With emerging serverless tech, plugins have become mainstays of serverless framework development. Let us have a look at some of them.
Skyquest’s Global Serverless Architecture Report states that
What are Plugins?
A plugin is a unique JavaScript code that adds new functionality to the Serverless Framework. These software modules ‘plug in’ to the operational frameworks that already exist.
This gives users access to the functions they require. Plugins enable developers to use pre-existing tech tools rather than creating entirely new ones.
The plugin repository offers flexibility in the developmental pipeline, allowing it to quickly deliver the required features and add value to the users.
Nine Must-have Serverless Framework Plugins
1. Python Requirements Serverless Plugin
Python is an elite and robust web development language driving numerous apps on the web. Python developers are familiar with preferred Python Package Index (PyPI) packages.
Uploading the dependencies to a directory will help to build these capabilities within AWS Lambda functions. It is essential to remember that this needs to be created for every deployment.
The Python Requirements Serverless plugin addresses the pain point of its serverless function deployment with third-party dependencies to AWS Lambda.
The plugin makes the package requirements available in the PYTHONPATH environment variable. It gathers the requirements from requirements.txt. This allows them to broaden the Python-language Lambda functions’ scope.
2. IAM Roles Per Function
Growing firms focus on implementing robust app security and user data protection. These functions hold the core legislations like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the EU and Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) in the US.
The success or failure of businesses seeking IPO or acquisition depends on the ability to follow these specifications. Also, there are other legal requirements and restrictions under the jurisdiction.
The IAM Roles Per Function plugin allows businesses to allocate specific IAM roles to every serverless function. This allocation ensures that the right people access the app components. These components contain confidential user data.
They must integrate this process with a solid security management process. This allows them to control who can access the functional characteristics of the live code and user data related to the execution.
3. Step Functions
Finite-state automata are simple and familiar control flow mechanisms in computer science. Most apps operate on the principles of these state machines.
However, serverless functions find it challenging to maintain the automata. The execution of the Lambda functions occurs in isolation. Hence, they find it hard to persist data between each function’s execution.
This pitfall makes the tracking state problematic in the serverless app. Serverless Step Functions address these challenges. It provides ties into AWS Step Functions from the developer’s serverless application.
These finitely stated machines retain their state from the main app execution context. They address issues caused by the transitory hardware of the code’s execution environment.
These step functions reduce the complexity of the codebase and offer a straightforward and configurable control flow mechanism. This bundles many serverless functions coherently.
4. Serverless WSGI
Python development frameworks use Web Server Gateway Interface (WSGI) with a web focus. The Serverless WSGI plugin simplifies the deployment of these WSGI-compliant apps.
It handles complex tasks like API Gateway and app load balancer configurations of the framework. This allows the execution of WSGI-compliant correctly in a serverless environment.
5. Serverless Webpack
Webpack is a flexible build system created to ease the deployment production of web apps built on JavaScript. The serverless Webpack plugin improves the framework to integrate with Webpack.
This allows the developer to maintain the lambda function framework. Also, they can maintain the current tasks that build and deploy the apps.
This controlled centralization simplifies the framework maintenance processes. It enables the serverless function definitions as code building the hardware in how the software is developed.
6. Reqvalidator
Requesting parameter validation is a crucial component of app security. This common task is repeated across all the functions that deal with similar request objects in the presence of serverless functions.
The Reqvalidator plugin resolves this issue by allowing them to use the tools available in the API Gateway.
At the same time, this plugin lets them set a static API Gateway to request a validator for every serverless function deployed. This offers the validation needed for the serverless app without duplication and attendant code complexity.
7. Serverless Offline
Factor 10 app states that the developer and production environments must reduce issues from call patterns and hardware differences.
The Serverless Offline project supports this statement. It offers them a local environment that imitates AWS Lambda and AWS API Gateway.
By offering consistency in call paths and execution, it provides the tools the code needs to behave uniformly in development and production.
8. Lumigo Serverless
The primary challenges of developing and maintaining serverless apps are monitoring and debugging. Distributed tracing is the key to gaining the required observability to run serverless in production. This allows them to validate the working of the feature and allows proactive troubleshooting.
The serverless-luminous plugin works for Python functions and Node.js. This plugin automatically downloads the Lumigo tracer. It applies to the function deployment after installation.
It eases the effort of procuring end-to-end visibility over the AWS serverless app.
Also Read: Prime Cross-Platform App Development Frameworks
9. Serverless AWS Alerts
A key challenge in serverless apps is tracking and resolving errors. The application’s framework is divided within the servers for a short period.
The indications of issues are diminished when the developer spots it. The absence of a dedicated monitoring effort can cause these events to move past the development team. This can affect the user base.
A powerful Serverless AWS Alerts Plugin provides the required tools to set up real-time alerts. This allows them to add CloudWatch alarms to the functions rapidly.
This builds the monitoring and warning systems they need to ensure the app runs smoothly. It also offers many features that simplify collaboration with CloudWatch in serverless apps.
The serverless framework has gained traction in cloud function developments. It has changed app development by eliminating the need for provision and management of the framework.
The growing market demands a successful app deployment pipeline. Hence, developers must choose the right plugin extension for the serverless framework. This enables easy deployment changes with a usable and iterable framework.
