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How to use a Powershell Azure Function to Tweet IoT environment data

Overview

This blog post details how to use a Powershell Azure Function App to get information from a RestAPI and send a social media update.

The data can come from anywhere, and in the case of this example I’m getting the data from WioLink IoT Sensors. This builds upon my previous post here that details using Powershell to get environmental information and put it in Power BI.  Essentially the difference in this post is outputting the manipulated data to social media (Twitter) whilst still using a TimerTrigger Powershell Azure Function App to perform the work and leverage the “serverless” Azure Functions model.

Prerequisites

The following are prerequisites for this solution;

Create a folder on your local machine for the Powershell Module then save the module to your local machine using the powershell command ‘Save-Module” as per below.

Save-Module -Name InvokeTwitterAPIs -Path c:\temp\twitter

Create a Function App Plan

If you don’t already have a Function App Plan create one by searching for Function App in the Azure Management Portal. Give it a Name, Select Consumption so you only pay for what you use, and select an appropriate location and Storage Account.

Create a Twitter App

Head over to http://dev.twitter.com and create a new Twitter App so you can interact with Twitter using their API. Give you Twitter App a name. Don’t worry about the URL too much or the need for the Callback URL. Select Create your Twitter Application.

Select the Keys and Access Tokens tab and take a note of the API Key and the API Secret. Select the Create my access token button.

Take a note of your Access Token and Access Token Secret. We’ll need these to interact with the Twitter API.

Create a Timer Trigger Azure Function App

Create a new TimerTrigger Azure Powershell Function. For my app I’m changing from the default of a 5 min schedule to hourly on the top of the hour. I did this after I’d already created the Function App as shown below. To update the schedule I edited the Function.json file and changed the schedule to “schedule”: “0 0 * * * *”

Give your Function App a name and select Create.

Configure Azure Function App Application Settings

In your Azure Function App select “Configure app settings”. Create new App Settings for your Twitter Account, Twitter Account AccessToken, AccessTokenSecret, APIKey and APISecret using the values from when you created your Twitter App earlier.

Deployment Credentials

If you haven’t already configured Deployment Credentials for your Azure Function Plan do that and take note of them so you can upload the Twitter Powershell module to your app in the next step.

Take note of your Deployment Username and FTP Hostname.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/76015/BlogImages/FunctionIOTWeather/AppDevSettings.png

Upload the Twitter Powershell Module to the Azure Function App

Create a sub-directory under your Function App named bin and upload the Twitter Powershell Module using a FTP Client. I’m using WinSCP.

From the Applications Settings option start Kudu.

Traverse the folder structure to get the path do the Twitter Powershell Module and note it.

Update the code to replace the sample from the creation of the Trigger Azure Function as shown below to import the Twitter Powershell Module. Include the get-help lines for the module so we can see in the logs that the modules were imported and we can see the cmdlets they contain.

Validating our Function App Environment

Update the code to replace the sample from the creation of the Trigger Azure Function as shown below to import the Twitter Powershell Module. Include the get-help line for the module so we can see in the logs that the module was imported and we can see the cmdlets they contain. Select Save and Run.

Below is my output. I can see the output from the Twitter Module.

Function Application Script

Below is my sample script. It has no error handling etc so isn’t production ready, but gives a working example of getting data in from an API (in this case IoT sensors) and sends a tweet out to Twitter.

Viewing the Tweet

And here is the successful tweet.

Summary

This shows how easy it is to utilise Powershell and Azure Function Apps to get data and transform it for use in other ways. In this example a social media platform. The input could easily be business data from an API and the output a corporate social platform such as Yammer.

Follow Darren on Twitter @darrenjrobinson

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How to use a Powershell Azure Function App to get RestAPI IoT data into Power BI for Visualization

Overview

This blog post details using a Powershell Azure Function App to get IoT data from a RestAPI and update a table in Power BI with that data for visualization.

The data can come from anywhere, however in the case of this post I’m getting the data from WioLink IoT Sensors. This builds upon my previous post here that details using Powershell to get environmental information and put it in Power BI.  Essentially the major change is to use a TimerTrigger Azure Function to perform the work and leverage the “serverless” Azure Functions model. No need for a reporting server or messing around with Windows scheduled tasks.

Prerequisites

The following are the prerequisites for this solution;

  • The Power BI Powershell Module
  • Register an application for RestAPI Access to Power BI
  • A Power BI Dataset ready for the data to go into
  • AzureADPreview Powershell Module

Create a folder on your local machine for the Powershell Modules then save the modules to your local machine using the powershell command ‘Save-Module” as per below.

Save-Module -Name PowerBIPS -Path C:\temp\PowerBI
Save-Module -Name AzureADPreview -Path c:\temp\AzureAD 

Create a Function App Plan

If you don’t already have a Function App Plan create one by searching for Function App in the Azure Management Portal. Give it a Name, Select Consumption Plan for the Hosting Plan so you only pay for what you use, and select an appropriate location and Storage Account.

Register a Power BI Application

Register a Power BI App if you haven’t already using the link and instructions in the prerequisites. Take a note of the ClientID. You’ll need this in the next step.

Configure Azure Function App Application Settings

In this example I’m using Azure Functions Application Settings for the Azure AD AccountName, Password and the Power BI ClientID. In your Azure Function App select “Configure app settings”. Create new App Settings for your UserID and Password for Azure (to access Power BI) and our PowerBI Application Client ID. Select Save.

Not shown here I’ve also placed the URL’s for the RestAPI’s that I’m calling to get the IoT environment data as Application Settings variables.

Create a Timer Trigger Azure Function App

Create a new TimerTrigger Azure Powershell Function App. The default of a 5 min schedule should be perfect. Give it a name and select Create.

Upload the Powershell Modules to the Azure Function App

Now that we have created the base of our Function App we’re going to need to upload the Powershell Modules we’ll be using that are detailed in the prerequisites. In order to upload them to your Azure Function App, go to App Service Settings => Deployment Credentials and set a Username and Password as shown below. Select Save.

Take note of your Deployment Username and FTP Hostname.

Create a sub-directory under your Function App named bin and upload the Power BI Powershell Module using a FTP Client. I’m using WinSCP.

To make sure you get the correct path to the powershell module from Application Settings start Kudu.

Traverse the folder structure to get the path to the Power BI Powershell Module and note the path and the name of the psm1 file.

Now upload the Azure AD Preview Powershell Module in the same way as you did the Power BI Powershell Module.

Again using Kudu validate the path to the Azure AD Preview Powershell Module. The file you are looking for is the “Microsoft.IdentityModel.Clients.ActiveDirectory.dll” file. My file after uploading is located in “D:\home\site\wwwroot\MyAzureFunction\bin\AzureADPreview\2.0.0.33\Microsoft.IdentityModel.Clients.ActiveDirectory.dll”

This library is used by the Power BI Powershell Module.

Validating our Function App Environment

Update the code to replace the sample from the creation of the Trigger Azure Function as shown below to import the Power BI Powershell Module. Include the get-help line for the module so we can see in the logs that the modules were imported and we can see the cmdlets they contain. Select Save and Run.

Below is my output. I can see the output from the Power BI Module get-help command. I can see that the module was successfully loaded.

Function Application Script

Below is my sample script. It has no error handling etc so isn’t production ready, but gives a working example of getting data in from an API (in this case IoT sensors) and puts the data directly into Power BI.

Viewing the data in Power BI

In Power BI it is then quick and easy to select our Inside and Outside temperature readings referenced against time. This timescale is overnight so both sensors are reading quite close to each other.

Summary

This shows how easy it is to utilise Powershell and Azure Function Apps to get data and transform it for use in other ways. In this example a visualization of IoT data into Power BI. The input could easily be business data from an API and the output a real time reporting dashboard.

Follow Darren on Twitter @darrenjrobinson