Reference external script in JavaScript Azure Function code

Question

Goal

I would like a specific JavaScript file to be referenced by multiple JavaScript Azure Functions that are managed by different users in different Azure subscriptions. All the subscriptions are within an enterprise subscription. I would also like these multiple users to be able to alter this single-sourced file.

Proposed solution

My best guess on how to accomplish this is to store the file in a public GitHub repository and have each Function reference it.

Problem

Referencing an external script (in my case, the script hosted in GitHub) in standard ways (as I understand them) does not seem to work when implemented in a JavaScript Azure Function.

Code

Structure:

var abc = require('<external reference>');

Sample external JS file:

https://github.com/<username>/<repo>/blob/master/file.js

Failed attempts

There seem to be many outdated methods documented on SO (e.g., rawgit) but I am looking at the answers last edited in 2018.

https://github.com/<username>/<repo>/blob/master/file.js
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/<username>/<repo>/master/file.js
http://cdn.jsdelivr.net/gh/<username>/<repo>/file.js

Alternatives

I know that in the case that multiple Functions within a single Azure Function (and therefore within the same Azure subscription) can reference a centrally managed file by:

Placing it in a Shared folder, adding "watchDirectories": [ "Shared" ] to host.json, and referencing it with require('../Shared/file.js')
Referencing code in one Function from another (e.g., in Function-2 I can use require('../Function-1/file.js'))

However, unless I misunderstand, neither meets the requirements that the Functions can reside in different Functions in different Azure subscriptions.

I am new to JS. Thank you for any guidance. There may be other ways to satisfy these requirements that I am not thinking of.

According to the rawgit website, it's no longer available.

MRazian
– MRazian

2019-12-04 14:11:03 +00:00
Commented Dec 4, 2019 at 14:11 — MRazian
– MRazian, Commented Dec 4, 2019 at 14:11

schu34 · Accepted Answer · 2019-01-03 01:49:55Z

2

You won't be able to require the js files in the typical sense from inside a function, as require uses the filesystem to resolve files, which wouldn't really exist inside of a function. If the js you want to run is available on github you could download the source from github. And use the JS Function constructor to run the create a function you can call. Very roughly it might look something like:

let myfunc;
fetchCodeToRun().then(codeString=>myfunc=new Function(codeString)); //untested

Please note that I'm not specifically too familiar with Azure, and I only have a tiny amount of experience with serverless infrastructure so it's very possible that there's a better way of accomplishing this.

Function constructor docs: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Function

answered Jan 3, 2019 at 1:49

schu34

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