Cosmos DB Server-Side Programming with TypeScript – Part 6: Build and Deployment

So far in this series we’ve been compiling our server-side TypeScript code to JavaScript locally on our own machines, and then copying and pasting it into the Azure Portal. However, an important part of building a modern application – especially a cloud-based one – is having a reliable automated build and deployment process. There are a number of reasons why this is important, ranging from ensuring that a developer isn’t building code on their own machine – and therefore may be subject to environmental variations or differences that cause different outputs – through to running a suite of tests on every build and release.… [Keep reading] “Cosmos DB Server-Side Programming with TypeScript – Part 6: Build and Deployment”

HoloLens – Continuous Integration

Continuous integration is best defined as the process of constantly merging development artifacts produced or modified by different members of a team into a central shared repository. This task of collating changes becomes more and more complex as the size of the team grows. Ensuring the stability of the central repository becomes a serious challenge in such cases.
A solution to this problem is to validate every merge with automated builds and automated testing. Modern code management platforms like Visual Studio Team Services (VSTS) offers built-in tools to perform these operations.… [Keep reading] “HoloLens – Continuous Integration”

HoloLens – Continuous Integration

Continuous integration is best defined as the process of constantly merging development artifacts produced or modified by different members of a team into a central shared repository. This task of collating changes becomes more and more complex as the size of the team grows. Ensuring the stability of the central repository becomes a serious challenge in such cases.
A solution to this problem is to validate every merge with automated builds and automated testing. Modern code management platforms like Visual Studio Team Services (VSTS) offers built-in tools to perform these operations.… [Keep reading] “HoloLens – Continuous Integration”

VSTS Build Definitions as YAML Part 2: How?

In the last post, I described why you might want to define your build definition as a YAML file using the new YAML Build Definitions feature in VSTS. In this post, we will walk through an example of a simple VSTS YAML build definition for a .NET Core application.

Application Setup

Our example application will be a blank ASP.NET Core web application with a unit test project. I created these using Visual Studio for Mac’s ASP.NET… [Keep reading] “VSTS Build Definitions as YAML Part 2: How?”

VSTS Build Definitions as YAML Part 1: What and Why?

Visual Studio Team Services (VSTS) has recently gained the ability to create build definitions as YAML files. This feature is currently in preview. In this post, I’ll explain why this is a great addition to the VSTS platform and why you might want to define your builds in this way. In the next post I’ll work through an example of using this feature, and I’ll also provide some tips and links to documentation and guidance that I found helpful when constructing some build definitions myself.… [Keep reading] “VSTS Build Definitions as YAML Part 1: What and Why?”

Static Security Analysis of Container Images with CoreOS Clair

Container security is (or should be) a concern to anyone running software on Docker Containers. Gone are the days when running random Images found on the internet was common place. Security guides for Containers are common now: examples from Microsoft and others can be found easily online.
The two leading Container Orchestrators also offer their own security guides: Kubernetes Security Best Practices and Docker security.

Container Image Origin

One of the single biggest factors in Container security is determined by the origin of container Images:

  1. It is recommended to run your own private Registry to distribute Images
  2. It is recommended to scan these Images against known vulnerabilities.
[Keep reading] “Static Security Analysis of Container Images with CoreOS Clair”

WebHook your WebJob – With Visual Studio Team Services integration example

WebHooks, also known as ‘HTTP(S) call backs’ are becoming very popular for reporting asynchronous events to trigger business workflows. The latest release of Microsoft Azure WebJobs can now be triggered using WebHooks. In this post I will cover the configuration of a WebJob to use a WebHook as a trigger using a sample scenario of integrating a WebJob with Visual Studio Team Services (VSTS) to explain the workflow.

Support for WebHooks is packaged as an extension to WebJobs and is currently in a pre-release state.… [Keep reading] “WebHook your WebJob – With Visual Studio Team Services integration example”