Kotlin is one of the fastest growing programming languages; it is used in the Android ecosystem and also is gaining traction in the enterprise world. So why not use Kotlin in the FaaS and Serverless space too?

Given its polyglot nature, Fn makes it very easy to write Kotlin based functions (“functions” as in FaaS).

Boostrap a Kotlin Function

To develop a Kotlin function, simply bootstrap it using the usual way with the Fn CLI (v0.4.129+), fn init —-runtime kotlin myfunc. This will create the required files to quickly get started. And obviously, all those files have a Kotlin flavor.

src/main/kotlin/HelloFunction.kt is a simple Kotlin function that helps you bootstrap your own function.

src/test/kotlin/HelloFunctionTest.kt is a Kotlin based rule to Unit test this same function.

A func.yaml containing the function metadata and a Maven based build file (pom.xml) are also created in that init process.

Test, Run and Deploy a Kotlin Function

To test the function, call Maven with the test goal, i.e. mvn test.

To run the function, simply invoke fn run myfunc.

The function can be deployed via the usual way fn deploy --local --app myApp myfunc.

Finally, the deployed function can be invoked using its HTTP endpoint or via the Fn CLI, e.g. echo -n "Kotlin" | fn call myApp myfunc.

The conciseness of this post demonstrates that Fn makes it easy to leverage Kotlin in the Serverless space. In fact and in its simplest form, it is just a 3 step process; i.e. init, deploy and call the Kotlin function.

fn init --runtime kotlin myfunc
fn deploy --local --app myApp myfunc
fn call myApp /myfunc

Given that Kotlin is leveraging the Java platform and that Java is a 1st class citizen on Fn will offer Fn users some nice benefits that will be highlighted in an upcoming post.

Originaly posted on Medium.