How do I test the Azure Webjobs SDK projects locally?

Question

I want to be able to test an Azure WebJobs SDK project locally, before I actually publish it to Azure.

If I make a brand new Azure Web Jobs Project, I get some code that looks like this:

Program.cs:

// To learn more about Microsoft Azure WebJobs SDK, please see http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=320976
class Program
{
    // Please set the following connection strings in app.config for this WebJob to run:
    // AzureWebJobsDashboard and AzureWebJobsStorage
    static void Main()
    {
        var host = new JobHost();
        // The following code ensures that the WebJob will be running continuously
        host.RunAndBlock();
    }
}

Functions.cs:

public class Functions
{
    // This function will get triggered/executed when a new message is written 
    // on an Azure Queue called queue.
    public static void ProcessQueueMessage([QueueTrigger("queue")] string message, TextWriter log)
    {
        log.WriteLine(message);
    }
}

I would like to get around to testing whether or not the QueueTrigger function is working properly, but I can't even get that far, because on host.RunAndBlock(); I get the following exception:

An unhandled exception of type 'System.InvalidOperationException' occurred in mscorlib.dll

Additional information: Microsoft Azure WebJobs SDK Dashboard connection string is missing or empty. The Microsoft Azure Storage account connection string can be set in the following ways:

Set the connection string named 'AzureWebJobsDashboard' in the connectionStrings section of the .config file in the following format , or

Set the environment variable named 'AzureWebJobsDashboard', or

Set corresponding property of JobHostConfiguration.

I ran the storage emulator, and set the Azure AzureWebJobsDashboard connection string like so:

<add name="AzureWebJobsDashboard" connectionString="UseDevelopmentStorage=true" />

but, when I did that, I'm getting a different error

An unhandled exception of type 'System.InvalidOperationException' occurred in mscorlib.dll

Additional information: Failed to validate Microsoft Azure WebJobs SDK Dashboard account. The Microsoft Azure Storage Emulator is not supported, please use a Microsoft Azure Storage account hosted in Microsoft Azure.

Is there any way to test my use of the WebJobs SDK locally?

chadwackerman chadwackerman · Accepted Answer · 2016-11-26T18:43:55

WebJobs 2.0 now works using development storage (I'm using v2.0.0-beta2).

Note that latency in general and Blob triggers in particular are currently far better than you can get in production. Design with care.

How do I test the Azure Webjobs SDK projects locally?

2 Answers