Integrating with Amazon EventBridge
Leverage Amazon EventBridge to build event buses, route events from various sources, and create powerful event-driven integrations across your AWS account.
Integrating with Amazon EventBridge is a free Serverless AWS Lambda Development lesson on CoddyKit — lesson 2 of 4. You can read the complete lesson below for free — then practise it hands-on in the browser with a built-in code editor and a 24/7 AI tutor. It is part of the Serverless AWS Lambda Development learning path, one of 4 lessons in the course, and your progress syncs across the web and the CoddyKit app.
What is Amazon EventBridge?
Welcome to a deeper dive into event-driven architectures! Today, we'll explore Amazon EventBridge, a powerful service that acts as a central nervous system for your serverless applications.
EventBridge is a serverless event bus that makes it easy to connect applications together using data from your own apps, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications, and AWS services.
EventBridge Core Concepts
EventBridge operates on a few key concepts:
- Event Bus: A pipeline that receives events. There's a Default Event Bus for AWS service events, and you can create Custom Event Buses.
- Rules: Filters that match incoming events based on their content (event patterns).
- Targets: The AWS services or endpoints that an event is sent to when a rule matches.
The Default Event Bus
Every AWS account automatically has a Default Event Bus. This bus receives events from over 200 AWS services, like S3, EC2, Lambda, and CloudTrail.
You don't need to configure these sources; they publish events to the default bus automatically. This allows you to react to changes and activities across your AWS environment without custom code.
Custom Event Buses & Sources
While the default bus handles AWS events, you can create Custom Event Buses to manage events from your own applications or third-party SaaS providers.
This allows you to centralize event routing for your entire ecosystem. Event sources can be:
- AWS Services: (via Default Bus)
- SaaS Partners: (e.g., Zendesk, Shopify)
- Custom Applications: Your own microservices or monoliths.
Creating Event Patterns (Rules)
Rules are how EventBridge knows which events to route where. Each rule has an event pattern, a JSON structure that defines the criteria an event must meet to be matched.
Event patterns can match specific fields, prefixes, or even check for the existence of fields. They are highly flexible for filtering.
Event Pattern Example
Here's an example of an event pattern that matches any PutObject operation on an S3 bucket:
This pattern ensures only S3 object creation events trigger the rule.
{
"source": ["aws.s3"],
"detail-type": ["AWS API Call via CloudTrail"],
"detail": {
"eventSource": ["s3.amazonaws.com"],
"eventName": ["PutObject"]
}
}EventBridge Targets
Once an event matches a rule, EventBridge sends it to one or more targets. Targets are the downstream services that process the event.
Common targets include:
- AWS Lambda functions
- Amazon SQS queues
- Amazon SNS topics
- AWS Step Functions state machines
- Kinesis streams
- and many more!
Lambda as an EventBridge Target
Lambda functions are a very common target for EventBridge. When a rule matches an event, EventBridge invokes your Lambda function, passing the event data as the input.
This allows you to build highly responsive, event-driven microservices that react to changes across your AWS environment or custom applications.
Handling EventBridge Events in Lambda
Let's look at a Python Lambda function designed to receive and process an EventBridge event. The event parameter will contain the full JSON event payload.
We'll simulate an S3 PutObject event for demonstration.
import json
def lambda_handler(event, context):
print("Received event from EventBridge:")
print(json.dumps(event, indent=2))
source = event.get('source')
detail_type = event.get('detail-type')
if source == 'aws.s3' and detail_type == 'AWS API Call via CloudTrail':
bucket_name = event['detail']['requestParameters']['bucketName']
object_key = event['detail']['requestParameters']['key']
print(f"S3 PutObject event detected for bucket: {bucket_name}, key: {object_key}")
else:
print(f"Unknown event source: {source}, detail-type: {detail_type}")
return {
'statusCode': 200,
'body': json.dumps('Event processed successfully!')
}
# Simulate a local invocation for testing
if __name__ == '__main__':
sample_s3_event = {
"version": "0",
"id": "c6183e20-7f51-4091-8656-e23a31c51e0f",
"detail-type": "AWS API Call via CloudTrail",
"source": "aws.s3",
"account": "123456789012",
"time": "2023-10-27T10:00:00Z",
"region": "us-east-1",
"resources": [],
"detail": {
"eventSource": "s3.amazonaws.com",
"eventName": "PutObject",
"requestParameters": {
"bucketName": "my-cool-bucket",
"key": "new-image.jpg"
}
}
}
print("--- Simulating Lambda with EventBridge event ---")
lambda_handler(sample_s3_event, None)
print("--- Simulation complete ---")EventBridge Quick Check
You want to trigger a Lambda function whenever a new user signs up in your custom application. Your application publishes a UserSignedUp event to your custom event bus.
Which of the following event patterns would correctly match this specific event?
Recap: EventBridge Power
In this lesson, we explored Amazon EventBridge, understanding its role as a central event bus for your serverless applications. You learned about:
- Event Buses: Default, Custom, and Partner.
- Rules: Using event patterns to filter events.
- Targets: Sending matched events to services like Lambda.
- How to integrate Lambda to process EventBridge events.
EventBridge is key to building scalable, loosely coupled, and responsive event-driven architectures.
Frequently asked questions
Is the “Integrating with Amazon EventBridge” lesson free?
Yes — the full text of “Integrating with Amazon EventBridge” is free to read here on the web, and the Serverless AWS Lambda Development course includes 4 lessons in total. To practise it interactively (a built-in code editor and a 24/7 AI tutor) and unlock the rest of the Serverless AWS Lambda Development course, upgrade to CoddyKit PRO.
What will I learn in “Integrating with Amazon EventBridge”?
Leverage Amazon EventBridge to build event buses, route events from various sources, and create powerful event-driven integrations across your AWS account. You practise Serverless AWS Lambda Development with hands-on code you run directly in the browser, and a 24/7 AI tutor answers your questions as you work through the lesson.
Do I need any experience to start Serverless AWS Lambda Development?
No prior experience is required. Serverless AWS Lambda Development on CoddyKit is structured for beginners through advanced learners; this is — lesson 2 of 4, so you can start here or from the beginning and move at your own pace.
How long does the “Integrating with Amazon EventBridge” lesson take?
Most CoddyKit lessons take about 5–10 minutes. Each one is bite-sized and interactive, so you make steady progress and pick up exactly where you left off across the web and the app.
Can I write and run code in this Serverless AWS Lambda Development lesson?
Yes. Every Serverless AWS Lambda Development lesson includes a built-in code editor, so you write and run real code right in your browser and get instant AI feedback — no local setup required.
All lessons in this course
- Building Event-Driven Microservices
- Integrating with Amazon EventBridge
- Real-time Processing with Kinesis
- The Saga Pattern for Distributed Transactions