AWS Lambda is a powerful tool for federating your application architecture and reducing operational costs for web apps with sporadic activity. However, while many of the interfaces to work with AWS Lambda functions are intuitive, the process of debugging the code as it runs necessarily has some holes. In recognition of this, we’re hosting a webinar, that goes through some of the tools we’ve used to greatly ease local development and deployment of AWS Lambda functions. We’ll cover the Lambda function prototype, the tools available for troubleshooting by default, a test harness we’ve built for local debugging, and finally deploying a Lambda function using our CLI.

Join the session on Wednesday, April 19th at 11 am PST

Overview of AWS Lambda

The webinar will give a brief overview of AWS Lambda for anyone not familiar. We’ll discuss the supported languages, the details that are shared on the execution environment, and we’ll look at how Lambda functions can be invoked. This will focus on Node.JS Lambda functions.

Troubleshooting AWS Lambda

In the webinar, we will also discuss how to troubleshoot and debug AWS Lambda functions. There are some built-in tools for debugging Lambdas, but they fall short of what a competent developer will typically need. We’ll discuss the mechanics of a Lambda function, and what kinds of tools are available for debugging out-of-the-box. We’ll also discuss the shortcomings of this approach.

Creating a Lambda Test Harness

Once we’ve addressed some of the challenges of implementing Lambda functions, we’ll discuss some potential solutions. During this session, we’ll work on creating a test harness that you can use to execute your code. We’ll cover mimicking the call structure of AWS Lambda invocation, and discuss some helpful techniques.

Deploying via the CLI

We’ll finally discuss Lambda deployment in the webinar, demonstrating one technique for deployment using the Backand CLI and Custom Node.JS actions. We’ll walk through what deployment entails, and how you can circumvent some of the trickier parts of the integration (like API Gateway and other triggers).

Conclusion

Our AWS Lambda Test Harness webinar will cover a lot of introductory material on Node.JS AWS Lambda functions. We’ll cover how these functions are built, how to structure your code, and how to debug it locally. We’ll also cover how you can easily deploy and call your Lambda functions from your application, using Backand’s Custom Node.JS Lambda Actions. Sign up so that you don’t miss this introduction to AWS Lambda functions!

Join the session on Wednesday, April 19th at 11 am PST