Azure Logic App

Overview

Azure Logic Apps is a cloud service provided by Microsoft that simplifies and automates workflows across applications and services. It helps create workflows to connect different systems, services, and applications, making it easy to automate repetitive tasks and integrate services without writing complex code. With Logic Apps, users can easily connect legacy systems, cloud services, APIs, and on-premises data, which is beneficial for business process automation and system integration.

What is Azure Logic App?

1. Azure Logic Apps is part of Microsoft’s integration services in Azure and enables developers and IT professionals to automate workflows and business processes.
2. It provides a visual designer for creating workflows with different steps (called actions) and connectors that integrate with services such as Azure Blob Storage, Office 365, SQL Server, and more.
3. Users can create workflows that run on pre-defined schedules or are triggered by specific events, making it easy to integrate and automate processes without in-depth programming skills.

Benefits of Azure Logic App

1. Scalability and reliability: As a managed service, it automatically scales and processes large volumes of data with minimal setup.
2. Easy integration: Logic Apps provides a wide range of built-in connectors for seamless integration with various services such as SharePoint, Dynamics 365 and external services such as Google, Twitter, and more.
3. Rapid development: Logic Apps offers a no-code/low-code platform with a visual designer that enables the creation of workflows quickly and efficiently.
4. Security: Logic Apps provides integration with Azure Active Directory for authentication and conforms to enterprise security standards, ensuring data security.
5. Cost-effective: Users only pay for the actions and triggers they use, making it a cost-effective process automation solution.

Components of Azure Logic App

1. Triggers: Triggers determine how a workflow starts. This can be an event (such as a new item in the database) or a scheduled trigger (such as a recurring task).
2. Actions: these are actions or steps that a workflow performs, such as sending an email, updating a database, or making an API call.
3. Connectors: Connectors provide pre-built functionality for other services (such as Office 365, SQL Server, Azure Storage) and APIs.
4. Workflow: The main element that represents the logic and sequence of actions to be performed according to defined conditions.
5. Conditions and loops: Logic Apps supports conditional branching and loops. It allows the workflow to make repeated decisions or actions. based on data.

Types of Azure Logic App

1. Usage-based logic applications: Billed based on the number of trigger and connector operations used. Suitable for most use cases This is especially the case when the workflow is event-driven.
2. Standard Logic Apps: Used within Azure Functions apps, this allows for more control over network configuration. and is suitable for complex workflows with more customized requirements.
3. Stateful and stateless workflows: Stateful workflows maintain their state after every action and are suitable for time-consuming processes While stateless workflows do not maintain state and are suitable for short-term tasks that require minimal delay.

Real-time use cases of Azure Logic App

1. Data integration: Automatically integrate data from multiple sources into a central data warehouse.
2. Business Process Automation: Automate multiple processes, such as order processing or payment approval.
3. Email Notifications: Send alerts for important events, such as low inventory or system errors.
4. Social media tracking: Track brand mentions and auto-replies on platforms like Twitter and Facebook.
5. Document Processing: Extract and process data from documents such as invoices or purchase orders.
6. Scheduled tasks: Run repeating tasks, such as nightly backups. or cleaning files
7. Employee Onboarding: Automate setup tasks for new employees. This includes account creation and device provisioning.

Step-by-Step Implementation in Azure Logic Apps

We are taking one real-time use case for Storing Azure Service Bus Queue Messages in an Azure Blob Storage Container.

This workflow will trigger whenever a message arrives in an Azure Service Bus queue and store the message content as a blob file in an Azure Blob Storage container.

Prerequisites

• Access to an Azure subscription.
• An Azure Service Bus queue with messages being sent to it.
• An Azure Storage account with a blob container for storing messages.

Step 1. Go to the Azure portal and sign in.

Step 2. Search for “Logic App” and click on Create.

Step 3. Configure Logic App settings Provide a name, select a resource group,location, and then click Review + create to complete the setup.

Step 4. Create a new workflow inside the logic app.

Step 5. Open the Logic App Designer: In the Logic App, go to the Logic App Designer to start building the workflow.

Select the Service Bus connector: Search for Azure Service Bus and select When a message is received in a queue (peek-lock).

Step 6. Configure Service Bus connection.

Step 7. Add an Action to Store Message in Blob Storage.

Select the Azure Blob Storage connector: Search for Azure Blob Storage and select Create Blob.

Configure Blob Storage connection.

Set blob name and content.

Click on save.

Step 8. Send a test message: Send a test message to the Service Bus queue.

Step 9. Verify blob creation: Go to the Azure Blob Storage container and check for a new blob with the message content.

Step 10. Go to the Logic App Runs history to see the execution details for each trigger.

Conclusion

In this article, we learned about the basics of Azure logic apps and their real-time use cases and benefits. Also, took one use case and after that step-by-step implementation about the same.