Building C# Project-based Azure Functions in Visual Studio Code

Serverless, , , ,

I’ve been using the Azure Functions for Visual Studio Code for some time now and they continue to evolve in great ways. The latest shift threw me for a loop so I thought I would document some of it for those who may not have started yet. I should also state that for the past year or so I have focused on writing my functions with JavaScript just because I like to mix things up a bit and it also makes it easier to share Azure Functions with devs who are not .NET focused.

I’ve also written about creating Azure Functions with VS Code in MSDN Magazine but again, this has changed since I wrote about it. I’ve been using the version 2 APIs for a while so I’m not talking (well, writing) about that change from v1 to v2 here but the change in the experience using the Azure Functions extension.

Also notable is that the Azure Functions team actually recommends using Visual Studio for building C# based apps and VS Code for JavaScript. But I’m so often on my MacBook and love using VS Code so I am going down this path with C# anyway.

Having revisited the docs enough times to finally notice some key information, I realize why the experience has changed with the extension working with C#. Previously, I’d worked with C# script functions (.csx) which is the same as what you use when you work directly in the portal. But the extension templates now drive you to C# project functions and there’s a big difference. C# script functions are more like the javascript functions. They depend on a manually created function.json file to define the bindings and can install the appropriate extension packages based on the bindings. The csx files are compiled at run time. With a C# class library, you develop as you would other C# class libraries – installing the relevant packages and then using attributes to identify methods as Azure Functions as well as trigger, input and output bindings. When you compile the library, the Azure Functions tooling will generate a function.json file for you that gets deployed.

Because I was used to creating functions with JavaScript or the C# script path, the new default for the Azure Function extension that uses C# class libraries instead really threw me for a loop. So I decided to document walking through this workflow as I has to learn it. I think I still prefer the lighter weight C# script (.csx) or JavaScript flow but that might align with my preference in many scenarios for VS Code over Visual Studio.

Preparing Visual Studio Code

So first things first: you’ll need to install the Azure Functions and Azure Account extensions into VS Code, Azure Functions extension relies on the Azure Functions Core Tools. The extension installation instructions will help  you get all that you need and the extension does check for updates and prompt you to update those tools as needed. In fact, I got this prompt last night.2019-01-16_09-28-10.png

With the extensions installed, it is time to create a function app project. You should already have a folder created to house your project and you might as well have it open in VS Code. Mine is named AzureFunctionProj.

Then you can click on the “Create New Project” icon on the function bar (the icons show up when you hover over the bar) to create a new Function App project inside your folder.

2019-01-17_18-11-39.png

This part of the workflow has not changed.

  1. It will ask you to point to a folder and the open folder should be there as a default to select.
  2. It will then have you select a language you’ll use in your app. From the options (C#, JavaScript, Python (still a preview) and Java (also a preview), I’ll choose C#.

As a result a new .NET Core project will be created using the template and you’ll see the following in the folder explorer:

2019-01-17_18-19-58.png

All of these files inside AzureFunctionProj folder were created by the template. Most importantly the csproj file where I’ve highlighted some of the most relevant settings.

<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">
  <PropertyGroup>
    <TargetFramework>netcoreapp2.1</TargetFramework>
    <AzureFunctionsVersion>v2</AzureFunctionsVersion>
  </PropertyGroup>
  <ItemGroup>
   <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.NET.Sdk.Functions"
                     Version="1.0.24" />
  </ItemGroup>
  <ItemGroup>
    <None Update="host.json">
      <CopyToOutputDirectory>PreserveNewest</CopyToOutputDirectory>
    </None>
    <None Update="local.settings.json">
     <CopyToOutputDirectory>PreserveNewest</CopyToOutputDirectory>
     <CopyToPublishDirectory>Never</CopyToPublishDirectory>
    </None>
  </ItemGroup>
</Project>

Creating a function in the function app is where things are quite a bit different.

You begin as always with the “add a function” icon2019-01-17_18-11-39 copy.png

The first step is familiar, selecting which folder has the function app that the function should be in:

2019-01-17_22-06-37.png

I’ll choose AzureFunctionProj.

Then there are a number of trigger templates to choose from which is nice but more interesting are the three options at the bottom:

2019-01-17_16-42-25.pngFirst is the project runtime and I definitely want v2 (“~2”). You can use different languages for different functions in the function app. This is showing the default I chose already: C#. And finally, the list of trigger templates is filtered to “Verified”.

You can change these options by clicking on them.

The filter options are Verified, Core and All. Core and All currently reveal the same list, which includes a few extra preview triggers: DurableFunctionsOrchestration, SendGrid, EventHubTrigger and IotHubTrigger.

2019-01-17_16-43-20.png

Now in the past I was creating JavaScript functions inside my .NET Core Function App but now I am going to continue with C# because this is where things really surprised me. I’ll choose  HttpTrigger and am then prompted to provide a name. I’ll just leave the default: HttpTriggerCSharp. I’m then asked to provide a namespace name for the class that will be created. Default is “Company.Project”. I’ll change it to FunctionTests.HttpTest1. The final bit of info to be collected is that you need to choose the security for the function. Of the options, I will select Anonymous because its a demo and I don’t want to have to deal with credentials.

That’s it. The function is created.

Some More Class Library Project Differences

My past experience gave me the expectation that a new folder is created inside the app function folder with the name of the function and inside there, would be a class file for the function and a function.json file to contain the binding configurations. the class file was there (though not in its own folder). But there was no function.json file. Also  interesting and new to me were the FunctionName attribute on the Run method and  the HttpTrigger attribute on the HttpRequest in the Run method’s signature. Also, I’m not used to having all of those using statements when using csx script.2019-01-19_15-16-45.png

When building the project, .NET Core reads that attribute and builds a function.json that goes in the bin folder for deployment. 2019-01-17_22-38-03.png

But it’s more than just the familiar bindings. Notice the generatedBy , configurationSource , scriptFile and entryPoint tags.

So the first binding, the httpTrigger binding, looks familiar to me. The function will respond to httpTrigger.

You can test out this default either by running or debugging. To run, you can use VS Code’s CTRL-F5 keyboard combo or, if you prefer using the CLI, you use Azure Function CLI command:

func host start

That will run the function and provide a url to try out. The template “stake-in-the-ground” method is written to accept either a query parameter or JSON in the body. I’ll just use a query parameter:

http://localhost:7071/api/HttpTriggerCSharp?name=Julie

And the browser outputs

2019-01-19_15-57-04.png

Adding an Output Binding to
Azure Cosmos DB

What if I wanted to add an output binding? I’m used to doing that by editing function.json. But since I’m on this path of attribute defined bindings, I will add the binding that way. Let’s add an output binding for Azure Cosmos DB. That way this function will respond to an HTTP Request and insert some data into a Cosmos DB database. I already have an Azure Cosmos DB account, so I will define this to target a new collection in a new database in the existing account.

In order to use work with a Azure Cosmos DB binding, I need to add the relevant package to my project. Because I’m building my function using a C# class library, I can just do this as I would for any other Nuget package…by adding it directly to csproj or adding the package with the dotnet core CLI:

But now I’m just writing a C# class library so I can add the package either with the dotnet CLI or just add it manually into .csproj. I’ll use the CLI:

dotnet add package Microsoft.Azure.WebJobs.Extensions.CosmosDB --version 3.0.3

Note that if I were building the function with JavaScript or  C# script, I would need to register the package using the tools CLI (func extensions install -p packagename).

Now the package is in csproj:

<ItemGroup>
  <PackageReference 
    Include="Microsoft.Azure.WebJobs.Extensions.CosmosDb"
    Version="3.0.3"/>
  <PackageReference
    Include="Microsoft.NET.Sdk.Functions"
    Version="1.0.24"/>
</ItemGroup>
After restoring, I can add the output binding. Currently the default function is asynchronous and you can’t add out parameters to an async method. Return values are one option. See https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-functions/functions-triggers-bindings#using-the-function-return-value for details. ICollector or IAsyncCollector is another (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-functions/functions-dotnet-class-library#writing-multiple-output-values).
But I’m going to  just make the Run method synchronous and create an output parameter instead. Like the trigger binding parameter, I’ll need to add an attribute to the output parameter to specify the binding. I’m also supplying parameters for the database and collection names, the name of the setting that has the connection string to the database account and one last setting to ensure the database and collection get created if needed.
[FunctionName("HttpTriggerCSharp")]
public static ActionResult Run(
   [HttpTrigger(AuthorizationLevel.Anonymous, "get", "post",                 Route = null)]
   HttpRequest req,
   [CosmosDB(databaseName: "CSharpDatabase",
             collectionName: "CSharpCollection",
             ConnectionStringSetting = "MyCosmosDBConnection",
             CreateIfNotExists=true)] out dynamic document,
   ILogger log)
I added the MyCosmosDBConnection is defined in the local.settings.json file:
{
  "IsEncrypted": false,
  "Values": {
     "AzureWebJobsStorage": "",
     "FUNCTIONS_WORKER_RUNTIME": "dotnet",
     "MyCosmosDBConnection": "this is where my connection string goes",
   }
}
Note that if you were creating a new function with an Azure Cosmos DB trigger, the tooling would prompt you for all of the relevant database information, include that an attribute in the function code and add them to the function.json.
Now there is just one last puzzle piece. The function expects me to provide a value to the document variable which the binding will then insert into the database. The full class listing is below and in there the single line for populating the document with a Name and Added property is highlighted in red. The function and the binding will do all of the rest.
using System;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc;
using Microsoft.Azure.WebJobs;
using Microsoft.Azure.WebJobs.Extensions.Http;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Http;
using Microsoft.Extensions.Logging;

namespace FunctionTests.HttpTest1
{
  public static class HttpTriggerCSharp
  {
    [FunctionName("HttpTriggerCSharp")]
    public static ActionResult Run(
      [HttpTrigger(AuthorizationLevel.Anonymous, "get", "post", Route = null)]
      HttpRequest req, 
      [CosmosDB(databaseName: "CSharpDatabase",
                collectionName: "CSharpCollection",
                ConnectionStringSetting = "MyCosmosDBConnection",
                CreateIfNotExists=true)] out dynamic document,   
      ILogger log)
    {
      log.LogInformation("C# HTTP trigger function processed a request.");
      string name = req.Query["name"];
      document=new { Name = name, Added = DateTime.Now };
      return name != null
        ? (ActionResult)new OkObjectResult($"Hello, {name}")
        : new BadRequestObjectResult("Please pass a name on the query string");
     }
  }
}
Based on my previous experience of manually configuring function.json, I expected after building, the function.json in the bin folder to include the CosmosDB output binding information but it didn’t. Again, this is due to the differences between JavaScript/C# script functions and C# library functions.
Within VS Code I can run or debug the function. Debug is F5 or the debug icon. To run, without debugging, you can use CTRL-F5 or  the tools CLI command:
func host start
When using the CLI command, I found in my testing that the version I’m using seems to require me to run dotnet clean first for it to succeed. CTRL-F5 does that step for you . I made a note of this in a pre-existing GitHub issue. You can read that here.
There is a lot of useful info in the official docs. Two that I leaned on are:

Logging in EF Core 2.2 Has a Simpler Syntax–More like ASP.NET Core

Data Access,

Logging EF Core’s memory operations and SQL operations has evolved a few times since EF Core arrived. It takes advantage of the same underlying features that ASP.NET Core uses. If you are using ASP.NET Core, logging is baked in and it is really simple to turn it on for EF Core and add filtering. See Shawn Wildermuth’s blog post about EF Core logging in ASP.NET Core.

But if you aren’t using ASP.NET Core, it’s a little more complicated. Not terribly, but still there’s some extra work to do. It involves setting up an ILoggerFactory in your DbContext and defining any filters at the same time.

I wrote an article about this (with the focus being on taking advantage of the various available filters for EF Core logging) in MSDN Magazine earlier this …oh wait, it’s Jan 1, so I can say “last  year”.  Data Points – Logging SQL and Change-Tracking Events in EF Core. I also used it heavily in my EF Core 2 Getting Started course, EF Core 2:Mappings and EF Core 2.1: What’s New courses on Pluralsight. (Note that I’ve updated the sample code for the Getting Started course to EF Core 2.2 and put it on GitHub at github.com/julielerman/PluralsightEFCore2GettingStarted)

My article and courses were using Console apps to demonstrate EF Core behavior and therefore the ConsoleLoggerProvider to tie the logger to the console. Note that the Data Points article contains a lot of good details about the various types of filtering. So you can use the new syntax (below) to specify that there should be a filter, but be sure to read the article to learn about the flavors of filtering and what type of details you’ll be able to see based on the choices you make.

But the logging API has continued to evolve and is providing some of the same shortcuts that ASP.NET had created. And the ConsoleLoggerProvider has been deprecated. The API is not part of EF Core. It’s part of .NET Core. Both EF Core and ASP.NET Core use it.

If you are using EF Core 2.2, the syntax has changed (simplified) and it’s going to get even more streamlined in 3.0.

In fact, if you use the earlier syntax with 2.2, you’ll get a warning about the ConsoleLoggerProvider:

Obsolete(“This method is obsolete and will be removed in a future version. The recommended alternative is using LoggerFactory to configure filtering and ConsoleLoggerOptions to configure logging options.”)

For a point of comparison, here is an example of using theold syntax to turn on logging, only show logs related to database commands and only show messages that are tagged as “Information”.

EF Core 2.0 & 2.1 Logic

public static readonly LoggerFactory MyConsoleLoggerFactory
            = new LoggerFactory(new[] {
              new ConsoleLoggerProvider((category, level)
                => category == DbLoggerCategory.Database.Command.Name
               && level == LogLevel.Information, true) });

Once your logger factory field is defined in the context class you tell the DbContext to use it when configuring.

protected override void OnConfiguring
  (DbContextOptionsBuilder optionsBuilder)
{
  var connectionString = 
    ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings["WPFDatabase"].ToString();
  optionsBuilder
    .UseLoggerFactory(MyConsoleLoggerFactory)
    .EnableSensitiveDataLogging(true)
    .UseSqlServer(connectionString);
}

So it’s the creation of the logger factory whose syntax is a little convoluded. The newer API follows how ASP.NET Core lets you filter with an AddFilter method that takes the filters as parameters. No lambdas needed. Also configuring the filter is a separate bit of logic that tellig the logger that it should be tied to the console.

EF Core 2.2 Logic

With EF Core 2.2, you can set up the logger factory in the constructor or another method as long as it’s available when you are configuring the option builder. I’m creating it in a method then using that method as a parameter of UseLoggerFactory. I’m still filtering on showing only database commands and log details flagged as Information.

private ILoggerFactory GetLoggerFactory()
{
  IServiceCollection serviceCollection = new ServiceCollection();
  serviceCollection.AddLogging(builder =>
         builder.AddConsole()
                .AddFilter(DbLoggerCategory.Database.Command.Name, 
                           LogLevel.Information)); 
  return serviceCollection.BuildServiceProvider()
          .GetService<ILoggerFactory>();
}

and then I’m calling GetLoggerFactory() in the UseLogging method on the optionsbuilder:

optionsBuilder.UseLoggerFactory(GetLoggerFactory())

Packages and References

In order to use the AddConsole() method, you still have to use the Microsoft.Extensions.Logging.Console package that the earlier ConsoleLoggerProvider was in. However, you do not need a using statement for the namespace (as you did for the ConsoleLoggerProvider).

Getting the SQL Server 2019 for Linux CTP2.0 Docker Image

Tools,

If you are used to pulling the mssql-server images from the microsoft repository, e.g.,

docker pull microsoft/mssql-server

that won’t work for the 2019 CTP.

I was able to repull (aka update) using the former repository, but that wasn’t working for the CTP whose tag is vNext-CTP2.0-ubuntu.

I finally noticed the new docker pull command on the docker hub page for the image

It says: docker pull mcr.microsoft.com/mssql/server

So the command for pulling the CTP using it’s tag is as follows:

docker pull mcr.microsoft.com/mssql/server:vNext-CTP2.0-ubuntu

 

Grateful for the 16th MVP Award from Microsoft

News

 

15 years ago, July 1, 2003, I got a surprise in the mail. An envelope with this sheet of paper welcoming me to the Microsoft MVP program for the things I had done in the community in the past year. Believe it or not, this first award was triggered via Microsoft Academics because one of the things I’d been doing with INETA was working with college students.

With that piece of paper fresh out of the envelope, I jumped in my car and drove 15 miles to the job site where my husband was working on a roof, made him come down from the roof so I could show him. I was that excited and surprised. Even if the letter had not been completely out of the blue, had someone contacted me to fill out a form as the MVPs do these days, I am confident I would have been just as surprised and excited.

I’ve been honored to be awarded every July 1 since then for various things I do to try to shorten the learning curve for other programmers by sharing what I’ve learned. I don’t take the award for granted. I just follow my heart and do what I want to do and if it happens to be what they are looking for when the assessments are being done, then I’m grateful for that particular recognition.

I know it was a hard week for a lot of long term MVPs who were not being re-awarded this year and for the MVP leads (aka Community Program Managers (aka CMPs)) who made personal calls to each and every one of those MVPs to try to let them know as gently as possible. Given that, I’m extra grateful to continue to be part of the program for the July 2018 – June 2019 period.

My First Newsletter: New Course, Pluralsight Discount, Workshops & More

News
I recently decided it was time to start a newsletter to be sure people who are interested don’t miss out on things like new Pluralsight courses or articles that I’ve published, conferences I’m speaking at and even workshops that I’m teaching. I figure with 26K twitter followers, there might be a few people interested.

Read the June newsletter

Subscribe to my newsletter

I just sent out the first newsletter yesterday. Here are some highlights:

 

 

 

Pluralsight Subscriptions On Sale This Week!

Pluralsight, ,

Pluralsight is having a summer sale on annual subscriptions – $100 off (i.e. $199 for an entire year’s access to the entire library) which is a pretty amazing price for what you’re getting. Heck the regular price of $299 for a full year is amazing when you compare it to the cost of almost any type of training from the expert-authors). Anyway, I don’t have to tell you, you already know!

The $199 price is for new subscriptions, renewing  existing subscriptions and even converting from a monthly subscription!

EF Core’s IsConfigured and Logging

Data Access,

I got a little confused about some behavior today and finally realized my mistake so thought I would share it. This mostly happens in demo apps that I’m building that are not using  ASP.NET Core.

In these cases, I typically stick the DbContext provider configuration in the OnModelConfiguring method. For example, if I’m using SQLite, then I would specify that in the method as such:

protected override void OnConfiguring
 (DbContextOptionsBuilder optionsBuilder)
{
   optionsBuilder.UseSqlite (@"Filename=Data/PubsTracker.db");
}

I also have been using the logging factory a lot. After defining it, I also configure it. I hadn’t thought much about where I was placig it so added it in randomly.

protected override void OnConfiguring 
  (DbContextOptionsBuilder optionsBuilder)
{
  optionsBuilder.UseLoggerFactory (MyConsoleLoggerFactory);
  optionsBuilder.UseSqlite (@"Filename=Data/PubsTracker.db");
}

Then I added in some tests to had to avoid the SQLite provider if the InMemory provider was already configured, so I wrapped the UseSqlite method with a check to see if the options builder was already configured.

protected override void OnConfiguring
  (DbContextOptionsBuilder optionsBuilder)
{
  optionsBuilder.UseLoggerFactory (MyConsoleLoggerFactory);
  if(!optionsBuilder.IsConfigured)
  {
    optionsBuilder.UseSqlite (@"Filename=Data/PubsTracker.db");
  }
}

But my logic wasn’t working. I was running some migrations but they were suddenly not recognizing the UseSqlite method. I’ve used this pattern so many times. It took me a while to realize what was going on. The UseLoggerFactory is a configuration!

I just had to move the UseLoggerFactory logic after the IsConfigured check and all was well.

This is one of those dumb things that seems so silly you wouldn’t imagine someone else would make such a mistake. But since it bit me, I thought it was worth sharing mostly for the sake of the next coder who is trying to solve the same problem.

Defining a Defining Query in EF Core 2.1

Data Access

I have to cut out some text from a too-long article I’ve written for a magazine (links when it’s published), so here is a simple example of using the new ToQuery method for creating a defining query in EF Core 2.1 (currently in Preview 2).

ToQuery is associated with the new Query Type feature that allows you to use types that are not mapped to a table in the database and are therefore not true entities, don’t require a key and are not change tracked.

I’m starting with a simple model that includes these two entities, which are mapped to tables in my DbContext.

public class Team
    {
        public int TeamId { get; set; }
        public string Name { get; set; }
        public string TwitterAlias { get; set; }
        public List Members { get; set; }
    }

    public class TeamMember
    {
        public int TeamMemberId { get; set; }
        public string Name { get; set; }
        public string Role { get; set; }
        public int TeamId { get; set; }
        public TimeSpan TypicalCommuteTime { get; private set; }
        public void CalculateCommuteTime (DateTime start, DateTime end)
        {
            TypicalCommuteTime = end.Subtract(start);
        }
    }

You’ll need to pre-define the type being used for the defining query, mine will have the Name and TypicalCommuteTime for the team member.

public class TeamCommute
{
   public TeamCommute(string name, TimeSpan commuteTime) 
  {
    Name = name;
    TypicalCommuteTime = commuteTime;
  }
  public string Name { get; set; }
  public TimeSpan TypicalCommuteTime { get; set; }
}

You can define queries directly in OnModelBuilding using either raw sql with FromSql or a LINQ query inside a new method called ToQuery. Here’s an example of using a Query type with a defining query and Linq:

modelBuilder.Query<TeamCommute>()   .ToQuery(() => 
   TeamMembers.Select(m => new TeamCommute( m.Name, m.TypicalCommuteTime ) )

With this query defined on the TeamCommute class, you can now use that in queries in your code for example:

var commutes = context.Query<TeamCommute>().ToList();

Keep I mind that you can’t define both a ToQuery and a ToView mapping on the same type.