Logic Apps Aviators Newsletter – September 2024

In this issue:

Ace Pilot of the Month

Ace Pilot of September: Cameron Mackay

What is your role and title? What are your responsibilities related to your position?

As a Manager at MNP LLP, I provide consulting services to our clients by designing and leading teams to implement Azure Integration, DevOps and Azure Web solutions. My role is to work closely with clients to understand their business requirements, ensure solutions align with business objectives and deliver value. I coach and mentor team members to help them reach their full potential, provide career coaching and facilitate professional growth. On the architecture and implementation side, I work with other architects to develop patterns and best practices for our teams to follow for integration and web implementations. I frequently work with other service lines at MNP LLP such as Power Platform, Business Central, Sage Intacct and Dynamics CRM to deliver a suite of solutions that integrate technologies to maximize value.

Could you give us some insight into your daily activities and what a typical day in your role looks like?

A typical day in my role as a Manager at MNP LLP involves a variety of activities to ensure the success of my team and projects. Leading teams to implement Azure integration, DevOps and Azure web solutions involves reviewing pull requests and mentoring team members to ensure consistency and quality of solutions. I conduct client workshops to understand business problems and drivers. These are then translated into requirements for the integration and web solutions we design and implement. When required, I support the development team by writing low and pro code for the integration and web solutions we build for clients.

What motivates and inspires you to be an active member of the Aviators/Microsoft community?

Coming from a pro-code background, I have seen first-hand the many mistakes and significant time investments required to build with traditional pro-code. Logic Apps eliminates many of the configuration, scalability, anti-patterns, and security pitfalls typically associated with pro-code. Leveraging low-code allows developers to focus on delivering business value by combining the best aspects of low-code and pro-code into a hybrid solution. This unique ability of Logic Apps to simplify development while increasing efficiency and security drives my passion and commitment to the community.

Looking back, is there any piece of advice you would give to someone interested in pursuing a STEM/technology career that you wish you had heard sooner?

Embrace the concept of “fail fast.” It’s okay to fail. In fact, it’s expected. Everyone makes mistakes and experiences setbacks. The key is to fail fast and minimize the impact so you can learn and recover quickly. Find senior team members and mentors, and don’t be afraid to ask questions. Most people are happy to help and appreciate genuine curiosity. Failure is a critical part of learning, so it’s important to learn how to fail safely. Lean on others to create a safe environment for failure.

What has surprised you as one of the most important lessons you’ve learned throughout your career?

I’ve learned several important lessons throughout my career, and they’ve surprised me.

• It’s important to address the problem properly from the beginning, as stopgap solutions often end up in production code and are rarely modified later. Get comfortable with the solution you’re implementing, so it doesn’t end up creating a mountain of technical debt that you can’t overcome later.
• Breaking a problem down into small, manageable parts, solving each individually, and then combining those smaller solutions into a larger solution has proven to be an effective strategy in every problem space I’ve worked on.
• Document, verify, and ensure that everyone knows about all assumptions you make about your work. This is essential for clarity and alignment on what you are doing. It may seem like a trivial and harmless thing, but I have made assumptions in the past that were later unverified, resulting in unnecessary rework and restructuring.
• Setting clear expectations, tracking progress, and providing regular updates were not things I emphasized early in my career. However, these skills are critical to success in your job and on projects. Learning these skills and actively applying them will help you greatly in your career.

Imagine if you had a magic wand that could create features in Logic Apps. What would it be and why?

My feature request is related to .NET custom code extensibility. I would implement a mechanism for: Automatic compilation for .NET assemblies Within the same Logic App workspace. This feature eliminates the need for a separate compilation step for Logic Apps to call Azure functions within the same workspace. It improves the developer experience and increases developer efficiency by reducing unnecessary round trips in the terminal. These improvements not only save time, but also streamline the workflow, allowing developers to focus more on building solutions.

Customer Corner:

Argentine agricultural business fyo adopts Azure-based innovation.

In this insightful customer success story, learn how fyo transformed their discrete manufacturing process in Argentina with Microsoft Azure DevOps. By adopting Azure DevOps, fyo is optimizing their development and deployment workflows to increase productivity and streamline operations. Leveraging the powerful tools of Azure, fyo is driving innovation, improving efficiency, and achieving greater agility in their manufacturing process.

News from our product group:

	As before DeliveredThe following Azure services will reach end of support on August 31, 2024. Azure App Service Environments v1 and v2 Logic Apps Integration Service Environment Azure API Management stv1 Customers operating retired environments should migrate immediately to avoid security risks and data loss. As part of our ongoing communication and support to safely migrate customers to new environments, this document provides details on the customer experience for all workloads remaining in production starting September 1, 2024.
	Logic App live Community standup – August 2024 Missed Logic Apps Live on the last Thursday of August? Watch it here!
	Logic App Community Day 2024 Join us on Thursday, September 26th for a dynamic, community-driven event sponsored by Microsoft, featuring a variety of sessions from the Aviators community. This free, full-day event is your chance to explore the power of Logic Apps and become a key player in tackling real-world integrations.
	Integrating Logic App Workflows with Semantic Kernel and Plugins: A Step-by-Step Guide Connect to the Semantic Kernel SDK using Logic App (Standard).
	Implementing Rules-Based Scaling in Logic App Standard with Logic App Consumption In this blog, we will show you how to “simulate” rule-based scaling capabilities for Logic App Standard using WS Plan, a Logic App Standard running on ASE using Logic App Consumption (also possible with Azure products, e.g. Azure Functions).
	Identifying scripting errors using the Workflow Designer’s log stream With the introduction of PowerShell and C# scripting capabilities, it’s easier to identify errors during development and compile time. The Log Stream feature for Logic Apps, powered by Application Insights, lets you capture syntax and compilation errors in real time, right within the designer.
	Logic Apps Standard Monitoring Dashboard We’re excited to announce the public preview of template support in Azure Logic Apps Standard!
	Unlock inline PowerShell capabilities to streamline Logic Apps workflows A new inline PowerShell action, now available in preview, increases the flexibility of Logic Apps by allowing users to include PowerShell scripts directly in their workflows.
	Announcement!! Templates for Azure Logic Apps Standard are now in public preview. We are excited to announce the Public Preview of Templates Support in Azure Logic Apps Standard! This release represents an important milestone in our ongoing commitment to simplify and accelerate the development of enterprise integration solutions.
	Automatic regeneration of Azure Management Connector connection keys in the VS Code extension We are excited to announce the Public Preview of Templates Support in Azure Logic Apps Standard! This release represents an important milestone in our ongoing commitment to simplify and accelerate the development of enterprise integration solutions.

Run inline C# scripts in Azure Logic Apps workflows

Publisher Stefano Demiliani

In this article, learn how to improve performance by using inline C# script tasks in Stefano’s workflow.

Azure Standard Logic App with Private Storage Account Using Private Endpoint

Video by Sri Gunnalla

In this video, Sri walks you through deploying an Azure Standard Logic App to a private storage account using a private endpoint and provides a high-level design to illustrate this setup.

Calling x-www-form-urlencoded HTTP service via Logic Apps and resolving BadRequest errors

Publisher Prashant Singh

Are you getting a BadRequest error when using special characters in your Logic App? Prashant provides a solution in this blog post.

Friday Fact: Two AI Assistants are available in Azure: Copilot and Workflow Assistant

Publisher Luis Ligueira

This Friday, learn more about Copilot and Workflow Assistant, AI tools ready to enhance your experience in Logic Apps, in Louis’ Facts.

Run Powershell scripts in Azure Logic Apps workflows

Publisher Stefano Demiliani

Learn how to use and troubleshoot the new preview release of inline Powershell tasks in this article from Stefano.

The pilot is here!

Publisher Luis Ligueira

Copilot is now available on Azure, so read on to learn more about the preview and what Luis has already explored.

Enabling CitizenOps for Integrated Workloads Using Azure AI Services

Publisher Matt Ward

In this article written by Matt, we will discuss how to implement the Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) pattern and leverage Azure AI Search and Azure OpenAI services.

Friday Fact: Logic App Connectors outlast HTTP Connectors in default retry policy timeouts

Publisher Sandro Pereira

In this article from Sandro, learn how the default retry policy and timeouts for built-in connectors in Microsoft Logic Apps are superior to the retry policy and timeouts for HTTP connectors.

Export Azure Logic App Execution History | Performance Analysis

Publisher Sri Gunnalla

Explore performance analytics by exporting execution history from Azure Logic Apps. Steps to use Azure Log Analytics This article is written by Sri.