Getting Familiar with Microsoft Azure

I'd like to summarize what I've learned in the past couple years of using MS Azure for personal and professional software development. Keep in mind this is coming from the perspective of a developer; Azure can be used for many interesting things outside the scope of just deploying, hosting, and scaling software in the cloud.


The Azure Portal UI is intuitive, constantly being updated (for the better), and contains tools to create and configure nearly anything you can imagine  


First, it's a bit of a maze.

Then it's amazing.


Starting out

The idea of any cloud provider is to enable IaaS, SaaS and PaaS among other XaaS's. Instead of having to provision physical machines, network equipment and associated hardware, and go out to dozens of different vendors to manage service agreements for the various services a company uses- nowadays a company can move most of that distributed mess into their own private cloud and just manage everything in one place.

And that one place is highly secure, geo-redundant and hosted on some of the best and newest hardware available.





Azure resources

In Azure you have the concept of resources which consume resource units. Anything can be a resource: a network card, a virtual machine, a firewall security policy- they are all resources in the world of Azure. You can create, modify and delete resources virtually at will- or on a schedule through automation scripts that operate on what are known as ARM (Azure Resource Manager) templates which are basically representations of Azure resources in the form of JSON.

{
  "$schema": "https://schema.management.azure.com/schemas/2019-04-01/deploymentTemplate.json#",
  "contentVersion": "1.0.0.0",
  "parameters": {
    "adminUsername": {
      "type": "string",
      "metadata": {
        "description": "Username for the Virtual Machine."
      }
    },
    "adminPassword": {
      "type": "securestring",
      "minLength": 12,
      "metadata": {
        "description": "Password for the Virtual Machine."
      }
    },
    "dnsLabelPrefix": {
      "type": "string",
      "defaultValue": "[toLower(concat(parameters('vmName'),'-', uniqueString(resourceGroup().id, parameters('vmName'))))]",
      "metadata": {
        "description": "Unique DNS Name for the Public IP used to access the Virtual Machine."
      }
    },
    "publicIpName": {
      "type": "string",
      "defaultValue": "myPublicIP",
      "metadata": {
        "description": "Name for the Public IP used to access the Virtual Machine."
      }
    },
    "publicIPAllocationMethod": {
      "type": "string",
      "defaultValue": "Dynamic",
      "allowedValues": [
        "Dynamic",
        "Static"
      ],
      "metadata": {
        "description": "Allocation method for the Public IP used to access the Virtual Machine."
      }
    },
    "publicIpSku": {
      "type": "string",
      "defaultValue": "Basic",
      "allowedValues": [
        "Basic",
        "Standard"
      ],
      "metadata": {
        "description": "SKU for the Public IP used to access the Virtual Machine."
      }
    },

    "OSVersion": {
      "type": "string",
      "defaultValue": "2019-Datacenter",
      "allowedValues": [
        "2008-R2-SP1",
        "2012-Datacenter",
        "2012-R2-Datacenter",
        "2016-Nano-Server",
        "2016-Datacenter-with-Containers",
        "2016-Datacenter",
        "2019-Datacenter",
        "2019-Datacenter-Core",
        "2019-Datacenter-Core-smalldisk",
        "2019-Datacenter-Core-with-Containers",
        "2019-Datacenter-Core-with-Containers-smalldisk",
        "2019-Datacenter-smalldisk",
        "2019-Datacenter-with-Containers",
        "2019-Datacenter-with-Containers-smalldisk"
      ],
      "metadata": {
        "description": "The Windows version for the VM. This will pick a fully patched image of this given Windows version."
      }
    },
    "vmSize": {
      "type": "string",
      "defaultValue": "Standard_D2_v3",
      "metadata": {
        "description": "Size of the virtual machine."
      }
    },
    "location": {
      "type": "string",
      "defaultValue": "[resourceGroup().location]",
      "metadata": {
        "description": "Location for all resources."
      }
    },
    "vmName": {
      "type": "string",
      "defaultValue": "simple-vm",
      "metadata": {
        "description": "Location for all resources."
      }
    }
  },
  "variables": {
    "storageAccountName": "[concat('bootdiags', uniquestring(resourceGroup().id))]",
    "nicName": "myVMNic",
    "addressPrefix": "10.0.0.0/16",
    "subnetName": "Subnet",
    "subnetPrefix": "10.0.0.0/24",
    "virtualNetworkName": "MyVNET",
    "subnetRef": "[resourceId('Microsoft.Network/virtualNetworks/subnets', variables('virtualNetworkName'), variables('subnetName'))]",
    "networkSecurityGroupName": "default-NSG"
  },
  "resources": [
    {
      "type": "Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts",
      "apiVersion": "2019-06-01",
      "name": "[variables('storageAccountName')]",
      "location": "[parameters('location')]",
      "sku": {
        "name": "Standard_LRS"
      },
      "kind": "Storage",
      "properties": {}
    },
    {
      "type": "Microsoft.Network/publicIPAddresses",
      "apiVersion": "2020-06-01",
      "name": "[parameters('publicIPName')]",
      "location": "[parameters('location')]",
      "sku": {
        "name": "[parameters('publicIpSku')]"
      },
      "properties": {
        "publicIPAllocationMethod": "[parameters('publicIPAllocationMethod')]",
        "dnsSettings": {
          "domainNameLabel": "[parameters('dnsLabelPrefix')]"
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "type": "Microsoft.Network/networkSecurityGroups",
      "apiVersion": "2020-06-01",
      "name": "[variables('networkSecurityGroupName')]",
      "location": "[parameters('location')]",
      "properties": {
        "securityRules": [
          {
            "name": "default-allow-3389",
            "properties": {
              "priority": 1000,
              "access": "Allow",
              "direction": "Inbound",
              "destinationPortRange": "3389",
              "protocol": "Tcp",
              "sourcePortRange": "*",
              "sourceAddressPrefix": "*",
              "destinationAddressPrefix": "*"
            }
          }
        ]
      }
    },
    {
      "type": "Microsoft.Network/virtualNetworks",
      "apiVersion": "2020-06-01",
      "name": "[variables('virtualNetworkName')]",
      "location": "[parameters('location')]",
      "dependsOn": [
        "[resourceId('Microsoft.Network/networkSecurityGroups', variables('networkSecurityGroupName'))]"
      ],
      "properties": {
        "addressSpace": {
          "addressPrefixes": [
            "[variables('addressPrefix')]"
          ]
        },
        "subnets": [
          {
            "name": "[variables('subnetName')]",
            "properties": {
              "addressPrefix": "[variables('subnetPrefix')]",
              "networkSecurityGroup": {
                "id": "[resourceId('Microsoft.Network/networkSecurityGroups', variables('networkSecurityGroupName'))]"
              }
            }
          }
        ]
      }
    },
    {
      "type": "Microsoft.Network/networkInterfaces",
      "apiVersion": "2020-06-01",
      "name": "[variables('nicName')]",
      "location": "[parameters('location')]",
      "dependsOn": [
        "[resourceId('Microsoft.Network/publicIPAddresses', parameters('publicIPName'))]",
        "[resourceId('Microsoft.Network/virtualNetworks', variables('virtualNetworkName'))]"
      ],
      "properties": {
        "ipConfigurations": [
          {
            "name": "ipconfig1",
            "properties": {
              "privateIPAllocationMethod": "Dynamic",
              "publicIPAddress": {
                "id": "[resourceId('Microsoft.Network/publicIPAddresses', parameters('publicIPName'))]"
              },
              "subnet": {
                "id": "[variables('subnetRef')]"
              }
            }
          }
        ]
      }
    },
    {
      "type": "Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines",
      "apiVersion": "2018-10-01",
      "name": "[parameters('vmName')]",
      "location": "[parameters('location')]",
      "dependsOn": [
        "[resourceId('Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts', variables('storageAccountName'))]",
        "[resourceId('Microsoft.Network/networkInterfaces', variables('nicName'))]"
      ],
      "properties": {
        "hardwareProfile": {
          "vmSize": "[parameters('vmSize')]"
        },
        "osProfile": {
          "computerName": "[parameters('vmName')]",
          "adminUsername": "[parameters('adminUsername')]",
          "adminPassword": "[parameters('adminPassword')]"
        },
        "storageProfile": {
          "imageReference": {
            "publisher": "MicrosoftWindowsServer",
            "offer": "WindowsServer",
            "sku": "[parameters('OSVersion')]",
            "version": "latest"
          },
          "osDisk": {
            "createOption": "FromImage",
            "managedDisk": {
              "storageAccountType": "StandardSSD_LRS"
            }
          },
          "dataDisks": [
            {
              "diskSizeGB": 1023,
              "lun": 0,
              "createOption": "Empty"
            }
          ]
        },
        "networkProfile": {
          "networkInterfaces": [
            {
              "id": "[resourceId('Microsoft.Network/networkInterfaces', variables('nicName'))]"
            }
          ]
        },
        "diagnosticsProfile": {
          "bootDiagnostics": {
            "enabled": true,
            "storageUri": "[reference(resourceId('Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts', variables('storageAccountName'))).primaryEndpoints.blob]"
          }
        }
      }
    }
  ],
  "outputs": {
    "hostname": {
      "type": "string",
      "value": "[reference(parameters('publicIPName')).dnsSettings.fqdn]"
    }
  }
}
An example of an ARM template- this one is for deploying/updating a Windows Server VM resource


For a trial period of (currently 12 months) most all of the really useful stuff is free (be careful not to accidentally deploy Azure Co$mos though...😳 ...that is not free, and that is not cheap). After the trial period, the cost was still relatively cheap for the services that I use most in Azure (an App Service hosting a handful of .NET Core apps with SSL, 1 powerful virtual machine, a DNS zone, a vNet)- all for about $30/month.


Development

For development, much like it is with Git, the Visual Studio integration with Azure is pretty seamless and enables deployments directly from the IDE. You can also enable an Azure object explorer to view your Azure cloud instance' resources within VS.

Most all established companies are going to want to- for security reasons- (or will have to for incompatibility reasons)- keep at least some legacy software and/or infrastructure on-prem.


Azure ARC connects your On-Prem to your Cloud



And that is why there is Azure ARC- an incredibly simple way to bridge cloud and on-prem resources to create a hybrid virtual network. ARC is essentially a service that you run on your on-prem machines that connects them to your Azure subscription where the machines can then be configured as if they were an Azure resource and can enable on-prem devices to communicate with cloud resources.

"Arc works by running an agent on your non-azure resources; this is a service on VM's and a Kubernetes pod on Kubernetes cluster. Once you install this service, the machine registers with Azure and is ready for management." -samcogan.com

Additionally, virtual machines (Windows OSs or approved Linux distros) can be accessed via SSH or RDP and are as amazingly fast or as tortuously slow as you configure them to be. You can choose from preconfigured database server or application server templates or build your virtual machines completely à la carte.

The ARM template paradigm is easy to understand and develop with, and there are 2 CLI options- Azure CLI and the new PowerShell "Az" module.


How to see "gains"

To see savings from using the cloud, instead of purchasing a new server or physical license, you can rent the computing power you need to power your apps and services and you can even move your worker machines onto the cloud where they can be more easily managed (we are indeed moving back to a thin client/dumb terminal world).

You can move from the physical Exchange mail server model to Outlook365. You can move all of your physical Office subscriptions to Office365.

If your computing needs are seasonal or time-sensitive, you can scale up when needed and pay a high price for short bursts of computing power, while scaling back down to a much lower-budget level until the next scale-up need arises. The configuration of the usage of resources in Azure is highly granular and lends itself to squeezing out a lot of efficiency for those who can monitor and manage it correctly in accordance with organizational needs.

Azure Hybrid Benefit also provides credits for customers who already have an on-prem SQL Server software license. Want to see that MSSQL2019 Enterprise for Linux instance in the cloud? 🙂


Monitor usage

Monitor your cloud resource usage as you can inadvertently requisition a resource that behaves in ways you did not expect and in turn end up ringing up a lot of expensive RUs (resource units). Azure allows you to configure a budget and alerts when you have reached certain thresholds toward or beyond the budget number so that you can configure an alert which will email you a warning message if you have reached 105% of your monthly budget, for example.


The current Azure offerings are plentiful and powerful enough to outfit even the most complex IT infrastructure

Azure, like any cloud provider, forces you to take a fine-grain look at every single resource you are using. It is amazing how much stuff we don't actually use.

It is only when you begin to pay for usage of each resource and see the numbers rising daily do you really understand how much you are utilizing your various resources.

Powerful computing machines began as a timeshare because of the realization that it is madness to let expensive machines sit idle. And though the resources to share and provision among users has become far more complex, we are returning to that model.


Conclusion

Whether you use Azure to explore different kinds of technology or to implement an IT infrastructure completely in the cloud to connect and supercharge your applications and/or workforce- the tech is now there and the costs are comparable to AWS.

My two criticisms of Azure are that (1) Azure seems to excessively spotlight/push certain features forward and other features (many practical, free and cheap things you would think are "essential"- like setting up DNS zones) remain sort of in the shadows/awaiting help links waiting to be discovered... And (2), sadly other things, little things like logging analytic insights that you would think are free are in fact Azure resources that charge RUs. 😕

These aspects suck but are tolerable in light of all of the awesome functionality Azure provides.

Microsoft continues to improve an industry-leading cloud platform that executives, management, engineers, developers, and system admins alike can all learn to love. 💖

PowerShell Commands

The origins of PowerShell lie in the Monad project which you can learn about here: https://www.jsnover.com/Docs/MonadManifesto.pdf


PowerShell Base CmdLets and associated Pipeline parsing CmdLets  provide powerful Windows administration tools



These can be used on-the-fly to glean and share information about a problem or the state of your machine(s) and network or they can be crafted into useful scripts that run on a schedule to report on the status of applications and services, run backup and ETL tasks as well as myriad other (often critical) scheduled jobs that happen routinely behind the scenes to keep IT operations organized and running.
You may for instance, want to have a script run every few hours that gathers statistics about throughput and storage and then alert admin users if a certain threshold is exceeded. Or, in Azure, you may want to utilize a scripted template (like Azure ARM and associated CLI commands) to configure new Azure resources and their environments.


Useful cmdlets:

#check security level
Get-ExecutionPolicy

#elevate security access level
Set-ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted

#get information on any service
Get-Service -Name PhoneSvc

#get the same log info seen in eventvwr
Get-EventLog -Log "Application" 

#get process information
Get-Process -ComputerName MYCOMPUTER

#stop process like cmd.exe kill
Stop-Process -Name “notepad”

#get drive information of the drives connected to the current PS session
Get-PSDrive 

#get information on any powershell cmdlt, function or module
Get-Help -Name Streaming

#get all the installed commands
Get-Command

#connect to your azure account with the "az" azure cmdlt Connect-AzureRmAccount #upload blob content to storage Set-AzStorageBlobContent -File "D:\_TestImages\Image002.png" ` -Container $containerName ` -Blob "Image002.png" ` -Context $ctx -StandardBlobTier Cool #download blob content from storage Get-AzStorageBlobContent -Blob "Image002.png" ` -Container $containerName ` -Destination "D:\_TestImages\Downloads\" ` -Context $ctx

#stop a sql server instance
Stop-SqlInstance -ServerInstance MSSQL01

#clear screen
Clear-Host

#ping
Test-NetConnection

#telnet
Test-NetConnection -Port

#tracert
Test-NetConnection -TraceRoute

#ipconfig
Get-NetIPAddress

#nslookup
Resolve-DnsName -Name "Hostname"

#netstat
Get-NetTCPConnection

#flushdns
Clear-DnsClientCache

#ip release/renew
Invoke-Command -ComputerName -ScriptBlock {ipconfig /release} Invoke-Command -ComputerName -ScriptBlock {ipconfig /renew}

#disable/enable network card
Invoke-Command -ComputerName -ScriptBlock {ipconfig /release} Invoke-Command -ComputerName -ScriptBlock {ipconfig /renew}



Additionally, it is often useful to implement piping of command output, especially in CI/CD toolchain scripting where scripts feed their output (which become the next script's argument(s)) to the next script in the chain.


For example: 

#export a list to .csv file
Get-Service | Export-CSV c:\20200912_ServiceSnapshot.csv

#be more selective with Select-Object module and pipe that to the csv
Get-Service | Select-Object Name, Status | Export-CSV c:\20200912_ServiceStatusSnapshot.csv

#get event information and pipe method (of each log event) info to the console
Get-EventLog -log system | gm -MemberType Methods

#get a process and stop it
Get-Process notepad | Stop-Process

#delete all files matching some Regex pattern
Get-ChildItem $Path | Where{$_.Name -Match "someFileName.txt"} | Remove-Item



References:  



Useful Calculators

The following are links to some very useful calculators and en/decoding tools that can help you do anything from binary encoding/decoding, encryption/decryption to identifying supernet and subnet (the components an IP's network and host portions) information by IP address and number of masking bits applied.



  • https://www.devglan.com/online-tools/aes-encryption-decryption
  • http://www.unit-conversion.info/texttools/ascii/
  • http://www.unit-conversion.info/texttools/convert-text-to-binary/#data
  • https://www.calculator.net/binary-calculator.html
  • https://www.calculator.net/ip-subnet-calculator.html
  • https://www.calculator.net/standard-deviation-calculator.html
  • https://onlinehextools.com/xor-hex-numbers
  • https://www.calculator.net/random-number-generator.html



    Programming Language Origins and Paradigms

    The following charts (1) outline the origins of some of the most well known languages from the outset of computing up to 2001 and (2) illustrate the primary motivations and programmatic structure of several languages.


    A brief history of computing languages up to 2001


    Many languages, many different ways of creating software suited for various purposes

    Small Multiples (are awesome)

    To keep it short and sweet let's go with the definition:

    "A small multiple (sometimes called trellis chart, lattice chart, grid chart, or panel chart) is a series of similar graphs or charts using the same scale and axes, allowing them to be easily compared. It uses multiple views to show different partitions of a dataset."

    Read any serious visual communication guide and it will invariably highlight this powerful tool we have at our disposal when we have the data (we almost always have the data).

    A pair of Small Multiples example quite pertinent to the current times followed by some other good ones:







    This CNN.com graphic captures a running snapshot of the "new case/spread" curve trajectory of individual states



    This clearly communicates how each state unemployment picture fared from 1976-2009



    This SM visual shows population change over time by country (look at Mexico's growth since 1960)




    Locations - Google Maps API, ASP.NET Core and SQL Server

    This app's function/purpose is to use Google Maps API to get geographic data and render locations on maps with editable pins (much like... many apps these days- it is kind of becoming an expectation for any application/service involving a location street address).

    In this way you can record or plan the state(s) of an event or location at some particular street address. Or just have a geographic representation of some important locations that you can then print and have a custom map for.


    This is a proof-of-concept app illustrating what you can do with a little JavaScript, a web app and the Google Maps API



    The code below takes locations records (containing the lat/long of the geographic coordinate) from a database and then initializes the Google Map with some options (I omitted many for brevity). The main interesting thing the code does below, is when it renders the pins (addMarker() function) it adds an event listener to delegate the task of popping up an ASP.NET Core-bound edit modal when a user clicks the pin.

    On the Add and Update side as far as mapping Lat/Long from Street, City, State- that is all handled by the incredibly useful GoogleLocationService provided as a Nuget package for .NET Core apps.

    Other than that it is just standard JavaScript- Google Maps API does virtually all of the geocoding and map visualization heavy lifting.


    The crux of the utilization of the API code (callback and map rendering) is this:
     <script>  
         function initMap() {  
           var map = new google.maps.Map(  
             document.getElementById('map'),  
             {  
               center: new google.maps.LatLng(@Model.CenterLat, @Model.CenterLong),  
               zoom: 8  
             }  
           );  
           var pins = @Html.Raw(Json.Serialize(@Model.Locations));  
           for (var i = 0; i < pins.length; i++) {  
             var myLatLng = {  
               lat: pins[i].lat,  
               lng: pins[i].long  
             };  
             addMarker(myLatLng, map, pins[i]);  
           }  
         }  
         function addMarkerAsync(location, map) {  
           new google.maps.Marker({  
             position: location,  
             title: 'Home Center',  
           });  
           marker.setMap(map);  
         }  
         function addMarker(location, map, pin) {  
           var marker = new google.maps.Marker({  
             position: location,  
             title: '...something dyanmic...',  
           });  
           var infowindow = new google.maps.InfoWindow({  
             content: ''  
           });  
           function AsyncDisplayString() {  
             $.ajax({  
               type: 'GET',  
               url: '/Home/GetLocationModalInfo',  
               dataType: "HTML",  
               contentType: 'application/json',  
               traditional: true,  
               data: pin,  
               success: function (result) {  
                 debugger;  
                 infowindow.setContent('<div style="background-color:#000000;">' + result + '</div>');  
                 infowindow.open(map, marker);  
               },  
               error: function (arg) {  
                 alert('Error');  
               }  
             });  
           }  
           google.maps.event.addListener(marker, 'click', function () {  
             AsyncDisplayString(map, marker)  
           });  
           marker.setMap(map);  
         }  
       </script>  
    


    And then this Controller Action that uses GoogleLocationService to get coordinates by address:
     [HttpPost]  
         public IActionResult AddLocation(LocationModel location)  
         {  
           string address = location.StreetAddress1.Replace(" ", "+") + "," + location.City.Replace(" ", "+") + "," + location.State.Replace(" ", "+");  
           MapPoint coords = _locationService.GetLatLongFromAddress(address);  
           location.Lat = (decimal)coords.Latitude;  
           location.Long = (decimal)coords.Longitude;  
           using (var db = new SqlConnection(_configuration.GetConnectionString("DefaultConnection")))  
           {  
             db.Open();  
             string sql = @"INSERT INTO [Locations].[dbo].[Locations] ([Name], [Contact], [Email], [Website], [Phone], [StreetAddress1], [StreetAddress2], [City]"  
               + ",[State], [Zip], [LocationContact], [PrimaryContact], [Notes], [Type], [Lat], [Long], [Petitions], [Flyers], [Posters], [LastPickUpDateTime], [LastOutOfStockDateTime], LastDropoffDateTime"  
               + ",[AllTimeOutofStock],[Unsupportive],[VolunteerInterest])"  
               + " VALUES ('" + location.Name + "','" + location.Contact + "','" + location.Email + "','" + location.Website + "','" + location.Phone + "','" + location.StreetAddress1 + "','" + location.StreetAddress1 + "','" + location.City + "'"  
               + ",'" + location.State + "','" + location.Zip + "', -1, -1,'" + location.Notes + "', 1, " + location.Lat + "," + location.Long + "," + location.Petitions + "," + location.Flyers + "," + location.Posters + ",'" + location.LastPickUpDateTime + "','" + location.LastOutOfStockDateTime + "','" + location.LastDropoffDateTime + "', 0, 0, 1) " + ";";  
             db.Execute(sql);  
           }  
           var model = GetDefaultMapView();  
           model.KeyString = _configuration["MapsAPIKey"].ToString();  
           return View("Map", model);  
         }  
    


    This is a proof-of-concept app illustrating what you can do with a little JavaScript, a web app and the Google Maps API


    As you can see the Google Maps API provides a lot of opportunity for your application- don't underestimate the power of location-based data. With the tools at our disposal today the functionality of applications is being limited less by available algorithms/frameworks/tools- but rather, our imagination.


    I strongly suggest you look into the ways you can integrate geographic/mapped data with Google Maps API; very powerful API







    ChartJS for Data Vizualiizations

    I came across ChartJS about 2 years ago while debugging code from another, similar data visualization technology inside an AngularJS app.


    ChartJS is a flexible JavaScript data visualization framework which allows for some pretty powerful integrations and customizations


    The concept is you have a "<canvas>" DOM element, which you transform into a ChartJS chart via some JavaScript initialization. After that your tasks are simply finding the data you want to render and deciding the options of exactly how you want the chart visual to appear.

    You can do some really neat and dynamic stuff with ChartJS.

    I have used a lot of charting frameworks, and it does not get more flexible or simple than this:
     <html>  
     <head>  
     <script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/chart.js@2.8.0"></script>  
     </head>  
     <body>  
     <div>  
     <canvas id="myChart" style='background-color:darkgray; width:100%; height:100%;'></canvas>  
     </div>  
     <script>  
     var ctx = document.getElementById('myChart').getContext('2d');;  
     var chart = new Chart(ctx, {  
       type: 'line',  
       data: {  
         labels: ['16_Qtr1', '16_Qtr2', '16_Qtr3', '16_Qtr4', '17_Qtr1', '17_Qtr2', '17_Qtr3', '17_Qtr4', '18_Qtr1', '18_Qtr2', '18_Qtr3', '18_Qtr4', '19_Qtr1', '19_Qtr2', '19_Qtr3', '19_Qtr4', '20_Qtr1', '20_Qtr2', '20_tr3', '20_Qtr4', '21_Qtr1', '21_Qtr2', '21_Qtr3', '21_Qtr4','22_Qtr1', '22_Qtr2', '22_Qtr3', '22_Qtr4', '23_Qtr1', '23_Qtr2', '23_tr3', '23_Qtr4'],  
         datasets: [{  
           label: 'Some random quartley demo data..',  
           backgroundColor: 'black',  
           borderColor: 'lime',  
           data: [40.2, 72.88, 47.1, 22, 54.43, 52.18, 17.1, 52, 67.2, 54.88, 64.1, 78, 67.2, 55.88, 58.1, 57, 50.2, 52.88, 57.1, 62, 74.43, 62.18, 67.1, 72, 77.2, 74.88, 74.1, 78, 77.2, 75.88, 78.1, 77, 70.2, 72.88, 77.1, 62, 64.43, 62.18, 67.1, 72, 67.2, 54.88, 44.1, 28, 27.2, 25.88, 38.1, 37, 40.2, 42.88, 44.1, 52, 54.43, 52.18, 67.1, 82, 87.2, 84.88, 84.1, 88, 87.2, 95.88, 108.1, 127]  
         }]  
       },  
        "options": {  
           "legend": {"position": "bottom"}      
         }  
     });  
     </script>  
     </body>  
     </html>  
    


    Reference: https://www.chartjs.org/

    SSRS REST API v2

    Here is a response from the SSSR REST API in action.. (you can access a lot more SSRS item properties and customize at will once you know the API)


    The SSRS API v2 has far more functionality than v1, but they essentially work the same. You must be authenticated to the SSRS report server you are targeting (localhost in this case) to make web GET/POST requests to the API.

    Once auth'd you can push and pull any useful SSRS data pretty easily to make SSRS do some pretty cool things it can't do out of the box..


    This is the SSRS API as accessed through a web browser; simply give your .NET app an HttpClient and you can make use of all these responses; it's just JSON...



    You can get a collection of SSRS catalog items as in the example above (folders, reports, KPIs) by just specifying the action name, or you can select an individual item by putting the item GUID in parenthesis in the API request URL:


    You can access individual items in the API via GUID in parens after the API action name.




    Common Useful SSRS API v2 Actions:
    • Reports
    • Datasets
    • Data Sources
    • Folders
    • Schedules
    • Subscriptions
    • Comments
    • KPIs
    • CatalogItems (everything)



    Example of a .NET Standard library with an HttpService abstacting the SSRS API calls:
     namespace ExtRS  
     {  
       public class SSRSHttpService  
       {  
         const string ssrsApiURI = "https://localhost/reports/api/v2.0";  
         HttpClient client = new HttpClient(new HttpClientHandler() { UseDefaultCredentials = true });  
             public async Task<GenericItem> GetReportAsync(Guid id)  
         {  
           client.BaseAddress = new Uri(ssrsApiURI + string.Format("/reports({0})", id));  
           var response = await client.GetAsync(client.BaseAddress);  
           var odata = response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync().Result;  
           return JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<GenericItem>(odata);  
         }  
       }  
     }  
    This is verbose to better break down the steps of what is happening on the ExtRS service end




    A very basic class designed to demonstrate using SSRS API Response to create a .NET object:
     using Newtonsoft.Json;  
     using System.Collections.Generic;  
     namespace ExtRS  
     {  
       public class GenericItem  
       {  
         [JsonProperty("@odata.context")]  
         public string ODataContext { get; set; }  
         [JsonProperty("Id")]  
         public string Id { get; set; }  
         [JsonProperty("Name")]  
         public string Name { get; set; }  
         [JsonProperty("Path")]  
         public string Path { get; set; }  
       }  
     }  
    
    The power of the SSRS API is limited primarily your imagination- lots of customization can be made




    And finally, called from a Controller Action in an MVC app:
     using System;  
     using System.Web.Mvc;  
     using System.Threading.Tasks;  
     using ExtRS;  
     namespace Daylite.Controllers  
     {  
       public class ReportsController : Controller  
       {  
         public SSRSHttpService service = new SSRSHttpService();  
         public async Task<ViewResult> GetReportsAsync()  
         {  
           return View("Index", await service.GetReportsAsync());  
         }  
         public async Task<ViewResult> GetFoldersAsync()  
         {  
           APIGenericItemsResponse result = await service.GetFoldersAsync();  
           return View("Index", result);  
         }  
         public async Task<ViewResult> GetReportAsync(Guid id)  
         {  
           GenericItem result = await service.GetReportAsync(id);  
           return View("Index", result);  
         }  
       }  
     }  
    


    Reference: https://github.com/Microsoft/Reporting-Services/tree/master/APISamples


    Over-engineering in Software

    TL; DR; - build the app; not your imagined future state of the app

    Implementing what you know you will absolutely need before all else is the best course of action for development


    This is a great brief guide on how it happens and how to prevent or at least diminish the phenomena that is borne out of a desire to do things exact and right- but ignores that fact that some things never are evaluated and time is.... finite. (in (virtually) every project, we only have so much time to get the bells to ring and the whistles to whistle...

    That interface to allow for a potential future Python SDK, putting a small proprietary API on Swagger with loads of documentation and test calls just "because" might not be a road you want to go down yet..

    Creating a .NET Standard portable class library of the core functionality with a full suite of tests because you think it may be Nugetized in the future... is not something you should do until the app is already engineered and built well, out the door and humming along swimmingly!

    Over-engineering is essentially development of designs and/or writing code that solves problems that do not currently exist.


    BugZilla learned the hard way that "Future-Proofing" taking too literally can become over-engineering and waste lots of time for stuff never to be used/needed



    Bugzilla has dealt with it and a former developer left a very concise and telling quote from their experience:
    Some people think design means, “Write down exactly how you’re going to implement an entire project, from here until 2050.” That won’t work, brother. That design is too rigid–it doesn’t allow your requirements to change. And believe me, your requirements are going to change. 
    Planning is good. I should probably do more planning myself, when it comes to writing code. 
    But even if you don’t write out detailed plans, you’ll be fine as long as your changes are always small and easily extendable for that unknown future. 
    -Max


    TAKEAWAY:

    • "Business requirements never converge. They always diverge."
    • "At the beginning, it’s best to stick to the KISS principle over DRY."
    • Favor less abstraction for things that are currently 100% exactly known

    Long ago one of my software engineering colleagues at a large Milwaukee-based industrial company (thanks John Ignasiak!) taught me a way to use what is known as "soft coding" in relational SQL to use data abstraction tables in order to abstract data types until run-time and multi-purpose data types and relations whilst keeping all values in the same table.


    Just never enough generalizations and assumptions to make in software development... lol


    I am not a big fan of multi-purposing things. But sometimes it is the only way and in this case of a legacy system with an old reporting db, it was the only way for time we had available.

    Use the tools for the task they were made for.

    Use the data type (VARCHAR for instance) for the data it was made for, not for dynamic SQL and hard-coded but dynamically inferred data types. The latter usages are almost always symptomatic of a terrible, terrible database design or something that your design just cannot accommodate without major restructuring of relational hierarchy and dependencies.

    That all being said, SQL soft-coding (and dynamic SQL) is awesome and has some really powerful use cases where it is the perfect approach for the task at hand.

    Build the app by the requirements as they currently exist, not by your imagination of how the future may or may not affect the app.

    Two principals that have helped many a developer over the years are the acronyms:


    • KISS (Keep It Simple)
    • YAGNI (You Ain’t Gonna Need It)



    Reference: https://www.codesimplicity.com/post/designing-too-far-into-the-future/

    Dapper for .NET Data Access

    Jeff Atwood described the phrase coined by Ted Neward that "Object-Relational Mapping is the Vietnam of Computer Science".

    I agree with everything except Atwood's (huh? 😨- keep in mind this is 2006) conclusion that we should do one or the other: objects or relational data records. Develop apps as a series of SQL data access statements assigning values to arbitrary pieces of monolith application code.. or exclusively object-oriented with everything saved to blob storage... Or something awkward like that.

    That, he says (in the 2006 article*), removes the O (object) - R (relational data) mapping problem entirely. It sure does; but how can we develop apps like that?

    (fast-forward 6yrs, and.... Dapper to the rescue!)

    Dapper is an awesome (IMO) alternative that allows developers to retain SOLID reuse and extensibility in their .NET data access code while still accessing complex relational data- and fast.


    Dapper has the best of both worlds in terms of what you look for in a data access framework - speed and clean, easy SQL-to-typed object mapping facilitation


    I highly recommend the brief peruse; it is a very interesting article. It essentially describes the pitfalls that ADO.NET, Hibernate and Entity SQL (EF for MSSQL) and so many of the other approaches to modeling relational data as .NET objects that have, if not failed completely- severely been lacking especially in terms of speed and control over the actual SQL that you instruct the SQL engine to execute.

    Dapper aims to bridge the eternal gap between application and relational database code in a pretty elegant way for .NET development. So long as your database records (whether from a complex JOIN'd SP or wherever in your db)- can return data with types and field/alias names that match your "query-return-target-type" class' properties' names and data types, you are set for all the kinds of data access you like and are off and running without all the headaches normally associated with ORMs (magic config strings, mappings in separate files out of sync with class or db changes, etc.).

    "there is no good solution to the object/relational mapping problem. There are solutions, sure, but they all involve serious, painful tradeoffs. And the worst part is that you can't usually see the consequences of these tradeoffs until much later in the development cycle." -Jeff Atwood on ORMs

    I guess you could say that the SQL itself in the queries you tell Dapper to issue to MSSQL are "magic strings" insofar as VS doesn't compile them.. But if you don't use SSMS to parse and execute tests of your queries before using them in application code then you aren't really doing real data development- you are just shooting in the dark.

    You should have unit tests for this very purpose. Unit tests of your Dapper calls will catch any db changes in the tests ("hey why did nobody tell me about this schema change in the Archives table?"); regardless- if your SQL field names don't match the class prop names of the object you are trying to "Dapperize"- you will find out at run-time. The exception messages are very "straight to the point of exactly what is off".

    Dapper works the same in all versions of .NET; it is currently based on .NET Standard for that very reason, but you will need to bring in more dependency depending on what type of data source you are trying to access (SQL Server, MySQL, Oracle, DB2, Terradata, etc.).

    Consider giving Dapper a try - it is very useful and illuminating, and it really shines in the very areas where EF falls short.



    Dapper accessing 'UserReport' records from SQL db and returning the dynamic, typed object:
         SqlConnection db = new SqlConnection(WebConfigurationManager.AppSettings["DefaultSQLConnection"]);  
         public List<UserReport> ReadAllSavedUserReports()  
         {  
           using (db)  
           {  
             return db.Query<Report>("SELECT * FROM CLARO.dbo.UserReport").ToList();  
           }  
         }  
         public UserReport FindSavedUserReport(int id)  
         {  
           using (db)  
           {  
             return db.Query<Report>("SELECT * FROM CLARO.dbo.UserReport WHERE Id = @Id", new { id }).SingleOrDefault();  
           }  
         }  
    
    Forgive the "SELECT *.... this is just a demonstration..



    These methods can then easily be called in controller or other code like so:
         public ViewResult Index()  
         {  
           string nowTime = DateTime.Now.ToShortDateString();  
           ReportDAL dal = new ReportDAL();  
           Demo model = BuildModel(BuildSQLStatement(nowTime, ReportDrafts.BaseballDemo), nowTime);  
           model.Reports = dal.ReadAllSavedUserReports();  
           return View(model);  
         }  


    Dapper is not a company trying to sell anything- it is just a really useful micro-ORM for those who prefer to work more hands-on with the SQL in data access code (and like to be able to more granularily control optimization for speedier queries).

    *Atwood helped contribute (with SO) to the development of Dapper, so... I think he and that team kinda nailed the removal and easing of the very same limitations he bemoaned in the article I reference at the beginning: https://stackoverflow.blog/2012/02/18/stack-exchange-open-source-projects/


    References: 

    https://elanderson.net/2019/02/asp-net-core-with-dapper/

    https://dapper-tutorial.net/



    NPV, IRR and Project Viability Evaluation

    Net Present Value (NPV) and Internal Rate of Rerturn (IRR) are quite similar financial expressions.

    In fact the two share the same formula (same variables being measured), but use it to describe the present value of something from 2 different perspectives - (1) what is this project's expected future cashflow currently worth is today's dollars? vs. (2) how profitable (%-wise) will the return on project investment be based on (1)?

    NPV = Net present value is today’s value of the expected future cash flows.


    If NPV is positive, the project is estimated to be profitable



    IRR = The expected rate of return from the proejct.

    If the IRR of a project is higher than the WACC, the project is estimated to be profitable


    The below simple spreadsheet area explains both concepts nicely. This project would generate a $3.7k profit (NPV) over 5yrs and have a significantly profitable 15.64% IRR, higher than the 8% WACC of the 20k invested.



     The project's estimated cash inflows over 5 years would add value, on paper at least


    References:

    https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/032615/what-formula-calculating-net-present-value-npv.asp 

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fw5-wccViOM

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSAfp6D28RM

    Social Authentication in ASP.NET Core MVC

    A common modern convenience for apps is the ability to choose to authenticate and create an account based on credentials from an existing service that most people have (ie. Google, Twitter, LinkedIn, GitHub, etc.). in this post I will walk through the configuration of social authentication for Google and LinkedIn accounts.

    Setting up social authentication in ASP.NET Core is a lot easier than you might think...

    Before implementing this feature you will need to register for a Google and a LinkedIn developer account which will then give you access to the 2 values that make the magic of this built-in authentication possible: clientKey and clientSecret.

    Important(!): you will also want to register the Callback/Redirect URLs for each social authentication as shown below. This redirect URL below is for my project running on localhost:44396 obviously ("/signin-google" is the path you want to append to your app root for Google and "/signin-linkedin" for LinkedIn):


    Once you have this setup, you will be able to wire them up in the Startup.cs ConfigureServices() method of an ASP.NET Core 3 MVC Web Application ie:

      public void ConfigureServices(IServiceCollection services)  
         {  
           services.AddDbContext<ApplicationDbContext>(options =>  
             options.UseSqlServer(  
               Configuration.GetConnectionString("DefaultConnection")));  
           services.AddDefaultIdentity<IdentityUser>(options => options.SignIn.RequireConfirmedAccount = true)  
             .AddEntityFrameworkStores<ApplicationDbContext>();  
           services.AddControllersWithViews();  
           services.AddRazorPages();  
           services.AddAuthentication()  
           .AddGoogle(o =>  
           {  
             o.ClientId = "[YourGoogleClientId]";  
             o.ClientSecret = "[YourGoogleClientSecret]";  
           })  
           .AddLinkedIn(o =>  
           {  
             o.ClientId = "[YourLinkedInClientId]";  
             o.ClientSecret = "[YourLinkedInClientSecret]";  
           });  
           // Add application services.   
           services.AddMvc();  
         }  
    


    Now you just have to:

    • Create your ASP.NET Core 3 MVC Web Application project with Identity options as below
    • Install a couple Nuget packages for Google OAuth2 and Linked OAuth respectively
    • Call "Update-Database" from Nuget Package Manager Console
    • Modify Startup.cs

    To implement this feature for your users you only need follow a couple steps when setting up the project (whether ASP.NET MVC or the newer ASP.NET Core MVC) to enable some builtin identify and authentication handling after which you can configure and customize to fit your app's particular custom authentication needs. Follow the images below for proper installation of the required 2 Nuget packages, the db command, etc.

    First, make sure you create your ASP.NET Core MVC project with "Individual User Accounts" radio button selection and "Store user accounts in app" dropdown selection as follows:


    Change Authentication to use Individual User Accounts- this sets up the required boilerplate template code



    You will add this Nuget package for LinkedIn authentication



    You will add this Nuget package for Google authentication


    Next you will need to create the database objects (ASPNET app auth db and tables) via "Update-Database" Package Manager Console command


    Finally, modify Startup.cs ConfigureServices() method as shown in the snippet above. Compile and give it a whirl.

    And that is all there is to it. Strangely there is not a lot of documentation on exactly how to do this and what can cause it to not work; I spent over an hour debugging what turned out to be a not-so-obvious issue (in my case I was following instructions that erroneously suggested I inject unneeded services to the services.AddAuthentication() instantiation in the snippet of Startup.cs above).


    If your keys and Callback URLs are correct you will be able to authenticate to Google and LinkedIn



    Once you have registered your social account, you can then log in with it and you will see the following (notice "Hello!...." and "Logout")


    If you are like me and do not want to keep to adding yet more and more credentials to LastPass, your users probably don't either. Implementing Social Authentication is a powerful tool that you can leverage with relative ease in ASP.NET Core 3 MVC Web apps.

    If you have questions on implementing this or just need some help and general guidance, feel free to comment or drop me an email at colin@sonrai.io


    GitHub: https://github.com/cfitzg/DotNetSocialAuth


    References:

    http://codereform.com/blog/post/asp-net-core-2-1-authentication-with-social-logins/

    https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/aspnet/mvc/overview/security/create-an-aspnet-mvc-5-app-with-facebook-and-google-oauth2-and-openid-sign-on

    https://ankitsharmablogs.com/authentication-using-linkedin-asp-net-core-2-0/  

    https://stackoverflow.com/questions/53654020/how-to-implement-google-login-in-net-core-without-an-entityframework-provider