Windows Azure SQL Database Tutorials

Windows Azure and
SQL Database Tutorials
Jonathan Gao
Summary:These Windows Azure and SQL Database (formerly SQL Azure) tutorials are
designed for beginners who have some .NET development experience. Using a common
scenario, each tutorial introduces one or two Windows Azure features or components.
Even though each tutorial builds upon the previous ones, the tutorials are self-contained
and can be used without completing the previous tutorials.
Category:Step-by-Step
Applies to:Windows Azure SQL Database
Source:TechNet Wiki (link to source content)
E-book publication date: November 2012

Copyright © 2012 by Microsoft Corporation
All rights reserved. No part of the contents of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means
without the written permission of the publisher.
Microsoft and the trademarks listed at
http://www.microsoft.com/about/legal/en/us/IntellectualProperty/Trademarks/EN-US.aspx are trademarks of the
Microsoft group of companies. All other marks are property of their respective owners.
The example companies, organizations, products, domain names, email addresses, logos, people, places, and events
depicted herein are fictitious. No association with any real company, organization, product, domain name, email address,
logo, person, place, or event is intended or should be inferred.
This book expresses the author’s views and opinions. The information contained in this book is provided without any
express, statutory, or implied warranties. Neither the authors, Microsoft Corporation, nor its resellers, or distributors
will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to be caused either directly or indirectly by this book.

Contents
Before You Begin the Tutorials ................................................................................................................5
Set Up the Development Environment.................................................................................................5
Installing the Tutorial Files...................................................................................................................5
Installing the Code Snippets.................................................................................................................5
Using the Code Snippets ......................................................................................................................6
Provisioning Windows Azure................................................................................................................6
Tutorial 1: Using Windows Azure Web Role and Windows Azure Table Service........................................7
Overview.............................................................................................................................................7
Lesson 1: Create a Windows Azure Visual Studio Project....................................................................11
Lesson 2: Create a Data Source..........................................................................................................13
Lesson 3: Create a Web Role to Display the Message Board and Process User Input ..........................19
Lesson 4: Test the Application and Deploy the Application.................................................................24
Tutorial 2: Using SQL Database..............................................................................................................29
Overview...........................................................................................................................................29
Lesson 1: Prepare SQL Database Account...........................................................................................33
Lesson 2: Modify the Application to use SQL Database ......................................................................37
Lesson 3: Test and Deploy the Application .........................................................................................42
Tutorial 2.1: Create an OData Service ....................................................................................................46
Overview...........................................................................................................................................46
Lesson 1: Modify the Application to Define the Entity Framework Data Model ..................................47
Lesson 2: Modify the Application to Add the Data Service..................................................................50
Tutorial 3: Using Windows Azure Blob Service.......................................................................................57
Overview...........................................................................................................................................57
Lesson 1: Modify the Application to Use the Blob Service ..................................................................61
Tutorial 4: Using Windows Azure Worker Role and Windows Azure Queue ...........................................72
Overview...........................................................................................................................................72
Lesson 1: Modify the Message Data Model........................................................................................76
Lesson 2: Modify the Web Role..........................................................................................................81
Lesson 3: Add a Worker Role for Background Processing ...................................................................83

These Windows Azure and SQL Database (formerly SQL Azure) tutorials are designed for beginners who
have some .NET development experience. Using a common scenario, each tutorial introduces one or
two Windows Azure features or components. Even though each tutorial builds upon the previous ones,
the tutorials are self-contained and can be used without completing the previous tutorials.
Windows Azure is an open cloud platform that enables you to quickly build, deploy and manage
applications across a global network of Microsoft-managed datacenters. You can build applications using
any language, tool or framework.
Windows Azure provides three options for executing applications. These options can be used separately
or combined.
• Virtual Machine: Virtual Machines (VM) provides the ability to create a virtual machine on
demand. You can use the virtual machine as a development computer, or as a server to run your
applications. Once you have a virtual machine created, you can deploy your existing applications
to it without engaging developers to make code changes. The downside of using virtual
machines is that you are responsible to administering the VMs.
• Web Site: The Web Site option offers a managed web environment using Internet Information
Services (IIS). You can move an existing IIS website into Windows Azure Web Sites unchanged, or
you can create a new one directly in the cloud. Once a website is running, you can add or
remove instances dynamically, relying on Web Sites to load balance requests across them.
• Cloud Service: Cloud Service is designed expressly to support scalable, reliable, and low-admin
applications, and it's an example of what's commonly called Platform as a Service (PaaS). To use
it, you create an application using the technology you choose, such as C#, Java, PHP, Python,
Node.js, or something else. Your code then executes in virtual machines (referred to as
instances) running a version of Windows Server.
This set of tutorials demonstrates how to create cloud services:
• Tutorial 1: Using Windows Azure Web Role and Windows Azure Table ServiceThis first tutorial
goes beyond a "Hello World" sample to show you how to use a Web role and table service.
• Tutorial 2: Using SQL Database Based on the tutorial 1 application, this tutorial replaces the
table service with SQL Database.
• Tutorial 2.1: Create an OData Service This tutorial extends tutorial 2 to add an OData service to
access and change data in the SQL Database created in tutorial 2.
• Tutorial 3: Using Windows Azure Blob Service In this tutorial, blog storage is added to the
tutorial 1 application for storing binary images.
• Tutorial 4: Using Windows Azure Worker Role and Windows Azure Queue Service This tutorial
adds a worker role for background processing, and a queue is used to facilitate communication
between the two roles.

Before You Begin the Tutorials
Set Up the Development Environment
Before you can begin developing your Windows Azure application, you need to get the tools and set-up
your development environment.
For configuration instructions, see How to Prepare the Windows Azure Compute Emulator at
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg433136.aspx.
Installing the Tutorial Files
Tutorial files can be found in the AzureTutorialsTutorialFiles folder. Extract the files to the C root
directory. The tutorial files contain the following folders:
• CodeSnippets contains the code snippets used for developing the application.
• CompletedSolution contains the completed solution. If you run into a problem, you can
compare your code with the code in this folder.
• GolferMessageBoard contains the application you created in the previous tutorials. This is the
application that the current application is based on.
• TutorialFiles contains the files that you will need to import into your project.
Note: This release of the tutorials only provide the C# code samples.
Installing the Code Snippets
For convenience, much of the code that you need to type while executing the tutorials is available as
Visual Studio code snippets.
After installing the tutorial files, you can find the code snippets in the
C:AzureTutorialsTutorial[#]CodeSnippets folder.
You must install the code snippets manually by copying the contents from one folder to another for each
of the 2 folders listed in the table below.
Copy from Paste to
C:AzureTutorialsTutorial[#]CodeSnippetsVisual Web
Developer
..My DocumentsVisual Studio 2010Code
SnippetsVisual Web DeveloperMy Code
Snippets

C:AzureTutorialsTutorial[#]CodeSnippetsVisual C#
..My DocumentsVisual Studio 2010Code
SnippetsVisual C#My Code Snippets
Using the Code Snippets
With code snippets, you have all the code you need at your fingertips. You can use the following
procedure to add a code snippet:
1. Right-click where you want to insert the code snippet, and then click Insert Snippet.
2. Click My Code Snippets or My HTML Snippets, click Windows Azure Tutorials, and then click the
name of the code snippet you want to insert.
Provisioning Windows Azure
In order to complete the deployment lesson in each tutorial, you caneither get a trial account or
purchase an account. A Windows Azure account is not required for developing a Windows Azure
application. You can always test your application using the local compute emulator and storage
emulator.

Tutorial 1: Using Windows Azure Web Role
and Windows Azure Table Service
This tutorial demonstrates the process of creating a Windows Azure application and the process of
deploying the application to a Windows Azure Cloud Service.
Overview
The application is a simple golfer message board web application for users to enter or view messages, it
contains one web role (Web front-end), that allows golfers to view the message board and add new
message entries. The application uses theWindows Azure Table service to store messages. Here is a
screenshot of the application:
Objectives
In this tutorial, you will learn how to:
• Understand the process of developing a Windows Azure application
• Understand the process of deploying an application to Windows Azure
• Create a web role
• Use the Table service
Understanding the Architecture

The following diagram illustrates the development components and the runtime components involved
in this tutorial:
Note: The gray out components are the components that are not covered in this tutorial but in other
tutorials.
• There are two environments: the Windows Azure runtime environment and the local
development environment. The runtime environment is hosted in one of the Microsoft data
centers.
• There are two main services within the runtime environment: Compute and Storage. Compute is
the computational part of Windows Azure. Storage consists of three main parts: Table service,
Blob service and Queue service. Other than the Windows Azure Storage Service, you can also
use SQL Database to store data. In this tutorial, you will use Windows Azure Table service.
Tutorial 2 covers SQL Database;tutorial 3 covers Blob service; andtutorial 4 covers Queue
service. For more information, seeData Management.

• The Compute service is also referred as Cloud Service. It is the application you deploy on
Windows Azure. Every Cloud Service can have web role and worker role. A web role is an
ASP.NET Web application accessible via an HTTP or HTTPS endpoint and is commonly the front-
end for an application. A worker role is a role that is useful for generalized development, and
may perform background processing for a web role. In this tutorial, you will create a web role
project. For more information, seeWhat is a Cloud Service. Tutorial 4 will introduce Worker role.
• You can use the Windows Azure Management portalto administrate Windows Azure platform
resources.
• You develop the Windows Azure application using Visual Studio and Windows Azure SDK.
• You deploy the application to local Windows Azure Emulator for testing, and to Windows Azure.
• A Windows Azure project includes two configuration files: ServiceDefinition.csdef and
ServiceConfiguration.cscfg. These files are packaged with your Windows Azure application and
deployed to Windows Azure.
Understanding the Table Service Object Model
The Windows Azure Table service is structured storage in the cloud. Here is a diagram of the Table
service data model:
An application must use a valid account to access Windows Azure Storage service. In lesson 4, you will
create a newWindows Azure storage accountusing Windows Azure Management Portal. An application
may create many tables within a storage account. A table contains a set of entities (rows). Each entity
contains a set of properties. An entity can have at most 255 properties including the mandatory system
properties - PartitionKey, RowKey, and Timestamp. "PartitionKey" and "RowKey" form the unique key
for the entity.
In thisTutorial
•
•
Lesson 1: Create a Windows Azure Visual Studio Project
Lesson 2: Create a Data Source for Accessing Windows Azure Table Service
• Lesson 3: Create a Web Role to Display the Message Board and Process User Inputs
• Lesson 4: Test the Application and Deploy the Application

This page intentionally left blank

Lesson 1: Create a Windows Azure Visual Studio Project
In this lesson, you create a Windows Azure Project with Visual Studio. A Windows Azure application can
contain one or more roles. The application you will develop in this tutorial only contains one web role
talking to Windows Azure Table service. In tutorial 4, you will add a Worker role to the application for
background processing.
Procedures
In this lesson, you will go through the following procedure:
• Create a Visual Studio project
To create a Visual Studio project
1. Click Start, point to All Programs, point toMicrosoft Visual Studio 2012, right-click Visual Studio
2012, and then clickRun as administrator.
2. If the User Account Control dialog appears, click Yes.
3. Click the File menu, point to New, and then clickProject.
4. In the New Project dialog, type or select the following values:
Name Value
Installed Templates
(In the left pane, expand Installed, expand Templates, expandVisual C# ,
and then click Cloud.)
Template Windows Azure Cloud Service
Name MessageBoard
Location C:AzureTutorialsTutorial1
Solution name GolferMessageBoard
Create directory for
solution
(selected)

5. Click OK.
6. In the New Windows Azure Project dialog, inside the left pane, double-clickASP.NET Web Role
to add it to the Windows Azure Cloud Service Solutionlist. The default name is WebRole1.
7. Right-click WebRole1, rename the role to MessageBoard_WebRole, and then clickOK. The
generated solution contains two projects. MessageBoard is a cloud service
project,MessageBoard_WebRole is an ASP.NET web role project.
8. From Solution Explorer, expand MessageBoard, and then expandRoles. There is one role listed
there, called MessageBoard_WebRole. This application only contains one web role.
Under the MessageBoard cloud service project, there are also one definition file and two
configuration files. TheServiceDefinition.csdef file defines the runtime settings for the application
including what roles are required, endpoints, and so on. TheServiceConfiguration.Local.cscfg
contains the storage account connection string to use the local Windows Azure Storage emulator;
theServiceConfiguration.Cloud.cscfg file contains the settings to use Windows Azure storage service.
For more information, seeConfiguring the Windows Azure Application with Visual Studio at
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee405486.aspx.
What did I just do?
In this step, you created a Windows Azure project with Visual Studio.
Next Steps
You add a new class library project to the solution for accessing Windows Azure Table service.

Lesson 2: Create a Data Source
The application stores message entries using Windows Azure Table service. The Table service is NOT
relational database tables. It is helpful to think of it as object storage.
In this lesson, you first define the entity for golfer message entries. An entity contains a set of
properties, for example, golfer name, and message. Then you create the data source so that the
ASP.NET web role that you will create in the next lesson can use the data source to access the Table
service. The data source has two methods, one for adding messages to the storage, and the other for
listing the messages in the storage.
To access the Table service, you can use LINQ.
Procedures
In this lesson, you will go through the following procedures:
1. Add a new project to the solution
2. Define the entity
3. Create a data source
4. Compile the project
To add a new project
1. From Solution Explorer, right-click Solution 'GolferMessageBoard', point toAdd, and then click
New Project.
2. In the Add New Project dialog, type or select the following values
Name Value
Installed TemplatesVisual C# , Windows
Template Class Library
Name MessageBoard_Data
Location C:AzureTutorialsTutorial1GolferMessageBoard
3. Click OK.
4. In Solution Explorer, delete Class1.cs inside the MessageBoard_Data project. You will add a new
class file, instead of using the default one.
5. In Solution Explorer, right-click the MessageBoard_Data project, and then clickAdd Reference.
6. In the Reference Manager dialog, expand Assemblies, clickFramework, and then select
System.Data.Services.Client; Expand Assemblies, click Extensions, and then
selectMicrosoft.WindowsAzure.Configuration, Microsoft.WindowsAzure.StorageClient

andMicrosoft.WindowsAzure.ServiceRuntime. And then click OK. System.Data.Services.Client
and Microsoft.Windows.StorageClient are used for utilizing the Windows Azure storage services.
Microsoft.WindowsAzure.ServiceRuntime is used for retrieving data connection string in the
configuration file.
Note: If multiple extension assemblies are presented, select the ones with version 1.7.0.0.
Note: If you cannot find a component, use the search box on the upper right corner of the
dialog.
Next, define the entity for the message entries. The Table service does not enforce any schema for
tables making it possible for two entities in the same table to have different sets of properties.
Nevertheless, this message board application uses a fixed schema to store its data.
To define the entity
1. In Solution Explorer, right-click MessageBoard_Data, point toAdd, and then click New Item.
2. In the Add New Item – MessageBoard_Data dialog, type and select the following values:
Name Value
Installed TemplatesVisual C# , Code
Template Class
Name MessageBoardEntry.cs
3. Click Add.
4. At the top of the MessageBoardEntry.cs file, insert the following namespace declaration.
using Microsoft.WindowsAzure.StorageClient;
5. Update the declaration of the MessageBoardEntry class to make it public and derive from the
TableServiceEntity class.
public class MessageBoardEntry : TableServiceEntity
{
}
6. Add a default constructor and properties to the class by inserting the code snippetTutorial01-
Lesson02-Task02_MessageBoardEntry.
public MessageBoardEntry()
{
PartitionKey = DateTime.UtcNow.ToString("MMddyyyy");
// Row key allows sorting, so we make sure the rows come back in time
order.
RowKey = string.Format("{0:10}_{1}",

DateTime.MaxValue.Ticks - DateTime.Now.Ticks,
Guid.NewGuid());
}
public string GolferName { get; set; }
public string GolferMessage { get; set; }
Note: You can either copy/paste the code or use code snippet. The code snippets have more
comments which can help you to review the code in the future. For more information on using
the code snippets, see Before You Begin the Tutorials.
In addition to the properties required by the data model, every entity has two key properties:
the PartitionKey and the RowKey. These properties together form the table's primary key and
uniquely identify each entity in the table. Entities also have a Timestamp system property, which
allows the service to keep track of when an entity was last modified.
The MessageBoardEntry.cs looks like the following (collapse to definitions) when completed:
7. Press Ctrl+S to save the MessageBoardEntry.cs file.
Finally, you create a data source that can be bound to data controls in the ASP.NET web role that you
will create in the next lesson.
To create a data source
1. In Solution Explorer, right-click MessageBoard_Data, point toAdd, and then click New Item.
2. In the Add New Item – MessageBoard_Data dialog, type and select the following values, and
then clickAdd.
Name Value
Installed TemplatesVisual C# , Code
Template Class

Name MessageBoardDataSource.cs
3. At the top of the MessageBoardDataSource.cs file, insert the following namespace declarations.
using Microsoft.WindowsAzure;
using Microsoft.WindowsAzure.StorageClient;
using Microsoft.WindowsAzure.ServiceRuntime;
4. Make the MessageBoardDataSource class public.
public class MessageBoardDataSource
{
}
5. Define member fields by inserting the code snippet Tutorial01-Lesson02-
Task04_MessageBoardDataSourceFields.
private const string messageTableName = "MessageTable";
private const string connectionStringName = "DataConnectionString";
private static CloudStorageAccount storageAccount;
private CloudTableClient tableClient;
6. Add a default constructor to the class by inserting the code snippet Tutorial01-Lesson02-
Task04_MessageBoardDataSourceConstructors.
public MessageBoardDataSource()
{
//add reference Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Configuration
storageAccount = CloudStorageAccount.Parse(
CloudConfigurationManager.GetSetting(connectionStringName));
// Create the table client
tableClient = storageAccount.CreateCloudTableClient();
tableClient.RetryPolicy = RetryPolicies.Retry(3, TimeSpan.FromSeconds(1));
tableClient.CreateTableIfNotExist(messageTableName);
}
The constructor initializes the storage account by reading its settings from the
configuration files and then uses theCreateTablesIfNotExist method in the
CloudTableClient class to create the table used by the application. You will configure
DataConnectionString inLesson 3.
7. Inside the MessageBoardDataSource class, add some methods by inserting the code
snippetTutorial01-Lesson02-Task04_MessageBoardDataSourceMethods.
public IEnumerable<MessageBoardEntry> GetEntries()
{
TableServiceContext tableServiceContext =
tableClient.GetDataServiceContext();
var results = from g in
tableServiceContext.CreateQuery<MessageBoardEntry>(messageTableName)
where g.PartitionKey == DateTime.UtcNow.ToString("MMddyyyy")

select g;
return results;
}
public void AddEntry(MessageBoardEntry newItem)
{
tableServiceContext.AddObject(messageTableName, newItem);
tableServiceContext.SaveChanges();
}
The GetMessageBoardEntries method retrieves today's message board entries by constructing a
LINQ statement that filters the retrieved information using the current date as the partition key
value. The web role uses this method to bind to a data grid and display the message board.
The AddMessageBoardEntry method inserts new entries into the table.
The MessageBoardDataSource.cs looks like the following (collapse to definitions) when
completed:
8. Press Ctrl+S to save the MessageBoardDataSource.cs file.
To compile the project
• In Solution Explorer, right-click MessageBoard_Data, and then clickBuild.
What did I just do?
In this step, you created a data source that will be consumed by the ASP.Net web role that you will
create in the next Lesson.

Next Steps:
You will create an ASP.NET web role for displaying the message board and process user input.

Lesson 3: Create a Web Role to Display the Message Board
and Process User Input
In this lesson, you modify the web role project that you generated in Lesson 1 when you created the
Windows Azure Cloud Service solution. This involves updating the UI to render the list of message board
entries.
Procedures
1. Configure the web role project
2. Modify Default.aspx
3. Modify Default.aspx.cs
4. Add the storage account settings
You must reference the MessageBoard_Data object from the web role project. To save time, you will
begin with a skeleton default.aspx file.
To configure the web role project
1. In Solution Explorer, right-click the MessageBoard_WebRole project, and then clickAdd
Reference.
2. In the Reference Manageer dialog, expand Solution, and then clickProjects.
3. Select MessageBoard_Data, and then click OK.
4. In Solution Explorer, right-click Default.aspx of the MessageBoard_WebRole project, and then
click Delete.
5. In Solution Explorer, right-click MessageBoard_WebRole, point toAdd, and then select Existing
Item.
6. In Add Existing Item – MessageBoard_WebRole, browse to the
C:AzureTutorialsTutorial1TutorialFiles folder, hold the CTRL key down while selecting all
four files in the folder, and then clickAdd.
7. In Solution Explorer, right-click Solution 'GolferMessageBoard', and then clickRebuild Solution.
The default.aspx file uses a DataList control and an ObjectDataSource control to display the messages. In
the following procedure, you configure the two controls.
To modify Default.aspx
click View Designer.
2. Hover over the dsMessages ObjectDataSource control on the bottom of the page, click the right
arrow button, and then clickConfigure Data Source.

3. In Choose your business object, select MessageBoard_Data.MessageBoardDataSource, and
then clickNext.
Note: If you get a message saying "The Type 'MessageBoard_Data.MessageBoardDataSource'
could not be found", rebuild the solution and try again.
4. Click the SELECT tab.
5. In Choose a method, select GetEntries(), returns IEnumerable<MessageBoardEntry>, and then
clickFinish. The GetEntries() is what you defined in the object in the previous lesson.
6. Hover over the dlMessages DataList control, and then click the right arrow button. InChoose
Data Source, select dsMessages.

7. Click No to reject reset template.
8. Press Ctrl+S to save the Default.aspx file.
Next, you implement the code necessary to store submitted entries to the Table service.
To modify Default.aspx.cs
click View Code.
2. At the top of Default.aspx.cs, add the following namespace declaration.
using MessageBoard_Data;
3. Locate the btnSend_Click method, and insert the code snippetTutorial01-Lesson03-
Task02_WebRoleBtnSend_Click inside the method.
// create a new entry in the table
MessageBoardEntry entry = new MessageBoardEntry() { GolferName = txtName.Text,
GolferMessage = txtMessage.Text };
MessageBoardDataSource ds = new MessageBoardDataSource();
ds.AddEntry(entry);
txtName.Text = "";
txtMessage.Text = "";
dlMessages.DataBind();

This method creates a new MessageBoardEntry entity, initializes it with the information
submitted by the user, and then uses the MessageBoardDataSource class to save the entry to
the table. Then, it refreshes its contents using the DataBind() method.
4. Locate the tmrRefreshMsgs_Tick method, and insert the following line of code.
This method refreshes the page every 15 seconds. The refreshing interval is pre-configured in
the default.aspx file.
5. Locate the Page_Load method, and insert the code snippet Tutorial01-Lesson03-
Task02_WebRolePage_Load.
if(!Page.IsPostBack)
{
tmrRefreshMsgs.Enabled = true;
}
The code enables the page refresh timer.
6. Press Ctrl+S to save the Default.aspx.cs file.
Earlier in the tutorial, you defined a constant called connectionStringName, the value
isDataConnectionString. DataConnectionString is a setting in the configuration file. You must define it.
When you add a role to the Windows Azure project, Visual Studio generated two configuration
files,ServiceConfiguration.Cloud.cscfg and ServiceConfiguration.Local.cscfg. You can configure the local
configuration file to use the Storage Emulator for testing the application locally, and the cloud
configuration file to use a Windows Azure storage account. Creating a storage account will be covered in
lesson 4. For the time being, you configure both configuration files to use Storage Emulator.
Note: Storage Emulator offers local storage services that simulate the Blob, the Queue, and the Table
services available in Windows Azure. The Storage Emulator UI provides a means to view the status of
local storage service and to start, stop, and reset them. For more information, see Overview of the
Windows Azure Storage Emulator athttp://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg432983.aspx.
To add the storage account settings
1. In Solution Explorer, expand MessageBoard, expandRoles, and then double-click
MessageBoard_WebRole to open the properties for this role.
2. In the left, click Settings.
3. In the Service Configuration drop down in the heading, select All Configurations.
4. Click Add Setting.
5. Type or select the following values.
Name Value

Name DataConnectionString
Type Connection String
Value
(click the ellipses button (…), and then select Use the Windows Azure storage emulator).
"UseDevelopmentStorage=true" will appear in the Value cell.
6. The DataConnectionString is used in the MessageBoardDataSource class you defined
inLesson 2.
7. Press Ctrl+S to save changes to the role configuration.
What did I just do?
In this step, you created a web role to display the message board and process user input.
Next Steps:
You will test the application in the compute emulator. Then you will generate a service package that you
can use to deploy the application to Windows Azure.

Lesson 4: Test the Application and Deploy the Application
In this lesson, you test the message board application in the local compute emulator, and then deploy
the application to Windows Azure as a cloud service.
Note: The Windows Azure compute emulator simulates the Windows Azure fabric on your local
computer so that you can run and test your service locally before deploying it. For more information,
seeOverview of the Windows Azure SDK Tools at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-
us/library/gg432968.aspx.
Procedures
1. Test the application
2. Generate the service package
3. Sign in to Windows Azure
4. Create a storage account. You need a storage account to utilize Windows Azure storage services,
for example the table service.
5. Create a cloud service. The cloud service is used to host the message board application.
6. To configure the ServiceConfiguration.Cloud.cscfg file
7. Deploy the application to the staging environment
9. Promote the application to the production environment
To test the application
1. In Solution Explorer, right-click MessageBoard, and then clickSet as Startup Project.
2. From the Debug menu, click Start Debugging. You will see a compute emulator icon added to
the notification area of taskbar, and a new Internet Explorer window showing the Golfer
Message Board application.
3. (Optional) Right-click the compute emulator icon (a blue flag icon) on the Taskbar to show the
compute emulator UI and the storage emulator UI.
4. Switch to Internet Explorer to view the message board application.
5. Add a few entries to the message board by entering your name and a message before
clickingSend.
6. Close the Internet Explorer window.
After the application is tested successfully in the compute emulator environment, the next step is to
create the service package and then deploy the application to Windows Azure.
To generate the service package
1. In Solution Explorer, right-click the MessageBoard cloud project, and then selectPackage.
2. In the Package Windows Azure Application dialog, select the following values:

Name Value
Service configurationCloud
Build configuration Release
3. Click Package. After Visual Studio builds the project and generates the service package,
Windows Explorer opens with the current folder set to the location where the generated
package is stored. The default directory
isC:AzureTutorialsTutorial1GolferMessageBoardMessageBoardbinReleaseapp.publish.
Make sure to write down the path. You will need it in the deployment lesson.
You will get a few warning messages about 'DataConnectionString" set up to use the
local storage emulator. You can ignore these warning for now.
For deploying the golfer message board application, you must have a storage account for accessing the
Windows Azure storage services, and acloud service, which is a container for service deployments in
Windows Azure. For better performance, you might want to create anaffinity group to group the service
and the storage accounts within a subscription according to geo-location.
To sign in to Windows Azure
1. Open a Web browser and browse to http://windows.azure.com/. This is the Windows Azure
Management Portal.
2. Sign in using the Windows Live ID associated with your Windows Azure account.
Note: If you haven’t had a Windows Azure Platform subscription, see theProvisioning Windows
Azure section of this tutorial.
To create a storage account for the golfer message board application to store its data
1. From the portal, in the left pane, click STORAGE.
2. On the bottom left corner, click NEW, click STORAGE, and then clickQUICK CREATE.
Name Value
URL <yourname>gmb (i.e. johndolegmb)
REGION/AFFINITY
GROUP
(Choose the region where you wish your service to run, most likely, the one
that is closest to your current location. Select an affinity group instead of a
region if you want your storage services to be in the same data center with
the cloud service that you will create in the next step. To create an affinity
group, open the NETWORKS area of the Management Portal, click AFFINITY

GROUPS, and then click CREATE.)
4. Click the check mark on the bottom right corner. Wait until the status of the storage account
changes toOnline. The process can take several minutes.
5. Once the storage account is created, click the storage account from the storage account list to
select it, and then clickMANAGE KEYS on the bottom of the page.
6. Record the STORAGE ACCOUNT NAME and PRIMARY ACCESS KEY. Later in the tutorial, you will
need to configure your cloud service to use storage account by specifying the account name and
the access key.
7. Close the dialog.
To create a cloud service
1. From the portal, in the left pane, click CLOUD SERVICES.
2. On the bottom left corner of the portal page, click NEW, clickCOMPUTE, click CLOUD SERVICE,
and then click CUSTOM CREATE.
Name Value
URL
<yourname>gmb
Note: The URL prefix must be unique.
REGION/AFFINITY GROUP
(For better performance, select the same region as the one you
chose for the storage service, or use an affinity group.)
Deployment a cloud service
package now
(not selected)
4. Click the check sign on the bottom right corner. Wait until the status changes toCreated. This
process could take several minutes.
When you create and test the application locally, the application is configured to use the development
storage. Now you have created a storage account, you can configure the application to use the storage
account before deploying the application to Windows Azure. The configuration information is in the
ServiceConfiguration.Cloud.cscfg file. This file was created when you generated the service package.
To configure the ServiceConfiguration.Cloud.cscfg file
1. Use Notepad to open
C:AzureTutorialsTutorial1GolferMessageBoardMessageBoardbinReleaseapp.publishS
erviceConfiguration.Cloud.cscfg. This path can be different if you installed the tutorial files into

a different folder than the c root directory. Notice the value of DataConnectionString is
"UseDevelopmentStorage=true".
2. Change the value of DataConnectionString to
DefaultEndpointsProtocol=https;AccountName=<your storage account
name>;AccountKey=<your storage account primary access key>. Replace <your storage
account name> and <your storage account access key> accordingly.
3. Change the value of Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Diagnostics.ConnectionString
toDefaultEndpointsProtocol=https;AccountName=<your storage account
name>;AccountKey=<your storage account primary access key>. You must replace <your
storage account name> and <your storage account primary access key> with the actual account
name and account key for the storage account that you created earlier in the tutorial.
4. Optionally, you can increase the Instances count to scale out the application.
5. Save the file and close Notepad.
To deploy the application to the staging environment
2. In the middle pane, click the cloud service you just created. The default name is
<yourname>gmb.
3. From the top of the page, click STAGING.
4. Click UPLOAD A NEW STAGING DEPLOYMENT.
5. From Upload a package, type or select the following value.
Name Value
Deployment
name
v1.0.0.0
Package location
C:AzureTutorialsTutorial1GolferMessageBoardMessageBoardbinRelease
app.publishMessageBoard.cspkg
Configuration file
app.publishServiceConfiguration.Cloud.cscfg
Deploy even if
one or more roles
contain a single
instance
(Selected). You can always increase the number of instances from the portal.
Start deployment (Selected)
6. Click the check sign on the bottom right corner of the page.
7. Wait until the upload process is completed. The process can take several minutes to complete.
To test the application in the staging environment

2. In the middle pane, click the cloud service you created.
4. On the right side of the page, click the site URL.
5. Test the application by entering one or more entries.
After the application is working correctly in the staging environment, you are ready to promote it to the
production environment.
To promote the application to production
4. On the bottom of the page, click SWAP.
5. On the right, click YES.
6. On the top of the page, click PRODUCTION. It takes several minutes to complete the operation.
7. On the right, click the SITE URL.
8. In the Properties pane, click the URL in the DNS name box. The application is opened in a new
browser tab or a new browser window depending on your browser configuration.
Note: Some DNS services take longer to replicate the records. If you get a page not found error,
you might need to try browsing to the URL again in a few minutes.
9. Test the application in the production environment by entering one or more entries.
What did I just do?
In this step, you deployed the golfer message board to Windows Azure.
Next Steps:
Congratulations! You have completed tutorial 1. Tutorial 2,tutorial 3 and tutorial 4 show you how to use
SQL Database and other Windows Azure storage services.

Tutorial 2: Using SQL Database
This tutorial demonstrates the process of creating a Windows Azure cloud service consuming Windows
Azure SQL Database and the process of deploying the application to Windows Azure.
Overview
Intutorial 1, you created a simple golfer message board application. In the application, a ASP.NET Web
role provides the front-end that allows golfers to view the contents of the message board and post new
entries. Each entry contains a name and a message. When golfers post a new message, the Web role
creates an entry that contains the information entered by the golfers using Windows Azure Table
service. In this tutorial, you will modify the application so that it uses SQL Database instead of the Table
service.
Here is a screenshot of the application:
Note: This tutorial is not intended to show you how to choose between SQL Database and the Table
service, but to show you how to use SQL Database. For information on SQL Database and Windows
Azure Table service comparison, seeWindows AzureSQL Database and Windows Azure Table Service at
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/gg309178.aspx, and Data Storage Offerings on the
Windows Azure Platform.
Note: Completing Tutorial 1 is not a pre-requisite for this tutorial; however, it helps with understanding
the scenario.
Note: For the tutorial in PHP, see Using the Windows Azure Web Role and SQL Database with PHP.

Objectives
• Understanding the process of developing a SQL Database cloud service application
• Use SQL Database as a cloud-hosted database platform for your applications
Prerequisites
Note the following requirements before you begin this lesson:
• .NET development experience
• Before you begin this step you must complete the steps in Before You Begin the Tutorials.
in this tutorial:

• There are two environments: the Windows Azure runtime environment and the local
development environment. The runtime environment is hosted in one of the Microsoft data
centers.
• There are two main services within the runtime environment: Compute and Storage. Compute is
the computational part of Windows Azure. Storage consists of three main parts: Table service,
Blob service and Queue service. Other than the Windows Azure Storage Service, you can also
use SQL Database to store data. SQL Database is a cloud-based relational database service built
on Microsoft SQL Server technologies. In this tutorial, you will use SQL Database. Tutorial 1
covers Table service; tutorial 3 covers Blob service; and tutorial 4 covers Queue service. For
more information, see Data Storage Offerings on the Windows Azure Platform.
• The Compute service is also referred as Cloud Service. It is the application you deploy on
Windows Azure. Every Cloud Service can have Web role and Worker role. A Web role is an
ASP.NET Web application accessible via an HTTP or HTTPS endpoint and is commonly the front-
end for an application. A worker role is a role that is useful for generalized development, and
may perform background processing for a Web role. In tutorial 1, you created a Web role

project. Tutorial 2 and tutorial 3 uses the same Web role. Tutorial 4 will introduce Worker role.
For more information, see Overview of a Windows Azure Application.
• You can use the portal to administrate Windows Azure platform resources, and use Database
Manager to perform basic database management tasks.
• You develop the SQL Database application using Visual Studio and Windows Azure SDK.
• You deploy the application to Windows Azure Emulator for testing and to Windows Azure.
In this Article
• Lesson 1: Prepare SQL Database account
• Lesson 2: Modify the application to use SQL Database
• Lesson 3: Test and deploy the application

Lesson 1: Prepare SQL Database Account
In this lesson, you connect to your SQL Database account and create a server and a database for the
Golfer Message Board application using Windows Azure Management Portal. You can also use SQL
Database Management API to create SQL Database servers, databases, and tables programmatically. For
more information, see About the Windows Azure SQL Database Management API.
Procedures
• Create a SQL Database server
• Create a database
• Create a table
You must have a Windows Azure Platform subscription.
To create a SQL Database server and a database
1. Open a Web browser, and browse to http://windows.azure.com.
2. Log in to your Windows Live account.
3. On the bottom of the page, click + NEW, click DATA SERVICES, clickSQL DATABASE, and then
click CUSTOM CREATE.
4. Type or select the following values:
Name Value
NAME GolferMessageBoardDB
SERVER New SQL Database Server
5. Click the right arrow on the bottom right corner of the dialog.
6. Type the following values:
Name Value
LOGIN NAME MyAdmin
LOGIN PASSWORD pass@word1
LOGIN PASSWORD CONFIRMATION pass@word1
REGION (Select a region that you want your service to reside. For

better performance, choose the one that is close to you.)
ALLOW WINDOWS AZURE SERVICES
TO ACCESS THE SERVER
(selected)
Note: An administrator account is a master account used to manage the new server. You should
avoid using this account in connection strings where the username and password may be
exposed. To simplify the tutorial instructions, this tutorial uses the administrator account. The
default administrator username is MyAdmin, and the default password ispass@word1. If you
change the username and the password in this step, you must change them accordingly in the
rest of the tutorial.
Note: The password policy requires that this password contain at least one number, one
character, one letter, and one symbol. In addition, the password cannot be less than six
characters nor contain three consecutive characters from the username.
7. Click the check mark on the bottom right corner of the page.
8. On the top of the page, click DATABASES to list the SQL databases. From the list, you can find
out the SQL Database server name for the GolferMessageBoardDB database.Wait until
theSTATUS column shows Online.
You can use either SQL Server Management Studio or Windows Azure Management Portal to manage
your SQL Database. To connect to SQL Database from SQL Server Management Studio, you must provide
the fully qualified domain name of the server. In this tutorial, you will use Windows Azure Management
Portal.
Note: The SQL Server Management Studio from SQL Server 2008 R2 and SQL Server 2008 R2 Express can
be used to access, configure, manage and administer SQL Database. Previous versions of SQL Server
Management Studio are not supported.
SQL Database has two types of access control: firewall and SQL authentication. You must configure the
SQL Database firewall settings to allow connections from your computer(s). You must also allow
connections from Windows Azure, because the golfer message board application is hosted in Windows
Azure (This is done in the previous procedure). In addition to configuring the SQL Database server-side
firewall, you must also configure your client-side environment to allow outbound TCP connections over
TCP port 1433. For more information on SQL Database security, see Security Guidelines for Windows
Azure SQL Database.
To create a SQL Database server firewall rule
1. From Windows Azure Management Portal, in the left pane, click SQL DATABASES. You shall see
a list of SQL databases.
2. Find the GolferMessageBoardDB database, and then click the server (on the same row) which
hosts the database.
3. On the top of the page, click CONFIGURE.

4. Click ADD TO ALLOWED IP ADDRESSES. A new firewall rule which allows the development
computer to access is added to the list. This step is required before using Management Portal
for SQL Database.
5. At the bottom of the page, click SAVE.
The Golfer Message Board application has one table for storing the messages.
To create a table
1. From Windows Azure Management Portal, click SQL DATABASES.
2. From the SQL database list, click GolferMessageBoardDB to select the row.
3. On the bottom of the page, click MANAGE. The Management Portal for SQL Database is opened
in a different browser tab or new browser.
4. Type the following values:
Name Value
SERVER (use default value)
DATABASE GolferMessageBoardDB
USERNAME MyAdmin
PASSWORD pass@word1
5. Click Log on.
6. Click New Query.
7. In the Query window, type the following query, and then clickRun.
CREATE TABLE [Messages](
[MessageID] [int] IDENTITY(1,1) NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY,
[GolferName] [nvarchar](100) NOT NULL,
[GolferMessage] [nvarchar](1000) NOT NULL,
[Timestamp] [datetime] NOT NULL
)
8. Click the Message button on the bottom of the main pane, and make sure the query is
completed successfully.
What did I just do?
In this step, you created a SQL Database server, a database, and a table needed by the golfer message
board application.
Next Steps:

You will modify the golfer message board application you created in tutorial 1 so that it uses SQL
Database instead of the Table service for storing the messages.

Lesson 2: Modify the Application to use SQL Database
Currently, the application only needs to access a single table. It is easy and straightforward to access the
data using LINQ.
There are two places you need to modify the application to use SQL Database. One is listing the
messages, and the other is inserting new messages to the database.
Procedures
1. Open the golfer message board application
2. Create messages entity class
3. Modify the default.aspx page for listing the messages
4. Modify the default.aspx.cs page for inserting new messages
5. Compile the MessageBoard_WebRole project
To open the Golfer Message Board application
3. Click the FILE menu, point to Open, and then clickProject/Solution.
4. In File name, type C:AzureTutorialsTutorial2GolferMessageBoardGolferMessageBoard.sln,
and then clickOpen.
To create message entity class
1. In Solution Explorer, right-click MessageBoard_WebRole, point toAdd, and then click New Item.
2. In the Add New Item – MessageBoard_WebRole dialog, type and select the following values:
Name Value
Installed Templates Visual C# , Data
Template LINQ to SQL Classes
Name MessageBoard.dbml
3. Click Add.
4. From the View menu, click Server Explorer. You can also pressCtrl+Alt+S to open Server
Explorer.
5. In Server Explorer, right-click Data Connections, and then clickAdd Connection.
6. Type and select the following values.

Name Value
Data source Microsoft SQL Server
Data provider .NET Framework Data Provider for SQL Server
7. Click Continue.
8. Type and select the following values.
Name Value
Data source Microsoft SQL Server (SqlClient
Data provider .NET Framework Data Provider for SQL Server
Server name <ServerName>.database.windows.net
User SQL Server Authentication(Selected)
User name MyAdmin
Password pass@word1
Select or enter a database name GolferMessageBoardDB
Note: SQL Database doesn’t support unencrypted connections. If you try to request a
connection via SQL Server Management Studio that is unencrypted, SQL Database signals SQL
Server Management Studio to establish an encrypted connection. To change the Encrypt setting,
click Advanced from the Add Connection dialog. For more information, see Overview of Security
in Windows Azure SQL Database.
Note: The <ServerName> is the SQL Database server name you wrote down when you created
the server.
Note: SQL Database supports only SQL Server Authentication. For more information, seeSecurity
Guidelines and Limitations (Windows Azure SQL Database) at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-
us/library/ff394108.aspx#authentication.
9. Click OK.
10. In Server Explorer, expand the database connection you just added, expand Tables.
11. Drag-and-drop the Messages table onto the O/R Designer. The Object Relational Designer (O/R
Designer) provides a visual design surface for creating and editing LINQ to SQL classes (entity
classes) that are based on objects in a database.
12. In Solution Explorer, right-click MessageBoard_WebRole, and then clickRebuild.
In tutorial 1, you used a DataList control and an ObjectDataSource control to list the messages. You will
replace the ObjectDataSource control with a LinqDataSource control in this tutorial.
To modify the Default.aspx page for listing the messages

1. In Solution Explorer, expand MessageBoard_WebRole, right-clickDefault.aspx, and then click
View Designer.
2. From Toolbox, drag a LinqDataSource data control (under the Data category), and then drop it
to the right or the bottom ofdsMessages.
Note: Click Ctrl+Alt+X to display the Toolbox. TheLinqDataSource control is listed under the
Data category. The dsMessages control appears on the bottom of the page.
3. Hover over the LinqDataSource1 control, click the right button, and then clickConfigure Data
Source.
4. In Choose your context object, select MessageBoard_WebRole.MessageBoardDataContext,
and then clickNext.
Note: The context object will not be listed until you compile the MessageBoard_WebRole
project.
5. In Select, select GolferName, GolferMessage, andTimestamp, and then click Finish.

6. Hover over the dlMessages DataList control, click the right button, then inChoose Data Source,
choose LinqDataSource1.
7. Click No to reject resetting the template.
To modify the Default.aspx.cs page for inserting new messages
1. In Solution Explorer, right-click Default.aspx, and then clickView Code.
2. Delete the code inside the btnSend_Click method, and then insert the code snippetTutorial02-
Lesson02-Task04_WebRoleBtnSend_Click:
protected void btnSend_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
MessageBoardDataContext context = new MessageBoardDataContext();
var newMessage = new Message
GolferName = txtName.Text,
GolferMessage = txtMessage.Text,
Timestamp = DateTime.UtcNow
};
context.Messages.InsertOnSubmit(newMessage);
context.SubmitChanges();

txtName.Text = "";
txtMessage.Text = "";
If you don't see the code snippet, follow the instructions found in Before You Begin The Tutorials
to copy the snippet.
Because you don't need the Table service, you can delete the MessageBoard_Data project from the
solution, all of the references, and the associated using statements. However it will not impact your
testing if you choose to keep the project.
To compile the MessageBoard_WebRole project
• In Solution Explorer, right-click MessageBoard_WebRole, and then clickRebulid. Make sure the
project is compiled successfully.
What did I just do?
In this step, you modified the golfer message board application to connect to SQL Database via LINQ.
Next Steps:
You will test and deploy the application.

Lesson 3: Test and Deploy the Application
In this lesson, you test the application in Windows Azure computer emulator, package the application,
and then deploy the application to Windows Azure.
Note: If you don’t have a Windows Azure Platform subscription, see theProvisioning Windows Azure
section of this tutorial.
Procedures
1. Test the application in compute emulator
4. Create a cloud service
6. Test the application in the staging environment
To test the application in compute emulator
1. If MessageBoard is not the startup project: In Solution Explorer, right-clickMessageBoard, and
then click Set as Startup Project.
2. From the Debug menu, click Start Debugging. The Golfer Message Board page is opened in a
new browser window.
3. Switch to the browser window to view the message board application.
clickingSend.
5. Close the browser window to stop the debugger and shut down the development in the
compute emulator.
1. In Solution Explorer, right-click the MessageBoard cloud project, and then clickPackage.
2. In Package Windows Azure Application, select the following values:
Name Value

Make sure to write down the path. You will need it later in this lesson.
Management Portal.
Note: If you haven’t had a Windows Azure Platform subscription, see theProvisioning
Windows Azure section of this tutorial.
You need to create a cloud service for the Web role. If you have created a cloud service account in
tutorial 1, you can skip this step.
Name Value
URL
<yourname>gmb
package now
(not selected)
<yourname>gmb..

4. Click UPLOAD A NEW STAGING DEPLOYMENT.
Name Value
Deployment
name
v1.1.0.0
Package location
Configuration file
Deploy even if
one or more roles
contain a single
instance
Start deployment (Selected)

Note: Some DNS services take longer to replicate the records. If you get a page not
found error, you might need to try browsing to the URL again in a few minutes.
What did I just do?
In this step, you tested and deployed the golfer message board to Windows Azure.
Next Steps:
Congratulations! You have completed the tutorial 2. tutorial 3 shows you another Windows Azure
storage called Blob. tutorial 2.1, which is optional, shows you how to add a data service that implements
the Open Data Protocol (OData) to the project.

Tutorial 2.1: Create an OData Service
This tutorial demonstrates the process of creating a data service application that implements the Open
Data Protocol (OData) to expose data from Windows Azure SQL Database and the process of deploying
the application to Windows Azure.
Overview
In tutorial 1 you created a simple golfer message board application. In tutorial 2 you updated the
application to store message board data, which includes a name and a message, in a SQL Database.
This tutorial is based on these two previous tutorials. In this tutorial you extend the Web application to
add a data service that implements the Open Data Protocol (OData). This OData service uses the SQL
Database created in tutorial 2.
Objectives
• Create an Entity Framework data model to access SQL Database-hosted database
• Use WCF Data Services with the Entity Framework provider to create an OData service
• Deploy a WCF Data Services Web application to Windows Azure
Prerequisites
• Complete the steps in Tutorial 2 Using SQL Database
The data service runs in the Windows Azure Web role and uses Entity Framework to access data from
the SQL Database service. For more general information on the Windows Azure and SQL Database
architecture used in this application, see the section Understanding the Architecture in tutorial 2.
In this Article
• Lesson 1: Define the Entity Framework data model
• Lesson 2: Modify the application to add the data service

Lesson 1: Modify the Application to Define the Entity
Framework Data Model
In tutorial 2, the application accessed the GolferMessageBoardDB database by using a data source based
on LINQ-to-SQL classes.
You need to use the Entity Data Model wizard to add an Entity Framework data model to the project.
This data model will be used by the data service to access the database. When you create a new Entity
Data Model in your project, the wizard also adds the appropriate assembly references to the project.
Procedures
2. Create the Entity Data Model to access the GolferMessageBoardDB on SQL Database
3. Compile the MessageBoard_WebRole project
3. Click the File menu, point to Open, and then clickProject/Solution.
4. In File name, type
C:AzureTutorialsTutorial2.1GolferMessageBoardGolferMessageBoard.sln, and the
clickOpen.
To create the Entity Data Model
Name Value
Installed TemplatesVisual C# , Data
Template ADO.NET Entity Data Model
Name MessageBoard.edmx
3. Click Add
4. In the Entity Data Model Wizard, select Generate from Database, and then clickNext.
5. In the Choose Your Data Connection screen of the Entity Data Model Wizard dialog, type and
select the following values:

Name Value
Which data connection should your application
use to connect to the database?
GolferMessageBoardDBConnectionString
Select the option:
Yes, include the sensitive data in the connection
string
Save entity connection settings in Web.config
as:
GolferMessageBoardDBEntities
6. Click Next.
Security Note: To properly secure the SQL Database connection string, you should encrypt the
Web.config file.Encrypting the Web.config file is outside the scope of this tutorial. For an
example of how to do this, see the blog series on Windows AzureSQL Database
7. In the Choose Your Database Objects and Settings screen of theEntity Data Model Wizard
dialog, select the following values:
Name Value
Enable these options:
Tables
Pluralize or singularize generated object names
Include foreign key columns in the model
Model Namespace GolferMessageBoardDBModel
8. Click Finish. This adds the MessageBoard.edmx file and references to Entity Framework
assemblies to the project. The MessageBoard.edmx file represents the data model and mapping
to the SQL Database.
9. In Solution Explorer, expand the MessageBoard_WebRole project and double-click the
MessageBoard.edmx file. This opens the data model in the ADO.NET Entity Data Model Designer
(Entity Designer).
10. In the Entity Designer surface, right-click the Message entity, and clickProperties.
11. In the Properties window, update the following property values:
Name Value
Name Message2

Entity Set Name Messages
Note: By default, both the Object Relational Designer (LINQ-to-SQL) and the Entity Designer
(LINQ-to-Entities) generate theMessage type in the default project namespace. To prevent
errors when building the project, you need to rename one of the types toMessage2. The entity
set name is used by WCF Data Services as the name of the feed, which is changed toMessages.
• In Solution Explorer, right-click MessageBoard_WebRole, and then clickRebulid. Make sure the
What did I just do?
In this step, you modified the golfer message board application to add an Entity Framework data model.
This data model and generated classes are used to connect to SQL Database by using the Entity
Framework.
Next Steps:
You will use the WCF Data Services item template to add the code to the project that defines the OData
service. This data service uses the new Entity Framework data model.

Lesson 2: Modify the Application to Add the Data Service
In this lesson, you add the code for the OData service, which uses the data model created in the
previous lesson.
This template adds both a markup page (.svc) and a code-behind page to the project. It also adds the
appropriate assembly references to the project.
Note: When you create a data service such that the generic type of the DataService<T> class is the
strongly-typed ObjectContext of an Entity Framework data model, WCF Data Services uses the Entity
Framework provider to access and change data in the database. For more information, see Entity
Framework Provider (WCF Data Services).
Procedures
• Add the data service code files to the project
• Modify the data service to use the entity data model from the previous lesson
• Compile the MessageBoard_WebRole project
To add WCF Data Services code files to the project
Name Value
Installed Templates Visual C# , Web
Template WCF Data Service
Name MessageBoard.svc
3. Click Add. This adds both the data service code files and WCF Data Services assembly references
to the project.
To modify the WCF Data Services code files to use the data model
1. In MessageBoard_WebRole, right-click MessageBoard.svc, and clickView Code.
2. In the code for the data service, locate the following comment in code:
/* TODO: put your data source class name here */
3. Replace this comment with the name of the strongly-typed ObjectContext of the Entity
Framework data model, which isGolferMessageBoardDBEntities. The class definition should look
like the following:

public class MessageBoard : DataService<GolferMessageBoardDBEntities>
4. Locate the InitializeService method and replace it with the following code:
// This method is called only once to initialize service-wide policies.
public static void InitializeService(DataServiceConfiguration config)
{
// Grant only the rights needed to support client applications,
// in this case read all and insert new messages.
config.SetEntitySetAccessRule("Messages", EntitySetRights.AllRead |
EntitySetRights.WriteAppend);
}
1. In Solution Explorer, right-click MessageBoard_WebRole, and then clickRebulid. Make sure the
What did I just do?
In this step, you used WCF Data Services to add an OData feed to the golfer message board application,
which accesses the SQL Database by using and the Entity Framework provider. This enables you to read
messages as OData feeds and insert new messages by sending POST requests to the OData service.
Next Steps:

In this lesson, you test the application in Windows Azure computer emulator, package the application,
Note: You must disable feed reading view in the browser to view the raw Atom XML feed returned from
the OData service.
Procedures
1. Disable feed reading view in the browser
2. Test the application in compute emulator
5. Create a cloud service
7. Test the application in the staging environment
To disable feed reading view in Internet Explorer
1. Open Internet Explorer.
2. Click Tools menu, and then select Internet Options.
3. Click the Content tab, click Settings in theFeeds and Web Slices section, and clear Turn on feed
view.
Note: If you are using a Web browser other than Internet Explorer and if your browser cannot
display the feed as raw XML data, you should still be able to view the feed as the source code for the
page.
To test the application in the computer emulator
1. If MessageBoard is not the startup project: In Solution Explorer, right-clickMessageBoard, and
then click Set as Startup Project.
2. Right-click Message.svc and click Set As Start Page.
3. From the Debug menu, click Start Debugging.
4. Switch to the browser window to view the service document for the OData service.
5. In the address bar, append the entity set name Messages to the root URI of the data service,
and then press return. This displays the Messages OData feed, which returns all messages in the
database.

Note: If the feed returned appears empty, then you will need to first insert some data into the
SQL Database. The easiest way to add new messages to the database is by entering them in the
default.aspx page of the Web application.
6. Close the browser window to stop the debugger and shut down the development in the
compute emulator.
1. In Solution Explorer, right-click the MessageBoard cloud project, and then clickPackage.
2. In Package Windows Azure Application, select the following values:
Name Value
isC:AzureTutorialsTutorial2.1GolferMessageBoardMessageBoardbinReleaseapp.publis
h. Make sure to write down the path. You will need it later in this lesson.
Management Portal.
You need to create a cloud service for the Web role. If you have created a cloud service account in
tutorial 1 or tutorial 2, you can skip this step.

Name Value
URL
<yourname>gmb
package now
(not selected)
<yourname>gmb..
4. Click UPLOAD A NEW STAGING DEPLOYMENT or UPDATE if you have deployed a Golfer
Message Board application from other tutorials before.
5. Type or select the following value.
Name Value
Deployment
name
v1.1.1.0
Package
location
C:AzureTutorialsTutorial2.1GolferMessageBoardMessageBoardbinRelease
Configuration
file
C:AzureTutorialsTutorial2.1GolferMessageBoardMessageBoardbinRelease
Deploy even if
one or more
roles contain a
single instance
Start
deployment
(only available
when deploying
(Selected)

a new
application)
9. Test the OData feed in the production environment by accessing the Messages feed as before.
What did I just do?
In this step, you tested and deployed the golfer message board OData service to Windows Azure.
Next Steps:
Congratulations! You have completed the tutorial 2.1. Now that you have deployed the data service, you
can create client applications that consume the Messages OData feed. For more information on how to
create client applications that access OData services, see one of the following topics in the MSDN
library:

• WCF Data Services Client Library – used to consume an OData feed in a .NET Framework client
application.
• WCF Data Services (Silverlight) – used to consume an OData feed in a Silverlight client
application.
• Open Data Protocol (OData) Client for Windows Phone – used to consume an OData feed in a
Windows Phone client application
For a complete list of client libraries that support OData, see the OData SDK .

Tutorial 3: Using Windows Azure Blob
Service
This tutorial demonstrates how to use the Windows Azure Blob Service.
Overview
In tutorial 1, you created a simple golfer message board application. In the application, a Web role
provides the front-end that allows golfers to view the contents of the message board and add new
entries. Each entry contains a name and a message. When golfers post a new message, the Web role
creates an entry using the Table service that contains the information entered by the golfers. The Web
role also renders this information to the browser so golfers can view the content of the message board.
Tutorial 3 is based on tutorial 1. In this tutorial, you will modify the application you created in tutorial 1.
In addition to golfer name and a short message for each message ported to the message board, you will
also add an image. You will keep using the Table service for the text portion of the messages, but use
the Blob service for images.
Here is a screenshot of the application.
Note: Completing tutorial 1 is not a pre-requisite for this tutorial. However, it helps with understanding
the scenario.

Objectives
• Use the Blob service
Prerequisites
• Before you begin this step you must complete the steps in Before You Begin The Tutorials.
in this tutorial:

• You deploy the application to Windows Azure Emulator for testing, and to Windows Azure.
• A service hosted in Windows Azure consists of one or more Web roles and worker roles. A Web
role is an ASP.NET Web application accessible via an HTTP or HTTPS endpoint and is commonly
the front-end for an application. A worker role is a role that is useful for generalized
development, and may perform background processing for a Web role. The Tutorial 3
application contains a Web role project. For more information, seeOverview of a Windows Azure
Application at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg432976.aspx.
• The Windows Azure storage services provide persistent, redundant storage in the cloud. The
storage services include these fundamental services: Blob service, Queue service, and Table
service. The Table service and the Blob service are used in this tutorial. For more information,
see Data Storage Offerings on the Windows Azure Platform.

Understanding the Blob Service
The Windows Azure Blob service enables applications to store large objects, up to 1TB each. It supports
a massively scalable blob system via the Windows Azure CDN, where hot blobs will be served from many
servers to scale out and meet the traffic needs of your application. Furthermore, the system is highly
available and durable. You can always access your data from anywhere at any time, and the data is
replicated at least 3 times for durability. In addition, strong consistency is provided to ensure that the
object is immediately accessible once it is added or updated; a subsequent read will immediately see the
changes made from a previously committed write.
An application must use a valid account to access Windows Azure Storage. An account can have many
Blob containers. Each container provides a grouping of a set of blobs.
In this Article
• Lesson 1: Modify the application to use the Blob service

Lesson 1: Modify the Application to Use the Blob Service
In this lesson, you modify the golfer message board application to use the Blob service for storing
images.
Procedures
2. Modify the table schema
3. Modify the data source
4. Modify default.aspx
5. Modify default.aspx.cs
and the clickOpen.
In tutorial 1, you defined a fixed schema for the Table service to storage messages. You must modify the
schema to include a new data member for storing the URL to the image in the Blob service.
To modify the table schema
1. In Solution Explorer, expand MessageBoard_Data, and then double-clickMessageBoardEntry.cs
to open the file.
2. At the end of the class, define a new data member by adding the following line:
public string ImageURL {get; set;}
The file looks like the following after modification:

Modify the data source
1. In Solution Explorer, expand MessageBoard_Data, and then double-
clickMessageBoardDataSource.cs to open the file.
2. At the beginning of the file, add the following namespace declaration:
using System.IO
3. At the beginning of the MesageBoardDataSource class, add new data members by inserting the
code snippetTutorial03-Lesson01-Task03_MessageBoardDataSourceDataMembers:
private const string messageImageBlobName = "golfermessageboardpics";
private CloudBlobClient blobClient;
private CloudBlobContainer blobContainer;
Note: All letters in a container name must be lowercase. For more restrictions on container
names, seeNaming Containers, Blobs, and Metadata.
4. At the end of the default constructor, add code to create a blob container by inserting the code
snippetTutorial03-Lesson01-Task03_MessageBoardDataSourceDefaultConstructor:
blobClient = storageAccount.CreateCloudBlobClient();
blobContainer = blobClient.GetContainerReference(messageImageBlobName);
blobContainer.CreateIfNotExist();
var permissions = blobContainer.GetPermissions();
permissions.PublicAccess = BlobContainerPublicAccessType.Container;
blobContainer.SetPermissions(permissions);
5. Inside the class, add a new method for adding a blob by inserting the code snippetTutorial03-
Lesson01-Task03_MessageBoardDataSourceAddBlob:
public string AddBlob(string fileExtension, string fileContentType, Stream
fileContent)
{
// upload the image to blob storage
string uniqueBlobName = string.Format(messageImageBlobName +
"/image_{0}{1}", Guid.NewGuid().ToString(), fileExtension);

CloudBlockBlob blob = blobClient.GetBlockBlobReference(uniqueBlobName);
blob.Properties.ContentType = fileContentType ;
blob.UploadFromStream(fileContent );
return blob.Uri.ToString();
}
6. Press Ctrl+S to save the file.
7. In Solution Explorer, right-click MessageBoard_Data, and then clickRebuild.
Default.aspx presents the message board Web interface. You must modify the page so that golfers can
upload an image, and the page can display images along with messages. See the screenshot at the
beginning of the tutorial.
To modify the default.aspx file
View Markup.

2. Find the <div> tag with class=”inputSection”. At the end of the<dl> tag, add the code for
uploading images by inserting the code snippetTutorial03-Lesson01-
Task03_WebRoleFileUpload.
<dt>
<label for="FileUpload1">Photo:</label>
</dt>
<dd>
<asp:FileUpload ID="FileUpload1" runat="server" size="16" />
<asp:RequiredFieldValidator ID="PhotoRequiredValidator" runat="server"
ControlToValidate="FileUpload1" Text="*" />
<asp:RegularExpressionValidator ID="PhotoRegularExpressionValidator"
runat="server"
ControlToValidate="FileUpload1" ErrorMessage="Only .jpg or .png files are
allowed"
ValidationExpression="([a-zA-Z].*(.jpg|.JPG|.png|.PNG)$)" />
</dd>
If you don't see the code snippet, follow the instructions in Before You Begin the Tutorialsto
copy the code snippets.
The <div> tag looks like the following after the modification:
3. Find the <div> tag with class=”signature”. At the beginning of the <div> tag, add the code for
displaying images by inserting the code snippetTutorial03-Lesson01-
Task03_WebRoleDisplayImage:
<div class="signatureImage">
<img src="<%# Eval("ImageUrl") %>" alt="<%# Eval("GolferName") %>" />
</div>

Next, you modify the default.aspx.cs for creating and using the Blob service. In the code, you define a
lock to prevent the Blob service being created multiple times.
To modify the default.aspx.cs file
View Code.
2. At the top of the file, insert the following namespace declaration:
using System.IO;
3. Inside the btnSend_Click() method, add or modify the lines highlighted in the screenshot:

5. In Solution Explorer, right-click MessageBoard_WebRole, and then clickRebulid.
What did I just do?
In this step, you introduced the Blob service to the golfer message board application.
Next Steps:
You will test the application and prepare the service package for the application.

In this lesson, you test the application in the compute emulator environment, package the application,
Procedures
clickingSend.
Name Value

You will get a few warning messages about 'DataConnectionString" set up to use the
local storage emulator. You can ignore these warning for now.
Windows Azure. For better performance, you might want to create an affinity group to group the service
Management Portal.
The next step is to create a storage account for using Windows Azure table service and blob service. If
you have created a storage account in tutorial 1, you can skip this step.
Name Value
REGION/AFFINITY
GROUP

the access key.
If you have published other tutorial projects before, you can either update the existing cloud service, or
create a new cloud service. If you choose to create a new cloud service, you must give a different cloud
service URL.
Name Value
URL
<yourname>gmb
package now
(not selected)

<yourname>gmb..
4. Click UPLOAD A NEW STAGING DEPLOYMENT, or UPDATE on the bottom of the page if you
have deployed a tutorial application before.
Name Value
Deployment
name
v1.2.0.0
Package location
Configuration file
Deploy(or
Update) even if
one or more roles
contain a single
instance
Start deployment
(this option is not
available for
update a service)
(Selected)

Notice the DEPLOYMENT NAME is changed to v1.2.0.0.
Note: Some DNS services take longer to replicate the records. If you get a page not
found error, you might need to try browsing to the URL again in a few minutes.
What did I just do?
Next Steps:
Congratulations! You have completed tutorial 3. Tutorial 4 shows you how to use another Windows
Azure storage service called Windows Azure Queue service.

Tutorial 4: Using Windows Azure Worker
Role and Windows Azure Queue
This tutorial demonstrates using a worker role and Windows Azure queue service.
Overview
In tutorial 1 and tutorial 3, you created a simple golfer message board application. In the application, a
Web role provides the front-end that allows golfers to view the contents of the message board and add
new entries. Each entry contains a name, a message and an image. When golfers post new messages, a
Web role stores the text portion of the message using the Table service, and the image using the Blob
service. The Web role also renders this information to the browser so golfers can view the content of
the message board.
You have probably noticed that the images are displayed in the original size, which takes a lot of space.
In tutorial 4, you will expand the application with a new worker role in the background generating
thumbnails based on the images. When the messages are listed, only the thumbnails are used.
Here is a screenshot of the application.
Note: Completing tutorial 1 and tutorial 3 are not pre-requisites for this tutorial. However, it helps with
understanding the scenario.

Objectives
• Use the Queue service
• Understand worker role
Prerequisites
• Before you begin this step you must complete the steps in Before You Begin the Tutorials.
in this tutorial:

• You deploy the application to Windows Azure Emulator for testing, and to Windows Azure.
• A service hosted in Windows Azure consists of one or more Web roles and worker roles. A Web
role is an ASP.NET Web application accessible via an HTTP or HTTPS endpoint and is commonly
the front-end for an application. A worker role is a role that is useful for generalized
development, and may perform background processing for a Web role. This tutorial contains a
Web role and a worker role. For more information, seeOverview of a Windows Azure Application
at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg432976.aspx.
• The Windows Azure storage services provide persistent, redundant storage in the cloud. The
storage services include these fundamental services: Blob service, Queue service, and Table
service. The Table service and the Blob service are used in this tutorial. For more information,
see Data Storage Offerings on the Windows Azure Platform.
• You can use the portal to administrate Windows Azure platform resources.

Understanding the Queue Service
The Queue service architecture consists of a three-level hierarchy: accounts, queues, and messages. A
Windows Azure storage account encompasses the Blob, Queue, and Table services. A queue is a logical
destination for sending messages. There can be any number of queues in an account in the Queue
service. A queue stores messages and makes them available to applications. Messages are stored in
queues. There is no limit to the number of messages that can be stored in a queue, but the size of each
individual message cannot exceed 8KB. To accommodate large object messages, you can put the large
object in a blob and then send the URI of that object as a message to a queue. For more information,
seeData Storage Offerings on the Windows Azure Platform, andWindows Azure Queue – Programming
Queue Storage at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=153402.
In this Article
1. Lesson 1: Modify the Message Data Model
2. Lesson 2: Modify the Web Role
3. Lesson 3: Add a Worker Role for Background Processing
4. Lesson 4: Test and Deploy the Application

Lesson 1: Modify the Message Data Model
In tutorial 1, you created the data model in the MessageBoard_Data project. In this lesson, you will
modify the schema so that it includes an additional data member for the thumbnail URL. You will also
add a member function for updating the thumbnail URLs. This function will be called from the worker
role after the worker role generates the thumbnails.
Procedures
2. Modify the table schema
3. Modify the implementation of the object
4. Rebuild the project
and the clickOpen.
In tutorial 1, you defined a fixed schema for the table to storage messages. You must modify the schema
to include a new data member for storing the URL to the image in the Blob service.
To modify the table schema
1. In Solution Explorer, expand MessageBoard_Data, and then double-clickMessageBoardEntry.cs
to open the file.
2. At the end of the class, define a new data member by adding the following line:
public string ThumbnailURL {get; set;}

3. Press Ctrl+S to save the MessageBoardEntry.cs file.
To modify the implementation of the object
1. In Solution Explorer, right-click the MessageBoard_Data project, and then clickAdd Reference.
2. In the Reference Manager dialog, expand Assemblies, and then clickFramework.
3. Select System.Drawing, and then click OK.
4. In Solution Explorer, expand MessageBoard_Data, and then double-
clickMessageBoardDataSource.cs to open the file.
5. In the beginning of the file, add the following namespace declarations by inserting the code
snippetTutorial04-Lesson01-Task03_MessageBoardDataSourceNameSpaceDeclaration:
using System.Drawing;
using System.Drawing.Imaging;
using System.Drawing.Drawing2D;
6. In the beginning of the class, add the following data members by inserting the code
snippetTutorial04-Lesson01-Task03_MessageBoardDataSourceDataMembers:
private const string messageQueueName = "golfermessageboardqueue"; //queue name
must be in lower case
private CloudQueueClient queueClient;
private CloudQueue queue;
7. At the end of the constructor, add the following lines of code to create the queue by inserting
the code snippetTutorial04-Lesson01-Task03_MessageBoardDataSourceConstructor:
//create queue
queueClient = storageAccount.CreateCloudQueueClient();
queue = queueClient.GetQueueReference(messageQueueName);
queue.CreateIfNotExist();
8. At the end of the class, add a new member functions for updating thumbnail URL by inserting
the code snippetTutorial04-Lesson01-Task03_MessageBoardDataSourceMethods:
//add message to the queue
public void EnQueue(string uri, MessageBoardEntry entry)

{
// queue a message to process the image
CloudQueueMessage message = new
CloudQueueMessage(String.Format("{0},{1},{2}", uri, entry.PartitionKey,
entry.RowKey));
queue.AddMessage(message);
}
public void ProcessQueueMessage()
{
// retrieve a new message from the queue
CloudQueueMessage msg = queue.GetMessage();
if (msg != null)
{
// parse message retrieved from queue
var messageParts = msg.AsString.Split(new char[] { ',' });
var imageBlobUri = messageParts[0];
var partitionKey = messageParts[1];
var rowkey = messageParts[2];
string thumbnailBlobUri =
System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex.Replace(imageBlobUri,
"([^.]+)(.[^.]+)?$", "$1-thumb$2");
CloudBlob inputBlob = blobContainer.GetBlobReference(imageBlobUri);
CloudBlob outputBlob = blobContainer.GetBlobReference(thumbnailBlobUri);
using (BlobStream input = inputBlob.OpenRead())
using (BlobStream output = outputBlob.OpenWrite())
{
CreateThumbnail(input, output);
// commit the blob and set its properties
output.Commit();
outputBlob.Properties.ContentType = "image/jpeg";
outputBlob.SetProperties();
// update the entry in the table to point to the thumbnail
UpdateThumbnailURL(partitionKey, rowkey, thumbnailBlobUri);
queue.DeleteMessage(msg);
}
}
}
//create thumbnail for an image
private void CreateThumbnail(Stream input, Stream output)
{
int width;
int height;
var originalImage = new Bitmap(input);
if (originalImage.Width > originalImage.Height)
{
width = 128;
height = 128 * originalImage.Height / originalImage.Width;
}
else
{
height = 128;
width = 128 * originalImage.Width / originalImage.Height;
}
var thumbnailImage = new Bitmap(width, height);

using (Graphics graphics = Graphics.FromImage(thumbnailImage))
{
graphics.InterpolationMode = InterpolationMode.HighQualityBicubic;
graphics.SmoothingMode = SmoothingMode.AntiAlias;
graphics.PixelOffsetMode = PixelOffsetMode.HighQuality;
graphics.DrawImage(originalImage, 0, 0, width, height);
}
thumbnailImage.Save(output, ImageFormat.Jpeg);
}
//update the thumbnail URL property for an entry.
public void UpdateThumbnailURL(string partitionKey, string rowKey, string
thumbUrl)
{
var results = from g in
tableServiceContext.CreateQuery<MessageBoardEntry>(messageTableName)
where g.PartitionKey == partitionKey && g.RowKey == rowKey
select g;
var entry = results.FirstOrDefault<MessageBoardEntry>();
entry.ThumbnailURL = thumbUrl;
tableServiceContext.UpdateObject(entry);
tableServiceContext.SaveChanges();
}

To rebuild the project
• In Solution Explorer, right-click MessageBoard_Data, and then clickRebuild. Make sure the
rebuild is successful.
What did I just do?
In this step, you modified the data model.
Next Steps:
You will modify the Web role.

Lesson 2: Modify the Web Role
In this lesson, you modify the markup so that the Web page displays the thumbnails instead of the
original images. Each thumbnail is a link to a page displaying the original images. You also modify the
code behind file for creating a queue and adding messages to the queue.
Procedures
In this lesson, you will go through the following procedure:
• Modify the markup
• Modify the code-behind
To modify the markup
View Markup.
2. Find the <div> tag with class=”signatureImage”. Replace the <div> tag with the one in the code
snippetTutorial04-Lesson02-Task01_WebRoleDisplayImage:
<div class="signatureImage">
<a href="<%# Eval("ImageUrl") %>" target="_blank">
<img src="<%# Eval("ThumbnailUrl") %>"
alt="<%# Eval("GolferName") %>" /></a>
</div>

The following procedure demonstrates creating a queue and adding a message. A message may be up to
8KB in size and must be in a format that can be included in an XML request with UTF-8 encoding.
To modify the code-behind
View Code.
2. Inside the btnSend_Click() method, find the line where the variableentry is declared and update
the line with the following:
MessageBoardEntry entry = new MessageBoardEntry() {
GolferName = txtName.Text,
GolferMessage = txtMessage.Text,
ImageURL=blobURI,
ThumbnailURL = blobURI};
3. Inside the btnSend_Click() method, after the “ds.AddEntry(entry)” line, add code to queue a
message that will process the image:
ds.EnQueue(blobURI, entry);
5. In Solution Explorer, right-click MessageBoard_WebRole, and then clickRebulid.
What did I just do?
In this step, you modified the Web role to communicate with the worker role for generating thumbnails
in the background.
Next Steps:
You will add a new worker role to the solution for background processing.

Lesson 3: Add a Worker Role for Background Processing
A worker role runs in the background to provide services or execute time-related tasks like a service
process. In this lesson, you create a worker role to read work items posted to a queue by the Web role
front-end. To process the work item, the worker role extracts information about a message board entry
from the message and then retrieves the corresponding entity from the Table service. It then fetches the
associated image from the Blob service and creates the thumbnail, which is also stored as a blob. Finally,
to complete the processing, it updates the URL of the generated thumbnail blob in the message board
entry.
Procedures
• Add a new worker role project
• Modify the WorkerRole class
• Build the project
• Add the storage account settings
To add a new worker role project
1. In Solution Explorer, expand MessageBoard, right-click Roles, point to Add, and then click New
Worker Role Project.
2. In the Add New Role Project dialog, type or select the following values, and then clickAdd.
Name Value
Catagory Installed/Windows Azure Cloud Service/.NET Framework 4.X/Wroker Role/Visual C#
TemplateWorker Role
Name MessageBoard_WorkerRole
3. In Solution Explorer, right-click the MessageBoard_WorkerRole project, and then clickAdd
Reference.
4. In the Reference Manager dialog, expand Projects, clickProjects, select MessageBoard_Data,
and then clickOK.
To modify the WorkerRole class
1. In Solution Explorer, expand MessageBoard_WorkerRole, and then double-clickWorkerRole.cs
to open the file.
2. At the top of the file, add the following namespace declarations:

using MessageBoard_Data;
3. In the beginning of the class, add the following declaration:
private MessageBoardDataSource ds;
4. Inside the OnStart method and immediately before the return method, add the following code
to create the MessageBoardDataSource object. The MessageBoardDataSource constructor
creates the queue:
ds = new MessageBoardDataSource();
5. Replace the body of the Run() method, the code snippet for the new Run() method isTutorial04-
Lesson03-Task02_WorkerRoleRun:
public override void Run()
{
while (true)
{
ds.ProcessQueueMessage();
}
}
To build the project
• In Solution Explorer, right-click MessageBoard_WorkerRole, and then clickBuild.
Make sure the rebuild is successful.
To add the storage account settings
1. In Solution Explorer, expand MessageBoard, expandRoles, and then double-click
MessageBoard_WorkerRole to open the properties for this role.
2. Switch to the Settings tab.
3. Click Add Setting.
Name Value
Name DataConnectionString
Type Connection String
Value (click the ellipses button (…), and then select Use the Windows Azure storage emulator)
Note: The Windows Azure storage emulator provides local instances of the Blob, Queue, and
Table services that are available in the Windows Azure. For more information, seeOverview of

Running a Windows Azure Application with the Storage Emulator at
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg432983.aspx.
5. Press Ctrl+S to save changes to the role configuration.
What did I just do?
In this step, you added a new worker role to the solution for generating thumbnail images from given
images in the background.
Next Steps:

In this lesson, you test the application in the development fabric environment, package the application,
Note: If you don’t have a Windows Azure Platform subscription, see theProvisioning Windows Azure
section of Windows Azure and SQL Azure Tutorials.
Procedures
clickingSend.
Name Value

You will get a few warning messages about 'DataConnectionString" set up to use the local
storage emulator. You can ignore these warning for now.
Windows Azure. For better performance, you might want to create anaffinity group to group the service
1. Open a Web browser and browse to http://windows.azure.com/ . This is the Windows Azure
Management Portal.
Note: If you haven’t had a Windows Azure Platform subscription, see theProvisioning
Windows Azure section of this tutorial.
The next step is to create a storage account for using Windows Azure table service and blob service. If
you have created a storage account in tutorial 1or tutorial 2, you can skip this step.
Name Value
REGION/AFFINITY
GROUP

the access key.
If you have published other tutorial projects before, you can either update the existing cloud service, or
create a new cloud service. If you choose to create a new cloud service, you must give a different cloud
service URL.
Name Value
URL
<yourname>gmb
package now
(not selected)

<yourname>gmb..
4. Click UPLOAD A NEW STAGING DEPLOYMENT, or UPDATE on the bottom of the page if you
have deployed a tutorial application before.
Name Value
Deployment
name
v1.3.0.0
Package location
Configuration file
Deploy(or
Update) even if
one or more roles
contain a single
instance
Start deployment
(this option is not
available for
updating a
(Selected)

service)
Allow update if
role sizes or
number of roles
change. (this
option is only
available for
updating a
service)
(Selected)
ROLE(this option
is only available
for updating a
service)
All
Notice the DEPLOYMENT NAME is changed to v1.3.0.0.

What did I just do?
Next Steps:
Congratulations! You have completed the first four Windows Azure and SQL Database tutorials.

Windows Azure SQL Database Tutorials

Recommended

More Related Content

What's hot (20)

Similar to Windows Azure SQL Database Tutorials (20)

More from MILL5 (19)

Recently uploaded (20)

Windows Azure SQL Database Tutorials