Into the Core

The client I�m currently assisting has begun to move applications from more
monolithic architecture into a more modern, cloud-based architecture. The
organization is a bit of a .NET anomaly in that it is a company that�s primarily
Java, yet has some .NET.

So even though Microsoft has a list of framework tools (such as Azure Service
Fabric and Azure App Service), it�s fair to say that asking a primarily Java-
focused company to use those tools could be an uphill battle. This is where .NET
Standard and .NET Core have come to the rescue.

I work with a ton of smart people and I�m pretty amazed at how fast they can pick
up on things from reading. I, however, cannot really understand it fully until I
touch it. So let�s build a quick RESTful Web API step by step to see how
challenging it is. We�ll be using .NET Standard, .NET Core, and ASP.NET Core.

Earlier this month my friend Ryan introduced us to Getting Started with Xamarin
Forms and Prism. In that post, Ryan started a mobile application to display blog
posts which he called SimpleBlog.

In this article, I would like to continue that demonstration by adding a back-end

server to persist and share these blogs. This will be accomplished using Azure�s
Mobile App Service which falls within its free tier services.

Yes, you did read that right: you can spin up an Azure account and have access to
try out many of Azure�s features. For instance, the example I am going to walk you
through today can be hosted indefinitely without costing you anything, and to that,
you could add nine more web, mobile, or API services. See
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/free/ for more information.

There is no way I am going to be able to cover all the possibilities available in

an Azure Mobile App service, much less what Azure has to offer. My intent in this
post is to help �whet your appetite� on the possibilities by giving a quick
overview of just two great frameworks that play great together: the
Microsoft.Azure.Mobile.Client mobile framework tied to an Azure Mobile Apps
Service�.

In this blog, I�ll show you how easy it is to create an Android and iOS application
using Xamarin Forms while utilizing Prism.

What are Xamarin Forms?

Xamarin Forms is a platform that allows developers to create native Android, iOS,
and Windows applications while using the beloved C# programming language.

An attractive feature of Xamarin Forms is that it uses a shared C# codebase to

create a native user interface specific to their platform. Out of the box, Xamarin
provides large collections of controls to get started. It also has the ability to
access native platform features, such as camera access, GPS, text to speech, etc,
by using the Dependency Service.

What is Prism?
According to the Prism website, Prism is defined as �a framework for building
loosely coupled, maintainable, and testable XAML applications in WPF, Windows 10
UWP, and Xamarin Forms. Prism provides an implementation of a collection of design
patterns that are helpful in writing well-structured and maintainable XAML
applications, including MVVM, dependency injection, commands, EventAggregator, and
others.� In other words, Prism helps users to write better code�.
One issue that we face day to day as developers is speed of development. One of the
coolest things to me in the ever-changing landscape of technology is how this issue
us continually being addressed in an effort to makes our lives easier.

We have gone from having to write everything needed in a verbose way to being able
to configure a simple REST API in a few lines of code with Spring Boot. The most
amazing part of this is not only the ability to create the web services but also
the ability to allow these services to communicate in a smart way. Spring has given
us many tools to allow easy configuration and putting together things that just
work (mostly).

This post is not to be considered a full guide to which the extent of these
technologies can be leveraged. In this post, we give examples of how Spring Boot
can be used (along with Zuul and Eureka) to create a simple discovery service.

There are other components that can be added for things like a configuration server
to pull all application.properties files from a common location that is updatable
in real time, or circuit breakers to allow the graceful failing of different pieces
of your API.

What this post will focus on is the
applications. We will also touch on
also take advantage of being a part
our Spring Boot-based Zuul Gateway.
Spring Security into our gateway to
service discovery between Spring Boot
how, using SteeltoeOSS, .NET applications can
of the service discovery and be routed through
We will also look at how we can integrate
secure the entire API no matter the language�

We are excited to announce Keyhole�s partnership with Microsoft to sponsor Azure

Dev Days, a one-day workshop in Kansas City on Wednesday, April 25, 2018. This is a
free community event to provide education on application modernization,
microservices, and Microsoft Azure topics.

In addition to providing technical educators for this workshop, Keyhole Software

will sponsor food and beverages. The topics Keyhole will champion include
Microservices and Containers, as well as App Services.

Each technical session will be followed by a hands-on Azure lab and a whiteboard
design exercise. This workshop will help attendees gain a thorough understanding of
the components of Azure and how you can take advantage of them as a developer.

This is a traveling community event, with other events available to attend in St.
Louis and Oklahoma City. The event will be held at the Microsoft offices in
Overland Park�