Introducing OpenWhisk

Apache OpenWhisk is an Open Source serverless platform suited to a wide range of applications from IoT & chatbots through to microservices and web hooks. In this session, I’ll introduce OpenWhisk and show you how it works.

We’ll look at it’s key architectural concepts including actions, triggers, rules and packages which will show you how a serverless function integrates into a wide application. I’ll also look at the API Gateway functionality that makes building APIs that much easier. This session is recommended for tech leads and developers of all levels wanting to know about serverless and the OpenWhisk project.

Transcript

1. Introducing OpenWhisk Rob Allen November 2018
2. So, about this Serverless thing… Rob Allen ~ @akrabat
3. Serverless • Code • Deployed to the cloud • Executed in response to an event • On-demand scaling • Pay for execution, not when idle Rob Allen ~ @akrabat
4. Serverless is a great fit for • APIs & Microservices • One off end points • Web hooks • Timed events • Data transformation • IoT • Cognitive Rob Allen ~ @akrabat
5. For me, it's about value Rob Allen ~ @akrabat
6. Apache OpenWhisk Rob Allen ~ @akrabat
7. Apache OpenWhisk • http://openwhisk.org • Incubator project working towards graduation • Many contributors Rob Allen ~ @akrabat
8. Apache OpenWhisk • OpenSource • Self-hosted • Multiple public providers: IBM RedHat Adobe (for Adobe Cloud Platform APIs) Rob Allen ~ @akrabat
9. Supported languages • .NET Core • Ballerina • Go • Java • NodeJS • PHP • Python • Ruby • Swift Also, Your own Docker container can be deployed & invoked Rob Allen ~ @akrabat
10. Getting started with OpenWhisk Rob Allen ~ @akrabat
11. Concepts Rob Allen ~ @akrabat
12. Event providers (feeds) • GitHub • IBM App Connect • IBM Cloudant (CouchDB) • Message Hub (Kafka) • Mobile Push • Periodic Rob Allen ~ @akrabat
13. Hello World def main(args): name = args.get("name", "World") message = 'Hello {}!'.format(name) return {'body': message} Rob Allen ~ @akrabat
14. Deploying your action $ zip -q hello.zip hello.py $ wsk action update --kind python:3.7 hello hello.zip ok: updated action hello Rob Allen ~ @akrabat
15. Deploying your action $ zip -q hello.zip hello.py $ wsk action update --kind python:3.7 hello hello.zip ok: updated action hello Then run it: $ wsk action invoke hello --result --param name Rob { "body": "Hello Rob!" } Rob Allen ~ @akrabat
16. Seque: How did it do this?! Rob Allen ~ @akrabat
17. OpenWhisk's architecture Rob Allen ~ @akrabat
18. Create an action Rob Allen ~ @akrabat
19. Invoke an action Rob Allen ~ @akrabat
20. Action container lifecycle • Hosts the user-written code • Controlled via two end points: /init & /run Rob Allen ~ @akrabat
21. End Seque Rob Allen ~ @akrabat
22. Web-enabled actions Access your action via HTTP: Add the --web flag: $ wsk action update --kind python:3.7 --web true \ demo/hello hello.zip Rob Allen ~ @akrabat
23. Web-enabled actions Access your action via HTTP: Add the --web flag: $ wsk action update --kind python:3.7 --web true \ demo/hello hello.zip Get URL and curl it: $ wsk action get --url demo/hello $ curl https://192.168.1.17/api/v1/web/guest/demo/hello Rob Allen ~ @akrabat
24. API Gateway When you want to do more with HTTP endpoints • Route endpoint methods to actions (Open API Spec support) • Custom domains • Rate limiting • Security (API keys, OAuth, CORS) • Analytics Rob Allen ~ @akrabat
25. API Gateway $ wsk api create /myapp /hello GET hello ok: created API /myapp/hello GET for action /_/hello Rob Allen ~ @akrabat
26. API Gateway $ wsk api create /myapp /hello GET hello ok: created API /myapp/hello GET for action /_/hello $ curl https://example.com/myapp/hello?name=Rob { "message": "Hello Rob!" } Rob Allen ~ @akrabat
27. Packages • Group actions together • Set parameters used by all actions $ wsk package update demo $ wsk action update --kind python:3.7 demo/hello hello.zip Rob Allen ~ @akrabat
28. Built-in packages • alarms • cloudant • combinators • github • jira • kafka • pushnotifications • rss • samples • slack • utils • watson • weather • websocket List using: wsk package list /whisk.system Rob Allen ~ @akrabat
29. Using built-in actions Count words in a string: $ wsk action invoke -r /whisk.system/samples/wordCount \ -p payload "Twas brillig, and the slithy toves" { "count": 6 } Rob Allen ~ @akrabat
30. Sequences Invoke a set of actions in turn Rob Allen ~ @akrabat
31. Composer: Logic for your actions Rob Allen ~ @akrabat
32. Composer: Logic for your actions Rob Allen ~ @akrabat
33. OpenWhisk Composition composer.sequence( composer.if( 'binday/authenticate', composer.sequence( 'format_input_from_alexa', composer.if( 'binday/validate', 'binday/get_next_bin_day' 'binday/send_failure' ), ), 'binday/send_failure' ), 'binday/format_output_for_alexa' ) Rob Allen ~ @akrabat
34. Serverless Framework Plugin available for the Serverless Framework Set up: $ npm install --global serverless serverless-openwhisk $ serverless create --template openwhisk-php --path app $ cd app $ npm install Rob Allen ~ @akrabat
35. serverless.yml service: ow-todo-backend provider: name: openwhisk runtime: php plugins: - serverless-openwhisk Rob Allen ~ @akrabat
36. serverless.yml functions: list-todos: handler: "src/actions/listTodos.main" name: "todo-backend/list-todos" events: - http: path: /todos method: get add-todo: handler: src/actions/addTodo.main name: "todo-backend/add-todo" ... Rob Allen ~ @akrabat
37. Deploy $ serverless deploy Serverless: Packaging service... Serverless: Compiling Functions... Serverless: Compiling Packages... Serverless: Compiling API Gateway definitions... Serverless: Compiling Rules... Serverless: Compiling Triggers & Feeds... Serverless: Compiling Service Bindings... Serverless: Deploying Packages... Serverless: Deploying Functions... Serverless: Deploying API Gateway definitions... [...] Rob Allen ~ @akrabat
38. To sum up Rob Allen ~ @akrabat
39. Resources • http://www.openwhisk.org • https://github.com/apache/incubator-openwhisk-workshop • https://serverless.com/framework/docs/providers/openwhisk Developing Serverless Applications by Raymond Camden Free at https://akrab.at/openwhiskbook Rob Allen ~ @akrabat
40. Thank you! Rob Allen ~ @akrabat