Access files on Amazon S3 using HTML5 / JavaScript

Question

Is it possible to access the files on Amazon S3 using JavaScript / HTML5. I basically plan to access these files in a PhoneGap app.

To be more specific, I mean without any server in middle ie making direct calls to Amazon S3. Is it possible?

Answer 1

Yes. You can enable CORS for your bucket so that objects can be loaded via XMLHttpRequest .

• http://aws.typepad.com/aws/2012/08/amazon-s3-cross-origin-resource-sharing.html
• http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonS3/latest/dev/cors.html

When using PhoneGap/Cordova specifically, you may be able to bypass enabling CORS on the server by whitelisting the domain from within your app:

• http://docs.phonegap.com/en/2.3.0/guide_whitelist_index.md.html

Answer 2

Answering my own question - I came up with a JavaScript S3 request signer using which I was able to sign the URL and access the files on S3 from JavaScript.

Anybody needs any details, please leave comment and would be happy to assist.

Cheers