DISCLAIMER: This repository is in development and not meant for production use

Functions Framework for PHP

An open source FaaS (Function as a service) framework for writing portable PHP functions.

The Functions Framework lets you write lightweight functions that run in many different environments, including:

• Your local development machine
• Cloud Run and Cloud Run on GKE
• Knative-based environments

The framework allows you to go from:

function helloHttp()
{
    return "Hello World from PHP HTTP function!" . PHP_EOL;
}

To:

curl http://my-url
# Output: "Hello World from PHP HTTP function!"

All without needing to worry about writing an HTTP server or complicated request handling logic.

Watch this video to learn more about Functions Frameworks.

Features

• Spin up a local development server for quick testing
• Invoke a function in response to a request
• Portable between serverless platforms

Installation

Add the Functions Framework to your composer.json file using composer.

composer require google/cloud-functions-framework

Run your function locally on your local machine

Create an index.php file with the following contents:

<?php

use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Request;

function helloHttp(Request $request)
{
    return "Hello World from PHP HTTP function!" . PHP_EOL;
}

Run the following commands:

export FUNCTION_TARGET=helloHttp
export FUNCTION_SIGNATURE_TYPE=http
export FUNCTION_SOURCE=index.php
php -S localhost:8080 vendor/bin/router.php

Open http://localhost:8080/ in your browser and see Hello World....

Run your function in a container

Add the Functions Framework to your composer.json file using composer.

composer require google/cloud-functions-framework

Create an index.php file with the following contents:

<?php

use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Request;

function helloHttp(Request $request)
{
    return "Hello World from PHP HTTP function!" . PHP_EOL;
}

Build the container using the example Dockerfile:

docker build . \
    -f vendor/google/cloud-functions-framework/examples/hello/Dockerfile \
    -t my-cloud-function

Run the cloud functions framework container:

docker run -p 8080:8080 \
    -e FUNCTION_TARGET=helloHttp \
    -e FUNCTION_SIGNATURE_TYPE=http \
    my-cloud-function

Open http://localhost:8080/ in your browser and see Hello World..., or send requests to this function using curl from another terminal window:

curl localhost:8080
# Output: Hello World from PHP HTTP function!

Accessing the HTTP Object

The first parameter of your function is a Request object from symfony/http-foundation:

use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Request;

function helloHttp(Request $request)
{
    return sprintf("Hello %s from PHP HTTP function!" . PHP_EOL,
        $request->query->get('name') ?: 'World'
    );
}

See the HttpFoundation documentation documentation for more on working with the request object.

Run your function on serverless platforms

Google Cloud Functions does not have native support for PHP. Furthermore, it can not use custom Function Frameworks.

To get around these restrictions, we can use a Knative-based hosting platform such as Cloud Run or Cloud Run on GKE.

Cloud Run/Cloud Run on GKE

Once you've written your function and added the Functions Framework to composer.json, all that's left is to create a container image. Check out the Cloud Run quickstart for PHP to create a container image and deploy it to Cloud Run. You'll write a Dockerfile when you build your container. This Dockerfile allows you to specify exactly what goes into your container (including custom binaries, a specific operating system, and more).

If you want even more control over the environment, you can deploy your container image to Cloud Run on GKE. With Cloud Run on GKE, you can run your function on a GKE cluster, which gives you additional control over the environment (including use of GPU-based instances, longer timeouts and more).

Container environments based on Knative

Cloud Run and Cloud Run on GKE both implement the Knative Serving API. The Functions Framework is designed to be compatible with Knative environments. Just build and deploy your container to a Knative environment.

Configure the Functions Framework

You can configure the Functions Framework using the environment variables shown below:

Environment variable	Description
FUNCTION_TARGET	The name of the exported function to be invoked in response to requests.
FUNCTION_SIGNATURE_TYPE	The signature used when writing your function. Controls unmarshalling rules and determines which arguments are used to invoke your function. Can be either http or event.
FUNCTION_SOURCE	The name of the file containing the source code for your function to load. By default the file index.php is loaded in the application root if it exists.

Enable CloudEvents

The Functions Framework can unmarshall incoming CloudEvents payloads to data and context objects. These will be passed as arguments to your function when it receives a request. Note that your function must use the event-style function signature:

function helloEvents($data, $context)
{
  var_dump($data);
  var_dump($context);
}

To enable automatic unmarshalling, set the FUNCTION_SIGNATURE_TYPE environment variable to event. For more details on this signature type, check out the Google Cloud Functions documentation on background functions.

Contributing

Contributions to this library are welcome and encouraged. See CONTRIBUTING for more information on how to get started.