Kia Ora! on Michael McKenna

LittlePublisher

Sun, 24 May 2026 15:00:00 +1200

A small publishing tool for tending posts, notes, activity, and IndieWeb interactions.

My digital garden

Sun, 24 May 2026 14:30:00 +1200

Well here it is, my perfectly imperfect.

Namche Bazar, when I was young

Sun, 24 May 2026 14:00:00 +1200

Travel photo from a different time; I didn’t truly appreciate the spontaneity of youth.

Japan, Nagano, Somewhere

Fri, 22 May 2026 14:00:00 +1200

The snow was amazing

Authentication failed when copying files to Azure Blob Storage in DevOps with auto-provisioned service connection

Sun, 18 May 2025 13:12:11 +1200

I needed to configure a pipeline to copy some build artefacts to Azure Blob storage, however after setting up the AzureBlob File Copy task I kept getting an Authentication Failed error.

Debouncing input change event in Vue 3; wait until user stops typing

Sun, 23 Jun 2024 13:12:11 +1200

Ever needed to create an auto-complete that’s powered by an auto-complete API, or have a search field you want to automatically run without forcing the user to hit enter? Use this technique to avoid excessive traffic to your endpoints.

Multi-tenancy in ASP.NET Core 8 - Tenant Specific Options

Sun, 21 Apr 2024 23:29:12 +1200

In this post we will configure options on a per-tenant basis using the Options Pattern.

Multi-tenancy in ASP.NET Core 8 - Dependency Injection & Tenant Specific Services

Sat, 13 Apr 2024 23:29:12 +1200

In this post we look at how to have tenant specific services in a multi-tenant application in ASP.NET Core 8.

Iterating over a resource collection in bicep - avoid BCP144

Tue, 26 Mar 2024 10:00:00 +1200

Being doing a bit of IaC with Bicep recently and I ran into an issue when trying to iterate over a list of provisioned resources. I was trying to create a new resource for each one and I kept getting an error - bicep(BCP144)

Iterating over a list of provisioned resources

I had a scenario where I needed to iterate over a list of provisioned resources and create a new resource for each one. The secnario was I was configuring records on a collection of DNS Zones.

The One Billion Row Challenge in .NET

Mon, 04 Mar 2024 23:29:12 +1200

I just saw the one billion row challenge. I’m a bit late as the challenge was back in January but I thought it would be a fun exercise to try and solve it in .NET.

Multi-tenancy in ASP.NET Core 8 - Tenant Resolution

Sun, 03 Mar 2024 23:29:12 +1200

Can you believe it, just like that it’s been 4 and a half years since I wrote my initial series on multi-tenancy in ASP.NET and now ASP.NET Core 8 is out. In this post I revisit multi-tenancy in ASP.NET Core and take a fresh look at how I’d implement multi-tenancy today.

IndieAuth in ASP.NET

Wed, 27 Sep 2023 20:13:11 +1200

This is a long form blog post about how I added support for IndieAuth as an authentication method for a .NET 6 application.

Adding snake_case support to System.Text.Json

Wed, 19 Jul 2023 10:00:00 +1200

It’s not supported out of the box (yet) despite being quite popular (e.g. GitHub API) but it’s super simple to add if you need it.

HttpCompletionOption.ResponseHeadersRead

Fri, 07 Jul 2023 09:00:00 +1200

By default the .NET HttpClient will download the entire respones into memory before returning control to the caller. Which means if you’re processing data from the stream, your process won’t start operating on the stream until the entire response has been buffered into memory.

using var feedData = await client.GetAsync(feedUri);
using var reader = XmlReader.Create(await feedData.Content.ReadAsStreamAsync())

The default behaviour makes sense because the response is loaded into memory and the sockets freed up as quickly as possible. That’s probably best for most applications. However for the application I was working on (FeedMD - RSS/Atom to MD feed converter) if there’s no new posts near the top of the feed we decide to stop processing the feed very early on. I wanted to start acting on the stream right away.

Remember to have fun on the internet

Thu, 06 Jul 2023 10:00:00 +1200

I want you to know that you too can make new programs which create new fun ways of using computers and using the Internet.

I want you to realize that, if you can imagine a computer doing something, you can program a computer to do that.

– Tim Berners-Lee

What a fantastic sentiment. It got me thinking back to my first experiences with the Interent. My first website was a Age of Empires fansite believe it or not. I wish I had a screenshot.

How to upload a file to a GitHub release in a workflow

Wed, 05 Jul 2023 10:00:00 +1200

Spoiler alert: you don’t need an Action contributed by a third party.

Automated versioning and publishing of a SDK-style NuGet packages using GitHub Actions

Mon, 26 Jun 2023 10:00:00 +1200

In this article we look at the method of automating the NuGet packaging process using GitHub Actions that we used for GuidOne.

Upgrading to .NET 6 and Entity Framework table data annotation schema not working

Fri, 23 Jun 2023 10:00:00 +1200

After upgrading a .NET 3.1 ASP.NET Web Application to .NET 6 and Entity Framework from 3.1.1 to 7.0.8 the schema applied using the table data annotation was no longer respected

IConfigurationSection does not contain a definition for Get

Thu, 22 Jun 2023 10:00:00 +1200

I ran into this issue when upgrading from Microsoft.Extensions.Configuration.Abstractions 3.1.10 to 7.0.0

Automated versioning and publishing of a Non-SDK-style NuGet packages using GitHub Actions

Sun, 18 Jun 2023 10:00:00 +1200

In this article we look at the method of automating the NuGet packaging process using GitHub Actions that we used for JsonPatch.

Peripheral: The great blog refresh of 2023

Wed, 14 Jun 2023 10:00:00 +1200

This blog just turned 10! It’s a strange milestone; so inconsequnetial for everyone in the world bar me. Instead of going down a rabbit hole of irrelevance a better use of my time is to give this blog yet another refresh.

Linking to the latest commit in the header of your Hugo site on GitHub

Sun, 07 May 2023 10:00:00 +1200

.GitInfo is linked to the current page, this is how we accessed the lastest commit information at build

Wrong font size on iOS when using Chroma syntax highlighting with Hugo

Thu, 04 May 2023 10:00:00 +1200

WebKit has this habit of trying to enlarge the “primary” text on the screen

Host your Hugo Generated site on GitHub

Mon, 01 May 2023 10:00:00 +1200

GitHub Pages are are a great way to host a blog, share your résumé, or even host a website about one of your projects.

Goodreads API shutdown

Thu, 27 Apr 2023 10:00:00 +1200

Unfortunately the custodians of my literary history have decided to prevent all new API access in their quest to improve data control.

JSON Patch Support with Swagger and ASP.NET Core 3.1

Wed, 07 Oct 2020 13:11:12 +1200

Generate the correct request schema for Patch operations in ASP.NET Core 3.1 which use JsonPatchDocument

Migrating multi-tenancy to .NET Core 3.1 (LTS)

Wed, 02 Oct 2019 13:11:12 +1200

.NET Core 3.1 is out and it’s a LTS release. Our 4 part multi-tenancy series is already out of date! Here we’ll cover off the breaking changes and the updates we need to make.

Creating a multi-tenant .NET Core Application - Tenant specific authentication

Mon, 15 Jul 2019 13:11:12 +1200

This time we are looking at how we can configure authentication on a per-tenant basis.

Creating a multi-tenant .NET Core Application - Tenant specific options

Mon, 01 Jul 2019 13:11:12 +1200

This time we are looking at how we can configure options on a per-tenant basis any third party service that supports the Options Pattern.

Creating a multi-tenant .NET Core Application - Tenant containers

Thu, 06 Jun 2019 20:13:11 +1200

This time we are looking at how we can configure services on a per-tenant basis which allows us to resolve a different service based on which tenant is active. An application isn’t truly multi-tenant unless you can have a different services container for each tenant.

Creating a multi-tenant .NET Core Application - Tenant resolution

Sat, 25 May 2019 20:13:11 +1200

This series of blog posts is an exploration of how to achieve multi-tenancy in an ASP.NET Core web application. In this part of the series we resolve a request to a tenant and introduce the ability to access information about that tenant.

Host your Hugo site on Azure Storage

Thu, 03 Jan 2019 20:13:11 +1200

Host your Hugo SSG using Azure Storage and KeyCDN.

Using Azure Functions to text you when your servers are down

Tue, 06 Dec 2016 20:52:32 +1200

The thing I like most about it is that it’s serverless so no infrastructure to maintain and worry about.

Could not load file or assembly 'Microsoft.VisualStudio.Web.PageInspector.Loader...

Mon, 28 Nov 2016 20:52:32 +1200

It looks like it’s an assembly that VS 2012 adds which is why it’s no longer available after uninstall.

Update multiple Git repositories on Windows at once using Powershell

Thu, 17 Nov 2016 20:52:32 +1200

Let’s write the script - it’s super simple. It’s designed to be placed in the parent folder of your Git repositories.

How to import Python extension modules in Azure Functions

Thu, 03 Nov 2016 20:52:32 +1200

I just needed to quickly run a few Python methods… in Azure

Optional arguments in C# interfaces

Mon, 15 Aug 2016 20:52:32 +1200

In the interest of code-safety I don’t put default values on implementing classes any more.

Running Go on Azure App Services

Sun, 03 Jul 2016 20:52:32 +1200

It turns out Azure App Services have added native Go support.

Getting started with Go on Windows

Fri, 01 Jul 2016 10:33:32 +1200

I’m giving this Go-lang thing a whirl, turns out it’s dead easy to set up on Windows.

Creating custom knockout bindings in typescript.

Tue, 07 Jun 2016 22:40:32 +1200

Something like knockout.bindings.d.ts and provide a definition for your binding.

Func vs. Expression> in LINQ

Tue, 07 Jun 2016 22:40:32 +1200

Don’t worry if you haven’t noticed the differences, you call them with the exact same syntax.

GUIDs Part 3: GUID one

Tue, 24 May 2016 09:56:32 +1200

Then to make it all stick I implemented the spec

Sorting IQueryables using strings and reflection

Tue, 10 May 2016 09:56:32 +1200

Wouldn’t it be great to be able to specify the property to order on at runtime for a LINQ query?

Reactive Extensions .NET: Implementing the circuit breaker pattern

Mon, 02 May 2016 09:56:32 +1200

We create an observable that either emits values from the source or the alternate source based on the status of the circuit breaker.

GUIDs part 2: GUID as gold

Thu, 28 Apr 2016 09:56:32 +1200

How are GUIDs unique with out a central watch dog?

Generating an Apple Push Notification Certificate on Windows

Sat, 23 Apr 2016 09:56:32 +1200

Following most instructions Apple seemed to think my IIS generated CSR was invalud.

GUIDs part 1: What the GUID?

Tue, 19 Apr 2016 11:58:32 +1200

I asked myself some questions and ended up learning a lot about the humble GUID - they really are quite cool.

Improving conversion rates in KickSmoking

Sun, 22 Mar 2015 08:45:32 +1200

People won’t give you money if you treat them poorly.

Monetising KickSmoking

Tue, 03 Mar 2015 08:51:32 +1200

Despite being on the back-burner it’s still the number one quit smoking app on the Windows Phone app store.

Migrating an Azure VM to a different region

Thu, 04 Dec 2014 15:56:32 +1200

Even though you can’t do it from the online interface it, it’s actually pretty simple.

Setting up a Jekyll workflow on windows

Fri, 22 Aug 2014 15:56:32 +1200

For sites that are read heavy but get updated quite infrequently (like a blog, or marketing site) a static site is ideal.

How to add JSON Patch support to ASP.NET Web API

Thu, 24 Jul 2014 15:56:32 +1200

We’re going to create a formatter that understands JSON Patch.

Should I use www or not?

Mon, 14 Jul 2014 15:56:32 +1200

Is it still required? Or can we just use the “naked” domain?

Setting up an elasticsearch cluster in azure

Mon, 07 Jul 2014 15:56:32 +1200

In this blog post we’ll investigate how to set up an elasticsearch cluster on Windows Azure.

The great confusion about HTTP Patch

Fri, 20 Jun 2014 20:51:32 +1200

It’s designed to allow an API to support partial updates.

Dependency injection for ASP.NET Web API action filters in 3 easy steps

Thu, 12 Jun 2014 20:51:32 +1200

This post looks at performing dependency injection on a WebAPI ActionFilter using Unity.

Automatically marking required labels in ASP.NET MVC

Thu, 29 May 2014 20:51:32 +1200

I don’t want to re-implement the label HTML helper but I would like a way to inspect the model and update the label text based on the presence of the [Required] attribute.

Implementing XML-RPC services in ASP.NET MVC

Wed, 28 May 2014 13:51:32 +1200

We’ll look at how we implemented XML-RPC services in ASP.NET MVC by creating a custom model binder.

You probably don't want your development team to share a single database

Wed, 14 Aug 2013 11:51:32 +1200

If you’re currently working on a project where all developers are using the same centralized development database, then chances are that’s the way the project has been run since the beginning.

The back button and browser caching

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 11:40:32 +1200

If the user navigated away then used the back button they would be shown the original page with the original data. They’d then think the fancy JavaScript was completely broken.

Error handling in ASP.NET MVC Part 2: Our implementation

Mon, 11 Mar 2013 02:09:32 +1200

A simple exception handling strategy that enables detailed logging in MVC context but also provides support for general ASP.NET errors such as page not found exceptions.

Error handling in ASP.NET MVC Part 1: Our options

Mon, 04 Mar 2013 09:13:32 +1200

This is the first post in a two part series, in this part we will look at the options available to us in ASP.NET MVC for Error Handling.

Simple pluralisation in ASP.NET MVC

Sun, 17 Feb 2013 20:31:32 +1200

If you don’t bother with correct pluralisation your users will be less likely to appreciate the care you put into the rest of your application.

Single sign out with Azure ACS

Mon, 11 Feb 2013 21:41:32 +1200

ACS may not directly support single sign out but you can easily log the user out of their identity provider as well as your website using this technique.

About Me

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

A study in imperfection; a collection of the intangible. Welcome to my website.

I am Michael McKenna, a software developer in Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand. I write here about whatever takes my interest. Most often that is tech related.

This is a personal website my views are my own. I write all my own words; everything you read on this site is my own.

AI writes a lot of my code; most of what your computer reads was written by AI.

AI Policy

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Site content

Your voice is malleable, it’s forged by the words you choose. Your voice is distinct; your communication style is uniquely you. You lose what makes your words special when you reach for AI. The generated prose is dauntingly generic and vacant of thought and intent.

All words on this site are my own. I have chosen each and every one of them.

Site coding

I have witnessed the birth of the internet, I am a dinosaur. The new generation of tooling enabled by AI is liberating, intoxicating. I have been able to have fun again in the small moments of free time I am able to snatch from here and there.

Colophon

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

This is my blog. You can view all the source code on GitHub here. It’s nothing special. It’s a bit over-engineered and it feels like I’ve spent more time creating code than writing content, but I am partial to it and enjouy the pursuit.

I have been publishing since (checks notes) - look at that: February 11, 2013. I am basically a dinosaur in the tech world at this point; I consider myself fortunate to witness the awakening of the internet.