Azure Logic Apps is Microsoft's premier cloud-based workflow engine. Azure Logic Apps allows enterprises to connect disparate systems using Microsoft's built-in connectors or the enterprise's own cloud-hosted APIs. Like some integration services in Azure, Logic Apps can run both in the cloud as a shared resource and within an enterprise's own Azure virtual network as a dedicated resource. Logic Apps supports both consumption-based and fixed pricing plans.

The following screenshot shows how, in a couple of minutes, you can build a traffic monitoring solution using a Bing connector with a Logic Apps webhook trigger and send an SMS whenever there is a large amount of traffic in your navigation path:

Azure Logic Apps is an event-based workflow engine. In order to build enterprise-grade and highly scalable integration solutions, Logic Apps has connectors for most common Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) products, such as Dynamics, Salesforce, and Office 365. It also supports and easily connects with other serverless platforms, such as Azure Functions, Azure Automation accounts, Azure Data Factory, Event Grid, Event Hub, and more.

Some common scenarios in which we might use Azure Logic Apps are listed here:

• An enterprise is moving to the cloud on a consumption-based pricing model. In this process, organizations make a shift toward a granular integration design, instead of having monolithic integration software that acts as a backbone for connection software.
• To take advantage of cloud innovation, organizations are moving to hybrid design patterns where services and software are scattered across multiple regions and data centers. Azure Logic Apps helps organizations to connect and use existing infrastructure and the data available behind an enterprise's own firewall.
• Azure Logic Apps provides an easy-to-learn platform with a simplified workflow engine. Most enterprises find using Logic Apps very easy compared to using more primitive integration software. This helps organizations make quick changes to their integration and their business processes according to market trends and requirements.
• With the shift toward microservices and the agile development methodology, Azure Logic Apps dominates the market with its robust workflow design and the ease with which we can create and update new and existing integration designs and patterns.
• Azure Logic Apps can run within an enterprise's own virtual network (integration service environment) or as a shared resource in the cloud. This is another great capability of Azure Logic Apps, which helps organizations choose the right option for its integration framework.
• For developers, Logic Apps can be built through the Azure portal or through an integrated development environment (IDE) of the developer's choice, such as Visual Studio Code or Microsoft Visual Studio. This makes it easy for any developer get started without having to think about setting up a new development environment only for integration resources.
• Azure Logic Apps has great support for DevOps through the workflow template. This helps organizations create continuous integration and deployment pipelines with ease, meaning they can smoothly switch over to multiple regions on the fly without making any code or workflow changes.

To find out more about how Azure Logic Apps fits your organization, check out the Microsoft Logic Apps learning site at https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/azure/logic-apps/.

With the introduction of the Logic Apps workflow, enterprise applications can now use cloud infrastructure to build their integration frameworks and automate business workflows using Logic Apps. With minimal coding skills required, it is very easy for a developer to start working with the Logic Apps workflow and the various connected services. In this chapter, we will describe various key components and best practices that can be followed when building an integration solution on top of Azure Logic Apps. 

In this chapter, we will cover the following topics:

• Components of Azure Logic Apps
• An overview of Logic Apps triggers
• Actions in Logic Apps
• Parameters in the Logic Apps workflow template
• Outputs in the Logic Apps workflow template
• Debatching in Logic Apps with the splitOn property and the Azure Functions change feed with Cosmos DB
• Concurrency control and singleton patterns in Logic Apps with schema validation