Paris Polyzos - a developer's notebook

How to set nested app settings in Windows and Linux Azure App Service

ppolyzos — Thu, 29 Jul 2021 22:47:33 GMT

Let’s assume you have a .net web api application and you want to access the value of a nested property in your application settings. If you want to override this property value in your Azure App Service you need be careful how you will declare the key for your nested application setting under Configuration section as there is a small......(read more)

Create an azure web app with app insights and a storage container using Terraform

ppolyzos — Fri, 16 Jul 2021 08:59:43 GMT

Recently, I started playing around with Terraform and I am very excited how easy and fast it is to provision new resources, especially when you want to try out things. And when they are not needed anymore, you can easily delete all the resources with just a single command. So, let’s get started with the basics. What is Infrastructure as......(read more)

Write stateful workflows in a serverless compute environment with Azure Durable Functions

ppolyzos — Sat, 14 Nov 2020 17:08:27 GMT

During the summer I was fortunate enough to take part in Summer in Greece Festival, a five-day event by Microsoft Learn Student Ambassadors in which MVPs, MCTs, and Microsoft Employees will present and deep dive to Microsoft technologies. My talk was about a Durable Functions, an extension of Azure Functions that lets you write stateful functions in a serverless compute environment. Source Code You......(read more)

Swap places between tilde (~) and section sign (§) key in your macbook keyboard

ppolyzos — Fri, 09 Oct 2020 19:54:48 GMT

In Greece we are using the US keyboard layout and that means that the tilde key (~) is placed next to number 1 at the top left corner of the key, like the following picture: About a year ago we moved to Luxembourg and my old Macbook died, so I had to replace it with a new one that unfortunately......(read more)

Delete all files in an Azure Storage container

ppolyzos — Fri, 31 Jul 2020 02:05:49 GMT

One thing I tend to forget is how powerful azure cli is and how many things can be done way faster through this tool. So, for example, if you want to delete all files in an Azure Storage Account at once, a fast and easy way to do just that is by using the delete-batch command from Azure CLI. Run......(read more)

Easily delete all files in an Azure Storage container

ppolyzos — Fri, 31 Jul 2020 02:05:49 GMT

[Greek Audio] AzureHeads 24# Meetup: Automatic updates using Azure Functions CosmosDB and SignalR

ppolyzos — Sat, 04 Jul 2020 02:44:36 GMT

During the 24th AzureHeads meetup, I delivered a presentation about three azure services, Azure Functions, CosmosDB and Signalr; I talked about websockets and the benefits compared to long polling and then, I built a stocks demo application using Azure Functions for the logic, Azure CosmosDB for the data persistence and then I showcase how is it is to add real-time......(read more)

Understanding CRON Expressions

ppolyzos — Sat, 09 May 2020 21:04:34 GMT

A CRON expression is a string consisting of six or seven subexpressions (fields), separated by white space, that describe individual details of the schedule. A very useful tool that enables users to schedule tasks to run periodically at a specified date/time in the future, thus allowing the automation of a lot of tasks and processes that otherwise would require human......(read more)

[Greek Audio] Global Azure – Azure API Management – From Zero to Hero

ppolyzos — Sun, 26 Apr 2020 06:03:01 GMT

On the 25th of April I had the chance to organize the Global Azure Greece 2020 event, the first virtual one of its kind, and also deliver a session thereat. I was one out of 248 international and 18 Greek speakers that took part in this huge online event. I started organizing the Global Azure bootcamp in Greece in 2016......(read more)

[Greek Audio] AzureHeads 23#: Azure API Management

ppolyzos — Fri, 10 Apr 2020 08:35:49 GMT

During AzureHeads 23rd meetup, I delivered an introductory presentation about Azure API management, what is it, how someone can get started and then I showcase a set of features in Azure Portal like: connecting APIs with Azure Functions and import APIs through Swagger developer portal prevention of API usage spikes using throttling authentication with a backend service caching responses and......(read more)

Make scrollbars in Windows thinner to save space

ppolyzos — Fri, 03 Apr 2020 07:28:32 GMT

A thing that really bothers me in Windows, and I believe many would agree, is the lack of UI consistency in Windows applications and components. Although applications implemented with the new Fluid Design System in mind have some very minimal scrollbars that don’t use much of valuable space, there are still a lot of apps, especially the ones built with......(read more)

Filters in Chrome Dev Tools – How to Include, Exclude Resources

ppolyzos — Mon, 23 Mar 2020 01:06:05 GMT

Chrome Dev Tools is undoubtedly a very powerful set of web developer tools, built directly into the Chrome browser that helps you with your day-to-day work on building, debugging and optimizing web applications. To launch Chrome Dev Tools you simply right click on any web page that you are working and select Inspect or press Cmd+Alt+I on a mac or Ctrl+Alt+I......(read more)

Compare performance of “Object.values()” vs “_.values()” vs “for…in” to extract values from an object

ppolyzos — Wed, 31 Jul 2019 03:14:42 GMT

Recently, in a project, we had to extract the values from a large collection of objects and, while the easiest way to do so was to use the native Object.values()method, which returns an array of a given object’s own enumerable property values, we noticed some performance issues. So, we started measuring the performance of this method compared to some other......(read more)

Create a custom password policy for ASP.NET Core Identity using extension methods

ppolyzos — Fri, 26 Jul 2019 23:40:47 GMT

ASP.NET Core Identity uses default values for settings such as password policy, lockout, and cookie configuration. These settings can be overridden in the Startup class. By default the Password Policy has the following options: RequireDigit: (default: true) Requires a number between 0-9 in the password. RequiredLength: (default: 6) The minimum length of the password. RequireLowercase: (default: true) Requires a lowercase character......(read more)

How to rename an Azure Function in Azure Portal

ppolyzos — Tue, 04 Jun 2019 19:46:41 GMT

Let’s assume you have started experimenting with Azure Functions and, for your first app, you have chosen the Azure Portal as your development environment. You have created a new Azure Function by clicking the Plus icon next to your Azure Function name, selected In-portal from the first step of the wizard, and from the second screen you picked the Webhook......(read more)

Publish an Angular web app to Azure using GitHub, AzureDevOps & Azure Storage Account

ppolyzos — Sat, 19 Jan 2019 07:55:26 GMT

In this post we will talk about all the necessary steps to build and deploy an Angular web application to a static website hosting container in Azure Storage using Azure DevOps. Step 1. Setup a GitHub Repository & commit a sample Angular App To start with, you need to create a new repository in GitHub and push an Angular application......(read more)

JavaScript Console Tips & Tricks

ppolyzos — Fri, 04 Jan 2019 02:24:50 GMT

JavaScript, and the tools around it, have advanced a lot during the last couple of years. So, below you will see few tips and tricks that I find useful in my day-to-day development workflow, in regards to console logging. 01. Custom Css Styling in your console log statements You can add custom styling to your log statements using the %c attribute.......(read more)

Different options to upload single or multiple files to your Azure Storage Account

ppolyzos — Tue, 13 Nov 2018 06:51:17 GMT

Azure Storage is a cloud storage solution for data storage scenarios and one key service, among others, is Azure Blobs, a scalable object store for text and binary data. A main use is to upload files to it, either as a long term backup solution, or as a way to serve documents, images and videos directly to a browser. To do so, you......(read more)

Secure your Azure Web App using SSL Certificate provided by Let’s Encrypt

ppolyzos — Sat, 08 Sep 2018 22:56:47 GMT

The information you send on the Internet is passed from computer to computer to get to the destination server. The least you can do to provide privacy, critical security and data integrity for both your websites and your users’ personal information is to have your application secured under an SSL certificate. SSL providers need to set up a trusted infrastructure......(read more)

Host your static website on your Azure Storage account

ppolyzos — Sun, 08 Jul 2018 20:05:27 GMT

One new feature recently announced, and currently in public preview, is the ability to host your own static website on Azure Storage, a solution which is more cost-effective than the traditional Azure App Service. In this post we will see the necessary steps to follow in order to enable web site hosting functionality on Azure Storage and, as a proof......(read more)

Remove your Azure account from a subscription you no longer use

ppolyzos — Sat, 16 Jun 2018 18:46:06 GMT

In this post, we will showcase the necessary steps to follow in order to de-associate your azure account from any subscription you have joined in the past and you no longer use. Till recently, in order to do so, you had to ask the admin of the subscription to perform this task, however, now, you can do it all by......(read more)

Enable HTTP/2 in Azure App Service

ppolyzos — Sat, 19 May 2018 07:52:27 GMT

HTTP/2 is a major revision of the HTTP network protocol used by the World Wide Web and comes with a promise to make our applications faster, simpler, and more robust by allowing us to undo many of the HTTP/1.1 workarounds previously done within our applications and address these concerns within the transport layer itself. In this post, we will showcase how simple it is to......(read more)

Find the dominant color of an image using Azure Cognitive Services

ppolyzos — Wed, 16 May 2018 21:15:54 GMT

In this tutorial we will use Computer Vision service to analyze an image and determine the accent and dominant color and whether the image is black & white or colored. Step 1. Create Computer Vision Service Let’s start by creating the Computer Vision API service. To do so, head over to Azure portal, click on Create Resource link, select AI + Machine......(read more)

Azure Web App – Diagnose & Solve Problems tool

ppolyzos — Sun, 25 Mar 2018 05:38:00 GMT

Something new in Azure App Service’s overview blade, is the addition of a new tool for diagnosing and solving problems. It makes it easier to distinguish issues between your code and platform related problems, and provides some quick solutions, tailored to the problems you might experience. You get a view of the health of your application and platform, as well......(read more)

Azure Web Apps – Diagnose & Solve Problems quickly

ppolyzos — Sun, 25 Mar 2018 05:38:00 GMT