How do I install the Airtable package to a cloud function, so I can call the airtable package on a serverless tool like Google Cloud Functions, AWS Lambda, IBM Cloud Functions, or Azure Functions

[J_Mai]

Hi all,

I’m at my wits end. I’ve written code for Airtable locally, which largely works. Now I’d like to place the code on a cloud functions tool so I can run my code on the browser and have it communicate with other APIs.

Here’s the code I have on the serverless tool, just the basics first just trying to call the airtable library.

/**
  * main() will be run when you invoke this action
  *
  * @param Cloud Functions actions accept a single parameter, which must be a JSON object.
  *
  * @return The output of this action, which must be a JSON object.
  *
  */

var Airtable = new require('airtable');

var base = new Airtable({apiKey: 'XXXXXXXXXXXXX'}).base('appumWMhUzhgN8fFe');

function main(params) {
	return { message: 'Hello World' };
}

When I try to run this code, I get

Error: Cannot find module ‘airtable’\n

In this case I’m using IBM Cloud Functions, but the process as I also read Google Cloud Functions and others seems to be the same. I just am doing something wrong. Here’s the link to the docs

https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/openwhisk?topic=openwhisk-prep#prep_js_npm

Here are the steps I’ve taken.

1. I create a new folder in my directory called “package-airtable”. I copy the “airtable” folder from j_mai > node_modules > airtable, into the “package-airtable” folder. So I have a new folder in “j_mai > package-airtable” with the airtable folder you see below.

2. I then create a package.json file in the folder “package-airtable” with the name: “my-action” and “dependencies” “airtable”: “^0.10.1”

{
  "name": "my-action",
  "dependencies" : {
    "airtable": "^0.10.1"
   }
}
//contents of my package.json

3. Then I create a zip folder, called “action.zip” with the package.json and the “airtable” library.

4. Finally, I upload the zip file to the default package using this code on the command line.

$ ibmcloud fn action create package-airtable action.zip --kind nodejs:10

You can see here the “package-airtable” gets created.

To test

1. I’m not sure if I’m supposed to, but I click “Invoke” on the “package-airtable” and I get an error message about not being able to find a module nodejsAction.

2. If I go back to my “airtabledefaultest”, I run into the same error at the beginning, "Cannot find module ‘airtable’\n.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[Eric_Goldman1]

Hey @J_Mai,

I literally just wrote a tutorial on this topic for AWS Lambda:

docs.syncinc.so

AWS Lambda | Sync Inc

Sync Inc replicates Airtable to a Postgres database, giving you the best of both worlds.

The tutorial uses a tool we built for Airtable, Sync Inc, but it covers this process for AWS Lambda and I think it will apply here.

For your issue, I would make sure you are setting up the Node.js directory properly. Go through this flow:

1. Set up your directory using npm init -y
2. Install Airtable JS and save it using npm → npm install airtable --save
3. Then zip up the all the files (including the npm modules directory) using zip -r (you’ll see the full details in the tutorial) and then upload it.

This works well for AWS Lambda. I haven’t tried it on IBM cloud but would love to hear if these steps solve your issue.

Eric

[J_Mai · Accepted solution]

Yes, your article largely worked!

One thing I needed additionally was to define a main() function in index.js. And also add export.main = main; for some reason, to deal with an error message when export wasn’t listed.

//contents of my index.js file

var Airtable = new require('airtable')

var base = new Airtable({apiKey: 'XXXXXXXXXXXXX'}).base('appumWMhUzhgN8fFe');

function main() {
    return { payload: helper() }
}

function helper() {
    return new Date();
}

exports.main = main;

// Returns { "payload": "2021-03-04T20:44:09.084Z"} 

This ran on Cloud Functions without error. I now have to figure out how to get my Airtable functions to work and return the data I’m looking for. I’m close, but still struggling with callbacks. A new post might be coming soon.

Also, I wrote a script to package everything. The * allows me to automatically zip all contents in the folder, which saves a step of typing them out individually in your guidance.

Any time I change my index.js code located in my folder called “airtable-inc-tutorial” and want to re-upload it. I ran this script, called setup.sh, using the command: sh setup.sh

# zip my files together
zip -r function.zip *

# update the ibm cloud function with the new code
sudo ibmcloud fn action update airtable-inc-tutorial function.zip --kind nodejs:10

# invoke the code
sudo ibmcloud fn action invoke airtable-inc-tutorial --result

Even though IBM Cloud Functions has a UI, I couldn’t see a way to upload zip files, but luckily the command to write it is very simple and above. (replace “action update” with “action create” when doing this for the first time).