Leveraging AWS Lambda Function URLs for Direct Invocations

Overview

Cloud-native applications have been in trend for many years in the search for scalability, reliability, and wide availability. And microservices are one of the most popular configurations to address these needs. AWS Lambda is a highly popular provider of microservices, offering a serverless environment for deploying serverless applications called functions.

Previously, developers had to configure the gateway API separately to expose certain features of AWS Lambda, which posed a challenge in terms of discoverability. This limitation hindered the full potential of AWS Lambda, especially for straightforward functions that didn’t require additional capabilities like authentication or caching. However, the recent introduction of AWS Lambda function URLs has greatly relieved developers working with serverless architectures.

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Introduction

AWS Lambda is a computing service made to run code in response to events and handle the underlying computer resources without requiring any manual intervention in a serverless way. Automatically managing the required resources simplifies the development of applications that can swiftly respond to real-time information.

AWS Lambda can be used to build data processing triggers for AWS services such as Amazon S3 and Amazon DynamoDB. Many other services operate at AWS scale, performance, and security.

AWS Lambda Function URL

AWS Lambda Function URL is a dedicated HTTP(S) endpoint associated with the AWS Lambda function. It can be created and customized using the Lambda console or the AWS Lambda API. When a function URL is created, AWS Lambda generates a unique URL endpoint that remains constant throughout its lifespan.

Utilizing an AWS Lambda Function URL allows for direct invocation of the associated AWS Lambda function, minimizing the need for an Amazon API Gateway. By leveraging the function URL, developers can conveniently trigger the AWS Lambda function without relying on an additional layer of API management.

Steps to Create Function URL

You can create AWS Lambda function URLs through the AWS CLI or using one of the AWS SDKs, but for simplicity, we’ll set everything up through the console in this article. Head to the AWS Lambda console and click the “Create Function” option.
By default, an AWS Lambda execution role will be created, but if you need access to other AWS services, you must create and reference an AWS IAM role with the necessary permissions.

step2

AWS automatically generates a sample code. You can modify the code as per your business requirements. For a demo, we will print the ‘event’.

import json
def lambda_handler(event, context):
    print(event)
    return {
        'statusCode': 200,
        'body': json.dumps('Hello from Lambda!')
    }

import json

def lambda_handler(event, context):

print(event)

return {

'statusCode': 200,

'body': json.dumps('Hello from Lambda!')

}

To configure the Function URL, Navigate to the Configuration Tab and Select the Function URL option.

step4

Here, you will be asked for the Authentication Type. Here, you can select IAM or None Option. In our blog, we are going ahead with the “None” Option.

You will be asked for Further configurations like CORS, Method, Headers, etc.

Configure all the settings as per your requirements.

step5

As we have selected the Authentication as “None”, Lambda will automatically create this Resource based policy and attach it to our function.

step6

After all the configurations, Save the configurations, and you will be able to see all the Configurations selected and the Function URL.

step7

Now, we will hit the Endpoint from Post Man. Our AWS Lambda should be triggered, and our “Event” should get printed in Amazon CloudWatch.

step8

If we look at the Amazon CloudWatch Logs, we can see that the AWS Lambda is invoked, and Inside “Body”, we have received the payload we sent.

step8b

AWS Lambda Function URL can also be configured with AWS Lambda Alias, thus helping developers.

Conclusion

AWS Lambda functions offer a robust and serverless approach to executing code as needed, enabling the development of diverse applications. Leveraging its serverless architecture, AWS Lambda functions can be triggered by events, scheduled to run at specific times, and seamlessly scale according to demand. The URL feature further enhances its capabilities, allowing developers to access and execute Lambda functions from any location conveniently. This feature has effectively reduced the reliance on Amazon API gateways for accessing AWS Lambda functions, making AWS Lambda an even more versatile and powerful tool for modern application development.

Drop a query if you have any questions regarding AWS Lambda Functions and we will get back to you quickly.

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FAQs

1. What is an AWS Lambda function URL?

ANS: – The AWS Lambda function URL is the URL of the HTTP endpoint used to run the AWS Lambda function. It is a unique URL that consists of the AWS region followed by the feature name and version.

2. How do I get the URL for an AWS Lambda function?

ANS: – You must go to the Lambda interface and choose your function to obtain the URL of your AWS Lambda function. A “Copy URL” button will be in the page’s upper right corner. To copy the URL to your clipboard, press this button.

3. What is the URL format of an AWS Lambda function?

ANS: – The format for the URL of an AWS Lambda function is https://[region].amazonaws.com/[function name]/[version]. The AWS region in which the feature is used is referred to as a region. Function Name is the actual name of the function, and version refers to the function’s current execution version.

4. How do I test an AWS Lambda function URL?

ANS: – You can use a tool like cURL or Postman to test the URL of an AWS Lambda function.