Windows Azure Mobile Services

Get up and running with Windows Azure Mobile Services Windows Azure Mobile Services (WAMS) is a turn-key backend solution for applications, mobile or otherwise, to utilize structured storage in the cloud. It includes basic data access functionality and built-in authentication with Microsoft Account, Facebook, Twitter and Google, as well as push notification to the client app. This compact, to the point book gives you just what you need to get up and running with these tools. Demonstrates how to add, update, delete and retrieve data using standard .NET classes or REST-based requests Describes how Windows Azure Mobile Services supports authentication of the user and looks at the mechanism used to authenticate the user Features a number of examples that show how the WAMS scripting capability can be used to meet real-world business needs Examines the limits of Windows Azure Mobile Services, including scalability, database integration, and redundancy options This book shows you exactly how to take advantage of the functionality offered by Windows Azure Mobile Services.

Table of Contents:
INTRODUCTION TO THE WINDOWS AZUREBOOK SERIES xv INTRODUCTION TO WINDOWS AZURE MOBILE SERVICES xvii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION AND FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPTS 1 What Is Azure? 2 A Brief History of Azure 2 Windows Azure Features 3 Execution Model 3 Data Storage 5 Connectivity 6 Authentication 7 Messaging 8 And Now, Back to Our Show 8 Setting Up WAMS 9 Generating a Sample Application 13 Summary 16 CHAPTER 2: CREATING AND MANIPULATING DATA 17 The Data Model 18 Client-Side Functionality 26 Summary 38 CHAPTER 3: MOBILE SERVICES VALIDATION 39 Adding Server-Side Scripts 39 Inserting Data 42 Updating Data 43 Deleting Data 44 Retrieving Data 45 The User Object 47 Common Scenarios 48 Summary 57 CHAPTER 4: AUTHENTICATION OPTIONS IN WAMS 58 Federated Authentication 58 Setting Up the Authentication Providers 61 Configuring Your Service for Authentication 72 Authentication on the Client Side 74 Troubleshooting Authentication 77 Summary 78 CHAPTER 5: USING REST TO ACCESS WAMS DATA 79 Representational State Transfer 79 GET 80 POST 80 PUT 81 DELETE 81 REST and WAMS 82 Authentication in REST 88 Summary 92 CHAPTER 6: PUSH NOTIFICATIONS 93 Registering Your Application 95 Windows Notification Services 95 Google Cloud Messaging 98 Apple Push Notification Services 99 Configuring Your Mobile Service 100 The Mechanics of Push Notifications 101 Requesting a Channel 101 Sending Notifications 104 Summary 106 CHAPTER 7: ADVANCED SCRIPTING 107 Auditing Updates 107 Supporting Other Data Types 109 Supporting Arrays 113 Additional User Information 118 Facebook 118 Google 119 Microsoft Account 120 Twitter 120 Scheduling Tasks 121 Summary 125 CHAPTER 8: ADVANCED CONFIGURATION 126 Scaling WAMS 126 Horizontal versus Vertical Scaling? 127 Using an Existing Database 130 Monitoring WAMS 133 Summary 136