Starting a Project for the Cloud

27. October 2010 08:43 by Mrojas in General  //  Tags: , , , , ,   //   Comments (0)

 

If you dont have Windows Azure Tools installed

1. Open Visual Studio 2010

2. On the File Menu, Click new, and then click Project. This opens the New Project dialog

3. In the New Project dialog under Installed Templates, expand the Visual C# node

4. In project type click Cloud. A project that says Enable Windows Azure Tools appears

5. In Name type for example EnableTools and click OK

6. A project with a web page will appear. Click the Download Windows Azure Tools button. Close Visual Studio. Download and installed them.

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Once you have Windows Azure Toolsl installed

 

1. Open Visual Studio 2010

2. On the File Menu, Click new, and then click Project. This opens the New Project dialog

3. In the New Project dialog under Installed Templates, expand the Visual C# node

4. In project type click Cloud. A project that says Windows Azure Cloud Service appears

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5. In Name Type for example Phonebook  and click ok. The New Cloud Service Project is shown

 

If you are developing a Silverlight application with some services select the WCF Service Web Role. Rename it to something appropriate. In this example will be Phonebook.Web and Press OK

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Your solution explorer will look like this:

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Now you can developing your application. We already have an Silverlight application (that was migrated from VB6 to Silverlight) and some existing Silverlight Class libraries and Server Class Libraries (Class Libraries compiled with the full 4.0 Framework that will be used in the Server Project Phonebook.Web).

To add your Silverlight app. Right Click your server project (Phonebook.Web), then Properties and in Properties go to Silverlight Application and add Phonebook_Silverlight

When everything compiles Go to the Visual Studio Menu Bar, then Debug and then Start Without Debugging. That starts the local development environment on your computer.

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You can now start testing and finish development of your application.

There is something you myst notice. Everytime you start the Cloud Service, the Azure test environment starts. By default it will start in http:\\localhost:81 but there was a previous Development Fabric it will start in http:\\localhost:81. This is important for Silverlight applications because you must configure your service end point to a particular port. Make sure that your ServiceReferences.ClientConfig file is in sync with the port that your DevelopmentFabric is using

Notes for Azure development:

Sometimes during development it might happen that you get more than one instance of the Development Fabric. This will affect your silverlight apps that rely on WFC services because each new instance starts on a new port. You can use the CSRun tool to stop all instances.

If you have installed the Windows® Azure™ SDK to the default location, the CSRun tool can be found at C:\Program Files\Windows Azure SDK\v1.0\bin\csrun.exe.Then run C:\Program Files\Windows Azure SDK\v1.2\bin\csrun.exe /devfabric:shutdown

 

Publishing your Application

1. Navigate to Azure : https://windows.azure.com/Cloud/Provisioning/Default.aspx

2. On the page that says My Projects. When you are starting you will only see one project line. Click on it

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3. Click on New Service

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4. Click on Hosted Services

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5. In the Create Service page, specify the service properties. In this example we will use Phonebook.Web for service label and a short description and press next.

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6. Now your hosted service needs a public url. You must check availability. In this example we will use phonebook. Hosted Affinity tries to group your services and storages in the same area. We have a SQL Azure database that is hosted in North Central US, so we will create a new AffinityGroup and call it PhonebookGroup. Press Create

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7. After Creation your Service is ready, and you can start the deployment.

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8. In Visual Studio 2010 Right click your Cloud Service. And Select Publish…

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9. The Publish Cloud Service Dialog appears. From the Credentials drop down list select <Add>

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10. From the Create or select an existing certificate select <Create>.
10.1 In our example we will enter a FriendlyName for the new certificate of PhoneBook.

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10.2 Click the “Copy the full path” link in the dialog. Then Open your browser and navigate to https://windows.azure.com/cloud/provisioning/ and click on your project

 

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10.3 Now click on account.And in the Account page click on Manage My API Certificates

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10.4 Click the Choose file and paste the full path you had copied before and then click upload

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the installed certificate will be shown below.

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10.5 Now navigate to AppFabric by clicking AppFabric on the left hand side. This will show your subscription ID. Select it and copy it. You have to pasted on the dialog box in Visual Studio on the textbox that says above it “Copy the subscription ID”

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and name those Credentials PhonebookAccount and press  OK

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

11 You need a storage account. If you have not created one. Then you have to follow these steps:

11.1 Open your browser and navigate to https://windows.azure.com/cloud/provisioning/ and click on your project.

 

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11.2 Now click on New Service

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11.3 Now click on Storage Account

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11.4 The Create Service Page is show. Enter a Service label and Description and Click Next

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11.5 Select a name for the public URL, check its availability. And select Affinity.And press Create

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12. Press OK on the Publish Cloud Service Dialog

 

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13. Visual studio will upload your application to the cloud

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While your application is in staging the only problem might be that the published URL changed and that might be conflictive for your ServiceReferences.ClientConfig.

Once your application is on Staging you can switch it to Production and your are ready for business.