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.NET Development
C# 11.0 new features: ref fields and the scoped keyword
C# 11.0 expanded high-performance, low-allocation functionality. This post describes the importance of the added support for ref fields, and how the scoped keyword relates.
C# Design Patterns - Iterator - Language Features
This post examines .NET's native support for iterators: IEnumerator<T>, IEnumerable<T>, and IAsyncEnumerable<T>.
Observe File System Changes with Reactive Extensions for .NET
Use Reactive Extensions for .NET to transform FileSystemWatcher events into a powerful and easy-to-use event stream to deal with file system idiosyncrasies.
Json Schema Patterns in .NET - Mapping input and output values
Common patterns with C# and JSON Schema - using conversions to map automatically between arbitrary types.
Json Schema Patterns in .NET - Maps of strings to strongly typed values
Common patterns with C# and JSON Schema - using unevaluatedProperties to create maps of strings to strongly typed values.
Json Schema Patterns in .NET - Numeric enumerations and pattern matching
Common patterns with C# and JSON Schema - using oneOf to create numeric enumerations and dispatch with pattern matching.
Json Schema Patterns in .NET - Enumerations and pattern matching
Common patterns with C# and JSON Schema - using enum to create enumerations and dispatch with pattern matching.
Json Schema Patterns in .NET - Polymorphism with discriminator properties
Common patterns with C# and JSON Schema - using const to create discriminator properties for polymorphic types.
Json Schema Patterns in .NET - Pattern matching and discriminated unions
Common patterns with C# and JSON Schema - using oneOf for discriminated unions and pattern matching.
Json Schema Patterns in .NET - Interfaces and mix-in types
Common patterns with C# and JSON Schema - composing interface-like mix-in types with allOf.
Json Schema Patterns in .NET - Creating tuples
Common patterns with C# and JSON Schema - creating tuples with prefixItems and unevaluatedItems.
Json Schema Patterns in .NET - Working with tensors
Common patterns with C# and JSON Schema - Working with tensors by converting to and from numeric spans.
Json Schema Patterns in .NET - Creating an array of higher rank
Common patterns with C# and JSON Schema - Creating an array of higher rank using nested items array schema, minItems and maxItems.
Json Schema Patterns in .NET - Creating a strongly typed array
Common patterns with C# and JSON Schema - Creating a strongly typed array with items, minItems and maxItems.
Json Schema Patterns in .NET - Constraining a base type
Common patterns with C# and JSON Schema - constraining a base type.
Json Schema Patterns in .NET - Extending a base type
Common patterns with C# and JSON Schema - extending-a-base-type.
Json Schema Patterns in .NET - Open vs. Closed Types
Common patterns with C# and JSON Schema - object extensibility with open versus closed types.
Json Schema Patterns in .NET - Reusing Common Types
Common patterns with C# and JSON Schema - how to reuse common schema in the definition of a type.
Json Schema Patterns in .NET - Data Object Validation
Common patterns with C# and JSON Schema - constraints on a simple data object.
Json Schema Patterns in .NET - Data Object
Common patterns with C# and JSON Schema - the simple data object.
.NET JsonElement and Schema Validation
Corvus.JsonSchema enables safe use of the very high performance JSON parsing offered by .NET's System.Text.Json.
ASP.NET Core + Razor + HTMX + Chart.js
How to combine ASP.NET Core, Razor, and HTMX to power interactive Chart.js visualisations.
adr - A .NET Tool for Creating & Managing Architecture Decision Records
Architectural Decision Records (ADRs) capture context, options, decisions, and consequences. dotnet-adr is a .NET tool for managing ADRs.
.NET JsonElement Error Handling
.NET's System.Text.Json offers very high performance JSON parsing. However, JsonElement's text parsing methods offer a trap for the unwary
Analysing WPF Performance Using ETW and PerfView
This post walks through the process of using PerfView to analyse ETW data to get to the bottom of a performance issue in a WPF application.
Learn Reactive Programming for FREE: Introduction to Rx.NET 2nd Edition (2024)
Learn Reactive Programming with our free book, Introduction to Rx.NET 2nd Edition (2024), available in PDF, EPUB, online, and GitHub.
Analyzing WPF performance by enabling ETW
WPF makes extensive performance instrumentation available through ETW. However, in modern .NET, it's not obvious how to get hold of it. This blog shows how
ASP.NET Core 8.0 uses C# 12.0's experimental interceptors to enable AOT
C# 12 includes an experimental 'interceptors' feature. If you use trimming or AOT publishing in ASP.NET Core 8.0, you're already using this.
Boosting string search performance in .NET 8.0 with SearchValues
Learn how .NET 8.0's SearchValues<T> can speed up string searching
How .NET 8.0 boosted JSON Schema performance by 20%
We benchmarked endjin's JSON Schema library on .NET 8.0 and saw large performance gains. There are even more gains to be had with new .NET 8 features.
How .NET 8.0 boosted AIS.NET performance by 27%
When we benchmarked endjin's AIS.NET library on .NET 8.0, we were delighted to see substantial performance gains, with no extra work required.
Optimising .NET code: Avoiding allocations using Span<T>
Investigate some ways of working with strings that prevent unnecessary memory allocations.
Optimising .NET code: Let's blame LINQ
Investigate the impact of basic LINQ functions on performance and memory allocation.
Optimising .NET code: Hunting for allocations
Explore basic techniques for benchmarking and identifying allocation sources in code.
Optimising .NET code: Introduction
Explore techniques to boost .NET performance & memory efficiency, identify allocation sources, and optimize data handling.
How .NET 7.0 boosted AIS.NET performance by 19%
When we benchmarked endjin's AIS.NET library on .NET 7.0, we were delighted to see substantial performance gains, with no extra work required.
C# Design Patterns - Iterator - The Pattern
Explore the iterator design pattern in C#, its importance in programming, and learn how to implement it.
Rx.NET v6.0 Now Available
For the first time since 2020, a new release of Rx.NET is available, supporting .NET 6 and .NET 7.
C# 11.0 new features: Span<char> pattern matching
C# 11.0 adds some new pattern matching features. In this post, Ian shows the new support for matching lists.
Using the Playwright C# SDK to automate 2FA authentication for AAD and MSA
Learn to configure AAD or MSA 2FA profiles for UI automation testing with Time-based One-Time Passwords.
C# 11.0 new features: list pattern matching
C# 11.0 adds some new pattern matching features. In this post, Ian shows the new support for matching lists.
C# 11.0 new features: newlines in string interpolation expressions
C# 11.0 enhances string literals with new features. Discover how multiline interpolated strings boost readability in Ian's insightful post.
C# 11.0 new features: UTF-8 string literals
C# 11.0 adds various improvements to string literals. In this post, Ian explains how we can now create UTF-8 string literals.
Adventures in GitHub Actions: Episode 1 - Goodbye Azure DevOps, Hello GitHub Actions
This series will follow our ongoing journey of migrating the CI/CD pipelines for our many Open Source repositories, from Azure DevOps to GitHub Actions.
Adventures in Dapr: Episode 5 - Debugging Containers with Visual Studio
Explore Dapr for cloud migration & use Visual Studio container tools to debug containerized services.
C# 11.0 new features: raw string literals
C# 11.0 adds various improvements to string literals. In this post, Ian explains how raw string literals can make your code more readable.
How to design APIs for Accessibility
Learn how accessibility-aware API design creates a great experience for all developers, not just those with accessibility needs.
Correctly configuring ASP.NET Core MVC authentication when hosting in Azure Container Apps
A short rundown of why you need the ForwardedHeadersMiddleware when using Azure Container Apps to host an ASP.NET Core MVC app requiring authentication
Lazy and once-only C# async initialization
Performing lazy and/or just-once initialization is a simple optimization. But what if the initialization is async?
Bye bye Azure Functions, Hello Azure Container Apps: Conclusions
In the sixth and final post we draw our conclusions about migrating an application from Azure Functions to Azure Container Apps.
An Overview of the Corvus.Retry Library
Corvus.Retry is an open source repository that provides functionality for building policies and strategies for handling transient faults. This post provides a spotlight on the repository.
How to sign your git commits
Signing git commits proves that you are the author of the code you are pushing up to GitHub, and helps protect the integrity of your software supply chain.
An Overview of the Corvus.Globbing Library
Corvus.Globbing is an .NET open source library that provides high performance, zero allocation functionality for working with globs.
In Defence of Squash Commits
Encapsulation is a powerful tool. Squash commits provide a way to encapsulate Git commit history.
An Overview of the Corvus.Extensions Library
Corvus.Extensions is an open source repository that provides a collection of useful helper extension methods to .NET types. This post provides a spotlight on the repository.
Adventures in Dapr: Episode 4 - Containerising with Visual Studio
Explore Dapr for cloud migration & simplify containerized dev inner-loop using Visual Studio with the Dapr Traffic Control sample application.
Bye bye Azure Functions, Hello Azure Container Apps: Migration of the existing test environment
The fifth in a series of posts talking about how and why we migrated an application from Azure Functions to Azure Container Apps
High Performance UriTemplate resolution with low-allocation C#
Learn how to use high-performance code constructs like ReadOnlySpan<T> to parse and create UriTemplates for C# developers.
Bye bye Azure Functions, Hello Azure Container Apps: Authentication and CORS issues
The fourth post migrating an app from Azure Functions to Azure Container Apps we examine the challenges around authentication and CORS
Bye bye Azure Functions, Hello Azure Container Apps: Build and deployment pipelines, and our first big problem
The third in a series of posts talking about how and why we migrated an application from Azure Functions to Azure Container Apps
Bye bye Azure Functions, Hello Azure Container Apps: Migrating from Azure Functions to ASP.NET Core
The second in a series of posts talking about how and why we migrated an application from Azure Functions to Azure Container Apps
C# Lambda Discards
C# has gradually been adding support for discards. This article explores how this evolution has led to some surprises.
Bye bye Azure Functions, Hello Azure Container Apps: Introduction
The first in a series of posts talking about how and why we migrated an application from Azure Functions to Azure Container Apps
Service Lifetimes in ASP.NET Core
Explore Microsoft Dependency Injection container's 3 lifetimes: transient, singleton, scoped. Learn their behaviors & importance in app dependencies.
Using Azure CLI Authentication within Local Containers
Fix broken dev loop with containerized apps on Azure CLI for Windows. Learn a workaround to avoid using outdated Azure CLI versions.
Adventures in Dapr: Episode 3 - Azure Storage Queues
If you're interested in the Distributed Application Runtime (Dapr) and how it can simplify migrating existing workloads to use cloud platform services, then this series might be for you. In this post, we continue modifying the excellent Dapr Traffic Control sample application by swapping the MQTT-based messaging with Azure Storage Queues. We will also look at how you can use the Dapr programming model as an alternative to cloud-provider SDKs.
Understanding the Stack and Heap in C#
The stack and heap are central components of memory management in C# programs. This post aims to introduce the topic, with a number of worked examples.
Implementing dependency injection in ASP.NET Core
In this post, we will be showing how to implement dependency injection in an ASP.NET Core application.
The Perils of Combining Multicast Delegates with Tasks in C#
Explore the complexities of combining async methods with multicast delegates in C# with Liam.
Debugging NuGet Packages: Understanding Debugging Symbols and Using Source Link
Explore debugging NuGet packages, a less straightforward process, to troubleshoot app issues by stepping through code and diving into methods.
Adventures in Dapr: Episode 2 - Azure Key Vault
Explore DAPR's role in migrating workloads to cloud services, focusing on integrating Azure Key Vault for secrets management.
Understanding Lambda Expressions in C#
Explore C# lambda expressions, a concise method for defining functions, with a focus on syntax and practical examples.
Adding Authentication and Authorisation to ASP.NET Core Web Applications
Explore authentication & authorisation in ASP.NET Core web apps using Identity, Razor class libraries, scaffolding, and partial views.
Tag Helpers in ASP.NET Core
Explore tag helpers in ASP.NET Core web apps, learn their uses, and create custom tag helpers with examples in this informative post.
Pattern Matching in C#
Explore how pattern matching in C# has evolved, and how to use is expressions, switch statements and switch expressions.
C# 11.0 preview: parameter null checking
Discover C# 11.0's new !! syntax for detecting & rejecting null arguments. Learn its true purpose and clear up common misconceptions in this post.
C# 10.0 improves handling of nullable references in generic types - no more AllowNull
Explore C# 10.0's improved nullability annotations in generic code, replacing AllowNull with more intuitive syntax.
Understanding Middleware in ASP.NET Core
Explore the Configure method in ASP.NET Core's Startup class, focusing on the middleware pipeline for processing HTTP messages in web applications.
Raising Coding Standards with .NET 6.0 Code Analyzers
.NET 6.0 makes it easier to take full advantage of code analyzers that can help you improve the quality of your code.
Model Binding in ASP.NET Core using Razor Pages
Explore model binding in web apps, a process that extracts data from HTTP requests & converts it to .NET types for easy input model integration.
Flow control in C#
This post explains how to control the flow of execution in C# by using if and switch statements and looping with for, foreach, while and do.
Introduction to Containers and Docker
Explore containerisation & Docker for app development & deployment. Learn to create containerised applications with examples in this intro guide.
How .NET 6.0 boosted Ais.Net performance by 20%
When we tested endjin's AIS.NET library on .NET 6.0, we were delighted to see substantial performance gains, with no extra work required.
Adventures in Dapr: Episode 1 - Azure Service Bus
Explore Dapr for migrating workloads to cloud services. Learn to enable PaaS Pub-Sub with Azure Service Bus using the Dapr Traffic Control sample app.
Adventures in Dapr: Episode 0 - Introduction
Explore Dapr's role in simplifying cloud migration using Azure services, based on the Dapr Traffic Control sample app.
How C# 10.0 and .NET 6.0 improve ArgumentExceptions
C# 10.0's support for CallerArgumentExpression and some new helpers in .NET 6.0 make throwing argument exceptions more succinct and less error prone.
Month one at endjin
In this post, Nehemiah reflects on his first month at endjin as an apprentice engineer.
C# 10.0 implicit global using directives
C# 10's new implicit global imports can make your code more communicative. This article shows how the magic works, and how you can control the feature.
C# serialization with JsonSchema and System.Text.Json
Learn how code generation can build on System.Text.Json and JSON Schema to create a great experience for C# developers.
Configuration in Azure Functions - What's in the box?
The first in a series of posts talking about how to best work with configuration in Azure Functions
How to trigger an Azure Synapse pipeline run from C#
A rundown of how to trigger an Azure Synapse pipeline run from C# code.
Installing Mattermost using the Azure CNAB Quickstart Library
Get started with Mattermost on Azure using the Mattermost on AKS quickstart from the Azure CNAB Quickstart Library.
Design patterns in C# - The Proxy Pattern
Explore the proxy pattern in this blog post, a design pattern used for controlling access to underlying objects and remote server communication.
How to consume a NuGet package in PowerShell
Learn how to import .NET packages from NuGet into PowerShell and utilize their classes/methods, while avoiding PowerShell NuGet provider pitfalls.
How to update credentials for an on-prem Power BI data source using PowerShell
Learn to automate Power BI data source credential updates using RSA-OAEP encryption and .NET SDK helper classes for on-premises data sources.
When C# 9.0 patterns go wrong: mechanism over intent
C# 9 enhances pattern matching capabilities. Ian Griffiths advises caution to avoid complexity.
Does your GitHub Repo need 'Code Operations'?
CodeOps enables you to layer standards, automation, and governance to your source control repositories, decreasing manual effort and increasing productivity.
Design patterns in C# - The Facade Pattern
This blog is part of a series around design patterns. This post focuses on the facade pattern. The facade pattern provides an interface into a complex system, in order to simplify access to the functionality.
C# 8.0 nullable references: defeating the point with empty strings
Enabling C# 8's nullable references feature often produces a lot of warnings. Avoid the temptation to make some go away by initializing properties to empty strings.
Design patterns in C# - The Decorator Pattern
Investigate the decorator pattern in this blog post, a design pattern used to dynamically enhance object functionality.
GitOps: Not Just For Kubernetes!
Discover how GitOps, often used for Kubernetes management, can benefit a broader audience.
C# 8.0 nullable references: prepare today by not misusing 'as'
Prepare for using C# 8.0 nullable references by not misusing the 'as' operator.
Design patterns in C# - The Adapter Pattern
Explore the adapter pattern in this design patterns series, enabling use of incompatible classes within your solution's interfaces/architecture.
Where are you going wrong when choosing to buy, not build?
Often when building software we need to outsource part of the solution to a third party. Common examples include authentication, payment, and email, but there are many others. When first designing a solution the decision around which provider to use can be difficult to tackle. At endjin we have developed a system for answering the question "which provider should I use?".
Streamline .NET Dependency Management with NuGet Meta Packages
Simplify dependency consumption & streamline integration with meta/virtual NuGet packages and tools like Dependabot.
ArrayPool vs MemoryPool—minimizing allocations in AIS.NET
Tracking down unexpected allocations in a high-performance .NET parsing library.
A simple pattern for using System.CommandLine with dependency injection
Explore building a command line tool with System.CommandLine packages, using dependency injection for quick and easy initialization.
C# 8.0 nullable references and serialization
C# 8's nullable references feature can clash with common serialization techniques. This article shows how to deal with that.
A simple invite user flow for AAD B2C (without custom policies)
Explore an alternative "invite user" flow for Azure AD B2C, simplifying authentication without custom policies in SaaS applications.
C# 8.0 nullable references: when methods don't return
Explore the importance of DoesNotReturn & DoesNotReturnIf attributes in C# 8 nullable references, enhancing their long-standing role in C#.
How to fully initialize types in their constructor with C# nullable using the async factory pattern
Explore a pattern for async initialization, enabling readonly object construction & leveraging nullable references for fully instantiated classes.
Reactive Extensions for .NET at dotnetsheff
Ian Griffiths is talking about the Reactive Extensions for .NET at dotnetsheff. Learn the ideas behind Rx, and see it applied in an IoT applicable to upload clinical monitoring data to the cloud.
C# 8.0 nullable references: supporting older runtimes
See how to use C# 8.0 nullable references even when targetting older versions of .NET that don't officially support it.
Using Azure Key Vault for Encryption in C# - A Simple Tutorial
Learn to encrypt data in your app using C# and Azure SDK libraries, and secure keys with Azure Key Vault. Discover the easy setup process in this blog.
C# 8.0 nullable references: more type system transcendence with DisallowNull
C# 8.0 nullable references help identify potential null-related bugs. DisallowNull attribute enhances properties and generics.
C# 8.0 nullable references: conditional post-conditions
Explore C#8's NotNullWhen, MaybeNullWhen, & NotNullIfNotNull attributes for improved nullability warnings, aiding method output inference from inputs.
Debugging web apps in Visual Studio with custom browser configurations
Discover how to auto-open browsers in private mode or with custom profiles for web app debugging in Visual Studio.
C# 8.0 nullable references: MaybeNull
The MaybeNull attribute enables C#8's nullable references feature to provide more useful warnings, by helping it infer information about a method output.
C# 8.0 nullable references: NotNull
The NotNull attribute enables C#8's nullable references feature to provide more useful warnings, by helping it infer information about a method argument.
Using multiple azure-cli credentials within automation
Discover a technique for setting up multiple, concurrent authenticated sessions using azure-cli in this post.
Does Azure Synapse Analytics spell the end for Azure Databricks?
Explore why Microsoft's new Spark offering in Azure Synapse Analytics is a game-changer for Azure Databricks investors.
C# 8.0 nullable references: transcending the type system with AllowNull
Explore C# 8.0 nullable references & AllowNull attribute for better null-related bug detection and enhanced expressiveness in properties & generics.
C# 8.0 nullable references: get better results with nullability attributes
C# 8.0 nullable references enable us to annotate our code with information that lets the compiler discover possible null-related bugs.
Why Power BI developers should care about the read/write XMLA endpoint
Whilst "read/write XMLA endpoint" might seem like a technical mouthful, its addition to Power BI is a significant milestone in the strategy of bringing Power BI and Analysis Services closer together. As well as closing the gap between IT-managed workloads and self-service BI, it presents a number of new opportunities for Power BI developers in terms of tooling, process and integrations. This post highlights some of the key advantages of this new capability and what they mean for the Power BI developer.
5 tips for an awesome Windows Terminal experience
Improve the already-great Windows Terminal experience by following these tips for customizing the application to work best for you.
C# 8.0 nullable references: getting started in an existing codebase
C# 8.0's nullable references feature dramatically changes a fundamental aspect of the language. In this post, Ian explains how to you can soften the impact by enabling gradually across your projects.
Testing Power BI Reports using SpecFlow and .NET
Ensure Power BI report quality by connecting to tabular models, executing scenario-based specs, and validating data, business rules, and security.
C# 8.0 nullable references: inferred (non-)nullness
Ian discusses inferred nullness and its significance in C# 8.0's new Nullable References feature.
Testing Power BI Dataflows using SpecFlow and the Common Data Model
Ensure reliable insights with endjin's automated quality gates for validating Power BI Dataflows in complex solutions.
C# 8.0 nullable references: embrace the expressiveness
C# 8.0 nullable references detect null-related errors and enhance code expressiveness.
Azure Analysis Services - how to save money with automatic shutdown
Explore Azure Analysis Services for scalable analytics. Control costs via automation with Powershell & Azure DevOps in multi-environment setups.
Building a proximity detection pipeline
Endjin's blog post details their project with OceanMind, using a serverless architecture and machine learning to detect illegal fishing.
Using complex objects in BDD Scenarios with SpecFlow
Explore Behavior Driven Development using SpecFlow. Learn to create complex test data objects in Gherkin feature files with Corvus.NET project.
C# 8.0 nullable references: non-nullable is the new default
Explore C# 8.0's nullable references feature, as Ian discusses its impact on default nullability assumptions in this informative post.
C# teamwork: share project config with common Nuget Build Asset Packages
See how to manage consistent default configuration across all your .NET projects by using NuGet build assets.
Integration Testing Azure Functions with SpecFlow and C#, Part 5 - Using Corvus.SpecFlow.Extensions in a build pipeline
If you use Azure Functions on a regular basis, you'll likely have grappled with the challenge of testing them. Even now, several years after their introduction, the testing story for Functions is not hugely well defined. In the final post in this series, we show how to ensure specs written using Corvus.Testing can run as part of your build pipeline.
Integration Testing Azure Functions with SpecFlow and C#, Part 4 - Controlling your functions with additional configuration
If you use Azure Functions on a regular basis, you'll likely have grappled with the challenge of testing them. Even now, several years after their introduction, the testing story for Functions is not hugely well defined. In the fourth of this series of posts, we look at how configuration can be supplied from your tests to the functions apps being tested.
Integration Testing Azure Functions with SpecFlow and C#, Part 3 - Using hooks to start Functions
If you use Azure Functions on a regular basis, you'll likely have grappled with the challenge of testing them. Even now, several years after their introduction, the testing story for Functions is not hugely well defined. In the third of a series of posts, we look at using classes in the Corvus.Testing library to run functions apps via scenario and feature hooks.
Integration Testing Azure Functions with SpecFlow and C#, Part 2 - Using step bindings to start Functions
If you use Azure Functions on a regular basis, you'll likely have grappled with the challenge of testing them. Even now, several years after their introduction, the testing story for Functions is not hugely well defined. In the second of a series of posts, we look at using step bindings provided by the Corvus.Testing library to run functions apps as part of your SpecFlow scenarios.
Integration Testing Azure Functions with SpecFlow and C#, Part 1 - Introduction
If you use Azure Functions on a regular basis, you'll likely have grappled with the challenge of testing them. Even now, several years after their introduction, the testing story for Functions is not hugely well defined. In the first of a series of posts, we look at some different approaches to testing your functions apps, and introduce the Corvus.Testing library.
High-performance C#: a test pattern for ref structs
Explore C# 7.2's ref structs, use in high-performance scenarios, their constraints, and techniques for overcoming challenges in unit testing the Ais.Net parser.
An experimental approach to software development
Endjin applies scientific experimentation to software development for validated solutions, using hypotheses for confident designs.
Help for the new CTO: Getting to know your team
As part of my series on guidance for CTOs, I discuss using the Office of the CTO (OCTO) approach to management, its strengths and limitations.
Azure Analysis Services - How to process an asynchronous model refresh from .NET
Learn to use Azure Analysis Services in custom apps via REST API in .NET for efficient async model refreshes.
Introducing Ais.Net - High-Performance Parsing in C#
Explore endjin's high-performance .NET AIS parser, developed for OceanMind, used for tracking commercial ships.
C# developers! Your scoped components are more dangerous than you think.
Discover the challenges and alternatives of managing scoped component lifetimes with dependency injection.
Azure Analysis Services: How to execute a DAX query from .NET
Explore endless possibilities with dynamic DAX queries in C# for Azure Analysis Services integration in custom apps using the provided code samples.
Why You Should Buy My Book: Programming C# 8.0
Ian spent a big chunk of last year writing an update to his book, Programming C# 8.0. Books continue to be Ian's preferred source of learning because nothing else offers the combination of depth, breadth, and coherence. His goal with Programming C# 8.0 (and its predecessors) was very clear: to write the book that he would want to read if he were learning C# today. It is Ian's attempt to distil around 18 years of experience with C# (part of almost 30 years of work as a programmer) into a coherent, complete description of what you'll need to know to be productive today in C#.
Setting up Porter on Windows
Porter: a CNAB-based tool for building, managing, and installing app bundles. Learn to set up Porter on Windows with this guide.
Setting up Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) 2 for Windows 10 & Docker
Learn how to enable WSL 2 on Windows 10 and use its features with Docker for Windows.
An Overview of the Azure CNAB Quickstarts Library
The Azure CNAB Quickstarts Library helps you get up and running with CNAB and Porter. We've built quickstarts covering solutions like WordPress, Ghost, Mattermost, and data platforms like Apache Airflow, SQL Server AlwaysOn clusters and Kubernetes features like an nginx ingress controller and an Azure AD enabled OAuth2 Proxy. We've condensed all our learnings from the past 9 months of working on the project and turned them into a 10 minute video which explains all the key concepts. We hope this video helps accelerate your own CNAB & Porter epiphanies!
Introducing the Azure CNAB Quickstarts Library
In partnership with Microsoft, we have released Azure CNAB Quickstarts Library on GitHub. CNAB (Cloud-Native Application Bundle) is a new specification designed for facilitating the packaging, installation, upgrading and uninstallation of cloud-native solutions in the cloud, on-premise or on the edge. We've created a number of quickstarts covering Apache Airflow, Azure Kubernetes Service, Ghost, Kubeflow, SQL Server Always On and Wordpress to help demonstrate the power of CNAB and Porter.
Azure Analysis Services - How to query all the measures in a model from .NET
Explore .NET querying methods for integrating Azure Analysis Services beyond data querying into dynamic UIs and APIs.
Azure Analysis Services: How to open a connection from .NET
Learn to integrate Azure Analysis Services in apps by establishing server connections. Follow this guide with code samples for essential scenarios.
NDC London 2020 - My highlights
Ed attended NDC London 2020, along with many of his endjin colleagues. In this post he summarises and reflects upon his favourite sessions of the conference including; "OWASP Top Ten proactive controls" by Jim Manico, "There's an Impostor in this room!" by Angharad Edwards, "How to code music?" by Laura Silvanavičiūtė, "ML and the IoT: Living on the Edge" by Brandon Satrom, "Common API Security Pitfalls" by Philippe De Ryck, and "Combatting illegal fishing with Machine Learning and Azure - for less than £10 / month" by Jess Panni & Carmel Eve.
NDC London Day 1
In this post, Ian describes some of the highlights from the NDC London conference
NDC London Day 3 Retrospective - from personal projects to developer comedy
Along with several of my endjin colleagues, I attended NDC London in January this year - here's a run through of the sessions I attended on Day 3 and my thoughts. This final day was a mixed bag, taking in talks on drumming and AKKA.net, as well as something a bit more close to home - a session from endjin's own Jess Panni and Carmel Eve on our recent project for OceanMind.
NDC London Day 2 Retrospective - Full Stack, from SPAs to high performance .NET Core via Websockets
Along with several of my endjin colleagues, I attended NDC London in January this year - here's a run through of the sessions I attended on Day 2 and my thoughts. This day was UI heavy, with sessions on Vuejs and UI testing, but I also learned more about GraphQL and writing high performance C# code.
NDC London Day 1 Retrospective - dangerous AI, microservices, diagnostics and Blazor
A retrospective of my first day at NDC London 2020, taking in sessions on AI and Machine Learning, Capability Mapping, Micro Frontends, Diagnostics and Blazor.
Azure Analysis Services - integration options using .NET, REST APIs and PowerShell
Explore Azure Analysis Services in custom apps using SDKs, PowerShell cmdlets & REST APIs. Learn to choose the right framework in this guide.
C# 8 Positional Patterns Custom Deconstructor Pitfall
Discover 'positional patterns' in C# 8, their interaction with custom desconstructors, and unexpected behaviors.
C#, Span and async
Explore how ref struct types like Span<T> in C# enhance performance but pose async method challenges, and learn mitigation techniques.
Comparing GitHub Actions and Azure Pipelines: High-level concepts
GitHub Actions is GitHub's new CI/CD platform. It is comparable with Azure Pipelines, which forms part of the Azure DevOps suite. In this post, Mike Larah looks at the similarities and differences in the high-level concepts and terminology between the two platforms.
Long Running Functions in Azure Data Factory
Explore Azure Durable Functions as an alternative to long-running operations, overcoming HTTP Triggers' 230s limit in Azure Load Balancer.
How Azure DevTestLabs is helping me climb Everest
Remote working allows us to work from anywhere we want. This brings a huge amount of flexibility in freedom, however we do need the help of a working laptop! When Carmel's laptop gave in just before a trip, she used Azure DevTestLabs to allow her to continue to work using a 10 year old Mac that probably couldn't wouldn't have been up to the task alone...
Passwordless SSH from Windows 10 to Raspberry Pi
A guide to enabling SSH on Raspberry Pi, accessing it via Windows 10, and setting up passwordless SSH access.
Increasing performance via low memory allocation in C#
Explore techniques for high-performance, low-allocation code in Azure Functions using C#, including data streaming, list preallocation, and Span<T>.
Running Azure Functions in Docker on a Raspberry Pi 4
Running an Azure Function in a Docker container on Raspberry Pi 4 with this step-by-step guide and ready-to-use code for your projects.
Donut chart corkscrew entry animation with d3.js
In this post we show a smooth entry animation for D3.js donut (or pie) charts, using a combination of a sweep and a zoom to give a corkscrew-like effect.
Design patterns in C# - The Composite Pattern
This blog is part of a series around design patterns. This post focuses on the composite pattern. The composite pattern is often used in situations where you want to me able to treat groups and individuals in the same way during processing.
Design patterns in C# - The Builder Pattern
Traverse the builder pattern in this design patterns series, simplifying complex object creation and separating construction from usage.
How to use the AzureAD module in PowerShell Core
Explore using AzureAD with Az module in PowerShell Core, as Az may not fully replace AzureAD. Learn to utilize both for optimal functionality.
Design Patterns in C# - Factory Method and Abstract Factory
Investigate the differences between factory method and abstract factory design patterns in this first blog of our series.
How to create a Power BI workspace in an Azure DevOps Pipeline using Powershell
Automate Power BI workspaces creation & security using PowerShell & Azure DevOps pipelines in a wider DevOps strategy with Azure data platform services.
Incorporating software architecture into agile projects
Software architecture and Agile project planning are often seen to be at odds. However, here at endjin we think that the way in which they intersect solves a lot of the common issues surrounding architecture. The key to successful architecture is constantly keeping the drivers in mind and having a tight communication loop as the architecture is implemented. These concepts are ones which are key to agile project management, and the combination of these two disciplines can be extremely powerful and successful when applied correctly.
Snowflake Connector for Azure Data Factory - Part 2
A code review with NDepend Part 2: The initial review
At endjin we have a high quality bar when it comes to our code. As part of this we carry out regular code reviews. One of the tools we have used for these code reviews is NDepend. This is the second in a blog series written as we carried out that process. This post focuses on the insight you can quickly gain just by glancing at the NDepend UI.
Enforce resource tagging with Azure Policy
Explore Azure Policy for proper tagging on resources and enabling tag inheritance from parent resource groups.
A code review with NDepend Part 1: Quality metrics
At endjin we have a high quality bar when it comes to our code. As part of this we carry out regular code reviews. One of the tools we have used for these code reviews is NDepend. This is the first in a blog series written as we carried out that process. This post runs through the different metrics used by NDepend, and the reasons that each of these can be an indication of code quality.
C# faux amis 3: variable declarations and type patterns
Ian Griffiths discusses C# 8 features, highlighting how 'var' can enhance compile-time type checking in his final series article.
C# faux amis 2: tuple deconstruction and positional patterns
C# v8.0 introduces various new patterns. In this article, part of a series on how the evolution of the language has added complexity, Ian Griffiths shows how the strong resemblance between the new Positional Patterns and Deconstruction can be misleading.
A beginner's guide to agile estimation and planning
Discover agile estimation principles & planning methods for project success. Dive into uncertainty, valuable estimates & agile delivery processes.
C# faux amis 1: discards and underscores
Visual Studio 2019 saw the arrival of C# v8.0. This article shows the first of a series of examples of how friction can arise when integrating new features into a mature language: the relatively late addition of 'discards' causes some surprises.
C# 8 surprising patterns
Visual Studio 2019 saw the arrival of C# v8.0. A programming language cannot evolve for 20 years without developing a few quirks. Ian Griffiths writes about a surprising aspect of the new pattern matching features, and what this reveals about how the language has changed.
11 cheers for binary (And 3 for hexadecimal)!
Explore the basics of binary and hexadecimal numbers and their role in daily computing.
Rx operators deep dive Part 5 – Thank you for joining me on this journey
This is the final blog in a series which delves into how the Rx operators work under the covers. This series aims to provide a greater understanding of Rx and its operators. This post focuses on the JOIN operator.
Rx operators deep dive Part 4: A window into scheduling in Rx
Fourth in a series, this blog post explores the inner workings of the Rx WINDOW operator for better Rx understanding.
How to run a script on an existing Azure Virtual Machine
Using PowerShell and the VM Custom Script Extension to download and execute scripts on existing Azure VMs
Rx operators deep dive Part 3: Re-grouping our thoughts
This is the third blog in a series which delves into how the Rx operators work under the covers. This series aims to provide a greater understanding of Rx and its operators. This post focuses on the GROUP operator.
Rx operators deep dive part 2: Slowly aggregating knowledge
This is the second blog in a series which delves into how the Rx operators work under the covers. This series aims to provide a greater understanding of Rx and its operators. This post focuses on the AGGREGATE operator.
Explicit interface implementation
Two of the main use-cases for explicit interface implementation are: 1. to hide members of the interface in a class which inherits from that interface, and 2. to work around the scenario when a class is inheriting from two interfaces which share a member of the same name. Take a look at this blog to go into more depth about each of those scenarios.
Rx operators deep dive part 1: Where observables meet LINQ
Explore the workings of Rx operators in this series. This first post delves into the WHERE operator for a deeper Rx understanding.
Using Step Argument Tranformations in SpecFlow to pass null values into scenarios
Learn to handle null values in Specflow using Step Argument Transformations for comprehensive test suites and edge case validation in this blog post.
Understanding Rx: Making the interfaces, subscribing and other Subject<T>s finally click
Explore endjin's introduction to reactive data processing, covering Rx.NET's main classes and simplifying this complex .NET area for easy understanding.
Async pitfalls: deferred work and resource ownership
Combining deferred execution with asynchronous operations can cause subtle problems. This post shows how to ensure correct operation when these idioms combine.
Whose package is it anyway? Why it's important to minimise dependencies in your solutions...
This is a post about the importance of reducing your dependencies as much as possible when designing solutions.If as much as possible is under your own control, there is far less room for synchronization errors and update conflicts.
Garbage collection, a memorandum on memory in C#
Explore the process of .NET garbage collection and understand the behind-the-scenes of writing C# code in this insightful post.
Configuring SpecFlow for XUnit using new-style csproj
We're talking about Cosmos DB at Future Decoded 2017!
We have lots of experience working with Azure Cosmos DB, and we're sharing some of our knowledge at Microsoft's Future Decoded event.
My first month as an apprentice at endjin
Structured apprenticeships provide a great way to build skills whilst getting real-life experience. Endjin's apprenticeship scheme has been refined over years, with an optimal mixture of training, project work, and exposure to commercial processes - a scheme which is designed to build strong foundations for a well-rounded Software Engineering consultant. This post explains the transition from university to an apprenticeship at endjin, including the types of work an apprentice could end up doing, and some examples of real-life learnings from a real-life apprentice.
How to choose the right .NET technology or "learn to stop worrying and love NetStandard2.0"
The evolution of .NET is a complex one. We've put together a deck to help you understand what you should choose to use when.
Azure Tech Selector - 2017 Edition
We've just released an updated version of our Azure Technology Selector poster - helping you to choose the right Azure service, based on your use-case.
2 Day Microsoft Bot Framework Hackathon with Watchfinder
We ran a two day hackathon with Watchfinder and Microsoft to build a conversational experience to automate the 'sell your watch experience'.
My final year as a software engineering apprentice at endjin
Alice reflects on her final year and an apprentice, what she's learned over the past three years, and the new skills and capabilities she's developed.
Is JavaScript still dead?
JavaScript is one of the most popular programming languages, but is it past its sell by date?
Advanced Azure Resource Manager template patterns – t-shirt sizing and optional resources
Implement using parameters in Resource Manager templates for optional resource deployment and configuration.
Automating office security with Synology, Surveillance Station, OneDrive and Power Automate
Read about how we set up automated backups of our office security camera footage and used Power Automate to alert us if anything went wrong
Welcome to an internship at endjin!
A career in software engineering doesn't need to start with a Computer Science degree. The underlying traits of problem solving, a willingness to learn and the ability to collaborate well can be built in any field. Internships provide a great way to get your foot-in-the-door in the professional world, and arm you with some real-life experience for future endeavours. This post describes an internship at endjin, including the type of work you could be asked to do and what you could learn.
How to package a web project for deployment from the command line
Creating a package to deploy a web project from the command line (for deployment into Azure) is not as easy as it should be. In this post we cover the whole process.
How to use Power BI Embedded with AspNetCore
This post shows how to add a Power BI Embedded report to an ASP.NET Core application.
AWS vs Azure vs Google Cloud Platform - Mobile Services
My internship at endjin – New Proposition Development, Programming, and a very long list of acronyms
During her two month internship we tried to expose her to as many different aspects of endjin as possible; from New Proposition Development, marketing, partner & business development activities, as well as our software engineering processes and the Microsoft Azure ecosystem.
Automating creation of new ALM environments using PowerShell and Azure DevOps
Did you know that you can fully automate the bootstrapping process of setting up an Azure DevOps enviornment? This post shows you how.
Deploying to Azure using Azure Resource Manager templates and Octopus Deploy
Learn how to combine the power of Azure Resource Manager and Octopus Deploy for a frictionless Azure DevOps experience.
Using Postman to load test an Azure Machine Learning web service
Explore creating and testing an Azure ML Studio web service using Postman for efficient machine learning model production.
My Apprenticeship Retrospective
In this post, Mike Larah reflects on his experiences going through the endjin three-year apprenticeship scheme
Using Azure Automation to run VMs during office hours only – using graphical runbooks
We've improved our approach for saving money by turning off our virtual machines outside of office hours. This post explored how to do it using graphical runbooks.
Improve your Windows Command Prompt and PowerShell experience with ConEmu
Mike Larah shares his tips for how to best customize ConEmu to improve your terminal experience for Windows Command Prompy and PowerShell
SpecFlow 2.0, NUnit3, Visual Studio and TeamCity
We recently upgraded our TeamCity based CI/CD environment, but we had to make some adjustments to fix failing tests.
Azure Resource Manager authentication from a PowerShell script
Learn how to authenticate against Azure Resource Manager using PowerShell, for fully automated deployments.
Endjin.Licensing now supports SHA256
Microsoft have added SHA256 support to Signed XML, and Endjin.Licensing has been updating to take advantage of this breaking change.
CucumberJS Visual Studio Test Runner
We've built and open-sourced a Visual Studio Extension that provides basic support for discovering and running CucumberJS tests with Node.JS, in the Visual Studio Test Environment.
Using Lazy and ConcurrentDictionary to ensure a thread-safe, run-once, lazy-loaded collection
In this post, Mike Larah discusses how to ensure your C# collections are thread-safe, only run-once, and are lazy-loaded.
Azure Batch - Time is Money in Big Compute
Consumption based pricing is a one of the USPs of Cloud PaaS services, but the default settings aren't necessarily optimised for cost. Significant savings can be made from understanding your workload.
A Step-by-step guide to setting up CucumberJS in Visual Studio 2015
This is a quick guide to setting up cucumber JS in Visual Studio with grunt.
Using Azure Resource Manager and PowerShell DSC to create and provision a VM
Explore Azure Resource Manager and PowerShell Desired State Configuration for provisioning and configuring Azure virtual machines.
Reduce Merge Conflicts in .NET Solutions with PowerShell based Git Hooks
Git has powerful extensibility points, which you can harness to automate your dev inner loop. In this post we examine how to use Git Hooks to reduce the occurrence of merge conflicts.
SpecFlow Extensions for Azure Storage Emulator
We use SpecFlow to write integration tests against Azure. In this post we share an Open Source SpecFlow extension for the Azure Storage Emulator.
Speed kills: decrease page load time and increase conversions with Azure CDN
A CDN, short for Content Delivery Network, is essentially a network of servers set-up, in various geographic locations, with the aim of speeding up the delivery of content to end-users across the Internet.
Azure Automation scheduler and daylight saving time
Everything in Azure runs in Coordinated Universal Time; learn how to deal with Daylight saving time in Azure Automation, so your jobs still run on time.
Visualise your Azure Table Storage data with Power BI
You can easily visualise data stored in Azure Table Storage in Power BI. This guide shows you how.
Azure Web Apps: Package Restore against a private NuGet Feed
If you have private NuGet feeds, restoring packages during a CI/CD process can be a challenge. This post provides a solution when working with Azure App Service.
Using Git for .NET Development: Part 5 – Staging Some Changes In A File But Not Others
How do you selectively stage some of your changes in GIT? How does Visual Studio help? How can you do this on the command line?
Improve your SpecFlow scenarios with custom step argument transformations
Explore how to use SpecFlow for human-readable specs and create reusable step argument transformations for easy readability.
25 useful steps missing from SpecFlow
We're huge fans of SpecFlow. We harvested 25 reusable steps from our various open source projects into a new extension that you can use to reduce your own boilerplate.
Amazingly Useful Chrome Developer Tips: #1 Inspecting dynamically created DOM elements
Using a different New Relic application name per environment with Azure Cloud Services
Just because you're using the cloud, doesn't mean you don't use traditional DTAP environments. But you do need to configure your cloud services to understand them.
You're hiring the wrong people: 10 tips to find great developers
Hiring developers is hard. Really hard. Here are some tips on how to make it easier on yourself.
Which programming language should I learn in 2015?
If you were learning to programme today, which language should you choose, and why?
Reporting errors to New Relic from an Azure Worker Role
In this post we demonstrate how to use New Relic to monitor an Azure Cloud Service Worker Role, step by step.
Extending Endjin.Retry with custom Retry Policies
Endjin.Retry is our simple .NET library for handling transient errors, to make your Cloud applications more resilient and reliable.
Endjin.Licensing - Part 5: Real world usage patterns
We've open sourced a lightweight .NET based licensing framework we've been using internally over the last couple of years; in this post I'm going to highlight some real world usage scenarios.
Endjin.Licensing - Part 4: How to implement custom validation logic
Endjin.Licensing is our .NET based licensing framework; in this post we highlight its extensibility features, demonstrating how to add custom license validation logic.
Endjin.Licensing - Part 3: How to create and validate a license
Endjin.Licensing is our .NET based licensing framework; in this post we show how to create and validate a license using C#
Endjin.Licensing - Part 2: Defining the desired behaviour
We've open sourced a lightweight .NET based licensing framework; in this post we flesh out the behaviours we want the framework to support using Gherkin flavoured BDD specifications.
Endjin.Licensing - Part 1: Why build another licensing system?
We've open sourced a lightweight .NET based licensing framework we've been using internally over the last couple of years. In this post I explain why we created it in the first place, rather than using existing offerings.
Generating and using a certificate to authorise Azure Automation
Explore how to use Azure Automation for running VMs during office hours. Learn to create runbooks for automated tasks at pre-defined times.
Diagnostic logging with Azure SDK 2.5
Learn how to use diagnostics in Azure Virtual Machines and Cloud Service Web or Worker Roles using the Azure SDK.
Refactoring by pattern using Regular Expressions and ReSharper search by pattern
Using SmartGit to follow the GitFlow branching and workflow model
How do you use SmartGit to simplify your development workflow by using GitFlow?
TPL Dataflow by Example code samples for LINQPad
TPL Dataflow, a potent yet lesser-known .NET framework, is ideal for high-performance data processing.
Using Azure Automation to run VMs during office hours only
Discover cloud computing's pay-as-you-use model and how turning off VMs outside office hours can save costs.
Elasticsearch gotchas and tips - part 2
We've delivered a number of Elasticsearch solutions on Azure. In this second post in the series, we share some useful tips.
Avoid circular dependencies with AngularJS Directives
How to use an $injector service to avoid a circular dependency error dynamically resolving templates in a templateRepository.
Using AngularJS decorators to resolve view templates by resource content type
In this post we show how you can render a container based on content-type
Jasmine MetaRunner for TeamCity
Meta-Runners allow you to easily create reusable build components for TeamCity, in this post I demonstrate how to create a Meta-Runner to wrap Jasmine BDD Framework test runner.
Unit testing AngularJS with Visual Studio, ReSharper and TeamCity
In this post, Mike demonstrates how you can test AngularJS with Visual Studio, ReSharper and TeamCity for the full local and CI/CD DevOps experience.
Using SemanticMerge to fix Git merge conflicts
How can you use the SemanticMerge tool to help you deal with GIT merge conflicts? Here's an overview of the process.
Gotchas when installing an Elasticsearch cluster on Microsoft Azure
We've built a number of Elasticsearch clusters on Microsoft Azure. This blog post contains some of our top tips and gotchas.
A Step by Step Guide to Testing NuGet Packages Locally
Discover our tutorial on local NuGet package testing, filling documentation gaps with a concise, step-by-step guide.
How to retry commands in PowerShell
Transient failures can happen at any time. There are many useful frameworks for .NET, but what about PowerShell?
Create a custom TeamCity PowerShell MetaRunner to Notify NewRelic that new deployment has occurred
You can easily notify NewRelic that a deployment has occured. In this post I demonstrate how to turn a script into a reusable TeamCity Metarunner.
Using Git for .NET Development: Part 4 - Resolving Merge Conflicts
How do you resolve GIT merge conflicts? Can Visual Studio help you at all? What are the best tactics?
Button Visual States in Xamarin.iOS
One way to manage a button visual state in iOS is by setting a different background image for each one of the UIControlState values available...
Event stream manipulation using Rx – Part 2
Having described the problem space using Marble Diagrams, it's now time to create a real solution using Rx and the Observer pattern to process data from Windows Event Log.
Event stream manipulation using Rx – Part 1
This blog post delves into using Rx to process the messages received from Windows Event Logs, so that they can be shaped in a way that is useful to us to consume.
Understanding dependency injection
What is Dependency Injection? How does it help you develop software? Why should you use it? Is it a silver bullet for creating loosely coupled components?
Getting started with semantic logging
Implement semantic logging on Windows & .NET for richer diagnostics & analysis. Learn how Reactive Extensions enable powerful scenarios in this series.
A Step by Step Guide to Connecting to an Azure Virtual Machine with PowerShell Remoting
Learn how to use PowerShell Remoting to connect to an Azure Virtual Machine; a useful technique for managing servers like cattle, not pets.
Using Git for .NET Development: Part 3 – branching and pushing your changes
How do you created branches in GIT? How do you push your changes to a remote server? How does Visual Studio help?
Using Git for .NET Development: Part 2 – basic operations and tools
How do you get started with GIT? How do you install it? What are the basic commands? How does Visual Studio help you?
Configuring TeamCity and YouTrack to use Office 365 for Email Notifications
This post shows how to use your Office 365 SMTP relay to enable email notification from TeamCity and YouTrack hosted in Azure.
Using Git for .NET Development: Part 1 – What is Git?
What is GIT? Why should you use it as a .NET Developer? How do you incorporate it into your workflow? How does Visual Studio help?
Downloading Windows Azure Subscription Files
If you use Azure Management Studio, you can quickly setup your connections by importing your publish settings...
Reclaiming Space after updating to Windows 8.1
A quick tip of how to reclaim up to 10GB of space after updating to Windows 8.1
Azure From The Trenches: Updating Service Configuration Whilst Running In The Emulator
A quick tip for updating your Azure cloud service configuration while running in the emulator
Azure Table Storage throws a StorageException when using DateTime.Min
1601 was the year that Pierre de Fermat and King Louis XIII of France were born, Robert Devereux was beheaded in the Tower of London, the Dutch defeated the Portuguese navy in the battle of Bantam Bay and the year Shakespeare's Hamlet is thought to have been performed for the first time. Monday January, 1st 1601 (in the Gregorian calendar) was a pretty uneventful day yet the first day of the 17th century is affecting millions today.
Bootstrap 3 At A Glance - Part One - Motivations
In this post we look at the history and motivations behind the Bootstrap CSS library, and the goals of the project.
Learning to Program – A Beginners Guide – Part Twelve – Dealing with Repetitive Tasks - Recursion in F#
In this post we'll look at recursion in F#...In this post we'll look at recursion in F#...
A Step by Step Guide to Automating TeamCity Backups
In this blog post, I provide a how-to guide for automating your TeamCity backups using a PowerShell script.
Learning to Program – A Beginners Guide – Part Eleven – More With Functions and Logic in F#: Minimizing Boolean Expressions
In this post we delve deeper into Function and Logic and look at minimizing Boolean Expressions with F#
A Step by Step Guide to Migrating a TeamCity Instance from One Server to Another
Migrate your TeamCity instance with this guide, covering the step-by-step process when in-place upgrades aren't viable.
Learning to Program – A Beginners Guide – Part Ten – Getting Started With Operators in F#
In this post, we'll look at how our function can work more like the other logical F# operators we've already used.
Assign a keyboard shortcut to collapse all projects in Solution Explorer
Just so that I never ever forget this again. Here's how to assign a keyboard shortcut to collapse all projects in Visual Studio Solution Explorer.
Learning to Program – A Beginners Guide – Part Nine – Introducing Functions in F#
In this post, we'll learn how to use F# to ease the pain for us.
What does sudo mean?
I've always wondered what sudo means when I use it to run a command in a terminal.
Example of a full-width bleed using Bootstrap 3
See how to use Bootstrap 3 to create a full-page bleed.
Learning to Program - A Beginners Guide - Part Eight - Working With Logic
In this post, we'll look at how we can bring logic to bear on our problems.
Xamarin platform setup gotchas: Final Edition!
Last post on the topic and links to all the other entries centred around troubleshooting/setting up your Xamarin mobile dev environment.
Visual Studio, Xcode and VMware Fusion Shared Folders
Xamarin lets you develop iOS applications using Visual Studio. This is obviously great for .NET Developers except that you currently have to go to Xcode (Apple's Developer tool) if you want to create the UI using a designer tool.
Learning to Program - A Beginners Guide - Part Seven - Representing Numbers
In post, we're going to look at the data memory in more detail, and learn how we can represent numbers in a computer.
Running the Windows Phone Emulator in VMware Fusion
If you run Windows 8 on your Mac with VMware Fusion 5.0 , you might get the following error message when starting the Windows Phone emulator for the first time: The Windows Phone Emulator wasn't able to create the virtual machine.
More Xamarin platform setup gotchas
Today my Xamarin trial expired - Sadface. But endjin generously supplied me with a new Xamarin.Android and Xamarin.iOS Business edition license, things were looking up - Happyface! However after activating the new license and upgrading to a newer version of Xamarin Studio on both my Mac and the guest Windows 8 OS, my master solution containing all the projects for the different platforms (Android, iOS and Windows Phone) was no longer building.
Angular.JS ngRepeat and Bootstrap layout bug on IE7
In this post we delve into a bug we discovered with Angular.JS and Bootstrap that appears in IE 7.
Learning to Program - A Beginners Guide - Part Six - A First Look at Algorithms
In this post we're going to take a look at algorithms.
Android Device Manager and SDK Location
After going through the Xamarin installation instructions for Mac and Windows , I ended up in a situation where the AVD Manager ( Android Virtual Device Manager ) on my Windows VM would not let me create a new AVD...
Learning to Program – A Beginners Guide – Part Five – Running a program
Let's start our exploration of this architecture by looking at the Program Instructions memory.
Windows Phone Capabilities and enabling the camera in the emulator
A short explanation of Windows Phone capabilities and how to enable the camera.
Introducing endjin composition framework 2.0 : Part 5 - Debugging
Learn how to debug the endjin composition framework.
Learning to Program - A Beginners Guide - Part Four - A Simple Model of a Computer
In this post, we're going to be taking a look at one representation of the hardware box - from a programmer's perspective.
Windows Phone Registration Failure: Error 0x64
A quick fix to error 0x64 when registering a new Windows Phone device.
Introducing endjin composition framework 2.0 : Part 4 - ASP.NET MVC/WebAPI
Learn how to use the endjin composition framework inside ASP.NET MVC or Web API
Learning To Program - A Beginners Guide - Part Three - How Does a Computer Work?
Windows Run Commands for Developers
The other day I wanted to bring up the Windows "Program and Features" panel using the run command (Win+R or just start typing in the Start screen in Win 8). Something I've done countless number of times in the past. For some reason, I had a complete blank and couldn't recall what that particular command was. So I thought it would be good to have a couple of tips and some of the most useful run commands for Developers (and everybody else) in one place.
Introducing endjin composition framework 2.0 : Part 3 - Using the content factory
Learn how to use the endjin composition framework content factory
Retrying tasks with TPL, async and synchronous code
Dealing with Transient Faults is absolutely essential when working in The Cloud. We delve into the library we've created for dealing with this situation.
Learning To Program - A Beginners Guide - Part Two
In this post, we're going to set up the tools that we're going to use in the rest of this course on Windows or Linux.
A step by step guide to installing an F# REPL environment on Windows
In this step-by-step guide, we'll take you through the process of setting up an F# REPL environment on Windows.
A step by step guide to installing an F# REPL environment on Linux
In this step-by-step guide, we'll take you through the process of setting up an F# REPL environment on Linux.
Xamarin platform setup gotchas
Yesterday I attended the "C# and Mvvm - Developing apps for all of Android, iPhone and Windows" event hosted by Stuart Lodge at Modern Jago. In preparation for the day I had the daunting task of setting up my Mac for cross platform development with Xamarin. While most of it was fairly straight forward and well documented, I came across a few gotchas worth blogging about.
Introducing endjin composition framework 2.0 : Part 2 - Getting Started
Learn how to use the endjin composition framework for dependency injection.
Learning To Program - A Beginners Guide - Part One
Introducing endjin composition framework 2.0 : Part 1
Learn why we created the endjin composition framework for dependency injection.
High-Res Prototyping Tips: How we eliminated waste and enabled collaboration
This post discusses the importance of collaboration between designers and developers, including communication tips and a step-by-step guide.
PowerShell Best Kept Secrets: Splatting
Splatting is one of the most powerful, yet underused features of PowerShell. In this post we cover a walk-through of how to use this feature.
Prototyping and Proof of Concept: Charting and Data Visualization on the Microsoft Platforms
A proof of concept is not a quick and dirty hack, it's not a demo, or a technical spike.
A Step by Step Guide to using GitFlow with TeamCity – Part 4 – Feature Branches in TeamCity
In the final part of this series, we cover how to use TeamCity's feature branch abilities to support the GitFlow process.
Example Responsive Layout Using Bootstrap
See how to create a responsive website layout using Bootstrap.
Tips for implementing responsive designs using Bootstrap 3
We ran a retrospective of our first few Bootstrap-based HTML5/Javascript projects a few weeks back, and distilled some of the output into these top tips
Which programming languages should I learn: Beginners Edition
If you were learning to programme today, which language should you choose, and why?
Which programming languages should I learn?
If you were learning to programme today, which language should you choose, and why?
A Step by Step Guide to using GitFlow with TeamCity – Part 3 – GitFlow Commands
This post finally covers the nitty-gritty of how you use the GitFlow extensions to drive the workflow.
A Step by Step Guide to using GitFlow with TeamCity – Part 2 – GitFlow - a Branching Model for a Release Cycle
In this post we show you how to get up and running with GitFlow.
A Step by Step Guide to using GitFlow with TeamCity - Part 1 - Different Branching Models
Adopting Git means creating an entirely new mental model about how to version control your source code. Once you make the jump, there's no going back.
Back to the Future: HTML and Javascript in 2013
We take a look at the state of HTML and JavaScript in 2013; the good, the bad and the ugly.
RavenDB in the Cloud
Some thoughts on RavenDB after using it to build a content-managed website.
A step by step guide to building a Twilio voice app with Web API
Discover how to build Twilio voice apps using asp.net MVC and debug it using port forwarding tools.
Integration testing with Web API
A quick example of how to set up integration testing for HttpClient and HttpServer
Agile:MK January 2013 Meeting
Endjin are proudly sponsoring the Agile Milton Keynes user group.
Calculating Distance using SQL Server Spatial CLR Types
Sql Server Spatial Types Assembly is a hidden gem. In this post we show how to use SqlGeography.STGeomFromText and STDistance distance (in meters) between the two points.
Using the endjin composition framework in an MVC application
A quick guide to using the endjin composition framework with ASP.NET MVC Applications.
Windows 8 Development Camp
A review of the Windows 8 App bootcamp help at Microsoft.
Day 1: PowerShell, BDD and Git
Mike starts his first day as an Apprentice with an introduction to PowerShell and being onboarded to endjin's various tools and platforms, while attempting to automate the entire process.
TeamCity PowerShell
To celebrate joining JetBrains Development Academy Board, we release a PowerShell modules to make working with TeamCity easier.
An Omega Geek's Guide to Learning PowerShell
PowerShell is fantastic language for DevOps, automation and general scripting. Every developer should be familiar with it; here's a guide to some useful resources to help you learn it.
Where do my Visual States come from in Blend?
How does Expression Blend managed to find the Visual States exposed by the standard controls? How could you do the same with your own code?
Work Smarter with Convention Over Configuration and the Endjin Composition Framework
We've added convention over configuration features to our Dependency Injection library - the endjin composition framework, to help improve your productivity.
Component Discovery and Composition II - Abstracting the container implementation
A Step by Step Guide to MongoDB for .NET Developers
MongoDB has been taken a large amount of mindshare in the NoSQL space. In this blog post we share a simple step-by-step guide on how to get started as a .NET developer.
Component discovery and composition Part 1f: Fundamentals – Generalizing Registration
A follow up to "A Short Tale of a Deceptively Slow LINQ Expression"
My last post caused a number of responses from the community. I discuss them here and provide a little bit more context.
A Short Tale of a Deceptively Slow LINQ Expression
In this post I delve into some performance analysis of an expensive loop that was taking over 200 seconds to run.