What do I need to do to start developing Logic Apps Consumption from Visual Studio?

  • Sandro Pereira
  • Oct 15, 2020
  • 4 min read

Azure Logic Apps Tools is available for Visual Studio 2019, 2017, and 2015 Community edition or greater, and will allow you to design and deploy your logic apps from within Visual Studio. The Logic App designer integrates with the current Azure Resource Group project so you can seamlessly work with resource deployments that include Logic Apps.

Although this tool officially supports three versions of Visual Studio, I advise you to install it only on Visual Studio 2019 and not in older versions. At some point, they will be officially removed or discontinued.

📝 One-Minute Brief

Explains what you need to start developing Azure Logic Apps Consumption from Visual Studio, including required tools, prerequisites, and setup steps to design and deploy Logic Apps using the Visual Studio Logic Apps Designer.

Prerequisites

  • Visual Studio 2019, 2017, or 2015 – Community edition or greater;
  • Visual Studio Tools for Azure: Azure SDK, tools, and projects for developing cloud apps and creating resources using .NET Core and .NET. It is also important to create hybrid solutions without having the need for another development environment.
    • In the Visual Studio installer, install Visual Studio (or modify an existing installation). Make sure the Azure development and ASP.NET and web development workloads are selected.
 Azure development and ASP.NET
Windows PowerShell
  • and run the following command:  Install-Module -Name Az
Install-Module -Name Az

Note: of course, for this or any other approach describe above, you need an Azure subscription or sign up for a free Azure account.

Install Azure Logic Apps Tools for Visual Studio 2019

After you install the prerequisites, this is a straightforward process. To accomplish that, we need to:

  • Open your Visual Studio, on the entry screen select the option Continue without code ->.
  • Then, on the menu, navigate to Extensions > Manage Extensions.
Manage Extensions
  • Select Online and search for Logic Apps.
Logic Apps Tools
  • The add-in will be listed in the search results section. Click Download to download and install the add-in. You need to close Visual Studio to begin installing this extension. 
  • On the VSIX Installer screen,
    • Make sure that the correct version of Visual Studio is selected.
    • Click Install or Modify. This will download and install the add-in to your version of Visual Studio.
VSIX Installer
  • At the end, select Close.
VSIX Installer

Creating a Visual Studio Logic App project

The Logic Apps designer integrates with the current Azure Resource Group project. That being said, you will not find any Logic App template in the list of templates. Instead, we need to create an Azure Resource Group project to get started, and to do that, we need:

  • Open Visual Studio and on the Create a new project panel, select C# -> Azure -> Cloud, or select for Azure Resource Group.
    • Select Azure Resource Group from the template list.
Create a new project
  • On the Configure your new project panel, give a proper Project name, Location, Solution name, and leave the Framework as .NET Framework 4.7.2 and select Create.
Create a new project
  • Finally, on the Select Azure Template panel, from the Visual Studio Templates list, select the Logic App template and select OK.
Logic App Visual Studio Template

This will create an empty Visual Studio Logic App solution. Now on the Visual Studio solution:

  • Right-click on the LogicApp.json file and select Open With Logic App Designer.
Open With Logic App Designer
  • This will open a Logic App Properties window, where you need to:
    • Define the credentials to authenticate on the Azure subscription.
    • Define the Subscription and Resource Group where you want to create these resources.
    • Define if you want the Location to be in the same Region or in an Integration Service Environment (ISE).
Logic app Properties
  • And then select OK.

This will embed the Logic App designer inside Visual Studio.

Logic App designer

Now you need to select a common trigger, a template, or use a blank Logic App to start creating your business process.

Logic App designer

Hope you find this helpful! If you liked the content or found it useful and would like to support me in writing more, consider buying (or helping to buy) a Star Wars Lego set for my son. 

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Author: Sandro Pereira

Sandro Pereira lives in Portugal and works as a consultant at DevScope. In the past years, he has been working on implementing Integration scenarios both on-premises and cloud for various clients, each with different scenarios from a technical point of view, size, and criticality, using Microsoft Azure, Microsoft BizTalk Server and different technologies like AS2, EDI, RosettaNet, SAP, TIBCO etc. He is a regular blogger, international speaker, and technical reviewer of several BizTalk books all focused on Integration. He is also the author of the book “BizTalk Mapping Patterns & Best Practices”. He has been awarded MVP since 2011 for his contributions to the integration community.

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