Wasting Time
Ale, music and enjoying life.
Azure Application Insights CI/CD Enrichment
As part of getting the API “match fit” prior to deployment I explored the various options for logging, auditing and telemetry to provide feedback in relation to production diagnosis and application usage (API focus here). This is part 1 which covers the enrichment of the deployment pipelines using the Azure Application Insights.
Release Annotations
Release annotations allow the Azure DevOps Release pipeline to annotate the release number to Azure Application Insights metric charts to give a clear indication of when a new build was deployed. This is of particular use when checking whether a recent release has had an effect on performance.
Install and Configure
Incredibly easy to slot this into your existing Release pipeline. Simply sign in to Azure DevOps then visit the Visual Studio Marketplace to get the Release Annotations Extension and hit the Install button.
You’ll then need to Create an API key via your Application Insights resource. Copy the key then navigate back to Azure Devops. Add Task and select the Application Insights Release Annotation task and paste the API key into a new Variable. Full instructions here
Once you’re set the next time you create a release this is reflected in the relevant Application Insights charts.
Postman Testing – Chaining Requests From one Request to Another
The Issue
I’d like to run a full suite of Postman tests are part of a CD pipeline into pre-production to indicate any issues and stopping the deployment of the API further. I’d built up 200+ Postman tests to cover standard CRUD operations on a number of resources. The tests were checking the POST responses for certain eleements returned in the body, 200 responses etc. Similar for PUTS, PATCHES and GETS. However, it would be nice to create a resource then reference this resource across all API operations for that resource.
The Solution
The easiest way to achieve this is to use tests so that the POST sets an environment based variable based on the Id returned in the response for the newly created resource then pass around in the other operations as needed.
Capture widgetId
0808 Vodafone. 0808 000 0122 – Stop Vodafone Marketing Calls.
I received a call today from 08080000122 claiming to be from Vodafone. Sounded a bit dodgy to be honest and very sales/marketing. I carried out the usual whocalledme lookup and that number does relate to Vodafone. More specifically their marketing arm. So I’m guessing they’ll try and flog me some awesome device that I don’t need. Here’s out to stop the 0808 000 0122 marketing calls and other associated Vodafone markerting…
Removal From The 0808 000 0122 and all related Vodafone Marketing.
Simply carry out the following to Opt Out. Or Opt in if you so wish…..
Other Vodafone numbers…
You can check using the vodafone tool
Dave Greenfield – The Stranglers Keyboard Player Dave Greenfield – 29th March 1949 – 3rd May 2020
The Stranglers keyboard player Dave Greenfield sadly passed on the 3rd May 1990. This is my tribute to Dave Greenfield.
Dave Greenfield RIP. I guess I knew one day I’d be writing this. I think it’s fair to say though I thought that day would be a fair few years from now. Not a great week it has to be said, certainly not a great one for synth, keyboard, piano players. Dave Greenfield, Florian Schneider and Little Richard all gone within a week of each other.
Lockdown
The current situation as I write this is pretty shitty for everyone. We’re in Covid lockdown. My birthday a couple of weeks ago was the most low key affair (as expected). If Wikipedia is to believed this was also the day (26th April) Dave was diagnosed with Covid whilst in hospital with heart problems.
There’s been a lot said in the last few days. Lots of obituaries published and potted histories of Dave and The Stranglers. I’m not going to present a dry factual document here, just a personal memory of meeting Dave. I guess the first time I saw Dave was at my first ever Stranglers gig (and first gig for that matter). Meeting him, well the truth is I only met Dave on a couple of occasions and both of those I stood back and let other fans chat to him. The first time I met him was backstage at The Stranglers York 1999 gig the other time was in his pub which he ran with his wife Pam.
A Pint At The Windmill – Somersham
The passing of time makes these recollections a little hazy but as I recall I visited Dave’s pub back in 2000. How did I end up there? Well…..
There was a JJ gig in Spalding (Fri 2nd June 2000) and it was decided (after several ales it has to be said) that we’d go see JJ in London the next day and on the way visit Dave’s pub. We’re passing by so why the hell not?!. The next day on a sunny Saturday in June we hit Dave’s pub. If I recall there was 5 of us (myself, Matt Holland, Magnus from Sweden, Rob Owen – RIP, and Karl Kay). We were greeted at the door by Dave’s wife Pam and we asked if it would be ok to have a drink and if Dave was about for a chat. She said it wouldn’t be a problem. In fact a little later she invited us to the Sunday night quiz (where Dave was the quizmaster! – we didn’t make it though). We headed to the bar and Dave appeared. He was chatty and at one point I recall just taking a moment in as I witnessed Walzinblack blaring out over the PA (I think they had a jukebox) and Dave sat at the end of the bar folding napkins in preparation for that evenings dining. All very fucking surreal!
Dave seemed completely at ease in the pub as if he was destined to eventually end up with a boozer. Pam was also a great host and we had a fantastic hour our two in their company. When stood at the bar you could look through into another room in the pub. I think it was the snug. I remember looking up and JJ was stood there – probably thinking “ffs more Stranglers fans – I just want a quiet pint!”. We didn’t bother him after all we were there for Dave. JJ used to live just round the corner from Dave’s pub. Quite the Stranglers epicentre!
It’s worth pointing out that Dave stopped running the pub many years ago now (2003 I think).
Dave’s Legacy
Its fair to say it has hit the fans hard. I’ve never heard of so many 50+ year old blokes sobbing like babies (not that there’s anything wrong with that of course). Dave was a big part of so many peoples lives. Let’s not forget that The Stranglers have been around since 1974. Depending when you checked in with the band we’re talking anything up to and above 40 years of having them in your life. Social media exploded last week following the loss of Dave and the media had it covered also, which I found unusual to be honest but then everybody loves you when you’re dead. RIP Dave.
Entity Framework Core: A second operation started on this context before a previous operation completed
Working with EF Core across multiple controller services I was receiving the following Entity Framework Core: A second operation started on this context before a previous operation completed. The link for StackOverflow talks about ensuring your dbContext is correctly injected into the ServiceCollection which mine was. A bit of headscratching I was thinking that my foreach loop look fine there was nothing too crazy/costly happening. Then I realised the objects I was looping over hadn’t terminated with a ToList() or similar. Once I added the ToList() the context returned the scope and happy days!