Chaos Engineering - Part 1: Simmy, chaos in code

Chaos Engineering is a hot topic and very cool to dive into. But knowing where and how to start can be a challenge. In this series, I want to demonstrate different sides and technologies you can use. In the first post: Simmy, a package to inject different kinds of chaos in a .NET project.

Using multiple Git accounts

Using multiple Git accounts and different Git platforms can be a challenge. In this post I explain how to configure multiple accounts, use different SSH keys and even verify your account.

A demo book revie

Arguing that you don’t care about the right to privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don’t care about free speech because you have nothing to say.

Using an Azure Web App to host multiple static html sites

There are a lot of static site generators around and I have been using quite a bunch of them. While I used most of them for this (personal) blog, I have also used some for professional purposes like documenting software and for team and company-wide documentation. Especially Sphinx has proven itself to be quite useful.

I want to create an environment with the following requirements:

• Hosting in an Azure Web App
• Protected by Azure Active Directory
• Every project has it’s own documentation (no merge conflicts between teams)
• Use Sphinx but using other generators is possible

In this post I will show how to create a documentation platform which implements the requirements above with only a few lines of code.

Using xUnit fixtures with SpecFlow

It can be a challenge to implement new frameworks or tools in your daily life. Often it takes time to find out the quirks and best practices which can take time and even lead to doubts and abandoning frameworks. I have been using SpecFlow for a while now and I keep finding new ways to tackle issues and get cleaner code behind the specs (I am still having trouble creating clean & clear functional requirements though).

One of the things I keep bumbing into is using settings and sharing code between different specs. In the following example I will explain my latest find: using xUnit fixtures to get test settings and reusable api clients for multiple tests.

Managing a .NET Service with Blazor, on Windows and Linux

My employee has developed an application which “scrapes” data from systems, processes it and sends it to a central database. This is a WinForms application with a few screens for configurations and inspections. I was looking into different approaches for a new version and dived into the options of using a Windows Service.

I forgot where the exact idea came from but at a certain point I thought: what if I can install Blazor as a UI for a Windows Service. I could configure, start and stop, basically do all kind of things with this service if I have a Blazor Interface. I read something about systemd services with .NET too, so I could even create a cross-platform version (not that there is any need for Linux, but just because I can).

Well, after a few hours, I got it working so, in this post I will show you how to create a cross-platform service that can be installed on Windows (Service) and Linux (systemd) and be managed with Blazor.

Specflow and Eventual Consistency

SpecFlow is a tool which can be used to describe test scenarios and automate the tests. Although I have been using SpecFlow for a while now I never used it for advanced examples where time might be an issue. Lets show a simple example scenario first. A scenario, written in Gherkin, looks like this:

Scenario: Add simple item with due date
    Given the user enters "wash my car"
    And the user adds a due date of "1-1-2022"
    When the user saves the item
    Then the item "wash my car" is added to the list
    And the due date is "1-1-2022"

This scenario is easy to implement, the item will be added and stored. That’s it. Easy to verify, no delays, straight forward. But what if you have some microservices with a queueing mechanism? A scenario where data will be queued before processing so we can’t exactly know when the data is processed?