https://chlee.co/Recent content on C LeeHugo -- gohugo.ioen-usMon, 26 Feb 2024 22:21:31 +0000https://chlee.co/how-to-setup-a-fixed-ip-address-in-aws/Fri, 22 Apr 2022 10:56:43 +0000https://chlee.co/how-to-setup-a-fixed-ip-address-in-aws/Steps below outline how to create a proxy server using TinyProxy with a fixed IP address on a port of 9898. Intro This guide illustrates how to setup TinyProxy on a AWS EC2 Instance, which is useful for having a fixed IP address if needed to proxy though say AWS lambda apps. Create an EC2 Instance Go to on to the EC2 area within AWS Console. Click on “Launch Instances” button.https://chlee.co/how-to-host-multiple-ghost-blogs-in-one-server-machine-for-just-5-dollars-a-month/Mon, 17 May 2021 20:03:00 +0000https://chlee.co/how-to-host-multiple-ghost-blogs-in-one-server-machine-for-just-5-dollars-a-month/Intro Following on from my previous blog posts How to setup a Linux machine with Docker on DigitalOcean for $5 and Getting started with Traefik as an alternative and easy to use reverse proxy. This is a follow up on how it’s possible to host multiple Ghost blogs under one machine. And yes, you can have multiple domain names. All pointing to a single machine. This is all achievable with Traefik and Docker.https://chlee.co/how-to-upgrade-your-mac-terminal-for-developers/Mon, 29 Mar 2021 06:00:00 +0000https://chlee.co/how-to-upgrade-your-mac-terminal-for-developers/Upgrade your standard Mac terminal from something like this: To something like this: What you see above are handy git branch names and indicators letting you know how many files are changed and more! Not only that, but it makes it look way cooler. Install Oh My Zsh and powerlevel10k Oh My Zsh is an open-source, community driven library/framework for managing zsh which is a shell for Mac or Linux.https://chlee.co/how-to-setup-environment-variables-for-windows-mac-and-linux/Tue, 09 Mar 2021 08:00:00 +0000https://chlee.co/how-to-setup-environment-variables-for-windows-mac-and-linux/Intro In this quick post, I’ll cover how to setup environment variables for your Windows and Mac machines. For those Linux users out there, fortunately, it’s pretty identical to setting them up using the Mac instructions below. Setting up environment variables for Windows Launch Environment Variables in Windows. Click on the Windows icon start menu and start typing ’environment variables’ in the search box. You should see search result such as “Edit the system variables”.https://chlee.co/how-to-get-started-with-postgresql-using-docker/Fri, 04 Dec 2020 08:00:00 +0000https://chlee.co/how-to-get-started-with-postgresql-using-docker/In my previous blog post on how to get started and install postgresql on windows, well for those on Mac or Linux users or for those who want a much quicker way of getting PostgreSQL up and running, there is another way! This will be a short blog post on how to use Docker and specifically Docker Compose to have PostgreSQL up and running in minutes. This is ideal for local development and especially much easier for onboarding developers on the team as they may not have PostgreSQL installed and its just a case of adding this simple instruction and a docker compose file which I will go through next.https://chlee.co/how-to-get-started-and-install-postgresql-on-windows/Tue, 24 Nov 2020 09:00:00 +0000https://chlee.co/how-to-get-started-and-install-postgresql-on-windows/This going to be a quick guide for beginners as well as advanced users to get started and installing PostgreSQL aimed at Window users. Installing PostgreSQL First, download PostgreSQL for Windows. Be sure to pick the PostgreSQL version you would like. Run the downloaded installer and follow the wizard steps. During the setup, you will be prompted with a few steps. 1. Installation directory Keep this as default unless you want to install it elsewhere.https://chlee.co/should-i-learn-react-angular-or-vuejs-which-is-better/Mon, 16 Nov 2020 09:00:00 +0000https://chlee.co/should-i-learn-react-angular-or-vuejs-which-is-better/Having picked up various JS frameworks in the past, going through the dilemma of which one “is the best” can be difficult and not so obvious. The difficulty in choice can be factors such as learning curve, popularity, and one important factor is longevity. I’ve had a wonderful time (and you may have done the same) of learning Knockout.js and AngularJS, only to discover that they are superseded by another “better” and “popular” framework in just a year or so.https://chlee.co/10-free-clean-and-modern-ghost-themes-2020/Wed, 19 Aug 2020 17:00:00 +0000https://chlee.co/10-free-clean-and-modern-ghost-themes-2020/So, if you’re a Ghost fan or have a Ghost blog, and looking for some free Ghost themes, this blog post may be of some help to you. Below are a list of free Ghost themes I have gathered in my time searching and scouring the inter-webs. Oh, and if you’re new to Ghost themes and wonder how to install them, feel free to checkout my other blog post: How to download and install a ghost themehttps://chlee.co/how-to-download-and-install-a-ghost-theme/Mon, 17 Aug 2020 19:56:07 +0000https://chlee.co/how-to-download-and-install-a-ghost-theme/So this took me a moment to figure out as it’s not that obvious. Well, not obvious to me. Some themes have dedicated download links or pages and have instructions on how to install them. Which is great. Others assume you know what you are doing. For reference, I have written a few steps on how. The steps below are manual and don’t require any particular coding skills and no scary command line executions.https://chlee.co/how-to-manage-multiple-git-profiles-for-both-mac-and-windows/Fri, 22 May 2020 06:00:00 +0000https://chlee.co/how-to-manage-multiple-git-profiles-for-both-mac-and-windows/There may come a point in your life where you will have to manage multiple git profiles, one for work and one for personal reasons. You will only encounter this problem if you say you have your personal projects and work projects with the same Git hosting, commonly GitHub. But the same applies to GitLab or Bitbucket or for any other hosting companies. If this is the case, then it can be a bit of a nightmare when it comes to swapping credentials depending on the repository.https://chlee.co/how-to-insert-and-query-documents-into-azure-search/Thu, 16 Apr 2020 07:00:00 +0000https://chlee.co/how-to-insert-and-query-documents-into-azure-search/In this post, I’m going to share how you can insert data via the C# SDK library provided by Microsoft and also for those who are not using C# or with a .NET background, good old raw HTTP methods. In my previous post Getting started with Azure Search, I talked about inserting data into a search index using Data Sources and Indexers. This is more of a pull model, as we are pulling data from a data source into an index.https://chlee.co/getting-started-with-azure-search/Tue, 03 Mar 2020 08:00:00 +0000https://chlee.co/getting-started-with-azure-search/If you have any search background experience such as Lucene or Elastic Search, you will most likely be able to relate to how Azure Search works and the components that are provided to enable you to create a search service. However, if you have not, fear not, it is not a pre-requisite, it just gives you a little head start. Main components of Azure Search Azure Search is made up of 3 main parts.https://chlee.co/bulk-insert-json-documents-into-azure-cosmos-db/Thu, 06 Feb 2020 08:00:00 +0000https://chlee.co/bulk-insert-json-documents-into-azure-cosmos-db/This is going to be a quick post, but I just wanted to share how you can do a one time bulk import to a Azure Cosmos DB if you have a json file that contains all your documents. You don’t need to install any software and this option is available in the Azure Portal as well as the local Azure Cosmos emulator portal. Log into the Azure Portal https://portal.azure.com or use your local Azure Portal https://localhost:8081/_explorer/index.https://chlee.co/azure-cosmos-emulator-installer-is-not-responding-resolved/Tue, 04 Feb 2020 08:00:00 +0000https://chlee.co/azure-cosmos-emulator-installer-is-not-responding-resolved/If you have ever attempted to download the Azure Cosmos Emulator msi 2.7.2 or later from Microsoft but have come across an error which says: “Installer is no longer responding.” Something like this: You are not alone. You may not actually get this error immediately. In fact, for me, I only saw this dialog about 20 minutes after I double-clicked the msi installer. You may also noticed a text file in the same location of the installer with an error log such as this:https://chlee.co/how-to-add-application-insights-into-an-asp-net-core-web-and-console-app/Thu, 05 Dec 2019 21:59:38 +0000https://chlee.co/how-to-add-application-insights-into-an-asp-net-core-web-and-console-app/Application Insights is Microsoft Azure’s monitoring offering for not just dotnet apps, but Node.js and Java as well. It can be easily integrated into web based and console based applications as well as mobile apps. Application insights can track and monitor live statistics and metrics such as http requests rates, response times, exceptions and more. Once integrated, there is a wealth of information in the Application Insights section within the Azure Portal.https://chlee.co/getting-started-with-azure-service-bus-with-masstransit/Fri, 25 Oct 2019 06:00:00 +0000https://chlee.co/getting-started-with-azure-service-bus-with-masstransit/MassTransit is a free and open-source library that helps you build message-based applications and services in .NET. At the time of writing, it supports RabbitMQ, Azure Service Bus, and AmazonSqs. MassTransit provides a framework that makes it easy to send and publish messages as well as receiving them. If you’ve ever had to incorporate a messaging system such as RabbitMQ or Azure Service Bus, you may find yourself, like me, writing wrappers or abstractions around it.https://chlee.co/how-to-save-time-writing-unit-and-integration-tests-with-autofixture/Thu, 05 Sep 2019 06:00:00 +0000https://chlee.co/how-to-save-time-writing-unit-and-integration-tests-with-autofixture/Writing Unit and integration tests are generally composed of setting up relevant test data, carrying the actual execution of the test, and finally making assertions. All this can be summarised as the AAA syntax. That is, Arrange, Act, and Assert. With AutoFixture, it can significantly save you time by taking away the tedious part of stubbing and arranging test data. The best way to describe this is to show a traditional test example followed by how it can be replaced with AutoFixture.https://chlee.co/how-to-get-a-visa-for-china-for-residents-in-the-uk/Wed, 21 Aug 2019 06:00:00 +0000https://chlee.co/how-to-get-a-visa-for-china-for-residents-in-the-uk/This guide is primarily aimed at UK Citizens and Europeans living in the UK who are traveling to China and need to obtain a Visa. If, however, you are of a different nationality in the UK, this guide will still be able to help as the process is very similar. This guide is also for those applying for a tourist visa, which the Chinese Visa Application Center refers to this as n “L” type Visa.https://chlee.co/useful-git-commands/Thu, 15 Aug 2019 06:30:00 +0000https://chlee.co/useful-git-commands/Having used Git for a good few years now, over time I have aquired a list of Git commands. Some very frequent and used daily. Other’s not so much. But, on a certain occasion and the “uh-oh” moment, I find them rather useful to get me out of a pickle. So I thought I should share some common Git commands I use. If you’re new to Git, I found Atlassian’s Git a good start and provides a very good foundation and understanding.https://chlee.co/how-to-build-a-simple-slack-crypto-app-tutorial/Mon, 05 Aug 2019 14:00:15 +0000https://chlee.co/how-to-build-a-simple-slack-crypto-app-tutorial/Slack needs little introduction and if you’re familiar or aware, they also have apps within Slack that help you with your workflow and day-to-day tasks. If you can’t find an app from the official Slack App directory, you can always build your own. In this post, I’ll be covering how to build a simple Slack app which get’s the latest crypto prices using a third party API and displaying them in Slack.https://chlee.co/how-to-create-a-sql-server-login-for-microsoft-sql-server/Tue, 23 Apr 2019 06:00:00 +0000https://chlee.co/how-to-create-a-sql-server-login-for-microsoft-sql-server/The most common SQL Server Connection for development environments in .NET are Data Source=localhost; Database=your_test_db; Trusted_Connection=True. Notice the Trusted_Connection is set to True and a username and password is not supplied. This is because it uses Windows Authentication. At times this is not enough, and we need a SQL Server login. This is generally true for other environments such as test and production. Below I breakdown the various SQL commands in order to create a SQL server login and grant necessary access.https://chlee.co/step-by-step-guide-on-how-to-host-and-deploy-an-aspnet-core-app-with-ssl-using-letsencrypt-traefik-and-docker-take-2/Tue, 16 Apr 2019 06:30:00 +0000https://chlee.co/step-by-step-guide-on-how-to-host-and-deploy-an-aspnet-core-app-with-ssl-using-letsencrypt-traefik-and-docker-take-2/In this post I describe how to deploy an ASP.NET Core app that has been dockerized and host it on a Linux machine with SSL enabled for free. This is all possible using Traefik, a reverse proxy and load balancer and its integration with Let’s Encrypt. On Reflection In my previous post, whilst it still holds true, I had to break it down into 3 blog posts. It was rather long.https://chlee.co/how-to-automatically-backup-a-self-hosted-ghost-blog-and-upload-to-aws-s3/Fri, 05 Apr 2019 07:00:00 +0000https://chlee.co/how-to-automatically-backup-a-self-hosted-ghost-blog-and-upload-to-aws-s3/If you have a Ghost blog like myself, self-hosted, and you’re trying to find out how to backup your blog. Well, I might be able to help. Having done some Googling and finding out various approaches I thought I should share and outline the approach I took. Prerequisites A self-hosted Ghost blog on Linux using MySQL. Familiarity with Linux and basic scripting with Bash. Familiarity of Crontab. Not a must, as I will provide a quick intro guide.https://chlee.co/how-to-encrypt-sql-server-using-tde-on-docker/Tue, 26 Mar 2019 09:00:00 +0000https://chlee.co/how-to-encrypt-sql-server-using-tde-on-docker/Summary In my previous post, how to install and host SQL Server on Linux , I described how to install SQL Server using Docker on Linux with just a Docker Compose file. In this post, I explore things a bit further by turning on transparent data encryption (TDE) which addresses how to encrypt SQL at Rest. A brief intro to Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) in SQL Server is a method where it is able to apply encryption at the file level.https://chlee.co/how-to-install-and-host-sql-server-on-linux-with-docker-for-10-dollars-a-month/Thu, 21 Mar 2019 09:00:00 +0000https://chlee.co/how-to-install-and-host-sql-server-on-linux-with-docker-for-10-dollars-a-month/As I’m learning more about Docker, the more I’m starting to love the versility of it. In this post, I will walk through how to launch SQL Server 2017 on a Linux machine using Docker where I’ll be hosting it on DigitalOcean. It’s worth mentioning that Sql Server 2017 does have some pre-requisites: Minimum of 2 GB of disk space. Minimum of 2 GB of RAM. Now, with this mind, the cheapest DigitalOcean droplet that has 2GB of RAM comes in at $10 a month, so thats what I will be using.https://chlee.co/how-to-add-sign-in-with-google-github-slack-and-more-with-aspnetcore/Fri, 15 Mar 2019 09:00:00 +0000https://chlee.co/how-to-add-sign-in-with-google-github-slack-and-more-with-aspnetcore/I’m sure you have come across web and mobile applications where they offer social logins such as Google, Facebook, Twitter and many more. This is great, as its one less sign up and login you have to remember. It also reduces the friction of signing up. It’s especially great if you can incorporate them into your own applications. The main benefit of this is that it lowers the barrier of entry for people registering to use your product or service.https://chlee.co/getting-started-with-traefik-as-an-alternative-and-easy-to-use-reverse-proxy/Mon, 18 Feb 2019 18:00:00 +0000https://chlee.co/getting-started-with-traefik-as-an-alternative-and-easy-to-use-reverse-proxy/After having discovered Traefik accidentally via a simple HN comment from the community, I find it fantastic. It’s a great alternative and relatively simple to use reverse proxy and load balancer. Especially for dockerized web applications. In my previous post I wrote about setting up Nginx as a reverse proxy as well adding SSL with Let’s Encrypt. Whilst that works, and Nginx is a great reverse proxy and it also provides load balancing as well as many other things, I personally found it tricky to configure in Docker.https://chlee.co/how-to-add-ssl-for-free-to-an-asp-net-core-app-using-lets-encrypt-and-nginx/Tue, 05 Feb 2019 09:00:00 +0000https://chlee.co/how-to-add-ssl-for-free-to-an-asp-net-core-app-using-lets-encrypt-and-nginx/In this post, I will talk through how to install Nginx as a reverse proxy and configure SSL for free with the help of Let’s Encrypt and Docker. I will be using DigitalOcean, but any Linux machine with Docker installed will also work. So, What is Nginx reverse proxy? If you have not come across Nginx, it is a web server similar to many other common web servers such as IIS and Apache HTTP server.https://chlee.co/how-to-deploy-and-host-an-aspnetcore-app-on-linux-for-5-dollars-a-month/Tue, 05 Feb 2019 09:00:00 +0000https://chlee.co/how-to-deploy-and-host-an-aspnetcore-app-on-linux-for-5-dollars-a-month/I originally wrote this as a single post to document how I deployed an ASP.NET Core application on DigitalOcean. I also setup a web server using Nginx and setup SSL for free using Lets Encrypt and finally added some basic security with Fail2ban. I soon realised, it became rather large, so I have broken it down into individual sections: How to setup a Linux machine with Docker on DigitalOcean How to deploy and host an ASP.https://chlee.co/how-to-secure-and-protect-nginx-on-linux-with-fail2ban/Tue, 05 Feb 2019 09:00:00 +0000https://chlee.co/how-to-secure-and-protect-nginx-on-linux-with-fail2ban/When I managed to deploy an ASP.NET core app on Linux with Nginx, I noticed a lot of rogue and spam internet traffic in the Nginx logs. Mostly mild hacking attempts and rather a lot of php requests. Its mostly noise, but I wanted a way of banning these ip addresses as they are no good and this is how I came across using Fail2ban. What is Fail2ban? In short, its a tool that scans log files based on a defined regular expression.https://chlee.co/how-to-setup-a-linux-machine-with-docker-on-digitalocean-for-5-dollars/Fri, 28 Dec 2018 18:00:00 +0000https://chlee.co/how-to-setup-a-linux-machine-with-docker-on-digitalocean-for-5-dollars/Learn how to setup a Linux machine with Docker using DigitalOcean with just a few clicks.https://chlee.co/about/Fri, 28 Dec 2018 16:08:39 +0000https://chlee.co/about/I’m Chuen Hing Lee. Sometimes just referred to as Chuen. Born and raised in UK, London. I studied Computer Science way back in 2001 and thats where it all started with me in software engineering. My core skills are in C# .NET and recently taken up NodeJS. I enjoy software development, building products and learning new tech skills.https://chlee.co/docker-for-beginners/Mon, 22 Oct 2018 07:00:00 +0000https://chlee.co/docker-for-beginners/An intro into docker files, docker build, docker run whats the difference and how they all come together with docker composehttps://chlee.co/getting-started-with-docker-on-windows/Sun, 23 Sep 2018 15:46:18 +0000https://chlee.co/getting-started-with-docker-on-windows/Docker has come a long way since I first came across it in 2015, and now that Microsoft have lot’s of support and with the addition of in-built docker tools in Visual Studio, I thought it was time for me to pick up it up. What is Docker in simple terms? My interpretation of Docker in a nutshell is: Docker is a tool that allows you to build, package and deploy your applications.https://chlee.co/projects/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://chlee.co/projects/OfficeMixer A simple boooking app for those who teams and organisations that need to keep track of who is going into the office. Linq Examples Over 70 examples of Linq examples for all C# levels. GitAgent Slack merge request reminders for GitLab. statusmonitor All in one dashboard and Slack notifications for monitoring status pages.