Transcript Switching on the cloud for Silverlight - Center

Switching on the cloud
for Silverlight
MSDN Live Meeting
27-06-2011
Gill Cleeren
Microsoft Regional Director – Silverlight MVP
Ordina Belgium
About myself...
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Gill Cleeren
Microsoft Regional Director
MVP ASP.NET
.NET Architect @Ordina (www.ordina.be)
Speaker (TechDays, DevDays, NDC Norway, Spring
Conference UK, SQL Server Saturday Switzerland, TechEd
Berlin, SDC...)
Visug user group lead (www.visug.be)
Author (Silverlight 4 Data and services cookbook)
Blog: www.snowball.be
Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @gillcleeren
Agenda
• What is Windows Azure?
– Parts of Windows Azure
– Why does a Silverlight developer need to care?
– Developing for Windows Azure
• Required tools
• Emulators (“local cloud”)
• Azure Portal
• Moving Silverlight applications to the cloud
– Database only
– WCF
• What with REST
– Entire Silverlight applications
– RIA Services
– Azure as intermediate layer for Twitter
Agenda (2)
• Using blob storage
– Accessing files in blob storage
– XAP hosted in blob storage
• (optional) Windows Phone 7 and Azure
– Accessing services in the cloud
WHAT IS WINDOWS AZURE?
What is a Cloud Platform ?
Jonathan Weber (The Times Online)
So, Windows Azure then?
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An operating system for the cloud
Internet Scale
Microsoft data centers
Based on internet standards (Interopability)
Features
– Service Management / Scalability
– Compute power
– Storage
• Familiar tools for development
Windows Azure
Cloud Operating System:
More value than what you think of with the term “OS” however!
“IaaS”
Infrastructure-as-a-Service
host
“PaaS”
“SaaS”
Platform-as-a-Service
Software-as-a-Service
build
consume
Cloud Services
Packaged
Software
Infrastructure
Applications
Applications
Software
Applications
Applications
Data
Data
Runtime
Runtime
Runtime
Middleware
Middleware
Middleware
Middleware
O/S
O/S
O/S
Virtualization
Virtualization
Servers
Servers
Storage
Storage
Networking
Networking
You manage
You manage
Runtime
Data
Managed by vendor
Virtualization
Servers
O/S
Virtualization
Servers
Storage
Storage
Networking
Networking
Managed by vendor
(as a Service)
(as a Service)
Managed by vendor
(as a Service)
Data
You manage
Platform
Parts of Windows Azure
• Hosted services
– Web role
• IIS in the cloud
• For running ASP.NET applications
– Worker role
• Run any executable in the cloud (own database,
server...)
Parts of Windows Azure (2)
• Azure storage
– Scalable storage in the cloud
– 100TB per storage account
– Auto-scale to meet massive volume and
throughput
– Accessible via RESTful Web Service API
• Access from Windows Azure Compute
• Access from anywhere via internet
• Supporting .NET Client Library
Parts of Windows Azure (3)
• Azure storage
– Blob storage
– Table storage
– Queue storage
Parts of Windows Azure (4)
• SQL Azure
– Familiar SQL Server relational database model
delivered as a service
• Highly available
– Contains:
• Database
• Reporting
• Data sync
Parts of Windows Azure (5)
• AppFabric
– Access control
– Service bus
– Caching
Why does a Silverlight developer need to
care?
• Azure targets web applications
• Highly available
• Easy scaling
– May not be important for XAP
– Important for services and database
Developing for Windows Azure
• Required tools
– Visual Studio (duh)
– Azure SDK
– Azure Tools
Installs
Compute emulator
Storage emulator
• Account on Windows Azure
Management portal
MOVING SILVERLIGHT
APPLICATIONS TO THE CLOUD
Let’s move!
• Silverlight applications can be “moved” to
Azure on different levels
– Database only
– WCF/ASMX/REST services
– All-in: Move the hosting site
• XAP in webrole
• XAP in blob storage
– RIA Services
Scenario
Hosting site
Service layer
(WCF, REST...)
Silverlight
application
Database
CASE 1: DATABASE ONLY
Scenario
Hosting site
Service layer
(WCF, REST...)
Silverlight
application
Database
Database only
• Case:
– A Silverlight business app
– WCF services to expose the data
– Data in a SQL Server 2008 database
• Task: move database only to the cloud
Database only
• Steps:
– Create database on SQL Azure
– Use Migration wizard to export database to
Azure
– Change connection strings in service
configuration
Database only
DEMO
CASE 2: WCF SERVICE
Scenario
Hosting site
Service layer
(WCF, REST...)
Silverlight
application
Database
WCF service
• Case:
– Silverlight business application communicates
with WCF service, service exposes data
– Data is migrated to SQL Azure
• Task: move WCF service to Azure
Side information
• Silverlight can communicate with
– ASMX
– WCF (using BasicHttpBinding)
• Both expose a WSDL file
– Used by Visual Studio to generate proxy class
– Generates config containing service location in
Silverlight application
Possible to
move existing service
“use” cloud services inside VS Silverlight project
Silverlight and WCF service
• Steps:
– Create Cloud project
– Add webrole to contain service hosting site
(ASP or WCF)
– Test in compute emulator
– Update Silverlight configuration to use new
service address
– Deploy service package to the cloud
– Re-deploy new Silverlight application
Silverlight and WCF service
DEMO
REST service
• Case:
– Silverlight business application communicates
with REST service, service exposes data
• A WCF service can be configured to work as a REST
service
– Data is migrated to SQL Azure
• Task: move REST service to Azure
Side information
• REST (REpresentational State Transfer)
– Protocol based on web standards (GET, PUT...)
– All information is a resource
– Information exchanged over XML or JSON
• Using WCF, we can create REST services
– Silverlight sends request to URL
– Service responds with XML
– Silverlight can parse the XML
Possible to move the REST service to Azure
Silverlight and REST service
• Steps:
– Create Cloud solution
– Move service hosting site to webrole (ASP or
WCF)
– Test in compute emulator
– Update Silverlight configuration to use new
service address
– Deploy service package to the cloud
– Re-deploy new Silverlight application
(Yes, this is identical!)
REST service
DEMO
CASE 3: MOVE SILVERLIGHT TO
THE CLOUD
Scenario
Hosting site
Service layer
(WCF, REST...)
Silverlight
application
Database
Move Silverlight to the cloud
• Case:
– Database hosted in SQL Azure
– WCF Service hosted in Windows Azure (web
role)
– Silverlight application and hosting website
need to move to the cloud
• Task:
– Move Silverlight hosting site to (other) web
role
Side information
• Silverlight is just a XAP file, hosted inside
an HTML, ASPX, PHP... page
• XAP file is downloaded from
– Azure Hosted service
– Azure Storage
• Site can be a web role
Move Silverlight to the cloud
• Steps:
– Add second web role to cloud project OR
second cloud project (accessible via port
number)
– (optional) Create a new hosted service for this
role
Move Silverlight to the cloud
DEMO
CASE 4: RIA SERVICES IN THE
CLOUD
RIA Services in the cloud
• Case
– Silverlight application that uses RIA Services
– Server-side use of Entity Framework
– Database is moved to SQL Azure
• Task:
– All-in approach: move everything to the cloud
Side information
• RIA Services create a link between serverside and client-side project
• Hosting site requires configuration
changes and assembly references
– RIA Services is not installed on your Azure VM!
• Specific template exists if starting from
scratch
RIA Services in the cloud
• Steps:
– Add new web role to cloud project
– Move service hosting site to webrole
– Change configuration
– Set Copy local to true for RIA Services
assemblies
– Deploy Silverlight XAP along with services
• Services can be in a different assembly, will be
hosted alongside
RIA Services in the cloud
DEMO
CASE 5: USE AZURE AS
TWITTER INTERMEDIATE
Scenario
Silverlight
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Twitter
Use Azure as Twitter intermediate
• Case
– We want to use Twitter API in in-browser
Silverlight apps
• Need to build intermediate service layer
• Task:
– Use Windows Azure for this purpose
Side information
• Twitter doesn’t expose a policy file
• In-browser Silverlight apps need this file to
access the service
 Intermediate service layer is required
Use Azure as Twitter intermediate
DEMO
USING BLOB STORAGE
Blob storage
• Blobs can be used to
– Store images and videos used in Silverlight
application
• Possible to generate build a service that allows
access for a limited time to a resource (Shared
Access Signatures)
Blob storage
• Blobs can be used to
• Store XAP of Silverlight application
Why?
– Azure does not support updating just the XAP file (you can
work around it using the VM Role)
– Easy versioning of just the Silverlight application
Things to keep in mind
– The MIME type needs to be set to application/x-silverlightapp
– Cross-domain issues in 2 ways!
» XAP hosted in blob storage, service on your domain
» “Regular” cross-domain issues
Using Blog Storage
DEMO
The XAP in blob storage
DEMO
WINDOWS PHONE AND AZURE
Hello? Windows Phone
• Windows Phone == Silverlight API
 Most things we looked at work for WP7 as
well
• Different models meet
– Phone = not always connected
– Cloud = there when you need it
• 2 options
– Phone “calls” cloud
– Cloud “calls” phone
• Push notifications
Phone “calls” cloud
• These things just work
– WCF/ASMX/REST service hosted in Azure
• HTTP-based communication
– Database behind service in SQL Azure
– WCF Data Services (oData)
– XML/JSON/SOAP
• Remember: the smaller the data, the better!
• Note: No cross-domain policy file
required!
Phone “calls” cloud
• WP7 can not work with
– RIA Services
– Sockets
– Duplex bindings
WP7 and WCF Data Services in the cloud
DEMO
Summary
• Silverlight apps work in harmony with
Azure
– Database
– Service layer
– Silverlight app
• Blob storage is useful
– For resources
– For XAP hosting
Q&A
THANK YOU
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Switching on the cloud
for Silverlight
MSDN Live Meeting
27-06-2011
Gill Cleeren
Microsoft Regional Director – Silverlight MVP
Ordina Belgium