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The ‘in’-modifier and the readonly structs in C#
C# 7.2 got two very important features for high-performance scenarios -- the readonly structs and the parameters. But to understand why this additions are so important and how they're related to each other we should look back in history. As you probably know, the .NET ecosystem has two family of types -- the value types (a.k.a. structs) and the reference types (a.k.a. classes) (*). There are a plenty of differences between them but the main one is the semantics. The value types follow the value semantics: (1) two instances of a value type are equal if all the data members are equal and (2) the value type inst...
Self-Hosting a Bot in Service Fabric with Katana
Read on to learn how to use the Katana-based OWIN stack within Service Fabric. In this post, Premier Developer Consultant Megan Meyer walks through how to host the Bot Builder SDK Echo Bot in Service Fabric. I recently participated in a small hackathon with some Microsoft ninjas where we were presented with the problem, How do you host a bot in Service Fabric? It seemed like an easy problem that had probably already been solved, but it wasn't as straightforward as we thought it might be. At its core from a technology perspective, a bot is really just a Web API. We didn't want to actually host IIS on Service F...
Notes from the Field: Migrating to Visual Studio Team Services
Premier Developer consultant Brian Blackman shares two major insights regarding migrating on-premises databases to the cloud. This post does not cover all the details of migration to Visual Studio Team Services. You can find that information at Migrate to Visual Studio Team Services. And your options for migration can be found at Migration options. What this post does cover are two considerations regarding migrating your on-premises database to the cloud. 1. Apply standard administrative tasks before you migrate. 2. Minimize process quagmire and bifurcation. In a ...
Freeing Disk Space on a Developer Machine
In this post, Senior Application Development Manager, Patrick King, shares some tips for freeing up disk space on a development machine.As a developer, I see my free disk space diminish over time. It usually isn’t an issue if I have ample disk and get to change hardware out every few years, but that isn’t the case for everyone. This post lists a set of strategies I have used to help customers free up hard drive space on developer machines.The BasicsThis Microsoft Support article covers the most common ways to free disk space: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/17421/windows-free-up-drive-spaceOnce you...
Using JOIN with MAX to write efficient queries
In this post, Senior Application Development Manager, Alexei Govorine, demonstrates how to use SQL JOIN and MAX in a query.How to join two SQL tables and display the latest results.Recently a customer has asked me to help them with a query design. The question was how to join two tables and display the latest results from one of them in a single query.The answer is to use JOIN and MAX statements in a query. To demonstrate the correct syntax, let consider: We need to display the latest student GPA records from the data that is contained in two tables: Student and StudentGrades. Not all students may have gra...
Monitoring a Java App Service Web App
In the following article by Premier Developer consultant Kurt Schenk, he explains how to monitor a Java app using Tomcat running on Windows. When deploying a Java Azure App Service Web App, there are some great tools you can use for monitoring. Before describing these tools, I will first share some background about operating systems and languages that the Azure App Service supports. App Service Web Apps has out of the box support for ASP.NET and Java Apps (using Tomcat) running on Windows. Other languages (Node, PHP, .NET Core, Ruby) are supported with pre-configured Docker containers that run on Linux. You c...
Angular How-to: Editable Config Files
This post provides the steps and code samples for using a JSON configuration file, which can be customized for multiple environments.
Microsoft Flow: Expose Public APIs via Custom Connector
In this post we’d like to highlight an article from Premier Developer consultant Megan Meyer’s blog where she walks us through setting up a Custom Connector in Microsoft Flow in order to access data from her FitBit device.I love fitness trackers. I was excited to get the new Fitbit Alta HR, but some of my eagerness waned when I remembered why I hadn't used a Fitbit since my old Fitbit One -- I hated how it didn't integrate with any of my other applications I used to track my information. Fitbit does support some integration with partner apps, but just not with any apps that I happen to prefer and use. […]Here's t...
5 Ways to Reduce the Impact of Failure
In the second post in his series on risk management in modern software development, Premier Developer consultant Assaf Stone further explores the concept of mitigating risk by reducing the impact of failures. In the previous post we discussed risk management, how many of us manage it today by attempting to control the likelihood of failure, and why we should instead focus on reducing the impact of failures, as a way to manage the risks involved with software development. Below are 5 techniques that software development teams can use to reduce the impact of failures in production: Continue reading on Assaf’s ...