CodePipeline is an AWS service for automating code deployments. It facilitates a workflow where source code changes can be pulled from a code repository, run through a build/test stage, and automatically deployed to staging or production environments. This allows for continuous deployment of application code changes without manual intervention.

The basic process for deploying an e-commerce website using CodePipeline would involve the following high-level steps:

Setting up the Code Repository (around 1500 chars)

The first step is to host the source code for the e-commerce application in a version control system like GitHub, Bitbucket or AWS CodeCommit. This acts as the ‘source’ stage in CodePipeline. The code repository should contain the full application codebase, including backend code, front-end code, templates, configuration files etc. It is considered the ‘single source of truth’ for the application code.

Configuring the Build Stage (around 2000 chars)

The build stage in CodePipeline is where automated builds and tests of the application code are run. This stage needs to be configured by specifying a build tool or environment. For an e-commerce application, a common choice would be to use AWS CodeBuild, which provides build images configured with common build tools like Maven, Gradle, Node.js, Java etc. The CodeBuild project would define the build spec and environment to build and test the application code on each new change.

Specifying the Deployment Stages (around 2000 chars)

CodePipeline allows configuring multiple deployment stages/environments where the built application code can be deployed – like staging and production. Each stage needs infrastructure like EC2 instances, RDS databases provisioned for deploying the application code. CodeDeploy is commonly used to automate the deployment of application revisions from CodePipeline to these infrastructure environments. Parameters for deployment like file paths, commands etc need to be configured for each stage.

Configuring CodePipeline (around 2000 chars)

In CodePipeline, the various stages of the deployment workflow – source (code repo), build, test and deploy stages are chained together using a pipeline definition. This definition specifies the connections between stages, where to pull the source code from, how to initiate the build job, and how to trigger deployments. IAM roles need to granted necessary cross-service permissions for CodePipeline to pull source code, start build jobs, and trigger deployments. Webhooks orCron schedules can initiate new pipeline runs on code commits.

Deploying the Application Code (around 2000 chars)

Once CodePipeline is configured, any new commit pushed to the code repository will trigger an automated deployment. CodePipeline pulls the code, runs the build job which produces deployment packages. These packages are then deployed to staging first by CodeDeploy. Once staging deployment is successful and tests pass, the same code revision is automatically deployed to production. Both developers and DevOps teams can track the progress of code changes moving through the different pipeline stages until final production deployment.

Monitoring Deployments (around 1500 chars)

The deployment process through CodePipeline needs to be actively monitored. CloudWatch metrics and logs from CodeBuild, CodeDeploy provide insights into build job status, deployment activities and errors. CodePipeline also provides a visual dashboard to view the progress of a deployment from commits to production release. Alerts need to be configured through services like CloudWatch Alarms for faster mean-time-to-recovery if any stage fails. Regular evaluations and optimizations of the pipeline helps improve deployment speed, reliability and security over time.

This in summary covers the key steps involved to continuously deploy an e-commerce application using AWS CodePipeline – from setting up the source code repository, configuring build and deployment stages, creating the pipeline, monitoring the automated deployments and ensuring reliability of the process. The automated workflow frees up developers and Ops from manual release practices while keeping the infrastructure in sync with changing application code.