How can I get the Image ID after importing a disk image?

Question

Hello,  
  
I am writing a program that imports a disk image in my S3 bucket as an AMI, and then creates an EC2 instance with that AMI.  
I succeeded in using the AWS SDK for Java to do each task separately, but I struggle with going from the first step to the second step.  
Specifically, I struggle with getting the Image ID of the AMI after the import task is complete. I need the Image ID of the AMI to make an EC2 instance. I was trying to use an ImportImageResult to get the information, but calling getImageID() would return null.  
  
After sending an ImportImageRequest, I want to wait until the import is complete and the new AMI is available. Then, I want to get the Image ID of the new AMI. How can I do this programmatically, and is there a best way to do it?

Answer

The trick is to regularly call DescribeImportImageTasks, find the specific task, call getStatus on it to see if it is "completed", and if not, wait a bit before calling DescribeImportImageTasks again, etc., until the task is finally complete. Then, calling getImageID on that task would not return null. In order to make the task findable, I gave it a specific description, but I suppose giving it a specific tag could also work.

How can I get the Image ID after importing a disk image?

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