BizBert

In case you missed it, Logic Apps moved to General Availability last week.
At the same time, pricing for Logic Apps gained a new option: Consumption charging i.e. pay by use.
I’ve been talking to a number of clients about this new pricing model, and every single one has expressed concerns: it’s these concerns that I wanted to touch upon in this post...

At the BizTalk360 Integrate2016 (http://www.biztalk360.com/integrate-2016/) conference today, Microsoft announced a whole slew of new features and functionality for both BizTalk 2016 and Logic Apps.

Some of these include:

In the latest installment of the logicappsio webcast, Jeff Hollan and Kevin Lam covered off new features released this month, and also talked about what is coming up - you can watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7iZc1i9d7y0.

Of note in this webcast:

Switching to the old Logic Apps designer from a new Logic App is relatively easy... if you don’t have anything in your logic app! You just need to change the $schema value at the top of your logic app definition.

Microsoft today released the Logic Apps preview refresh – which means a new designer and new connectors.

However, those BizTalky people amongst you might notice that there’s no mention of the BizTalk connectors in the list of actions you see in the new designer...

So a few months ago, I was trying to work out how to create an instance of a marketplace API App via code. There was no API or samples for this at the time. API Apps (like Logic/Mobile/Web apps) can be deployed using ARM templates, so it was just a matter of working out what to put in the template.

Since then, the AAS team have released a guide on what needs to go in the template, what the contract looks like, and supplied a sample on GitHub

Recently I was asked by a client: how do I deploy an API App or a Logic App to a Virtual Network (VNet)?

If you've ever used BizTalk Services (MABS) then you'll know one of the biggest limitations with MABS was that it didn’t support VNets: a lot of companies create VNets, and hook them up to their on-premises network, so that their Azure environment becomes a secure extension of their on-premises network.

If you missed the @logicappsio LogicAppsLive community webcast (with Kevin Lam and Jon Fancey) last night, they gave us the current road map for Logic Apps for the next 9 months...

At connect(); 2015 this year, Microsoft announced some new Azure App Service features relating to Logic Apps and API Apps (watch the video here:https://channel9.msdn.com/Events/Visual-Studio/Connect-event-2015/909).

Stephen Siciliano (@iscsus) gave a ten-minute session on current and new features for AAS (Azure App Service)...

For most people, using PowerShell scripts/cmdlets to access Azure and get information about subscriptions and resources (e.g. Logic Apps) will be enough.

But what if you want to do it yourself from .NET?...

The first Logic Apps SDK for .NET (v0.1.0) was released on August 28th.
Stephen Siciliano covered it in the LogicAppsIO Community WebCast on August 27th.
But there haven’t been many blog posts on how to use it, nor many samples.
So here we go: How to use the SDK...

If you want to test the deployment of API App or LogicApp templates, one of the easiest ways to do this is using the PostMan REST Client for Chrome. In this post I'll show you how to authenticate against your Azure subscription, and show you how to call the API from PostMan. Although all of this information can be found on other sites, I wanted to bring it all into one post, with steps showing you what to do, and explanation of the various parts e.g. what a JWT is, and why the api-version value is so important...

So the App Service product group did a Google Hangout today (basically a live YouTube stream) and gave some updates on Logic Apps, along with some demos on chaining Logic Apps, calling a Logic App from another Logic App etc...

One of the questions I saw on Twitter after yesterday's Azure App Service launch was: how do you do an if-then-else in a Logic App? Or even a For loop?

If you're coming from a BizTalk Orchestration or Windows Workflow background, you may be surprised by the lack of shapes in a Logic App for performing these operations.

However, you can still do all those things: you just need to look at the problem differently...

Azure App Service allows developers to create business logic in the cloud that supports their new or existing web and mobile apps.

Building on the MicroServices announcement from last year's BizTalk Summit (in Redmond), there have been two major new technologies released...