Blog.Amit Apple @amitapl - Tumblr Blog

How to deploy Windows Azure WebJobs

Windows Azure WebJobs is a new feature coming from Windows Azure Websites, you can read all about it here.

While you can easily add a new WebJob using the Windows Azure portal, you may want to deploy your WebJob in other ways (ftp / web deploy / git), In this post I'll explain how these WebJobs are stored on your Azure Website and how you can deploy a new WebJob.

Where is your WebJobs stored?

A WebJob is stored under the following directory in your site:

site\wwwroot\App_Data\jobs\{job type}\{job name}

Where {job type} can be either continuous for a job that is always running or triggered for a job that starts from an external trigger (on demand / scheduler).

And {job name} is your WebJob's name.

So a continuous WebJob called myjob will be located at:

site\wwwroot\App_Data\jobs\continuous\myjob

What should be inside a WebJob directory?

The WebJob directory can contain 1 to as much as you'd like files but at the least it should contain the script that starts the WebJob's process, this script can currently be: batch (.exe/.cmd/.bat), bash (.sh), javascript (.js as node.js), php (.php) or python (.py).

The script to be run is automatically detected using the following logic:

First look for a file called run.{supported extension} (first one found wins).

If not found look for any file with a supported extension.

If not found, this is not a runnable WebJob

NOTE: If you have some other type of execution engine you wish to use and is currently not supported, you can always create a run.cmd file and create your executor command there (powershell -Command run.ps).

Deploy my WebJob

So with this information we know that in order to create a new continuous job called myjob all you have to do is get your job's binaries to that folder.

One way to do this is to connect to your site via ftp, create the right directory and copy the binaries there (should include at least one supported script file).

That's it, the WebJob will be auto-detected and immediately start running.

Deploy Website + WebJobs

To deploy a website with WebJobs, all you'll need to do is to make sure you deploy your WebJobs are in the right place, take a look at the following structure as an example for a node.js site with a web job:

./server.js ./App_Data/jobs/continuous/myjob/run.cmd

While this project contains only 2 files, it actually is a website with a continuous WebJob, and you can use whatever deployment preference you have to deploy this (ftp / web deploy / git / ...).

Re-deployment

Continuous - After you redeploy a WebJob, the currently running process will abort and restart with the new binaries.

Triggered - Redeployment will not affect a currently running WebJob but the next run will be using the new WebJob's binaries.

NOTE: Before a WebJob starts to run, the binaries for it are copied to a temporary directory, this way you can always re-deploy a WebJob safely without worrying that the files are locked.

Triggered WebJob caveat

One issue we encounter with this method is that when you deploy a triggered WebJob, the result is a WebJob that is only on demand meaning you need to press the RUN ONCE button in the portal in order to initiate it and (for now) there is no way to easily add a schedule to it.

A workaround would be to create a dummy schedule WebJob with the name you are about to deploy and the deployment will just replace the binaries but keep current schedule.

#AzureWebJobs #AzureWebsites

•18+ Adults Only

Watch Anya Live on Cam

Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.

✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality

Anya is LIVE right now

FREE

Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming

Git deploying a .NET console app to Azure using WebJobs

There's a new concept coming from Windows Azure Websites called WebJobs where you can have scripts running on a schedule, continuously or simply by invoking them manually.

In this article I'll talk about a simple way of deploying a .NET console application to Windows Azure Websites which will be deployed as a continuous job.

In short, a continuous job is treated similar to a windows service, as long as it's started/enabled, Azure will make sure it's up, it'll start the process (on all of your instances) and whenever the process goes down it'll simply bring it back up (after a 60 seconds delay).

The executable that is deployed as a continuous job should have some kind of an infinite loop (while (true)).

Note: While you can experiment with continuous jobs in free or shared websites, it'll only work properly in a standard website that has the "always on" setting set, this is since in free/shared sites the jobs process will be brought down after about 20 minutes of no requests to it (a request to the jobs process can be to check the status of current jobs).

Enough chit-chat, now to the main event, we have .NET code which we want to (continuously) run on Azure, here are the steps:

Write your .NET code as a .NET console application, here is a sample:

Add your code to a git repo.

git init

git add .

git commit -am Coding

Create a new web site with source control.

Get the url to your site's git repository

Push the repository to your site.

git push http://.../.git master

That's it, you now have your .NET console application running on Windows Azure Websites, just go to the WEBJOBS tab and take a look.

Note: Don't forget to enable the Always On feature if you're on standard to make sure this job will never stop running.

Now to see the continuous job logs click on the "logs" link (you'll need to enter your publishing user name and password, if you're on chrome even better - it just works), there you would see all the system logs (when the job started, stopped, etc...).

To see the logs produced by the application (console output and error) you need to enable application logging under the CONFIGURATION tab, your logs can go to your file system/azure storage table or blob.

Note: You can also use app settings/connection strings which would come from the site's configuration, same as you would do for your ASP.NET website.

There are more awesome things to say about webjobs, but that's in next posts.

You can use my repo to try it: https://github.com/amitapl/ContinuousHelloWorld

#AzureWebSites #WebJob

Sending an email when your Azure web site deployment completes

Windows Azure Web Sites have a new support for web hooks, currently the only event that is directly being invoked is called PostDeployment and it will be invoked whenever a deployment is complete with the result of that deployment.

You can find more information on the API for this feature here.

Cool Stuff with Web Hooks

Having this new API allowed us to collaborate with zapier.com and allow developers to get this post deployment information in many ways like: email, phone call or sms or even tweet about it.

About Zapier

zapier is a service that is all about the integration of other different services through the concept of triggers and actions.

A trigger could be a new github issue was opened or a new email was sent to your gmail account and an action could be tweeting a new tweet to tweeter or create a new note in your Evernote account.

In our case we've created a new trigger on Zapier for a deployment to a website that is complete and using Zapier you can connect this trigger to any of actions that are available.

More on Windows Azure Web Sites - Zapier Service

Let's see how:

Prerequisites

A Windows Azure Website that is deployed using source control (git, mercurial or dropbox).

Have both the Zapier and Azure portal open

Steps

Go to Zapier and create a new zap.

For the trigger service select Windows Azure Websites

For the trigger select New Website Deployment

For the action, we'll select email and send outbound email for this sample but any can be selected

Click Continue

We need to connect to our Azure Website, for this we need one piece of information from the Azure portal

In the Azure portal go to your website, click on the CONFIGURE tab and under the git section copy the url which is under the DEPLOYMENT TRIGGER URL

Go back to the Zapier site and paste this url to the Deployment URL textbox, enter a name for this website account and click continue.

Since the email action doesn't require any special account, just click continue again.

At this point you can filter what kind of post deployment event will actually trigger this action (for example only failed deployments), for now we keep this empty, click continue

Create your Outbound Email lets you customize the email, the content can be static and dynamic (coming from the post deployment result)

On the To textbox enter your email

On the Subject textbox enter: Deployment complete with status: {{status}}

On the right side of each textbox there is an icon you can click to get the different dynamic fields that will be available from the deployment result, so in the Body textbox just experiment with the different fields.

Continue

Try out your Zap lets you test your zap by getting previous deployment results and doing the selected action on them, you can use it if you have existing deployments on your site otherwise click skip this.

Name your zap and make it live.

Last step is to deploy your site and see the magic (action) happens.

Get more help about Windows Azure Web Sites on Zapier.

#WindowsAzure #AzureWebSites #Zapier #Email

Run tests during Azure Websites deployment

Deploying websites to Azure using GIT has never been easier, and now a new support for running .NET unit tests was added.

To run tests during website deployment you'll need to customize your deployment by generating a deployment script, this is described in the following article.

In a nut shell:

Make sure you have node.js installed on your machine.

Open a command shell window.

Install azure-cli (if you don't have it yet) using the command: npm install azure-cli -g.

Now that prerequisites are there, go to your root repository directory in the same command shell and generate the custom deployment script.

For an asp.net web application run the following command:

azure site deploymentscript --aspWAP -s

For example:

azure site deploymentscript --aspWAP MyWebApp\MyWebApp.csproj -s MyWebApp.sln

This will generate a deploy.cmd file under the root of your repository, we need to update this file in order to make the unit tests run during deployment.

On the default deploy.cmd file we have 2 steps:

Build site (to a temporary path).

Copy changed files from the temporary path to your wwwroot.

We'll add 2 steps in the middle like so:

1. Build site (to a temporary path).

2. Build test project (because the first step will only build whatever is required for the site and not other projects that may exist in the repository).

3. Run tests.

4. Copy changed files from the temporary path to your wwwroot (but only do this step if tests passed/build was successful).

To do that add the following code between step :: 1. and step :: 2. like so:

:: 1. Build to the temporary path %MSBUILD_PATH% "%DEPLOYMENT_SOURCE%\MvcTest\MvcTest.csproj" /nologo /verbosity:m /t:Build /t:pipelinePreDeployCopyAllFilesToOneFolder /p:_PackageTempDir="%DEPLOYMENT_TEMP%";AutoParameterizationWebConfigConnectionStrings=false;Configuration=Release /p:SolutionDir="%DEPLOYMENT_SOURCE%\.\\" %SCM_BUILD_ARGS% IF !ERRORLEVEL! NEQ 0 goto error

:: 2. Building test project echo Building test project "%MSBUILD_PATH%" "%DEPLOYMENT_SOURCE%\MvcTest.Tests\MvcTest.Tests.csproj" IF !ERRORLEVEL! NEQ 0 goto error :: 3. Running tests echo Running tests vstest.console.exe "%DEPLOYMENT_SOURCE%\MvcTest.Tests\bin\Debug\MvcTest.Tests.dll" IF !ERRORLEVEL! NEQ 0 goto error

:: 4. KuduSync call %KUDU_SYNC_CMD% -v 50 -f "%DEPLOYMENT_TEMP%" -t "%DEPLOYMENT_TARGET%" -n "%NEXT_MANIFEST_PATH%" -p "%PREVIOUS_MANIFEST_PATH%" -i ".git;.hg;.deployment;deploy.cmd" IF !ERRORLEVEL! NEQ 0 goto error

As you can see the test runner being used is vstest.console.exe which is new for VS 2012, if you have VS2012 you can run this script locally (in a VS2012 command shell) to make sure your updated script works.

vstest.console.exe will recognize any test that exists in the supplied test assembly and will run it whether the test is mstest, xunit or nunit, and they could all be in the same assembly.

For a full working example of this capability try the following GitHub repository (which you can deploy on a test site just to get the feel of it): https://github.com/KuduApps/MvcAppWithTests/

#AzureWebSites #CustomDeployment #test

Simple terminal for your Azure Website

This guide will help you run server-side commands on your Azure Website hosting environment, it is very simple and useful and since it's implemented in node.js, it'll work on any (node) supporting OS (Windows / MAC / Linux).

First, you should install node.js if you don't already have it (#whynot?).

Install KuduExec:

npm install kuduexec -g

Note: There's also a .NET version of kuduexec called KuduExec.NET

Find your "kuduexec" Azure Website endpoint:

Add "scm" after your site's name (if you have a custom domain you still need to add this to the original URL you received from Azure), for example:

http://somesitename.azurewebsites.net/ --> http://somesitename.scm.azurewebsites.net/

If you have "git deployment" enabled on your site you can get the endpoint (including user name and password) from the Azure portal go to you site, under the CONFIGURE tab, on the git section in the DEPLOYMENT TRIGGER URL:

Now that you have your endpoint, open a shell window and run the command:

kuduexec <Your endpoint URL / git deployment url>

For example:

kuduexec http://somesitename.scm.azurewebsites.net/

Note: You can also add your user name and password to the url (otherwise it simply asks you for them):

kuduexec http://[email protected]/

At this point you'll see a command prompt with the root directory of your site (not "wwwroot"), some info on the directory structure.

Now you can run your commands, including shell commands such as "cd", "dir" and "copy", you'll also be able to run executables such as "git" and "npm".

To quit simply type exit

Usage Examples

One useful scenario this can help you with is when you want to run a garbage collection on your git repository, which can reduce your storage usage:

Simply go to the repository directory: cd site\repository

And run: git gc

Another will be to check if you some lingering processes using: ps -W

Here I have a lingering node.exe process and I kill it using: kill

C:\DWASFiles\Sites\somesitename\VirtualDirectory0> ps -W PID PPID PGID WINPID TTY UID STIME COMMAND 14620 0 0 14620 ? 0 08:26:30 D:\Windows\SysWOW64\inetsrv\w3wp.exe 824 0 0 824 ? 0 08:40:04 D:\Windows\SysWOW64\cmd.exe 28484 0 0 28484 ? 0 08:40:04 D:\Program Files (x86)\nodejs\node.exe 11584 1 11584 11584 ? 500 08:40:48 /bin/ps C:\DWASFiles\Sites\somesitename\VirtualDirectory0> kill -f 28484 C:\DWASFiles\Sites\somesitename\VirtualDirectory0> ps -W PID PPID PGID WINPID TTY UID STIME COMMAND 14620 0 0 14620 ? 0 08:26:30 D:\Windows\SysWOW64\inetsrv\w3wp.exe 29008 0 0 29008 ? 0 08:41:08 D:\Windows\SysWOW64\cmd.exe 19756 1 19756 19756 ? 500 08:41:08 /bin/ps C:\DWASFiles\Sites\somesitename\VirtualDirectory0>

Important notes

This simple terminal is not for running interactive commands, running a command that requires user input will hang (for 3 minutes until recognized as hanging process and then it will be aborted) since there is no way, currently, to provide input for the running command.

The output for a single command will arrive only after the command finish running, so if you run a long running command it'll take time for the output to show (other than piping: requireInput.exe < input.txt).

#AzureWebSites #WindowsAzure #Terminal

•18+ Adults Only

Watch Anya Live on Cam

Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.

✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality

Anya is LIVE right now

FREE

Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming

Customizing site deployment based on site's app settings in Azure Websites

---------- > **This is part 3 of 3 for Windows Azure Websites - Custom Deployments** > > * [Part 1](http://blog.amitapple.com/post/38417491924/azurewebsitecustomdeploymentpart1) - Introduction to custom deployment > * [Part 2](http://blog.amitapple.com/post/38418009331/azurewebsitecustomdeploymentpart2) - Custom script generator > * Part 3 - Custom deployment using the custom script generator sample ---------- **In** previous posts I talked about [Windows Azure Website's custom deployment feature](http://blog.amitapple.com/post/38417491924/azurewebsitecustomdeploymentpart1) and the [tool to easily generate a deployment script](http://blog.amitapple.com/post/38418009331/azurewebsitecustomdeploymentpart2), in this post I'll do a step by step guide on writing a custom deployment script. Let's say we have two websites in azure, one is a node.js website and the other is an mvc4 web application, both sites sources are in the same repository so we need a deployment script that handles differently based on which website it is deploying. [Full sample repository](https://github.com/amitapl/CustomScriptSample) Some Prerequisites: 1. Assuming git is installed and the websites are in a local git repository. 2. Install [node.js](http://nodejs.org/). 3. Install [azure-cli](http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/manage/linux/other-resources/command-line-tools/) by running the following command: `npm install azure-cli -g` ### (a) First let's generate a deployment script for the node.js website: - Go to the root of the repository. - Enter the following command: `azure site deploymentscript --node --sitePath nodejs` - Where "nodejs" is the path to the node.js website directory. ![](http://media.tumblr.com/a54e878a3da5a40e362fc147b20c4168/tumblr_inline_mfcob2UwkC1rvdhx0.png) - Notice the files that were generated: > - .deployment - a file telling which command to run for deployment (currently deploy.cmd). > - deploy.cmd - the deployment script. > - nodejs\web.config - configuration for iis to run node.js. > - nodejs\iisnode.yml - this file allows some configuration settings relating to node.js, [more info on iisnode.yml](http://tomasz.janczuk.org/2012/05/yaml-configuration-support-in-iisnode.html "more info on iisnode.yml") * Rename deploy.cmd to deploy.node.cmd: `move deploy.cmd deploy.node.cmd` ### (b) Let's generate a deployment script for the mvc4 web application: At the root of the repository enter the command: azure site deploymentscript --aspWAP mvc4\Mvc4WebApplication\Mvc4WebApplication.csproj -s mvc4\Mvc4WebApplication.sln ![](http://media.tumblr.com/d9bb23bee62aa25ebaa33052bf893ed1/tumblr_inline_mfcobcBtEq1rvdhx0.png) * Rename deploy.cmd to deploy.mvc4.cmd: `move deploy.cmd deploy.mvc4.cmd` *NOTE: You can also edit this generated file (deploy.cmd) with any custom steps you have, you can also test it on your machine simply by running it, it will publish your website to %REPOSITORY_ROOT%\artifacts.* ### (c) To decide which script should run, based on the website we are currently deploying, we'll use the "app settings" feature in windows azure websites: * Create a deploy.cmd file under the root of the repository with the following: * %SITE_FLAVOR% will be set by Windows Azure with the value we'll give it in the management portal. * Add all generated files and commit them to the repository. ### (d) Now let's try to push our repository to our Windows Azure Website: git push WA master ![](http://media.tumblr.com/32e393912b46fa38bee5959324069584/tumblr_inline_mfcoboXuzt1rvdhx0.png) * We receive an error and the deployment fails since we still haven't set the app setting yet, so let's do that. * Go to the website on windows azure management portal and add under the CONFIGURATION tab under "app settings" a setting with name SITE_FLAVOR and value nodejs/mvc3 (based on the current site we're configuring). ![](http://media.tumblr.com/19a261e05e6091a8190ea5e7c5f2fc46/tumblr_inline_mfcobz90pD1rvdhx0.png) ![](http://media.tumblr.com/9670a35ed774203f6bb6a6b6171d4e2f/tumblr_inline_mfcoc5SutN1rvdhx0.png) * Click on the "Save" button. * Now we can either push our changes again (we'll need a new commit, even an empty one, otherwise it'll tell us that nothing has changed and the deployment won't reinitiate). * Or we can go to the DEPLOYMENTS tab in Windows Azure portal, select the last deployment which failed and push the RETRY button to retry the deployment. ![](http://media.tumblr.com/564b26073146e17cf209ccbbca8e403e/tumblr_inline_mfcocbWLu41rvdhx0.png) ### That's it, now we have a working mvc4/node.js website ![](http://media.tumblr.com/2ed3dddea7c39ca7b92c32edbd95869c/tumblr_inline_mfcotpG1RM1rvdhx0.png) ![](http://media.tumblr.com/8557ff144ccd90a3ac18f9c44f22414d/tumblr_inline_mfcou0sUc81rvdhx0.png) **NOTE: Another improvement we could do here is to store the repository on GitHub/Bitbucket and connect them to our 2 sites, now every time we push to GitHub/Bitbucket, both of our sites will be deployed.** The repository I've used can be cloned from [here](https://github.com/amitapl/CustomScriptSample).

#WindowsAzure #GIT #CustomDeployment #kudu

Windows Azure Websites - Custom Deployment Scripts Generator

---------- > **This is part 2 of 3 for Windows Azure Websites - Custom Deployments** > > * [Part 1](http://blog.amitapple.com/post/38417491924/azurewebsitecustomdeploymentpart1) - Introduction to custom deployment > * Part 2 - Custom script generator > * [Part 3](http://blog.amitapple.com/post/38419111245/azurewebsitecustomdeploymentpart3) - Custom deployment using the custom script generator sample ---------- **With** Windows Azure Websites you can deploy your website by simply pushing your git repository, this will automatically deploy your website, and if you want to control this deployment flow you can use the custom deployment feature. To make it easy on us there is a custom deployment script generator feature in the azure-cli tool that will simplify the whole process, basically it will generate a script that has the same logic as the automatic deployment one only now you can change it and also run it locally to test it. All you have to do is: a. Install [node.js](http://nodejs.org/), this is required to run the azure-cli tool. b. Install the [azure-cli](http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/manage/linux/other-resources/command-line-tools/) tool, it'll also give you some cool features on managing azure related resources directly from the command-line: npm install azure-cli -g c. Go to the root of your repository (from which you deploy your site). d. Run the custom deployment script generator command: azure site deploymentscript [options] You can find help on the [options] by using the -h flag. For example to create a script for deploying an asp.net web application you do the following: azure site deploymentscript --aspWAP pathToYourWebProjectFile.csproj -s pathToYourSolutionFile.sln Or for deploying a node website: azure site deploymentscript --node Any of these commands will generate the files required to deploy your site, mainly: > * .deployment - Contains the command to run for deploying your site. > * deploy.cmd - Contains the deployment script. Now you can edit the deploy.cmd file and add your custom steps. Looking at the file you'll notice that it may look a bit complicated at first but actually most of the code there is to make sure the script can run locally so the place to look for the deployment logic is here: :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: :: Deployment :: ---------- ... [deployment steps] :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: It'll contain very few steps and that's the right place to put your custom steps, for example: running your tests. In this script you'll also notice the use of a tool called [KuduSync](https://github.com/projectkudu/KuduSync), this tool is the publishing tool which copies the website from the repository (or temporary directory) to the wwwroot directory. The genius of this tool is that it'll only copy the files that were changed, it'll also remove the files that don't exist on the source but only those that were previously on the source so it won't remove any runtime generated files (it does that by keeping a files list of each deployment, this is what the manifest files are about). After adding your own logic to the deployment script you can run in locally and test it to make sure it does what you need it to, it'll publish your site to a sub-directory called *artifacts* so make sure you're not add the files there to your repository. When the script is tested, add the generated files to your repository (.deployment and deploy.cmd, for node also web.config and iisnode.yml) and push your repository to your windows azure website and see your custom deployment running. [Next post a step by step on a specific custom script](http://blog.amitapple.com/post/38419111245/azurewebsitecustomdeploymentpart3).

#WindowsAzure #CustomDeployment #GIT #kudu

Custom Deployment Scripts For Windows Azure Website Using Git Deployment

---------- > **This is part 1 of 3 for Windows Azure Websites - Custom Deployments** > > * Part 1 - Introduction to custom deployment > * [Part 2](http://blog.amitapple.com/post/38418009331/azurewebsitecustomdeploymentpart2) - Custom script generator > * [Part 3](http://blog.amitapple.com/post/38419111245/azurewebsitecustomdeploymentpart3) - Custom deployment using the custom script generator sample ---------- The coolest feature on Windows Azure Websites is the ability to deploy your website using git. Do a `git push` and bam you're done and deployed within seconds. The deployment process is automated, the process will look at the files on the git repository and decide which kind of website it is (asp.net, node, ...) and based on that will do the required steps for the deployment. For example for an MVC web app it'll find the solution file and determine which project is the actual web app project and with those it'll msbuild that project, the artifacts from the build will be placed in a temporary folder and only the files that were changed will be copied to the wwwroot location for the actual deployment. The nice thing is that files that were removed will also be removed on the wwwroot location but only if they were actually deployed the previous time (so files that are generated on the fly on the wwwroot directory won't be removed). So what if you want to customize the deployment process, for example you want to run your tests before deploying (or after) and cancel the deployment if they fail? That's what the custom deployment feature is about, you just need to add a file to the root of your repository with the name `.deployment` and the content: [config] command = YOUR COMMAND TO RUN FOR DEPLOYMENT this command can be just running a script (batch file) that has all that is required for your deployment, like copying files from the repository to the web root directory for example. You also get some environment variables that you need in order to get and put things in the right place: * DEPLOYMENT_SOURCE - The path for the root of your repository (In Azure). * DEPLOYMENT_TARGET - The wwwroot path (the deployment destination directory). * DEPLOYMENT_TEMP - Path to a temporary directory that will be removed after the deployment. * MSBUILD_PATH - Path to msbuild executable. With all of those you can create your own deployment script, a simple one for example: @echo off echo Deploying files... xcopy %DEPLOYMENT_SOURCE% %DEPLOYMENT_TARGET% /Y This script will copy all of the files from your repository to the wwwroot directory. But to make things easier, you can use the azure-cli tool which will actually generate a deployment script for you that will do exactly the same deployment process as the default one but now you are able to update that script and add (or remove) your own steps. More on that in the next post: [Custom Deployments Script Generator](http://blog.amitapple.com/post/38418009331/azurewebsitecustomdeploymentpart2)

#WindowsAzure #kudu #GIT #CustomDeployment

My First Windows Store App - חדשות 8

Just published my first windows 8 app to the store, it is a news reader in Hebrew. [My App On The Windows Store]( http://apps.microsoft.com/webpdp/en-US/app/8/feb11719-8b28-407a-ba6c-bcf14901e643 "חדשות 8") ![](http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mc1p3w6VAu1rvdhx0.jpg) Basically it is an RSS feed reader for a specific set of feeds from different Israeli news sites. To use it you currently have to login using your Microsoft account as it will save the current feeds you selected to follow on the main screen of the app. Writing a Windows 8 app turns out to be quite a process, I really like the Windows SDK and tools for writing an app and it takes a fairly small amount of time to get the basic scenario going but finishing up the app took much longer than I expected. Among things I had to do (which is a good starting check-list for writing apps for the store): - Make sure all pages work in all layouts (including: portrait and snapped especially) and all resolutions (at least the lowest ones), using the LayoutAwarePage class you can update the way a page looks in the different layouts. - Have all graphics ready, there are several images you have to produce like: wide tile, square tile, different Windows store images and more. - Test your app, it is a given but sometimes when we are the dev and tester we tend to give ourselves some slack - Create a privacy policy, there are some free tools online you can use. - Put a link for the privacy policy in the Settings charm, I failed on this thing twice simply because I didn’t know that the settings charm is customizable per app (who figured? ), it is fairly simple. Most of the time I spent on this app was for polishing up the graphics and understanding some XAML related quirk like finding a proper (or any in fact) way to bind the selected values of a grid view (two way bind). On the backend for this app I used [Windows Azure Mobile Services](http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/develop/mobile/ "") which hands down makes backend development a breeze, I use it to authenticate users (with the Live SDK also) and store their selected feeds and also to store all of the feeds the app has so I can add more feeds without updating through the store. I’ve also authored a simple website to hold my About and Privacy Policy html pages, for that I used Windows Azure Websites, setting up a site took about a minute and that includes creating it (naming it) and setting up a cool git repository on it so deployment is as fast and easy as “git push”, this was also an awesome experience ([git deployment]( http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/develop/net/common-tasks/publishing-with-git/ "")). [My Website]( http://newsinhebrew8.azurewebsites.net/ "חדשות 8") So [there](http://apps.microsoft.com/webpdp/en-US/app/8/feb11719-8b28-407a-ba6c-bcf14901e643 "חדשות 8") it is, my first Windows store app, sorry just for Hebrew speakers, soon I’ll have another one out which has more integration with Mobile Services (in certification process now). Last note – Live Tiles are cool!!!

#WindowsAzure #Websites #git #MobileServices #Windows8

Joined Tables View in Windows Azure Mobile Services

Windows Azure Mobile Services is using SQL Azure as the backend, one of the benefits you have with a SQL database is the ability to join tables simply, but currently that ability is not manifested in an easy way through the server-side scripts or the client SDK of the mobile services. So when I needed to get rows by joining 2 tables, I used this following simple solution. In my case I had 2 tables, one for users with the user id and user name among other columns, and the other for user groups with information on which user is a part of which group, there I had the same user id with other group related information. I needed a view with all of the user group columns together with the name of the user. To do that I've created a new table called **UserGroupsExtended** and I've set permissions to admin for all operations except read, this is a workaround for creating a new endpoint in our mobile service. ![](http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mb772oiGgk1rvdhx0.jpg) In the read operation server-side script of this new table, I have the following code in which I use a SQL query to join the 2 tables and return the results of that query (instead of returning results related to the original UserGroupsExtended table which will always be empty). In this script I actually do more than that, I use a custom parameter (as described [here](http://blog.amitapple.com/post/30921523746/customparametersinmobileservices "custom parameters in mobile services")) to pass the specific group id I want to get results on, this is since the query object is for the original UserGroupsExtended table which we are not really using. And I also added this "in" part to only get results for groups where the current user is part of. On the client side I've added a new UserGroupExtended class which derives from UserGroup and adds the user name as a property. And the last piece is for actually getting a result back from this new view. The last piece assumes you have the client-side code mentioned on the [custom parameters post](http://blog.amitapple.com/post/30921523746/customparametersinmobileservices "custom parameters in mobile services").

#windowsazure #mobileservices

•18+ Adults Only

Watch Anya Live on Cam

Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.

✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality

Anya is LIVE right now

FREE

Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming

Custom Parameters in Azure Mobile Services

Consider the next scenario: You have a Users table and you need to accommodate 2 different views >1. The user gets his own information which includes for example his email. >2. The user can get a list of all users' names (and only names). You can do the first simply with the provided samples where using a script you filter the READ users table query to only return the current user's row. But for the second you have a bit of an issue, how do you know that the current query is actually for all users? Well, you can use the custom parameters feature where you pass a custom parameter to the READ script that will tell it you now actually want the "ALL USERS" view (allUsers=true). The way to pass a custom parameter is by adding it to the request URL as a query parameter: /tables/users?allUsers=true On the server-side script this parameter will be available via the request object: request.parameters.allUsers == true -------------------------------------- **Client-Side Code:** First we write a service filter in order to add the custom parameters to our mobile service client call: I've added a helper method to reduce the code for using this custom parameters: Then we use it in our code: ____________________________ **Server-Side Script:** Here we check for the value of the allUsers custom parameter, "true" we return the names of all users (per query), otherwise we return the current authenticated user (all values of that user): That's it… We can also use these custom parameters for other operations: update, insert and delete in the same way we did for read.

#azure #mobile services

Azure Mobile Services - Admin Table Viewer Sample

In this post I'm going to write about building a simple Windows 8 app for administration of a Windows Azure mobile service. This app will allow us to view all of our mobile service tables with added options to delete and edit rows. _Disclaimer: The code in my post will focus more on how to use the Windows Azure mobile services SDK to create administration apps and less on Windows 8 client code._ The first thing we want to do in an admin app is have full access to your tables, the way to do that is by using your mobile service master key as mentioned in a previous [post](http://blog.amitapple.com/post/30386969040/azuremobileservicesadminaccess). We wouldn't want to store the master key in our app's code so we actually use it as a pin for our app to let only users that know the master key actually be able to use this app. So we're creating a master key input page that will show first. Next we want a generic way to get rows from whatever table is in our mobile service, for that we'll use the un-typed MobileServiceClient.GetTable() to get a mobile service table (IMobileServiceTable) with un-typed operations like: ReadAsync which gets as an input the [odata](http://www.odata.org/developers/protocols/uri-conventions) query (empty string for all rows) and returns the rows as Json (IJsonValue). Except for read there are un-typed versions for update, delete and insert, those are getting a JsonObject as an input, in our sample we use delete and update, for delete we pass the JsonObject we want to delete from the Json array of rows we read, for update we pass that JsonObject with altered values by what we want to update. Once we know all that what is left for us to do in our admin app is to create the client code that uses this, so in order to bind the Json results to our generic table (two way bind to allow editing) we need some wrapper class over the results. In our main page we'll create a dynamic table that can bind to our MobileServiceTableItems and add delete, update and refresh app bar buttons. And add all other code-behind implementations. You can find the entire project in this [link](https://github.com/amitapl/MobileServiceAdminTableViewer).

#mobileservices #azure

Azure Mobile Services - Admin Access

So you already took the first step and created your own Windows 8 App backend in Azure. You've added windows live authentication and have your own Users table. You've even added a couple of server-side scripts, for example to limit a read operation on your table to get only items related to the current authenticated user. But now you want to have some administration control over your data. One way to do it is to create an admin Windows 8 app that uses the Azure mobile service sdk which I find currently as the simplest way. But there is one glitch, since your permissions might be set to User Authenticated (for user related tables) you actually need to login to get that table and even if you do login, your script will only return that user's related rows only. ##The solution: 1. Use your master key (you can find it under Configure --> Manage Keys) to get administrator privileges, the master key is added as a header to the http request made to your mobile service and allows you to access any of your tables configured with any permission. 2. Add "noScript=true" as a query parameter to the http request made to your mobile service, this (must be accompanied with the master key) will disable the server-side script which allows you to handle raw table data. _Getting to the Master Key:_ ![](http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m9caknPGsc1rvdhx0.png) In order to alter the http request as required by the solution we'll use the IServiceFilter interface from the Mobile Services SDK which allows us to hook up to all requests made by the SDK to our mobile service just before they are sent. Here is the code: And to link the filter: **A word of caution - do not publish an app with the master key as users of your app may get to it.**

#mobileservices #azure

Welcome!!!

Trending Blogs

Last Seen Blogs

Blog.Amit Apple