OpenWhisk - Web Actions

Functions can be turned into "web actions" which return HTTP content without use of an API Gateway. This feature is enabled by setting an annotation (web-export) in the configuration file.

functions:
  my_function:
    handler: index.main
    annotations:
      web-export: true

Functions with this annotation can be invoked through a URL template with the following parameters.

https://{APIHOST}/api/v1/web/{USER_NAMESPACE}/{PACKAGE}/{ACTION_NAME}.{TYPE}
  • APIHOST - platform endpoint e.g. openwhisk.ng.bluemix.net.
  • USER_NAMESPACE - this must be an explicit namespace and cannot use the default namespace (_).
  • PACKAGE - action package or default.
  • ACTION_NAME - default form ${servicename}-${space}-${name}.
  • TYPE - .json, .html, .text or .http.

Return values from the function are used to construct the HTTP response. The following parameters are supported.

  1. headers: a JSON object where the keys are header-names and the values are string values for those headers (default is no headers).
  2. code: a valid HTTP status code (default is 200 OK).
  3. body: a string which is either plain text or a base64 encoded string (for binary data).

Here is an example of returning HTML content:

function main(args) {
  var msg = 'you didn't tell me who you are.';
  if (args.name) {
    msg = `hello ${args.name}!`;
  }
  return { body: `<html><body><h3><center>${msg}</center></h3></body></html>` };
}

Here is an example of returning binary data:

function main() {
   let png = <base 64 encoded string>
   return {
      headers: { "Content-Type": "image/png" },
      body: png };
}

Functions can access request parameters using the following environment variables.

  1. __ow_method - HTTP method of the request.
  2. __ow_headers - HTTP request headers.
  3. __ow_path - Unmatched URL path of the request.
  4. __ow_body - Body entity from request.
  5. __ow_query - Query parameters from the request.

Full details on this feature are available in this here.

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OpenWhisk - Web Actions

Functions can be turned into "web actions" which return HTTP content without use of an API Gateway. This feature is enabled by setting an annotation (web-export) in the configuration file.

functions:
  my_function:
    handler: index.main
    annotations:
      web-export: true

Functions with this annotation can be invoked through a URL template with the following parameters.

https://{APIHOST}/api/v1/web/{USER_NAMESPACE}/{PACKAGE}/{ACTION_NAME}.{TYPE}
  • APIHOST - platform endpoint e.g. openwhisk.ng.bluemix.net.
  • USER_NAMESPACE - this must be an explicit namespace and cannot use the default namespace (_).
  • PACKAGE - action package or default.
  • ACTION_NAME - default form ${servicename}-${space}-${name}.
  • TYPE - .json, .html, .text or .http.

Return values from the function are used to construct the HTTP response. The following parameters are supported.

  1. headers: a JSON object where the keys are header-names and the values are string values for those headers (default is no headers).
  2. code: a valid HTTP status code (default is 200 OK).
  3. body: a string which is either plain text or a base64 encoded string (for binary data).

Here is an example of returning HTML content:

function main(args) {
  var msg = 'you didn&#39;t tell me who you are.';
  if (args.name) {
    msg = `hello ${args.name}!`;
  }
  return { body: `<html><body><h3><center>${msg}</center></h3></body></html>` };
}

Here is an example of returning binary data:

function main() {
   let png = <base 64 encoded string>
   return {
      headers: { "Content-Type": "image/png" },
      body: png };
}

Functions can access request parameters using the following environment variables.

  1. __ow_method - HTTP method of the request.
  2. __ow_headers - HTTP request headers.
  3. __ow_path - Unmatched URL path of the request.
  4. __ow_body - Body entity from request.
  5. __ow_query - Query parameters from the request.

Full details on this feature are available in this here.