Export, Import, and Clone AWS Mobile Hub Projects

This post was authored by Bharath Kumar, Sr. Product Manager, AWS Mobile.

AWS Mobile Hub now supports exporting and importing the configuration of an AWS Mobile Hub project from the Mobile Hub console with a few clicks. You can import previously exported Mobile Hub projects from any AWS account or import your own exported Mobile Hub projects. You can create just the right project and clone it as a backup or as a template for building out other projects. These exported projects can be shared with other teams or even across AWS accounts. Importing a project creates an identical isolated stack of AWS resources that provides an independent consistent development and testing environment.

Developers will find the export/import feature helpful: where multiple developers, working in parallel, need repeatable mobile backend deployments for testing and debugging; in open source sharing contexts; and for getting-started projects, short-cutting tutorial setup, or as a working template to build from.

How Does It Work? For exporting, you create a project, enable features, and configure resources as you normally would. You then select the project card and select export. The export is a zipped YAML file that can be imported into your own account as another project. You can also share the file with another user or account for the user to import.

Importing a project requires you to log in to the Mobile Hub console, choose the Import your project button, and drop the previously exported zipped YAML file into the import modal. On importing a project, Mobile Hub creates a new project and begins creating the resources defined by the imported YAML.

We’ll show you how easy it is to export, import, and clone a Mobile Hub project.

Exporting a project

You can export a project by selecting the export button on your project card. Exporting a project creates a zipped YAML file. The YAML file represents all the configured backend resources and features enabled in your project.

Importing a project

To import a project, select Import your project in the project list page and drag and drop the exported zipped YAML file into the Import project modal. After you select the zipped Mobile Hub project file for importing, the project name is pre-populated according to the name of the zip file. You can change the name of the project and select the region where you want resources to be created.

Importing the zipped YAML file into the AWS Mobile Hub console creates a new project and begins provisioning the backend resources and features defined in the YAML file.

Cloning a project

Cloning a project combines export and import into a single step. You can only clone your own projects. Cloning a project creates a project with the same provisioned backend services and  features as the project you cloned it from.

Limitations of Cloning and Importing Projects

1. Importing a NoSQL feature requires unique DynamoDB table names.
2. Any exported project credentials (always encrypted in the export) can only be imported into the same account from where they were exported from.
3. Existing AWS resources that were added to a project, such as a legacy Cloud Logic API function or Push Notifications, can only be imported into the same AWS account where they were created.

Note about legacy Cloud Logic: Export, import, and cloning are not supported for projects that include the legacy Cloud Logic feature (indicated by a type LEGACY in the Cloud Logic feature as shown below). Legacy Cloud Logic refers to any enabled Cloud Logic features prior to the integration of Amazon API Gateway into Cloud Logic on November 9, 2016.

Supported import and cloning feature reference table:

To learn more about the AWS Mobile Hub export, import, and clone feature, see the AWS Mobile Hub Developer Guide.