ClearDB is killing off the free micro-tiers of MySQL. Like many MSDN subscribers with WordPress sites (I'm guessing), I chose to migrate my blog database to Azure Database for MySQL server, which would consume Azure credit instead of my credit card. After moving the database over and pointing my blog to it, I received the […]
When trying to share a local drive with my docker containers using Docker for Windows in my Git Bash shell, I kept getting errors about invalid mount specs. Even just following along with the basic example provided in the Docker for Windows dialog for sharing drives fails: $ docker run --rm -v c:/Users:/data alpine ls /data […]
As Application Insights continues to evolve, the ability to slice and dice your data also continues to increase. With an eye toward microservices, Microsoft recently made added support for multi-component applications to Application Insights that allow you to aggregate all of your components' telemetry, but still filter by individual services via the cloud service role name. […]
I was recently trying to get an Azure AD-secured Web API working with API Management. The best documentation I could find was created several years ago using the old Azure Portal and API Management Publisher Portal. I decided post an updated version using as much of the new Azure portal as possible. The video covers creating a […]
Visual Studio Web Tests offer an excellent way to validate that your application's endpoints (typically API calls) are performing the way you'd expect. They also offer a quick way to simulate "typical user" scenarios which can be integrated into Load Tests against your application. However, any application that requires a user to log in (usually with a […]
Release Summary emails are a great way to share details about a release, including which environments with status, related work items, and related bugs. While viewing a release's details, click on the Send Email button to send out a Release Summary. No option exists in VSTS (yet) to automatically send a Release Summary email, so […]
While importing Test Cases into VSTS from another test management system for a customer, I needed to add a multi-line text field to Test Cases. VSTS has supported adding custom multi-line text fields for almost a year now and this seems to work for every Work Item Type except Test Cases. When attempting to add […]
While running queries via the RavenDB Management Studio web interface, we kept seeing "This is taking longer than usual" pop-ups. Once we received this pop-up, no other actions were possible and the Management Studio interface never recovered. The only solution was to reload the page. Oddly enough at first, the issue was only observed in […]
We use a gitflow-esque branching strategy where a new branch is created for each feature being worked on. Once the code is sync'd to the server and the PR is approved, the code is merged down into our main development branch and the feature branch is automatically deleted from origin by Visual Studio Team Services. […]
During our most recent Agile Orlando Lean Lunch meetup, one interesting topic we discussed was what ideal traits a recruiter should be looking for to vet whether candidates are good fits in an Agile environment and culture. This naturally evolved into a discussion of common characteristics we'd observed in successful team members on Agile projects. […]