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Docs on writing functions and the functions format. (#203)
* WIP on writing functions and the functions format. * Added more docs on writing functions. * Running on windows docs. * Linked README to writing.md * Minor fixes from PR feedback.
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# Open Function Format
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This document will describe the details of how a function works, inputs/outputs, etc.
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## Input
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### STDIN and Environment Variables
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While wanting to keep things simple, flexible and expandable, we decided to go back to the basics, using Unix input and output. Standard in is easy to use in any
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language and doesn't require anything extra. It also allows streaming input so we can do things like keeping a container running some time and stream
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requests into the container.
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Configuration values, environment information and other things will be passed in through environment variables.
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### Input Formats
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The goals of the input format are the following:
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* Very easy to use and parse
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* Streamable for increasing performance (more than one call per container execution)
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* Ability to build higher level abstractions on top (ie: Lambda syntax compatible)
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The format is still up for discussion and in order to move forward and remain flexible, it's likely we will just allow different input formats and the
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function creator can decide what they want, on a per function basis. Default being the simplest format to use.
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#### Default Input Format
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The default input format is simply the request body itself plus some environment variables. For instance, if someone were to post a JSON body, the unmodified body would
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be sent in via STDIN.
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Pros:
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* Very simple to use
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Cons:
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* Not streamable
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#### HTTP/1 Input Format (Not implemented)
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`--input-format http`
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HTTP format could be a good option as it is in very common use obviously, most languages have some semi-easy way to parse it, and it's streamable. The basic format
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is:
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```
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REQUEST LINE
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HEADER
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BLANK LINE
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BODY
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```
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The header keys and values would be populated with information about the function call such as the request URL and query parameters.
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Body length is determined by the [Content-Length](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7230#section-3.3.3) header, which is mandatory.
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Pros:
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* Streamable
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* Common format
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Cons:
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* Requires a parsing library or fair amount of code to parse headers properly
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* Double parsing - headers + body (if body is to be parsed, such as json)
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#### JSON/HTTP Input Format (Not implemented)
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`--input-format json-http`
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The idea here is to keep the HTTP base structure, but make it a bit easier to parse by making the `request line` and `headers` a JSON struct.
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Eg:
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```
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{
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"request_url":"http://....",
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"params": {
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"blog_name": "yeezy"
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}
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}
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BLANK LINE
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BODY
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```
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Pros:
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* Streamable
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* Easy to parse headers
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Cons:
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* New, unknown format
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## Output
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### STDOUT
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For synchronous: True to form, whatever is written to standard out is returned as the response. If you want to return some JSON output, just write it directly to STDOUT.
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TODO: How to change response headers? Perhaps a similar style as input? Headers, then body. Default headers can be defined on the route and overridden on output.
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For asynchronous: STDOUT will be written to /dev/null until [further notice](https://github.com/iron-io/functions/issues/173). We do not want to write this
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to the logs now, then change it later, otherwise people will start to depend on it.
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### STDERR
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Standard error is reserved for logging, like it was meant to be. Anything you output to STDERR will show up in the logs. And if you use a log
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collector like logspout, you can collect those logs in a central location. See [logging](logging.md).
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