I Co-Wrote 88 Unit Tests Using AI: A Developer's Journey

Testing has always been one of those tasks that developers know is essential but often find tedious. When I decided to add comprehensive unit tests to my NoteBookmark project, I thought: why not make this an experiment in AI-assisted development? What followed was a fascinating 4-hour journey that resulted in 88 unit tests, a complete CI/CD pipeline, and some valuable insights about working with AI coding assistants.

(Version française ici)

The Project: NoteBookmark

NoteBookmark is a .NET application built with C# that helps users manage and organize their reading notes and bookmarks. The project includes an API, a Blazor frontend, and uses Azure services for storage. You can check out the complete project on GitHub.

The Challenge: Starting from Zero

I'll be honest - it had been a while since I'd written comprehensive unit tests. Rather than diving in myself, I decided to see how different AI models would approach this task. My initial request was deliberately vague: "add a test project" without any other specifications.

Looking back, I realize I should have been more specific about which parts of the code I wanted covered. This would have made the review process easier and given me better control over the scope. But sometimes, the best learning comes from letting the AI surprise you.

The Great AI Model Comparison

GPT-4.1: Competent but Quiet

GPT-4.1 delivered decent results, but the experience felt somewhat mechanical. The code it generated was functional, but I found myself wanting more context. The explanations were minimal, and I often had to ask follow-up questions to understand the reasoning behind certain test approaches.

Gemini: The False Start

My experience with Gemini was... strange. Perhaps it was a glitch or an off day, but most of what was generated simply didn't work. I didn't persist with this model for long, as debugging AI-generated code that fundamentally doesn't function defeats the purpose of the exercise. Note that at the time of this writing, Gemini was still in preview, so I expect it to improve over time.

Claude Sonnet: The Clear Winner

This is where the magic happened. Claude Sonnet became my co-pilot of choice for this project. What set it apart wasn't just the quality of the code (though that was excellent), but the quality of the conversation. It felt like having a thoughtful colleague thinking out loud with me.

The explanations were clear and educational. When Claude suggested a particular testing approach, it would explain why. When it encountered a complex scenario, it would walk through its reasoning. I tried different versions of Claude Sonnet but didn't notice significant differences in results - they were all consistently good.

The Development Process: A 4-Hour Journey

Hour 1-2: Getting to Compilation

The first iteration couldn't compile. This wasn't surprising given the complexity of the codebase and the vague initial request. But here's where the AI collaboration really shined. Instead of manually debugging everything myself, I worked with Copilot to identify and fix issues iteratively.

We went through several rounds of:

1. Identify compilation errors
2. Discuss the best approach to fix them
3. Let the AI implement the fixes
4. Review and refine

After about 2 hours, we had a test project with 88 unit tests that compiled successfully. The AI had chosen xUnit as the testing framework, which I was happy with - it's a solid choice that I might not have picked myself if I was rusty on the current .NET testing landscape.

Hour 2.5-3.5: Making Tests Pass

Getting the tests to compile was one thing; getting them to pass was another challenge entirely. This phase taught me a lot about both my codebase and xUnit features I wasn't familiar with.

I relied heavily on the /explain feature during this phase. When tests failed, I'd ask Claude to explain what was happening and why. This was invaluable for understanding not just the immediate fix, but the underlying testing concepts.

One of those moment was learning about [InlineData(true)] and other xUnit data attributes. These weren't features I was familiar with, and having them explained in context made them immediately useful.

Hour 3.5-4: Structure and Style

Once all tests were passing, I spent time ensuring I understood each test and requesting structural changes to match my preferences. This phase was crucial for taking ownership of the code. Just because AI wrote it doesn't mean it should remain a black box. Let's repeat this: Understanding the code is essential; just because AI wrote it doesn't mean it's good.

Beyond Testing: CI/CD Integration

With the tests complete, I asked Copilot to create a GitHub Actions workflow to run tests on every push to main and v-next branches, plus PR reviews. Initially it started modifiying my existing workflow that takess care of the Azure deployment. I wanted a separate workflow for testing, so I interrupted (that's nice I wasn't "forced" to wait), and asked it to create a new one instead. The result was the running-unit-tests.yml workflow that worked perfectly on the first try.

This was genuinely surprising. CI/CD configurations often require tweaking, but the generated workflow handled:

• Multi-version .NET setup
• Dependency restoration
• Building and testing
• Test result reporting
• Code coverage analysis
• Artifact uploading

The PR Enhancement Adventure

Here's where things got interesting. When I asked Copilot to enhance the workflow to show test results in PRs, it started adding components, then paused and asked if it could delete the current version and start from scratch.

I said yes, and I'm glad I did. The rebuilt version created beautiful PR comments showing:

• Test results summary
• Code coverage reports (which I didn't ask for but appreciated)
• Detailed breakdowns.

The Finishing Touches

No project is complete without proper status indicators. I added a test status badge to the README, giving anyone visiting the repository immediate visibility into the project's health.

Key Takeaways

What Worked Well

1. AI as a Learning Partner: Having Copilot explain testing concepts and xUnit features was like having a patient teacher
2. Iterative Refinement: The back-and-forth process felt natural and productive
3. Comprehensive Solutions: The AI didn't just write tests; it created a complete testing infrastructure
4. Quality Over Speed: While it took 4 hours, the result was thorough and well-structured

What I'd Do Differently

1. Be More Specific Initially: Starting with clearer scope would have streamlined the process
2. Set Testing Priorities: Identifying critical paths first would have been valuable
3. Plan for Visual Test Reports: Thinking about test result visualization from the start

Lessons About AI Collaboration

• Model Choice Matters: The difference between AI models was significant
• Conversation Quality Matters: Clear explanations make the collaboration more valuable
• Trust but Verify: Understanding every piece of generated code is crucial
• Embrace Iteration: The best results come from multiple refinement cycles

The Bigger Picture

This experiment reinforced my belief that AI coding assistants are most powerful when they're true collaborators rather than code generators. The value wasn't just in the 88 tests that were written, but in the learning that happened along the way.

For developers hesitant about AI assistance in testing: this isn't about replacing your testing skills, it's about augmenting them. The AI handles the boilerplate and suggests patterns, but you bring the domain knowledge and quality judgment.

Conclusion

Would I do this again? Absolutely. The combination of comprehensive test coverage, learning opportunities, and time efficiency made this a clear win. The 4 hours invested created not just tests, but a complete testing infrastructure that will pay dividends throughout the project's lifecycle.

If you're considering AI-assisted testing for your own projects, my advice is simple: start the conversation, be prepared to iterate, and don't be afraid to ask "why" at every step. The goal isn't just working code - it's understanding and owning that code.

The complete test suite and CI/CD pipeline are available in the NoteBookmark repository if you want to see the results of this AI collaboration in action.

Reading Notes #646

Welcome to this week's collection of fascinating reads across cloud computing, AI, and programming! As technology continues to evolve at breakneck speed, I've gathered some of the most insightful articles that caught my attention. From securing MCP servers to exploring Rust, there's something here for every tech enthusiast. 

Dive in and discover what's new in our rapidly changing digital landscape.

Cloud

• Azure API Management Your Auth Gateway For MCP Servers | Microsoft Community Hub (PranamiJ) - Why all the fuss about MCP, we must not forget security. This post suggests a simple solution.

AI

• How Azure Copilot Helped Me Quickly Troubleshoot a Demo (David Giard) - That's a good example of how AI can help you not do the job for yourself but avoid mistakes and do it faster.

• Secure Remote MCP Servers With Entra ID And Azure API Management (Den Delimarsky) - Nice solution in Python to secure your MCP servers

Programming

• When ASP.NET Core Identity Is No Longer Enough (Andrea Chiarelli) - Authentication and authorization have an important place in our Apps. This post shares details about how things work and the different processes.

• New Docker Extension for Visual Studio Code (Remy Suen) - This extension was already a must, they made it better, it's a must must! But seriously give it a try and try it by yourself.

• From C# to Rust: A 42-Day Developer Challenge (Chris Woodruff) - Cool tease of an experiment that promises a lot of learning.

• How to Programmatically Create MS Word DOCX Documents with .NET C# on Linux (Bjoern Meyer) - Cool package that helps create Word documents. Perfect when running in a Linux container.

• Preview 2 of the .NET AI Template Now Available (Jordan Matthiesen) - New templates with AI, Qadran and Aspire, oh boy life is good!

Sharing my Reading Notes is a habit I started a long time ago, where I share a list of all the articles, blog posts, and books that catch my interest during the week. 

If you have interesting content, share it!

~Frank

Making AI smarter with an MCP server that manages short URLs

Have you ever wanted to give your AI assistants access to your own custom tools and data? That's exactly what Model Context Protocol (MCP) allows us to do, and I've been experimenting with it lately.

(Version française ici)

I read a lot recently about Model Context Protocol (MCP) and how it is changing the way AI interacts with external systems. I was curious to see how it works and how I can use it in my own projects. There are many tutorial available online but one of my favorite was written by James Montemagno Build a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server in C#. This post isn't a tutorial, but rather a summary of my experience and what I learned along the way while building a real MCP server that manages short URLs.

MCP doesn't change AI itself, it's a protocol that helps your AI model to interact with external resources: API, databases, etc. The protocol simplifies the way AI can access an external system, and it allows the AI to discover the available tools from those resources. Recently I was working on a project that manages short URLs, and I thought it would be a great opportunity to build an MCP server that manages short URLs. I wanted to see how easy it is to build and then use it in VSCode with GitHub Copilot Chat.

Code: All the code of this post is available in the branch exp/mcp-server of the AzUrlShortener repo on GitHub.

Setting Up: Adding an MCP Server to a .NET Aspire Solution

The AzUrlShortener is a web solution that uses .NET Aspire, so the first thing I did was create a new project using the command:

dotnet new web -n Cloud5mins.ShortenerTools.MCPServer -o ./mcpserver

Required Dependencies

To transform this into an MCP server, I added these essential NuGet packages:

• Microsoft.Extensions.Hosting
• ModelContextProtocol.AspNetCore

Since this project is part of a .NET Aspire solution, I also added references to:

• The ServiceDefaults project (for consistent service configuration)
• The ShortenerTools.Core project (where the business logic lives)

Integrating with Aspire

Next, I needed to integrate the MCP server into the AppHost project, which defines all services in our solution. Here's how I added it to the existing services:

var manAPI = builder.AddProject<Projects.Cloud5mins_ShortenerTools_Api>("api")
						.WithReference(strTables)
						.WaitFor(strTables)
						.WithEnvironment("CustomDomain",customDomain)
						.WithEnvironment("DefaultRedirectUrl",defaultRedirectUrl);

builder.AddProject<Projects.Cloud5mins_ShortenerTools_TinyBlazorAdmin>("admin")
		.WithExternalHttpEndpoints()
		.WithReference(manAPI);

// 👇👇👇 new code for MCP Server
builder.AddProject<Projects.Cloud5mins_ShortenerTools_MCPServer>("mcp")
		.WithReference(manAPI)
		.WithExternalHttpEndpoints();

Notice how I added the MCP server with a reference to the manAPI - this is crucial as it needs access to the URL management API.

Configuring the MCP Server

To complete the setup, I needed to configure the dependency injection in the program.cs file of the MCPServer project. The key part was specifying the BaseAddress of the httpClient:

var builder = WebApplication.CreateBuilder(args);       
builder.Logging.AddConsole(consoleLogOptions =>
{
    // Configure all logs to go to stderr
    consoleLogOptions.LogToStandardErrorThreshold = LogLevel.Trace;
});
builder.Services.AddMcpServer()
    .WithTools<UrlShortenerTool>();

builder.AddServiceDefaults();

builder.Services.AddHttpClient<UrlManagerClient>(client => 
            {
                client.BaseAddress = new Uri("https+http://api");
            });
            
var app = builder.Build();

app.MapMcp();

app.Run();

That's all that was needed! Thanks to .NET Aspire, integrating the MCP server was straightforward. When you run the solution, the MCP server starts alongside other projects and will be available at http://localhost:{some port}/sse. The /sse part of the endpoint means (Server-Sent Events) and is critical - it's the URL that AI assistants will use to discover available tools.

Implementing the MCP Server Tools

Looking at the code above, two key lines make everything work:

1. builder.Services.AddMcpServer().WithTools<UrlShortenerTool>(); - registers the MCP server and specifies which tools will be available
2. app.MapMcp(); - maps the MCP server to the ASP.NET Core pipeline

Defining Tools with Attributes

The UrlShortenerTool class contains all the methods that will be exposed to AI assistants. Let's examine the ListUrl method:

[McpServerTool, Description("Provide a list of all short URLs.")]
public List<ShortUrlEntity> ListUrl()
{
	var urlList = _urlManager.GetUrls().Result.ToList<ShortUrlEntity>();
	return urlList;
}

The [McpServerTool] attribute marks this method as a tool the AI can use. I prefer keeping tool definitions simple, delegating the actual implementation to the UrlManager class that's injected in the constructor: UrlShortenerTool(UrlManagerClient urlManager).

The URL Manager Client

The UrlManagerClient follows standard HttpClient patterns. It receives the pre-configured httpClient in its constructor and uses it to communicate with the API:

public class UrlManagerClient(HttpClient httpClient)
{
	public async Task<IQueryable<ShortUrlEntity>?> GetUrls()
    {
		IQueryable<ShortUrlEntity> urlList = null;
		try{
			using var response = await httpClient.GetAsync("/api/UrlList");
			if(response.IsSuccessStatusCode){
				var urls = await response.Content.ReadFromJsonAsync<ListResponse>();
				urlList = urls!.UrlList.AsQueryable<ShortUrlEntity>();
			}
		}
		catch(Exception ex){
			Console.WriteLine(ex.Message);
		}
        
		return urlList;
    }

	// other methods to manage short URLs
}

This separation of concerns keeps the code clean - tools handle the MCP interface, while the client handles the API communication.

Using the MCP Server with GitHub Copilot Chat

Now for the exciting part - connecting your MCP server to GitHub Copilot Chat! This is where you'll see your custom tools in action.

Configuring Copilot to Use Your MCP Server

Once the server is running (either deployed in Azure or locally), follow these steps:

1. Open GitHub Copilot Chat in VS Code
2. Change the mode to Agent by clicking the dropdown in the chat panel
3. Click the Select Tools... button, then Add More Tools

Selecting the Connection Type

GitHub Copilot supports several ways to connect to MCP servers:

There are multiple options available - you could have your server in a container or run it via command line. For our scenario, we'll use HTTP.

Note: At the time of writing this post, I needed to use the HTTP URL of the MCP server rather than HTTPS. You can get this URL from the Aspire dashboard by clicking on the resource and checking the available Endpoints.

After selecting your connection type, Copilot will display the configuration file, which you can modify anytime.

Interacting with Your Custom Tools

Now comes the fun part! You can interact with your MCP server in two ways:

1. Natural language queries: Ask questions like "How many short URLs do I have?"
2. Direct tool references: Use the pound sign to call specific tools: "With #azShortURL list all URLs"

The azShortURL is the name we gave to our MCP server in the configuration.

Key Learnings and Future Directions

Building this MCP server for AzUrlShortener taught me several valuable lessons:

What Worked Well

• Integration with .NET Aspire was remarkably straightforward
• The attribute-based approach to defining tools is clean and intuitive
• The separation of tool definitions from implementation logic keeps the code maintainable

Challenges and Considerations

• The csharp-SDK is only a few weeks old and still in preview
• OAuth authentication isn't defined yet (though it's being actively worked on)
• Documentation is present but evolving rapidly as the technology matures, so some features may not be fully documented yet

For the AzUrlShortener project specifically, I'm keeping this MCP server implementation in the experimental branch mcp-server until I can properly secure it. However, I'm already envisioning numerous other scenarios where MCP servers could add great value.

If you're interested in exploring this technology, I encourage you to:

• Check out the GitHub repo
• Fork it and create your own MCP server
• Experiment with different tools and capabilities

Join the Community

If you have questions or want to share your experiences with others, I invite you to join the Azure AI Community Discord server:

The MCP ecosystem is growing rapidly, and it's an exciting time to be part of this community!

~Frank

Reading Notes #642

This week, I explored posts about improving cache management for ASP.NET Core applications and understanding error handling in Blazor. These articles, along with others on AI model selection and development productivity, offer valuable insights for developers.

Cloud

• Hello HybridCache! Streamlining Cache Management for ASP.NET Core Applications - .NET Blog - Already GA! Wow, great library that really simplifies having the best cache experience possible.

Programming

• Blazor Basics: Handling Errors and Exception Logging (Claudio Bernasconi ) - This nice post explains the fundamentals about the errors with Blazor.

AI

• Selecting the right model for coding (Mark Downie) - Nice post that answers a question, that I'm sure many of us thought without really knowing the answer.

Miscellaneous

• Announcing Dapr AI Agents (Mark Fussell, Yaron Schneider, Roberto Rodriguez) - I like those tech savvy agent that knows about one thing. I f|l I can trust them more and it usually go faster.

• Mastering GitHub Copilot: When to use AI agent mode (Andrea Griffiths) - Using copilot the "good way" can and will definitely improve your productivity. This post helps you to get started

• Xbox + .NET Aspire: Transforming Local Development Practices (Craig Taylor) - Since I started using Aspire, I want to use it everywhere. Yes, it's that good and this story is just another proof.

Sharing my Reading Notes is a habit I started a long time ago, where I share a list of all the articles, blog posts, and books that catch my interest during the week. 

If you have interesting content, share it!

~Frank

Reading Notes #638

Welcome to Reading Notes —a curated dive into the latest and greatest in programming, cloud, and AI. From mastering multithreading with Azure to exploring GitHub Copilot's productivity potential, this collection is brimming with knowledge. Let's unravel what's new, innovative, and worth your attention!

Cloud

• Azure Functions – Part 1 (Jesse Liberty) - Quick launch of a series about Azure Function.

• How to Multistream Using Azure, Azure VM, MonaServer 2, and FFmpeg with OBS Studio (Maho Pacheco) - That's a very cool idea! This post also made me understand better how those things work.

Programming

• Dapr v1.15 is now available (Dapr project maintainers ) - This new release is anticipated by the community with new features and many bug fixes

• Building a CRUD API with ASP.NET Core Web API and PostgreSQL (M. Oly Mahmud) - This is a nice step-by-step tutorial with all the code snippets required to get started.

• .NET Aspire 9.1 is here with six great new dashboard features, and more! - .NET Blog (Maddy Montaquila) - Learn more about many dashboard updates in this post like the grouping, theme, localization and logs management.

AI

• Let's Learn .NET: GitHub Copilot Event - .NET Blog (James Montemagno) - A new cool event is coming up to improve our productivity. Learn how to use copilot as a developer.

• Claude 3.7 Available for Visual Studio - Having options is interesting, I should try Claude to see the difference.

Sharing my Reading Notes is a habit I started a long time ago, where I share a list of all the articles, blog posts, and books that catch my interest during the week. 

If you have interesting content, share it! 

~frank

Reading Notes #627

This week, I stumbled upon some fascinating reads. From the announcement of .NET 9 and its incredible versatility to an intriguing new type of failover for Azure Storage, there's plenty to explore. Discover how to get .NET 9 running on your Raspberry Pi, check out the latest Blazorise update, and delve into the power of GitHub Models in .NET with Semantic Kernel. Plus, don't miss out on the introduction of GitHub Copilot for Azure and a new season of AI-related sessions in Visual Studio. And for my fellow open-source enthusiasts, the .NET Aspire Community Toolkit is a game-changer. 

Dive in and let's geek out together! 🌟

Suggestion of the week

• Announcing .NET 9 - .NET Blog (.NET Team) - You can build anything with C# (aka .NET) and I love it! With runs everywhere, it's open source, it's fast and free!

Cloud

• WTH is Planned Failover for Azure Storage? (Sam Cogan) - Interesting new type of fail over that could help to practice without losing any data.

Programming

• Install and use Microsoft Dot NET 9 with the Raspberry Pi (Pete Codes) - C# everywhere! I love it! I do have some code that run on a Pi as a mini server, bubi need to have a look for a IoT library that could be used.

• Blazorise v1.7 (Mladen Macanović) - New version of a nice looking CSS Framework for our Blazor website with more features and better performance.

AI

• Unlocking the Power of GitHub Models in .NET with Semantic Kernel - .NET Blog (Bruno Capuano) - Super cool, very quick to setup, secure, and perfect why we are "just" developing.

• Introducing GitHub Copilot for Azure (Chris Harris) - After trying it, I can tell that it is pretty amazing! It's like have someone else besides you with the Azure portal answering all you're questions.

• Learn how to create a Client-Server Application in under 45 Minutes in the new Season of AI - Visual Studio Blog (Pablo Lopez) - A lot of AI related session are coming up, it's time to register.

Data

• Integrating .NET Aspire With Azure Storage (Fiodar Sazanavets) - Nice wait to have an emulator for local work. I will have to check this as I'm using Azure table storage in many of my projects.

Open Source

• Introducing the .NET Aspire Community Toolkit - .NET Blog (Aaron Powell) - Very happy (and proud) about this OSS project. .NET Aspire makes things so much easier for developers. And now we can simply add more types of integration thanks to the CF.

Sharing my Reading Notes is a habit I started a long time ago, where I share a list of all the articles, blog posts, and books that catch my interest during the week.

If you have interesting content, share it!

~ Frank

Reading Notes #625

Welcome to another edition of Reading Notes! This week, dive into the latest updates on Azure DevOps, Docker best practices, System.Text.Json enhancements in .NET 9, AI innovations from GitHub Universe, and more. 

Enjoy your reading!

Cloud

• Using Entra profile information in Azure DevOps (Andrew Brenner) - This is nice, I will save us to re-enter information and should make more profile more complete at the same time.

Programming

• Docker Best Practices: Using ARG and ENV in Your Dockerfiles (Jay Schmidt) - A nice post that improve how we are using Arg by going through a few examples.

• What's new in System.Text.Json in .NET 9 (Eirik Tsarpalis) - This is a nice post that explains with code sample the new features.

AI

• GitHub Spark (Devon Rifkin, Terkel Gjervig Nielsen, Cole Bemis, Alice Li) - Fascinating news from GitHub Universe. A new spin on the lowcode app but with code. Looking forward to trying it and see what I can build with it.

• GitHub Copilot in Windows Terminal (Christopher Nguyen) - There it is, Copilot making his entrance into our beloved Terminal. It's only in version Canary for now, but I'm sure it will help many of us when no sure what command to use, or the equivalent bash/ PowerShell.

Miscellaneous

• Releasing WinAmp source goes badly for its owners, anyway (Liam Proven) - A true story that looks unreal. It's a bit sad that this OSS opportunity was missed.

Sharing my Reading Notes is a habit I started a long time ago, where I share a list of all the articles, blog posts, and books that catch my interest during the week.

If you have interesting content, share it!

~ Frank

Reading Notes #624

Dive into this week's fascinating mix of tech insights, troubleshooting tales, and productivity tips. From the latest in Azure Dev tools to real-world debugging adventures and cutting-edge .NET innovations, there's something for everyone.

Happy reading!

Cloud

• Azure Developer CLI (azd) – October 2024 (Grace Kulin) - Quick post to share about the most recent features like customizing our API version when deploying our containers.

Programming

• Webcam randomly pausing in OBS, Discord, and websites - LSVCam and TikTok Studio (Scott Hanselman) - Weird technical issues are so unpleasant and it's worse when I imply an external devices.Is it a driver, the cable, some software.. In this post Scott shares about how he investigated and found a workaround.

• 3 more productivity tips for .NET developers (mtmattei) - Interesting tips to be and stay productive by different people.

• How we build GitHub Copilot into Visual Studio (Anson Horton) - It is so interesting to read how things happens and the different interactions. If you use vs code or Visual Studio, you should read this article.

• Introducing the New .NET MAUI Kanban Board (Saravanan Madheswaran) - I'm always impressed when I see components build be third parties. The quality, the customization, the look... It's a lot of work make one in your app with half the features; wow.

Podcast

• Microsoft Playwright Testing with Debbie O'Brien (.NET Rocks!) - Great tool to help making tests on our websites. It's open source and now support .NET.

• Inspektor Gadget (DevOps and Docker Talk: Cloud Native Interviews and Tooling) - THe first time I heard about Inspektor Gadget was in an episode of Open at Microsoft. I don't use much Kubernetes, but that will be part of my toolbox when I do. Great security, troubleshooting, and observability utility.

Sharing my Reading Notes is a habit I started a long time ago, where I share a list of all the articles, blog posts, and books that catch my interest during the week.

If you have interesting content, share it!

~ Frank

Reading Notes #622

Welcome to this week’s reading notes! In this post, you’ll find a curated selection of insightful articles and tutorials covering various topics in technology and programming. Whether you’re looking to enhance your testing skills with .NET Aspire, improve your code comprehension with GitHub Copilot, or explore the world of Docker for DevOps, there’s something here for everyone. Dive in and enjoy these valuable resources!

If you have interesting content, share it!

Suggestion of the week

• Getting started with testing and .NET Aspire (Aaron Powell) - This is a great tutorial, with a video version if you prefer, to get us started with test when .NET Aspire is part obor solution.

Cloud

• Enhancing Code Comprehension: GitHub Copilot’s Features in Visual Studio 2022 17.11 (Rhea Patel) - This post is a must for all developers. Copilot becomes so much more efficient with those little tips don't miss it.

• How to use Azure Policy to enforce resource naming conventions in your DevOps pipelines (Luise Freese) - Naming is for sure not the most exciting topic,but it is the key to an healthy cloud subscription. Don't miss this post that shares a good way to keep consistent names.

Programming

• Exploring Docker for DevOps: What It Is and How It Works (Todd R. Weiss) - This is a nice post to learn more about Docker and how /why it could be used to improve the DevOps processes.

• .NET Aspire for Data Chatting (Tommaso Stocchi) - Super cool project to query our database without knowing SQL.

LowCode

• How to rotate secrets with Azure Logic Apps, Key Vault and Managed Identity (Luise Freese) - Cool idea o automation to do a important but boring task. And it doesn't required code!

Miscellaneous

• Hosting a (DevOpsDays) Tech Conference (Dewan Ahmed) - I went to this even and you could feel it was prepared with patio and care. It very interesting to learn about the behind the scene and all the work put both before and after.DevOpsDay Halifax you won my heart.

~ Frank

Reading Notes #620

It's Reading Notes time and this week we learn how to improve our experience and security while using AI and containers

 a zip line spider?

Sharing my Reading Notes is a habit I started a long time ago, where I share a list of all the articles, blog posts, and books that catch my interest during the week.

Cloud

• Securely Connecting Azure Container Apps to Azure OpenAI Using User Managed Identity (Yoshio Terada) - This is a nice and detailed guide that explains step by step how to leverage manage identity in Azure Container App and stay secure.

AI

• Avoid These 5 Common AI Project Mistakes for Success (Narcosa Admin) - AI is a great tool and with it's new easy accessibility more are integrating it into there services, This post shares tips to give you more chance of success.

• 7 Best Practices for Using GitHub Copilot (Visual Studio Code team) - AI is a great tool, but to enjoy it as much as possible there are a few things we can do, This post shares those tips that could make the differences.

Programming

• Docker for Web Developers: Getting Started with the Basics (Todd R, Weiss) - This is a very well written introduction to container and Docker, From the why should we care to running our first container,

• Building a GraphQL Client in ,NET with JetBrains Rider and StrawberryShake (Maarten Balliauw) - This is a nice post to get started with GraphQL, There is example an many references.

• Improving GitHub Copilot Completions in Visual Studio for C# Developers (Mika Dumont) - Great news! The Semantic Kernel files are now part of the context for Copilot, This improves the experience for the C# developers.

~Frank

Reading Notes #590

It is time to share new reading notes. It is a habit I started a long time ago where I share a list of all the articles, blog posts, and books that catch my interest during the week.

If you think you may have interesting content, share it!

Cloud

• Observability on Azure Container Apps (Abdullah Abu-Hassan) - Great post to get started. We can download all the code required to try it ourself.

• WTH is Azure Copilot? (Sam Cogan) - I believe this copilot will be extremely useful for so many people... including me.

Programming

• Solved! Visual Studio .http File Not Sending Authorization Header (Steve Smith) - The devil is in the details as they say. Great post that shares the investigation of an issues. A time saver.

• Should I put my Blazor components in the server project, or the client project? (Jon Hilton) - Short and clear explanation of the blazor structure, very helpful post.

• How to Make Your Web Sites Accessible (Beau Carnes) - Accessibility is a must and now there a course available on camp to help us making our website accessible.

• What's new for the Microsoft Fluent UI Blazor components 4.4 (Vincent Baaij) - Nice new components. Its going fast!

• Dev Tunnels: A Game Changer for Mobile Developers - .NET Blog (James Montemagno) - Dev Tunnel is definitely a incredible tool.I used it for debugging connector in Power Platform and there is no doubts it will help with mobile app...No more guesses debug with the real thing.

Miscellaneous

• Introducing Sudo for Windows! (Jordi Adoumie) - Wow! This is a really good new feature. How many time a forgot to start my terminal as admin and needed to starry over again...Looking forward to try it.

~Frank

Reading Notes #587

It is time to share new reading notes. It is a habit I started a long time ago where I share a list of all the articles, blog posts, and books that catch my interest during the week. 

 

If you think you may have interesting content, share it!

Cloud

• Backing up files to Azure blob storage with azcopy (Andrew Lock) - A very interesting solution to a situation we are all facing. Nice to see the OSS project (I didn't know that one) and smart way to use Azure.

Low Code

• Building your own copilot – yes, but how? (Part 1 of 2) (Carlotta Castelluccio) - This is a cool tutorial to build a Copilot codeless style.If you prefer code style watch for part two coming soon.

Programming

• Structuring a Clean Architecture Folder (Adrián Bailador Panero) - Nice quick overview of the folder structure.

• Git Lesson: How to Use .gitignore and .gitkeep? (Rita Lyczywek) - Two important files indeed when using Git.

• Cookies vs Session Storage vs Local Storage (Royal Jain) - Clear post that explains the purpose and differences between 3 useful tools.

• 14 Things To Check Before Deploying a Website 👨‍💻🔥 (Arjun Vijay Prakash) - Quick sanity check before publishing.... It is always a good idea.

• Difference between CultureInfo.Get and new CultureInfo - Gérald Barré (Gérald Barré) - Short post how performance tip with cultureInfo.

• Simpler auth for Blazor Web Apps with Auth0? (Jon Hilton) - A wonderful tutorial very well detailed that explains how to use Auth0 with Blazor server app and search some gotchas so our experience goes smoother.

Miscellaneous

• Azure Communication Services January 2024 Feature Updates (Daysha Carter) - Improved management and a new data channel, great updates to start the year with a bang!

~Frank

Reading Notes #582

It is time to share new reading notes. It is a habit I started a long time ago where I share a list of all the articles, blog posts, and books that catch my interest during the week. 

 If you think you may have interesting content, share it!

Fridge with wings, realistic rendering 

 

Cloud

• How to Write NoSQL Queries with Copilot for Azure Cosmos DB (Lee Stott) - Copilot is such a time saver.For everyone who jump from projects to projects using different languages and data sources.

• Creating Zip Files in Azure Blob Storage (Mark Heath) - Great quick post with code snippets AND a solution for some gotcha.

Data

• Getting Started with GitHub Copilot in Azure Data Studio (Japhlet Nwamu) - Data studio is the perfect tools to work your queries from any platform. With the Copilot extension it's just became even easier and faster.

Programming

• 5 Awesome C# Refactoring Tips (Milan Jovanović) - Refactoring is an important skill to have. Most code grow by patches and at some point it needs some help.

• Hot Reload for C# Dev Kit (Mark Downie) - Wow! Things are evolving so fast, we pass from syntax highlighting from hot reload so fast!

• How to Toggle Between Light and Dark Modes in Blazor (Jefferson S. Motta ) - Nice tutorial that explains how to have that great dark mode.

• Adding environment vars to .NET Aspire services (Tim Heuer) - Nice post to continue to learn about Aspire.Net.

• Validating JSON Against a Schema (Paul Michaels) - For some reason, I was expecting something more complicated.Its simple! Love it.

~Frank

Reading Notes #581

It is time to share new reading notes. It is a habit I started a long time ago where I share a list of all the articles, blog posts, and books that catch my interest during the week.

If you think you may have interesting content, share it!

Suggestion of the week

• ASP.NET Core Basics: Essential NuGet Packages (Part 1) (Assis Zang) - Great idea this post! Those five packages are definitely very useful, and I like that they are not just mentioned but also explained and implemented in the demo solution.

Programming

• Announcing .NET 8 - .NET Blog (Gaurav Seth) - Tons of update with as many videos. Enough to satiate everyone.

• Entity Framework Core 8 (EF8) is available today - .NET Blog (Arthur Vickers) - Of course the Entity framework update to follow .NET of course.

• Get ready for .NET Conf, Microsoft Ignite, and GitHub Universe (Matt Graven) - So many events and news packed in a single month. This post helps to do an overview so help us make an ideas.

• Connect to localhost from inside a dev container (Jim Bennett) - Interesting... I thought Dapr was the easiest but the solution presented in this post could be a easier workaround, at lease while coding/ testing it.

• Fake It Til You Make It...To Production - .NET Blog (Martin Taillefer) - This post shows 3 pretty useful fake/mock included in .NET 8: Logger, Clock, and Metric.

• Building debugging context for Copilot Chat (Mark Downie) - Cool extension for Visual Studio.

• Announcing .NET Chiseled Containers - .NET Blog (Richard Lander) - The new image are available.Yay

Databases

• Importing Flat Files into Azure SQL DB (Josephine Bush) - Omg! That makes Azure Data Studio the easiest and low friction tool to import data from a flat file into a Ms SQL database

Miscellaneous

• OpenAI drama is over. (Kim Menikh) - Well.I was curious.I didn't follow all of it.

~Frank

Reading Notes #570

It is time to share new reading notes. It is a habit I started a long time ago where I share a list of all the articles, blog posts, and books that catch my interest during the week. 

If you think you may have interesting content, share it!

 

Programming

• .NET MAUI Summer Coding Adventure (Bruno Capuano) - Nice a series to be quickly but surely started with MAUI.

• Beyond the Basics: .NET MAUI Extension in Visual Studio Code (Leomaris Reyes) - That pretty interesting! Looking forward to test that on my Linux machine. Instead of booting my VM I could use this for a quit fix or test/demo.

Open Source

• Windows Terminal on Open at Microsoft (Christopher Nguyen) - Like many a love the new windows terminal, and learning more about the making of and the challenges they encounter was really interesting. Learn more about all that series of video in this post.

• slash7 with Amy Hoy » Blog Archive » Help Vampires: A Spotter’s Guide (Amy Hoy) - Beware of those vampires! Interning read on a unfortunately real and serious topic. Useful post.

Low Code

• Power Automate Standards: Flow Architecture & Design Tips ( Matthew Devaney) - Very useful post that lost so many best practices to make sure our flow are secure, performant and easy to read.

• Announcing the integration of Power Automate telemetry data with Azure Application Insights (Rakesh Krishnan) - This is so useful! And once more the timing was excellent! Collecting information to a central place and from there take action.Brilliant!

• Get Started with Copilot on Microsoft Power Apps (Rachel Irabor) - Here are the steps to get Copilot in your environment. Very cool.

Miscellaneous

• Unleash Your Entrepreneurial Spirit at Hack Together: Power Platform AI Global Hack! (Lee Stott) - Learn more about this cool opportunity.

• OpenAI tokens and limits - Surface Duo Blog (Craig Dunn) - Great post that uses a real application to explains how we can get the best without going over the limits.

~Enjoy!

Reading Notes #568

It is time to share new reading notes. It is a habit I started a long time ago where I share a list of all the articles, blog posts, and books that catch my interest during the week. 

 If you think you may have interesting content, share it!

Programming

• What Does an Open Source Triage Team Do? (BekahHW) - There are so many ways to get involved in the community and make an OSS project better. It's fantastic.

• Replacing Mock and Stub with a Fake by Mark Seemann (Mark Seemann) - Learn more about how fakes can simplify your test and some best practices in this post.

• 5 Benefits of a Container-First Approach to Software Development (Ben Cotton) - Container without being the solution for everything did indeed change a lot in the industry. Nice post that highlights that.

• EF Core Fundamentals for EF Core 7 (Pluralsight) (Julie Lerman) - Great course from Julia to learn the fundamental of EF 6 or 7.

• Using SQL Server as a Message Queue with Wolverine (Jeremy D. Miller) - I love the idea of reusing SQL instead of adding more components to your system. Well done Wolverine.

Data

• Unleashing SQL Sorcery: Increasing Performance and Complexity with GitHub Copilot (Subhojit Basak) - Copilot is a very useful pair programming partner. This post shares how to use it for your queries.

Low Code

• Power Automate Standards: Variables (Matthew Devaney) - Nice series about best practices in flows.

Open Source

• On Moq and our Part in the OSS Sustainability Social Contract (Sean Killeen) - An excellent post that explains the controversial event that occur with the Moq project recently and shares thoughts.

~Frank

Reading Notes #562

It is time to share new reading notes. It is a habit I started a long time ago where I share a list of all the articles, blog posts, and books that catch my interest during the week. 

If you think you may have interesting content, share it!

Cloud

• Getting Started with API Management: A Beginner's Guide for Developers (Neha Hafeez) - This a very interesting post that explains why and how those tools are useful for us.

Programming

• Top 14 Game-Changing Websites Every Developer Should Know About 🚀🔥 (Arjun Vijay Prakash) - An interesting list indeed of website-tool.

• Comparing MVVM and MVUX for building a Multi-Platform Application using .NET, C# and XAML with the Uno Platform (Nick) - A detailed comparison of those two models with Uno platform.

Open Source

• How to write a perfect README for your GitHub project (Marc Seitz) - This is a nice and simple guide to make sure your readme help visitor to land well on your project.

• 5 Ways OpenTelemetry Can Reduce Costs (Morgan McLean) - Great tools from the open-source community to help save money.

• Open at Microsoft – OmniBOR (Aeva Black) - Did you know there is a tool that can help you see the security flaws or your dependencies? Learn more about this project in this post and video.

• Dapr (AugustaUd) - Learn more about Dapr with this series of 3 videos that each contains short demos. With a very active community, there is no dough that OSS project is healthy.

Low Code

• How to get ready for Microsoft 365 Copilot (Zachary Cavanell) - Learn more about the best practices and how to prepare your enterprise.

Miscellaneous

• Building Your DevRel Resume with Open Source (BekahHW) - A different journey for each of us for the best devRel teams.

• Accountability for Effective Teams (Jessica Joy Kerr) - Interesting thoughts. Measuring and staying trustful is so hard.

~Frank

Reading Notes #561

It is time to share new reading notes. It is a habit I started a long time ago where I share a list of all the articles, blog posts, and books that catch my interest during the week.

If you think you may have interesting content, share it!

The suggestion of the week

• How to use GitHub Copilot: Prompts, tips, and use cases (Rizel Scarlett, Michelle Mannering) - A very helpful post that helps thinking how to communicate efficiently with Copilot, by breaking down our instructions and being more specific.

Programming

• Step-by-Step Guide: Testing HTTP Endpoints in Visual Studio 2022 Using Endpoints Explorer (Andy) - So many new API related features these days in VS. This post shows you some of them.
• Learn how to mock your HttpClient in C# now with 2 simple methods (Henrique) - Nice post that explains how to Mock these HTtp calls... Because unit tests are important and APIs are everywhere it's a must!
• Docker Desktop and Windows – what’s the best option for you? (Vinicius Apolinario) - I didn't know there was such a difference between those two! I mean I get it but I'm still surprised by the differences. This is a very instructive post.
• Azure App Configuration and .NET API: a smart and secure way to manage configurations (Davide Bellone) - This is a nice tutorial that shares best security practices.
• Introducing the New T4 Command-Line Tool for .NET - .NET Blog (Mike Corsaro) - Feels like ages since I used T4... Happy to see that this powerful tool is still around and even more, updating.

Low Code

• Exploring the Power of AI Builder: Empowering Students and Educators (Lee Stott) - Why should you be interested in AI Builder and where to find it. This is what that post is about.
• Integrating Microsoft Sentinel and Power Platform to better monitor and protect your low-code solutions (Simran Kaur) - Currently only available in preview this solution will definitely help enterprises to manage their Power Platform more securely.

Miscellaneous

• Introducing the Microsoft Store channel on Discord - #ifdef Windows (Sergio Pedri) - Nice news. There is now a place to talk about the store.
• 9 Steps to Master the Keyboard and Become an Ultra Efficient Software Developer (Michael Shpilt) - Short post that gives a few ideas on how to use more efficiently your keyboard and enjoy it.

~Frank