#API Gateway

Apache OpenWhisk has an API gateway included within the platform. This service allows you to define public HTTP endpoints for your serverless functions.

To create HTTP endpoints as Event sources for your Apache OpenWhisk Functions, use the Serverless Framework's easy API Gateway Events syntax.

#API Gateway Events

#Simple HTTP Endpoint

This setup specifies that the hello function should be run when someone accesses the API gateway at example/hello via a GET request.

Here's an example:

# serverless.yml

functions:
  example:
    handler: handler.hello
    events:
      - http: GET hello

URL paths for the serverless functions are prefixed with the function name, e.g. /function_name/some/path.

// handler.js

'use strict';

module.exports.hello = function (params) {
  // Your function handler
  return { payload: 'Hello world!' };
};

When this service is deployed, the base API Gateway url will be printed to the console. Combine this with your custom HTTP path to create the full HTTP endpoint exposing your serverless function.

$ serverless deploy
...
Serverless: Configured API endpoint: https://xxx-yyy-gws.api-gw.mybluemix.net/example

$ http get https://xxx-yyy-gws.api-gw.mybluemix.net/example/hello
{
    "payload": "Hello, World!"
}

#HTTP Endpoint with Parameters

Here we've defined an POST endpoint for the path posts/create.

# serverless.yml

functions:
  greeting:
    handler: greeting.handler
    events:
      - http: POST greeting/generate

// posts.js

'use strict';

module.exports.handler = function (params) {
  const name = params.name || 'stranger';
  // Your function handler
  return { payload: `Hello ${name}!` };
};

The body of the incoming request is parsed as JSON and passed as the params argument to the function handler.

The returned JavaScript object will be serialized as JSON and returned in the HTTP response body.

#HTTP Endpoint with Extended Options

Here we've defined an POST endpoint for the path posts/create.

# serverless.yml

functions:
  create:
    handler: posts.create
    events:
      - http:
          path: posts/create
          method: post
          resp: json

HTTP event configuration supports the following parameters.

• method - HTTP method (mandatory).
• path - URI path for API gateway (mandatory).
• resp - controls web action content type, values include: json, html, http, svgor text (optional, defaults to json).

#CORS Support

Note: All HTTP endpoints defined in this manner have cross-site requests enabled for all source domains.

#URL Path Parameters

The API Gateway service supports path parameters in user-defined HTTP paths. This allows functions to handle URL paths which include templated values, like resource identifiers.

Path parameters are identified using the {param_name} format in the URL path. The API Gateway sends the full matched path value in the __ow_path field of the event parameters.

functions:
  retrieve_users:
    handler: users.get
    events:
      - http:
          method: GET
          path: /users/{id}
          resp: http

This feature comes with the following restrictions:

• Path parameters are only supported when resp is configured ashttp.
• Individual path parameter values are not included as separate event parameters. Users have to manually parse values from the full __ow_path value.

#Security

Functions exposed through the API Gateway service are automatically converted into Web Actions during deployment. The framework secures Web Actions for HTTP endpoints using the require-whisk-auth annotation. If the require-whisk-auth annotation is manually configured, the existing annotation value is used, otherwise a random token is automatically generated.