Showing all posts tagged: 'Azure'

A 66-post collection

Keeping your Azure Search Index up-to-date with Azure Functions

Azure Search can work really well with Azure Blob Storage. It can automatically index and analyse documents uploaded to a Storage Container to make it easy for you to expose the data in your application. When working with Blob data, Azure Search is designed to incrementally add new documents automatically. However, where it gets really tricky is when blobs are deleted from storage. The index doesn't get updated automatically, so the data ends up in a stale state. There's a way to use a soft delete approach to indicate to an Azure Search data source that a document/blob should …[read more]

Restrict public access to your Azure Web Apps with the IPSecurityRestrictions option

This is a little unknown gem that I've used a few times as I help customers secure access to their Azure Web Apps.. Traditionally, if one wants to restrict access to a website running on a VM (i.e IaaS) then they can make use of Firewalls to ensure that everything goes through a single endpoint and access is restricted. However, as we move to the cloud and further up the stack (PaaS or FaaS) we give lose some of that tight control for the benefit of using a managed service! But what if you wanted to run your website …[read more]

Debugging C# (.NET Core) Azure Functions with VS Code

The [v2 release](https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/appserviceteam/2017/09/25/develop-azure-functions-on-any-platform/" target="_) of the Azure Function Core tools (i.e. the CLI) has been out for a while now. It may still be in preview while the team is finalizing the stability and performance of the tool, but it's really exciting because we now have a cross-platform tool based on .NET Core. You can download the latest Function Core tools from npm using the following command: npm i -g azure-functions-core-tools@core With the latest release of the Core tool you can develop, debug and run Azure …[read more]

Combining data from multiple sources in Azure Search

Azure Search is a great service that allows developers to add search functionality in their applications. I blogged about [how to index and query data from SQL Server using Azure Search](GHOST_URL/indexing-and-searching-sql-server-data-with-azure-search/" target="_blank) before. Today, I want to talk about a more advanced scenario and one that could be more common than you think. By default, every Search index is designed to pull data from one source. The source can be a SQL Database, a blob storage or Azure Table Storage. However, there are valid scenarios where you may want to combined data from multiple …[read more]

Indexing and searching SQL Server data with Azure Search

Another day and another opportunity to work with an exciting Azure service. This post is all about [Azure Search](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/search/search-what-is-azure-search" target="_blank), a sleeping giant that apparently can do some pretty impressive things that not many of us know about. Azure Search is a managed search service that you can implement to provide search services to your applications. The search service comes with a powerful REST API that allows you to both managed and consume although there are equally powerful SDKs to help you achieve the same. In the end, like …[read more]

Enforcing HTTPS-only traffic and HSTS settings for Azure Web Apps and Azure Functions

I hope that by now your site is running under HTTPS. If not, you may want to read Troy Hunt's [blog post(s)](https://www.troyhunt.com/ssl-is-not-about-encryption/" target="_blank ) on the subject. He does a great job explaining the WHY. If your site's running on Azure Web Apps under the default naming convention <yoursitename>.azurewebsites.net, you have the option to enforce HTTPS using the Azure certificate. However, this is not recommended. Most likely, you'll have your site running under a custom domain. If that's the case, you'll need a custom certificate. There are many …[read more]

TechDays Netherlands 2017

In October 2017 I got the privilege to speak at my first Microsoft-organised conference in the Netherlands. It was 2 days (well, 3 days if you count travelling) of packed talks, meetings, interesting conversations and general geeking out. I've spoken about why you should attend these kind of events either as a speaker or attendee many times and this event definitely proved me right. Apart from the awesome talks that I had the chance to attend, I met with many Microsoft and non-Microsoft developers from around the world and got the chance to learn from them and expand my network …[read more]

Getting started with Azure Container Instances

Hot off the press! The new [Azure Container Instances](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-overview" target"_blank) service is a new offering (still in Preview) from Azure that allows you to launch and run your Docker Images in less than 10 seconds. In this post, I'll show you how to get started and what you need in order to be able to leverage the service. Prerequisites In order to follow along you'll need the following: An active Azure Subscription A machine that has the following installed Azure CLI Docker .NET Core (if you want to deploy …[read more]