How-To: Use output bindings to interface with external resources

Invoke external systems with output bindings

With output bindings, you can invoke external resources. An optional payload and metadata can be sent with the invocation request.

Diagram showing bindings of example service

This guide uses a Kafka binding as an example. You can find your preferred binding spec from the list of bindings components. In this guide:

  1. The example invokes the /binding endpoint with checkout, the name of the binding to invoke.
  2. The payload goes inside the mandatory data field, and can be any JSON serializable value.
  3. The operation field tells the binding what action it needs to take. For example, the Kafka binding supports the create operation.

Create a binding

Create a binding.yaml file and save to a components sub-folder in your application directory.

Create a new binding component named checkout. Within the metadata section, configure the following Kafka-related properties:

  • The topic to which you’ll publish the message
  • The broker

When creating the binding component, specify the supported direction of the binding.

Use the --resources-path flag with dapr run to point to your custom resources directory.

apiVersion: dapr.io/v1alpha1
kind: Component
metadata:
  name: checkout
spec:
  type: bindings.kafka
  version: v1
  metadata:
  # Kafka broker connection setting
  - name: brokers
    value: localhost:9092
  # consumer configuration: topic and consumer group
  - name: topics
    value: sample
  - name: consumerGroup
    value: group1
  # publisher configuration: topic
  - name: publishTopic
    value: sample
  - name: authRequired
    value: false
  - name: direction
    value: output

To deploy the following binding.yaml file into a Kubernetes cluster, run kubectl apply -f binding.yaml.

apiVersion: dapr.io/v1alpha1
kind: Component
metadata:
  name: checkout
spec:
  type: bindings.kafka
  version: v1
  metadata:
  # Kafka broker connection setting
  - name: brokers
    value: localhost:9092
  # consumer configuration: topic and consumer group
  - name: topics
    value: sample
  - name: consumerGroup
    value: group1
  # publisher configuration: topic
  - name: publishTopic
    value: sample
  - name: authRequired
    value: false
  - name: direction
    value: output

Send an event (output binding)

The code examples below leverage Dapr SDKs to invoke the output bindings endpoint on a running Dapr instance.

Here’s an example of using a console app with top-level statements in .NET 6+:

Here’s an example of using a console app with top-level statements in .NET 6+:

using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using Dapr.Client;

var builder = WebApplication.CreateBuilder(args);
builder.Services.AddDaprClient();
var app = builder.Build();

const string BINDING_NAME = "checkout";
const string BINDING_OPERATION = "create";

var random = new Random();
using var daprClient = app.Services.GetRequiredService<DaprClient>();

while (true)
{
    await Task.Delay(TimeSpan.FromSeconds(5));
    var orderId = random.Next(1, 1000);
    await client.InvokeBindingAsync(BINDING_NAME, BINDING_OPERATION, orderId);
    Console.WriteLine($"Sending message: {orderId}"); 
}

//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{
		String BINDING_NAME = "checkout";
		String BINDING_OPERATION = "create";
		while(true) {
			TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.sleep(5000);
			Random random = new Random();
			int orderId = random.nextInt(1000-1) + 1;
			DaprClient client = new DaprClientBuilder().build();
          //Using Dapr SDK to invoke output binding
			client.invokeBinding(BINDING_NAME, BINDING_OPERATION, orderId).block();
			log.info("Sending message: " + orderId);
		}
	}
}

#dependencies
import random
from time import sleep    
import requests
import logging
import json
from dapr.clients import DaprClient

#code
logging.basicConfig(level = logging.INFO)
BINDING_NAME = 'checkout'
BINDING_OPERATION = 'create' 
while True:
    sleep(random.randrange(50, 5000) / 1000)
    orderId = random.randint(1, 1000)
    with DaprClient() as client:
        #Using Dapr SDK to invoke output binding
        resp = client.invoke_binding(BINDING_NAME, BINDING_OPERATION, json.dumps(orderId))
    logging.basicConfig(level = logging.INFO)
    logging.info('Sending message: ' + str(orderId))
    

//dependencies
import (
	"context"
	"log"
	"math/rand"
	"time"
	"strconv"
	dapr "github.com/dapr/go-sdk/client"

)

//code
func main() {
	BINDING_NAME := "checkout";
	BINDING_OPERATION := "create";
	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 output binding
		in := &dapr.InvokeBindingRequest{ Name: BINDING_NAME, Operation: BINDING_OPERATION , Data: []byte(strconv.Itoa(orderId))}
		err = client.InvokeOutputBinding(ctx, in)
		log.Println("Sending message: " + strconv.Itoa(orderId))
	}
}
    

//dependencies
import { DaprClient, CommunicationProtocolEnum } from "@dapr/dapr";

//code
const daprHost = "127.0.0.1";

(async function () {
    for (var i = 0; i < 10; i++) {
        await sleep(2000);
        const orderId = Math.floor(Math.random() * (1000 - 1) + 1);
        try {
            await sendOrder(orderId)
        } catch (err) {
            console.error(e);
            process.exit(1);
        }
    }
})();

async function sendOrder(orderId) {
    const BINDING_NAME = "checkout";
    const BINDING_OPERATION = "create";
    const client = new DaprClient({
        daprHost,
        daprPort: process.env.DAPR_HTTP_PORT,
        communicationProtocol: CommunicationProtocolEnum.HTTP,
    });
    //Using Dapr SDK to invoke output binding
    const result = await client.binding.send(BINDING_NAME, BINDING_OPERATION, orderId);
    console.log("Sending message: " + orderId);
}

function sleep(ms) {
    return new Promise(resolve => setTimeout(resolve, ms));
}

You can also invoke the output bindings endpoint using HTTP:

curl -X POST -H 'Content-Type: application/json' http://localhost:3601/v1.0/bindings/checkout -d '{ "data": 100, "operation": "create" }'

Watch this video on how to use bi-directional output bindings.

References

Last modified July 18, 2025: Upgrade hugo docsy into 1.16 (#4733) (b2fdd345)