How I Automated the Tracking of the Holiday Metra Train

How I Automated the Tracking of the Holiday Metra Train

Comments 0 Comment
source: https://www.facebook.com/MetraRail/posts/all-aboard-the-holiday-train-tickets-for-our-holiday-train-go-on-sale-monday-nov/865445549331428/

Objective

This post is a bit different from my usual content, as it may only be of interest to people living in the Chicagoland area. Chicago’s regional commuter rail is called the Metra, and during the holidays they have several trains that are decked out in holiday lights and the inside is decorated with lights, ornaments, and other holiday decor.

Note: This is not to be confused with the Metra holiday train where you ride it and meet Santa, while they may use the same trains, Metra will also use the holiday trains for regularly scheduled trains in and out of the city.

As a father with a kid who loves everything about trains, I looked to see if Metra published a schedule or if there was a way I could track the holiday trains so we could get on it. The only thing I found was the following website… Continue...

Using PowerShell to Block GitLab Merges with Unchecked Issue Checkboxes

Using PowerShell to Block GitLab Merges with Unchecked Issue Checkboxes

Comments 0 Comment

Objective

This blog post demonstrates how to enforce acceptance criteria in GitLab merge requests using PowerShell pipelines. By validating that all checkboxes in linked issues are completed before a merge is allowed, development teams can ensure higher quality and consistency in their codebase. The solution leverages GitLab’s API to automatically check issue descriptions, report any unchecked items, and post comments on the merge request. This approach helps maintain accountability, reduces errors, and streamlines the review process for collaborative software projects.

Prerequisites

Resolution

Gitlab

Create an Access Token

First, we need to go to Personal access tokens to create a new PAT in Gitlab. Click the “Add new token” button. Give your token a name, description (optional) and expiration date. In the Scope section, select api. You can review the scope permissions here.

Next, when it shows you your token, copy it down for … Continue...

Notify Requesters When GitLab Issues Move Through the Development Pipeline

Notify Requesters When GitLab Issues Move Through the Development Pipeline

Comments 0 Comment

Objective

I use GitLab’s Customer Relationship Management (CRM) feature to track who requested each item. From there, I wanted a way for requesters to be automatically notified as their item moved through the development pipeline, from Backlog to In Progress, Testing/Review, and finally Done. GitLab supports webhooks that trigger on issue events such as creation, updates, closures, and openings. Using this capability, I built a PowerShell Azure function that receives the webhook payload, identifies when a status label changes, retrieves the CRM contact linked to the issue, and sends them an email notification.

Prerequisites

  • Gitlab Account for an access token and to create the webhook
  • Gitlab status as scoped Labels (ex: Status::In Progress)
    • You can change the logic within the Azure Function but by default is will be looking for the status scoped label to determine old and current status of an item.
  • Contacts filled out in Gitlab’s CRM (Plan
… Continue...
Documentation as Code: Using YAML, GitHub Actions, and Azure to Power a Living Catalog

Documentation as Code: Using YAML, GitHub Actions, and Azure to Power a Living Catalog

Comments 0 Comment

Objective

More and more companies are moving into the world of DevOps and automation. As this grows, you begin to face a scaling problem. You now have dozens of automations interacting with different systems, each using its own API keys or managed identities. With so many moving pieces, you need a way to keep track of everything. After spending time looking through different products to help with this problem, I realized that we could lean into automation itself to help with a solution. When creating the product I kept several goals in mind:

  1. Be able to manage, update and deploy using Git. Leveraging CI/CD to update the front end for me.
  2. Automation project structure should be simple, I don’t want engineers or managers spending a lot of time adding or editing projects.
  3. The site should be easily customizable to fit different needs.
  4. Ability to track time saved and cost saved
… Continue...
Building Event-Driven Automations in Microsoft 365 Using Graph Subscriptions

Building Event-Driven Automations in Microsoft 365 Using Graph Subscriptions

Comments 0 Comment

Objective

This post demonstrates how to use Microsoft Graph Subscriptions to create event-driven automation in Microsoft 365. Graph Subscriptions allow applications to receive real-time notifications when specific changes occur within Microsoft 365 resources such as users, groups, or mailboxes, without the need for constant polling. By subscribing to these change events, we can build responsive workflows that automatically react to updates like group membership changes and trigger downstream actions in Azure Functions or Automation Accounts.

In this article, I will create a Microsoft Graph Subscription that listens for changes to a specific group’s membership. When a user is added or removed, it triggers an Azure Function that identifies the user, looks them up in Microsoft 365, and then adds or removes them from the Proofpoint portal accordingly.

A subscription lifespan is dependent on the resource with some as short as 1 hour. Refer to the subscription lifetime documentation for more

… Continue...
Auto Deploy Progressive Web Applications (PWA) using Intune or PowerShell

Auto Deploy Progressive Web Applications (PWA) using Intune or PowerShell

Comments 3 comments

Objective

In this article I will walk you through installing progressive web app’s, or PWA’s to endpoint machines using either PowerShell or Microsoft Intune. You may want to do this for users with frontline licenses that grant them web apps but not full desktop application’s.

What are Progressive Web Applications?

Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) are web applications that use modern web technologies to deliver an app-like experience to users, but without requiring them to install a traditional app from an app store. Think of them as a blend between websites and mobile/desktop apps.

Resolution

Below, I will walk you through installing PWA’s on end user machines silently, without user interaction.

Intune

The intune configuration policy follows the WebAppInstallForceList. You can currently define default_launch_container, create_desktop_shortcut, fallback_app_name, custom_name, custom_icon and install_as_shortcut. The site goes into detail what each setting configures.

Note: Currently there are … Continue...

Detect Modified SharePoint List Items and Retrieve Old Values in Sharepoint Using Logic Apps

Detect Modified SharePoint List Items and Retrieve Old Values in Sharepoint Using Logic Apps

Comments 0 Comment

Overview

I currently have a SharePoint list with an identity (person or group) column called “Owners,” where I can search for employees and add them to a list item. I then want to e-mail newly added people that they have been added to a list item so they can go and review the details of it.

While SharePoint does have an ‘automate’ feature where you can detect a list item’s column is modified, the only option is to send an email to all the people that are currently in that column. So, if you add a new person, it will re-email everyone who is already there. The other issue is that the e-mail says (below) is non-descript, so your users will be confused about why they are getting it.

Logic Apps does have a trigger that is “When an item is modified,” but its output is the current … Continue...

Automating Code Compliance: AI-Driven Code Style Enforcement for Pull Requests

Automating Code Compliance: AI-Driven Code Style Enforcement for Pull Requests

Comments 0 Comment

Overview

As teams increasingly rely on automation for code quality and compliance, ensuring consistent coding standards can be challenging during the pull request (PR) process. In this article, we explore how to build an AI-powered style enforcement pipeline using modern tools like GPT-4 and CI/CD workflows.

You’ll learn how to:

  • Enforce best practices and team-specific coding guidelines without manual intervention.
  • Integrate automated code reviews into your PR pipelines.
  • Leverage AI to detect style violations, generate actionable reports, and even suggest fixes.

With this in place, you can lower the amount of time code reviews take your engineers, and even have the Pull Request be rejected until the resolutions are addressed and marked as complete.

How It Works

  • We will set up a Pipeline that will be triggered upon a new Pull Request in the repository.
  • If there are modified PowerShell files (ex: .ps1, .psm1, .psd1)
  • Then, import
… Continue...
Automated Deployment of a Zero Trust Azure Automation Environment

Automated Deployment of a Zero Trust Azure Automation Environment

Comments 0 Comment

Overview

A common and recommended security practice is only allowing access to an Azure Storage Account via a whitelisted IP address. While this is generally a good idea, a problem arises when you need an Azure Automation Account to access one of these Storage Accounts. Currently, even if you whitelist an entire Azure region, your automation runbook will fail to connect to your Storage Account. Instead, you must use an Azure Private Link to connect Azure Automation to your PaaS Azure Resources securely, but “in the current implementation of Private Link, Automation account cloud jobs cannot access Azure resources that are secured using private endpoint. For example, Azure Key Vault, Azure SQL, Azure Storage account, etc. To workaround this, use a Hybrid Runbook Worker instead. Hence, on-premises VMs are supported to run Hybrid Runbook Workers against an Automation Account with Private Link enabled.” 1

This configuration isn’t as simple as … Continue...

Automatically Detect and Prevent Secrets Leaked into Code within Azure DevOps

Automatically Detect and Prevent Secrets Leaked into Code within Azure DevOps

Comments 0 Comment

Objective

Security vulnerabilities introduced by hardcoded secrets, passwords, or tokens in your source code can significantly compromise the safety of your application and/or infrastructure. A single API key or database connection string committed to a repository can be a gateway for attackers. But how do you ensure sensitive information never enters your codebase? The answer lies in automation.

In this blog post, you’ll learn how to automate secret detection in Azure DevOps using Gitleaks. We’ll set up a pipeline that listens for pull requests (PRs), fetches the latest code changes, and scans them for leaks — failing the PR if any secrets are found.

Why Do We Need Secret Detection

According to GitGuardian’s 2024 report, “State of Secrets Sprawl”, nearly 13 million new secrets were discovered in public GitHub commits, marking a 28% increase. Out of the 1.1 billion commits scanned, more than 1 in … Continue...