dev.portal azure Development and Deployment Guide

Dev.portal Azure is a powerful tool for streamlining development and deployment processes. It provides a centralized platform for managing and automating tasks, making it easier to collaborate and deploy applications.

With dev.portal Azure, you can create a custom portal that integrates with your Azure resources, allowing you to manage and monitor your applications from a single interface. This can be especially useful for large-scale applications or complex deployments.

To get started with dev.portal Azure, you'll need to create a new Azure resource group and configure the necessary settings. This typically involves setting up authentication, authorizing access, and defining the portal's layout and functionality.

Once you've set up your dev.portal Azure environment, you can start building and deploying applications using the Azure CLI or Azure DevOps.

Here's an interesting read: Azure Function C

Most configuration changes require republishing the portal to take effect.

API Management configuration changes may not be propagated in the developer portal if a GET call to the management endpoint fails. This can happen if the call is issued from the browser and the TLS/SSL certificate assigned to a custom domain isn't trusted by the browser.

Remove the management endpoint custom domain to fall back to the default endpoint with a trusted certificate.

Local development of the self-hosted portal may stop working due to expired SAS tokens.

Generate new SAS tokens to fix the issue.

You might enjoy: Azure App Configuration

The developer portal's interactive test console is a game-changer for API testing. It allows visitors to test your APIs directly through a console, making it easier to try out your APIs without having to set up anything.

You can configure the test console to support various authorization models, including APIs that require no authorization or OAuth 2.0 authorization. To enable this, you'll need to configure OAuth 2.0 user authorization.

To let visitors test your APIs through the built-in console, you'll need to enable CORS on your APIs. This will ensure that the console can make requests to your APIs without any issues.

For more insights, see: Azure 2

If you've assigned a custom API Management domain, you need to republish the portal for the changes to take effect.

When updating the domain, the published portal might not work properly. After you update the domain, you need to republish the portal for the changes to take effect.

Configuration changes like VNet, sign-in, and product terms require republishing the portal to propagate.

The portal may not work if the TLS/SSL certificate assigned to the custom domain isn't trusted by the browser.

Removing the management endpoint custom domain can resolve the issue, allowing API Management to fall back to the default endpoint with a trusted certificate.

The error can also be caused by a GET call to the management endpoint failing, which may be due to the TLS/SSL certificate not being trusted.

Enabling CORS is a crucial step in allowing portal visitors to use the interactive console in API reference pages. CORS stands for Cross-origin resource sharing, which allows resources on a web page to be requested from another domain.

To enable CORS, you'll need to add a policy, which will be covered in more detail in part 4. For now, you can enable CORS using a built-in UI by pressing the Enable CORS button.

You can also resolve CORS issues by adding a CORS policy on your API(s) or configuring the portal to use a CORS proxy. This is particularly useful when using the interactive console.

CORS is required to let portal visitors use the interactive console, and it should be enabled for domains, including custom domains.

Readers also liked: How to Access Azure Key Vault in C#

Local development can be a real challenge, especially when it's not working as expected. If your local version of the developer portal can't save or retrieve information from the storage account or API Management instance, the SAS tokens may have expired.

In this case, generating new tokens can help resolve the issue. For instructions, refer to the tutorial to self-host the developer portal.

Suggestion: Azure Developer Account

The interactive test console is a game-changer for developers. It allows users to test APIs directly through a console on the API reference pages of the developer portal.

You can test APIs with different authorization models, such as those that require no authorization or a subscription key or OAuth 2.0 authorization.

To test APIs that require OAuth 2.0 authorization, you can configure the test console to generate a valid OAuth token on behalf of the test console user.

Enabling CORS (cross-origin resource sharing) policy on your APIs is necessary to let visitors test the APIs through the built-in interactive console.

Explore further: Dev/test Subscription Azure

You can restore a previous portal revision at any time, which is useful if you want to roll back a change you introduced when you last published the portal.

Each time you publish the developer portal, a corresponding portal revision is saved.

Developer portal software updates are applied automatically when you restore a revision.

Changes saved but not published in the administrative interface remain in that state when you publish a revision.

To restore a previous portal revision, follow these steps:

You need to publish your portal and its latest changes to make them available to visitors. This is done within the portal's administrative interface or from the Azure portal.

Publishing the portal is necessary any time you want to expose changes to the portal's content or styling. You also need to republish the portal after API Management service configuration changes that affect the developer portal.

To publish the portal from the Azure portal, follow these steps:

This process ensures that all changes are applied and the portal is up-to-date.

With Azure's API Management, you can increase the observability of your APIs, which means you can see how they're performing, how others are using them, and even detect potential attacks. This is especially useful when you're working with complex APIs that can be difficult to troubleshoot.

You can use API Management to apply observability to all your APIs in a consistent way, which helps you identify and fix issues more efficiently. This can save you a lot of time and effort in the long run.

To manage and control your APIs, you can create multiple developer portals within one API Management service. This allows you to have a managed portal and multiple self-hosted portals, all with the same content stored in the same service.

Additional reading: Azure Observability

Resetting the developer portal is a straightforward process that allows you to discard all changes made to the website.

To reset the portal, you'll need to access the administrative interface and select Settings from the menu at the left of the visual editor.

Selecting the Advanced tab will reveal the option to reset the website to its default state.

To confirm, select Yes, reset the website to default state.

After selecting this option, be sure to Save your changes.

Resetting the portal doesn't delete the published version of the developer portal, so you don't have to worry about losing any data.

Intriguing read: Azure Auth Json Website Azure Ad Authentication

Observing your team's performance can be just as crucial as observing your APIs. With API Management, you can increase the observability of your APIs to know how they're performing and how others are using them.

API Management can be used to apply observability to all your APIs in a consistent way, which is essential for identifying performance and latency issues.

Data that a system produces can be a matrix, logging, tracing, or a combination of these, and API Management can help you collect and analyze this data to gain valuable insights.

To avoid intentional and unintentional attacks on your APIs, you need to increase the observability of your APIs, and API Management can help you achieve this.

You can have one managed portal and multiple self-hosted portals, and the content of all portals is stored in the same API Management service, making them identical.

If you want to differentiate portals' appearance and functionality, you can self-host them with your own custom widgets that dynamically customize pages on runtime.

Removing content from your API Management service can be a straightforward process if you know the right steps.

To remove the developer portal content provisioned to your API Management service, you'll need to provide the required parameters in the scripts.v3/cleanup.bat script found in the developer portal GitHub repository.

Run the script to initiate the removal process.

Remember to follow the instructions carefully to avoid any issues or complications.

For more insights, see: Azure Developers

You can deploy the gateway components of Azure API Management anywhere, including other clouds or on-premise, with a self-hosted gateway. This enables more flexibility in your setup.

Self-hosted gateways can now log into Log Analytics, making metrics available. You can also use Azure control plane and policies to deploy and keep self-hosted gateways up to date on Arc Kubernetes.

If your API Management service is in an internal VNet, you'll need to enable additional VNet connectivity for the managed portal dependencies to access the developer portal. This includes registering the management endpoint in DNS to resolve the internal VIP of the service.

The self-hosted gateway option allows you to deploy gateway components anywhere you want, whether that's in another cloud or on-premise.

This flexibility is a game-changer for businesses with complex infrastructure needs. You can deploy self-hosted gateways on-premise, giving you more control over your data and security.

Self-hosted gateways can now log in Log Analytics, providing you with valuable metrics to help you monitor and improve your setup.

Using Azure control plane and policies, you can deploy and keep self-hosted gateways on Arc Kubernetes up to date, ensuring your setup remains secure and efficient.

Broaden your view: Azure Environment Setup and Adf Setup

If your API Management service is in an internal VNet, your developer portal is only accessible from within the network.

In this scenario, the management endpoint's host name must resolve to the internal VIP of the service from the machine you use to access the portal's administrative interface. Make sure the management endpoint is registered in the DNS.

You'll see an error: Unable to start the portal, if settings are misconfigured. See if settings are specified correctly in the configuration.

If you're accessing your API Management service through Application Gateway from the internet, and it's in an internal VNet, you'll need to enable connectivity to the developer portal and the management endpoints of API Management.

You may need to disable Web Application Firewall rules. Refer to the documentation article for more details.

If your API Management service is in a VNet, the question of VNet connectivity comes into play.

Check this out: Azure Function Local Settings Json