UI, Performance Tweaked in Azure SDK 2.8.2 for Visual Studio 2015 -- Visual Studio Magazine

UI, Performance Tweaked in Azure SDK 2.8.2 for Visual Studio 2015

Lots of user feedback-related improvements will make this incremental release easier for developers who want to make the cloud connection.

By Michael Domingo
01/28/2016

Last week, Microsoft released an incremental update to the Azure SDK 2.8.2 for Visual Studio 2015 that improves on user interface, performance, and project templates. Brady Gaster, Program Manager with the Azure SDK & Tools said in a blog that the update is aimed at improving "the App Service development experience."

Among the user interface improvements, Gaster notes that feedback came from users who thought that Resource Group creation wasn't as obvious. "In SDK 2.8.2, we've added visual cues to the UI to inform users there's a clear path to new group creation," writes Gaster. "The UI auto-selects a Resource Group, but we've added a new button providing placeholder text to let users know what's about to happen."

Another UI improvement comes by way of exception handling. Gaster provides an example whereby if, during the creation of a Web App that requires connectiing to a SQL database, the developer mistakenly deletes it. The previous UI would give no warning, but now, there's a warning that explicitly offers the consequences. In other instances where an error is encountered, the error messages are more detailed and exportable.

One more UI improvement is one that makes it easier to connect to provisioned services. While provisioning a SQL database, a Connection String Name dialog has been added to the initial Configure SQL Database dialog, where you can simply enter the name. It's the simple things.

Azure SDK 2.8.2 contains a number of engineering improvements, including a fix for a hanging issue that some customers experienced while App Service provisioning. Besides that specific tweak, Gaster notes that "We've also made tweaks to certain areas of the App Service tooling that allow it to be more intelligent and to give us more abilities to respond to API changes without having to re-ship the entire App Service tooling extension. "

Finally, Gaster said the group has added an Export button to the Create App Service dialog. As you're creating and editing Azure Resource Manager templates in the App Service app creation window, just click that button to export the topology.

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