ASP.NET Core

Don’t Launch a Browser Running ASP.NET Core Back-end Created from Web Template Studio

In last week’s post, I mentioned off-hand that we could stop VSCode from launching a web browser when starting a debug session on the back-end of our application. This is going to be a quick post on how to stop that browser launch.  The following are the previous Web Template Studio related posts if you want to catch up.

Create an Application with Web Template Studio
Debug ASP.NET Core Back-end Created from Web Template Studio

 

Launch Configurations

If you recall from last week to run our back-end we used the debug tab in VSCode and then hit the Run button for the .NET Core Launch (web) configuration.

The options that are available for running in VSCode are controlled by a launch.json file found in the .vscode directory. The following screenshot is the launch.json for the sample project from last week.

Stop the Browser

To stop the browser from opening delete the serverReadyAction section in the specific configuration you are dealing with. From the sample in the screenshot above the following is what would be removed from the  .NET Core Launch (web) configuration.

// Enable launching a web browser when ASP.NET Core starts. For more information: https://aka.ms/VSCode-CS-LaunchJson-WebBrowser
"serverReadyAction": {
    "action": "openExternally",
    "pattern": "\\bNow listening on:\\s+(https?://\\S+)"
},

With the above removed hitting the run button for this configuration will no longer launch a browser, but the rest of the debugging experience will remain as it was before.

Wrapping Up

Hopefully, this will help remove a little annoyance in the development. For more details on the serverReadyAction check out the docs. I also recommend checking out the full docs for launch.json to get a good feel of what all is possible.

Don’t Launch a Browser Running ASP.NET Core Back-end Created from Web Template Studio Read More »

Debug ASP.NET Core Back-end Created from Web Template Studio

Last week we covered how to Create an Application with Web Template Studio and now that we have an application we are going to work through how to debug the ASP.NET Core back-end.

Sample Application

The sample application used in this post has been expanded from what we used last week to include two instances of each page type provided by Web Template Studio. The gird, list, and master/detail page types trigger controllers to be added to our back-end application which will give us something to work with. To add these extra page types you have to run through the full wizard in Web Template Studio and not use the create project button on the first page of the wizard. The following is a screenshot of the new sample application with the extra page types.

Debugging in VSCode

Our goal in this post is going to be to hit a breakpoint in the controller action that returns the data for the gird page in the screenshot above. Looking through the project under server/Controllers it looks pretty likely that we are interested in the GridController. This controller only has one action so click to the left of the line number for the line that has the return statement for the Get function.

Unlike the post from last week to debug the back-end we need to run it separate from the front-end which means we need to move away from using npm start to run the whole application. Use the following command to start just the front-end.

npm start-frontend

Now to run the back-end goto the Run section in VSCode and then click the Play button to run the back-end using the .NET Core Launch (web) profile.

This will launch a blank page which we don’t need and it can be closed. If the blank page bothers you too much it can be changed in the launch profile. Now that our back-end is running use the front-end to navigate to the Grid page.

Wrapping Up

Hopefully, with the above steps, you are ready to debug the back-end part of your application. I’m betting for most of us running the front-end and back-end separately is going to more closely match how we normally work. For more information on debugging in VSCode check out the official doc.

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Create an Application with Web Template Studio

Creating new applications is something I do a fair amount of. Most of the time they are throwaway projects used to test something out or demo projects used for this blog. With all the project creation going on I try and keep an eye out for tools that make the process easier. This post is going to cover a tool a came across a few weeks ago from Microsoft call Web Template Studio (WebTS).

What is WebTS?

From the project’s GitHub read me:

Microsoft Web Template Studio (WebTS) is a Visual Studio Code Extension that accelerates the creation of new web applications using a wizard-based experience. WebTS enables developers to generate boilerplate code for a web application by choosing between different front-end frameworks, back-end frameworks, pages and cloud services. The resulting web app is well-formed, readable code that incorporates cloud services on Azure while implementing proven patterns and best practices.

For the front-end, we have options of Angular, React, or Vue and on the back-end, there are options for ASP.NET Core, Flask, Molecular, or Node.

Installation

We are assuming you already have a recent version of Visual Studio Code (VSCode) installed, but if not you can download it from here. Open VSCode and from the left side of the screen select Extensions. In the search box at the top enter Web Template Studio and then from the list select Web Template Studio. In the detail page that opens click the green Install button at the top.

Project Creation

Now that we have the extension installed press Ctrl + Shift + P to open the VSCode command palette and enter Web Template Studio: Launch (or as much as needed for the option to show) and then select Web Template Studio: Launch.

This will launch the Web Template Studio project creation process. The first page that shows gives you a very basic set of options, but enough for our example. To see the full array of options Web Template Studio provides hit next on this first screen instead of Create Project like we do in this example. Also, note that if you want an ASP.NET [Core] back-end you need to select it on this summary screen as it isn’t yet an option later in the process. Back to our example, on this page, you will need to enter a Project Name, pick a Front-end Framework, and a Back-end Framework before finally clicking Create Project.

After the process finishes a dialog will show letting us know it is complete. Click Open Project to load the created project in a new instance of VSCode.

Running the Project

Before getting to a runnable state we need to run a couple of terminal commands first. This can be done from VSCode’s built-in terminal or from an external terminal of your choice. In VSCode if you don’t see a terminal you can use Cntrl + Shift + ` to open a new one, or from the menu select Terminal > New Terminal. The following are the two commands that need to be run using npm, but they can be adjusted to use yarn instead if you prefer it. The second command may be specific to an ASP.NET Core back-end, make sure and check the project README.md for verification.

npm install
npm run restore-packages

Now the project can be run with the following command.

npm start

The resulting application will look something like this.

Wrapping Up

WebTS seems to be a great tool for quickly getting a project up and running. I do recommend going through the full project creation wizard as it has options to set up Azure integration as well as the ability to add up to 20 different pages to the generated application. Also, keep in mind that the ASP.NET back-end framework option is pretty new so I wouldn’t be surprised to see some changes as it progresses through the preview stage. Make sure and check out the project’s GitHub repo.

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GitHub: Use Actions to Run Multiple Jobs

In the post, we are going to take our sample Workflow that builds two ASP.NET Core web applications and split it so each web application is built individually. This post is using the repo and Workflow built in the following posts if you need to catch up.

GitHub: Import an Azure DevOps Repo
GitHub: Use Actions to build ASP.NET Core Application
GitHub: Use Actions to Publish Artifacts

Starting Point and the Plan

Our Workflow currently contains a single job that just happens to build two ASP.NET Core web application based on the fact that the .NET CLI picks up and builds both applications. The following is the YAML for our current Workflow.

name: .NET Core

on:
  push:
    branches: [ master ]
  pull_request:
    branches: [ master ]

jobs:
  build:

    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    steps:
    - uses: actions/checkout@v2
      
    - name: Setup .NET Core
      uses: actions/setup-dotnet@v1
      with:
        dotnet-version: 3.1.101
 
    - name: Install dependencies
      run: dotnet restore
      
    - name: Build
      run: dotnet build --configuration Release --no-restore
      
    - name: Test
      run: dotnet test --no-restore --verbosity normal

    - name: Publish
      run: dotnet publish 
    
    - name: Upload WebApp1 Build Artifact
      uses: actions/upload-artifact@v2
      with:
        name: WebApp1
        path: /home/runner/work/Playground/Playground/src/WebApp1/bin/Debug/netcoreapp3.1/publish/
        
    - name: Upload WebApp2 Build Artifact
      uses: actions/upload-artifact@v2
      with:
        name: WebApp2
        path: /home/runner/work/Playground/Playground/src/WebApp2/bin/Debug/netcoreapp3.1/publish/

This post is going to take this Workflow and split the build and publish of the two web applications into two jobs. By splitting the Workflow into multiple jobs we open the possibility that the jobs can run in parallel. One reason to do this would be to speed up the total Workflow run time if you have parts of your build that are independent. Another example of why you would need multiple jobs is if the different jobs need different needed to run on different operating systems such as one needing to run Windows and another a Linux.

Creating the Jobs

The following is the Workflow set up along with the job to build the first web application. The first change was of the ID from build to build_web_app1 since each job has to have a unique ID. Most of the rest of the highlighted changes are related to the .NET CLI commands that are now directed at a specific project. Do also note that we changed from a hardcoded path to using expression to get the workspace path which is the ${{ github.workspace }} bit instead of /home/runner/work/Playground/Playground/. See the expression syntax docs for more info.

name: .NET Core

on:
  push:
    branches: [ master ]
  pull_request:
    branches: [ master ]

jobs:
  build_web_app1:

    name: Build WebApp1
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    steps:
    - uses: actions/checkout@v2
      
    - name: Setup .NET Core
      uses: actions/setup-dotnet@v1
      with:
        dotnet-version: 3.1.101
 
    - name: Install dependencies
      run: dotnet restore ${{ github.workspace }}/src/WebApp1/WebApp1.csproj
      
    - name: Build
      run: dotnet build ${{ github.workspace }}/src/WebApp1/WebApp1.csproj --configuration Release --no-restore
      
    - name: Test
      run: dotnet test ${{ github.workspace }}/src/WebApp1/WebApp1.csproj --no-restore --verbosity normal

    - name: Publish
      run: dotnet publish ${{ github.workspace }}/src/WebApp1/WebApp1.csproj
    
    - name: Upload Build Artifact
      uses: actions/upload-artifact@v2
      with:
        name: WebApp1
        path: ${{ github.workspace }}/src/WebApp1/bin/Debug/netcoreapp3.1/publish/

Here is the full file with both jobs defined. As you can see the second job is basically the same thing as the first one with a different ID, name, and project.

name: .NET Core

on:
  push:
    branches: [ master ]
  pull_request:
    branches: [ master ]

jobs:
  build_web_app1:

    name: Build WebApp1
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    steps:
    - uses: actions/checkout@v2
      
    - name: Setup .NET Core
      uses: actions/setup-dotnet@v1
      with:
        dotnet-version: 3.1.101
 
    - name: Install dependencies
      run: dotnet restore ${{ github.workspace }}/src/WebApp1/WebApp1.csproj
      
    - name: Build
      run: dotnet build ${{ github.workspace }}/src/WebApp1/WebApp1.csproj --configuration Release --no-restore
      
    - name: Test
      run: dotnet test ${{ github.workspace }}/src/WebApp1/WebApp1.csproj --no-restore --verbosity normal

    - name: Publish
      run: dotnet publish ${{ github.workspace }}/src/WebApp1/WebApp1.csproj
    
    - name: Upload Build Artifact
      uses: actions/upload-artifact@v2
      with:
        name: WebApp1
        path: ${{ github.workspace }}/src/WebApp1/bin/Debug/netcoreapp3.1/publish/
        
  build_web_app2:

    name: Build WebApp2
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    steps:
    - uses: actions/checkout@v2
      
    - name: Setup .NET Core
      uses: actions/setup-dotnet@v1
      with:
        dotnet-version: 3.1.101
 
    - name: Install dependencies
      run: dotnet restore ${{ github.workspace }}/src/WebApp2/WebApp2.csproj
      
    - name: Build
      run: dotnet build ${{ github.workspace }}/src/WebApp2/WebApp2.csproj --configuration Release --no-restore
      
    - name: Test
      run: dotnet test ${{ github.workspace }}/src/WebApp2/WebApp2.csproj --no-restore --verbosity normal

    - name: Publish
      run: dotnet publish ${{ github.workspace }}/src/WebApp2/WebApp2.csproj
       
    - name: Upload Build Artifact
      uses: actions/upload-artifact@v2
      with:
        name: WebApp2
        path: ${{ github.workspace }}/src/WebApp2/bin/Debug/netcoreapp3.1/publish/

After all the edits are done commit the changes to the repo to run the Workflow. From the results of the Workflow run, you will see that it now has two jobs and we still got the artifacts for both applications as we had before.

Wrapping Up

If your applications need it breaking them up into different jobs can be helpful not only with Workflow runtimes but it can also help your ability to reason about what each part of your build process is doing.

GitHub: Use Actions to Run Multiple Jobs Read More »

GitHub: Use Actions to Publish Artifacts

This post is going to take the GitHub Actions Workflow we set up in the last post and add a couple of steps that will provide us with access to our application’s binaries. If you are new to this series the following post will catch you up if needed.

GitHub: Import an Azure DevOps Repo
GitHub: Use Actions to build ASP.NET Core Application

Edit the Workflow

Our first step is to get back to the Workflow we want to edit. At the top of the repo click Actions.

On the left side of the screen select the specific Workflow, .NET Core in this case. Now that the list is filtered to just the Workflow we are interested in select the three dots on the most recent run and then click View workflow file.

On the next screen click the pencil above the Workflow file to edit the Workflow.

Add the end of the file adds a call to the .NET CLI to publish. The following is the full file and the last two lines are the publish step.

name: .NET Core

on:
  push:
    branches: [ master ]
  pull_request:
    branches: [ master ]

jobs:
  build:

    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    steps:
    - uses: actions/checkout@v2
      
    - name: Setup .NET Core
      uses: actions/setup-dotnet@v1
      with:
        dotnet-version: 3.1.101
 
    - name: Install dependencies
      run: dotnet restore
      
    - name: Build
      run: dotnet build --configuration Release --no-restore
      
    - name: Test
      run: dotnet test --no-restore --verbosity normal

    - name: Publish
      run: dotnet publish

Click the Start commit button and commit the change to the branch of your choice. I committed the change directly to master which triggered the Workflow to run. From the logs of the Workflow, you can see that the publish step executed successfully.

Publish Build Artifacts

Now that we have the two web applications publishing we need a way to get the file for the applications. To do this we are going to use the Upload Artifacts Action. I used the output of the Publish step above to find the path to the publish folder for each application and then used an Upload Artifacts Action for each application. The following are the two steps added to the bottom of our existing Workflow.

- name: Upload WebApp1 Build Artifact
  uses: actions/upload-artifact@v2
  with:
    name: WebApp1
    path: /home/runner/work/Playground/Playground/src/WebApp1/bin/Debug/netcoreapp3.1/publish/
    
- name: Upload WebApp2 Build Artifact
  uses: actions/upload-artifact@v2
  with:
    name: WebApp2
    path: /home/runner/work/Playground/Playground/src/WebApp2/bin/Debug/netcoreapp3.1/publish/

After checking in the changes let the Workflow run. Once complete if you click on the details of the Workflow run you will see it now has Artifacts that can be downloaded.

Wrapping Up

We now have a Workflow that results in files we could actually deploy on top of verifying that the applications builds and the tests pass. I hope this has given you a good jumping-off point to build your own Workflows. We have only scratched the surface of what can be done with GitHub Actions and I’m looking forward to seeing what else we can do.

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GitHub: Use Actions to build ASP.NET Core Application

In this week’s post, we are going to use GitHub’s Actions to build one of the applications that we imported from an Azure DevOps Repo. The sample repo we are using can be found here.

Create an Action Workflow

From the repo in GitHub click the Actions option at the top center of the screen.

The Actions page will make suggestions based on the contents of the repo you are working with. In our case, the suggested .NET Core workflow is the one we are interested in. Click the Set up this workflow button.

The next screen that shows will be an editor loaded with the YAML for the .NET Core workflow we selected. For now, we are going to keep the YAML that was defaulted in and click the Start commit button. This workflow may or may not work for our repo at this point we are still exploring and can change as needed after we get a feel for how Actions work.

The next dialog is the commit details. For this initial change, we are going commit directly to master with the default commit message. Click Commit new file to continue.

View Workflow Status

Now that we have a workflow set up click on the Actions tab of the repo again to view the list of workflows and their status. As you can see in this screenshot the commit queued our new workflow to run.

The workflow finished quickly so I didn’t get to see the details while it was running, but if you click on commit title, Create dotnetcore.yml in this example, it will take you to the detail of this workflow run. From this view, you will see the jobs for the workflow listed on the left side of the screen, we only have one job which is the build. When you click on a job you will see the logs from that job. The following screenshot is the sample build job with the details of the build step expanded to show that both WebApp1 and WebApp2 were built.

Wrapping Up

Hopefully, this post will give you a good jumping-off point to create your own GitHub Actions. I was impressed with how easy it was to get started and the wide verity of languages supported especially for a feature set that has been out for less than a year. Check back in next week for more exploration of Actions.

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Azure DevOps Pipelines: Reusable YAML

In this post, we are going to refactor our sample Azure DevOps Pipeline to move some of the redundant YAML to a new file and replace the redundant parts of our main YAML file. This post is going to build on the Azure DevOps project created in previous posts. If you are just joining this series check out the previous posts to find out how the project has progressed.

Getting Started with Azure DevOps
Pipeline Creation in Azure DevOps
Azure DevOps Publish Artifacts for ASP.NET Core
Azure DevOps Pipelines: Multiple Jobs in YAML

Starting YAML

The following is the YAML for our current pipeline that builds two different web applications using two different jobs. Looking at the two jobs you will notice that they both have the same steps. The only difference in the steps is which project to build (WebApp1.csproj or WebApp2.csproj) and what to call the published artifact (WebApp1 or WebApp2). When developing applications we would never stand for this level of duplication and the same should apply to our pipelines.

trigger: none

variables:
  buildConfiguration: 'Release'

jobs:
- job: WebApp1
  displayName: 'Build WebApp1'
  pool:
    vmImage: 'ubuntu-latest'

  steps:
  - task: UseDotNet@2
    displayName: 'Use .NET 3.1.x'
    inputs:
      packageType: 'sdk'
      version: '3.1.x'

  - task: DotNetCoreCLI@2
    displayName: 'Build'
    inputs:
      command: 'build'
      projects: '**/WebApp1.csproj'
      arguments: '--configuration $(buildConfiguration)' 
  
  - task: DotNetCoreCLI@2
    displayName: 'Publish Application'
    inputs:
      command: 'publish'
      publishWebProjects: false
      projects: '**/WebApp1.csproj'
      arguments: '--configuration $(buildConfiguration) --output $(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)'

  - task: PublishPipelineArtifact@1
    displayName: 'Publish Artifacts'
    inputs:
      targetPath: '$(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)'
      artifact: 'WebApp1'
      publishLocation: 'pipeline'

- job: WebApp2
  displayName: 'Build WebApp2'
  pool:
    vmImage: 'ubuntu-latest'

  steps:
  - task: UseDotNet@2
    displayName: 'Use .NET 3.1.x'
    inputs:
      packageType: 'sdk'
      version: '3.1.x'

  - task: DotNetCoreCLI@2
    displayName: 'Build'
    inputs:
      command: 'build'
      projects: '**/WebApp2.csproj'
      arguments: '--configuration $(buildConfiguration)' 
  
  - task: DotNetCoreCLI@2
    displayName: 'Publish Application'
    inputs:
      command: 'publish'
      publishWebProjects: false
      projects: '**/WebApp2.csproj'
      arguments: '--configuration $(buildConfiguration) --output $(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)'

  - task: PublishPipelineArtifact@1
    displayName: 'Publish Artifacts'
    inputs:
      targetPath: '$(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)'
      artifact: 'WebApp2'
      publishLocation: 'pipeline'

Add a New File

To attack the duplication above we need to take the shared steps from above and move them somewhere they can be reused. We will be walking through the steps using the Azure DevOps web site and committing directly to the master branch, but these same steps could be performed locally or on the web on any branch. First, from the Repos section of the site we need to add a new file by clicking the three dots at the level we want the file added. In this case, we are adding to the root of the repo but the same option is available on any folder.

A dialog will show where you can enter the New file name, we are going to use build.yml in this case. Next, click Create to continue.

Shared YAML

Now that we have a new file we can start building the new YAML that will handle the repeated steps from the original jobs. The first thing we are going to do is define a set of parameters that this set of steps can be called with. We are going to use this to pass what project to build, which build configuration to use, and what name the published artifact. The following is the definition of our parameters.

parameters:
- name: buildConfiguration
  type: string
  default: 'Release'
- name: project
  type: string
  default: ''
- name: artifactName
  type: string
  default: ''

We can then use these parameters in the rest of the file using the ${{ parameterName }} syntax. Note that any pipeline variables are also available using the $(variableName) syntax. The following bit of YAML shows both types in the arguments line.

- task: DotNetCoreCLI@2
  displayName: 'Publish Application'
  inputs:
    command: 'publish'
    publishWebProjects: false
    projects: '**/${{ parameters.project }}'
    arguments: '--configuration ${{ parameters.buildConfiguration }} --output $(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)'

While you can use pipeline variables I recommend passing all the values you need via parameters for the same reason that we try to avoid global variables when doing general programming. I’m using both here to show the usage of each. The following is the full YAML in our new file.

parameters:
- name: buildConfiguration
  type: string
  default: 'Release'
- name: project
  type: string
  default: ''
- name: artifactName
  type: string
  default: ''

steps:
  - task: UseDotNet@2
    displayName: 'Use .NET 3.1.x'
    inputs:
      packageType: 'sdk'
      version: '3.1.x'

  - task: DotNetCoreCLI@2
    displayName: 'Build'
    inputs:
      command: 'build'
      projects: '**/${{ parameters.project }}'
      arguments: '--configuration ${{ parameters.buildConfiguration }}' 
  
  - task: DotNetCoreCLI@2
    displayName: 'Publish Application'
    inputs:
      command: 'publish'
      publishWebProjects: false
      projects: '**/${{ parameters.project }}'
      arguments: '--configuration ${{ parameters.buildConfiguration }} --output $(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)'

  - task: PublishPipelineArtifact@1
    displayName: 'Publish Artifacts'
    inputs:
      targetPath: '$(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)'
      artifact: ${{ parameters.artifactName }}
      publishLocation: 'pipeline'

Finally, commit the changes to the new file.

Using Shared YAML

Not that we have the YAML that is the same between our two build jobs we can switch back over to our main YAML file, azure-pipelines.yml in the sample, and remove the steps we are wanting to replace. While the jobs will both have a steps section the only thing we will have left in them is a template call to our other YAML file, build.yml for the sample, that passes the parameters to run the other file with. The following is the resulting YAML file with the call to the shared file in both jobs highlighted.

trigger: none

variables:
  buildConfiguration: 'Release'

jobs:
- job: WebApp1
  displayName: 'Build WebApp1'
  pool:
    vmImage: 'ubuntu-latest'

  steps:
  - template: build.yml
    parameters:
      buildConFiguration: $(buildConfiguration)
      project: WebApp1.csproj
      artifactName: WebApp1

- job: WebApp2
  displayName: 'Build WebApp2'
  pool:
    vmImage: 'ubuntu-latest'

  steps:
  - template: build.yml
    parameters:
      buildConFiguration: $(buildConfiguration)
      project: WebApp2.csproj
      artifactName: WebApp2

Wrapping Up

Being able to remove duplication from your YAML files should help improve the maintainability of your pipelines. I know the samples don’t show it, but the template is just a step and you could have other steps before or after it just like you would with normal tasks.

Azure DevOps Pipelines: Reusable YAML Read More »

Azure DevOps Pipelines: Multiple Jobs in YAML

This post is going to show how to run multiple jobs out of a single YAML file from an Azure DevOps Pipeline. This post is going to build on the Azure DevOps project created in previous posts. If you are just joining this series check out the previous posts to find out how the project has progressed.

Getting Started with Azure DevOps
Pipeline Creation in Azure DevOps
Azure DevOps Publish Artifacts for ASP.NET Core

Starting Point and the Plan

As the sample stands now we have a single Pipeline that builds two different ASP.NET Core web applications in a single job using the following YAML.

trigger:
- master

pool:
  vmImage: 'ubuntu-latest'

variables:
  buildConfiguration: 'Release'

steps:
- task: UseDotNet@2
  inputs:
    packageType: 'sdk'
    version: '3.1.x'

- script: dotnet build --configuration $(buildConfiguration)
  displayName: 'dotnet build $(buildConfiguration)'
  
- task: DotNetCoreCLI@2
  inputs:
    command: 'publish'
    publishWebProjects: true
    arguments: '--configuration $(buildConfiguration) --output $(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)'

- task: PublishPipelineArtifact@1
  inputs:
    targetPath: '$(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)'
    publishLocation: 'pipeline'

This post is going to take this pipeline and split the build and publish of the two web applications and make each application its own job. In Pipelines a job is something that a single agent takes and runs. By splitting into multiple jobs the pipeline can run multiple jobs at the same time if you have enough build agents available. One reason to do this would be to speed up the total Pipeline run if you have parts of your build that are independent. Another example of why you would need jobs is if the different jobs need different agents such as one needing a Windows agent and another a Linux agent.

Creating the Jobs

Having different jobs means we are going to have to move things like what agent pool to use and the steps for the job under a jobs element and then declare a specific job and the details that job needs to run. As you can see in the following example the end goal is the same as the YAML from above (except it is dealing with a specific project), but the details are nested under jobs and defined under a job.

trigger:
- master

variables:
  buildConfiguration: 'Release'

jobs:
- job: WebApp1
  displayName: 'Build WebApp1'
  pool:
    vmImage: 'ubuntu-latest'

  steps:
  - task: UseDotNet@2
    displayName: 'Use .NET 3.1.x'
    inputs:
      packageType: 'sdk'
      version: '3.1.x'

  - task: DotNetCoreCLI@2
    displayName: 'Build'
    inputs:
      command: 'build'
      projects: '**/WebApp1.csproj'
      arguments: '--configuration $(buildConfiguration)' 
  
  - task: DotNetCoreCLI@2
    displayName: 'Publish Application'
    inputs:
      command: 'publish'
      publishWebProjects: false
      projects: '**/WebApp1.csproj'
      arguments: '--configuration $(buildConfiguration) --output $(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)'

  - task: PublishPipelineArtifact@1
    displayName: 'Publish Artifacts'
    inputs:
      targetPath: '$(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)'
      artifact: 'WebApp1'
      publishLocation: 'pipeline'

Also notice that you can still define variables that can be used across jobs as is done above with the buildConfiguration variable. The following is the full YAML file that builds and publishes the artifacts for both web applications.

trigger:
- master

variables:
  buildConfiguration: 'Release'

jobs:
- job: WebApp1
  displayName: 'Build WebApp1'
  pool:
    vmImage: 'ubuntu-latest'

  steps:
  - task: UseDotNet@2
    displayName: 'Use .NET 3.1.x'
    inputs:
      packageType: 'sdk'
      version: '3.1.x'

  - task: DotNetCoreCLI@2
    displayName: 'Build'
    inputs:
      command: 'build'
      projects: '**/WebApp1.csproj'
      arguments: '--configuration $(buildConfiguration)' 
  
  - task: DotNetCoreCLI@2
    displayName: 'Publish Application'
    inputs:
      command: 'publish'
      publishWebProjects: false
      projects: '**/WebApp1.csproj'
      arguments: '--configuration $(buildConfiguration) --output $(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)'

  - task: PublishPipelineArtifact@1
    displayName: 'Publish Artifacts'
    inputs:
      targetPath: '$(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)'
      artifact: 'WebApp1'
      publishLocation: 'pipeline'

- job: WebApp2
  displayName: 'Build WebApp2'
  pool:
    vmImage: 'ubuntu-latest'

  steps:
  - task: UseDotNet@2
    displayName: 'Use .NET 3.1.x'
    inputs:
      packageType: 'sdk'
      version: '3.1.x'

  - task: DotNetCoreCLI@2
    displayName: 'Build'
    inputs:
      command: 'build'
      projects: '**/WebApp2.csproj'
      arguments: '--configuration $(buildConfiguration)' 
  
  - task: DotNetCoreCLI@2
    displayName: 'Publish Application'
    inputs:
      command: 'publish'
      publishWebProjects: false
      projects: '**/WebApp2.csproj'
      arguments: '--configuration $(buildConfiguration) --output $(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)'

  - task: PublishPipelineArtifact@1
    displayName: 'Publish Artifacts'
    inputs:
      targetPath: '$(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)'
      artifact: 'WebApp2'
      publishLocation: 'pipeline'

After all your edits are done commit the changes to your YAML file and then run the pipeline. As you can see from the following screenshot of my sample pipeline run the pipeline has two jobs instead of one that the original YAML resulted in. Also, note that the pipeline results in two published artifacts (one per job in our case) instead of the one with the original.

Wrapping Up

As mentioned above there are a lot of reasons you might want to split up your pipeline into multiple jobs and hopefully, you now have a good idea of how that is done. Make sure and check back in the future for a post on how to take repeated tasks and make them reusable.

Azure DevOps Pipelines: Multiple Jobs in YAML Read More »

Azure DevOps Publish Artifacts for ASP.NET Core

This post is going to build on the Azure DevOps project we created in the last few posts and get the build pipeline to the point you have the application’s binaries. If you are just joining this series check out the previous posts to catch up.

Getting Started with Azure DevOps
Pipeline Creation in Azure DevOps

Edit the Pipeline

First, we need to get back to the pipeline we were working on. From the Project menu select Pipelines.

This will land you on a page that lists your recently run pipelines. If you don’t see your pipeline list you might have to click the All option near the top of the page. Since we only have one pipeline in this project we can use the ellipsis to open a context menu and click Edit.

Publish the Application

At this point, the YAML for our pipeline looks like the following.

trigger:
- master

pool:
  vmImage: 'ubuntu-latest'

variables:
  buildConfiguration: 'Release'

steps:
- task: UseDotNet@2
  inputs:
    packageType: 'sdk'
    version: '3.1.x'

- script: dotnet build --configuration $(buildConfiguration)
  displayName: 'dotnet build $(buildConfiguration)'

The pipeline will currently tell us if the included project builds, but doesn’t provide us with the results of that build. Using the Task panel on the right search for the .NET Core task and then click the resulting task. This is the task you would want to use to invoke any of the .NET CLI commands.

Use the drop-down for Command and select publish. For this sample, the defaults for the rest of the settings will be fine. Finally, click Add to add the task to the YAML file.

The following is the resulting YAML.

trigger:
- master

pool:
  vmImage: 'ubuntu-latest'

variables:
  buildConfiguration: 'Release'

steps:
- task: UseDotNet@2
  inputs:
    packageType: 'sdk'
    version: '3.1.x'

- script: dotnet build --configuration $(buildConfiguration)
  displayName: 'dotnet build $(buildConfiguration)'
  
- task: DotNetCoreCLI@2
  inputs:
    command: 'publish'
    publishWebProjects: true

Before we move on I want to point out the Settings link above the tasks in the YAML editor. Clicking Settings will load that task into the task panel on the right of the screen where you can make changes and then if you hit the add button it will replace your existing task with a new one with your new options selected. Be careful to not change the selection in the YAML editor as the add button is just replacing the selected text not remembering what task you click settings on. When finished click the Save button and go through the commit process. When that is finished click the Run button to execute the pipeline.

Publish Build Artifacts

The pipeline run should succeed, but we still don’t have any files we can use. Learning what variables are available in the pipeline and how to use them is one of the hardest parts of getting started with Azure Pipelines. For our example, we are trying to get the two zip files created by the publish step above which means our pipeline will need to publish artifacts to make the files available. We are going to tweak the publish command from above with an output directory using the builtin Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory variable. The following is the full task with the changes.

- task: DotNetCoreCLI@2
  inputs:
    command: 'publish'
    publishWebProjects: true
    arguments: '--configuration $(buildConfiguration) --output $(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)'

With the file we need in the artifact staging directory we need to publish those files using the Publish Pipeline Artifact task. The following is the full task that publishes the artifact staging directory to the pipeline.

- task: PublishPipelineArtifact@1
  inputs:
    targetPath: '$(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)'
    publishLocation: 'pipeline'

For reference, the following is the full YAML for the pipeline with all the above changes.

trigger:
- master

pool:
  vmImage: 'ubuntu-latest'

variables:
  buildConfiguration: 'Release'

steps:
- task: UseDotNet@2
  inputs:
    packageType: 'sdk'
    version: '3.1.x'

- script: dotnet build --configuration $(buildConfiguration)
  displayName: 'dotnet build $(buildConfiguration)'
  
- task: DotNetCoreCLI@2
  inputs:
    command: 'publish'
    publishWebProjects: true
    arguments: '--configuration $(buildConfiguration) --output $(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)'

- task: PublishPipelineArtifact@1
  inputs:
    targetPath: '$(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)'
    publishLocation: 'pipeline'

Save and run the pipeline. When the pipeline is complete on the result page you will see 1 published for artifacts.

Click on 1 published and it will take you to a page that lists the artifacts. If you mouse over any of the rows you will see the option to download the associated file(s).

Quick Tip

As I stated above getting a handle on what directories are where can be a pain. If you ever need to see what files are where you can use the following publish task to output the full set of files the pipeline is using by publishing the pipeline’s entire workspace. This has helped me in the past to orient myself.

- task: PublishPipelineArtifact@1
  inputs:
    targetPath: '$(Pipeline.Workspace)'
    publishLocation: 'pipeline'

Wrapping Up

Our pipeline is now at the point we have files we could deploy. Hopefully, this gives you a good jump start on your own build pipelines. Azure Pipelines is a huge topic and this is a very basic build so keep an eye out for more posts on this topic in the future.

Azure DevOps Publish Artifacts for ASP.NET Core Read More »

Upgrade an ASP.NET Core Application to Bootstrap 4

As part of the work, I did on the application referenced in the web.config transform post from last week I also upgraded the application from Bootstrap 3 to Bootstrap 4 and this post is going to walk through a process to get the new version of Bootstrap up and running in a site.

Create a Sample Application

In case you want a project with Bootstrap 3 installed to play around with before attempting a production site the following command, run in a command prompt, will create an ASP.NET Core 2.1 application that has Bootstrap 3.

dotnet new webapp -f netcoreapp2.1

Upgrade Bootstrap Files

The first step I took was to delete the existing Bootstrap related file which can be found in the wwwroot/lib directory and delete the whole bootstrap directory.

Now open the project in Visual Studio and right-click on the project file and select Add > Client-Side Library.

The dialog that shows will allow you to search for client-side libraries to include in your application. In this case, we are looking for twitter-bootstrap. Your version number may be higher than the one shown in the screenshot below. I change the target location to match where Bootstrap was installed by the template by default, but that isn’t required. Finally, click Install.

The dialog above and the installation of the file is part of LibMan, which provides a lot of functionality for managing client-side libraries. Check out the official LibMan docs for more information.

Dealing with the Bootstrap Changes

This section is going to be really light on details as Bootstrap 4 was a reboot of Bootstrap and a ton of things changed. I will give an example or two here, but really the official Bootstrap Migrating to v4 guide is where you will want to go for all the details.

Here are a couple of examples of the type of changes you will be making.

Before:
<label asp-for="User" class="control-label"></label>

After:
<label asp-for="User" class="col-form-label"></label>

The look of buttons has changed so where we had used default before we changed to secondary.

Before:
<input type="submit" value="Load" class="btn btn-default" />

After:
<input type="submit" value="Load" class="btn btn-secondary" />

Wrapping Up

Hopefully, this will help you get a jump start on upgrading sites from Bootstrap 3 to Bootstrap 4. Thankfully after you get the files in the right spot Bootstrap’s migration guide should get you the rest of the way.

Upgrade an ASP.NET Core Application to Bootstrap 4 Read More »