Should an API return HTTP 404 status when the specified resource cannot be found? Of course, that’s exactly what (Not Found) means. As RFC2616 states pretty clearly, 404 Not Found means: The server has not found anything matching the Request-URI. However, if you think APIs are like web pages, you might be perplexed by such… Continue reading HTTP 404 for Missing API Resources
Category: Tips
Create SAS Tokens for Azure API Management with an Azure Function
Shared Access Signature (SAS) tokens are required to call Azure API Management’s original REST API. We can generate these manually on the Azure portal for testing. However, in production, if you want to invoke the APIM REST APIs programmatically, you’ll need to generate these tokens with a bit of code. There’s a snippet available in… Continue reading Create SAS Tokens for Azure API Management with an Azure Function
Extract JWT Claims in Azure API Management Policy
JSON Web Tokens (JWT) are easy to validate in Azure API Management (APIM) using policy statements. This makes integration with Azure Active Directory and other OpenID providers nearly foolproof. For example, one might add the following directive to the <inbound> policy for an API to ensure that the caller has attached a bearer token with… Continue reading Extract JWT Claims in Azure API Management Policy
The Simplest Possible Thing Principle
I mentor lots of young developers. It became a passion for me in the 1990s when I started teaching computer programming at a local college. I was not a good teacher for the first couple of years, admittedly. But I studied pedagogy and learned how to balance lecture and lab time to maximize the understanding… Continue reading The Simplest Possible Thing Principle
Invoking Stored Procedures from Azure Mobile Services
One of the questions I’m often asked is whether it’s possible to call SQL stored procedures from Azure Mobile Services. The answer is yes and it’s probably easier than you think. In case you don’t know, Azure Mobile Services is a way to very simply expose an HTTP service over data stored in an Azure… Continue reading Invoking Stored Procedures from Azure Mobile Services
Automating Windows Defender Updates
If you have automatic Windows Updates turned off, you may have noticed that you also don’t get Windows Defender updates automatically. There are a lot of reasons why you may want to disable automatic updates. Perhaps you want to pick and choose the ones you accept. Or maybe you don’t want to smash through your… Continue reading Automating Windows Defender Updates