This is the AWS CDK v2 Developer Guide. The older CDK v1 entered maintenance on June 1, 2022 and ended support on June 1, 2023.
Working with the AWS CDK in Java
Java is a fully-supported client language for the AWS CDK and is considered stable. You can develop AWS CDK applications in Java using familiar tools, including the JDK (Oracle's, or an OpenJDK distribution such as Amazon Corretto) and Apache Maven.
The AWS CDK supports Java 8 and later. We recommend using the latest version you can, however, because later versions
of the language include improvements that are particularly convenient for developing AWS CDK applications. For example,
Java 9 introduces the Map.of()
method (a convenient way to declare hashmaps that would be written as object
literals in TypeScript). Java 10 introduces local type inference using the var
keyword.
Note
Most code examples in this Developer Guide work with Java 8. A few examples use Map.of()
; these
examples include comments noting that they require Java 9.
You can use any text editor, or a Java IDE that can read Maven projects, to work on your AWS CDK apps. We provide
Eclipse
It is possible to write AWS CDK applications in JVM-hosted languages other than Java (for example, Kotlin, Groovy, Clojure, or Scala), but the experience may not be particularly idiomatic, and we are unable to provide any support for these languages.
Topics
Get started with Java
To work with the AWS CDK, you must have an AWS account and credentials and have installed Node.js and the AWS CDK Toolkit. See Getting started with the AWS CDK.
Java AWS CDK applications require Java 8 (v1.8) or later. We recommend Amazon Corretto
Note
Third-party language deprecation: language version is only supported until its EOL (End Of Life) shared by the vendor or community and is subject to change with prior notice.
Creating a project
You create a new AWS CDK project by invoking cdk init
in an empty directory. Use the
--language
option and specify java
:
mkdir my-project cd my-project cdk init app --language java
cdk init
uses the name of the project folder to name various elements of the
project, including classes, subfolders, and files. Hyphens in the folder name are converted to underscores. However,
the name should otherwise follow the form of a Java identifier; for example, it should not start with a number or
contain spaces.
The resulting project includes a reference to the software.amazon.awscdk
Maven package. It and its
dependencies are automatically installed by Maven.
If you are using an IDE, you can now open or import the project. In Eclipse, for example, choose File > Import > Maven > Existing Maven Projects. Make sure that the project settings are set to use Java 8 (1.8).
Managing AWS Construct Library modules
Use Maven to install AWS Construct Library packages, which are in the group software.amazon.awscdk
.
Most constructs are in the artifact aws-cdk-lib
, which is added to new Java projects by default. Modules
for services whose higher-level CDK support is still being developed are in separate "experimental" packages,
named with a short version (no AWS or Amazon prefix) of their service's name. Search the Maven Central Repository
Note
The Java edition of the CDK API Reference also shows the package names.
Some services' AWS Construct Library support is in more than one namespace. For example, Amazon Route 53 has its
functionality divided into software.amazon.awscdk.route53
, route53-patterns
,
route53resolver
, and route53-targets
.
The main AWS CDK package is imported in Java code as software.amazon.awscdk
. Modules for the various
services in the AWS Construct Library live under software.amazon.awscdk.services
and are named similarly
to their Maven package name. For example, the Amazon S3 module's namespace is
software.amazon.awscdk.services.s3
.
We recommend writing a separate Java import
statement for each AWS Construct Library class you use
in each of your Java source files, and avoiding wildcard imports. You can always use a type's fully-qualified name
(including its namespace) without an import
statement.
If your application depends on an experimental package, edit your project's pom.xml
and add a
new <dependency>
element in the <dependencies>
container. For example, the following
<dependency>
element specifies the CodeStar experimental construct library module:
<dependency> <groupId>software.amazon.awscdk</groupId> <artifactId>codestar-alpha</artifactId> <version>2.0.0-alpha.10</version> </dependency>
Tip
If you use a Java IDE, it probably has features for managing Maven dependencies. We recommend editing
pom.xml
directly, however, unless you are absolutely sure the IDE's functionality matches what
you'd do by hand.
Managing dependencies in Java
In Java, dependencies are specified in pom.xml
and installed using Maven. The
<dependencies>
container includes a <dependency>
element for each package. Following
is a section of pom.xml
for a typical CDK Java app.
<dependencies> <dependency> <groupId>software.amazon.awscdk</groupId> <artifactId>aws-cdk-lib</artifactId> <version>2.14.0</version> </dependency> <dependency> <groupId>software.amazon.awscdk</groupId> <artifactId>appsync-alpha</artifactId> <version>2.10.0-alpha.0</version> </dependency> </dependencies>
Tip
Many Java IDEs have integrated Maven support and visual pom.xml
editors, which you may find
convenient for managing dependencies.
Maven does not support dependency locking. Although it's possible to specify version ranges in
pom.xml
, we recommend you always use exact versions to keep your builds repeatable.
Maven automatically installs transitive dependencies, but there can only be one installed copy of each package. The version that is specified highest in the POM tree is selected; applications always have the last word in what version of packages get installed.
Maven automatically installs or updates your dependencies whenever you build (mvn compile) or package (mvn package) your project. The CDK Toolkit does this automatically every time you run it, so generally there is no need to manually invoke Maven.
AWS CDK idioms in Java
Props
All AWS Construct Library classes are instantiated using three arguments: the scope in which the construct is being defined (its parent in the construct tree), an id, and props, a bundle of key/value pairs that the construct uses to configure the resources it creates. Other classes and methods also use the "bundle of attributes" pattern for arguments.
In Java, props are expressed using the Builder
patternBucket
construct
(which represents an Amazon S3 bucket) takes as its props an instance of BucketProps
.
The BucketProps
class (like every AWS Construct Library props class) has an inner class called
Builder
. The BucketProps.Builder
type offers methods to set the various properties of a
BucketProps
instance. Each method returns the Builder
instance, so the method calls can
be chained to set multiple properties. At the end of the chain, you call build()
to actually produce the
BucketProps
object.
Bucket bucket = new Bucket(this, "MyBucket", new BucketProps.Builder() .versioned(true) .encryption(BucketEncryption.KMS_MANAGED) .build());
Constructs, and other classes that take a props-like object as their final argument, offer a shortcut. The class
has a Builder
of its own that instantiates it and its props object in one step. This way, you don't need
to explicitly instantiate (for example) both BucketProps
and a Bucket
—and you don't
need an import for the props type.
Bucket bucket = Bucket.Builder.create(this, "MyBucket") .versioned(true) .encryption(BucketEncryption.KMS_MANAGED) .build();
When deriving your own construct from an existing construct, you may want to accept additional properties. We
recommend that you follow these builder patterns. However, this isn't as simple as subclassing a construct class. You
must provide the moving parts of the two new Builder
classes yourself. You may prefer to simply have
your construct accept one or more additional arguments. You should provide additional constructors when an argument
is optional.
Generic structures
In some APIs, the AWS CDK uses JavaScript arrays or untyped objects as input to a method. (See, for example,
AWS CodeBuild's BuildSpec.fromObject()
method.) In Java, these objects are represented as
java.util.Map<String, Object>
. In cases where the values are all strings, you can use
Map<String, String>
.
Java does not provide a way to write literals for such containers like some other languages do. In Java 9 and
later, you can use java.util.Map.of()
java.util.Map.of( "base-directory", "dist", "files", "LambdaStack.template.json" )
To create maps with more than ten entries, use java.util.Map.ofEntries()
If you are using Java 8, you could provide your own methods similar to to these.
JavaScript arrays are represented as List<Object>
oder List<String>
in Java. The
method java.util.Arrays.asList
is convenient for defining short List
s.
List<String> cmds = Arrays.asList("cd lambda", "npm install", "npm install typescript")
Missing values
In Java, missing values in AWS CDK objects such as props are represented by null
. You must explicitly
test any value that could be null
to make sure it contains a value before doing anything with it. Java
does not have "syntactic sugar" to help handle null values as some other languages do. You may find Apache
ObjectUtil's defaultIfNull
Build and run CDK applications
The AWS CDK automatically compiles your app before running it. However, it can be useful to build your app manually
to check for errors and to run tests. You can do this in your IDE (for example, press Control-B in Eclipse) or by
issuing mvn compile
at a command prompt while in your project's root directory.
Run any tests you've written by running mvn test
at a command prompt.