Service Bus queues and storage queues

Two Azure services include message queues: Service Bus and Azure Storage. As a general guide, storage queues are simpler to use, but they're less sophisticated and less flexible than Service Bus queues. The key advantages of Service Bus queues include:

Advantages of storage queues:

How to choose a communications technology

You've seen the different concepts, and the implementations Azure provides. Next, consider what your decision process should look like for each of your communications.

Considerations

As you choose a method for sending and receiving messages, consider the following questions:

Queues: Service Bus vs. storage

If you decide that you need a queue, narrow down your choice further. Choose a Service Bus queue if:

Choose a storage queue if:

Conclusion

Although the components of a distributed application can communicate directly, you often can increase that communication's reliability by using an intermediate communication platform like Azure Event Hubs or Azure Event Grid.
Event Hubs and Event Grid are designed for events, which notify recipients only of an event and don't contain the raw data associated with that event. Azure Event Hubs is designed for high-flow, analytics types of events.
Azure Service Bus and storage queues are for messages, which you can use for binding the core pieces of any application workflow.
If your requirements are simple, if you want to send each message to only one destination, or if you want to write code as quickly as possible, a storage queue might be the best option. Otherwise, Service Bus queues provide many more options and flexibility. If you want to send messages to multiple subscribers, use a Service Bus topic.

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Azure Logic Apps Explained

Azure Logic Apps is a cloud-based service that enables you to automate workflows and integrate apps, data, and services across different systems. It provides a visual interface to design workflows, known as "logic apps," which can be triggered by various events and can integrate with a wide range of systems using pre-built connectors.

Key Concepts of Azure Logic Apps:

Triggers: A trigger starts a logic app. It could be a time-based trigger (e.g., every hour), an event (e.g., when a file is uploaded), or an action in another system (e.g., receiving an email).
Actions: Actions are the steps that the logic app performs after it is triggered. These can include calling APIs, manipulating data, sending emails, etc.
Connectors: Connectors allow logic apps to interact with various services, such as Office 365, Salesforce, Azure services, databases, etc.

Example Scenario: Automating Invoice Processing

Let’s say you want to automate the process of receiving invoices via email, saving them to a SharePoint document library, and then notifying the accounting team.

Steps to Implement This Workflow Using Azure Logic Apps:

1. Create the Logic App In the Azure portal, create a new Logic App by navigating to Create a resource > Integration > Logic App.

2. Give it a name, select a resource group, and click Create. Design the Workflow

   • Step 1: Add a Trigger Trigger: Choose the trigger to start your logic app. In this case, you might choose When a new email arrives (V2) from the Office 365 Outlook connector. Condition: Set conditions to filter emails. For instance, you might only want to trigger the workflow when the subject contains "Invoice."

   • Step 2: Extract Invoice Attachment Action: Use the Get attachments action to retrieve any files attached to the email.

   • Step 3: Save the Attachment to SharePoint Action: Add a Create file action from the SharePoint connector. Configure it to save the attachment to a specific document library in SharePoint. Set the file name and content based on the email attachment.

   • Step 4: Notify the Accounting Team Action: Use the Send an email (V2) action from the Office 365 Outlook connector to send a notification email to the accounting team. The email can include details like the sender’s email address, the subject of the email, and a link to the saved file in SharePoint.

3. Test and Monitor the Logic App Test: Send an email with an invoice attachment to see if the logic app correctly processes it. Monitor: Azure Logic Apps provides built-in monitoring tools. You can see the run history and inspect any errors that occurred during the execution.

4. Enhance the Workflow Error Handling: Add error handling actions like Scope and Terminate to manage what happens if a step fails (e.g., retry, log the error).
   Data Transformation: Use data operations like Compose or Parse JSON to transform or extract specific information from the email content or attachment.
   Approval Workflow: You can add an approval step where the accounting team reviews the invoice before it is saved to SharePoint.

   Final Workflow Overview

   Trigger: The workflow starts when an email with the subject "Invoice" is received.
   Get Attachments: The attachment(s) from the email are retrieved.
   Save to SharePoint: The attachment is saved to a designated SharePoint document library.
   Notify Team: An email notification is sent to the accounting team, including details of the invoice.

   Benefits of Using Azure Logic Apps:

   No-Code/Low-Code Solution: Allows non-developers to create complex workflows using a visual designer.
   Scalability: Automatically scales with demand, processing multiple workflows concurrently.
   Integration: Easily integrates with hundreds of services and on-premises systems.
   Cost-Effective: Pay only for what you use, with a straightforward pricing model based on the number of actions executed.

Summary

Azure Logic Apps is a powerful tool for automating business processes and integrating systems. By creating a simple workflow, you can automate tasks such as invoice processing, saving time and reducing the potential for human error. With its extensive library of connectors and easy-to-use interface, Azure Logic Apps is suitable for both technical and non-technical users.