Matthew Bennett - Enterprise Integration with Azure Logic Apps: Integrate legacy systems with innovative solutions

Integrate legacy systems with innovative solutions

Matthew Bennett

BIRMINGHAMMUMBAI

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To John and Mary Bennett. John went to the "university of life" started his own business, worked hard his entire life, and is now about to celebrate his 70th birthday this month. I am proud to be his son.

To my wife, Hayley, for being a rock of sterling support while I wrote this book.

To my son, Sebastian, whose own A-level successes this year in Maths, Physics, and Chemistry have inspired me and spurred me on to get this book finished. He always inspires me with his creativity expressed academically as well as through the medium of Minecraft!

Matthew Bennett

The world is moving in new ways faster, more flexible, you could say "disruptive" ways.

Progress in many fields is now made with less time refining the design and more time building, trying, evaluating, and building again better.

You wouldn't build a rocket over many years, with every detail designed to the nth degree, only to find that it doesn't work when you finally test it. You'd build a rocket in a few months, launch it, see what worked and what failed, and then build a better rocket and try again. The overall result is both better and quicker to reach.

In IT systems development, this is also becoming the case. Old server-based middleware solutions are making way for cloud-based "no-code" integrations and workflows, with quick deployment and easy improvement and adjustment to fit in with the more agile project workspace. This is where Azure Logic Apps comes in, allowing faster and more flexible development of no- or low-code solutions.

Azure Logic Apps can be used to create, develop, and deploy automated cloud-based workflows, using pre-created components with little effort and little code. These workflows can integrate your data, services, apps, CRM, and ERP in a highly scalable way, and quickly get your systems working together efficiently. But you can't just start from zero. If you're going to build and launch a rocket to see which bits work, you need to know and draw on sound engineering principles and use them in new ways.

It is the same with logic apps; you need to know and understand the tools, to quickly build the workflows and gain the benefits. You need some sort of guide.

Matthew Bennett is a senior cloud developer with experience in many business systems areas, from the Azure cloud to programming, from AX to BI. He also has a vast amount of experience in IT training at all levels, and with all types of learners. He has used this real-world and training experience combined to create another of his straightforward, easy-to-follow study guides, this time for Azure Logic Apps.

The guide takes you step by step through the aspects of creating workflows, connectors, triggers, and the actions that make up the logic app environment, as well as the knowledge needed for the supporting cloud environment.

There are plenty of hands-on tutorials, projects, step-by-step examples, scenarios, and tips to help you get to grips with the concepts.

To achieve this, the guide also covers related areas of the Azure portal, understanding the environment and resource groups, managing the cloud tenancy, development, testing and production, working with JSON, extracting data with SQL, manipulating simple and complex data, and many other tricks and tips.

Although a low-code solution, there is still some "programming-like" stuff to be familiar with, and the tutorials take you through the required parts of JSON, XML, SQL, REST, APIs, and others, while using them to work with complex data, use variables and data types, and so on.

Once these tools are understood and practiced, you will be able to quickly implement your own logic apps to integrate and automate.

Whether we are talking about a workflow as simple as sending an email or alert when a new file is uploaded, or a more complex workflow routing and processing new customer orders across separate on-premises and cloud services, all while extracting data from an old database system, with the results entered in the new systems, it all becomes possible with a little practice.

So, whether you're looking to automate your current system, interface an old system in a new system, or just learn new techniques, this guide will help you get there.

Tim Childe FLPI

Head of Teaching and Learning, Netcom Training Ltd

Matthew Bennett is an experienced IT author, Microsoft Corporate Trainer, and former IT teacher, having been involved in the IT sector for 22 years. He currently works at Platform Housing Group, a national housing association, and creates cloud applications for a living. He has worked on integration between legacy systems and CRM products for the past 2 years but has specialized in Dynamics since 2008. Matthew studied for postgraduate diplomas in management studies and sound design, originally planning to work in film, but fell into a successful career in IT and has not looked back since. "Every day is a learning day" is his motto, and when he joined Pearson, who share the same motto, he was convinced that he was in the right profession.

Bhavani Sikarwar is a seasoned integration specialist with 9 years' experience in various integration technologies, including Microsoft BizTalk Server, Azure Integration Services, and MuleSoft, He holds a Bachelor of Engineering degree in electronics and telecommunication and several industry-recognized certifications, including Azure Solution Architect, Azure DevOps Engineer, and Azure Developer Associate. He now works as an integration architect, focusing on cloud integration and helping organizations and customers build robust and reliable middleware solutions.