Is there a way to programmatically invoke a WebJob function from another function within the WebJob and still have the output binding work? - azure-webjobs

Question

Here's the code:
[return: Table("AnalysisDataTable", Connection = "TableStorageConnection")]
public static async Task<OrchestrationManagerAnalysisData> InputQueueTriggerHandler(
[QueueTrigger("DtOrchestrnRequestQueueName",
Connection = "StorageQueueConnection")] string queueMsg,
[OrchestrationClient] DurableOrchestrationClient client, ILogger logger)
{
logger.LogInformation($"***DtOrchestrationRequestQueueTriggerHandler(): queueMsg = {queueMsg}");
await ProcessInputMessage(queueMsg, client, logger);
// Below is where the code goes to format the TableStorage Entity called analysisData.
// This return causes the above output binding to be executed, saving analysis data to
// Table Storage.
return analysisData;
}
The above code works fine and saves analysisData to TableStorage.
However when I put the output binding attribute on ProcessInputMessage() which is programatically invoked
rather that invoked as a result of a trigger everything works OK except there is no data output
to Table Storage.
[return: Table("AnalysisDataTable", Connection = "TableStorageConnectionName")]
public static async Task<OrchestrationManagerAnalysisData>
ProcessInputMessage(string queueMsg, DurableOrchestrationClient client, ILogger logger)
{
// Do the processing of the input message.
// Below is where the code goes to format the TableStorage Entity called analysisData.
// This return causes the above output binding to be executed, saving analysis data to
// Table Storage.
return analysisData;
}
QUESTION is there a way to cause an output binding to "trigger" when invoked programatically from another function within the WebJob?
I like the labor saving characteristics of output bindings and want to leverage them as much as possible, while also having well factored code, i.e. tight cohesion in each method.
Thanks,
George

Answer 1

is there a way to cause an output binding to "trigger" when invoked programatically from another function within the WebJob?
In short, No.
You send data by using the return value of the function which apply the output binding attribute in function. So, if you want to invoke another function and write data into Table Storage.
If you want to achieve the idea you want, you need to overwrite the return method. However, it is a package integration method, so I suggest that you could use the TableOperation object that inserts the customer entity to the Table Storage.
TableOperation insertOperation = TableOperation.Insert(customer1);
// Execute the insert operation.
table.Execute(insertOperation);
For more details, you could refer to this article.