Tracking Serverless web Function activation, output and log

Posted on March 6, 2024

I have deployed a Serverless function to test events sent from my PayPal account:

async function main(event) {
    // Default response
    let response = { "body": "Invalid request" };
    console.log('Paypal webhook listener received event: ', event);
    response.body = { event };
    return response;
}
exports.main = main;

This is from the project.yml:

packages:
    - name: webservices
      shared: false
      environment: {}
      parameters: {}
      annotations: {}
      functions:
        - name: paypal-webhook
          binary: false
          main: ""
          runtime: nodejs:18
          web: true
          webSecure: false
          parameters: {}
          environment: {}
          annotations: {}
          limits: {
            timeout: 20000
          }

The function is deployed and sending a request from PayPal webhook simulator is confirmed by PayPal to have been successfully summited. However, I could not find anywhere the output or log of this function, to see what it had received. Looking in the namespace’s Log tab, this function has no activations. This Function is not yet linked to any App, it is standalone. Where can I track its log?

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Mor Sagmon

March 10, 2024

Accepted Answer

Answering here for anyone that comes along… The Function public URL is enough. All that is required is to forward the logs to an external logger (I used Papertrail), as described in the documentation.

Bobby Iliev

March 7, 2024

Hey!

Are your functions asynchronous? If not, there will be no activation record. Only for asynchronous (or non-blocking) invocations, any text your function sends to STDOUT is logged as part of an activation record. Function invocations through the authenticated REST API are non-blocking by default.

If your function is not async, you should get the log output as soon as you invoke it. Is this the case?

Alternatively, you can configure functions to forward console and error logs from the function to a third-party logging service. Functions support Papertrail, Datadog, and Logtail: