Azure Functions Isolated Worker support for VB.Net 4.8

Posted on February 16, 2023 by devmobilenz

As part of my “day job” I spend a bit of time working with VB.Net 4.X “legacy” projects doing upgrades, and bug fixes. Currently I am updating a number of Windows Service applications to run as Microsoft Azure Functions. With the release of the Azure functions runtime V4 Isolated Worker Processes with .NET Framework V4.8 support this is the last post in my Azure Functions with VB.Net 4.X and Azure Functions with VB.Net on .NET Core V6 series.

I have published source code for Azure Storage BlobTrigger, Azure Storage QueueTrigger, and TimerTriggers.

Visual Studio Solution explorer Azure Functions projects

All of the examples now have a program.vb which initialises the Trigger.

Namespace VBNet....TriggerIsolated
    Friend Class Program
        Public Shared Sub Main(ByVal args As String())
            Call FunctionsDebugger.Enable()

            Dim host = New HostBuilder().ConfigureFunctionsWorkerDefaults().Build()

            host.Run()
        End Sub
    End Class
End Namespace

All of the Isolated worker process Triggers displayed this message which appeared to be benign.

Csproj not found in C:\Users\..\VBNetHttpTriggerIsolated\bin\Debug\net48 directory tree. Skipping user secrets file configuration.

There were a lot of articles about problems building Docker images but the only relevant ones appeared to talk about getting F# and other .NET Core languages to work in Azure Functions.

Namespace devMobile.Azure.VBNetBlobTriggerIsolated
    Public Class BlobTrigger
        Private ReadOnly _logger As ILogger

        Public Sub New(ByVal loggerFactory As ILoggerFactory)
            _logger = loggerFactory.CreateLogger(Of BlobTrigger)()
        End Sub

        <[Function]("vbnetblobtriggerisolated")>
        Public Sub Run(
        <BlobTrigger("vbnetblobtriggerisolated/{name}", Connection:="blobendpoint")> ByVal myBlob As String, ByVal name As String)

            _logger.LogInformation($"VB.Net NET 4.8 Isolated Blob trigger function Processed blob Name: {name}  Data: {myBlob}")
        End Sub
    End Class
End Namespace

I used Azure Storage Explorer to upload files containing Lorem Ipsum for testing the BlobTrigger.

Azure BlobTrigger function running in the desktop emulator

Azure BlobTrigger Function logging in Application Insights

I used Telerik Fiddler to POST messages to the desktop emulator and Azure endpoints.

Namespace VBNetHttpTriggerIsolated
    Public Class HttpTrigger
        Private Shared executionCount As Int32
        Private ReadOnly _logger As ILogger

        Public Sub New(ByVal loggerFactory As ILoggerFactory)
            _logger = loggerFactory.CreateLogger(Of HttpTrigger)()
        End Sub

        <[Function]("Notifications")>
        Public Function Run(
        <HttpTrigger(AuthorizationLevel.Anonymous, "get", "post")> ByVal req As HttpRequestData) As HttpResponseData
            Interlocked.Increment(executionCount)

            _logger.LogInformation("VB.Net NET 4.8 Isolated HTTP trigger Execution count:{executionCount} Method:{req.Method}", executionCount, req.Method)

            Dim response = req.CreateResponse(HttpStatusCode.OK)
            response.Headers.Add("Content-Type", "text/plain; charset=utf-8")

            Return response
        End Function
    End Class
End Namespace

Azure HttpTrigger Function running in the desktop emulator

Azure HttpTrigger Function logging in Application Insights

I used Azure Storage Explorer to create messages for testing the QueueTrigger

Namespace devMobile.Azure.VBNetQueueTriggerIsolated

    Public Class QueueTrigger
        Private Shared _logger As ILogger
        Private Shared _concurrencyCount As Integer = 0
        Private Shared _executionCount As Integer = 0

        Public Sub New(ByVal loggerFactory As ILoggerFactory)
            _logger = loggerFactory.CreateLogger(Of QueueTrigger)()
        End Sub

        <[Function]("VBNetQueueTriggerIsolated")>
        Public Sub Run(
        <QueueTrigger("vbnetqueuetriggerisolated", Connection:="QueueEndpoint")> ByVal message As String)
            Interlocked.Increment(_concurrencyCount)
            Interlocked.Increment(_executionCount)

            _logger.LogInformation("VB.Net .NET 4.8 Isolated Queue Trigger Concurrency:{_concurrencyCount} ExecutionCount:{_executionCount} Message:{message}", _concurrencyCount, _executionCount, message)

            Interlocked.Decrement(_concurrencyCount)
        End Sub
    End Class
End Namespace

Azure QueueTrigger Function running in the desktop emulator

Azure QueueTrigger Function logging in Application Insights

Namespace devMobile.Azure.VBNetTimerTriggerIsolated
    Public Class TimerTrigger
        Private Shared _logger As ILogger
        Private Shared _executionCount As Integer = 0

        Public Sub New(ByVal loggerFactory As ILoggerFactory)
            _logger = loggerFactory.CreateLogger(Of TimerTrigger)()
        End Sub

        <[Function]("Timer")>
        Public Sub Run(
        <TimerTrigger("0 */1 * * * *")> ByVal myTimer As MyInfo)

            Interlocked.Increment(_executionCount)
            _logger.LogInformation("VB.Net Isolated TimerTrigger next trigger:{0} Execution count:{1}", myTimer.ScheduleStatus.Next, _executionCount)
        End Sub
    End Class

Azure TimerTrigger Function running in the desktop emulator

Azure TimerTrigger Function logging in Application Insights

The development, debugging and deployment of these functions took a lot of time. Initially Azure Application Insights didn’t work when the Azure Isolated Worker triggers were deployed to Azure. After some experimentation I found that Application Insights Connection Strings worked and Application Instrumentation Keys did not.

With the Microsoft: ‘We Do Not Plan to Evolve Visual Basic as a Language this should hopefully be my last post about VB.Net ever.

.NET Core web API + Dapper – Readonly query workloads with Data Sync

Posted on July 10, 2022 by devmobilenz

Azure SQL Data Synchronisation Process

Read-only replicas of an Azure SQL Database database with Active geo-replication are easy to setup but there are some disadvantages. e.g. bi-directional synchronisation is not supported, not all tables or selected columns of some tables might not be needed\should not be accessible for reporting, the overhead of replicating tables used for transaction processing might impact on the performance of the solution etc. Azure SQL Data Sync is a service built on Azure SQL Database that can synchronise selected data bi-directionally across multiple databases, both on-premises and in the cloud.

The first step was to remove all the Microsoft SQL Server features used in the the World Wide Importers database (e.g. Sequence Numbers, Column Store indexes etc.) which are not supported(see general limitiations) by Azure SQL Data Sync. I then used the “Deploy Database Wizard” to copy my modified World Wide Importers database to an Azure SQL Database.

Deploy Database to Microsoft Azure SQL Database running

Microsoft Azure SQL Database Servers with WorldWideImporters and ReadonlyReplicaHub database

Data Sync Group creation onReadOnlyReplicaHub database

For my “read-only replicas” scenario if there are any update conflicts the the source database “wins”.

Data Sync Group configuration database management

Data Sync Group configuration adding “source” database synchronisation to Hub

Data Sync Group configuration adding “destination” database(s) synchronisation from Hub

Data Sync Group selecting source database StockItems table and columns to synchronise

Data Sync Group “destination” databases configured

Initial synchronisation of only StockItems table and seed data

Regular synchronisation of a subset of StockItems columns to destination databases

Source Azure SQL Database regular synchronisation compute utilisation

StockItemsReadOnlyReplicas Controller JSON after first replication completed

Azure application Insights Dependencies showing usage of different synchronised databases

StockItems table in source database with updated RRP

StockItems table in destination database with updated RRP after next scheduled snychronisation

StockItems table in destination database after next scheduled synchronisation

The Azure SQL Database Data Sync was pretty easy to setup (configuration in the hub database tripped me up initially). For a production scenario where only a portion of the database (e.g. shaped by Customer, Geography, security considerations, or a bi-directional requirement) it would be an effective solution, though for some applications the delay between synchronisations might be an issue.

.NET Core web API + Dapper – Readonly query workloads with Geo Replication

Posted on June 30, 2022 by devmobilenz

Geo Replication process

One of the easiest ways to create read-only replicas of an Azure SQL Database database is with Active geo-replication(it’s also useful for disaster recovery with geo-failure to a geo-secondary in a different Azure Region).

The first step was to remove all the Microsoft SQL Server features used in the The World Wide Importers database (e.g. Memory Optimized tables) which were not supported by the Azure SQL Database tier I was using.

SQL Service Management Studio(SSMS) Deploy to Azure wizard

I then used the “Deploy Database Wizard” to copy my modified World Wide Importers database to an Azure SQL Database.

Azure Portal Primary Database in SQL Service Management Studio(SSMS)

I then created replicas in the same region (if the application had a global customer base creating read only geo replicas in regions close to users might be worth considering) for the read-only queries.

Azure SQL Database no replicas configured

I created four replicas which is the maximum number supported. If more replicas were required a secondary of a secondary (a process known as chaining) could be use to create additional geo-replicas

Azure Portal Primary Database and four Geo-replicas

Azure Portal Primary Database and Geo-replicas in SQL Service Management Studio(SSMS)

Azure Application Insights showing multiple Geo-Replicas being used.

The Azure Database Geo-replication was pretty easy to setup. For a production scenario where only a portion of the database (e.g. shaped by Customer or Geography) is required it might not be the “right hammer”.

The other limitation I encountered was the resources used by the replication of “transaction processing” tables (in the World Wide Importers database tables like the Sales.OrderLines, Sales.CustomerTransactions etc.) which often wouldn’t be required for read-only applications.

.NET Core web API + Dapper – Offloading readonly query workloads.

Posted on June 28, 2022 by devmobilenz

A Scaling Out Scenario

Initially this was going to be a post about Sharding but after some discussion with my manager at one of the companies I work for it evolved into a post about using the Dapper Object Relational Mapper(ORM) with Azure SQL Database and Active geo-replication or SQL Data Sync for Azure to offload read-only query workloads to improve scalability.

The company builds a Software as a Service(Saas) product for managing portfolios of foreign currency forwards, options, swaps etc. Part of the solution has an application which customers use to get an “aggregated” view of their purchases.

The database queries to lookup reference data (forward curves etc.), return a shaped dataset for each supported instrument type, then “aggregating” the information with C# code consumes significant database and processing resources.

I then uploaded my modified World Wide Importers database to an Azure SQL Database Server.

Azure SQL Database SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) initial database

I then created read only replicas of the original database to use for scaling out in my demo application.

Azure SQL Database SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) with replicas databases

The configuration strings of the read-only replicas are loaded as the application starts.

// This method gets called by the runtime. Use this method to add services to the container.
public void ConfigureServices(IServiceCollection services)
{
	services.AddControllers();

	var errorHandlerSettings = Configuration.GetSection(nameof(ErrorHandlerSettings));
	services.Configure<ErrorHandlerSettings>(errorHandlerSettings);

	var readonlyReplicaServersConnectionStringSettings = Configuration.GetSection("ReadonlyReplicaServersConnectionStringSettings");
	services.Configure<List<string>>(readonlyReplicaServersConnectionStringSettings);

	services.AddResponseCaching();

	services.AddDapperForMSSQL();
#if DAPPER_EXTENSIONS_CACHE_MEMORY
	services.AddDapperCachingInMemory(new MemoryConfiguration
	{
		AllMethodsEnableCache = false
 	});
#endif
#if DAPPER_EXTENSIONS_CACHE_REDIS
	services.AddDapperCachingInRedis(new RedisConfiguration
	{
		AllMethodsEnableCache = false,
		KeyPrefix = Configuration.GetValue<string>("RedisKeyPrefix"),
		ConnectionString = Configuration.GetConnectionString("RedisConnection")
	}); 
#endif
	services.AddApplicationInsightsTelemetry();
}

Then code was added to the controller to randomly select which read-only replica to use. More complex approaches were considered but not implemented for the initial version.

[ApiController]
[Route("api/[controller]")]
public class StockItemsReadonlyReplicasController : ControllerBase
{
    private readonly ILogger<StockItemsReadonlyReplicasController> logger;
    private readonly List<string> readonlyReplicasConnectionStrings;

    public StockItemsReadonlyReplicasController(ILogger<StockItemsReadonlyReplicasController> logger, IOptions<List<string>> readonlyReplicasServerConnectionStrings)
    {
        this.logger = logger;

        this.readonlyReplicasConnectionStrings = readonlyReplicasServerConnectionStrings.Value;
    }

    [HttpGet]
    public async Task<ActionResult<IEnumerable<Model.StockItemListDtoV1>>> Get()
    {
        IEnumerable<Model.StockItemListDtoV1> response = null;

        if (readonlyReplicasConnectionStrings.Count == 0)
        {
            logger.LogError("No readonly replica server Connection strings configured");

            return this.StatusCode(StatusCodes.Status500InternalServerError);
        }

        Random random = new Random(); // maybe this should be instantiated ever call, but "danger here by thy threading"

        string connectionString = readonlyReplicasConnectionStrings[random.Next(0, readonlyReplicasConnectionStrings.Count)];

        logger.LogTrace("Connection string {connectionString}", connectionString);

        using (SqlConnection db = new SqlConnection(connectionString))
        {
            response = await db.QueryAsync<Model.StockItemListDtoV1>(sql: @"SELECT [StockItemID] as ""ID"", [StockItemName] as ""Name"", [RecommendedRetailPrice], [TaxRate] FROM [Warehouse].[StockItems]", commandType: CommandType.Text);
        }

        return this.Ok(response);
    }
}

The Read-only replica server connection string setup template in appsettings.Development.json.

{
  "Logging": {
    "LogLevel": {
      "Default": "Information",
      "Microsoft": "Warning",
      "Microsoft.Hosting.Lifetime": "Information"
    }
  },
  "ConnectionStrings": {
    "WorldWideImportersDatabase": "ThisIsNotTheDatabaseConnectionStringYouAreLookingFor",
    "DefaultConnection": "ThisIsNotTheDefaultDatabaseConnectionStringYouAreLookingFor",
    "RedisConnection": "ThisIsNotTheRedisConnectionStringYouAreLookingFor"
  },
  "ReadonlyReplicaServersConnectionStringSettings": [
    "ThisIsNotTheReadonlyReplicaDatabaseConnectionStringYouAreLookingFor",
    "ThisIsNotTheReadonlyReplicaDatabaseConnectionStringYouAreLookingFor",
    "ThisIsNotTheReadonlyReplicaDatabaseConnectionStringYouAreLookingFor",
    "ThisIsNotTheReadonlyReplicaDatabaseConnectionStringYouAreLookingFor"
  ],
  "ApplicationInsights": {
    "ConnectionString": "ThisIsNotTheApplicationInsightsConnectionStringYouAreLookingFor"
  },
  "ErrorHandlerSettings": {
    "Detail": "Default detail",
    "Title": "Default title",
    "UrlSpecificSettings": {
      "localhost": {
        "Title": "Title for localhost",
        "Detail": "Detail for localhost"
      },
      "127.0.0.1": {
        "Title": "Title for 127.0.0.1",
        "Detail": "Detail for 127.0.0.1"
      }
    }
  }
}

The Manage UserSecrets(Secrets.json) functionality was used for testing on my development machine. In production Azure App Service the array of connections strings was configured with ReadonlyReplicaServersConnectionStringSettings:0, ReadonlyReplicaServersConnectionStringSettings:1 etc. syntax

Sample application Azure App Service Configuration

Azure Application Insights with connections to different read-only replicas highlighted

I had incorrectly configured the firewall on one of the read-only replica database servers so roughly one in four connection attempts failed.

Azure Application Insights failed database connection displayed

The customer’s application was also fairly compute intensive so we configure the Azure App Service to Auto scale based on the CPU load.,

Azure app service horizontal auto scale configuration

I’ll outline the configuration of Active geo-replication or SQL Data Sync for Azure in a couple of future posts.

The current solution works but I need to tidy up few issues like the StockItemsReadonlyReplicasController getting constructor getting a bit “chunky”.

.NET Core web API + Dapper – Error handling

Posted on June 8, 2022 by devmobilenz

Failure is an Option

For some historical reason I can’t remember my controllers often had an outer try/catch and associated logging. I think may have been ensure no “sensitive” information was returned to the caller even if the application was incorrectly deployed. So I could revisit my approach I added a controller with two methods one which returns an HTTP 500 error and another which has un-caught exception.

[Route("api/[controller]")]
[ApiController]
public class StockItemsNok500Controller : ControllerBase
{
	private readonly string connectionString;
	private readonly ILogger<StockItemsNok500Controller> logger;

	public StockItemsNok500Controller(IConfiguration configuration, ILogger<StockItemsNok500Controller> logger)
	{
		this.connectionString = configuration.GetConnectionString("WorldWideImportersDatabase");

		this.logger = logger;
	}

	public async Task<ActionResult<IEnumerable<Model.StockItemListDtoV1>>> Get500()
	{
		IEnumerable<Model.StockItemListDtoV1> response = null;

		try
		{
			using (SqlConnection db = new SqlConnection(this.connectionString))
			{
				response = await db.QueryWithRetryAsync<Model.StockItemListDtoV1>(sql: @"SELECT [StockItemID] as ""ID"", [StockItemName] as ""Name"", [RecommendedRetailPrice], [TaxRate] FROM [Warehouse].[StockItem500]", commandType: CommandType.Text);
			}
		}
		catch (SqlException ex)
		{
			logger.LogError(ex, "Retrieving list of StockItems");

			return this.StatusCode(StatusCodes.Status500InternalServerError);
		}

		return this.Ok(response);
	}
}

The information returned to a caller was generic and the only useful information was the “traceId”.

[Route("api/[controller]")]
[ApiController]
public class StockItemsNokExceptionController : ControllerBase
{
	private readonly string connectionString;

	public StockItemsNokExceptionController(IConfiguration configuration)
	{
		this.connectionString = configuration.GetConnectionString("WorldWideImportersDatabase");
	}

	public async Task<ActionResult<IEnumerable<Model.StockItemListDtoV1>>> GetException()
	{
		IEnumerable<Model.StockItemListDtoV1> response = null;

		using (SqlConnection db = new SqlConnection(this.connectionString))
		{
			response = await db.QueryWithRetryAsync<Model.StockItemListDtoV1>(sql: @"SELECT [StockItemID] as ""ID"", [StockItemName] as ""Name"", [RecommendedRetailPrice], [TaxRate] FROM [Warehouse].[StockItemsException]", commandType: CommandType.Text);
		}

		return this.Ok(response);
	}
}

In “Development” mode the information returned to the caller contains a detailed stack trace that reveals implementation details which are useful for debugging but would also be useful to an attacker.

Developer StockItemsNok Controller Exception page

When not in “Development” mode no additional information is returned (not even a TraceId).

Production StockItemsNok500Controller Exception

The diagnostic stacktrace information logged by the two different controllers was essentially the same

System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException:
   at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand+<>c.<ExecuteDbDataReaderAsync>b__126_0 (System.Data.SqlClient, Version=4.6.1.3, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a)
   at System.Threading.Tasks.ContinuationResultTaskFromResultTask`2.InnerInvoke (System.Private.CoreLib, Version=6.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=7cec85d7bea7798e)
   at System.Threading.Tasks.Task+<>c.<.cctor>b__272_0 (System.Private.CoreLib, Version=6.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=7cec85d7bea7798e)
   at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.RunInternal (System.Private.CoreLib, Version=6.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=7cec85d7bea7798e)
   at System.Runtime.ExceptionServices.ExceptionDispatchInfo.Throw (System.Private.CoreLib, Version=6.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=7cec85d7bea7798e)
   at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.RunInternal (System.Private.CoreLib, Version=6.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=7cec85d7bea7798e)
   at System.Threading.Tasks.Task.ExecuteWithThreadLocal (System.Private.CoreLib, Version=6.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=7cec85d7bea7798e)
   at System.Runtime.ExceptionServices.ExceptionDispatchInfo.Throw (System.Private.CoreLib, Version=6.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=7cec85d7bea7798e)
   at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.ThrowForNonSuccess (System.Private.CoreLib, Version=6.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=7cec85d7bea7798e)
   at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.HandleNonSuccessAndDebuggerNotification (System.Private.CoreLib, Version=6.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=7cec85d7bea7798e)
   at Dapper.SqlMapper+<QueryAsync>d__33`1.MoveNext (Dapper, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null: /_/Dapper/SqlMapper.Async.cs:418)
   at System.Runtime.ExceptionServices.ExceptionDispatchInfo.Throw (System.Private.CoreLib, Version=6.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=7cec85d7bea7798e)
   at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.ThrowForNonSuccess (System.Private.CoreLib, Version=6.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=7cec85d7bea7798e)
   at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.HandleNonSuccessAndDebuggerNotification (System.Private.CoreLib, Version=6.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=7cec85d7bea7798e)
   at Polly.Retry.AsyncRetryEngine+<ImplementationAsync>d__0`1.MoveNext (Polly, Version=7.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=c8a3ffc3f8f825cc)
   at System.Runtime.ExceptionServices.ExceptionDispatchInfo.Throw (System.Private.CoreLib, Version=6.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=7cec85d7bea7798e)
   at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.ThrowForNonSuccess (System.Private.CoreLib, Version=6.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=7cec85d7bea7798e)
   at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.HandleNonSuccessAndDebuggerNotification (System.Private.CoreLib, Version=6.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=7cec85d7bea7798e)
   at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.ConfiguredTaskAwaitable`1+ConfiguredTaskAwaiter.GetResult (System.Private.CoreLib, Version=6.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=7cec85d7bea7798e)
   at Polly.AsyncPolicy+<ExecuteAsync>d__21`1.MoveNext (Polly, Version=7.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=c8a3ffc3f8f825cc)
   at System.Runtime.ExceptionServices.ExceptionDispatchInfo.Throw (System.Private.CoreLib, Version=6.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=7cec85d7bea7798e)
   at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.ThrowForNonSuccess (System.Private.CoreLib, Version=6.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=7cec85d7bea7798e)
   at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.HandleNonSuccessAndDebuggerNotification (System.Private.CoreLib, Version=6.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=7cec85d7bea7798e)
   at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter`1.GetResult (System.Private.CoreLib, Version=6.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=7cec85d7bea7798e)
   at devMobile.WebAPIDapper.Lists.Controllers.StockItemsNokController+<Get500>d__4.MoveNext (ListsClassic, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null: C:\Users\BrynLewis\source\repos\WebAPIDapper\Lists\Controllers\14.StockItemsNokController.cs:70)

One customer wanted their client application to display a corporate help desk number for staff to call for support. This information was made configurable

namespace devMobile.WebAPIDapper.Lists
{
	public class ErrorHandlerSettings
	{
		public string Detail { get; set; } = "devMobile Lists Classic API failure";

		public string Title { get; set; } = "System Error";
	}
}

public void ConfigureServices(IServiceCollection services)
{
	services.AddControllers();

	var errorHandlerSettings = Configuration.GetSection(nameof(ErrorHandlerSettings));
	services.Configure<ErrorHandlerSettings>(errorHandlerSettings);

	services.AddResponseCaching();

	services.AddDapperForMSSQL();
#if DAPPER_EXTENSIONS_CACHE_MEMORY
	services.AddDapperCachingInMemory(new MemoryConfiguration
	{
		AllMethodsEnableCache = false
	});
#endif
#if DAPPER_EXTENSIONS_CACHE_REDIS
	services.AddDapperCachingInRedis(new RedisConfiguration
	{
		AllMethodsEnableCache = false,
		KeyPrefix = Configuration.GetConnectionString("RedisKeyPrefix"),
		ConnectionString = Configuration.GetConnectionString("RedisConnection")
	}); 
#endif
	services.AddApplicationInsightsTelemetry();
}

{
 ...
  },
  "ErrorHandlerSettings": {
    "Title": "Webpage has died",
    "Detail": "Something has gone wrong call the help desk on 0800-RebootIt"
  },
...
}

namespace devMobile.WebAPIDapper.Lists.Controllers
{
	using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc;
	using Microsoft.Extensions.Hosting;
	using Microsoft.Extensions.Options;


	[ApiController]
	public class ErrorController : Controller
	{
		private readonly ErrorHandlerSettings errorHandlerSettings;

		public ErrorController(IOptions<ErrorHandlerSettings> errorHandlerSettings)
		{
			this.errorHandlerSettings = errorHandlerSettings.Value;
		}

		[Route("/error")]
		public IActionResult HandleError([FromServices] IHostEnvironment hostEnvironment)
		{
			return Problem(detail: errorHandlerSettings.Detail, title: errorHandlerSettings.Title);
		}
	}
}

StockItemsNok Controller Error page with configurable title and details

Another customer wanted their client application to display a corporate help desk number based on the source hostname.

ClientA.SaasApplicationProvider.co.nz
ClientB.SaasApplicationProvider.co.nz
ClientC.SaasApplicationProvider.co.nz
SaasApplication.ClientD.co.nz

This information was also made configurable

namespace devMobile.WebAPIDapper.Lists
{
	using System.Collections.Generic;

	public class UrlSpecificSetting
	{
		public string Title { get; set; } = "";
		
		public string Detail { get; set; } = "";

		public UrlSpecificSetting()
		{
		}

		public UrlSpecificSetting(string title, string detail)
		{
			this.Title = title;
			this.Detail = detail;
		}
	}

	public class ErrorHandlerSettings
	{
		public string Title { get; set; } = "System Error";

		public string Detail { get; set; } = "devMobile Lists Classic API failure";

		public Dictionary<string, UrlSpecificSetting> UrlSpecificSettings { get; set; }

		public ErrorHandlerSettings()
		{
		}

		public ErrorHandlerSettings(string title, string detail, Dictionary<string, UrlSpecificSetting> urlSpecificSettings )
		{
			Title = title;

			Detail = detail;

			UrlSpecificSettings = urlSpecificSettings;
		}
	}
}

We considered storing the title and details message in the database but that approach was discounted as we wanted to minimise dependencies.

{
 ...
  "ErrorHandlerSettings": {
    "Detail": "Default detail",
    "Title": "Default title",
    "UrlSpecificSettings": {
      "localhost": {
        "Title": "Title for localhost",
        "Detail": "Detail for localhost"
      },
      "127.0.0.1": {
        "Title": "Title for 127.0.0.1",
        "Detail": "Detail for 127.0.0.1"
      }
    }
  }
}

namespace devMobile.WebAPIDapper.Lists.Controllers
{
	using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc;
	using Microsoft.Extensions.Hosting;
	using Microsoft.Extensions.Options;


	[ApiController]
	public class ErrorController : Controller
	{
		private readonly ErrorHandlerSettings errorHandlerSettings;

		public ErrorController(IOptions<ErrorHandlerSettings> errorHandlerSettings)
		{
			this.errorHandlerSettings = errorHandlerSettings.Value;
		}

		[Route("/error")]
		public IActionResult HandleError([FromServices] IHostEnvironment hostEnvironment)
		{
			if (!this.errorHandlerSettings.UrlSpecificSettings.ContainsKey(this.Request.Host.Host))
			{
				return Problem(detail: errorHandlerSettings.Detail, title: errorHandlerSettings.Title);
			}

			return Problem(errorHandlerSettings.UrlSpecificSettings[this.Request.Host.Host].Title, errorHandlerSettings.UrlSpecificSettings[this.Request.Host.Host].Detail);
		}
	}
}

The sample configuration has custom title and details text for localhost and 127.0.0.1 with a default title and details text for all other hostnames.

StockItemsNok Controller Error page with 127.0.0.1 specific title and details

StockItemsNok Controller Error page with localhost specific title and details

One customer had a staff member who would take a photo of the client application error page with their mobile and email it to us which made it really easy to track down issues. This was especially usefully as they were in an awkward timezone.

Application Insights TraceId search result with exception details

With a customisable error page my approach with the outer try/catch has limited benefit and just adds complexity.

.NET Core web API + Dapper – MultiMapping

Posted on March 2, 2022 by devmobilenz

Shaping recordsets with SplitOn

Sometimes there is no easy way to build a “list of lists” using the contents of multiple database tables. I have run into this problem a few times especially when building webby services which query the database of a “legacy” (aka. production) system.

Retrieving a list of StockGroups and their StockItems from the World Wide Importers database was one of the better “real world” examples I could come up with.

SQL Server Management Studio Diagram showing relationships of tables

There is a fair bit of duplication (StockGroupID, StockGroupName) in the results set

SQL Server Management Studio StockItems-StockItemStockGroups-StockGroups query and results

There were 442 rows in the results set and 227 StockItems in the database so I ordered the query results by StockItemID and confirmed that there were many StockItems in several StockGroups.

public class StockItemListDtoV1
{
	public int Id { get; set; }

	public string Name { get; set; }

	public decimal RecommendedRetailPrice { get; set; }

	public decimal TaxRate { get; set; }
}

public class StockGroupStockItemsListDto
{
	StockGroupStockItemsListDto()
	{
		StockItems = new List<StockItemListDto>();
	}

	public int StockGroupID { get; set; }

	public string StockGroupName { get; set; }

	public List<StockItemListDto> StockItems { get; set; }
}

My initial version uses a Generic List for a StockGroup’s StockItems which is most probably not a good idea.

[Route("api/[controller]")]
[ApiController]
public class InvoiceQuerySplitOnController : ControllerBase
{
	private readonly string connectionString;
	private readonly ILogger<InvoiceQuerySplitOnController> logger;

	public InvoiceQuerySplitOnController(IConfiguration configuration, ILogger<InvoiceQuerySplitOnController> logger)
	{
		this.connectionString = configuration.GetConnectionString("WorldWideImportersDatabase");

		this.logger = logger;
	}

	[HttpGet]
	public async Task<ActionResult<IEnumerable<StockGroupStockItemsListDto>>> Get()
	{
		IEnumerable<StockGroupStockItemsListDto> response = null;

		try
		{
			using (SqlConnection db = new SqlConnection(this.connectionString))
			{
				var stockGroups = await db.QueryAsync<StockGroupStockItemsListDto, StockItemListDto, StockGroupStockItemsListDto>(
					sql: @"SELECT [StockGroups].[StockGroupID] as 'StockGroupID'" +
								",[StockGroups].[StockGroupName]" +
								",[StockItems].StockItemID as 'ID'" +
								",[StockItems].StockItemName as 'Name'" +
								",[StockItems].TaxRate" +
								",[StockItems].RecommendedRetailPrice " +
							"FROM [Warehouse].[StockGroups] " +
							"INNER JOIN[Warehouse].[StockItemStockGroups] ON ([StockGroups].[StockGroupID] = [StockItemStockGroups].[StockGroupID])" +
							"INNER JOIN[Warehouse].[StockItems] ON ([Warehouse].[StockItemStockGroups].[StockItemID] = [StockItems].[StockItemID])",
					(stockGroup, stockItem) =>
					{
						// Not certain I think using a List<> here is a good idea...
						stockGroup.StockItems.Add(stockItem);
						return stockGroup;
					},
				splitOn: "ID",
				commandType: CommandType.Text);

			response = stockGroups.GroupBy(p => p.StockGroupID).Select(g =>
			{
				var groupedStockGroup = g.First();
				groupedStockGroup.StockItems = g.Select(p => p.StockItems.Single()).ToList();
				return groupedStockGroup;
			});
		}
	}
	catch (SqlException ex)
	{
		logger.LogError(ex, "Retrieving S, Invoice Lines or Stock Item Transactions");

		return this.StatusCode(StatusCodes.Status500InternalServerError);
	}

	return this.Ok(response);
}

The MultiMapper syntax always trips me up and it usually takes a couple of attempts to get it to work.

I have extended my DapperTransient module adding WithRetry versions of the 14 MultiMapper methods.

NOTE : Error Handling approach has changed

.NET Core web API + Dapper – QueryMultiple

Posted on February 28, 2022 by devmobilenz

Returning multiple recordsets

My current “day job” is building applications for managing portfolios of foreign currency instruments. A portfolio can contain many different types of instrument (Forwards, Options, Swaps etc.). One of the “optimisations” we use is retrieving all the different types of instruments in a portfolio with one stored procedure call.

SQL Server Management Studio Dependency viewer

The closest scenario I could come up with using the World Wide Importers database was retrieving a summary of all the information associated with an Invoice for display on a single screen.

CREATE PROCEDURE [Sales].[InvoiceSummaryGetV1](@InvoiceID as int)
AS
BEGIN

SELECT [InvoiceID]
--        ,[CustomerID]
--        ,[BillToCustomerID]
		,[OrderID]
		,[Invoices].[DeliveryMethodID]
		,[DeliveryMethodName]
--        ,[ContactPersonID]
--        ,[AccountsPersonID]
		,[SalespersonPersonID] as SalesPersonID
		,[SalesPerson].[PreferredName] as SalesPersonName
--        ,[PackedByPersonID]
		,[InvoiceDate]
		,[CustomerPurchaseOrderNumber]
		,[IsCreditNote]
		,[CreditNoteReason]
		,[Comments]
		,[DeliveryInstructions]
--        ,[InternalComments]
--        ,[TotalDryItems]
--        ,[TotalChillerItems]
		,[DeliveryRun]
		,[RunPosition] as DeliveryRunPosition
		,[ReturnedDeliveryData] as DeliveryData
		,[ConfirmedDeliveryTime] as DeliveredAt
		,[ConfirmedReceivedBy] as DeliveredTo
--        ,[LastEditedBy]
--        ,[LastEditedWhen]
	FROM [Sales].[Invoices]
	INNER JOIN [Application].[People] as SalesPerson ON (Invoices.[SalespersonPersonID] = [SalesPerson].[PersonID])
	INNER JOIN [Application].[DeliveryMethods] as DeliveryMethod ON (Invoices.[DeliveryMethodID] = DeliveryMethod.[DeliveryMethodID])
WHERE ([Invoices].[InvoiceID] = @InvoiceID)

SELECT [InvoiceLineID]
      ,[InvoiceID]
      ,[StockItemID]
      ,[Description] as StockItemDescription
      ,[InvoiceLines].[PackageTypeID]
	  ,[PackageType].[PackageTypeName]
      ,[Quantity]
      ,[UnitPrice]
      ,[TaxRate]
      ,[TaxAmount]
--      ,[LineProfit]
      ,[ExtendedPrice]
--      ,[LastEditedBy]
--      ,[LastEditedWhen]
	FROM [Sales].[InvoiceLines]
		INNER JOIN [Warehouse].[PackageTypes] as PackageType ON ([PackageType].[PackageTypeID] = [InvoiceLines].[PackageTypeID])
WHERE ([InvoiceLines].[InvoiceID] = @InvoiceID)

SELECT [StockItemTransactionID]
      ,[StockItemTransactions].[StockItemID]
      ,StockItem.[StockItemName] as StockItemName
      ,[StockItemTransactions].[TransactionTypeID]
      ,[TransactionType].[TransactionTypeName]
--      ,[CustomerID]
--      ,[InvoiceID]
--      ,[SupplierID]
--      ,[PurchaseOrderID]
      ,[TransactionOccurredWhen] as TransactionAt
      ,[Quantity]
--      ,[LastEditedBy]
--      ,[LastEditedWhen]
	FROM [Warehouse].[StockItemTransactions]
	INNER JOIN [Warehouse].[StockItems] as StockItem ON ([StockItemTransactions].StockItemID = [StockItem].StockItemID)
	INNER JOIN [Application].[TransactionTypes] as TransactionType ON ([StockItemTransactions].[TransactionTypeID] = TransactionType.[TransactionTypeID])
	WHERE ([StockItemTransactions].[InvoiceID] = @InvoiceID)

END

The stored procedure returns 3 recordsets, a “summary” of the Order, a summary of the associated OrderLines and a summary of the associated StockItemTransactions.

public async Task<ActionResult<Model.InvoiceSummaryGetDtoV1>>Get([Range(1, int.MaxValue, ErrorMessage = "Invoice id must greater than 0")] int id)
{
	Model.InvoiceSummaryGetDtoV1 response = null;

	try
	{
		using (SqlConnection db = new SqlConnection(this.connectionString))
		{
			var invoiceSummary = await db.QueryMultipleWithRetryAsync("[Sales].[InvoiceSummaryGetV1]", param: new { InvoiceId = id }, commandType: CommandType.StoredProcedure);

			response = await invoiceSummary.ReadSingleOrDefaultWithRetryAsync<Model.InvoiceSummaryGetDtoV1>();
			if (response == default)
			{
				logger.LogInformation("Invoice:{0} not found", id);

				return this.NotFound($"Invoice:{id} not found");
			}

			response.InvoiceLines = (await invoiceSummary.ReadWithRetryAsync<Model.InvoiceLineSummaryListDtoV1>()).ToArray();

			response.StockItemTransactions = (await invoiceSummary.ReadWithRetryAsync<Model.StockItemTransactionSummaryListDtoV1>()).ToArray();
		}
	}
	catch (SqlException ex)
	{
		logger.LogError(ex, "Retrieving Invoice, Invoice Lines or Stock Item Transactions");

		return this.StatusCode(StatusCodes.Status500InternalServerError);
	}

	return this.Ok(response);
}

I use Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edgeium, and Opera but the screen capture was done with FireFox mainly because it formats the Java Script Object Notation(JSON) response payloads nicely.

FireFox displaying Invoice Summary response

I had to extend the DapperTransient module to add SqlMapper extension (plus all the different overloads) retry methods.

NOTE : Error Handling approach has been updated

.NET Core web API + Dapper – Caching

Posted on February 7, 2022 by devmobilenz

Response Cache

In the beginning this was long long post about In-memory caching, distributed caching, Response caching, Response caching with middleware and Object reuse with ObjectPool. As I was re-reading the post before publishing it I came to the realisation that these different caching approaches didn’t require Dapper.

I started again, but kept the first section as it covers one of the simplest possible approaches to caching using the [ResponseCache] attribute and VaryByQueryKeys.

[HttpGet("Response")]
[ResponseCache(Duration = StockItemsListResponseCacheDuration)]
public async Task<ActionResult<IEnumerable<Model.StockItemListDtoV1>>> GetResponse()
{
	IEnumerable<Model.StockItemListDtoV1> response = null;

	logger.LogInformation("Response cache load");

	try
	{
		response = await dapper.QueryAsync<Model.StockItemListDtoV1>(sql: @"SELECT [StockItemID] as ""ID"", [StockItemName] as ""Name"", [RecommendedRetailPrice], [TaxRate] FROM [Warehouse].[StockItems]", commandType: CommandType.Text);
	}
	catch (SqlException ex)
	{
		logger.LogError(ex, "Retrieving list of StockItems");

		return this.StatusCode(StatusCodes.Status500InternalServerError);
	}

	return this.Ok(response);
}

[HttpGet("ResponseVarying")]
[ResponseCache(Duration = StockItemsListResponseCacheDuration, VaryByQueryKeys = new string[] { "id" })]
public async Task<ActionResult<Model.StockItemGetDtoV1>> Get([FromQuery(Name = "id"), Range(1, int.MaxValue, ErrorMessage = "Stock item id must greater than 0")] int id)
{
	Model.StockItemGetDtoV1 response = null;

	logger.LogInformation("Response cache varying load id:{0}", id);

	try
	{
		response = await dapper.QuerySingleOrDefaultAsync<Model.StockItemGetDtoV1>(sql: "[Warehouse].[StockItemsStockItemLookupV1]", param: new { stockItemId = id }, commandType: CommandType.StoredProcedure);
		if (response == default)
		{
			logger.LogInformation("StockItem:{0} not found", id);

			return this.NotFound($"StockItem:{id} not found");
		}
	}
	catch (SqlException ex)
	{
		logger.LogError(ex, "Looking up StockItem with Id:{0}", id);

		return this.StatusCode(StatusCodes.Status500InternalServerError);
	}

	return this.Ok(response);
}

I use Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edgeium, and Opera but the screen captures have been done with FireFox mainly because it formats the Java Script Object Notation(JSON) response payloads nicely.

All the browsers appeared to respect the cache control headers but Firefox was the only one which did not initiate a new request when I pressed return in the Uniform Resource Locator(URL) field.

I used Telerik Fiddler and FiddlerFox to capture the HTTP GET method request and response payloads.

Response payload for a list of StockItems with cache control headers highlighted

Response payload for a single StockItem with cache control headers highlighted

Dapper Cache

The Dapper Extensions Library has built in support for In-memory and Redis caching. The Dapper.Extensions Library extends Dapper’s functionality. It requires minimal configuration but I was tripped up by the default connection string requirement because I was using Dependency Injection

Dapper.Extensions NuGet package configuration

The configuration code in the application startup.cs supports in-memory and Redis caches.

// This method gets called by the runtime. Use this method to add services to the container.
public void ConfigureServices(IServiceCollection services)
{
	services.AddControllers();

	services.AddResponseCaching();

	services.AddDapperForMSSQL();

#if DAPPER_EXTENSIONS_CACHE_MEMORY
	services.AddDapperCachingInMemory(new MemoryConfiguration
	{
		AllMethodsEnableCache = false
	});
#endif
#if DAPPER_EXTENSIONS_CACHE_REDIS
	services.AddDapperCachingInRedis(new RedisConfiguration
	{
		AllMethodsEnableCache = false,
		KeyPrefix = Configuration.GetValue<string>("RedisKeyPrefix"),
		ConnectionString = Configuration.GetConnectionString("RedisConnection")
	}); 
#endif
	services.AddApplicationInsightsTelemetry();
}

The StockItemsCachingController was rewritten with the Dapper.Extensions QueryAsync and QuerySingleOrDefaultAsync methods.

[HttpGet("DapperMemory")]
public async Task<ActionResult<IEnumerable<Model.StockItemListDtoV1>>> GetDapper()
{
	List<Model.StockItemListDtoV1> response;

	logger.LogInformation("Dapper cache load");

	try
	{
		response = await dapper.QueryAsync<Model.StockItemListDtoV1>(
							sql: @"SELECT [StockItemID] as ""ID"", [StockItemName] as ""Name"", [RecommendedRetailPrice], [TaxRate] FROM [Warehouse].[StockItems]",
							commandType: CommandType.Text,
							enableCache: true,
							cacheExpire: TimeSpan.Parse(this.Configuration.GetValue<string>("DapperCachingDuration"))
					);

	}
	catch (SqlException ex)
	{
		logger.LogError(ex, "Retrieving list of StockItems");

		return this.StatusCode(StatusCodes.Status500InternalServerError);
	}

	return this.Ok(response);
}

[HttpGet("DapperMemoryVarying")]
public async Task<ActionResult<Model.StockItemGetDtoV1>> GetDapperVarying([FromQuery(Name = "id"), Range(1, int.MaxValue, ErrorMessage = "Stock item id must greater than 0")] int id)
{
	Model.StockItemGetDtoV1 response = null;

	logger.LogInformation("Dapper cache varying load id:{0}", id);

	try
	{
		response = await dapper.QuerySingleOrDefaultAsync<Model.StockItemGetDtoV1>(
					sql: "[Warehouse].[StockItemsStockItemLookupV1]",
					param: new { stockItemId = id },
					commandType: CommandType.StoredProcedure,
					cacheKey: $"StockItem:{id}",
					enableCache: true,
					cacheExpire: TimeSpan.Parse(this.Configuration.GetValue<string>("DapperCachingDuration"))
							);
		if (response == default)
		{
			logger.LogInformation("StockItem:{0} not found", id);

			return this.NotFound($"StockItem:{id} not found");
		}
	}
	catch (SqlException ex)
	{
		logger.LogError(ex, "Looking up StockItem with Id:{0}", id);

		return this.StatusCode(StatusCodes.Status500InternalServerError);
	}

	return this.Ok(response);
}

Both the Dapper.Extensions In-Memory and Redis cache reduced the number of database requests to the bare minimum. In a larger application the formatting of the cacheKey (cacheKey: “StockItems” & cacheKey: $”StockItem:{id}”) would be important to stop database query result collisions.

SQL Server Profiler displaying the list and single record requests.

I used Memurai which is a Microsoft Windows version of Redis for testing on my development machine before deploying to Microsoft Azure and using Azure Cache for Redis. Memurai runs as a Windows Service and supports master, replica, cluster node or sentinel roles.

Memurai running as a Windows Service on my development machine

When the Web API project was restarted the contents in-memory cache were lost. The Redis cache contents survive a restart and can be access from multiple clients.

The Dapper.Extensions Query, QueryAsync, QueryFirstOrDefaultAsync, QuerySingleOrDefault, QuerySingleOrDefaultAsync, QueryMultiple, QueryMultipleAsync, ExecuteReader, ExecuteReaderAsync, QueryPageAsync, QueryPageAsync, QueryPlainPage, QueryPlainPageAsync, Execute, ExecuteAsync, ExecuteScalar, ExecuteScalarAsync, BeginTransaction, CommitTransactionm and RollbackTransaction do not appear to a versions which “Retry” actions when there is a “Transient” failure. If there is no solution available I will build one using the approach in my DapperTransient module.

NOTE : Error Handling approach has been updated

TTI V3 Connector Azure Storage Queues

Posted on October 20, 2021 by devmobilenz

The first Proof of Concept(PoC) for my updated The Things Industries(TTI) V3 Webhooks Integration was to explore the use of Azure Functions to securely ingest webhook calls. The aim was to have uplink and downlink message progress message payloads written to Azure Storage Queues with output bindings ready for processing.

namespace devMobile.IoT.TheThingsIndustries.HttpInputStorageQueueOutput
{
	using System.Net;
	using System.Threading.Tasks;

	using Microsoft.Azure.Functions.Worker;
	using Microsoft.Azure.Functions.Worker.Http;
	using Microsoft.Azure.WebJobs;
	using Microsoft.Extensions.Logging;


	[StorageAccount("AzureWebJobsStorage")]
	public static class Webhooks
	{
		[Function("Uplink")]
		public static async Task<HttpTriggerUplinkOutputBindingType> Uplink([HttpTrigger(AuthorizationLevel.Function, "post")] HttpRequestData req, FunctionContext context)
		{
			var logger = context.GetLogger("UplinkMessage");

			logger.LogInformation("Uplink processed");
			
			var response = req.CreateResponse(HttpStatusCode.OK);

			return new HttpTriggerUplinkOutputBindingType()
			{
				Name = await req.ReadAsStringAsync(),
				HttpReponse = response
			};
		}

		public class HttpTriggerUplinkOutputBindingType
		{
			[QueueOutput("uplink")]
			public string Name { get; set; }

			public HttpResponseData HttpReponse { get; set; }
		}

...

		[Function("Failed")]
		public static async Task<HttpTriggerFailedOutputBindingType> Failed([HttpTrigger(AuthorizationLevel.Function, "post")] HttpRequestData req, FunctionContext context)
		{
			var logger = context.GetLogger("Failed");

			logger.LogInformation("Failed procssed");

			var response = req.CreateResponse(HttpStatusCode.OK);

			return new HttpTriggerFailedOutputBindingType()
			{
				Name = await req.ReadAsStringAsync(),
				HttpReponse = response
			};
		}

		public class HttpTriggerFailedOutputBindingType
		{
			[QueueOutput("failed")]
			public string Name { get; set; }

			public HttpResponseData HttpReponse { get; set; }
		}
	}
}

After some initial problems with the use of Azure Storage Queue output bindings to insert messages into the ack, nak, failed, queued, and uplink Azure Storage Queues I found it didn’t take much code and worked reliably on my desktop.

Azure Functions Desktop Development environment running my functions

I used Telerik Fiddler with some sample payloads to test my application.

Telerik Fiddler Request Composer “posting” sample message to desktop endpoint

Once the functions were running reliably on my desktop, I created an Azure Service Plan, deployed the code, then generated an API Key for securing my HTTPTrigger endpoints.

Azure Functions Host Key configuration dialog

I then added a TTI Webhook Integration to my TTI SeeduinoLoRaWAN application, manually configured the endpoint, enabled the different messages I wanted to process and set the x-functions-key header.

After a short delay I could see messages in the message uplink queue with Azure Storage Explorer

Azure Storage Explorer displaying content of my uplink queue

Building a new version of my TTIV3 Azure IoT connector is a useful learning exercise but I’m still deciding whether is it worth the effort as TTI has one now?

TTN V3 Connector Revisited

Posted on October 4, 2021 by devmobilenz

Earlier in the year I built Things Network(TTN) V2 and V3 connectors and after using these in production applications I have learnt a lot about what I had got wrong, less wrong and what I had got right.

Using a TTN V3 MQTT Application integration wasn’t a great idea. The management of state was very complex. The storage of application keys in a app.settings file made configuration easy but was bad for security.

The use of Azure Key Vault in the TTNV2 connector was a good approach, but the process of creation and updating of the settings needs to be easier.

Using TTN device registry as the “single source of truth” was a good decision as managing the amount of LoRaWAN network, application and device specific configuration in an Azure IoT Hub would be non-trivial.

Using a Webhooks Application Integration like the TTNV2 connector is my preferred approach.

The TTNV2 Connector’s use of Azure Storage Queues was a good idea as they it provide an elastic buffer between the different parts of the application.

The use of Azure Functions to securely ingest webhook calls and write them to Azure Storage Queues with output bindingts should simplify configuration and deployment. The use of Azure Storage Queue input bindings to process messages is the preferred approach.

The TTN V3 processing of JSON uplink messages into a structure that Azure IoT Central could ingest is a required feature

The TTN V2 and V3 support for the Azure Device Provisioning Service(DPS) is a required feature (mandated by Azure IoT Central). The TTN V3 connector support for DTDLV2 is a desirable feature. The DPS implementation worked with Azure IoT Central but I was unable to get the DeviceClient based version working.

Using DPS to pre-provision devices in Azure IoT Hubs and Azure IoT Central by using the TTN Application Registry API then enumerating the TTN applications, then devices needs to be revisited as it was initially slow then became quite complex.

The support for Azure IoT Hub connection strings was a useful feature, but added some complexity. This plus basic Azure IoT Hub DPS support(No Azure IoT Central support) could be implemented in a standalone application which connects via Azure Storage Queue messages.

The processing of Azure IoT Central Basic, and Request commands then translating the payloads so they work with TTN V3 is a required feature. The management of Azure IoT Hub command delivery confirmations (abandon, complete and Reject) is a required feature.

I’m considering building a new TTN V3 connector but is it worth the effort as TTN has one now?

devMobile's blog

Random wanderings through Microsoft Azure esp. PaaS plumbing, the IoT bits, AI on Micro controllers, AI on Edge Devices, .NET nanoFramework, .NET Core on *nix and ML.NET+ONNX

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