Call Cloud Functions directly

To support quick iteration and debugging, Cloud Functions provides a call command in the command-line interface and testing functionality in the Google Cloud console UI. This allows you to directly invoke a function to ensure it is behaving as expected. This causes the function to execute immediately, even though it may have been deployed to respond to a specific event.

Test your function with Google Cloud CLI

To directly invoke your function using the gcloud CLI, use the gcloud functions call command and supply any data your function expects as JSON in the --data argument. For example:

gcloud functions call YOUR_FUNCTION_NAME \
  --region=REGION --gen2 \
  --data '{"name":"Kalani"}'

Replace:

  • YOUR_FUNCTION_NAME: the name of the function you're testing
  • REGION: the Google Cloud region your function is deployed to

The --data argument is sent to your function as follows:

  • For HTTP functions, the data you supply is sent as the body of a POST request.
  • For CloudEvent functions, the data is passed directly as the event data to your function.

For more information, see the gcloud functions call documentation.

Test your function with the Google Cloud Console

To directly invoke a function from the Google Cloud console, follow these steps:

  1. Go to the Cloud Functions Overview page.

  2. From the list, click the name of the function that you want to invoke. This takes you to the Function details page.

  3. Click the Testing tab.

  4. In the Configure Triggering Event field, enter any data your function expects as JSON.

  5. Click +Add query parameter and +Add header parameter to add query and header parameters to your function call as needed.

    The Google Cloud console assembles the parameters you specify into a gcloud functions call command in the CLI test command window.

  6. Select Run in cloud shell to open a Cloud Shell window to run this command.

  7. Press Enter to trigger the gcloud functions call command after it appears in your Cloud Shell window.

Cloud Pub/Sub event-driven function example

This example shows how to directly invoke a 2nd gen event-driven function triggered by Cloud Pub/Sub events:

Node.js

const functions = require('@google-cloud/functions-framework');

// Register a CloudEvent callback with the Functions Framework that will
// be executed when the Pub/Sub trigger topic receives a message.
functions.cloudEvent('helloPubSub', cloudEvent => {
  // The Pub/Sub message is passed as the CloudEvent's data payload.
  const base64name = cloudEvent.data.message.data;

  const name = base64name
    ? Buffer.from(base64name, 'base64').toString()
    : 'World';

  console.log(`Hello, ${name}!`);
});

Python

import base64

from cloudevents.http import CloudEvent
import functions_framework


# Triggered from a message on a Cloud Pub/Sub topic.
@functions_framework.cloud_event
def subscribe(cloud_event: CloudEvent) -> None:
    # Print out the data from Pub/Sub, to prove that it worked
    print(
        "Hello, " + base64.b64decode(cloud_event.data["message"]["data"]).decode() + "!"
    )

Go


// Package helloworld provides a set of Cloud Functions samples.
package helloworld

import (
	"context"
	"fmt"
	"log"

	"github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/functions-framework-go/functions"
	"github.com/cloudevents/sdk-go/v2/event"
)

func init() {
	functions.CloudEvent("HelloPubSub", helloPubSub)
}

// MessagePublishedData contains the full Pub/Sub message
// See the documentation for more details:
// https://cloud.google.com/eventarc/docs/cloudevents#pubsub
type MessagePublishedData struct {
	Message PubSubMessage
}

// PubSubMessage is the payload of a Pub/Sub event.
// See the documentation for more details:
// https://cloud.google.com/pubsub/docs/reference/rest/v1/PubsubMessage
type PubSubMessage struct {
	Data []byte `json:"data"`
}

// helloPubSub consumes a CloudEvent message and extracts the Pub/Sub message.
func helloPubSub(ctx context.Context, e event.Event) error {
	var msg MessagePublishedData
	if err := e.DataAs(&msg); err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("event.DataAs: %w", err)
	}

	name := string(msg.Message.Data) // Automatically decoded from base64.
	if name == "" {
		name = "World"
	}
	log.Printf("Hello, %s!", name)
	return nil
}

Java

import com.google.cloud.functions.CloudEventsFunction;
import com.google.gson.Gson;
import functions.eventpojos.PubSubBody;
import io.cloudevents.CloudEvent;
import java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets;
import java.util.Base64;
import java.util.logging.Logger;

public class SubscribeToTopic implements CloudEventsFunction {
  private static final Logger logger = Logger.getLogger(SubscribeToTopic.class.getName());

  @Override
  public void accept(CloudEvent event) {
    // The Pub/Sub message is passed as the CloudEvent's data payload.
    if (event.getData() != null) {
      // Extract Cloud Event data and convert to PubSubBody
      String cloudEventData = new String(event.getData().toBytes(), StandardCharsets.UTF_8);
      Gson gson = new Gson();
      PubSubBody body = gson.fromJson(cloudEventData, PubSubBody.class);
      // Retrieve and decode PubSub message data
      String encodedData = body.getMessage().getData();
      String decodedData =
          new String(Base64.getDecoder().decode(encodedData), StandardCharsets.UTF_8);
      logger.info("Hello, " + decodedData + "!");
    }
  }
}

C#

using CloudNative.CloudEvents;
using Google.Cloud.Functions.Framework;
using Google.Events.Protobuf.Cloud.PubSub.V1;
using Microsoft.Extensions.Logging;
using System.Threading;
using System.Threading.Tasks;

namespace HelloPubSub;

public class Function : ICloudEventFunction<MessagePublishedData>
{
    private readonly ILogger _logger;

    public Function(ILogger<Function> logger) =>
        _logger = logger;

    public Task HandleAsync(CloudEvent cloudEvent, MessagePublishedData data, CancellationToken cancellationToken)
    {
        string nameFromMessage = data.Message?.TextData;
        string name = string.IsNullOrEmpty(nameFromMessage) ? "world" : nameFromMessage;
        _logger.LogInformation("Hello {name}", name);
        return Task.CompletedTask;
    }
}

Ruby

require "functions_framework"
require "base64"

FunctionsFramework.cloud_event "hello_pubsub" do |event|
  # The event parameter is a CloudEvents::Event::V1 object.
  # See https://cloudevents.github.io/sdk-ruby/latest/CloudEvents/Event/V1.html
  name = Base64.decode64 event.data["message"]["data"] rescue "World"

  # A cloud_event function does not return a response, but you can log messages
  # or cause side effects such as sending additional events.
  logger.info "Hello, #{name}!"
end

PHP


use CloudEvents\V1\CloudEventInterface;
use Google\CloudFunctions\FunctionsFramework;

// Register the function with Functions Framework.
// This enables omitting the `FUNCTIONS_SIGNATURE_TYPE=cloudevent` environment
// variable when deploying. The `FUNCTION_TARGET` environment variable should
// match the first parameter.
FunctionsFramework::cloudEvent('helloworldPubsub', 'helloworldPubsub');

function helloworldPubsub(CloudEventInterface $event): void
{
    $log = fopen(getenv('LOGGER_OUTPUT') ?: 'php://stderr', 'wb');

    $cloudEventData = $event->getData();
    $pubSubData = base64_decode($cloudEventData['message']['data']);

    $name = $pubSubData ? htmlspecialchars($pubSubData) : 'World';
    fwrite($log, "Hello, $name!" . PHP_EOL);
}

To invoke the function directly, send a PubsubMessage, which expects base64-encoded data, as the event data:

Node.js

DATA=$(printf 'Hello!'|base64) && gcloud functions call helloPubSub --data '{"data":"'$DATA'"}'

Python

DATA=$(printf 'Hello!'|base64) && gcloud functions call hello_pubsub --data '{"data":"'$DATA'"}'

Go

DATA=$(printf 'Hello!'|base64) && gcloud functions call HelloPubSub --data '{"data":"'$DATA'"}'

Java

DATA=$(printf 'Hello!'|base64) && gcloud functions call java-hello-pubsub --data '{"data":"'$DATA'"}'

C#

DATA=$(printf 'Hello!'|base64) && gcloud functions call csharp-hello-pubsub --data '{"data":"'$DATA'"}'

Ruby

DATA=$(printf 'Hello!'|base64) && gcloud functions call hello_pubsub --data '{"data":"'$DATA'"}'

PHP

DATA=$(printf 'Hello!'|base64) && gcloud functions call helloworldPubsub --data '{"data":"'$DATA'"}'

This CLI example uses bash or sh syntax. It works in Linux and Mac environments but not Windows.

You can also invoke the function from the Google Cloud console by using the same event data in the Triggering event field.