Sunday, 7 February 2010 14:36 by
SyntaxC4I am currently in the middle of creating a Presentations on Windows Azure. Included in this presentation is how to interact with Windows Azure Storage Services using the Managed Storage API.
While creating a class to manage connections to my Storage Service, I was writing a method to add some data to Table Storage. I had imported Microsoft.WindowsAzure.StorageClient, which is the namespace in which the Managed Storage API exists, that exposed only a few methods of the TableServiceContext class. After looking around MSDN it seems that the TableServiceContext class is dependant on the System.Data.Services.Client. The System.Data.Services.Client namespace is responsible for the majority of the functionality of the TableServiceContext class.
Add a reference to the System.Data.Services.Client namespace to your Project, when you are trying to use the Table functionality of Microsoft.WindowsAzure.StorageClient class.
Happy Coding!
Wednesday, 3 February 2010 20:56 by
SyntaxC4First off I’d like to apologize for the lack of Posts during the month of January. Things got quite busy and I couldn’t dedicate any time towards posting on my blog, but I would like to know that I have been thinking about blogging and have been a little bit anxious because I haven’t been blogging. I would however like to let you know that I will be taking a break from freelancing work to focus and blogging again for the next few months.
What you’ve missed
Just to catch you up on what’s been going on in my world.
Leaving RKD
After a short three months I decided to move on from my role at RKD Web Studios. I had a great time getting to know the staff, and really enjoyed the environment. It just didn’t feel like a proper fit within my career goals. Thank you very much guys for being extremely welcoming, and very understanding.
Starting at Innosphere
I left my position at RKD to pursue a career with Innosphere Systems Development Group. Innosphere is an outsourced software provider, they can provide developers to increase the size of your team, provide software testing or QA for a project, or take on a complete project depending on your needs. I am working on site at a clients office re-building an existing php application to an asp.net code-base.
If you haven’t already noticed I am quite focused on Windows Azure. I’ve been doing a lot of reading, even thought I haven’t been able to blog about it. Make sure you keep checking out my blog in the coming weeks/months as I will be starting back into a regular schedule of blogs on everything Azure. Here are a few things i’ll be blogging about:
- Windows Identity Foundation (WIF)
- Interoperability in Windows Azure (PHP, Ruby, Python, etc..)
- SQL Azure
- Codename “Dallas”
If you want to see me present on Windows Azure you will be able to find me at the following events:
Community
Guelph Coffee and Code has been going very well. On March 4th we will be celebrating our One Year Anniversary. There has been many ups and downs as you will experience with any social group, but I am confident in it’s purpose and hope to see the group grow more in the coming months.
At Canada’s Technology Triangle Dot Net User Group, I am still the speaker coordinator, and am looking for speakers for the coming months. If you’re interested in speaking on the last Wednesday of March, April, or May, please Contact me.
Is your application compatible with Windows® 7 and Windows Server® 2008 R2? Register and green light it before February 28, 2010, and you’ll automatically be entered in our Get the Green Light contest for a chance to win $7,000 or 1 of 5 Netbooks! Plus, you’ll get exclusive access to Partner benefits.
New Windows 7 features like Taskbar Progress and Taskbar menus are extremely useful. It’s one of the most helpful new features of Windows 7 (besides the Window Docking, which just ROCKS!), so you should be sure to build this functionality into your new applications that are getting targeted on the Windows Platform.
Volunteering
Last year I decided to give some of my time to help out at a Volunteering Event involving High School students from around Guelph. This year I’ve decided to join the Student Volunteer Engagement Committee. I am the Community Volunteer on the Committee and hope that giving a small amount of my time will make a big impact on Students around the Guelph and Wellington District. I hope to encourage youth to get actively involved in the community and volunteer their time towards a better tomorrow.
I’ll be helping to Organize, and will be taking photos at this years Ontario Youth Challenge!
The Challenge is three weeks long this year starting the week of National Volunteer Week. There will be a day long event on a Saturday during the challenge that will allow students to volunteer at a non-profit organization in Guelph. All hours are part of the Ontario Government 40 Volunteer hour legislation.
I’m glad we’ve had the opportunity to catch up, I look forward to putting out some worth while content soon, so be sure to check back!
Until then, Happy Coding!
Cory Fowler
Wednesday, 6 January 2010 16:45 by
SyntaxC4A new year is upon us, and things are starting to get back into full swing. Guelph Coffee and Code will be meeting tomorrow for the first time this year but I couldn’t wait to give an update on the things that are happening in our group.
Telerik creators of productivity tools for the .NET Platform,
including my new favorite code analysis and refactoring tool JustCode, will be sponsoring Guelph Coffee and Code. Telerik will be providing us with some swag to give away at some meetings, and they would like to help get our own website [GuelphCoffeeAndCode.org] up and running using their product Sitefinity .NET CMS.
If you haven’t been out to Guelph Coffee and Code it’s never too late to start coming out, be sure to check out the Coffee and Code Website for details of each event. Pizza is provided to group members by Microsoft Canada.
If you would like to help out Guelph Coffee and Code and become a sponsor contact me or find me on twitter @SyntaxC4.
I’d like to thank Microsoft Canada, Telerik, Synn Studios and all of the members of Guelph Coffee and Code for making this community event possible. I’d also like to give credit to Joey deVilla for inventing the Coffee and Code event.
Thursday, 31 December 2009 08:28 by
SyntaxC4I’ve been looking at different aspects of Windows Azure over the past few months, and have been having a lot of fun getting a grip on Cloud Computing and Microsoft's Cloud Computing Platform. One of my past posts gives a step-by-step tutorial on how to connect to SQL Azure using Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 (November CTP). If you haven’t already done so I would suggest reading Making Data Rain Down from the Cloud with SQL Azure to follow along with this tutorial.
Book Details
- By Tejaswi Redkar
- ISBN13: 9781430224792
- ISBN10: 1430224797
- 624 pp.
- Pub Date: 2009-12-29
- eBook Price: $31.49
I received an email a few days ago from Apress Books suggesting me the book to the left due to my previous purchase of Introducing Windows Azure. Both books cover the Windows Azure Storage Services API, and SQL Azure. The Introducing Windows Azure book covers Azure .NET Services, which was renamed to the AppFabric Services which is covered in Windows Azure Platform. This name change was announced during the first keynote [View Keynote] of PDC 2009. Along with Codename "Dallas" [Data as a Service], Microsoft Pinpoint Marketplace.
Codename Dallas is built on top of Windows Azure and SQL Azure. Dallas will supply developers with Data as a Service, as part of the Open Data Movement in the United States. If this doesn’t get you excited about Microsoft’s Cloud Computing Platform, I’m not sure what will. To ensure that you can develop on the cloud and use the SQL Azure Database Platform to your advantage read forward as I’ll be showing you how to Migrate a database to the cloud with SQL Azure Data Sync, which is an extension of the Microsoft Sync Framework.
To begin you will have to download the Microsoft Sync Framework 2.0 Software Development Kit (SDK) and the Microsoft Sync Framework Power Pack for SQL Azure November CTP (32-bit) and if you don’t already have a SQL Azure Account you can get one here at the SQL Azure Data Sync Developer Quick Start page.
Once you have your SQL Azure Account, you will need to provision a new database in the cloud and change the firewall settings so the local computer can connect to and modify the database. These steps are provided in Making Data Rain Down from the Cloud with SQL Azure. Now that we’ve got our SQL Azure firewall database set up we’re ready to sync a local database into the cloud.
When you first fire up SQL Azure Data Sync you will see this Introduction screen. [Hopefully future releases of this tool will allow you to check a box to skip this screen, like other SQL Server Tools.]
Hitting next on the Introduction screen will take you to the SQL Azure configuration screen where you will need to enter the details for your SQL Azure Account. For this step you will need to login to your SQL Azure account to figure out what server your database server is hosted on. Fill out the database information required, like you see below.
A good thing to note here is that this database should not be created in the cloud already, the data sync tool will be creating the database from the local instance you will be setting the details up for in the next step. So lets click next and enter the information for our local Database.
Once you have both databases configured [and tested] you’re ready to select the tables you wish to synchronize or create in the cloud database.
Due to the fact Relational Databases have Foreign Keys to link data from one table to the next you may need to synchronize the database in a particular order to maintain data integrity. If you have data in your tables and your tables are related to one another be sure to place the Primary Key table, before the Foreign Key table. Here is the screen that will allow you to order your tables in order they should be synchronized.
After you have reorganized the order in which your tables are to be synchronized, you will be shuffled off to a Summary page. This page outlines the Database Server, and asks if it is to create a 1GB Database, or a 10GB Database in the cloud.
After Reviewing the information and selecting the database size that should be created. Click on the Process button to Copy the local Microsoft SQL Server database to SQL Azure.
Once this process is complete the Microsoft SQL Server has been created on the specified SQL Azure Database server. The Synchronization is carried out by SQL Server Agent, be sure to copy down the Job name from the Finish Setup screen.
You may need to Configure SQL Server Agent before the first time the Synchronization is run.
SQL Azure Data Sync is a great way to deploy your current databases into the cloud. You can use the cloud as a method of backing up your current infrastructure or you can start expanding into the cloud as a more economical solution of expanding your current data centers. As we count down to the New Year it seems fitting to think about moving into the future of Technology. Happy New Years!
Wednesday, 23 December 2009 18:06 by
SyntaxC4During the Development Cycle it is necessary to connect to a database to ensure that your data is getting stored in Windows Azure Storage Services. Microsoft was nice enough to give us this functionality out of the box so we don’t actually need a Windows Azure account before beginning development on an application. Of course you will need to Initialize your Development Storage Service on your development machine before you get going. Once you’re done setting up the Development Storage Service you will need to configure the Development Storage in the ServiceConfiguration.cscfg file. You will need to add the following ConfigurationSettings to each Role element in the ServiceConfiguration.cscfg [Please note that these are default values and may be subject to change].
1: <ConfigurationSettings>
2: <Setting name="DiagnosticsConnectionString"
value="UseDevelopmentStorage=true" />
3: <Setting name="AccountName" value="devstoreaccount1" />
4: <Setting name="AccountSharedKey"
value="Eby8vdM02xNOcqFlqUwJPLlmEtlCDXJ1OUzFT50uSRZ6IFsu
Fq2UVErCz4I6tq/K1SZFPTOtr/KBHBeksoGMGw==" />
5: <Setting name="BlobStorageEndpoint" value="http://127.0.0.1:1000" />
6: <Setting name="QueueStorageEndpoint" value="http://127.0.0.1:1001" />
7: <Setting name="TableStorageEndpoint" value="http://127.0.0.1:1002"/>
8: </ConfigurationSettings>
Once you have these configuration settings in place you will be ready to interact with the Windows Azure Development Storage Service on your Development Machine. Stay tuned for my next blog Series which will describe the different between Blob Storage, Queue Storage, and Table Storage and how you will go about interacting with the different storage spaces.
For more information please refer to: