Hey everyone, I’m stuck trying to get my AWS Lambda to talk to Airtable. It’s driving me nuts! The weird thing is, my code works fine when I run it locally with Node, but when I put it in a Lambda, nothing happens. No errors, no output, nada. Here’s a snippet of my updated code:
const AirDB = require('airdb');
const db = new AirDB({ key: 'mySecretKey' }).connect('myDBId');
exports.lambdaHandler = async (event, context) => {
try {
db.table('MyTable').find({ limit: 3, view: 'CustomView' }).each((row) => {
console.log('Got data:', JSON.stringify(row.get('Info')));
});
// Other Lambda functionality here...
} catch (error) {
console.error(error);
return error;
}
};
I can use Axios in my Lambda, so I know external calls are successful. Any ideas on why Airtable won’t respond, or what I’m doing wrong to correctly invoke the API from within Lambda?
hey tom, have u tried using async/await instead of callbacks? sometimes lambda can be finicky with that stuff. also, make sure ur timeout is set high enough - airtable can be slow. oh and double-check ur api key is correct in the lambda environment variables. good luck!
I’ve encountered similar issues when working with Airtable in Lambda functions. One thing to consider is that Lambda has a default timeout of 3 seconds, which might not be enough for the Airtable API to respond. Try increasing the timeout in your Lambda configuration to something like 10 or 15 seconds.
Another potential issue could be permissions. Make sure your Lambda function’s execution role has the necessary permissions to make outbound HTTPS connections. You might need to add a VPC endpoint for HTTPS if your Lambda is in a VPC.
Lastly, I’d recommend implementing better error handling and logging. Instead of just console.log, use context.log or console.error to ensure your logs are captured in CloudWatch. This way, you can see if there are any silent failures or timeouts occurring.
If none of these solve the problem, you might want to try using the official Airtable JavaScript library instead of AirDB. In my experience, it’s more reliable for Lambda environments.
Have you checked your Lambda’s network configuration? If it’s running in a VPC, it might not have internet access by default. This could explain why it works locally but not in Lambda. You’ll need to set up a NAT gateway or VPC endpoints to allow outbound traffic.
Also, consider using async/await instead of callbacks with Airtable. Lambda works better with promises. Something like:
const result = await db.table('MyTable').select({
maxRecords: 3,
view: 'CustomView'
}).firstPage();
for (let record of result) {
console.log('Got data:', JSON.stringify(record.fields.Info));
}
This approach might give you more control over the execution flow and help pinpoint where things are failing. Don’t forget to add proper error logging to CloudWatch for easier debugging.