Getting Started Integrating Windows Azure with Microsoft Office Solutions

Nearly everyone starts learning anything new by beginning with something simple and adding incremental knowledge. One of the biggest challenges with Windows Azure and SQL Azure is that the simple beginning seems a bit more elusive. The "Hello World" application in the new world of cloud computing, while not overly complex in concept, requires a good measure of preparation and configuration.

The following content is designed to aid you in getting started with Windows Azure and SQL Azure in the spirit of "Hello World" beginnings. By following these steps you will be able to:

1. Get a Windows Azure account and purchase a (free) plan

2. Set up your development environment locally

3. Create a simple cloud service with an accompanying ASP.NET application that will serve up some data

4. Test the application locally

5. Publish the application to Windows Azure

6. Test the application in the cloud

7. Create a SQL Azure database

8. Migrate a local database to SQL Azure

9. Configure an ASP.NET application to consume the SQL Azure data

I wanted to thank every person whose content on the Internet helped me when I was getting started with Windows Azure, but the list actually became really long. So, if you are one of the intrepid souls who has posted a blog entry about Windows Azure in the past 12 months, there is a good chance I read it, and I thank you! I've added links to some of that content at the end of this post.

All mistakes herein, if any, are my own. Please alert me to potential errors.

Set Up Environment

https://www.microsoft.com/windowsazure/getstarted/

Purchase A Plan

Note: You'll need a Windows Live ID to purchase plan and get things going.

Create Service In Azure

Make sure to run Visual Studio as Administrator
Give your service a meaningful name and description
Configure the service · Give it a public service name · Make it not restricted to any location unless you think you need it. ·
Press Create

Create Visual Studio Cloud Service Project

Make sure to run Visual Studio as Administrator
Choose File | New | Project in Visual Studio
Add Web forms to Web Role
Add Code

Test Cloud Service Project

Press F5 to debug
View Web role in action

Publish Cloud Service Project to Azure

Select Cloud Service project and press Build | Publish
Go to Windows Azure control panel and in Hosted Service section, go to Staging and press Deploy.
Specify the Configuration and Definition files in the console
Navigate to application

Create SQL Azure Database

In Windows Azure console go to SQL Azure section and choose Create Database
Give your database a name
Configure admin credentials

Connect to Local Database in Visual Studio

For example: add LINQ to SQL class
Connect to local database table(s)
Add table(s) to class
Configure code to serve up the data
Test Web role project

Move Local Database to SQL Azure

Prepare database for migration	· Each table must have clustered index · SQL Azure does not accept all commands
Use SQL Management Studio
Optional: Use SQL Azure Migration Wizard. Major props to Wade Wegner for taking this on.
Optional: Script database	· Generate script for database from SQL Server · Alter script to conform to SQL Azure restrictions
Change connection settings in Web.config file for Web role project

Publish Updated Cloud Service Project to Azure

Select Cloud Service project and press Build | Publish
Go to Windows Azure control panel and in Hosted Service section, go to Staging and press Update.
Specify the Configuration and Definition files in the console
Navigate to application

From here, we need to now hook this database up to our Microsoft Office 2010 solution. That part is actually much easier than you may think! I'll show you now next.

More Resources

• Samples: https://code.msdn.microsoft.com/windowsazuresamples
• SQL Azure Samples: https://beyondrelational.com/wikis/sqlazure/sql-azure-samples.aspx
• Decent tutorial on how to get started: https://ed.mldconsultants.com/?p=45#more-45
• Rob Bagby's very solid intro: https://www.robbagby.com/azure/azure-application-part-1-setup-and-running-hello-world
• Northwind on Azure: https://sqlblog.com/blogs/jamie_thomson/archive/2009/09/10/restful-northwind-on-sql-azure.aspx

Technorati Tags: Microsoft,Office 2010,Devleoper,Office,Productivity,Windows Azure,SQL Azure,DevDays 2010

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