James Flower

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How to Create an SPF Record

Sender Policy Framework (SPF) records are a crucial mechanism for enhancing email security and ensuring that emails are sent from authorised servers. Before SPF, sent emails could pretend to be from anyone. SPF mitigates this issue by providing a way to verify the authenticity of the sender’s domain, which

entity framework core

Handling Cascading Deletes in Entity Framework Core

Cascading deletes in Entity Framework Core (EF Core) simplify data management by automatically removing related entities when their parent entities are deleted. However, when multiple paths exist between parent and child entities, cascading delete conflicts occur which then pose a challenge for maintaining data integrity. Scenario Let’s look at

asp.net

Entity Framework Core Exception when Querying JSON Objects with an ID Column

The Entity Framework Core 7 release saw the addition support for storing entities in a JSON format, without having to use serializers. This can be useful for a variety of situations, especially when data will only be retrieved as a single set. The Exception While using this feature I recently,

microsoft

Automatically Set Microsoft Teams Work Location Based on Wi-Fi Network

Back in June Microsoft released the work location feature in Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Teams. This allowed you to set Teams and Outlook to display if you are working in the office or remotely on a given day, by either manually setting your work location, or by specifying a schedule

asp.net core

Adding API Key Authentication to ASP.NET Core Web API with AuthenticationHandler

Authentication is the process by which a user of a system is identified. ASP.NET Core allows multiple methods of authentication through authentication handlers which each support a different method of authentication. This can be with a cookie, a JSON Web Token (JWT), through OpenID or others. What is an

asp.net core

Securely Share Your Local ASP.NET Core Development Server with TryCloudflare

Sharing your local ASP.NET Core development server can be a very useful way of obtaining feedback, testing webhook integrations, and facilitating collaboration during development. One method of sharing a development server is to use ngrok, however a TryCloudflare tunnel can also be used to create a temporary publicly accessible

asp.net core

How does ASP.NET Core Authentication Work?

One of the key features of an application is knowing who the current user is. This is called authentication. ASP.NET Core includes authentication middleware to allow a user to be identified before the main application code starts executing. This is important as it allows authorisation checks to be carried

azure container apps

Azure Container Apps (ACA) with Cloudflare Origin Server Certificates

I recently deployed a containerised application to Azure Container Apps and decided that I was going to use Cloudflare as a proxy for the application (as I do for most of my services). As I wanted the connection between Azure Container Apps and the Cloudflare edge to be over HTTPS,

.net

What are the differences between .NET, .NET Core, .NET Framework, and .NET Standard?

You may have come across different terms while learning about .NET, such as .NET Core, .NET Framework, and .NET Standard. These different terms can be confusing when you are new to the .NET ecosystem. In this post, I’ll cover the differences between .NET, .NET Core, .NET Framework, and .NET

asp.net

Containerising ASP.NET 7 Web Apps as Docker Images for Linux ARM with GitHub Actions

Docker is a great way to publish and deploy .NET applications, without having to worry about dependencies being missing on the host machine. With the boost in popularity of ARM, it’s also becoming increasingly likely that the application may end up running on an ARM based processor. However, with

cloudflare

Setup Windows Terminal to use Cloudflare Access for SSH Authentication

Windows Terminal is a modern terminal application, which supports a wide variety of customisation through profiles. Windows Terminal Profiles can be used to configure terminal colours, fonts, and commands. We are going to use this, to setup a new Windows Terminal profile to connect to a server using SSH while

cloudflare

Browser based SSH with Short Lived Certificates using Cloudflare Zero Trust

SSH is the de-facto standard for remotely accessing Unix computers. However, it requires pre-configured keys and an SSH client to be available on the client computer. By using a Cloudflare Tunnel and Cloudflare Access you can use any web browser as the SSH client, and use Cloudflare Access for authenticating

docker

Setup Nginx as a Reverse Proxy and WAF with ModSecurity in Docker

Nginx is a highly versatile web server which can effectively function as a reverse proxy and web application firewall (WAF). To function as a WAF, the ModSecurity WAF module is usually used with the OWASP ModSecurity Core Rule Set. The ModSecurity WAF module will check incoming requests and outgoing responses

ml.net

Star Trek or Star Wars – Binary Classification using ML.NET

I have been looking for an opportunity to try out machine learning and recently had a change. Given my background with ASP.NET, using ML.NET seemed the clear choice as I am already familiar with C# and the .NET ecosystem. To try out ML.NET, I decided to make

.net

Using Azure SignalR Service in Static Web Apps (SWA) Managed Functions

I recently migrated my YouTube Remote project from ASP.NET 4 to use serverless computing, such as Azure SignalR Service and Azure Functions with Static Web Apps. This aim of the YouTube Remote is to have a “display” which shows a YouTube video, and a “remote” to have play and

github

GitHub Importer - There was an error pushing commits to GitHub

I was recently trying to import some repositories from GitLab to GitHub, and kept receiving an error the title "We found an error during import" and message "There was an error pushing commits to GitHub." This is a pretty generic error message and didn’t give

ghost

Using Ghost as a Headless CMS with Static Site Generator and Deploying to Cloudflare Pages

Most blogging websites are powered by server-side software such as Ghost or WordPress. This is extremely useful since they can support complex post editors, schedule posts to be released later, and allow users to register on the website. I self-host Ghost in a dedicated virtual machine, but this mean that

.net core

Setup Gitpod for a .NET 6+ Web App

Gitpod is a service which provides development environments in the cloud, but a .NET web app will need some extra configuration to make it accessible when running from a development workspace. You can use Gitpod by logging in with an account from a source control provider (such as GitHub or

cloudflare

Protect Microsoft SQL Server with a Cloudflare Tunnel and Cloudflare Access

Microsoft SQL Server is a database server engine used in a wide variety of organisations for storing their data. Sometimes, it can be necessary to provide access to this data from remote locations (such as to remote workers, or to services running in remote locations). A Cloudflare Tunnel when combined

gitpod

Setup GitPod for Vue.js Development

GitPod is a cloud-based development environment which can be used to work with a variety of frameworks, including Vue.js. It is designed to be quick to spin up new instances of a development environment through automated scripts. One of the advantages of this is that it reduces the chance

javascript

Will WebAssembly (Wasm) replace JavaScript?

Ever since JavaScript was created in 1995 it has formed a key part of providing interactive experiences on websites. However, since WebAssembly (Wasm) support is now available in major browsers, will it be able to hold out against the competition, or will WebAssembly replace JavaScript as the essential tool for

asp.net core

Duplicate Validation Messages with FluentValidation in ASP.NET Core 6 MVC

Validation is an important step when handling data from a request in ASP.NET Core 6. FluentValidation is a popular .NET library which can make validation your models easier. It allows you to define your validation rules in a single place and integrate custom logic for your validation, which would

pivpn

Install a Self-Hosted VPN with PiVPN on a Raspberry Pi

The Raspberry Pi is a very useful and versatile computer you can use to host and run a variety of services from your own home. An example of this is Pi-hole which allows you to implement network-wide ad-blocking for all your devices. However, when you’re away from your network

oh my posh

Add Git Information (and more) to Windows Terminal (or PowerShell)

I’m a fan of Windows Terminal – it makes it easier for me to manage my terminal windows in a tabbed interface and makes it easy to access a terminal for either my Windows machine or the WSL guest in one interface. But sometimes, it is useful to add a

cloudflare

Using Cloudflare Access and tunnels to create an RDP jump host

Cloudflare Tunnels are a useful way of allowing private services to be accessed remotely, without exposing the devices to inbound connections. This can be combined with Cloudflare Access to provide a secure way of accessing services such as remote desktop. These services can be used to setup a bastion inside