webtask-hacks
v2.2.1
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A collection of webtask-related hacks and ideas
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Webtask hacks
A collection of experiments and hacks for getting the most (and sometimes too much) out of the Webtask platform.
Compilers
Middleware
The middleware compiler provides a mechanism to run any number of middleware prior to invoking a webtask.
A middleware is a function exported by a node module having the signature function(req, res, next)
, where:
req
is the instance ofhttp.IncomingRequest
for the current request. It has areq.webtaskContext
property:req.webtaskContext
is a typical webtask context object that is augmented with acompiler
property. Thecompiler
object is exposed so that a middleware can be implemented that supports custom programming models. Thecompiler
property is an object that hasnodejsCompiler
andscript
properties where:nodejsCompiler
is the node.js compiler function provided to webtask compilersscript
is the underling webtask's code
res
is the instance ofhttp.ServerResponse
for the current requestnext
is a function with the signaturefunction next(error)
. A middleware function may be designed to complete the response, in which case it can omit callingnext
. A middleware may also implement authentication logic, such as the authentication middleware. In this case, the middleware might invokenext
with anError
. If the error has astatusCode
property, this will be used as the response status code. Otherwise, to allow control to go to the next middleware, or to the default middleware (which compiles and invokes the webtask code), the middleware can callnext()
with no arguments.
Usage:
Set the
wt-compiler
metadata property on your webtask towebtask-hacks/middleware
.Set the
wt-node-dependencies
metadata property to the stringified JSON of an object having awebtask-hacks
property whose value is the latest version of this module.{"webtask-hacks":"1.4.1"}
Set the
wt-middleware
metadata property to a comma-separated list of middleware references. These references can be the name of an npm module, in which case the module's default export is used. These can also be references likemodule_name/name_of_export_function
, which would be equivalent torequire('module_name').name_of_export_function
. These middleware will be invoked sequentially and the next middleware will only be invoked if the previous middleware callsnext()
without argument.Optionally, set the
wt-debug
metadata property to a comma-separated list of debug references that containswt-middleware
. This will result in additional debug information being sent to real-time logs.
Workflow
The workflow compiler allows you to build compound webtasks that have one of two composition models:
fanout
- Run a set of child webtasks in parallel, collecting response status codes.sequence
- Run one child webtask after the other, piping the output of one into the input of the next.
Usage:
Create a webtask with code using the following structure:
{ "type": "fanout | sequence", "nodes": [ { "name": "name_of_webtask_0" }, { "name": "name_of_webtask_1" }, { "name": "name_of_webtask_N" } ] }
Set the
wt-compiler
metadata property on your webtask towebtask-hacks/workflow
.Set the
wt-node-dependencies
metadata property to the stringified JSON of an object having awebtask-hacks
property whose value is the latest version of this module.{"webtask-hacks":"1.4.1"}
Optionally, set the
wt-workflow-debug
metadata property to a number corresponding to the minimum level of logs that will be output to your webtask logs.Supported levels are as follows:
20: debug 30: info 40: warn 50: error
Middleware
Using middleware requires configuring the webtask-hacks/middleware
compiler. Please see above.
Cron authentication
The webtask-hacks/authenticateCron
middleware provides cron job authentication based on the assumption that only trusted agents know the webtask token that underpins a webtask cron job. The Webtask daemon will automatically invoke cron jobs with an Authorization
header having a bearer token corresponding to the cron job's underlying webtask token. This middleware will reject requests where this does not hold true.
Authentication
The webtask-hacks/authenticate
middleware provides a generic authentication solution that assumes that only trusted agents can inspect the metadata of the webtask. Requests subject to this middleware will be rejected if they have a wt-auth-secret
secret and the value of that secre does not match the bearer token in the Authorization
header.
JSON logging
The webtask-hacks/jsonLogger
middleware augments the console object in Webtask so that all logic running later in the synchronous or asynchronous continuation will result in newline-delimited json having the format { chunk, requestId, webtaskId }
being emitted to the real-time logs. This may be useful for other middleware that might want to ship augmented logs to 3rd party services or to facilitate per-request logging by consumers of real-time logs.