[Video] Azure Options For Enterprise: Pros, Cons & Use Cases

Keyhole Software .NET, Azure, Cloud, Development Technologies & Tools, Keyhole, Service Fabric, Videos Leave a Comment

The Azure cloud platform is vast and it can be difficult to determine the best option given unique requirements. This video discusses six options within the wide world of Microsoft Azure including Virtual Machines (IaaS), App Services (PaaS), Function Apps (FaaS), AKS (KaaS), Logic Apps (?aaS), and Service Fabric (PaaS).

For each option, Keyhole Software Consultant Zach Gardner introduces the pros, cons, optimal use cases, and tips for success with each Azure approach based on his experience.

This 40-minute video was recorded in November 2019 at a Keyhole Software internal employee Lunch & Learn event featuring Keyhole Consultant Zach Gardner…

Integrating Azure Functions with Cosmos DB SQL API in .NET Core 2.2

Zach Gardner .NET Core, API Development, Articles, Azure, Cloud, Development Technologies & Tools, SQL, Tutorial Leave a Comment

I am working on a project that leverages both Azure Functions as well as Cosmos DB. In trying to get both of these components wired together, I found that there are very few examples that work with the most recent versions of these components. I also saw examples that could work at a small scale, but don’t show industry-standard best practices, and would lead to performance issues if deployed in an environment with any meaningful traffic.

To that end, I put together this blog post showing how to set up an Azure Functions project in .NET Core 2.2 to integrate with Cosmos DB’s SQL API using its native tooling.

C# On The Client Side With Blazor

Clayton Terry .NET, Articles, CSS & HTML, Development Technologies & Tools Leave a Comment

With the introduction of .Net Core 3.0, Microsoft has built its own web UI framework.

Introducing Blazor: Microsoft’s fully C# client-side framework. With the help of its Razor platform, Microsoft is attempting to put its hat in the ring with the likes of Angular, React, and Vue.

Blazor allows developers to fully design and execute web pages purely with C# — it is meant to eliminate the need for JavaScript. The goal is also to hopefully limit the number of vulnerabilities found in front-end UI work.

In this post, we give an introduction to Blazor and a quick tutorial for getting started.

Using Apache POI With Protected Excel Files

Jonny Hackett Articles, Development Technologies & Tools, Java, Spring Batch 1 Comment

While working on a recent project at a client, we had the opportunity to refactor some data extracts that were using a commercial Excel writing library, which we then converted to using the Apache POI Library for Excel. These data extracts were reports that included some calculated values, and depending on the client, were required to be password protected. When completed, the reports would be emailed to the recipients configured for each client.

In this post, we discuss the challenge of delivering protected Microsoft documents via email. We introduce a Java code solution for emailing password-protected Excel files when using the Apache POI Library.

Some of the required calculations we chose to implement using Excel formulas. Implementing formulas wasn’t a hard task and worked for what was needed.

Into the Core

James Bradley .NET, .NET Core, Articles, ASP.NET, Development Technologies & Tools, Tutorial Leave a Comment

The client I’m currently assisting has begun to move applications from more monolithic architecture into a more modern, cloud-based architecture. The organization is a bit of a .NET anomaly in that it is a company that’s primarily Java, yet has some .NET.

So even though Microsoft has a list of framework tools (such as Azure Service Fabric and Azure App Service), it’s fair to say that asking a primarily Java-focused company to use those tools could be an uphill battle. This is where .NET Standard and .NET Core have come to the rescue.

I work with a ton of smart people and I’m pretty amazed at how fast they can pick up on things from reading. I, however, cannot really understand it fully until I touch it. So let’s build a quick RESTful Web API step by step to see how challenging it is. We’ll be using .NET Standard, .NET Core, and ASP.NET Core.