Windows Azure - tutorial.wmlcloud.com

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Working with the Table service REST API : Querying data (part 3) - Filtering data with LINQ & Selecting data using the LINQ syntax

Because the Table service is implemented using ADO.NET Data Services, you can use the WCF Data Services client library to perform server-side queries using LINQ rather than querying the REST API directly.

Working with the Table service REST API : Querying data (part 2) - Querying with LINQ & Filtering data with the REST API

Working with the Table service REST API : Querying data (part 1) - Retrieving all entities in a table using the REST API

The base URI used to query the Products table is the same base URI you used to insert, update, and delete table entities.

Working with the Table service REST API - Batching data

Entity group transactions are a type of batch insert where the whole batch is treated as a transaction, and the whole thing either succeeds or is rolled back entirely. First, let’s look at how batch inserts are done.

Modifying entities with the REST API is CRUD (part 3) - Updating entities

When deleting an object using the StorageClient library, you need to keep track of the objects to be deleted in the context object for the Products table.

Modifying entities with the REST API is CRUD (part 2) - Deleting entities

Deleting an entity is similar to adding an entity when using the StorageClient library. If you wished to delete a shirt from the Products table, you’d need to add the shirt to be deleted to the context object’s (shirtContext) tracking list using the DeleteObject method

Modifying entities with the REST API is CRUD (part 1) - Inserting entities

WCF Data Services, and therefore the StorageClient library, implement the Unit of Work pattern for saving data back to the database.

Working with the Table service REST API - Authenticating requests against the Table service

Shared Key authentication for Table service is the most secure method of authenticating against the Table service using the REST API. The method for generating an authentication key is similar to the method used for BLOBs

Content delivery networks

A CDN is a large number of web servers that are distributed across the world. These web servers usually sit close to the internet backbone and can quickly serve up large files.

Using BLOB storage as a media server (part 3) - A Silverlight-based chunking media player

Sending the thread to sleep is bad production practice. You should never send the UI thread to sleep. In production, use a background timer that monitors the download progress, and start playing the video back at a suitable threshold.

Using BLOB storage as a media server (part 2) - A WPF-based adaptive-streaming video player

Adaptive streaming is a technique that most content delivery networks (CDNs) use to deliver high-performance video. This technique is also used in IIS adaptive streaming, although BLOB storage won’t deliver in multiple bitrates.

Using BLOB storage as a media server (part 1) - Building a Silverlight or WPF video player

By default, Silverlight supports the ability to progressively download files. In this example, we’ll tell you how to build a small Silverlight video player that will allow you to play movies on your web page that are hosted by BLOB storage

Hosting Silverlight applications in BLOB storage (part 2) - Communicating with third-party sites

Your Silverlight application needs to poll a web service for live data, so you might be thinking that you should host your entire solution as an ASP.NET-hosted website.

Hosting Silverlight applications in BLOB storage (part 1) - Hosting the Silverlight Spectrum emulator

If you’ve developed a standalone Silverlight application that requires no interaction with any backend services, BLOB storage is a cost-effective candidate for hosting your Silverlight application

Hosting static HTML websites (part 2) - Publishing your website to BLOB services

Using the BLOB browser, you can add each file of the website by selecting the file to upload, setting the MIME type (which is automatically predicted for you, but is also editable), and clicking the Add button.

Hosting static HTML websites (part 1) - Creating a static HTML website

BLOBs held in a public container are accessible to the outside via a public URI over an HTTP connection. Those files can be accessed with standard web browsers such as Internet Explorer

Performing storage account operations using REST (part 3) - Creating a table using the REST API

Instead of using AtomPub to create tables with a crazy amount of XML, you can do the same thing with the slightly easier-to-use REST API. We’ll eventually get to the easiest way to create a table, which is with the StorageClient library.

Performing storage account operations using REST (part 2) - Deleting tables using the REST API & WCF Data Services and AtomPub

To delete a table using the StorageClient library, you need to call the DeleteTable method of your CloudTableClient object, passing in the name of the table that you wish to delete.

Performing storage account operations using REST (part 1) - Listing tables in the development storage account using the REST API

We looked at a small console application that listed all the containers in a BLOB storage account using the REST API.

Doing CRUDy stuff with the Table service (part 3) - Deleting entities & Updating entities

For the sake of simplicity, you can pass the object to be deleted by refetching the object from the Table service. In production code, you should never refetch an object for deletion because this performs an unnecessary call to the Table service

Doing CRUDy stuff with the Table service (part 2) - Adding entities & Listing entities

Now that you have your context class, you can start creating your product-management web page. To do this, you need to add a new ASP.NET web page called products.aspx.

Doing CRUDy stuff with the Table service (part 1) - Creating a context class

The context class is really a bridge between an entity and ADO.NET Data Services. It will define the endpoint of the storage account, the name of the table that we’ll query, and the entity that will be returned

Developing with the Table service

Like the other storage services, communication with the Table service occurs through the REST API . Although you can use this API directly, you’re likely to be more productive using the StorageClient library provided in the Windows Azure SDK.

Partitioning data across lots of servers : Partitioning the storage account & Partitioning tables

To achieve a highly scalable service, the Table service will split your data into more manageable partitions that can then be apportioned out to multiple servers.

Modifying an entity to work with the Table service

The Timestamp property is typically used to handle concurrency. Prior to updating an entity in the table, you could check that the timestamp for your local version of the entity was the same as the server version.

How we’d normally represent entities outside of Azure

If you wanted to store extra information about the product (a thumbnail URI, for example) you’d need to add an extra column to the Products table and a new property to the Product entity.

A brief overview of the Table service

The Table service component of the Windows Azure storage services (which includes the BLOB service, Table service, and Queue service) is a very simple, highly scalable, cost-effective solution that can be used to store data.

BLOBs : Setting shared access permissions

Access to a BLOB is controlled by the container that it lives in. If the BLOB lives in a public container, it’s available to the world.

Enterprise Service Bus with BizTalk Server and Windows Azure : Distributed and Scalable ESB Architecture

The Enterprise edition of BizTalk Server is self-clustering, in as much as it shares configuration information that is stored in a common management database. New servers join a group, and start participating in the workload

Enterprise Service Bus with BizTalk Server and Windows Azure : The ESB Toolkit

The ESB Toolkit goes back to 2005 when there was a realization that BizTalk consultants were implementing solutions using similar techniques.

Enterprise Service Bus with BizTalk Server and Windows Azure : Integration with BizTalk

Integration at this stage in the evolution meant redundant data entry or some form of file dumping to get information out of one system and into another. The barriers between applications were quite substantial.

Copying BLOBs - Copying files via the StorageClient library

Although you can use the REST API, using the StorageClient library is much easier. Save yourself a lot of heartache and use the REST API only when necessary.

Using local storage with BLOB storage (part 3) - Improving your handler to check the last modified time

If you need to be able to search for metadata across multiple BLOBs, consider using an external data source (for example, a database or the Table storage service), rather than searching across the BLOBs.

Using local storage with BLOB storage (part 2) - Updating your HTTP handler to use local storage & Checking properties of a BLOB without downloading it

You’re going to modify your HTTP handler to check in local storage to determine whether the requested file exists already. If the file doesn’t exist, then you’ll retrieve the MP3 file from BLOB storage and store it in local storage.

Using local storage with BLOB storage (part 1) - Using a local cache & Defining and accessing local storage

When you define Windows Azure web roles, you can allocate a portion of the local filesystem for use as a temporary cache. This local storage area allows you to store semi-persistent data that you might use frequently, without having to continually re-request or recalculate the data for every call.

Integrating BLOBs with your ASP.NET websites

In typical ASP.NET websites, you usually distribute your assets with your website. Although this strategy works great for small websites, it’s pretty much unmanageable when dealing with larger websites

Downloading BLOBs

In this section we’ll look at how to download BLOBs from both a public container and a private container. To take things nice and easy, we’ll tell you how to download BLOBs that are stored in a public container first.

Managing BLOBs using the StorageClient library (part 2) - Uploading BLOBs & Deleting BLOBs

The maximum size of a BLOB is 1 TB, but if a file is larger than 64 MB, under the covers the StorageClient library splits the file into smaller blocks of 4 MB each

Managing BLOBs using the StorageClient library (part 1) - Listing BLOBs using the storage client

Now that you’ve finished your break and you’re rested enough to read this, let’s look at how you can use the StorageClient library to list BLOBs in a container, rather than using the REST API directly.

Using the REST API (part 2) - Authenticating private requests

Apart from the URI, the only difference between the two listings is that you sign the HTTP web request with your shared-key credentials.

Using the REST API (part 1) - Listing BLOBs in a public container using REST

Windows Azure is an evolving platform and the Windows Azure team typically releases new features exposed via the REST API first. At a later date, they might provide an update to the SDK.

The basics of BLOBs - Configuring your application to work against the live service

To specify the sounds that Windows plays as it goes through its paces, right-click the desktop, choose Personalize from the shortcut menu, and then click Sounds.

The basics of BLOBs : Developing against containers (part 3) - Listing containers & Deleting a container

You want to be able to click the Delete button on a particular row in your web page to delete the underlying container. For this to happen, you need to hook in your Delete button.

The basics of BLOBs : Developing against containers (part 2) - Creating a container

By default, a container is created as private access only, meaning that only the account owner can access the container or any of the BLOBs contained within it.

The basics of BLOBs : Developing against containers (part 1) - Accessing the StorageClient library & Accessing development storage

There are two ways of interacting with any of the storage services: you can either use the REST API directly or you can use the StorageClient library API.

The basics of BLOBs : Getting started with development storage

Development storage hosts all three storage services (BLOB, Queue, and Table storage services) and exposes local endpoints that implement the same APIs as the live service.

A closer look at the BLOB storage service

In BLOB storage, you can’t store BLOBs directly in a storage account because every BLOB must live in a container. A container is really a top-level folder. Although you can set permissions directly on a BLOB, this can be a pain with a large number of BLOBs.

Storing files in a scaled-out fashion is a pain in the NAS (part 2) - The BLOB service approach to file management

Rather than building a native network-share-based solution, Microsoft has provided a set of REST-based APIs that allow you to interact with all the storage services over the HTTP stack, using a standard HTTP request

Storing files in a scaled-out fashion is a pain in the NAS (part 1) - Traditional approaches to BLOB management

A network-attached storage device is a disk array that you can plug into your network and that can be accessed via a network share. NAS devices are responsible for managing the device hardware, the filesystem, and serving files, and can provide varying levels of redundancy, depending on the device and the number of disks in the array.