BizBert

The latest Logic Apps refresh, on March 24th 2017, finally added support for variables.

Microsoft have taken an interesting approach with variables: unlike a BizTalk orchestration, where you define variables separately to your workflow, in Logic Apps they're defined in new Variables actions. This means that they're defined inline, similar to how you would define them in source code. There is also a new @variables('variableName') expression that can be used to obtain the value of a named variable.

There are some limitations to variables though...

The Logic Apps team have been crazy busy this month. In case you missed the latest webcast (link here this is what's new and updated this month – and it's a big list!!! 17 new features in all! Plus, one new region. And 17 new connectors. Here's a look at all of that...

Part 3: Visual Studio and Project Types

As an enterprise integration developer, Azure gives you some new choices. Foremost amongst those is the ability to develop code *outside of Visual Studio*. Whilst that is the norm for most open-source and non-Microsoft technologies (e.g. Python, Ruby, anything developed on a non-Windows PC), for most Microsoft integration developers, developing outside of Visual Studio may take you outside of your comfort zone.

Part 2: Azure Resource Manager Overview

The Azure Resource Manager (ARM for short) is the deployment engine behind Azure. It's actually a whole lot more than that, but let's just start with that. In a nutshell, we can supply it a description of what we want to create (in a JSON file known as an ARM Template) and it will go away and provision all the required resources.

Part 1: Challenges in Enterprise Integration Development in Azure

It's been nearly 9 months now since Logic Apps went GA, and there's starting to be real growth in adoption and usage. We're also seeing a lot more community content, as developers and companies start to see the real benefits of cloud integration and, specifically, the use of Logic Apps.

In case you missed it, Logic Apps moved to General Availability last week.
At the same time, pricing for Logic Apps gained a new option: Consumption charging i.e. pay by use.
I’ve been talking to a number of clients about this new pricing model, and every single one has expressed concerns: it’s these concerns that I wanted to touch upon in this post...

At the BizTalk360 Integrate2016 (http://www.biztalk360.com/integrate-2016/) conference today, Microsoft announced a whole slew of new features and functionality for both BizTalk 2016 and Logic Apps.

Some of these include:

I've decided to update my article on Understanding the BizTalk Mapper for BizTalk 2013R2. You can download the article here (in .docx and .pdf formats)

I originally wrote this article in 2008, and it was aimed at BizTalk 2006 R2. Since then, we’ve had 3 more versions of BizTalk: 2010, 2013, and 2013R2. With BizTalk 2016 entering CTP in the next few days, I thought it was time to revisit this article and update it for the latest (public) version of BizTalk.

The 1st CTP (Community Technical Preview) for BizTalk 2016 has been released today. Whilst you have to sign up to Microsoft Connect to access the CTP, Microsoft have published the release notes for the CTP here...

In the latest installment of the logicappsio webcast, Jeff Hollan and Kevin Lam covered off new features released this month, and also talked about what is coming up - you can watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7iZc1i9d7y0.

Of note in this webcast:

Switching to the old Logic Apps designer from a new Logic App is relatively easy... if you don’t have anything in your logic app! You just need to change the $schema value at the top of your logic app definition.

Microsoft today released the Logic Apps preview refresh – which means a new designer and new connectors.

However, those BizTalky people amongst you might notice that there’s no mention of the BizTalk connectors in the list of actions you see in the new designer...

So a few months ago, I was trying to work out how to create an instance of a marketplace API App via code. There was no API or samples for this at the time. API Apps (like Logic/Mobile/Web apps) can be deployed using ARM templates, so it was just a matter of working out what to put in the template.

Since then, the AAS team have released a guide on what needs to go in the template, what the contract looks like, and supplied a sample on GitHub

Recently I was asked by a client: how do I deploy an API App or a Logic App to a Virtual Network (VNet)?

If you've ever used BizTalk Services (MABS) then you'll know one of the biggest limitations with MABS was that it didn’t support VNets: a lot of companies create VNets, and hook them up to their on-premises network, so that their Azure environment becomes a secure extension of their on-premises network.

If you missed the @logicappsio LogicAppsLive community webcast (with Kevin Lam and Jon Fancey) last night, they gave us the current road map for Logic Apps for the next 9 months...

At connect(); 2015 this year, Microsoft announced some new Azure App Service features relating to Logic Apps and API Apps (watch the video here:https://channel9.msdn.com/Events/Visual-Studio/Connect-event-2015/909).

Stephen Siciliano (@iscsus) gave a ten-minute session on current and new features for AAS (Azure App Service)...

For most people, using PowerShell scripts/cmdlets to access Azure and get information about subscriptions and resources (e.g. Logic Apps) will be enough.

But what if you want to do it yourself from .NET?...

The first Logic Apps SDK for .NET (v0.1.0) was released on August 28th.
Stephen Siciliano covered it in the LogicAppsIO Community WebCast on August 27th.
But there haven’t been many blog posts on how to use it, nor many samples.
So here we go: How to use the SDK...

If you want to test the deployment of API App or LogicApp templates, one of the easiest ways to do this is using the PostMan REST Client for Chrome. In this post I'll show you how to authenticate against your Azure subscription, and show you how to call the API from PostMan. Although all of this information can be found on other sites, I wanted to bring it all into one post, with steps showing you what to do, and explanation of the various parts e.g. what a JWT is, and why the api-version value is so important...

So the App Service product group did a Google Hangout today (basically a live YouTube stream) and gave some updates on Logic Apps, along with some demos on chaining Logic Apps, calling a Logic App from another Logic App etc...