Node.js 8.10 runtime now available in AWS Lambda

This post courtesy of Ed Lima, AWS Solutions Architect

We are excited to announce that you can now develop your AWS Lambda functions using the Node.js 8.10 runtime, which is the current Long Term Support (LTS) version of Node.js. Start using this new version today by specifying a runtime parameter value of nodejs8.10 when creating or updating functions.

Supporting async/await

The Lambda programming model for Node.js 8.10 now supports defining a function handler using the async/await pattern.

Asynchronous or non-blocking calls are an inherent and important part of applications, as user and human interfaces are asynchronous by nature. If you decide to have a coffee with a friend, you usually order the coffee then start or continue a conversation with your friend while the coffee is getting ready. You don’t wait for the coffee to be ready before you start talking. These activities are asynchronous, because you can start one and then move to the next without waiting for completion. Otherwise, you’d delay (or block) the start of the next activity.

Asynchronous calls used to be handled in Node.js using callbacks. That presented problems when they were nested within other callbacks in multiple levels, making the code difficult to maintain and understand.

Promises were implemented to try to solve issues caused by “callback hell.” They allow asynchronous operations to call their own methods and handle what happens when a call is successful or when it fails. As your requirements become more complicated, even promises become harder to work with and may still end up complicating your code.

Async/await is the new way of handling asynchronous operations in Node.js, and makes for simpler, easier, and cleaner code for non-blocking calls. It still uses promises but a callback is returned directly from the asynchronous function, just as if it were a synchronous blocking function.

Take for instance the following Lambda function to get the current account settings, using the Node.js 6.10 runtime:

let AWS = require('aws-sdk');
let lambda = new AWS.Lambda();

exports.handler = (event, context, callback) => {
    let getAccountSettingsPromise = lambda.getAccountSettings().promise();
    getAccountSettingsPromise.then(
        (data) => {
            callback(null, data);
        },
        (err) => {
            console.log(err);
            callback(err);
        }
    );
};

With the new Node.js 8.10 runtime, there are new handler types that can be declared with the “async” keyword or can return a promise directly.

This is how the same function looks like using async/await with Node.js 8.10:

let AWS = require('aws-sdk');
let lambda = new AWS.Lambda();

exports.handler = async (event) => {
    return await lambda.getAccountSettings().promise() ;
};

Alternatively, you could have the handler return a promise directly:

let AWS = require('aws-sdk');
let lambda = new AWS.Lambda();

exports.handler = (event) => {
    return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
        lambda.getAccountSettings(event)
        .then((data) => {
            resolve data;
        })
        .catch(reject);
     });
};

The new handler types are alternatives to the callback pattern, which is still fully supported.

All three functions return the same results. However, in the new runtime with async/await, all callbacks in the code are gone, which makes it easier to read. This is especially true for those less familiar with promises.

{
    "AccountLimit":{
        "TotalCodeSize":80530636800,
        "CodeSizeUnzipped":262144000,
        "CodeSizeZipped":52428800, 
        "ConcurrentExecutions":1000,
        "UnreservedConcurrentExecutions":1000
    },
    "AccountUsage":{
        "TotalCodeSize":52234461,
        "FunctionCount":53
    }
}

Another great advantage of async/await is better error handling. You can use a try/catch block inside the scope of an async function. Even though the function awaits an asynchronous operation, any errors end up in the catch block.

You can improve your previous Node.js 8.10 function with this trusted try/catch error handling pattern:

let AWS = require('aws-sdk');
let lambda = new AWS.Lambda();
let data;

exports.handler = async (event) => {
    try {
        data = await lambda.getAccountSettings().promise();
    }
    catch (err) {
        console.log(err);
        return err;
    }
    return data;
};

While you now have a similar number of lines in both runtimes, the code is cleaner and more readable with async/await. It makes the asynchronous calls look more synchronous. However, it is important to notice that the code is still executed the same way as if it were using a callback or promise-based API.

Backward compatibility

You may port your existing Node.js 4.3 and 6.10 functions over to Node.js 8.10 by updating the runtime. Node.js 8.10 does include numerous breaking changes from previous Node versions.

Make sure to review the API changes between Node.js 4.3, 6.10, and Node.js 8.10 to see if there are other changes that might affect your code. We recommend testing that your Lambda function passes internal validation for its behavior when upgrading to the new runtime version.

You can use Lambda versions/aliases to safely test that your function runs as expected on Node 8.10, before routing production traffic to it.

New node features

You can now get better performance when compared to the previous LTS version 6.x (up to 20%). The new V8 6.0 engine comes with Turbofan and the Ignition pipeline, which leads to lower memory consumption and faster startup time across Node.js applications.

HTTP/2, which is subject to future changes, allows developers to use the new protocol to speed application development and undo many of HTTP/1.1 workarounds to make applications faster, simpler, and more powerful.

For more information, see the AWS Lambda Developer Guide.

Hope you enjoy and… go build with Node.js 8.10!