Switching on the cloud for Silverlight

MSDN Live Meeting27-06-2011

Gill CleerenMicrosoft Regional Director – Silverlight MVPOrdina Belgium

About myself...

• 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: gill@snowball.be • 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 ?

"The concept, quite simply, is that vast computing resources will reside somewhere out there in the ether (rather than in your computer room) and we'll connect to them and use them as needed." Jonathan Weber (The Times Online)

So, Windows Azure then?• 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 AzureCloud Operating System:More value than what you think of with the term “OS” however!

Virtual NetworkComput

eStorage

Run code in the cloud

Scalable storage for files

Connect cloud with on-premise

Microsoft is committed to the cloud!

Software-as-a-Service

consume

“SaaS”Platform-as-a-Service

build

“PaaS”Infrastructure-as-a-

Servicehost

“IaaS”

Abstraction

Cloud Services

Packaged Software

Storage

Servers

Networking

O/S

Middleware

Virtualization

Data

Applications

Runtime

You m

anag

e

Infrastructure

(as a Service)

Storage

Servers

Networking

O/S

Middleware

Virtualization

Data

Applications

Runtime

Man

ag

ed b

y v

en

dor

You m

anag

e

Platform(as a

Service)

Man

ag

ed b

y v

en

dor

You m

anag

e

Storage

Servers

Networking

O/S

Middleware

Virtualization

Applications

Runtime

Data

Software(as a

Service)

Man

ag

ed b

y v

en

dor

Storage

Servers

Networking

O/S

Middleware

Virtualization

Applications

Runtime

Data

Although the abstraction is raised, developers still need to know what happens behind the scenes!

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 emulatorStorage 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

Hosting site

Scenario

Silverlight application

Service layer (WCF, REST...) Database

CASE 1: DATABASE ONLY

Hosting site

Scenario

Silverlight application

Service layer (WCF, REST...) 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

DEMODatabase only

CASE 2: WCF SERVICE

Hosting site

Scenario

Silverlight application

Service layer (WCF, REST...) 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 applicationPossible 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

DEMOSilverlight and WCF service

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!)

DEMOREST service

CASE 3: MOVE SILVERLIGHT TO THE CLOUD

Hosting site

Scenario

Silverlight application

Service layer (WCF, REST...) 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

DEMOMove Silverlight to the cloud

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 server-side 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

DEMORIA Services in the cloud

CASE 5: USE AZURE AS TWITTER INTERMEDIATE

Scenario

Silverlight Twitter

SERVICE

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

DEMOUse Azure as Twitter intermediate

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 applicationWhy?

– 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-

silverlight-app– Cross-domain issues in 2 ways!

» XAP hosted in blob storage, service on your domain» “Regular” cross-domain issues

DEMOUsing Blog Storage

DEMOThe XAP in blob storage

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

DEMOWP7 and WCF Data Services in the cloud

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 Meeting27-06-2011

Gill CleerenMicrosoft Regional Director – Silverlight MVPOrdina Belgium