What are Logic Apps?
A little resource with a big outcome, Logic Apps assist you with automated workflow; scheduling, automating, coposing a task or even rewiting a task.
Sounds good? Lets continue!
Examples of Logic Apps include:-
- Auto tier Azure Blobs based on last modified time
- Receive emails about new Tweets with certain key words
- Post a Slack Message on an Event
- Azure Monitor – Metrics alert handler
I included varied examples above to show just how flexible Logic App creation can be.
Logic Apps run in a “trigger”-type fashion, it requires an event to happen or when something is specifically met, to begin the flow of the specific app.
This now brings me onto this blog post, if you follow me on Twitter, you will have noticed I Tweet alot of Azure related updates and blogs from azure.microsoft.com as I find them beneficial and my followers do as well, this got me thinking how I could plug automation into this some-what manual task.
azure.microsoft.com offers numerous RSS feeds, this would act as my “Trigger” as mentioned above. Once a new post appears on the RSS feed this will fire and initiate my workflow, which will take parts of the RSS feed I want to use and Tweet.
RSS Feeds used:-
Microsoft Azure Blog – https://azurecomcdn.azureedge.net/en-gb/blog/feed/
Azure Updates – https://azurecomcdn.azureedge.net/is-is/updates/feed/
A diagram below to show the flow.
Creating the Logic App
Can be automated but quite tedious and pointing and clicking for this example will be more beneficial to show creating the workflow.
Begin creating your Logic App as below
Name: Logic App Name
Subscription: Subscription to deploy Logic App
Resource Group: Resource Group which Logic App will be deployed
Location: Location of new resource group
Log Analytics: Can plug Logic Apps direct into Log Analytics, for this example I won’t pursue with this.
Click on newly created Logic App in Portal, this will load into designer mode.
For this example, select Blank Logic App
Search for “rss” and select rss icon
Select Trigger “When a feed item is published”
When a feed item is published, enter as below – take RSS feed URL from above
Now select – New Step
Search for Twitter and select Post a tweet
You will need to authorise Twitter, sign-in when prompt and authorise
Add text parameter
Tweet text:- Feed Title Primary Feed Link #Azure #Microsoft #AzureFamily
Note:- RSS details taken from Dynamic content as per below
Now Save
You have now created the Logic App as described above, simple and effective – I like it!
What does a successful run look like?
Run history of a Logic App appears on the main screen of each Logic App
Selecting one a job as per below you can review what was retrieved and posted
Sample below
Thanks for reading, I hope this blog has given you an insight into how powerful Logic Apps can be in relation to automation of workflows, simple or complex!
Thomas Thornton 