional programming capabilities, is a popular language for building robust and scalable applications. Despite its interoperability with Java, Scala developers often seek libraries that provide more idiomatic and concise interfaces to leverage Scala’s features fully. This need has led to the development of specialized AWS SDKs for Scala, such as AWS4S and AWScala. These libraries aim to provide Scala developers with more natural and effective ways to interact with AWS services, embracing Scala’s expressive syntax and functional programming paradigm.

By using an AWS SDK tailored for Scala, developers can write more maintainable and readable code, reduce boilerplate, and leverage advanced Scala features like futures, implicits, and pattern matching. This not only enhances productivity but also leads to better integration with existing Scala-based tools and frameworks. In this article, we will compare two popular AWS SDKs for Scala: AWS4S and AWScala, to help you decide which one best suits your development needs.

But before we dive deep into the two AWS SDKs for Scala, let us have a look at the AWS SDK for Java and how it can be used for Scala projects, as Scala is fully interoperable with Java.

Using AWS SDK for Java:

Here’s an example of how to use the AWS SDK for Java to interact with S3 in a Scala project:

import software.amazon.awssdk.services.s3.S3Client
import software.amazon.awssdk.regions.Region
import software.amazon.awssdk.services.s3.model._

object S3Example extends App {
  val region = Region.US_WEST_2
  val s3 = S3Client.builder().region(region).build()

  // Create a bucket
  val bucket = "my-bucket"
  val createBucketRequest = CreateBucketRequest.builder().bucket(bucket).build()
  s3.createBucket(createBucketRequest)

  // Put an object
  val key = "example.txt"
  val putObjectRequest = PutObjectRequest.builder().bucket(bucket).key(key).build()
  val requestBody = software.amazon.awssdk.core.sync.RequestBody.fromString("Hello, AWS S3!")
  s3.putObject(putObjectRequest, requestBody)

  // Get an object
  val getObjectRequest = GetObjectRequest.builder().bucket(bucket).key(key).build()
  val response = s3.getObject(getObjectRequest)
  println(scala.io.Source.fromInputStream(response).mkString)

  s3.close()
}

Using AWS SDK for Scala:

AWS4S and AWScala are both libraries designed to make working with AWS services more idiomatic in Scala. However, they have different features, levels of support, and maturity.

AWS4S

AWS4S is a relatively new library aiming to provide a functional interface to the AWS SDK for Java. It leverages Cats Effect to handle side effects and promote functional programming practices in Scala.

Pros:

  • Functional programming support: Uses Cats Effect for IO handling, making it suitable for functional programming paradigms.
  • Idiomatic Scala: Aims to provide a more Scala-idiomatic interface.
  • As of writing this article, AWS4S supports AWS SQS, S3, KMS and DynamoDB.

Cons:

  • Services: As of now, it supports only a handful of AWS Services.
  • Community and Support: It might have a smaller community and less support compared to more established libraries.

Example:

import aws4s.s3._
import cats.effect.IO
import software.amazon.awssdk.auth.credentials.DefaultCredentialsProvider
import software.amazon.awssdk.regions.Region

object S3Example extends App {
  val region = Region.US_WEST_2
  val credentialsProvider = DefaultCredentialsProvider.create()
  val s3 = S3[IO](region, credentialsProvider)

  val bucket = "my-bucket"
  val key = "example.txt"

  val program = for {
    _ <- s3.createBucket(bucket)
    _ <- s3.putObject(bucket, key, "Hello, AWS S3!")
    content <- s3.getObject(bucket, key)
    _ = println(content)
  } yield ()

  program.unsafeRunSync()
}

AWScala

AWScala is a mature library providing a Scala wrapper around the AWS SDK for Java. It aims to simplify the usage of AWS services from Scala by providing a more Scala-friendly API.

Pros:

  • Mature and Stable: AWScala has been around longer and is more mature.
  • Community and Support: Larger community and better support due to its maturity.
  • Comprehensive Service Support: Covers a wide range of AWS services, like AWS IAM, EC2, STS, S3, SQS, RedShift, DynamoDB, SimpleDB and StepFunctions.

Cons:

  • Imperative Style: While it makes working with AWS easier, it doesn’t promote functional programming practices as much as AWS4S.
  • Older API: As a more mature library, it may use patterns that are considered less modern in the Scala ecosystem.

Example:

import awscala._
import awscala.s3._

object S3Example extends App {
  implicit val s3 = S3.at(Region.US_WEST_2)

  val bucketName = "my-bucket"
  val bucket = s3.createBucket(bucketName).get

  // Put an object
  s3.putObject(bucket, "example.txt", "Hello, AWS S3!")

  // Get an object
  val content = s3.getObject(bucket, "example.txt").map(s => scala.io.Source.fromInputStream(s.getObjectContent).mkString)
  println(content.getOrElse("No content found"))
}

Conclusion

  • Use AWS4S if you prefer a functional programming approach and are comfortable with a newer, possibly less mature library.
  • Use AWScala if you prefer a more stable, mature library with broader service coverage and are okay with an imperative programming style.

Both libraries will help you interact with AWS services in a more Scala-idiomatic way compared to using the AWS SDK for Java directly. Your choice depends on your specific needs and programming style preferences.

**As of writing this article, the library for AWScala is no longer maintained.

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