Category: Cloud

How to Set up Azure development environment for App Dev

Azure development environment

The Eclipse integrated development environment is a popular tool for Java development. It’s also a great choice for connecting your Java applications to Azure; the Azure Toolkit for Eclipse provides templates and features to streamline Azure integration with your Java applications.

Eclipse

Eclipse is one of the most widely used Java IDEs. It is also a versatile development environment, featuring an extensible plugin architecture that can be used to support languages other than Java. While most Eclipse users are Java developers, Eclipse can also be used to build applications with C++, Python, C, and Ruby.

Eclipse is supported on Windows, macOS, and Linux. The installation process uses the Eclipse installer on all platforms, with few differences in installation procedures between the platforms.

Installing Eclipse for Java or Java EE on any platform is straightforward. The installer will prompt you to choose the packages to install depending on the target language and frameworks.

Azure Toolkit for Eclipse

The Azure Toolkit for Eclipse provides templates and functionality that you can use to easily create, develop, test, and deploy cloud applications to Azure from Eclipse. The Azure Toolkit is open source, actively developed, and hosted in GitHub.

The toolkit includes integration templates for Docker containers, HDInsights, Azure documentation, Azure Cache for Redis, storage account operations, and virtual machine management.

 

The Azure Toolkit is installed through the Eclipse IDE itself; it’s the same procedure on all the supported operating systems. The toolkit is available from the Eclipse Marketplace.

The IntelliJ IDEA is a popular IDE for Java development. It’s also a great choice for connecting your Java applications to Azure; the Azure Toolkit for IntelliJ provides templates and features to streamline Azure integration with your Java applications.

IntelliJ IDEA

IntelliJ IDEA is one of the most widely used Java IDEs. It is also a versatile development environment, featuring an extensible plugin architecture that can be used to support languages other than Java. While designed as a Java IDE, IntelliJ IDEA can also be used to build applications with JavaScript, Scala, Ruby, etc.

IntelliJ IDEA is supported on Windows, macOS, and Linux. The installation process uses the IntelliJ IDEA installer on all platforms, with few differences in installation procedures between the platforms.

Installing IntelliJ IDEA for Java or Java EE on any platform is straightforward. The installer will prompt you to choose the packages to install depending on the target language and frameworks.

Azure Toolkit for IntelliJ

The Azure Toolkit for IntelliJ provides templates and functionality that you can use to easily create, develop, test, and deploy cloud applications to Azure or any managed hosting from IntelliJ IDEA. The Azure Toolkit is open source, actively developed, and hosted in GitHub.

The toolkit includes integration templates for Docker containers, HDInsights, Azure documentation, Azure Cache for Redis, storage account operations, and virtual machine management.

The Azure Toolkit is installed through the IntelliJ IDEA itself; it’s the same procedure on all the supported operating systems. The toolkit is available from the IntelliJ IDEA Marketplace.

Visual Studio Code is a popular choice for developing applications for Azure. It’s lightweight, taking up only megabytes of storage space, and works on Windows, Linux, and macOS.

Visual Studio Code

Visual Studio Code is a free source code editor developed by Microsoft. It supports hundreds of programming languages, includes Git integration, and is designed to connect to Azure cloud services.

However, Visual Studio Code doesn’t include a compiler. Code compilation for specific languages and scenarios is added via extensions.

Extension model

One of the most powerful features of Visual Studio Code is the extension model. Extensions extend the capabilities of Visual Studio Code to add a wide range of new capabilities. For example, extensions can be used to add compilers, add spell checking, and integrate with Azure services.

Extensions are free and can be added from the Extensions page within Visual Studio Code. You can explore the available extensions in the Visual Studio Code Marketplace.

Azure extensions

Many of the extensions target Azure features and products. For example, there are extensions that provide features such as Docker support, subscription management, tooling for the Azure CLI, database access, and Azure Storage API integration.

Install Visual Studio Code and prepare for Azure development

Visual Studio Code supports Windows, Linux, and macOS. To install Visual Studio Code, go to https://code.visualstudio.com/.

Visual Studio is a full featured integrated development environment (IDE) for a wide range of programming application types and languages. Visual Studio has a full set of tools and features that are specifically targeted at developing applications with Microsoft Azure. These features provide support for Azure development, debugging, and deployment tools that are tightly integrated with the IDE.

Visual Studio

Visual Studio is a fully featured IDE used to develop applications for a wide range of application types in including Windows, Android, iOS, web, and Azure.

When installing Visual Studio, you’ll see that several workloads are available. Workloads are collections of libraries and components that define an area of functionality that can be installed. Instead of installing an individual component where you must know and remember the dependencies between each, you can use workloads to do “themed” installations. Visual Studio workloads ensure that all necessary components are included.

 

The base installation of Visual Studio comes with no tools or libraries for Azure development. For that, you’ll need to include the Azure development workload, which includes the Azure SDKs, tooling, and template projects.

To install Visual Studio, download the installer. The installer will ask which workloads to install; you’ll specify the Azure development workload. Additional functionality is typically added via NuGet packages or Visual Studio extensions.

Visual Studio for Mac

Visual Studio for Mac is a natively designed and developed IDE for macOS. It lets you build solutions for mobile apps on Android and iOS, the web, and .NET Core.

The base installation of Visual Studio for Mac comes with contextual integration of Azure tooling. For example, if you are building a Xamarin app for Android, then the included Connected Services template will provide a link to create a mobile back end with Azure App Service. If you want to create an Azure function, there is a project template under the Cloud category.

If you require tools for Azure features and functions that aren’t in the base installation, you’ll likely need to add NuGet package or a Visual Studio for Mac extension.

 

To install Visual Studio for Mac, download the installer. The installer will inspect your system to determine what components are required, and whether any components need to be updated.

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How to Manage Microsoft Edge updates and servicing

In most situations, configuring Microsoft Edge to update automatically is the best choice. Configuration Manager now supports the option to allow Microsoft Edge to automatically update the client, on the end user’s device (supported as of Configuration Manager version 2002).

Watch the video below for a quick overview of configuring the deployment package in Configuration Manger to enable automatic updates in Microsoft Edge.

For a broad majority of users, updating Microsoft Edge automatically is the preferred. However, there are situations where specific builds and versions are needed for testing and validation.

Microsoft Edge Control build levels and targeted versions

New ADMX-based policies allow IT administrators to limit Microsoft Edge to specific, targeted versions. This approach allows for greater control by letting organizations test specific builds before deploying to more users. Administrators can download the new ADMX policies.

Check out the video below to see how to download the ADMX templates and deploy them within an organization.

As you saw, you can limit the build level of Microsoft Edge to specific versions using the new ADMX-based policies. In addition, there are other policies that provide an even greater level of control, allowing administrators to configure which Microsoft Edge channel to use with opening sites that are redirected from Internet Explorer.

For more information on Microsoft Edge update policies, see Microsoft Edge – Update policies.

In the next unit, you’ll see how to configure side-by-side installations of Microsoft Edge.

 Microsoft Edge  installations & Configure

While most users will only need a single installation of Microsoft Edge, there are some instances such as testing and validating capabilities, that require multiple versions installed side-by-side.

Side-by-side experience with Microsoft Edge Stable Channel and Microsoft Edge Legacy

Installing the Stable Channel of the next version of Microsoft Edge at the system-level will cause the current version (Microsoft Edge Legacy) to be hidden. If you want to let your users see both versions of Microsoft Edge side by side in Windows, you can enable this experience by setting the Allow Microsoft Edge Side by Side browser experience group policy to Enabled.

To do this, follow these steps:

  1. Install the Policy Definitions from Microsoft Edge for Business.
    • Pick the CHANNEL/BUILD and PLATFORM you want to use, and then choose GET POLICY FILES.
    • Extract the zipped files.
    • Copy msedge.admx and msedgeupdate.admx to the ‘C:\Windows\PolicyDefinitions’ directory.
    • Copy msedge.adml and msedgeupdate.adml to the ‘C:\Windows\PolicyDefinitions\[APPROPRIATE LANGUAGE/LOCALE]’ directory.
  2. Open the Group Policy Editor (gpedit.msc).
  3. Under Computer Configuration, go to Administrative Templates > Microsoft Edge Update > Applications.

     Note

    If you don’t see the Microsoft Edge Update folder, verify that step 1 was completed correctly.

  4. Under Applications, double-click Allow Microsoft Edge Side by Side browser experience.

     Note

    By default, this group policy is set to “Not configured”, which results in Microsoft Edge Legacy being hidden when the new version of Microsoft Edge is installed.

  5. Select Enabled and then select OK.

Setting this policy will set the following Registry Key to ‘00000001’:

  • Key: ‘Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\EdgeUpdate’
  • Value Name: ‘Allowsxs’
  • Value Type: ‘REG_DWORD’