Quick Tip: How to Test Timer-Based Azure Functions Locally

I’ve been digging into Azure Functions lately and it’s pretty great. I hit a small stumbling block so figured I’d document it here in case anyone else had the same question.

Challenge

I have an Azure function that is triggered by a timer.

I’d like to test the function locally, but it appears that it only works on the schedule that I set. In the console window that pops up when debugging, I see

The next 5 occurrences of the schedule will be:9/14/2018 4:00:00 PM9/21/2018 4:00:00 PM9/28/2018 4:00:00 PM10/5/2018 4:00:00 PM10/12/2018 4:00:00 PM

How can I force this function to run so I can test it locally, without waiting for the next scheduled run?

Solution

You can then make a POST reuqest to /admin/functions/[functionName] endpoint to execute the function.

For example, if azure functions is running on localhost:7071 and I have a function called MyFunction, I could send an http POST request to:

http://localhost:7071/admin/functions/MyFunction

and the function would then be executed.

Hope this can help save some time for someone else. Happy coding!

Quick Tip: How to Test Timer-Based Azure Functions Locally was originally published by Sean Killeen at SeanKilleen.com on September 07, 2018.