How-To: Invoke services using HTTP

Call between services using service invocation

This article demonstrates how to deploy services each with an unique application ID for other services to discover and call endpoints on them using service invocation over HTTP.

Note

If you haven’t already, try out the service invocation quickstart for a quick walk-through on how to use the service invocation API.

Choose an ID for your service

Dapr allows you to assign a global, unique ID for your app. This ID encapsulates the state for your application, regardless of the number of instances it may have.

• Dotnet
• Java
• Python
• Go
• JavaScript
• Kubernetes

dapr run --app-id checkout --app-port 6002 --dapr-http-port 3602 --dapr-grpc-port 60002 dotnet run
dapr run --app-id orderprocessing --app-port 6001 --dapr-http-port 3601 --dapr-grpc-port 60001 dotnet run

If your app uses a TLS, you can tell Dapr to invoke your app over a TLS connection by setting --app-protocol https:

dapr run --app-id checkout --app-port 6002 --dapr-http-port 3602 --dapr-grpc-port 60002 --app-protocol https dotnet run
dapr run --app-id orderprocessing --app-port 6001 --dapr-http-port 3601 --dapr-grpc-port 60001 --app-protocol https dotnet run

dapr run --app-id checkout --app-port 6002 --dapr-http-port 3602 --dapr-grpc-port 60002 mvn spring-boot:run
dapr run --app-id orderprocessing --app-port 6001 --dapr-http-port 3601 --dapr-grpc-port 60001 mvn spring-boot:run

If your app uses a TLS, you can tell Dapr to invoke your app over a TLS connection by setting --app-protocol https:

dapr run --app-id checkout --app-port 6002 --dapr-http-port 3602 --dapr-grpc-port 60002 --app-protocol https mvn spring-boot:run
dapr run --app-id orderprocessing --app-port 6001 --dapr-http-port 3601 --dapr-grpc-port 60001 --app-protocol https mvn spring-boot:run

dapr run --app-id checkout --app-port 6002 --dapr-http-port 3602 --dapr-grpc-port 60002 -- python3 CheckoutService.py
dapr run --app-id orderprocessing --app-port 6001 --dapr-http-port 3601 --dapr-grpc-port 60001 -- python3 OrderProcessingService.py

If your app uses a TLS, you can tell Dapr to invoke your app over a TLS connection by setting --app-protocol https:

dapr run --app-id checkout --app-port 6002 --dapr-http-port 3602 --dapr-grpc-port 60002 --app-protocol https -- python3 CheckoutService.py
dapr run --app-id orderprocessing --app-port 6001 --dapr-http-port 3601 --dapr-grpc-port 60001 --app-protocol https -- python3 OrderProcessingService.py

dapr run --app-id checkout --app-port 6002 --dapr-http-port 3602 --dapr-grpc-port 60002 go run CheckoutService.go
dapr run --app-id orderprocessing --app-port 6001 --dapr-http-port 3601 --dapr-grpc-port 60001 go run OrderProcessingService.go

If your app uses a TLS, you can tell Dapr to invoke your app over a TLS connection by setting --app-protocol https:

dapr run --app-id checkout --app-port 6002 --dapr-http-port 3602 --dapr-grpc-port 60002 --app-protocol https go run CheckoutService.go
dapr run --app-id orderprocessing --app-port 6001 --dapr-http-port 3601 --dapr-grpc-port 60001 --app-protocol https go run OrderProcessingService.go

dapr run --app-id checkout --app-port 6002 --dapr-http-port 3602 --dapr-grpc-port 60002 npm start
dapr run --app-id orderprocessing --app-port 6001 --dapr-http-port 3601 --dapr-grpc-port 60001 npm start

If your app uses a TLS, you can tell Dapr to invoke your app over a TLS connection by setting --app-protocol https:

dapr run --app-id checkout --app-port 6002 --dapr-http-port 3602 --dapr-grpc-port 60002 --app-protocol https npm start
dapr run --app-id orderprocessing --app-port 6001 --dapr-http-port 3601 --dapr-grpc-port 60001 --app-protocol https npm start

Set an app-id when deploying to Kubernetes

In Kubernetes, set the dapr.io/app-id annotation on your pod:

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: <language>-app
  namespace: default
  labels:
    app: <language>-app
spec:
  replicas: 1
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: <language>-app
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: <language>-app
      annotations:
        dapr.io/enabled: "true"
        dapr.io/app-id: "orderprocessingservice"
        dapr.io/app-port: "6001"
...

If your app uses a TLS connection, you can tell Dapr to invoke your app over TLS with the app-protocol: "https" annotation (full list here). Note that Dapr does not validate TLS certificates presented by the app.

Invoke the service

To invoke an application using Dapr, you can use the invoke API on any Dapr instance. The sidecar programming model encourages each application to interact with its own instance of Dapr. The Dapr sidecars discover and communicate with one another.

Below are code examples that leverage Dapr SDKs for service invocation.

• Dotnet
• Java
• Python
• Go
• Javascript

//dependencies
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Net.Http;
using System.Net.Http.Headers;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using Dapr.Client;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc;
using System.Threading;
//code
namespace EventService
{
  class Program
   {
       static async Task Main(string[] args)
       {
          while(true) {
               System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(5000);
               Random random = new Random();
               int orderId = random.Next(1,1000);
               using var client = new DaprClientBuilder().Build();
               //Using Dapr SDK to invoke a method
               var result = client.CreateInvokeMethodRequest(HttpMethod.Get, "checkout", "checkout/" + orderId);
               await client.InvokeMethodAsync(result);
               Console.WriteLine("Order requested: " + orderId);
               Console.WriteLine("Result: " + result);
           }
       }
   }
}

//dependencies
import io.dapr.client.DaprClient;
import io.dapr.client.DaprClientBuilder;
import io.dapr.client.domain.HttpExtension;
import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.SpringBootApplication;
import org.slf4j.Logger;
import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;
import java.util.Random;
import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
//code
@SpringBootApplication
public class OrderProcessingServiceApplication {
    private static final Logger log = LoggerFactory.getLogger(OrderProcessingServiceApplication.class);
    public static void main(String[] args) throws InterruptedException{
        while(true) {
            TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.sleep(5000);
            Random random = new Random();
            int orderId = random.nextInt(1000-1) + 1;
            DaprClient daprClient = new DaprClientBuilder().build();
            //Using Dapr SDK to invoke a method
            var result = daprClient.invokeMethod(
                    "checkout",
                    "checkout/" + orderId,
                    null,
                    HttpExtension.GET,
                    String.class
            );
            log.info("Order requested: " + orderId);
            log.info("Result: " + result);
        }
    }
}

#dependencies
import random
from time import sleep
import logging
from dapr.clients import DaprClient
#code
logging.basicConfig(level = logging.INFO) 
while True:
    sleep(random.randrange(50, 5000) / 1000)
    orderId = random.randint(1, 1000)
    with DaprClient() as daprClient:
        #Using Dapr SDK to invoke a method
        result = daprClient.invoke_method(
            "checkout",
               f"checkout/{orderId}",
               data=b'',
               http_verb="GET"
        )    
    logging.basicConfig(level = logging.INFO)
    logging.info('Order requested: ' + str(orderId))
    logging.info('Result: ' + str(result))

//dependencies
import (
    "context"
    "log"
    "math/rand"
    "time"
    "strconv"
    dapr "github.com/dapr/go-sdk/client"
)
//code
type Order struct {
    orderName string
    orderNum  string
}
func main() {
    for i := 0; i < 10; i++ {
        time.Sleep(5000)
        orderId := rand.Intn(1000-1) + 1
        client, err := dapr.NewClient()
        if err != nil {
            panic(err)
        }
        defer client.Close()
        ctx := context.Background()
        //Using Dapr SDK to invoke a method
        result, err := client.InvokeMethod(ctx, "checkout", "checkout/" + strconv.Itoa(orderId), "get")
        log.Println("Order requested: " + strconv.Itoa(orderId))
        log.Println("Result: ")
        log.Println(result)
    }
}

//dependencies
import { DaprClient, HttpMethod, CommunicationProtocolEnum } from '@dapr/dapr'; 
//code
const daprHost = "127.0.0.1"; 
var main = function() {
    for(var i=0;i<10;i++) {
        sleep(5000);
        var orderId = Math.floor(Math.random() * (1000 - 1) + 1);
        start(orderId).catch((e) => {
            console.error(e);
            process.exit(1);
        });
    }
}
async function start(orderId) {
    const client = new DaprClient({
        daprHost: daprHost,
        daprPort: process.env.DAPR_HTTP_PORT,
        communicationProtocol: CommunicationProtocolEnum.HTTP
    });
    //Using Dapr SDK to invoke a method
    const result = await client.invoker.invoke('checkoutservice' , "checkout/" + orderId , HttpMethod.GET);
    console.log("Order requested: " + orderId);
    console.log("Result: " + result);
}
function sleep(ms) {
    return new Promise(resolve => setTimeout(resolve, ms));
}
main();

Additional URL formats

To invoke a ‘GET’ endpoint:

curl http://localhost:3602/v1.0/invoke/checkout/method/checkout/100

To avoid changing URL paths as much as possible, Dapr provides the following ways to call the service invocation API:

1. Change the address in the URL to localhost:<dapr-http-port>.
2. Add a dapr-app-id header to specify the ID of the target service, or alternatively pass the ID via HTTP Basic Auth: http://dapr-app-id:<service-id>@localhost:3602/path.

For example, the following command:

curl http://localhost:3602/v1.0/invoke/checkout/method/checkout/100

is equivalent to:

curl -H 'dapr-app-id: checkout' 'http://localhost:3602/checkout/100' -X POST

or:

curl 'http://dapr-app-id:checkout@localhost:3602/checkout/100' -X POST

Using CLI:

dapr invoke --app-id checkout --method checkout/100

Namespaces

When running on namespace supported platforms, you include the namespace of the target app in the app ID. For example, following the <app>.<namespace> format, use checkout.production.

Using this example, invoking the service with a namespace would look like:

curl http://localhost:3602/v1.0/invoke/checkout.production/method/checkout/100 -X POST

See the Cross namespace API spec for more information on namespaces.

View traces and logs

Our example above showed you how to directly invoke a different service running locally or in Kubernetes. Dapr:

• Outputs metrics, tracing, and logging information,
• Allows you to visualize a call graph between services and log errors, and
• Optionally, log the payload body.

For more information on tracing and logs, see the observability article.

Related Links

• Service invocation overview
• Service invocation API specification

Last modified June 19, 2023: Merge pull request #3565 from dapr/aacrawfi/skip-secrets-close (b1763bf)