Azure Functions:

Introduction: This article is a continuation of the series of articles starting with the description of SignalR service which was followed by a discussion on Azure Gateway service, Azure Private Link, and Azure Private Endpoint and the benefit of diverting traffic to the Azure Backbone network. Then we started reviewing a more public internet-facing service such as the Bing API. and the benefits it provided when used together with Azure Cognitive Services. We then discussed infrastructure API such as Provider API, ARM resources, and Azure Pipeline and followed it up with a brief overview of the Azure services support for Kubernetes Control Plane via the OSBA and Azure operator. Then we followed it with an example of Azure integration service for Host Integration Server (HIS). We started discussing the Azure FHIR service next. We were reviewing its search capabilities, followed by its regulatory compliance and security policies. Most recently, we discussed Azure Synapse link for Cosmos DB. This article talked about connecting all Azure functionalities via extensions that do not affect existing deployments with the help of Azure Functions. Specifically, we discuss sending emails from Azure Function using a Notification Hub Binding.

Description: The Notification Hub Output Binding for Azure functions enables us to send push notifications by using Azure Notification Hubs. Azure functions support output bindings for Notification Hubs. There are many languages to choose from for writing the Azure function, but in all these choices, the Notification Hub must be configured for the Platform Notification Service. We can get the push notifications in the client application from Notification Hub.

Templates can be used with notifications which enable a client application to specify the exact format of the notifications it wants to receive. This helps with a platform agnostic backend, personalized notifications, client-version independence, and easy localization.  A notification using template registration contains a message placeholder in the template.

For example:

using System;

using System.Threading.Tasks;

using System.Collections.Generic;

 

public static void Run(string myQueueItem,  out IDictionary<string, string> notification, TraceWriter log)

{

    log.Info($"C# Queue trigger function processed: {myQueueItem}");

    notification = GetTemplateProperties(myQueueItem);

}

 

private static IDictionary<string, string> GetTemplateProperties(string message)

{

    Dictionary<string, string> templateProperties = new Dictionary<string, string>();

    templateProperties["message"] = message;

    return templateProperties;

}