Fn is a lightweight Docker-based serverless functions platform you can run on your laptop, server, or cloud. In this introductory tutorial we'll walk through developing a function using the Ruby programming language (without installing any Ruby tools!) and deploying that function to a local Fn server. We'll also learn about the core Fn concepts like applications and triggers.
- Set aside about 15 minutes to complete this tutorial.
- Make sure Fn server is up and running by completing the Install and Start Fn Tutorial.
- Make sure you have set your Fn context registry value for local development. (for example, "fndemouser". See here.)
As you make your way through this tutorial, look out for this icon.
Whenever you see it, it's time for you to perform an action.
Now that Fn server is up and running, let's start with a very simple "hello world" function written in Ruby. Don't worry, you don't need to know Ruby! as Fn provides the necessary Ruby compiler and tools as a Docker container. Let's walk through your first function to become familiar with the process and how Fn supports development.
In the terminal type the following.
fn init --runtime ruby --trigger http rubyfn
The output will be
Creating function at: /rubyfn
Runtime: ruby
Function boilerplate generated.
func.yaml created.The fn init command creates an simple function with a bit of boilerplate to
get you started. The --runtime option is used to indicate that the function
we're going to develop is written in Ruby. A number of other runtimes are
also supported. The --trigger option creates a URL for HTTP access to the function. Fn creates the simple function along with several supporting
files in the /rubyfn directory.
With your function created change into the /rubyfn directory.
cd rubyfn
Now get a list of the directory contents.
ls
Gemfile func.rb func.yamlThe func.rb file which contains your actual Ruby function is generated along
with several supporting files. To view your Ruby function type:
cat func.rb
require 'fdk'
def myfunction(context:, input:)
input_value = input.respond_to?(:fetch) ? input.fetch('name') : input
name = input_value.to_s.strip.empty? ? 'World' : input_value
{ message: "Hello #{name}!" }
end
FDK.handle(target: :myfunction)This function looks for JSON input in the form of {"name": "Bob"}
If this JSON example is passed to the function, the function returns {"message":"Hello Bob!"}.
If no JSON data is found, or the name field is missing or empty,
the function returns {"message":"Hello World!"}.
The fn init command generated a func.yaml function
configuration file. Let's look at the contents:
cat func.yaml
schema_version: 20180708
name: rubyfn
version: 0.0.2
runtime: ruby
entrypoint: ruby func.rb
triggers:
- name: rubyfn-trigger
type: http
source: /rubyfn-triggerThe generated func.yaml file contains metadata about your function and
declares a number of properties including:
- schema_version--identifies the version of the schema for this function file. Essentially, it determines which fields are present in
func.yaml. - name--the name of the function. Matches the directory name.
- version--automatically starting at 0.0.1.
- runtime--the name of the runtime/language which was set based on the value set
in
--runtime. - entrypoint--the name of the executable to invoke when your function is called,
in this case
ruby func.rb. - triggers--identifies the automatically generated trigger name and source. For example, this function would be executed from the URL http://localhost:8080/t/appname/rubyfn-trigger. Where appname is the name of the app chosen for your function when it is deployed.
There are other user specifiable properties but these will suffice for this example. Note that the name of your function is taken from the containing folder name. We'll see this come into play later on.
The fn init command generated one other file.
Gemfile-- specifies all the dependencies for your Ruby function.
With the rubyfn directory containing func.rb and func.yaml you've got
everything you need to deploy the function to Fn server. This server could be
running in the cloud, in your datacenter, or on your local machine like we're
doing here.
Make sure your context is set to default and you are using a demo user. Use the fn list context command to check.
fn list contexts
CURRENT NAME PROVIDER API URL REGISTRY
* default default http://localhost:8080 fndemouserIf your context is not configured, please see the context installation instructions before proceeding. Your context determines where your function is deployed.
Deploying your function is how you publish your function and make it accessible
to other users and systems. To see the details of what is happening during a
function deploy, use the --verbose switch. The first time you build a
function of a particular language it takes longer as Fn downloads the necessary
Docker images. The --verbose option allows you to see this process.
In your terminal type the following:
fn --verbose deploy --app rubyapp --local
You should see output similar to:
Creating function at: /rubyfn
Function boilerplate generated.
func.yaml created.
~/lcl/1016 $ cd rubyfn
~/lcl/1016/rubyfn $ ls
Gemfile func.rb func.yaml
~/lcl/1016/rubyfn $
~/lcl/1016/rubyfn $
~/lcl/1016/rubyfn $
~/lcl/1016/rubyfn $ fn --verbose deploy --app rubyapp --local
Deploying rubyfn to app: rubyapp
Bumped to version 0.0.2
Building image fndemouser/rubyfn:0.0.2
FN_REGISTRY: fndemouser
Current Context: default
Sending build context to Docker daemon 5.12kB
Step 1/9 : FROM fnproject/ruby:dev as build-stage
dev: Pulling from fnproject/ruby
88286f41530e: Pull complete
ee67ab14fe7c: Pull complete
528d6e469a02: Pull complete
bb1a5f0c7734: Pull complete
b6f7bd536b78: Pull complete
Digest: sha256:056069fae8e349187114df899f1744aee548b464a91fb38497de6ce30d8c1488
Status: Downloaded newer image for fnproject/ruby:dev
---> 907fbac5f177
Step 2/9 : WORKDIR /function
---> Running in 95c3e5e57b50
Removing intermediate container 95c3e5e57b50
---> e8b73f0c8416
Step 3/9 : ADD Gemfile* /function/
---> 713cc4c0d750
Step 4/9 : RUN bundle install
---> Running in 8ee8c95ebff4
Don't run Bundler as root. Bundler can ask for sudo if it is needed, and
installing your bundle as root will break this application for all non-root
users on this machine.
Fetching gem metadata from https://rubygems.org/..
Fetching version metadata from https://rubygems.org/.
Resolving dependencies...
Using bundler 1.15.4
Fetching json 2.1.0
Installing json 2.1.0 with native extensions
Fetching fdk 0.0.14
Installing fdk 0.0.14
Bundle complete! 1 Gemfile dependency, 3 gems now installed.
Use `bundle info [gemname]` to see where a bundled gem is installed.
Removing intermediate container 8ee8c95ebff4
---> 172f64d0553a
Step 5/9 : FROM fnproject/ruby
latest: Pulling from fnproject/ruby
88286f41530e: Already exists
ee67ab14fe7c: Already exists
528d6e469a02: Already exists
Digest: sha256:9390a5c8df48f10499930a2ed4968bd2e46b6e6041aea8f5a5dc589b7b2ecaa2
Status: Downloaded newer image for fnproject/ruby:latest
---> 9ab2c72e7fd0
Step 6/9 : WORKDIR /function
---> Running in 98c77e59831c
Removing intermediate container 98c77e59831c
---> 04f0c7220634
Step 7/9 : COPY --from=build-stage /usr/lib/ruby/gems/ /usr/lib/ruby/gems/
---> aa358bb28a7b
Step 8/9 : ADD . /function/
---> 6d31c787c51c
Step 9/9 : ENTRYPOINT ["ruby", "func.rb"]
---> Running in 1258d901657e
Removing intermediate container 1258d901657e
---> f9bd02b56f9b
Successfully built f9bd02b56f9b
Successfully tagged fndemouser/rubyfn:0.0.2
Updating function rubyfn using image fndemouser/rubyfn:0.0.2...
Successfully created app: rubyapp
Successfully created function: rubyfn with fndemouser/rubyfn:0.0.2
Successfully created trigger: rubyfn-trigger
Trigger Endpoint: http://localhost:8080/t/rubyapp/rubyfn-triggerAll the steps to load the current language Docker image are displayed.
Functions are grouped into applications so by specifying --app rubyapp
we're implicitly creating the application rubyapp and associating our
function with it.
Specifying --local does the deployment to the local server but does
not push the function image to a Docker registry--which would be necessary if
we were deploying to a remote Fn server.
The output message
Updating function rubyfn using image fndemouser/rubyfn:0.0.2...
let's us know that the function packaged in the image
fndemouser/rubyfn:0.0.2.
Note that the containing folder name rubyfn was used as the name of the generated Docker container and used as the name of the function that container was bound to. By convention it is also used to create the trigger name rubyfn-trigger.
Normally you deploy an application without the --verbose option. If you rerun the command a new image and version is created and loaded.
There are two ways to call your deployed function.
The first is using the Fn CLI which makes invoking your function relatively easy. Type the following:
fn invoke rubyapp rubyfn
which results in:
{"message":"Hello World!"}When you invoked rubyapp rubyfn the Fn server looked up the rubyapp
application and then looked for the Docker container image bound to the
rubyfn function and executed the code. Fn invoke invokes your function
directly and independently of any associated triggers. You can always invoke a
function even without it having any triggers bound to it. Note the content type was specified as well.
You can also pass data to the invoke command. For example:
echo -n '{"name":"Bob"}' | fn invoke rubyapp rubyfn --content-type application/json
{"message":"Hello Bob!"}The JSON data was parsed and since name was set to Bob, that value is passed
in the output.
If you have used Docker before the output of fn --verbose deploy should look
familiar--it looks like the output you see when running docker build
with a Dockerfile. Of course this is exactly what's happening! When
you deploy a function like this Fn is dynamically generating a Dockerfile
for your function, building a container, and then loading it for execution.
NOTE: Fn is actually using two images. The first contains the language interpreter and all the necessary build tools. The second image packages all dependencies and any necessary language runtime components. Using this strategy, the final function image size can be kept as small as possible. Smaller Docker images are naturally faster to push and pull from a repository which improves overall performance. For more details on this technique see Multi-Stage Docker Builds for Creating Tiny Go Images.
When using fn deploy --local, Fn server builds and packages your function
into a container image which resides on your local machine.
As Fn is built on Docker you can use the docker command to see the local
container image you just generated. You may have a number of Docker images so
use the following command to see only those created by fndemouser:
docker images | grep fndemouser
You should see something like:
fndemouser/rubyfn 0.0.2 d0d71f5a2a23 11 minutes ago 63.9MBThe Fn CLI provides a couple of commands to let us see what we've deployed.
fn list apps returns a list of all of the defined applications.
fn list apps
Which, in our case, returns the name of the application we created when we
deployed our rubyfn function:
NAME ID
rubyapp 01CT433P8VNG8G00GZJ000001AWe can also see the functions that are defined by an application. Since functions are exposed via triggers, the fn list triggers <appname> command is used. To list the functions included in "rubyapp" we can type:
fn list triggers rubyapp
FUNCTION NAME TYPE SOURCE ENDPOINT
rubyfn rubyfn-trigger http /rubyfn-trigger http://localhost:8080/t/rubyapp/rubyfn-trigger
FUNCTION NAME ID TYPE SOURCE ENDPOINT
rubyfn rubyfn-trigger 01CT433P9TNG8G00GZJ000001C http /rubyfn-trigger http://localhost:8080/t/rubyapp/The output confirms that rubyapp contains a rubyfn function that is
implemented by the Docker container fndemouser/rubyfn:0.0.2 which may be
invoked via the specified URL.
The other way to invoke your function is via HTTP. The Fn server exposes our
deployed function at http://localhost:8080/t/rubyapp/rubyfn-trigger, a URL
that incorporates our application and function trigger as path elements.
Use curl to invoke the function:
curl -H "Content-Type: application/json" http://localhost:8080/t/rubyapp/rubyfn-trigger
The result is once again the same.
{"message":"Hello World!"}We can again pass JSON data to our function and get the value of name passed to the function back.
curl -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"name":"Bob"}' http://localhost:8080/t/rubyapp/rubyfn-trigger
The result is once again the same.
{"message":"Hello Bob!"}Congratulations! In this tutorial you've accomplished a lot. You've created your first function, deployed it to your local Fn server and invoked it over HTTP.
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