Seems that one thing that folks don’t seem to see right away is that you can manage a list of custom Service Bus namespace connection strings right in the tool. Service Bus Explorer has a nice feature that allows you to pick from a master list of commonly used Service Bus namespace connection strings when you want to issue a connect request. Simply add your namespace connection strings to the <ServiceBusNamespaces> section of the App.Config file of Service Bus Explore prior to building the code and those namespaces will appear in the Service Bus Namespaces combo box next time you run it and ask to connect.
Here’s what a <ServiceBusNamespaces> section might look like look like with fake SharedAccessKey tokens:
<ServiceBusNamespaces>
<add key="my-dev-ns" value="Endpoint=sb://my-dev.servicebus.windows.net/;SharedAccessKeyName=RootManageSharedAccessKey;
SharedAccessKey=**tokens? get your tokens**" />
<add key="my-tst-ns" value="Endpoint=sb://my-tst.servicebus.windows.net/;SharedAccessKeyName=RootManageSharedAccessKey;
SharedAccessKey =**tokens? we don’t need no stinking tokens**" />
<add key="my-uat-ns" value="Endpoint=sb://my-uat.servicebus.windows.net/;SharedAccessKeyName=RootManageSharedAccessKey;
SharedAccessKey=**what’s a token?**" />
</ServiceBusNamespaces>
I typically remove the stock namespace connection strings that came built into the tool to avoid the clutter. Here’s what it looks like in the Service Bus Explorer connection dialog after you’ve build the tool with the connection strings above configured:
I think you’ll get a lot out of Service Bus Explorer if you’re leveraging Azure queuing entities like message queues, topics and subscriptions. It’s a great tool for managing, monitoring and debugging those entities.
Note the following:
- The Service Bus Explorer download comes with both version 2.1 and version 2.3. You’ll want to use version 2.3. Version 2.1 is for connecting to on-premise service bus entities.
- You’ll need to use Service Bus Namespaces that have Manage authority in order to do anything meaningful in the tool.
Nice tip Kyle! Have you tried modifying the source code? I’d like to see them put it on GitHub so the community can improve it.
No I have not tried modifying the code, though I have inspected it on occasion to see its inner workings.
Funny you mention GitHub, according to the download link I provided in the post:
GitHub
The source code of the tool is now available on GitHub at https://github.com/paolosalvatori/ServiceBusExplorer as a public project. Now you have the opportunity to contribute to the evolution of the tool!
You mean this: https://github.com/paolosalvatori/ServiceBusExplorer
🙂
Not the first time I’ve been wrong! I first found out about SBE explorer for the first time about a year ago when I worked with Kyle. it looks like Paolo’s initial commit was last September. But I should have checked first. Thanks for noticing MS
Hello,
I have installed one ServiceBus and I want to configure Service Bus Explorer to manage it. The URI and the namespace i have it but, how or where i can get the “Shared Secret Issuer Name” and “Shared Secret Issuer Secret”?
Thanks!
The this information is available from your Azure Admin Portal. Log into your portal and navigate to the Service Bus tab from the list of tabs on the left hand side of the portal home page. From there click your service bus entry in the list that appears to the right. This should bring up the Quick Start page for your service bus. The second section on that page is Management Tasks where you’ll find a link for Manage Connection Strings. There you’ll find the SAS tokens and potentially the ACS tokens for your namespace if you’ve created any. Find the SAS token connection string you’re interested in and hover your mouse pointer on that row just under the magnifying class. This will enable a link button for copying that information to your clipboard. Click that button to copy the connection string and then paste that information into your Service Bus Explorer connection string entry, save the config file and your all set.
FYI, If you’ve turned off the Quick Start page on your Azure portal then you’ll need to navigate to the Configure located at the top of the page and copy the tokens from there.
BTW, you can find namespace connection string information in multiple places within the Azure Admin Portal. It depends on the granularity that you are managing authorization to your Service Bus entities. This is just one example directing you to the root namespace connection string.
Thanks for the question, Juanjock. Kyle’s response is below:
This information is available from your Azure Admin Portal. Log into your portal and navigate to the Service Bus tab from the list of tabs on the left hand side of the portal home page. From there click your service bus entry in the list that appears to the right. This should bring up the Quick Start page for your service bus. The second section on that page is Management Tasks where you’ll find a link for Manage Connection Strings. There you’ll find the SAS tokens and potentially the ACS tokens for your namespace if you’ve created any. Find the SAS token connection string you’re interested in and hover your mouse pointer on that row just under the magnifying class. This will enable a link button for copying that information to your clipboard. Click that button to copy the connection string and then paste that information into your Service Bus Explorer connection string entry, save the config file and your all set.
FYI, If you’ve turned off the Quick Start page on your Azure portal then you’ll need to navigate to the Configure located at the top of the page and copy the tokens from there.
BTW, you can find namespace connection string information in multiple places within the Azure Admin Portal. It depends on the granularity that you are managing authorization to your Service Bus entities. This is just one example directing you to the root namespace connection string.