Serverless Compute

Edgio makes it easy to develop, test, and deploy serverless functions without a JavaScript framework. Simply declare your routes and use the compute function or proxy with the transformResponse option to compute responses based on your own custom logic.

Availability

Edgio allows you to cache and deliver your content through any of our points of presence (POPs) around the world. However, your serverless code will be computed within one of the following global regions:

Americas: Eastern US and Western US
Europe: Ireland, UK, Western Europe, Northern Europe, Central Europe
Asia: Japan
Oceania: Australia

Enterprise customers may choose the region where their workloads will run. Alternatively, if you are using our free tier, then your workloads will run in the Eastern US region.

Edgio ensures high availability for your computing workloads by:

Running your code within two separate data centers.
Setting up automatic DNS failover between those data centers.
Load balancing computing requests between redundant processes.
Applying an Origin Shield to our Serverless Compute workers. If your compute requests are cacheable, then this allows more requests to be served from cache.

System Requirements

Install Node.js 16.16.0

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Install the Edgio CLI

If you have not already done so, install the Edgio CLI.

Bash
npm i -g @edgio/cli

Getting Started

To create a new Edgio project using serverless functions, run:

1npx @edgio/cli@latest init

Or you can clone this example repo: layer0-serverless-example, which has some more complex examples of how to use serverless functions:

1npx degit https://github.com/edgio-docs/edgio-serverless-example my-serverless-functions

Responding to requests

Use the compute function to generate a synthetic response:

JavaScript
// routes.js
import { Router } from '@edgio/core'

export default new Router().get('/some-route/:someParam', ({ compute }) => {
  compute((req, res) => {
    // Here you can access the following information about the request:
    // ================================================================

    // To get the request path and query string
    const url = req.url // e.g /some/path?foo=bar

    // To get the request body as a string
    const body = req.body

    // To get the request method:
    const method = req.method

    // To get the headers sent from the browser:
    const headers = req.getHeaders() // keys are always lower-case

    // To get the value of a specific request header:
    const someHeader = req.getHeader('some-header') // the header name is case-insensitive

    // To check if https was used
    const isHttps = req.secure

    // To access query parameters
    const { id, name } = req.query // for example if the query string is ?id=1&name=Mark

    // To access path parameters:
    const { someParam } = req.params

    // To specify the response:
    // ================================================================

    // To set a response header:
    res.setHeader('content-type', 'application/json')

    // To set the response body, use:
    res.body = 'some string'

    // To set the response status:
    res.statusCode = 200
    res.statusMessage = 'OK'
  })
})

See ResponseWriter for all of the functions that you can call when responding to a request.

Modifying a response from the origin

Serverless functions can be used to modify responses from the origin by using the proxy function with the transformResponse option. First, configure an origin by adding a backend to edgio.config.js in the root of your project:

JavaScript
// edgio.config.js
module.exports = {
  backends: {
    origin: {
      // The domain name or IP address for the origin server
      domainOrIp: 'origin.example.com',

      // Optionally set a host header for Edgio to send when connecting to the origin.
      // If omitted, the host header will be forwarded from the browser.
      hostHeader: 'origin.example.com',
    },
  },
}

See backends for more configuration options.

To forward a request to the origin and modify the response using a serverless function:

JavaScript
// routes.js
import { Router } from '@edgio/core'

export default new Router().get('/some-route/:someParam', ({ proxy }) => {
  proxy('origin', {
    transformRequest: req => {
      // You can optionally transform the request before it is sent to the origin
      // Here you can modify the following information about the request:
      // ================================================================

      // To alter the request URL:
      req.url = '/some/path?foo=bar'

      // To alter the request body:
      req.body = JSON.stringify({ foo: 'bar' })

      // To alter the request method:
      req.method = 'POST'

      // To get the headers sent from the browser:
      const headers = req.getHeaders()

      // To get the value of an incoming request header:
      const someHeader = req.getHeader('some-header') // the header name is case-insensitive

      // To set a request header:
      req.setHeader('content-type', 'application/json') // the header name is case-insensitive

      // To remove a request header:
      req.removeHeader('some-header') // the header name is case-insensitive

      // To access query parameters
      const { id, name } = req.query // for example if the query string is ?id=1&name=Mark

      // To access path parameters:
      const { someParam } = req.params
    },
    transformResponse: (res, req) => {
      // To access or modify the body, use:
      res.body = 'some string'

      // To set a header:
      res.setHeader('content-type', 'application/json') // the header name is case-insensitive

      // To remove a header:
      res.removeHeader('some-header') // the header name is case-insensitive

      // To get the headers returned from the origin. Keys are always lower case
      const headers = res.getHeaders()

      // To get a specific header returned from the origin:
      const cookie = res.getHeader('cookie') // the header name is case-insensitive
    },
  })
})

You can also access any of the request fields documented in Responding to requests.

Caching Responses

To improve performance and minimize cost, cache the responses returned by your serverless functions whenever possible:

JavaScript
// routes.js
import { Router } from '@edgio/core'

export default new Router().get('/', ({ cache, compute }) => {
  cache({
    edge: {
      maxAgeSeconds: 60 * 60, // cache for one hour at the edge
      staleWhileRevalidateSeconds: 60 * 60 * 24, // and continue to serve stale responses for up to 24 hours while fetching a fresh response
    },
  })
  compute((req, res) => {
    res.setHeader('content-type', 'application/json')
    res.body = JSON.stringify({ message: 'Hello World!' })
  })
})

See the cache function for more options.

Running your project locally

Test your app with the Sites on your local machine by running the following command in your project’s root directory:

1edgio dev

This will start your project in watch mode. Any changes your make to your source code will instantly take effect without restarting.

Deploying your project to Edgio

Deploy your app to the Sites by running the following command in your project’s root directory:

1edgio deploy

Limits

Edgio Serverless Compute limits are listed below.

Our serverless functions have a maximum runtime of 20 seconds per request. The response for a function that exceeds this limit is a 539 Project Timeout.
Our Serverless Compute workers are allowed to generate a response body with a maximum file size of 6 MB.
Your project must comply with all applicable Edgio Performance limitations.
Your project must comply with Edgio Sites limitations.