Azure Functions – MSDN Community

What are Azure Functions?

Azure Functions is Microsoft’s serverless compute service that lets you run event‑driven code without having to provision or manage infrastructure. Write code in your favorite language, define triggers, and let Azure handle scaling.

Setup & Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure you have the following:

Azure subscription (free tier works for starters)
Visual Studio Code with the Azure Functions extension
Node.js (v18+), .NET SDK (6.0+), or Python (3.10+)
Azure CLI installed

Your First Function

Open VS Code, press F1, and select Azure Functions: Create New Project…. Choose a folder, select JavaScript, and pick the HTTP trigger** template.

// index.js
module.exports = async function (context, req) {
    context.log('HTTP trigger processed a request.');
    const name = (req.query.name || (req.body && req.body.name));
    if (name) {
        context.res = {
            // status: 200, /* Defaults to 200 */
            body: `Hello, ${name}!`
        };
    } else {
        context.res = {
            status: 400,
            body: "Please pass a name on the query string or in the request body"
        };
    }
};

Triggers & Bindings

Triggers start function execution, while bindings simplify input and output handling. Common triggers:

HTTP
Timer (CRON)
Blob storage
Queue storage
Event Grid

Example of a Timer trigger (C#):

using Microsoft.Azure.WebJobs;
using Microsoft.Extensions.Logging;

public static class TimerTrigger
{
    [FunctionName("TimerTrigger")]
    public static void Run([TimerTrigger("0 */5 * * * *")]TimerInfo myTimer, ILogger log)
    {
        log.LogInformation($"C# Timer trigger function executed at: {DateTime.Now}");
    }
}

Deployment Options

You can deploy functions using:

VS Code Deploy to Function App command
Azure CLI: az functionapp deployment source config-zip
GitHub Actions for CI/CD pipelines
Azure DevOps pipelines

Best Practices

Prefer Azure Storage bindings over SDK calls for simplicity.
Keep functions small—single responsibility.
Use Application Settings for secrets; integrate with Azure Key Vault.
Monitor with Azure Application Insights.
Set appropriate function timeout and plan (Consumption vs Premium).

Getting Started with Azure Functions

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