Note to Self

Note to Self – A Microsoft Integration Journal

  • Hour of Code 2018

    And we did it again! Me and Blanca Mansfield, which run a Python Code Club at the school, ran the Hour of Code 2018 at Arahoe Primary School, working with all classes from Year 3 to Year 6. It is the second time that we run the event at the school. We’ve managed to do…

  • Omitting Empty Elements on JSON Payloads

    I am working on a Logic Apps project where the client API validates the elements before saving, and is not expecting null values to come through. For example, in the payload below: It doesn’t expect the data like showed above (which is fair enough), but also don’t like “AlternateEmail”: null. Instead it expects the AlternateEmail…

  • Combining API Management with Azure Relays

    As you might remember, in June I was at the Integrate 2018, doing a presentation called Exposing BizTalk to the World. It was my second time presenting on what became the premier conference on Microsoft Integration and it was a fantastic experience. It wouldn’t be fair to talk about Integrate without thanking Theta for sponsoring…

  • Using splitOn in a trigger to avoid zero length executions

    Last week I was reviewing a logic app with one of the lead developers at Theta. It was a relatively simple logic app. It needed to call an oData endpoint on a regular basis, and process the value back. The developer original design was to: Poll the oData endpoint on the agreed interval. Test if…

  • Treat every Logic App environment as production

    This is a cautionary tale… A month or so ago, someone from support asked me why the hell a test environment had spent over a thousand NZD  in Logic Apps actions. My first reaction was “Are you kidding?”… my second reaction was that pit in your stomach feeling when you know something is really wrong,…

  • Creating Logic Apps Classic Alerts with Powershell

    Have you ever created a logic apps solution – maybe 10 or so logic apps – and noticed that you needed to enable basic notification alerts for all of them? I found a while ago that this was kind of a tedious process, so I end up creating a PowerShell script for that. I end…

  • Traffic Manager with Azure API Management Returning 503

    I am still working on an API Manager DR scenario for a client. After automating the backup and restore process, to make sure that the APIM instances are always in sync, I needed to setup Traffic Manager in priority mode to distribute the calls between the main and secondary instances. Traffic Manager setup seemed quite…

  • And the Cycle Starts Again

    Today I’ve received a very special email – the renewal of my MVP Award for the period 2018-2019. Those who had received the award before knows how cherished is the moment that you see the email on your inbox. The best part of the award is the confirmation that what you are doing is been…

  • BizTalk Server 2016 and SQL Server 2016 SP2

    BizTalk Server 2016 Cumulative Update 5 was released last week. One of the items in the CU list was this KB – adding support in BizTalk Server 2016 for SQL Server 2016 SP2. Why is this important? Because this service pack simplifies the deployment of SQL components when setting up BizTalk Server 2016 highly available…

  • Automating API Management Backup and Restore with Logic Apps

    I’ve been working during the last week or so on setting up a DR strategy for a solution that is based on API Management, Azure Functions and Service Bus. Most of the deployment to the secondary site is dealt by VSTS, but one of the main issues on the proposed strategy was the fact that…

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