Previously we’ve written about how to get started with Azure Functions using JetBrains Rider – but that’s now an outdated article, as the Azure plugin now offers seamless integration with the Microsoft Functions tooling. Gone are the days of manually updating project configuration files.
What you’ll need
In order to follow along, you’ll need to make sure you:
- Install JetBrains Rider (free 30-day trial available here) 2019.1 or later
Getting started
First you’ll want to install the Azure Toolkit for Rider. Open Rider then navigate to Preferences (JetBrains Rider > Preferences on a Mac) and Plugins.
In the Plugins screen, go to the Marketplace tab and search for “Azure Toolkit for Rider”. Click install.
This will now allow you to manage and deploy a whole bunch of Azure services from within Rider, such as App Services and SQL databases.
Let’s open a new Functions app. Now that you’ve installed the Azure Toolkit, a new template for AzureFunctions has been added to your new project window. From within Rider, click File > New and choose Azure Functions from underneath the .NET Core section.
Enter a solution name, project name and choose a directory and language, and then click Create. If you’re using this as a test project, you can probably leave these values as is.
Running the Functions app
And that’s almost all there is to using Functions apps in Rider now! The toolkit will automatically detect that it’s a function app, and provide the necessary scaffolding to allow you to run and debug the app.
Gone are the days of hacking the project settings and configuration to make it work – it’s a seamless experience now.
To verify that the config is correct, click the run configuration in the top right-hand side of Rider, and edit the configurations. You should see a default Azure Functions host configuration, complete with all the settings required to run a functions app. You can see in this example that the function will run on port 7071, and pause on error.
Even better, is that if you don’t have the required Functions command line tools to run the app (which Rider relies on behind the scenes) then you’ll even get prompted to install them – which Rider will do automatically on your behalf. You’ll also get prompted if your tools are out of date.
And that’s how easy it is now to get started using Azure Functions in Rider!