Why serverless patterns matter in Azure - See It in Action

Why Serverless Patterns Matter

📖 Scenario: You are working for a small company that wants to build a simple web app. They want to use cloud services that automatically handle the servers for them, so they don't have to manage or worry about servers. This is called serverless computing.To help the company, you will create a basic serverless function in Azure that responds to web requests. This will show how serverless patterns make cloud apps easier and faster to build.

🎯 Goal: Build a simple Azure Function app that runs code without managing servers. The function will respond with a greeting message when accessed via HTTP. This project teaches why serverless patterns matter by showing how to create and configure a serverless function.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create an Azure Function app with an HTTP trigger

Configure the function to respond with a simple message

Add a configuration setting for the greeting message

Deploy the function with the correct bindings

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Serverless functions are widely used to build scalable web APIs, event-driven apps, and automation without managing servers.

💼 Career

Understanding serverless patterns is essential for cloud developers and architects to build efficient, cost-effective cloud solutions.

1

Create the Azure Function app with HTTP trigger

Create a new Azure Function app named MyServerlessFunction with an HTTP trigger. Use the default function template that responds to HTTP requests.

Azure

# Create the Azure Function app named MyServerlessFunction with HTTP trigger
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use Azure Functions Core Tools commands to initialize and create the function.

2

Add a configuration setting for the greeting message

Add an application setting named GreetingMessage with the value Hello from serverless! in the local.settings.json file.

Azure

func init MyServerlessFunction --worker-runtime dotnet
cd MyServerlessFunction
func new --name HttpTrigger --template "HTTP trigger" --authlevel anonymous

# Add GreetingMessage setting in local.settings.json
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Edit the local.settings.json file to add the new setting under the "Values" section.

3

Modify the function code to use the greeting message setting

In the HttpTrigger function code, read the GreetingMessage setting from the environment and return it as the HTTP response.

Azure

func init MyServerlessFunction --worker-runtime dotnet
cd MyServerlessFunction
func new --name HttpTrigger --template "HTTP trigger" --authlevel anonymous

{
  "IsEncrypted": false,
  "Values": {
    "AzureWebJobsStorage": "UseDevelopmentStorage=true",
    "FUNCTIONS_WORKER_RUNTIME": "dotnet",
    "GreetingMessage": "Hello from serverless!"
  }
}

// Modify HttpTrigger function code to return GreetingMessage
// Your code here

Need a hint?

Use Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable to read the setting and return it in the HTTP response.

4

Deploy the Azure Function app with correct bindings

Add the function.json file with HTTP trigger binding and deploy the function app to Azure.

Azure

func init MyServerlessFunction --worker-runtime dotnet
cd MyServerlessFunction
func new --name HttpTrigger --template "HTTP trigger" --authlevel anonymous

{
  "IsEncrypted": false,
  "Values": {
    "AzureWebJobsStorage": "UseDevelopmentStorage=true",
    "FUNCTIONS_WORKER_RUNTIME": "dotnet",
    "GreetingMessage": "Hello from serverless!"
  }
}

using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc;
using Microsoft.Azure.WebJobs;
using Microsoft.Azure.WebJobs.Extensions.Http;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Http;
using Microsoft.Extensions.Logging;

public static class HttpTrigger
{
    [FunctionName("HttpTrigger")]
    public static async Task Run(
        [HttpTrigger(AuthorizationLevel.Anonymous, "get", "post", Route = null)] HttpRequest req,
        ILogger log)
    {
        string greeting = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("GreetingMessage");
        return new OkObjectResult(greeting);
    }
}

# Add function.json with HTTP trigger binding and deploy
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Create the function.json file with HTTP trigger bindings and use Azure Functions Core Tools to deploy.