Environment variables aren't defined until invocation.

[jthomas]

Environment details:

IBM Bluemix (US-South).

Steps to reproduce the issue:

This action demonstrates the issue.

var openwhisk = require('openwhisk');

console.log(process.env['__OW_API_KEY']);
// blows up here....
var ow = openwhisk(); 

function main(params) {
   console.log(process.env['__OW_API_KEY']);
  // ...but this would work.
   var ow = openwhisk(); 
  return { message: 'Hello World' };
}

Additional information you deem important:

__OW_API_KEY is not defined until the the invocation occurs.

The user cannot define the openwhisk client outside the handler function without explicitly providing both the api key and host endpoint.

Would it be possible to move the variables apart from deadline and activation_id to the handler init section?

If this isn't possible, this behaviour should be documented.

[jthomas]

I've just helped another user who ran into this issue. I'm going to add a note to the client library README to call this behaviour out but I can imagine it's going to continue to trip people up.

[sjfink]

This also seems somewhat related to #1728 -- in general we need to revamp how we initialize global state of all kinds.

I agree that defining _OW_API_KEY during init() for javascript actions seems like a good idea. I can't think of any reason not to.

[homerjam]

+1

[rabbah]

This is now fixed.