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Showing posts from May, 2020

Tidy up - Unused Project and Nuget package reference using Visual Studio 2019

If you are a Developer/Architect using Visual Studio as IDE for your development activities, this blog post will be of your interest. During the Ignite 2021 conference, Microsoft released Visual Studio 2019 v16.9 and v16.10 Preview 1. As part of version 16.10 Preview 1, one of the cool features they introduced is to "Remove Unused References..." for any Projects and Nuget packages that are not in use. At the time of writing this blog post, we have Visual Studio Version 16.10.0 (official release) which includes this new feature.  As part of development, we generally get carried away and introduce new Nuget package references to your project and add new references to your Projects. By the end of development, you will not be 100% sure which are not being referenced and unused which means you will leave those unused project references in your application. Now you might be wondering what's the big deal in it since it doesn't harm. The advantage of removing unused project r

Configuring free HTTPS(TLS/SSL) certificates on Azure App Service

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In November 2019 Microsoft announced at Ignite 2019, we can now enable HTTPS for our own domains for free on Azure App Service (preview). Azure App Service is an HTTP-based service for hosting web applications, REST APIs, mobile back ends, Docker images. TLS/SSL is a mandatory NFR checklist when going to production. Using a third-party certificate usually has the downside of managing certificate, rotation, renewal process etc. You can also buy App Service Certificates from Azure, which have more features than the free offering, but do cost money ($$$). Of course, we have things like Let's Encrypt which is free but it comes with overhead of certificate management, rotation, integration with Azure etc.  So, having a managed certificate is certainly a nice feature. Pre-requisites 1. WebApp provisioned in Azure portal with App Service Plan of Basic and above (free and shared tiers are not supported) 2. Custom Domain already exists Enabling a free SSL certificate for the web

Not able to find WCF in Visual Studio 2019?

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Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) is a framework for building service-oriented applications. Using WCF, you can send data as asynchronous messages from one service endpoint to another. In Visual Studio 2019, WCF is not pre-installed by default. If you are not able to find WCF template as part of New Project creation in Visual Studio 2019 please follow below steps In Create a New Project window of Visual Studio 2019, search for WCF in search box. If WCF project template is not listed, click on install more tools and features Visual studio installer window opens up Navigate to Individual Components Select Development Activities - Windows communication foundation Click on Modify button and install WCF component Restart Visual studio Here you go, WCF option will be listed now as part of Create New Project.

Azure Function v3 with DI (Dependency Injection)

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Azure Functions allows you to run small pieces of code (called "functions") without worrying about application infrastructure. Few key benefits of Azure function usage are like Serverless applications we can develop using Azure Function, can develop application with several languages like C#, Java, Python, Powershell. It supports pay per pricing model,integration with several Azure Services etc. As of today, Azure Functions 3.0 is now go-live and ready for production.One of the major benefits of this release is Azure Functions v3 targeting netcoreapp3.1. If you want to develop using .NET Core 3.1, you must use Visual Studio 2019 16.4 or newer.Upgrading a v2 app to v3 can be found here Just a brief history about version of Azure function with .NET frameworks Azure Function v1 - .NET framework 4.61 Azure Function v2 - .NET Core app 2.1 Azure Function v3 - .NET Core app 3.1 Support for dependency injection begins with Azure Functions 2.x. Having Dependency Injection

AZURE SQL - Advanced Threat Protection

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In my last blog post, we looked at the Data Discovery & Classification , Vulnerability Assessment features within the Advanced Data Security (ADS) offering for Azure SQL. In this blog post, we will have a look into Advanced threat protection. Azure SQL Overview Azure SQL Database is a fully managed Platform as a Service (PaaS) Database Engine that handles most of the database management functions such as upgrading, patching, backups, and monitoring without user involvement. As with any database platform, security remains a top concern to address this issue or concerns Microsoft have offering called Advanced Data Security with Azure SQL service. Pre-requisites Enable Advanced Data Security (ADS) at the database level by navigating to Settings > Advanced Data Security for your SQL database and click  Enable . Alternatively, ADS can also be configured and managed at the server level by navigating to Settings > Advanced Data Security for your server and switching the