Core Concepts

Here are the main Lono concepts:

1. Blueprints
2. Templates
3. Configs: Params and Variables
4. Layering: Params and Variables
5. Helpers

Blueprints

Essentially, blueprints encapsulate the code that is used to generate CloudFormation templates. Blueprints live in your project’s app/blueprints folder or as gems. Blueprints allow you to add infrastructure components and configure them to fit your needs with Param or Shared Variables configs files. The blueprint component is covered in detailed at the Blueprints docs.

Templates

Templates are CloudFormation templates defined via the Lono DSL. Templates belong to and a part of a Blueprint. Shared variables and helpers are available in these template definitions.

Configs: Params and Variables

Configs are how you can customize the blueprints to fit your needs. There are 2 types of configs: Params docs and Variables docs. Params allow you to affect the templates at run-time. Variables configs allow you to affect the templates at compile-time.

Layering: Params and Variables

Lono supports a concept called layering. Layering allows you to build both production and development environments with the same code. More info on Layering Support.

Helpers

Helpers methods allow you to extend the core DSL. With Custom Helpers you can define your own helpers to create your CloudFormation templates. Lono also comes with some built-in helper methods.

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