I had a great opportunity to work with a partner to pilot the use of Java Azure Functions for a Java based PDF report generator. I'm more of a C#/.NET, C++, and Python dev and my partner mostly builds on LAMP bar the Java Based PDF generator, so day to day is not Java Development.

If this sounds like you and Java dev is not your core then read on as this post augments existing documentation for the preview of Java based Azure Functions and may save you time.

The beta inclusion of Java joins Azure Functions' existing support of JavaScript, C#, F#, Python, PHP, Bash, Batch, and PowerShell to the Azure Function App Serverless model.

Resources to get started

The following are useful resources to get started.

1. Announcing the preview of Java support for Azure Functions
2. Azure Functions Java developer guide
3. Create your first function with Java and Maven (Preview)
4. Microsoft Azure Functions for Java (JavaOne Demo)

What to install

Everything listed here will install cross platform – Windows, Linux and MacOS and is free of charge.

1. Dot Net Core 2.0
2. Zulu 8.0 (openjdk version "1.8.0_144"). Don't be tempted as I was to install version 9. It will not work.
3. Azure CLI 2.0
4. Azure Functions Core 2.0 Tools (npm install -g azure-functions-core-tools@core)
   1. Installation on my Ubuntu 16.04 system failed. After much research I ran "npm config set unsafe-perm true", then was able to successfully install the Azure Function Core 2.0 Tools
5. Apache Maven, version 3.0 or above
6. Node.js, version 8.6 or higher.
7. Optional
   1. Visual Studio Code and the Java Expansion Pack Extension
   2. Azure Storage Explorer
   3. Azure Service Bus Explorer
   4. Azure Storage Emulator

Environment Variable Setup

You need to add the following Environment Variables to your system

1. JAVA_HOME that points to your Zulu 8.0 installation
2. Update your Path variable to include the directory of your Apache Maven installation eg C:\Software\apache-maven-3.5.0\bin
3. On Windows press Start then type Environment and run "Edit System Environment Variables

   

4. On Linux, edit the /etc/environment file, update PATH and add JAVA_HOME variable and reboot.

   

Creating your first Project

1. Create your first HTTP Triggered Function by following the example at Create your first function with Java and Maven (Preview)
2. Add another Azure Function trigger with the mvn azure-functions:add command.

Debugging

Follow notes in the Create your first function with Java and Maven (Preview) to debug from Visual Studio Code. You can step through your Java code, inspect the state of variables etc.

Deploying to Azure

Follow notes in the Create your first function with Java and Maven (Preview)

But in summary

1. Package up the app with "mvn azure-functions:package"
2. Authenticate with your Azure Subscription with "az login"
3. Deploy the app with "mvn azure-functions:deploy"

Useful MVN (Maven) Commands

The Adafruit Proper Debugging of ATSAMD21 Processors has a ton of detail on getting started with Atmel Studio 7 and the Arduino Zero with EDBG debug chip, so I suggest you read this article first.

This article is and addendum to the Adafruit article with tips and tricks that go that focus on the issues I and lot of others hit when getting started debugging ATSAMD21G18A based Arduino boards. The Adafruit Proper Debugging of ATSAMD21 Processors article is based on the Arduino Zero, I'm using the Arduino M0 Pro which is pretty much the same board bar some minor differences.

If you are anything like me then you have gotten very frustrated debugging Arduino projects using Serial.println or changing LED state.

There are some software tools that help such as Visual Micro plug in for Visual Studio but I was keen to try more advanced debugging of my LoraWAN Azure IoT Hub project with the Embedded Debugger (EDBG) AT32UC3A4256 chip found in a number of the ARM based Arduino boards. The Atmel EDBG has the ability to program and debug Atmel AVR® and Atmel ARM® Cortex®-M core based microcontrollers.

I was intrigued to see that we are working on EDBG support with the Arduino extension for Visual Studio Code, it's a great extension but I found debugging has some limitations so I wanted to debug using Atmel Studio.

Creating your first Arduino Project

So with great excitement I followed the notes in the "Let's go!" page and created my project and tried to build the solution. Hmmm, problem number 1 the Arduino Core project will not build, "recipe for target 'src/core/delay.o' failed". Huh, and I thought this was just going to workJ

After a bit of digging around the web I found this article "Atmel Studio 7 Create Project From Arduino Sketch Build Failure" It seems with the latest build of Atmel Studio things got moved around.

"I had the same problem. The issue is that the Arduino SAMD core started using the CMSIS-Atmel package as of version 1.6.9. This moved the location of sam.h and all of its dependencies to a different directory and Atmel Studio can't find it using the built-in template for creating projects from Arduino sketches."

There are two approaches

1. Set up a file system Link

   mkdir C:\Users\xxx\AppData\Local\Arduino15\packages\arduino\tools\CMSIS\4.0.0-atmel\Device
   cd C:\Users\xxx\AppData\Local\Arduino15\packages\arduino\tools\CMSIS\4.0.0-atmel\Device
   mklink /J ATMEL C:\Users\xxx\AppData\Local\Arduino15\packages\arduino\tools\CMSIS-Atmel\1.0.0\CMSIS\Device\ATMEL

2. Or add the missing directories to the project

   When you created the AS7 project from the Arduino sketch, it creates a Solution with two Projects, one named "ArduinoCore" and one with the name you chose for your Arduino sketch.  In order to get AS7 to build correctly with SAMD-based projects (Zero, MKR1000, MKRZero, M0, Tian, etc.) you need to add the path to the Atmel CMSIS library in four places: one for the C compiler and one for the C++ compiler in the ArduinoCore project plus one for the C compiler and one for the C++ compiler in the project associated with your Arduino sketch. 

   To do this, in the Solution Explorer pane, right click the ArduinoCore project and select Properties.  This will open the Properties pane.  On the left, select Toolchain.  Then under ARM/GNU C Compiler select Directories.  Click the Add Item button and then enter the full path to the SAMD CMSIS files.  Uncheck the Relative Path box and click on OK.  Repeat this for the ARM/GNU C++ Compiler.  Then repeat the process again starting with right clicking on the project associated with your Arduino sketch. 

   The path will look something like this:

   C:\Users\<myWindowsName>\AppData\Local\Arduino15\packages\arduino\tools\CMSIS-Atmel\1.1.0\CMSIS\Device\ATMEL 

   These files are installed by the Arduino IDE when you use the board manager to install support for SAMD boards.  Note that the path name may change with new releases of the Arduino IDE or board support packages, so verify the location on your system.

    

Adding missing paths to Arduino Libraries

I chose to add the directories directly to the project. It's important to add for both the ARM/GNU C compiler and the ARM/GNU C++ Compiler and for both the ArduinoCore project and your project (blink.cpp) in my case.

Great, now I can compile my solution and deployJ

But not so fast. The next issue I hit was this after what looked to be a promising compile.

Cannot open linker script file label.id: no such directory
recipe for target 'blink.elf' failed
id returned 1 exit status

Ok, so what the heck is an flash.id file? Well it turns out that it's the file that defines the memory layout of the MUC.

Hmmm, so where is this file? Well with a bit more digging around I spotted two files that ended with .id in the linker_scripts/linker_scripts/gcc directory in the project.

Setting the Flash.Id file

Success, time to deploy and debug

The solution compiles now time to deploy the code to the Arduino M0 Pro and starting stepping through the codeJ

Next step is to start debugging (Tools -> Debugging and break) and I get a

Failed to launch program.

Error: Loading executable to device failed. Error Error downloading changes to the device at 00000000-00002600.

Unlocking the Boot Protection

After more searching the solution is to change the USER_WORD_0.NVMCTRL from it's default value of 0x01 to 0x07.

You need to click on Program to save this change to the firmware on the device.

Success

Finally, after updating the Boot Protection fuse setting and starting debugging the project deployed to the Arduino M0 Pro and I was able to step through the project. It's a great debug experience and worth some of the pain to setup.

Be sure to checking the Adafruit Paths and Optimizations section and learn about turning off the optimiser to improve the debug experience.

And finally, be sure to check out Restoring Bootloader.

A bit of context, I maintain the "Maker Den" Windows 10 IoT Core Raspberry Pi 2 project on GitHub, it's designed to be an accessible IoT framework and maker experience. One of my key requirements is when the project is downloaded or cloned from GitHub it is in the exact state I saved in it so it just works when a user opens it in Visual Studio 2015. No fiddling with the processor architecture, no setting up the remote device name etc.

I needed the project to remember

1. It's targeting the ARM processor architecture
2. It's targeting a remote device – namely the default "minwinpc" Windows 10 IoT Core computer name.
3. What references and frameworks the project uses.

Targeting ARM Architecture

This information is held in the solution root (hidden) directory ".vs" in a file named ".suo"

Remote Device Name

This information is stored in the "StartUp Project" folder in a file that matches your project file name with the ".user" extension. Take a look in this xml file and you'll see the remote device name.

Project References and Frameworks

This information is held in the "project.lock.json" file, it's information about the target SDK and references. See https://docs.asp.net/en/latest/dnx/overview.html and https://blog.brunomlopes.com/2015/07/should-i-put-projectlockjson-in-source.html for more information.

How to Fix

The default Visual Studio GitHub ".gitignore" file is your frenemy and this is where you need to be better acquainted.

1. Open up the project ".gitignore" file in the text editor of your choice
2. Search for and comment out the following ignore types with a # at the beginning of each of these lines
   1. *.suo
   2. *.user
   3. .vs/
   4. project.lock.json
   5. .pfx
3. Save the changes
4. Open the git command prompt in the root of your solution and using the "Git add .vs/*" command add the contents of the .vs/ to the local git repository
5. Now do a git push or sync to ship these files up on to GitHub.
6. Test by downloading/cloning and building the project from GitHub, hey presto, all your project settings should now be in place just as you wanted:)

Cheers Dave

Hopefully this will save you some time as the UX for enabling Developer Mode is not yet implemented on the current build of Windows 10 Mobile Tech Preview.

You can get the developer preview for Windows Phone 10 by signing up at to the Windows Insider Program, see https://preview.windows.com.

Step 4 is key to success, be sure to the Windows.Universal framework min and max versions.

This summary is taken from https://msdn.microsoft.com/library/windows/apps/xaml/dn706236.aspx 

1. Windows 10 Phone: Register your phone to enable developer mode using the existing Windows Phone 8.1 tools

      

• Use gpedit to enable your device
  • Open a cmd prompt with administrator privileges.
  • Run Gpedit.msc.
  • Go to Local Computer Policy > Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > App Package Deployment
  • Edit the policies to enable the following:
    • Allow all trusted apps to install (Enables your device for sideloading apps)
    • Allows development of Windows Store apps and installing them from an integrated development environment (IDE) (Enables your device for development from Visual Studio)
  • Reboot your machine.

       

1. Use PowerShell to enable your device
   1. Run Windows PowerShell with administrator privileges.
   2. Run the following command: PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\AppModelUnlock" /t REG_DWORD /f /v "AllowDevelopmentWithoutDevLicense" /d "1"
   3. Run this command too: PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\AppModelUnlock" /t REG_DWORD /f /v "AllowAllTrustedApps" /d "1"

      

2. In the Package.appxmanifest file (reference https://stackoverflow.com/questions/29991693/cant-deploy-blank-universal-app-to-phone-with-windows-10-mobile-tech-preview)

Change the existing min and max version numbers to the following

<Dependencies>

<TargetDeviceFamily Name="Windows.Universal" MinVersion="10.0.1.0" MaxVersionTested="10.0.1.0" />

</Dependencies>

The Windows Phone 8.1 SDK is now available, and with it brings a wealth of new features and capabilities to take your Windows Phone applications further than before. We've taken the best from //Build and we're coming to Melbourne (May 2^nd), Sydney (May 9^th) and Brisbane (May 16^th).

A big day, jam packed with topics to be covered include: 

1. The new WP 8.1 runtime
2. Universal applications and building across WP 8.1 and Windows 8.1
3. Bluetooth and NFC and the internet of things
4. People Hub
5. Notifications
6. Javascript - WinJS comes to phone 
7. Geofencing
8. And more... 

Register on the community website for one of the cities.

Windows Phone 8 is a huge step forward, not only maintaining compatibility with existing Windows Phone apps, but embraces a number of core Windows 8 technologies, bringing significant performance improvements, support for managed and native C++ development, in app purchase, wallet, NFC, developer access to the Bluetooth and speech APIs, and more. See Windows Phone 8 developer platform highlights.

This two day workshop is scheduled for Friday May 3^rd and Saturday May 4^th. The first day is a presentation day that will get you up to speed with the Windows Phone 8 developer platform. Day two (Saturday) is a hands on labs day to guide you through the experience of building Windows Phone apps.

REGISTRATION

Day 1 - Presentation Day

Day 2 - Hands on Labs Day