@dotdev/netlify-lambda
v3.0.0
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Build and serve lambda function with webpack compilation
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Netlify Lambda
This is an optional tool that helps with building or locally developing Netlify Functions with a simple webpack/babel build step. For function folders, there is also a small utility to install function folder dependencies.
The goal is to make it easy to write Lambda's with transpiled JS/TypeScript features and imported modules.
There are 3 ways to deploy functions to Netlify:
- each function as a single JS or Go file, possibly bundled by a build tool like
netlify-lambda
ortsc
- each function as a zip of a folder of files
- as of CLI v2.7, a non-bundled, non-zipped, folder of files.
Netlify-Lambda
uses webpack to bundle up your functions and their dependencies for you, suiting the first approach. However, if you have native node modules (or other dependencies that don't expect to be bundled like the Firebase SDK) then you may want to try the other approaches. In particular, try Netlify Dev
.
If this sounds confusing, support is available through our regular channels.
When to use Netlify Dev or netlify-lambda
or both?
- When to use Netlify Dev: Part of Netlify Dev serves unbundled function folders through zip-it-and-ship-it with no build step. This is likely to be attractive to many users who previously just needed
netlify-lambda
for bundling multi-file functions or functions with node_module dependencies. - When to use Netlify Lambda: However, if you need a build step for your functions (e.g. for webpack import/export syntax, running babel transforms or typescript), you can use
netlify-lambda
,tsc
or your own build tool to do this, just point Netlify Dev at your build output with thefunctions
field innetlify.toml
. - These responsibilities aren't exactly the same. Therefore you can use Netlify Dev and Netlify Lambda together to have BOTH a build step for functions from
netlify-lambda
and the full proxy environment from Netlify Dev. If you have a npm script inpackage.json
for runningnetlify-lambda serve ${functionsSourceFolder}
, Netlify Dev will detect it and run it for you. This way, existingnetlify-lambda
users will be able to use Netlify Dev with no change to their workflow
Function Builder detection is a very new feature with only simple detection logic for now, that we aim to improve over time. If it doesn't work well for you, you can simply not use Netlify Dev for now while we work out all your bug reports. 🙏🏼
You can see how to convert a Netlify-Lambda project to Netlify Dev as well as why and how they work together in this 48 min video here
Installation
We recommend installing locally rather than globally:
npm install netlify-lambda
This will ensure your build scripts don't assume a global install which is better for your CI/CD (for example with Netlify's buildbot).
If you don't have a netlify.toml
file, you'll need one (example). Define the functions
field where the functions will be built to and served from, e.g.
# example netlify.toml
[build]
command = "npm run build"
functions = "lambda" # netlify-lambda reads this
publish = "build"
Usage
We expose three commands:
netlify-lambda build <folder>
netlify-lambda install [folder]
## legacy command - only preserved for backward compatibility
netlify-lambda serve <folder>
netlify-lambda install
Sometimes your function folders will have dependencies unique to them, managed by a package.json local to that folder. This is a small utility function for installing those dependencies either on your local machine or as part of your build commands.
By default it just runs on the functions folder specified in netlify.toml
. Here's all you need to add to your package.json
(see this example):
// package.json
{
"scripts": {
"postinstall": "netlify-lambda install"
}
}
This is what you should do if you are just using Netlify Dev without netlify-lambda
.
If you're using netlify-lambda serve
or build
, however, you will want to run this install on the source folder rather than the dist/netlify.toml functions folder, so you should run it with the same exact folder name as with those other commands:
netlify-lambda install <folderName>
We don't anticipate you will use this as often but it can be handy.
netlify-lambda build
At a high level, netlify-lambda
takes a source folder (e.g. src/lambda
, specified in your command) and outputs it to a built folder, (e.g. built-lambda
, specified in your netlify.toml
file).
The build
function will run a single build of the functions in the folder.
The serve
function will start a dev server for the source folder and route requests with a .netlify/functions/
prefix, with a default port of 9000
:
folder/hello.js -> http://localhost:9000/.netlify/functions/hello
It also watches your files and restarts the dev server on change. Note: if you add a new file you should kill and restart the process to pick up the new file.
IMPORTANT:
- You need a
netlify.toml
file with afunctions
field. - Every function needs to be a top-level js/ts/mjs file. You can have subfolders inside the
netlify-lambda
folder, but those are only for supporting files to be imported by your top level function. Files that end with.spec.*
or.test.*
will be ignored so you can colocate your tests. - Function signatures follow the AWS event handler syntax but must be named
handler
. We use Node v8 soasync
functions are supported (beware common mistakes!). Read Netlify Functions docs for more info. - Functions time out in 10 seconds by default although extensions can be requested. We try to replicate this locally.
Read Netlify's documentation on environment variables.
netlify-lambda
should respect the env variables you supply in netlify.toml
accordingly (except for deploy previews, which make no sense to locally emulate).
However, this is a relatively new feature, so if you encounter issues, file one.
If you need local-only environment variables that you don't place in netlify.toml
for security reasons, you can configure webpack to use a .env
file like in this example.
// legacy callback style - not encouraged anymore, but you'll still see examples doing this
exports.handler = function(event, context, callback) {
// your server-side functionality
callback(null, {
statusCode: 200,
body: JSON.stringify({
message: `Hello world ${Math.floor(Math.random() * 10)}`
})
});
};
or you can use async/await:
// modern JS style - encouraged
export async function handler(event, context) {
return {
statusCode: 200,
body: JSON.stringify({ message: `Hello world ${Math.floor(Math.random() * 10)}` })
};
}
:warning: The above example only works with
netlify-lambda
because it uses ES module syntax! If you getFunction invocation failed: SyntaxError: Unexpected token 'export'.
errors, this is why.
For more Functions examples, check:
- https://functions-playground.netlify.com/ (introductory)
- https://functions.netlify.com/examples/ (our firehose of all functions examples)
- the blogposts at the bottom of this README
netlify-lambda serve
(legacy command)
This command is pretty much superceded by Netlify Dev. We only keep it around for legacy/backward compatibility support reasons.
netlify-lambda serve
(legacy command): Using with create-react-app
, Gatsby, and other development servers
react-scripts
(the underlying library for create-react-app
) and other popular development servers often set up catchall serving for you; in other words, if you try to request a route that doesn't exist, the dev server will try to serve you /index.html
. This is problematic when you are trying to hit a local API endpoint like netlify-lambda
sets up for you - your browser will attempt to parse the index.html
file as JSON. This is why you may see this error:
Uncaught (in promise) SyntaxError: Unexpected token < in JSON at position 0
If this desribes your situation, then you need to proxy for local development. Read on. Don't worry it's easier than it looks.
netlify-lambda serve
(legacy command): Proxying for local development
⚠️IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ THIS ESPECIALLY IF YOU HAVE CORS ISSUES⚠️
When your function is deployed on Netlify, it will be available at /.netlify/functions/function-name
for any given deploy context. It is advantageous to proxy the netlify-lambda serve
development server to the same path on your primary development server.
Say you are running webpack-serve
on port 8080 and netlify-lambda serve
on port 9000. Mounting localhost:9000
to /.netlify/functions/
on your webpack-serve
server (localhost:8080/.netlify/functions/
) will closely replicate what the final production environment will look like during development, and will allow you to assume the same function url path in development and in production.
- If you are using with
create-react-app
, see netlify/create-react-app-lambda for an example of how to do this withcreate-react-app
. setupProxy is partially documented in the CRA docs. You can also learn how to do this from scratch in a video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ldSM98nCHI - If you are using Gatsby, see their Advanced Proxying docs. This is implemented in the JAMstack Hackathon Starter.
- If you are using React-Static, check https://github.com/nozzle/react-static/issues/380.
- If you are using Nuxt.js, see this issue for how to proxy.
- If you are using Vue CLI, you may just use https://github.com/netlify/vue-cli-plugin-netlify-lambda/.
- If you are using with Angular CLI, see the instructions below.
module.exports = {
mode: "development",
devServer: {
proxy: {
"/.netlify": {
target: "http://localhost:9000",
pathRewrite: { "^/.netlify/functions": "" }
}
}
}
};
CORS issues when trying to use netlify-lambdas locally with angular? you need to set up a proxy.
Firstly make sure you are using relative paths in your app to ensure that your app will work locally and on Netlify, example below...
this.http.get("/.netlify/functions/jokeTypescript");
Then place a proxy.config.json
file in the root of your project, the contents should look something like...
{
"/.netlify/functions/*": {
"target": "http://localhost:9000",
"secure": false,
"logLevel": "debug",
"changeOrigin": true
}
}
- The
key
should match up with the location of your Transpiledfunctions
as defined in yournetlify.toml
- The
target
should match the port that the lambdas are being served on (:9000 by default)
When you run up your Angular project you need to pass in the proxy config with the flag --proxy-config
like so...
ng serve --proxy-config proxy.config.json
To make your life easier you can add these to your scripts
in package.json
"scripts": {
"start": "ng serve --proxy-config proxy.config.json",
"build": "ng build --prod --aot && yarn nlb",
"nls": "netlify-lambda serve src_functions",
"nlb": "netlify-lambda build src_functions"
}
Obviously you need to run up netlify-lambda
& angular
at the same time.
Next.js doesnt use Webpack Dev Server, so you can't modify any config in next.config.js
to get a proxy to run. However, since the CORS proxy issue only happens in dev mode (Functions are on the same domain when deployed on Netlify) you can run Next.js through a Node server for local development:
touch server.js
yarn add -D http-proxy-middleware express
// server.js
/* eslint-disable no-console */
const express = require("express");
const next = require("next");
const devProxy = {
"/.netlify": {
target: "http://localhost:9000",
pathRewrite: { "^/.netlify/functions": "" }
}
};
const port = parseInt(process.env.PORT, 10) || 3000;
const env = process.env.NODE_ENV;
const dev = env !== "production";
const app = next({
dir: ".", // base directory where everything is, could move to src later
dev
});
const handle = app.getRequestHandler();
let server;
app
.prepare()
.then(() => {
server = express();
// Set up the proxy.
if (dev && devProxy) {
const proxyMiddleware = require("http-proxy-middleware");
Object.keys(devProxy).forEach(function(context) {
server.use(proxyMiddleware(context, devProxy[context]));
});
}
// Default catch-all handler to allow Next.js to handle all other routes
server.all("*", (req, res) => handle(req, res));
server.listen(port, err => {
if (err) {
throw err;
}
console.log(`> Ready on port ${port} [${env}]`);
});
})
.catch(err => {
console.log("An error occurred, unable to start the server");
console.log(err);
});
run your server and netlify-lambda at the same time:
// package.json
"scripts": {
"start": "cross-env NODE_ENV=dev npm-run-all --parallel start:app start:server",
"start:app": "PORT=3000 node server.js",
"start:server": "netlify-lambda serve functions"
},
and now you can ping Netlify Functions with locally emulated by netlify-lambda
!
For production deployment, you have two options:
- using
next export
to do static HTML export - using the Next.js 8
serverless
target option to run your site in a function as well.
Just remember to configure your netlify.toml
to point to the Next.js
build folder and your netlify-lambda
functions folder accordingly.
Webpack Configuration
By default the webpack configuration uses babel-loader
to load all js files.
netlify-lambda
will search for a valid babel config file in the functions directory first and look upwards up to the directory netlify-lambda
is run from (similar to how babel-loader
looks for a Babel config file).
If no babel config file is found, a few basic settings are used.
If you need to use additional webpack modules or loaders, you can specify an additional webpack config with the -c
/--config
option when running either serve
or build
.
For example, have a file with:
// webpack.functions.js
module.exports = {
optimization: { minimize: false }
};
Then specify netlify-lambda serve --config ./webpack.functions.js
. If using VSCode, it is likely that the sourceMapPathOverrides
have to be adapted for breakpoints to work. Read here for more info on how to modify the webpack config.
If you're using firebase SDK and other native modules, check this issue and use this plugin:
//./config/webpack.functions.js
const nodeExternals = require('webpack-node-externals');
module.exports = {
externals: [nodeExternals()],
};
The additional webpack config will be merged into the default config via webpack-merge's merge
method.
Babel configuration
The default webpack configuration uses babel-loader
with a few basic settings.
However, if any valid Babel config file is found in the directory netlify-lambda
is run from, or folders above it (useful for monorepos), it will be used instead of the default one.
It is possible to disable this behaviour by passing --babelrc false
.
If you need to run different babel versions for your lambda and for your app, check this issue to override your webpack babel-loader.
Use with TypeScript
We added .ts
and .mjs
support recently - check here for the PR and usage tips.
- Install
@babel/preset-typescript
npm install --save-dev @babel/preset-typescript
You may also want to add typescript @types/node @types/aws-lambda
.
- Create a Babel config file, e.g.
.babelrc
:
{
"presets": [
"@babel/preset-typescript",
[
"@babel/preset-env",
{
"targets": {
"node": true
}
}
]
],
"plugins": [
"@babel/plugin-proposal-class-properties",
"@babel/plugin-transform-object-assign",
"@babel/plugin-proposal-object-rest-spread"
]
}
- (Optional) if you have
@types/aws-lambda
installed, your lambda functions can use the community typings forHandler, Context, Callback
. See the typescript instructions in create-react-app-lambda for an example.
Check https://github.com/sw-yx/create-react-app-lambda-typescript for a CRA + Lambda full Typescript experience.
CLI flags/options
There are additional CLI options:
-h --help
-c --config
-p --port
-s --static
-t --timeout
-b --babelrc
--config option
If you need to use additional webpack modules or loaders, you can specify an additional webpack config with the -c
/--config
option when running either serve
or build
.
For example, have a file with:
// webpack.functions.js
module.exports = {
optimization: { minimize: false }
};
Then specify netlify-lambda serve --config ./webpack.functions.js
.
--timeout option
(This is for local dev/serving only) The default function timeout is 10 seconds. If you need to adjust this because you have requested extra timeout, pass a timeout number here. Thanks to @naipath for this feature.
--port option
The serving port can be changed with the -p
/--port
option.
--static option
If you need an escape hatch and are building your lambda in some way that is incompatible with our build process, you can skip the build with the -s
or --static
flag. More info here.
--babelrc
Defaults to true
Use a Babel config file found in the directory netlify-lambda
is run from. This can be useful when you have conflicting babel-presets, more info here
Netlify Identity
Make sure to read the docs on how Netlify Functions and Netlify Identity work together. Basically you have to make your request with an authorization
header and a Bearer
token with your Netlify Identity JWT supplied. You can get this JWT from any of our Identity solutions from gotrue-js to netlify-identity-widget.
Since for practical purposes we cannot fully emulate Netlify Identity locally, we provide simple JWT decoding inside the context
of your function. This will give you back the user
info you need to work with.
Minor note: For the identity
field, since we are not fully emulating Netlify Identity, we can't give you details on the Identity instance, so we give you unambiguous strings so you know not to rely on it locally: NETLIFY_LAMBDA_LOCALLY_EMULATED_IDENTITY_URL
and NETLIFY_LAMBDA_LOCALLY_EMULATED_IDENTITY_TOKEN
. In production, of course, Netlify Functions will give you the correct identity.url
and identity.token
fields. We find we dont use this info often in our functions so it is not that big of a deal in our judgment.
Debugging
To debug lambdas, it can be helpful to turn off minification and enable logging. Prepend the serve
command with npm's package runner npx, e.g. npx --node-arg=--inspect netlify-lambda serve ...
.
- make sure that sourcemaps are built along the way (e.g. in the webpack configuration and the
tsconfig.json
if typescript is used) - webpack's minification/uglification is turned off (see below):
For example, to customize the webpack config you can have a file with:
// webpack.functions.js
module.exports = {
optimization: { minimize: false }
};
You can see a sample project with this setup here.
So you can run something like npx --node-arg=--inspect netlify-lambda serve --config ./webpack.functions.js
. If using VSCode, it is likely that the sourceMapPathOverrides
have to be adapted for breakpoints to work. Read here for more info on how to modify the webpack config.
Netlify Functions run in Node v8.10 and you may need to run the same version to mirror the environment locally. Also make sure to check that you aren't committing one of these common Node 8 mistakes in Lambda!
Special warning on node-fetch
: node-fetch
and webpack currently don't work well together. You will have to use the default export in your code:
const fetch = require("node-fetch").default; // not require('node-fetch')
Don't forget to search our issues in case someone has run into a similar problem you have!
Example functions and Tutorials
You can do a great deal with lambda functions! Here are some examples for inspiration:
- Basic Netlify Functions tutorial: https://flaviocopes.com/netlify-functions/
- Netlify's list of Function examples: https://functions-playground.netlify.com/ (Even more in the README as well as our full list https://functions.netlify.com/examples/)
- Slack Notifications: https://css-tricks.com/forms-auth-and-serverless-functions-on-gatsby-and-netlify/#article-header-id-9
- URL Shortener: https://www.netlify.com/blog/2018/03/19/create-your-own-url-shortener-with-netlifys-forms-and-functions/
- Gatsby + Netlify Identity + Functions: Turning the Static Dynamic: Gatsby + Netlify Functions + Netlify Identity
- Raymond Camden's Adding Serverless Functions to Your Netlify Static Site
- Travis Horn's Netlify Lambda Functions from Scratch
- JAMstack with Divya Sasidharan & Phil Hawksworth | Devchat.tv - Great discussion on the problems that Netlify Functions solve
- Netlify function error reporting with Sentry - automatic error reporting for your Netlify functions, so you know any time they fail.
- React + Stripe + Netlify Functions: Build and deploy a serverless eCommerce project
- Submit your blogpost here!
These libraries pair very well for extending your functions capability:
- Middleware: https://github.com/middyjs/middy
- GraphQL: https://www.npmjs.com/package/apollo-server-lambda
- Any others to suggest?
Other community approaches
If you wish to serve the full website from lambda, check this issue.
If you wish to run this server for testing, check this issue.
If you wish to emulate more Netlify functionality locally, check this repo: https://github.com/8eecf0d2/netlify-local. We are considering merging the projects here.
All of the above are community maintained and not officially supported by Netlify.
Changelog
- v1.0: https://twitter.com/Netlify/status/1050399820484087815 Webpack 4 and Babel 7
- v1.1: https://twitter.com/swyx/status/1069544181259849729 Typescript support
- v1.2: https://twitter.com/swyx/status/1083446733374337024 Identity emulation (& others)
- v1.3: https://github.com/netlify/netlify-lambda/releases/tag/v1.3.0
- v1.4: New timeout feature https://github.com/netlify/netlify-lambda/pull/116
- v1.5: Catch raw requests - a very common error for first time users pinging
localhost:9000
instead oflocalhost:9000/.netlify/functions/myfunction
https://github.com/netlify/netlify-lambda/commit/bfebc0921a45d4f730b910b680e40e04928f7c29#diff-3288939317efd62bfc509440d662cacaR191 - v1.6: New
install
command https://mobile.twitter.com/swyx/status/1162038490298818562