8 May 2024 Release: Import NodeJs dependencies into your downstream code

Just last month, we introduced the initial version of Downstream Calls, providing a solid foundation for calling Databases and APIs directly from your microservices. Today, we're excited to build on this foundation by announcing the availability of Dependency Management for Downstream Calls. This enhancement, which we previewed in our previous discussion, empowers you to further customize and enhance your applications!

We have updated the UI so that you can add and remove dependencies at will:

How it works

As before Micro allows you to create up to three Downstream Calls, which in turn allow you to write JavaScript code to satisfy that call. Just to remind you, the goal is to allow you to call any Database or an API and not to implement business logic by yourself.

Now you can add a dependency on any NPM package you need and use it in your code. It is that simple.

When you add or remove a dependency and Save the Schema, Micro will take a couple of seconds to validate and build it, to give you feedback. right away and to be ready to build and deploy your application when you need it!

Code testing and Build validation

Bringing this change we had to change how the deployment artifact is structured. Unfortunately, that means that Code Testing feature that we have introduced with the initial version of Downstream Calls as well as Validation is temporarily unavailable.

We have made the decision to roll out Dependency Management despite this because we believe it enables more than it takes. You can still validate your builds by deploying them to your Testing stage, since Micro makes stage creation and deployment so easy, we believe you still can maintain a high level of quality while we are making adjustments on our side.

We are aiming to restore this functionality by the end of the month.

UPDATE: as promissed, Code Testing and Build validation is back and even better than before, read more about it here

Final remarks

Even though Secrets Management is not there yet, Micro can now build virtually any type of application. While testing the feature, we have built a Content Management System (CMS) using Micro. This CMS is what powers this website now and this blog post in particular. We will post a Case Study on it later this month. Stay tuned!