Windows
Azure Mobile Services makes it incredibly easy to connect a scalable cloud
backend to your client and mobile applications. It allows you to easily
store structured data in the cloud that can span both devices and users,
integrate it with user authentication, as well as send out updates to clients
via push notifications.
Today’s
release enables you to add these capabilities to any Windows 8 app in literally
minutes, and provides a super productive way for you to quickly build out your
app ideas. We’ll also be adding support to enable these same scenarios
for Windows Phone, iOS, and Android devices soon.
Read
this getting started tutorial to walkthrough how you can build
(in less than 5 minutes) a simple Windows 8 “Todo List” app that is cloud
enabled using Windows Azure Mobile Services. Or watch this video
of me showing how to do it step by step.
Getting Started
If
you don’t already have a Windows Azure account, you can sign up for a
no-obligation Free Trial. Once you are signed-up, click the
“preview features” section under the “account” tab of the www.windowsazure.com
website and enable your account to support the “Mobile Services”
preview. Instructions on how to enable this can be found here.
Once
you have the mobile services preview enabled, log into the Windows Azure
Portal, click the “New” button and choose the new “Mobile Services” icon to
create your first mobile backend. Once created, you’ll see a quick-start
page like below with instructions on how to connect your mobile service to an
existing Windows 8 client app you have already started working on, or how to
create and connect a brand-new Windows 8 client app with it:
Read
this getting started tutorial to walkthrough how you can build
(in less than 5 minutes) a simple Windows 8 “Todo List” app that stores
data in Windows Azure.
Storing Data in the Cloud
Storing
data in the cloud with Windows Azure Mobile Services is incredibly easy.
When you create a Windows Azure Mobile Service, we automatically associate it
with a SQL Database inside Windows Azure. The Windows Azure Mobile
Service backend then provides built-in support for enabling remote apps to
securely store and retrieve data from it (using secure REST end-points
utilizing a JSON-based ODATA format) – without you having to write or deploy
any custom server code. Built-in management support is provided within
the Windows Azure portal for creating new tables, browsing data, setting
indexes, and controlling access permissions.
Below
is an example of client-side
Windows 8 C#/XAML code that could be used to query data from a Windows Azure
Mobile Service. Client-side C# developers can write queries like this
using LINQ and strongly typed POCO objects, which are then translated into HTTP
REST queries that run against a Windows Azure Mobile Service.
Developers don’t have to write or deploy any custom server-side code in order
to enable client-side code below to execute and asynchronously populate their
client UI:
Because
Mobile Services is part of Windows Azure, developers can later choose to
augment or extend their initial solution and add custom server functionality
and more advanced logic if they want. This provides maximum flexibility,
and enables developers to grow and extend their solutions to meet any needs.
User Authentication and Push Notifications
Windows
Azure Mobile Services also make it incredibly easy to integrate user
authentication/authorization and push notifications within your
applications. You can use these capabilities to enable authentication and
fine grain access control permissions to the data you store in the cloud, as
well as to trigger push notifications to users/devices when the data
changes. Windows Azure Mobile Services supports the concept of “server
scripts” (small chunks of server-side script that executes in response to
actions) that make it really easy to enable these scenarios.
Below
are some tutorials that walkthrough common authentication/authorization/push
scenarios you can do with Windows Azure Mobile Services and Windows 8 apps:
- Enabling User Authentication
- Authorizing Users
- Get Started with Push Notifications
- Push Notifications to multiple Users
Manage and Monitor your Mobile Service
Just
like with every other service in Windows Azure, you can monitor usage and
metrics of your mobile service backend using the “Dashboard” tab within the
Windows Azure Portal.
The
dashboard tab provides a built-in monitoring view of the API calls, Bandwidth,
and server CPU cycles of your Windows Azure Mobile Service. You can
also use the “Logs” tab within the portal to review error messages. This
makes it easy to monitor and track how your application is doing.
Scale Up as Your Business Grows
Windows
Azure Mobile Services now allows every Windows Azure customer to create and run
up to 10 Mobile Services in a free, shared/multi-tenant hosting environment
(where your mobile backend will be one of multiple apps running on a shared set
of server resources). This provides an easy way to get started on
projects at no cost beyond the database you connect your Windows Azure Mobile
Service to (note: each Windows Azure free trial account also includes a 1GB SQL
Database that you can use with any number of apps or Windows Azure Mobile
Services).
If
your client application becomes popular, you can click the “Scale” tab of your
Mobile Service and switch from “Shared” to “Reserved” mode. Doing so
allows you to isolate your apps so that you are the only customer within a
virtual machine. This allows you to elastically scale the amount of
resources your apps use – allowing you to scale-up (or scale-down) your
capacity as your traffic grows:
With
Windows Azure you pay for compute capacity on a per-hour basis – which allows
you to scale up and down your resources to match only what you need. This
enables a super flexible model that is ideal for new mobile app scenarios, as
well as startups who are just getting going.
Summary
I’ve
only scratched the surface of what you can do with Windows Azure Mobile
Services – there are a lot more features to explore.
With
Windows Azure Mobile Services you’ll be able to build mobile app experiences
faster than ever, and enable even better user experiences – by connecting your
client apps to the cloud.
Visit
the Windows
Azure Mobile Services development center to learn more, and build your
first Windows 8 app connected with Windows Azure today. And read this getting started tutorial to walkthrough how you can build
(in less than 5 minutes) a simple Windows 8 “Todo List” app that is cloud
enabled using Windows Azure Mobile Services.
Hope
this helps.
Curtsey: http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu
