Dealing With Unprocessed Storage Queue Poison Messages in Azure Functions

If an Azure Function that is triggered by a message on a Storage Queue throws an exception, the message will automatically be returned to the queue and retried again in the future.

In addition to specifying how soon the message will be retried, you can also configure how many times the message will be retried by editing the host.json file. By default a message will be retried 5 times before finally failing. The following host.json specifies that a message should be retried 10 times before finally failing:

{
  "version": "2.0",
  "extensions": {
    "queues": {      
      "maxDequeueCount": 10
    } 
  }  
}

Handling Poison Messages in Azure Functions

Once a message has been retried the maximum number of times, it will be considered a poisonous message, essentially that if we keep it on the queue it will “poison” the application/function and cause harm. Poison messages will be removed from the queue and placed onto a poison queue.

For example, if the queue that triggers the function is called “input-queue”, poison messages will be moved to a queue called “input-queue-poison”.

Because we know the name of the poison queue, we can process these poison messages somehow. Exactly how you choose to process these messages will depend on the application you are building.

One thing to think about is why the message may have failed:

  • Is the message content itself corrupted?
  • Is the function code itself defective/have a bug?
  • Were the exceptions caused by a transient error in a service the function uses?
  • Etc.

You could have some automated process (function) attempt to resolve the poison messages or forward them to a human to resolve (for example writing the message to database that a human can query).

Triggering an Azure Function From a Poison Message Queue

As an example, the following function retrieves messages from the “input-queue-poison” queue and writes out to table storage for a human to manually correct somehow:

using System;
using Microsoft.Azure.WebJobs;
using Microsoft.Extensions.Logging;
using Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Storage.Queue;

namespace DontCodeTiredDemosV2
{
    public class PoisonMessageDetails
    {        
        public string RowKey { get; set; }
        public string PartitionKey { get; set; }
        public string OriginalMessageContent { get; set; }
        public string OriginalMessageId { get; set; }
    }

    public static class HandlePoisonMessages
    {
        [FunctionName("HandlePoisonMessages")]
        [return: Table("HumanInterventionRequired")]
        public static PoisonMessageDetails Run(
            [QueueTrigger("input-queue-poison")]CloudQueueMessage poisonMessage,            
            ILogger log)
        {
            log.LogInformation($"Processing poison message {poisonMessage.Id}");            

            return new PoisonMessageDetails
            {
                RowKey = Guid.NewGuid().ToString(),
                PartitionKey = "input-queue",
                OriginalMessageContent = poisonMessage.AsString,
                OriginalMessageId = poisonMessage.Id
            };                       
        }
    }
}

Once a poison message is processed (for example with the content of “Amrit”) a row will be added to the table as the following screenshot shows:

Azure Table Storage to process poison messages

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Specifying How Soon a Storage Queue Message Will Be Retried in an Azure Function

By default, if an exception occurs in an Azure Function that uses a Storage Queue trigger, the message will be returned to the queue and automatically retried again in the future (up to a maximum number of times).

By default, there is no delay in how soon the message can be retried.

public static class MakeUppercase
{
    [FunctionName("MakeUppercase")]
    public static void Run(
        [QueueTrigger("input-queue")]CloudQueueMessage inputQueueItem,
        ILogger log)
    {
        log.LogInformation($"Message Dequeued : {inputQueueItem.DequeueCount} time(s)");
        log.LogInformation($"Message Next Visible : {inputQueueItem.NextVisibleTime}");

        throw new Exception("Forced exception for demonstration purposes.");
    }
}

With the preceding function, when a single message is added to the queue, the following (abbreviated) output will be seen:

[15/01/2019 11:55:49 PM] Executing 'MakeUppercase' (Reason='New queue message detected on 'input-queue'.', Id=44f95504-7a99-4f23-81f2-096f0bd434a2)
[15/01/2019 11:55:49 PM] Message Dequeued : 1 time(s)
[15/01/2019 11:55:49 PM] Message Next Visible : 16/01/2019 12:05:49 AM +00:00
[15/01/2019 11:55:50 PM] Executed 'MakeUppercase' (Failed, Id=44f95504-7a99-4f23-81f2-096f0bd434a2)
[15/01/2019 11:55:50 PM] Executing 'MakeUppercase' (Reason='New queue message detected on 'input-queue'.', Id=bbede56f-e22a-461f-945c-3f3b47114de3)
[15/01/2019 11:55:50 PM] Message Dequeued : 2 time(s)
[15/01/2019 11:55:50 PM] Message Next Visible : 16/01/2019 12:05:50 AM +00:00
[15/01/2019 11:55:50 PM] Executed 'MakeUppercase' (Failed, Id=bbede56f-e22a-461f-945c-3f3b47114de3)
[15/01/2019 11:55:50 PM] Executing 'MakeUppercase' (Reason='New queue message detected on 'input-queue'.', Id=10b7495f-9cfb-4d75-bc31-db68581b8055)
[15/01/2019 11:55:50 PM] Message Dequeued : 3 time(s)
[15/01/2019 11:55:50 PM] Message Next Visible : 16/01/2019 12:05:50 AM +00:00
[15/01/2019 11:55:50 PM] Executed 'MakeUppercase' (Failed, Id=10b7495f-9cfb-4d75-bc31-db68581b8055)
[15/01/2019 11:55:50 PM] Executing 'MakeUppercase' (Reason='New queue message detected on 'input-queue'.', Id=385beb36-80b7-47a5-ba65-b0d04f956cc6)
[15/01/2019 11:55:50 PM] Message Dequeued : 4 time(s)
[15/01/2019 11:55:50 PM] Message Next Visible : 16/01/2019 12:05:50 AM +00:00
[15/01/2019 11:55:51 PM] Executed 'MakeUppercase' (Failed, Id=385beb36-80b7-47a5-ba65-b0d04f956cc6)
[15/01/2019 11:55:51 PM] Executing 'MakeUppercase' (Reason='New queue message detected on 'input-queue'.', Id=f6acfb11-41fb-416e-88b1-e113aa4424f5)
[15/01/2019 11:55:51 PM] Message Dequeued : 5 time(s)
[15/01/2019 11:55:51 PM] Message Next Visible : 16/01/2019 12:05:51 AM +00:00
[15/01/2019 11:55:51 PM] Executed 'MakeUppercase' (Failed, Id=f6acfb11-41fb-416e-88b1-e113aa4424f5)
[15/01/2019 11:55:51 PM] Message has reached MaxDequeueCount of 5. Moving message to queue 'input-queue-poison'.

Notice in the preceding output, the next visible times don’t include a delay in when the message can potentially be retried.

The next visible time controls when the message will become visible to be consumed. This default value in Azure Functions is 0. You may want to change this default if you want to add some delay between message retries (for example to help prevent message loss* for transient failures).

* Eventually, failed messages will be moved to a poison message queue.

The next visible time can be configured in the host.json file (we are using Azure Functions V2 in this article):

{
  "version": "2.0",
  "extensions": {
    "queues": {
      "visibilityTimeout": "00:00:30" 
    } 
  }  
}

The visibilityTimeout value represents a timespan (HH:MM:SS) to wait before a message becomes visible next time, in the preceding configuration, 30 seconds. Running again with this new configuration, the following output can be seen:

[16/01/2019 12:13:01 AM] Executing 'MakeUppercase' (Reason='New queue message detected on 'input-queue'.', Id=1f4f7177-4de6-4f4c-98c1-48d318892112)
[16/01/2019 12:13:01 AM] Message Dequeued : 1 time(s)
[16/01/2019 12:13:01 AM] Message Next Visible : 16/01/2019 12:23:00 AM +00:00
[16/01/2019 12:13:01 AM] Executed 'MakeUppercase' (Failed, Id=1f4f7177-4de6-4f4c-98c1-48d318892112)
[16/01/2019 12:13:32 AM] Executing 'MakeUppercase' (Reason='New queue message detected on 'input-queue'.', Id=93e9a90c-dd83-410f-9435-003712f64513)
[16/01/2019 12:13:32 AM] Message Dequeued : 2 time(s)
[16/01/2019 12:13:32 AM] Message Next Visible : 16/01/2019 12:23:32 AM +00:00
[16/01/2019 12:13:33 AM] Executed 'MakeUppercase' (Failed, Id=93e9a90c-dd83-410f-9435-003712f64513)
[16/01/2019 12:14:04 AM] Executing 'MakeUppercase' (Reason='New queue message detected on 'input-queue'.', Id=7ffe157b-7186-4f84-b8eb-02c43a260352)
[16/01/2019 12:14:04 AM] Message Dequeued : 3 time(s)
[16/01/2019 12:14:04 AM] Message Next Visible : 16/01/2019 12:24:04 AM +00:00
[16/01/2019 12:14:04 AM] Executed 'MakeUppercase' (Failed, Id=7ffe157b-7186-4f84-b8eb-02c43a260352)
[16/01/2019 12:14:36 AM] Executing 'MakeUppercase' (Reason='New queue message detected on 'input-queue'.', Id=ba3c186b-8b33-4b4c-b896-724a95fa2b25)
[16/01/2019 12:14:36 AM] Message Dequeued : 4 time(s)
[16/01/2019 12:14:36 AM] Message Next Visible : 16/01/2019 12:24:36 AM +00:00
[16/01/2019 12:14:36 AM] Executed 'MakeUppercase' (Failed, Id=ba3c186b-8b33-4b4c-b896-724a95fa2b25)
[16/01/2019 12:15:07 AM] Executing 'MakeUppercase' (Reason='New queue message detected on 'input-queue'.', Id=3de85cf0-89ad-430f-8219-ebd7b1701d4d)
[16/01/2019 12:15:07 AM] Message Dequeued : 5 time(s)
[16/01/2019 12:15:07 AM] Message Next Visible : 16/01/2019 12:25:07 AM +00:00
[16/01/2019 12:15:07 AM] Executed 'MakeUppercase' (Failed, Id=3de85cf0-89ad-430f-8219-ebd7b1701d4d)
[16/01/2019 12:15:07 AM] Message has reached MaxDequeueCount of 5. Moving message to queue 'input-queue-poison'.

Notice now that the message won’t be retried for 30 seconds between each attempt (look at the “Message Next Visible” lines).

Setting a visibility other than zero will not prevent other messages that come into the queue from being processed while waiting for retried messages to become visible again.

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Getting Message Metadata When Using Azure Functions Storage Queue Triggers

When creating an Azure Function that is triggered by incoming messages on a Storage Queue, the type specified for the message parameter can be a simple string as follows:

public static class MakeUppercase
{
    [FunctionName("MakeUppercase")]
    public static void Run(
        [QueueTrigger("%in%")]string inputQueueItem,
        [Queue("%out%")] out string outputQueueItem,
        [Blob("%blobout%")] out string outputBlobItem,
        ILogger log)
    {
        inputQueueItem = inputQueueItem.ToUpperInvariant();
        outputQueueItem = inputQueueItem;
        outputBlobItem = inputQueueItem;
    }
}

In the preceding code, the inputQueueItem represents the content of the message that triggered the function.

If you want additional information about the queue message item itself, rather than use a string you can use CloudQueueMessage. Doing this gives you access to the metadata about the queue message including the following:

  • Message ID
  • Time message was inserted into queue
  • Time the message expires
  • How many times the message has been dequeued (i.e. read off the queue )*
  • Message next visible time
  • Message pop receipt

* A message can be returned to the queue if an exception occurs during execution of the function, this will increment the dequeue count.

In addition to the message metadata, you can still get the message content either as a string or byte array using the AsString or AsBytes properties respectively:

public static class MakeUppercase
{
    [FunctionName("MakeUppercase")]
    public static void Run(
        [QueueTrigger("%in%")]CloudQueueMessage inputQueueItem,
        [Queue("%out%")] out string outputQueueItem,
        [Blob("%blobout%")] out string outputBlobItem,
        ILogger log)
    {
        log.LogInformation($"Message Id: {inputQueueItem.Id}");
        log.LogInformation($"Message Inserted : {inputQueueItem.InsertionTime}");
        log.LogInformation($"Message Expires : {inputQueueItem.ExpirationTime}");
        log.LogInformation($"Message Dequeued : {inputQueueItem.DequeueCount} time(s)");
        log.LogInformation($"Message Next Visible : {inputQueueItem.NextVisibleTime}");
        log.LogInformation($"Message Pop Receipt : {inputQueueItem.PopReceipt}");

        log.LogInformation($"Message content (bytes) : {BitConverter.ToString(inputQueueItem.AsBytes)}");
        log.LogInformation($"Message content (string) : {inputQueueItem.AsString}");

        
        var inputQueueItemContent = inputQueueItem.AsString;
        inputQueueItemContent = inputQueueItemContent.ToUpperInvariant();
        outputQueueItem = inputQueueItemContent;
        outputBlobItem = inputQueueItemContent;
    }
}

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Configuring Queue Names and Blob Path Bindings in Azure Functions Configuration

When working with Azure Functions in C# (specifically Azure Functions V2 in this article) you can specify bindings with hard-coded literal values.

For example, the following function has a queue trigger that is reading messages from a queue called “input-queue”, an output queue binding writing messages to “output-queue”, and a blob storage binding to write blobs to “audit/{rand-guid}”:

public static class MakeUppercase
{
    [FunctionName("MakeUppercase")]
    public static void Run(
        [QueueTrigger("input-queue")]string inputQueueItem,
        [Queue("output-queue")] out string outputQueueItem,
        [Blob("audit/{rand-guid}")] out string outputBlobItem,
        ILogger log)
    {
        inputQueueItem = inputQueueItem.ToUpperInvariant();
        outputQueueItem = inputQueueItem;
        outputBlobItem = inputQueueItem;
    }
}

All these binding values in the preceding code are hard coded, if they need to be changed once the Function App is deployed, a new release will be required.

Specifying Azure Function Bindings in Configuration

As an alternative, the %% syntax can be used inside the binding string:

public static class MakeUppercase
{
    [FunctionName("MakeUppercase")]
    public static void Run(
        [QueueTrigger("%in%")]string inputQueueItem,
        [Queue("%out%")] out string outputQueueItem,
        [Blob("%blobout%")] out string outputBlobItem,
        ILogger log)
    {
        inputQueueItem = inputQueueItem.ToUpperInvariant();
        outputQueueItem = inputQueueItem;
        outputBlobItem = inputQueueItem;
    }
}

Notice in the preceding code, parts of the binding configuration strings are specified between %%: "%in%", "%out%", and "%blobout%".

At runtime, these values will be read from configuration instead of being hard coded.

Configuring Bindings at Development Time

When running locally, the configuration values will be read from the local.settings.json file, for example:

{
    "IsEncrypted": false,
  "Values": {
    "AzureWebJobsStorage": "UseDevelopmentStorage=true",
    "FUNCTIONS_WORKER_RUNTIME": "dotnet",
    "in": "input-queue",
    "out": "output-queue",
    "blobout" :  "audit/{rand-guid}"
  }
}

Notice the “in”, “out”, and “blobout” configuration elements that map to  "%in%", "%out%", and "%blobout%”.

Configuring Bindings in Azure

Once deployed and running in Azure, these settings will need to be present in the Function App Application Settings as the following screenshot demonstrates:

Specifying Azure Function Bindings in application settings

Now if you want to modify the queue names or blob path you can simply change the values in configuration. It should be noted that you may have to restart the Function App for the changes to take effect. You will also need to manage the switch to new queues, blobs, etc.such as what to do if after the change there are still some messages in the original input queue, etc, etc.

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NUnit 3 Quick Tips: Asserting On Collections

When the result you want to check is a collection, you can use NUnit to assert that it has the expected number of items or is empty, that all items are unique, that specific items do/not exist, and that items exist that satisfy some condition or predicate.

Asserting on the Number of Items in a Collection with NUnit Asserts

var names = new[] { "Sarah", "Amrit", "Amanda", "Sarah" };

Assert.That(names, Has.Exactly(4).Items); // pass
Assert.That(names, Is.Empty); // fail
Assert.That(names, Is.Not.Empty); // pass

Asserting That All Items in a Collection are Unique with NUnit Asserts

Assert.That(names, Is.Unique); // fail - 2 Sarah items exist

Asserting That An Item Does or Does Not Exist in a Collection with NUnit Asserts

Assert.That(names, Contains.Item("Sarah")); // pass

// Alternative syntax
Assert.That(names, Does.Contain("Sarah")); // pass
Assert.That(names, Does.Not.Contain("Arnold")); // pass

Asserting That An Item Appears a Specified Number Of Times in a Collection with NUnit Asserts

Assert.That(names, Has.Exactly(1).EqualTo("Sarah")); // fail
Assert.That(names, Has.Exactly(2).EqualTo("Sarah")); // pass
Assert.That(names, Has.Exactly(2).EqualTo("Sarah")
                      .And.Exactly(1).EqualTo("Amrit")); // pass

Asserting That All Items In a Collections Satisfy a Predicate/Condition with NUnit Asserts

Assert.That(names, Is.All.Not.Null); // pass
Assert.That(names, Is.All.Contains("a")); // fail lowercase a
Assert.That(names, Is.All.Contains("a").IgnoreCase); // pass
Assert.That(names, Is.All.Matches<string>(name => name.ToUpperInvariant().Contains("A"))); // pass
Assert.That(names, Is.All.Matches<string>(name => name.Length > 4)); // pass

Asserting That Only One Item In a Collection Satisfies a Predicate with NUnit Asserts

Assert.That(names, Has.Exactly(1).Matches<string>(name => name.Contains("mri"))); // pass
Assert.That(names, Has.Exactly(1).Matches<string>(name => name.Contains("ara"))); // fail (2 Sarah items exist)

To learn more about NUnit 3 check out my Introduction to .NET Testing with NUnit 3 Pluralsight course to learn everything you need to know to get started, including asserts, categories, data-driven tests, customizing NUnit, and reducing duplicate test code.

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NUnit 3 Quick Tips: Asserting On Object Reference Equality

When asserting on equality using the EqualConstraint you may not always get the behaviour you want depending on what objects are being asserted on. This can be influenced by whether or not the objects are value or reference types and if the type implements or overrides methods such as IEquatable<T> or object.Equals overrides.

Asserting on Value Type Equality with NUnit

int a = 42;
int b = 42;

Assert.That(a, Is.EqualTo(b)); // pass - values are same, ints are structs with value semantics
Assert.That(a, Is.SameAs(b)); // fail - a and b do not point to the same object in memory

int c = a;

Assert.That(c, Is.EqualTo(a)); // pass - values are same

Asserting on Reference Type Equality with NUnit

By default, 2 instances of a reference type will not pass an equality assert:

class Person
{
    public string Name { get; set; }
}
Person p1 = new Person { Name = "Sarah" };
Person p2 = new Person { Name = "Sarah" };

Assert.That(p1, Is.EqualTo(p2)); // fail, Person is class with reference semantics

Asserting That Two References Point to the Same Object with NUnit

If you want to assert that 2 object references point to the same object you can use the SameAsConstraint:

Assert.That(p1, Is.SameAs(p2)); // fail, p1 and p2 point to different objects in memory Person p3 = p1; Assert.That(p3, Is.SameAs(p1)); // pass, p3 and p1 point to same object in memory Assert.That(p3, Is.Not.SameAs(p2)); // pass, p3 and p2 point to different objects in memory

Customizing Equality Asserts with NUnit

There are a number of ways to influence how NUnit performs equality assertions including implementing IEquatable<T>:

class Employee : IEquatable<Employee>
{
    public string Name { get; set; }

    public bool Equals(Employee other)
    {
        if (other is null)
        {
            return false;
        }

        return Name == other.Name;
    }
}
Employee e1 = new Employee { Name = "Sarah" };
Employee e2 = new Employee { Name = "Sarah" };

Assert.That(e1, Is.EqualTo(e2)); // pass - IEquatable<Employee>.Equals implementation is used

To learn more about NUnit 3 check out my Introduction to .NET Testing with NUnit 3 Pluralsight course to learn everything you need to know to get started, including asserts, categories, data-driven tests, customizing NUnit, and reducing duplicate test code.

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NUnit 3 Quick Tips: Asserting Within Ranges

If you are asserting that a value is equal to something and you want to specify some tolerance you can do so.

Specifying a Range for Values with NUnit Asserts (e.g. int)

var i = 42;

Assert.That(i, Is.EqualTo(40)); // fail

Assert.That(i, Is.EqualTo(40).Within(2)); // pass

Assert.That(i, Is.EqualTo(40).Within(1)); // fail "Expected: 40 +/- 1"

Specifying a Range as a Percentage with NUnit Asserts

In addition to specifying a range tolerance as a fixed value you can also specify it as a percentage:

Assert.That(i, Is.EqualTo(40).Within(5).Percent); // pass

Assert.That(i, Is.EqualTo(40).Within(4).Percent); // fail "Expected: 40 +/- 4 Percent"

Specifying a Range for DateTime Objects with NUnit Asserts

When working with DateTimes you can specify the tolerance as a TimeSpan instance:

var newYearsDay2019 = new DateTime(2019, 1, 1);

Assert.That(newYearsDay2019, Is.EqualTo(new DateTime(2019, 1, 2)).Within(TimeSpan.FromDays(1))); // pass

Or instead of using a TimeSpan you can use one of the convenience modifiers:

Assert.That(newYearsDay2019, Is.EqualTo(new DateTime(2019, 1, 2)).Within(1).Days); // pass

Assert.That(newYearsDay2019, Is.EqualTo(new DateTime(2019, 1, 2)).Within(24).Hours); // pass
Assert.That(newYearsDay2019, Is.EqualTo(new DateTime(2019, 1, 2)).Within(23).Hours); // fail

var numberOfMinutesInADay = 24 * 60;
Assert.That(newYearsDay2019, Is.EqualTo(new DateTime(2019, 1, 2)).Within(numberOfMinutesInADay).Minutes); // pass
Assert.That(newYearsDay2019, Is.EqualTo(new DateTime(2019, 1, 2)).Within(numberOfMinutesInADay - 1).Minutes); // fail "Expected: 2019-01-02 00:00:00 +/- 23:59:00"

// Also Within(n).Seconds .Milliseconds and .Ticks

To learn more about NUnit 3 check out my Introduction to .NET Testing with NUnit 3 Pluralsight course to learn everything you need to know to get started, including asserts, categories, data-driven tests, customizing NUnit, and reducing duplicate test code.

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Developing Tizen Samsung Galaxy Watch Apps with .NET and C# - Getting Started

This article assumes you have set up the Tizen/Visual Studio development environment as outlined in this previous article.

Installing the Watch Emulator

The first step is to install the relevant emulator so you don’t need a physical Samsung Galaxy Watch. To do this open Visual Studio and click  Tools –> Tizen –> Tizen Emulator Manager

This will bring up the Emulator Manager, click the Create button, then Download new image, check the WEARABLE profile, and click OK. This will open the Package Manager and download the emulator.

Installing the Tizen Wearable emulator in Visual Studio

Once the installation is complete, if you open the Emulator Manager, select Wearable-circle and click Launch you should see the watch emulator load as shown in the following screenshot:

watchemulator

Creating a Watch Project

In Visual Studio, create a new Tizen Wearable Xaml App project  which comes under the Tizen 5.0 section.

Once the project is created and the with the emulator running, click the play button in Visual Studio (this will be something like “W-5.0-circle-x86…” ).

The app will build and be deployed to the emulator – you may have to manually switch back to the emulator if it isn’t brought to the foreground automatically. You should now see the emulator with the text “Welcome to Xamarin.Forms!”.

This text comes from the MainPage.xaml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<c:CirclePage xmlns="http://xamarin.com/schemas/2014/forms"
             xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2009/xaml"
             xmlns:c="clr-namespace:Tizen.Wearable.CircularUI.Forms;assembly=Tizen.Wearable.CircularUI.Forms"
             x:Class="TizenWearableXamlApp1.MainPage">
  <c:CirclePage.Content>
    <StackLayout>
      <Label Text="Welcome to Xamarin.Forms!"
          VerticalOptions="CenterAndExpand"
          HorizontalOptions="CenterAndExpand" />
    </StackLayout>
  </c:CirclePage.Content>
</c:CirclePage>

Modifying the Basic Template

As a very simple (and quick and dirty, no databinding, MVVM, etc.) example, the MainPage.xaml can be changed to:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<c:CirclePage xmlns="http://xamarin.com/schemas/2014/forms"
             xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2009/xaml"
             xmlns:c="clr-namespace:Tizen.Wearable.CircularUI.Forms;assembly=Tizen.Wearable.CircularUI.Forms"
             x:Class="TizenWearableXamlApp1.MainPage">
    <c:CirclePage.Content>
        <StackLayout HorizontalOptions="CenterAndExpand" VerticalOptions="CenterAndExpand">
            <Label x:Name="HappyValue" Text="5" HorizontalTextAlignment="Center"></Label>
            <Slider x:Name="HappySlider" Maximum="10" Minimum="1" Value="5" ValueChanged="HappySlider_ValueChanged" ></Slider>
            <Button Text="Go" Clicked="Button_Clicked"></Button>
    </StackLayout>
  </c:CirclePage.Content>
</c:CirclePage>

And the code behind MainPage.xaml.cs:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;

using Xamarin.Forms;
using Xamarin.Forms.Xaml;
using Tizen.Wearable.CircularUI.Forms;
using System.Net.Http;

namespace TizenWearableXamlApp1
{
    [XamlCompilation(XamlCompilationOptions.Compile)]
    public partial class MainPage : CirclePage
    {
        private int _happyValue = 5;

        public MainPage()
        {
            InitializeComponent();
        }

        private async void Button_Clicked(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            HttpClient client = new HttpClient();

            var content = new StringContent($"{{ \"HappyLevel\" : {_happyValue} }}", Encoding.UTF8, "application/json");

            var url = "https://prod-29.australiasoutheast.logic.azure.com:443/workflows/[REST OF URL REDACTED FOR PRIVACY/SECURITY]";

            var result = await client.PostAsync(url, content);
            
        }

        private void HappySlider_ValueChanged(object sender, ValueChangedEventArgs e)
        {
            _happyValue = (int)Math.Round(HappySlider.Value);

            HappyValue.Text = _happyValue.ToString();
        }
    }
}

The preceding code essentially allows the user to specify how happy they are using a slider, and then hit the Go button. This button makes an HTTP POST to a URL, in this example the URL is a Microsoft Flow HTTP request trigger.

The flow is shown in the following screenshot, it essentially takes the JSON data in the HTTP POST, uses the HappyLevel JSON value and sends a mobile notification to the Flow app on my iPhone.

Microsoft Flow triggered from HTTP request

Testing the App

To test the app, run it in Visual Studio:

Xamarin Forms app running in Samsung Galaxy Watch emulator

Tapping the Go button will make the HTTP request and initiate the Microsoft Flow, and after a few moments, the notification being sent to the phone:

Microsoft Flow notification on iPhone

If you want to fill in the gaps in your C# knowledge be sure to check out my C# Tips and Traps training course from Pluralsight – get started with a free trial.

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Developing Samsung TV Apps with .NET - Getting Started

In 2018, Samsung started to release Smart TVs that support apps written in .NET. These TVs run on the Tizen operating system which is “an open and flexible operating system built from the ground up to address the needs of all stakeholders of the mobile and connected device ecosystem, including device manufacturers, mobile operators, application developers and independent software vendors (ISVs). Tizen is developed by a community of developers, under open source governance, and is open to all members who wish to participate.” [Tizen.org]

This means that apps can developed in Visual Studio using .NET, tested locally on a TV emulator, tested on a physical TV, and published/distributed on the Samsung Apps TV app store.

In this article you’ll learn how to set up your development environment, create your first app, and see it running on the TV emulator.

Part I - Setting Up Visual Studio for Samsung TV App Development

There are a number of steps to setup Visual Studio.

1.1 Install Java JDK

The first thing to do is install Java, the Tizen tools under the hood require Java JDK 8 to be installed and system environment variables setup correctly.

To do this the hard way, head over to Oracle.com JDK 8 archive page and download the Windows x64 installation. Note the warning before deciding whether or not to go ahead: “WARNING: These older versions of the JRE and JDK are provided to help developers debug issues in older systems. They are not updated with the latest security patches and are not recommended for use in production.” [Oracle.com] Also note “Downloading these releases requires an oracle.com account.” [Oracle.com]

To do it the easy way, open the Visual Studio Installer, check the Mobile Development with JavaScript payload and in the optional section tick the Java SE Development Kit option as shown in the following screenshot. (You may also want to install the Mobile Development with .NET payload as well as you can use Xamarin Forms to develop Samsung TV apps)

Installing Java 8 from the Visual Studio Installer

Once Java is installed you’ll need to modify system environment variables as follows:

  1. Add a system variable called JAVA_HOME with a value pointing to the path of the Java install, e.g: C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.8.0_192
  2. Add a system variable called JRE_HOME with a value that points to Java JRE directory, e.g: C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.8.0_192\jre
  3. Modify the Path variable value and add to the end: %JAVA_HOME%\bin;%JRE_HOME%\bin;”"

1.2 Install Tizen Visual Studio Tools

The next job is to install the Visual Studio Tizen related tools.

First, open Visual Studio and head to  Tools –> Extension and Updates. In the online section, search for “Tizen” and download the Visual Studio Tools for Tizen extension. Once downloaded, you’ll need to close Visual Studio and follow the prompts to complete the installation (it may take a little while to download the Tizen tools). Once complete re-open Visual Studio.

Next, in the Visual Studio menus, head to Tools –> Tizen –> Tizen Package Manager. This will open the Tizen SDK installer. Click the Install new Tizen SDK option as the following screenshot shows:

Tizen SDK Installer in Visual Studio

Choose an install location – you will need to create a new folder yourself – for example C:\TizenSDK

Follow the prompts and you should see the SDK installation proceeding:

Tizen SDK intallation in progress

You will also be asked to install the Tizen Studio Package Manager, once again follow the prompts. Be patient, the Package Manager install may take some time “Loading package information”.

Once complete, all the dialog boxes should close and you can head back to Visual Studio.

1.3 Install the Samsung Studio TV Extensions

In Visual Studio, head to Tools –> Tizen –> Tizen Package Manager.

Head to the Extension SDK tab and install the TV Extensions-4.0 package:

Install Tizen TV Extensions in Visual Studioe

Once again be patient (the progress bar is near the top of the dialog box).

Once installed, close Package Manager.

1.4 Verify Samsung TV Emulator Installation

Before trying to use the TV emulator check out the requirements (including turning off Hyper V  https://developer.tizen.org/development/visual-studio-tools-tizen/installing-visual-studio-tools-tizen

Back in Visual Studio, head to Tools –> Tizen –> Tizen Emulator Manager.

You should see HD 1080 TV in the list of emulators:

Tizen TV Emulator installed

1.5 Install Samsung TV  .NET App Templates

Head back to Visual Studio’s Tools –> Extensions and Updates menu, once again search online for Tizen, and this time install the Samsung TV .NET App Templates extension. This will give you access to the project templates. You may need to restart Visual Studio for the installation to complete.

Part II – Creating Your First Samsung TV .NET App

2.1 Create a new Samsung TV Project

Re-open Visual Studio and click File –> New Project.

In the Tizen Samsung TV  section, choose Blank App (Xamarin.Forms) template:

Blank App (Xamarin.Forms) Visual Studio Template

Click OK. This will create a very basic bare-bones app project that uses Xamarin Forms.

It is a good idea to head to NuGet package manager and update all the packages such as the Xamarin Forms and Tizen SDK packages.

Head into the “STVXamarinApplication1” project that contains the “STVXamarinApplication1.cs” file which in turn contains the App class. Inside the app class you can see the following code:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;

using Xamarin.Forms;

namespace STVXamarinApplication1
{
    public class App : Application
    {
        public App()
        {
            // The root page of your application
            MainPage = new ContentPage
            {
                Content = new StackLayout
                {
                    VerticalOptions = LayoutOptions.Center,
                    Children = {
                        new Label {
                            HorizontalTextAlignment = TextAlignment.Center,
                            Text = "Welcome to Xamarin Forms!"
                        }
                    }
                }
            };
        }

        protected override void OnStart()
        {
            // Handle when your app starts
        }

        protected override void OnSleep()
        {
            // Handle when your app sleeps
        }

        protected override void OnResume()
        {
            // Handle when your app resumes
        }
    }
}

Modify the line Text = "Welcome to Xamarin Forms!" to be: Text = DateTime.Now.ToString()

Build the solution and check there are no errors.

2.2 Running a .NET App in the Tizen Samsung TV Emulator

In the Visual Studio tool bar, click Launch Tizen Emulator.

Launching the Tizen Emulator from Visual Studio

This will open the Emulator Manager, click the Launch button and the TV emulator will load with a simulated remote  as shown below:

Samsung TV Emulator

Head back to Visual Studio and click the run button (which should now show something like T-samsung-4.0.x86…):

Deploying an Samsung TV app to the emulator in Visual Studio

Once the button is clicked, wait a few moments for the app to be deployed to the emulator. You may have to manually switch back to the emulator if it’s not automatically brought to the front.

You should now see the app running on the emulator and showing the time:

.NET app running on the Samsung TV emulator on Windows 10

If you want to read more about the Tizen .NET TV Framework, check out the documentation.

If you want to fill in the gaps in your C# knowledge be sure to check out my C# Tips and Traps training course from Pluralsight – get started with a free trial.

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Azure Functions Continuous Deployment with Azure Pipelines: Part 8 - Using Gates to Run Smoke Tests on Deployed Function Apps

This is the eighth and final part in a series demonstrating how to setup continuous deployment of an Azure Functions App using Azure DevOps build and release pipelines.

Demo app source code is available on GitHub.

In the previous instalment we added functional end-to-end testing to the release pipeline.

As one final check for the release, we can execute a smoke test on the deployed production Function App. This smoke test won’t modify any data and will simply allow us to check that the Function App is responding to HTTP requests.The smoke test function won’t be disabled in production but it will be protected by a function key.

namespace InvestFunctionApp.TestFunctions
{
    public static class SmokeTest
    {
        [FunctionName("SmokeTest")]
        public static async Task<IActionResult> Run(
            [HttpTrigger(AuthorizationLevel.Function, "post", Route = Testing.TestFunctionRoute + "/smoketest")] HttpRequest req,
            ILogger log)
        {            
            log.LogInformation("C# HTTP trigger function processed a request.");

            string requestBody = await new StreamReader(req.Body).ReadToEndAsync();

            dynamic data = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject(requestBody);

            string azureDevopsReleaseUrl = data?.releaseurl ?? "[releaseurl value not supplied in json request]";

            log.LogInformation($"Smoke test for release {azureDevopsReleaseUrl}");

            // We could add extra smoke testing code here, this simple version just allows us to 
            // verify that the deployment succeeded and the Function App is responding to HTTP requests

            return new OkObjectResult("Smoke test successful");
        }
    }
}

The preceding smoke test function returns a 200 OK result and also allows the URL to the AzureDevOps release to be provided, which is written to the logs. This allows ops to see from which release the smoke test function came from.

The first step is to add a variable to the release pipeline called “prodSmokeTestKey” with the value being the function key from production for the smoketest function. Once this key is copied from the Azure Portal it can be copied into the variable value and the padlock icon clicked to mark this as sensitive data:

Adding a sensitive Azure Pipeline variable

“Gates allow automatic collection of health signals from external services, and then promote the release when all the signals are successful at the same time or stop the deployment on timeout.” [Microsoft]

Gates can be evaluated before a stage executes and/or after a stage executes.

“Approvals and gates give you additional control over the start and completion of the deployment pipeline. Each stage in a release pipeline can be configured with pre-deployment and post-deployment conditions that can include waiting for users to manually approve or reject deployments, and checking with other automated systems until specific conditions are verified. In addition, you can configure a manual intervention to pause the deployment pipeline and prompt users to carry out manual tasks, then resume or reject the deployment.” [Microsoft]

We can add a post-deployment gate that will mark the release as unsuccessful if the smoke test function does not respond successfully. To do this we can use the “Invoke Azure Function” task. Other tasks that can be executed as part of a gate include “Invoke REST API”, “Query Azure Monitor Alerts”, and “Query Work Items” tasks.

To add a post-deployment gate to the “Deploy to Production” stage, click the post-deployment conditions icon, enable the Gates switch, and click the + Add button.

Enabling post-deployment gates in Azure Pipelines

Choose “Invoke Azure Function”. Paste in the URL to the production smoke test function and for the function key specify “$(prodSmokeTestKey)” to retrieve the key from the pipeline variable that we set up earlier. Select the method as POST and in the body enter “{ "releaseurl" : "$(Release.ReleaseWebURL)" }”. This is the JSON payload that will be sent to the smoke test function.

Invoke Azure Function Deployment Gate

Hit save and queue a new release.

Once the production deployment is complete, there will be a 5 minute delay before the gate(s) are evaluated for the first time and a 15 minute wait between re-evaluation of gates which ultimately means a lengthy delay between the deployment and smoke test execution. To improve this you can set the the “The delay before evaluation” to 1 minute, and in the Evaluation options section at the bottom set “The time between re-evaluation of gates” to5 mins and “The timeout after which gates fail” to 6 mins.

As an alternative to using gates in this way (especially if you need to add multiple gates or complex smoke testing requirements) could be to have another post-production-deployment task/job/stage that calls the smoke test function(s)  in another source-controlled test project in a similar way to how the end-to-end tests were executed against the test Function App.

That bring us to the end of this 8 part series.To be notified of future posts subscribe to the blog feed or follow me on Twitter.

If you want to fill in the gaps in your C# knowledge be sure to check out my C# Tips and Traps training course from Pluralsight – get started with a free trial.

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