Serverless: How to add external npm modules

[taptip]

Hi,

I have seen similar existing issues but I can't seem to make it work. I would like your advice if what im doing is right.
This is what my folder structure looks like:

.
├── admin.env
├── functions
│   └── geospatial
│       └── get_bounding_coordinates
│           ├── event.json
│           ├── handler.js
│           └── s-function.json
├── _meta
│   ├── resources
│   │   └── s-resources-cf-dev-uswest2.json
│   └── variables
│       ├── s-variables-common.json
│       ├── s-variables-dev.json
│       └── s-variables-dev-uswest2.json
├── node_modules
│   └── geopoint
│       ├── geopoint.js
│       ├── index.js
│       ├── LICENSE
│       ├── package.json
│       ├── README.md
│       └── test
│           ├── test.accessors.js
│           ├── test.bounding.js
│           ├── test.constructor.js
│           ├── test.conversions.js
│           └── test.distance.js
├── package.json
├── s-project.json
├── s-resources-cf.json
└── s-templates.json

First on the root of my project folder, I ran "npm install geopoint --save". it added "dependencies": { "geopoint": "^1.0.1" } on package.json. It also added the npm_modules folder and its contents.

In functions/geospatial/get_bounding_coordinates/handler.js, i declared var geopoint = require('geopoint');

The error is that lambda returns:

{
  "errorMessage": "Cannot find module 'geopoint'",
  "errorType": "Error",
  "stackTrace": [
    "Function.Module._load (module.js:276:25)",
    "Module.require (module.js:353:17)",
    "require (internal/module.js:12:17)",
    "Object.<anonymous> (/var/task/handler.js:2:16)",
    "Module._compile (module.js:409:26)",
    "Object.Module._extensions..js (module.js:416:10)",
    "Module.load (module.js:343:32)",
    "Function.Module._load (module.js:300:12)",
    "Module.require (module.js:353:17)"
  ]
}

Is there something wrong with my implementation?

[HyperBrain]

In your s-function.json you have to specify your handler as functions/geospatial/get_bounding_coordinates/handler.handler. This will set the function root to the directory containing the node_modules. From my experience it is better to have the function root in a subfolder of the project, as otherwise all serverless plugins will be also packaged.

[taptip]

Hi! Thank you very much for the answer! It worked! What do you mean by setting the function root in the subfolder? is it forexample putting the node_modules folder and package.json file under functions folder?

[flomotlik]

Hi @taptip would be great if we could move this discussion into our Gitter chat so we can have support questions there. We will make our documentation a lot better to cover this in the future.

I will close the issue for now to mark it as resolved.