Uploading an image to Azure Blob storage

Adding an image to the Azure Blob storage is a basic skill for developers. But working with images is not something developers do on a regular basis.

If you are using hardware independent code, .Net Core does not make it any simpler, a lot of the examples found on the internet are written for the regular .Net framework.

Image handling was bound to a lot of OS related features. But Microsoft had to learn .Net Core some GDI tricks.

Here is a simple example of how to construct and send images, created in memory, to Azure Blob storage.

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Visualize Azure IoT Edge device routes as a flowchart in Asp.Net MVC

If you look at the routes page in Azure IoT Edge configuration wizard, what do you prefer?

The current notation:

Or do you prefer a flow chart like this:

The routes in Azure IoT edge are a clever solution to describe how messages from one module are sent to another. But the JSON notation can become less readable once you add more (up to twenty) modules. That could end up eg. nineteen routes or more!

Just as an experiment I was thinking about how the ease the experience using a graphical interface.

I prefer the second solution, probably just like you.

So let’s look at how you can create the same experience with your routes of your IoT Edge device.

Part 3: Adding Basic Authentication to Asp.Net Core the right way

This blog is all about adding Basic Authentication to Asp.Net Core.

Warning: Although implementing Basic Authentication seems easy, it brings a vulnerability to your site! names and passwords provided are sent over the internet unencrypted. This means: the authentication method does not hide the name and password for hackers. You have to encrypt the communication yourself! Therefore, always combine Basic Authentication with SSL, also known as HTTPS.

In the past, I have written my own simple Basic Authentication NuGet package. It’s still ok for simple classic Asp.Net MVC projects.

But I want to use Basic Authentication In Asp.Net Core. Instead of (re)writing my own NuGet package, I checked out the NuGet store and found a nice solution.

This NuGet package provides me the flexibility to add Basic Authentication to my (test) projects.

In this blog, we will see what we have to do to get it running. And we will see how we can beef up the security by using HTTPS.

Part 2: Passing data from outside an Asp.Net MVC Core site to the browser using SignalR

In my last blog, I show how you can implement SignalR on a website running Asp.Net MVC Core. Although the libraries are still in Alpha, the functionality looks very promising.

In this blog, I will show you how you can pass data on to the website so it can be shown in the browser. Users will ‘instantly’ see updates coming on the website.

Let’s check this out.

Part 1: Getting SignalR running on Asp.Net MVC Core

Microsoft has a very powerful implementation of WebSockets available named SignalR. Personally, I like the fact it automatically scales down if needed to other communication solutions if WebSockets is not working (like long polling).

I used it in the past several times for dashboards but in my current project, I had a new challenge. We are using Asp.Net MVC Core. This is ‘the latest’ flavor of Asp.Net and our websites can now run on both Windows and Linux.

But Asp.Net MVC Core has broken with the past, which is a good thing but it also needs a different way to activate SignalR.

Microsoft has provided documentation but it was written towards the standard, non-MVC applications.

It took me a while to get SignalR running.

But first, let me introduce you to the steps to be taken to get SignalR running on Asp.Net MVC Core.