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Updated Wiki: Change Log

nharris — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 21:27:24 GMT

This Toolkit is now deprecated and is now

superseded by Windows Azure Mobile Services

The Windows Azure Toolkit for Windows Phone provided developers with the first iteration of support for building backend services for Windows Phone apps using Windows Azure. The main areas of feedback we received from mobile developers was that they wanted a turn-key set of services for common functionality such as notifications, auth, and data. Windows Azure Mobile Services directly reflects this feedback by enabling developers to simply provision, configure, and consume scalable backend services. The downloads for this toolkit will be removed on the week of Feb 1st 2013 and all future improvements will be channeled into Windows Azure Mobile Services rather than this toolkit.

To get started with Mobile Services, sign up for a Windows Azure account and receive 10 free Mobile Services.

Change Log for v1.3.1 to v1.3.2

Upgraded Windows Azure projects to Windows Azure Tools for Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 1.6 – November 2011
Updated BabelCam, CRUDSqlAzure, WPCloud.ACS, and WPCloud.SQL.ACS samples to include a default ACS configuration to allow developers running the samples without owning an ACS namespace.

Change Log for v1.3.0 to v1.3.1

Note: One important change starting with this release (v1.3.1) is that the C# and Visual Basic content have been split and ship as different packages in CodePlex.

Toolkit Services

Upgraded Windows Azure projects to Windows Azure Tools for Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 1.5 – September 2011
Update SQL Azure only scenarios to use ASP.NET Universal Providers (through the System.Web.Providers v1.0.1 NuGet package)
Changed Shared Access Signature service interface to support more operations

StorageClient Library for Windows Phone

Refactored Blobs API to have a similar interface and usage to that provided by the Windows Azure SDK StorageClient library

Change Log for v1.2.3 to v1.3.0

Toolkit Services

Upgraded Silverlight for Windows Phone projects to Windows Phone OS 7.1
Upgraded Windows Azure projects to Windows Azure Tools for Microsoft Visual Studio 1.4 August 2011
Updated Web role project to ASP.NET MVC 3 using Razor view engine and HTML5
Updated JQuery libraries to the latest version and removed all unused JavaScript libraries
Changed Push Notifications User Registration Service interface to require the ApplicationId and DeviceId for its operations.
Renamed the System.Data.Services.Client library shipped as part of the toolkit to Microsoft.Samples.Data.Services.Client to avoid possible conflicts with the new version of the library included in the framework starting with Windows Phone SDK 7.1.

Change Log for v1.1.0 to v1.2.3

Toolkit Services

Renamed the WindowsPhoneCloud.Services project to WindowsPhoneCloud.Web. The same change was also applied to the root namespace.
Reorganized toolkit services and handlers into separated folders and namespaces.
Renamed LoginModel class to Login. This class is used by the AuthenticationService to generate an authentication token for the user.
Renamed CreateUserModel class to RegistrationUser and changed the name of its UserName property to Name. This class is used by the AuthenticationService to register new users.
Changed the HTTP method from POST to GET in the GetUpdates operation of the PushNotificationService.
Split the AdminController class into a several ones.
Removed the usage of the Role provider for Azure Tables to manage authorization. We are now storing the users’ privileges for Tables, Blobs and Queues in a custom Azure Table called “Privileges” (the “secRole” Azure Table is not longer used).

Changed the schema of the PushUserEndpoint Azure table. We changed the name of its UserName property to UserId.

StorageClient Library for Windows Phone

Renamed LoginModel class to Login. This class is used by the AuthenticationClient to obtain an authentication token for the user.
Renamed CreateUserModel class to RegistrationUser and changed the name of its UserName property to Name. This class is used by the AuthenticationClient to register new users.
Updated the signature of the IAuthenticationClient interface to receive success and exception callbacks instead of providing events.

AspProviders Library

Modified the library to move the configuration of the Providers for Azure Tables from the Web.config file to the ServiceConfiguration.cscfg file. In this way, the Storage Account information (name and key) only needs to be placed in a single place: the ServiceConfiguration.cscfg file.

Updated Wiki: Troubleshooting

nharris — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 21:27:13 GMT

This Toolkit is now deprecated and is now

superseded by Windows Azure Mobile Services

To get started with Mobile Services, sign up for a Windows Azure account and receive 10 free Mobile Services.

You’ll find the following troubleshooting topics in this section:

User is Unable to Install the Certificate, Log in and Register in the Windows Phone Application
The 'take picture' Button Doesn’t Open the Camera When the Phone App is Tethered
An Error is Displayed Saying 'Location is not available' When Creating a New Project
An Error is Displayed When Clicking the 'Microsoft Push Notifications' Menu Option
The Phone Application Doesn’t Show the Identity Providers List
The Phone Application Receives Not Found as Responses to all Requests
A Database Error is Displayed When Accessing the Web Administration Portal
A 'Database Already exists' Error is Displayed When Accessing the Web Administration Portal

If you think you’ve found a bug and it’s not listed here, please take a look at Issue Tracker.

User is Unable to Install the Certificate, Log in and Register in the Windows Phone Application

Symptoms

When you start up the Windows Phone application, an error is displayed when you try to:

Install the SSL certificate
Log in with an existing user
Register a new user

Cause

The Windows Phone application is unable to communicate with the Web Role that is hosting the toolkit services.

Solution

Make sure that the Web Role services are running in the Windows Azure Compute Emulator. If it is not, in Solution Explorer right-click the Windows Azure project, point to Debug, and click Start new instance.
Once the Windows Azure Compute Emulator is running, open its user interface. To do this, in the Windows taskbar right-click the Windows Azure Emulator’s icon () and then click Show Computer Emulator UI.
In the Windows Azure Compute Emulator window, review the Service Details of the current deployment to make sure that the service is running over HTTPS on port 443 and HTTP on port 10080, both on IP address 127.0.0.1. If it is running on a different port or IP address, stop the deployment, and exit the Windows Azure Compute Emulator. Before starting a new debugging instance as explained above, make sure that the ports 443 and 10080 are unlocked

The 'take picture' Button Doesn’t Open the Camera When the Phone App is Tethered

Symptoms

When the Windows Phone sample application is deployed to a Windows Phone device and tethered, the take picture functionality () in the list blobs pivot item does not open the phone camera to capture a photo

Cause

The CameraCaptureTask works fine when tethered, but if you have the Zune client application opened on your machine, it will keep a lock on your Windows Phone device’s MediaLibrary. Therefore, the captured picture cannot be stored.

Solution

Close the Zune client application. If you are trying to debug through the CameraCaptureTask, you could use the WPConnect tool instead of the Zune client for device connectivity.

For more details, see the following article http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/gg180729(VS.92).aspx.

An Error is Displayed Saying 'Location is not available' When Creating a New Project

Symptoms

When the user attempts to create a new Windows Phone Cloud Application or Windows Phone Empty Cloud Application project, Visual Studio shows an error message saying, "Location is not available".

Cause

When the user has ReSharper installed in his/her environment, the project creation fails due to an access denied error on the temporary folders created by the Visual Studio Template Wizard during the process.

Workaround

Disable ReSharper. To do this, in Visual Studio click Options inside the Tools menu. Now, go to ReSharper section, click Suspend and then OK. After that, close and reopen your Visual Studio instance and you will now be able to create new Windows Phone Cloud Application and Windows Phone Empty Cloud Application projects.

In order to enable ReSharper again, in Visual Studio click Options inside the Tools menu. Now, go to ReSharper section, click Resume and then OK.

An Error is Displayed When Clicking the 'Microsoft Push Notifications' Menu Option

Symptoms

When you start the Web Role running the Toolkit’s services, log in using the administrator credentials and click the Microsoft Push Notifications menu option, then you get one of the following errors:

"Object reference not set to an instance of an object." – When using ACS for authentication
"Guid should contain 32 digits with 4 dashes (xxxxx-…-xxxx)." – When using Membership for authentication

Cause

The reason why you are encountering these errors is that you are using the same Windows Azure Storage account for running your Windows Phone Cloud Application project using different authentication methods. That is, you have selected to run your application first using Windows Azure Access Control Service (ACS) and then ASP.NET Membership or vice versa.

Solution

To fix this issue you need to remove users created with the old authentication method in the Windows Azure Storage tables used by the application. To do this, you can use a tool like https://www.myazurestorage.com to remove the old users in the PushUserEndpoints table (if you are using the Storage Emulator you can use other tools like the Azure Storage Explorer).

The Phone Application Doesn’t Show the Identity Providers List

Symptoms

When developing an application using Windows Azure Access Control Services , with Visual Web Developer 2010 Express and Visual Studio 2010 Express for Windows Phone, when running the phone application you get the error:

Cause

The name of the relying party realm does not match between the Azure and Phone projects.

Solution

Make sure that the Relying Party Realm set in the App.xaml file is the same as the one set in the ServiceConfiguration.cscfg file in the Azure project:

The Phone Application Receives Not Found as Responses to all Requests

Symptoms

When running an application developed from one of the project templates or running one of the samples included in the toolkit, the phone application shows the following error message:

Cause

The causes for this error could be several, most commonly:

The Windows Azure Web Role has not finished starting
The user has not installed the SSL certificate in the phone

Solution

If the Web Role has not started, wait until the Web Role has started correctly and retry the operation in the phone application.

If the Web Role has started correctly, it is possible that you forgot to install the SSL certificate.

If you are running one of the samples or application developed using the project templates:

Press the back button until you reach the log in page.
In the log in page, click the Install certificate link. This will open Internet Explorer in the Windows Phone Emulator at http://127.0.0.1:10080/127.0.0.1.cer.

Note: In order to consume the REST services over HTTPS in a Windows Phone device or in the Windows Phone Emulator, you need to use a trusted SSL certificate. If you do not have one, you can use a self-signed certificate, but you need to install it in the phone before consuming the services. Since the Windows Azure Computer Emulator always uses the 127.0.0.1 self-signed certificate, we need to install it in the Windows Phone Emulator before continuing with the next steps.
Click the shield icon to install the Windows Azure Compute Emulator’s SSL certificate in the Windows Phone Emulator. Finally, click install to confirm that you want to install the certificate.

Important: If you leave the Windows Phone Emulator open, you do not need to install the certificate every time that you run the application. However, if you close the Windows Phone Emulator, you will have to install it again.

A Database Error is Displayed When Accessing the Web Administration Portal

Symptoms

When you start the Web Role running the Toolkit’s services, you get the error: The underlying provider failed on Open.

Cause

The reason why you are running into this problem is that SQL Server does not have the correct permissions to access the App_Data folder in the Web Role project.

Solution

To fix this issue you need to remove the App_Data folder in the Web Project and re-create it:

Right-click on the App_Data folder, click Delete and confirm the operation.
Right-click on the Web project and select Add -> Add ASP.NET Folder -> App_Data.

A 'Database Already exists' Error is Displayed When Accessing the Web Administration Portal

Symptoms

When you start the Web Role running the toolkit’s services, you get the error: The underlying provider failed on Open, with a detail that says: ‘Database already exists’.

Cause

The reason why you are running into this problem is that you have created two different solutions with the same name, and the database file from the first one is still attached to the SQL Server user instance.

Solution

To fix this issue you need to rename the database file in one of the two solutions:

Right-click on the Web Role in the Windows Azure project and click Properties.
Click Settings, select the SqlDataContextConnectionString and change the value of the settings: AttachDBFileName and Initial Catalog to a new unique value.

More Information

The following articles may be useful when troubleshooting a Windows Phone application:

Next step: Change Log

Updated Wiki: How To Create a SQL Azure Database Server

nharris — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 21:27:00 GMT

This Toolkit is now deprecated and is now

superseded by Windows Azure Mobile Services

To get started with Mobile Services, sign up for a Windows Azure account and receive 10 free Mobile Services.

The Windows Azure Toolkit for Windows Phone project template for Visual Studio can generate a project, which is fully configured to provide read only access to an OData service on top of a SQL Azure Database.

In order to accomplish this, you need to have an active subscription with SQL Azure Database; furthermore, the project template needs to acquire some information about your SQL Azure Database Server.

In the project template wizard, you will use the Database Administrator user, since Entity Framework 4.1 Code-First requires database administrator privileges to create the model database. However, you may want to change this in applications deployed to production environments.

Retrieving your SQL Azure Server Name

Go to the Windows Azure Platform portal at https://windows.azure.com.
Log in to your Windows Live account.
At the Windows Azure Platform portal home page, click New Database Server on the ribbon.
To create a server, select your subscription on the left pane. Click Create on the Server ribbon.
Select a region from the Region drop down list, and then click Next. The location determines which datacenter the database will reside in.
Enter an administrator account name and password and click Next.

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. The password policy requires the password to follow certain rules.
Click Finish to create the new server. You will configure firewall rules later on.
Finally, the new server information, including Fully Qualified Server Name, is shown.

Note: The fully qualified domain name of the server uses the following format:
<ServerName>.database.windows.net where <ServerName> identifies the server. You must use the ServerName you have just created later on the Windows Phone Application.
Expand the subscription node located on the left pane, and then click the server name you have created. The Server Information page allows you to perform basic administration of the database server.
The Firewall Rules allows you to specify a list of IP addresses that can access your SQL Azure Server. The firewall will deny all connections by default, so be sure to configure your allow list so that existing clients can connect to the server.

Note: Changes to your firewall settings can take some time to become effective.

You now have a database server created and ready for this application. This database can be connected to from anywhere in the world.

You should use the user name and password from step 6 and the Server Name from step 8 to configure the application generated by the project template.

Updated Wiki: Obtain a bitly Username and API Key

nharris — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 21:26:50 GMT

This Toolkit is now deprecated and is now

superseded by Windows Azure Mobile Services

To get started with Mobile Services, sign up for a Windows Azure account and receive 10 free Mobile Services.

The Tweet Your Blobs sample uses bitly API to shorten picture URLs before tweeting them. In order to use bitly API you need to obtain a bitly Username and API Key.

Obtaining a bitly Username and API Key

Navigate to http://bitly.com/a/your_api_key.
In case you already have a bitly account, click Sign In. Otherwise, click Sing Up and complete the process.
Copy the bitly Username and bitly API Key values and use it during the TweetYourBlobs setup process.

Updated Wiki: Obtain a Bing Application Id

nharris — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 21:26:38 GMT

This Toolkit is now deprecated and is now

superseded by Windows Azure Mobile Services

To get started with Mobile Services, sign up for a Windows Azure account and receive 10 free Mobile Services.

The BabelCam sample uses Bing Translator Services to translate text in pictures. In order to use Bing services you need to obtain a valid Bing AppID.

Obtaining a Bing AppID

Navigate to http://www.bing.com/developers/appids.aspx and click Sign In.
Sign In with your Windows Live ID account.
Click Create an AppID.
Fill in the form with your information and click Agree to accept the API terms of use.
Copy your Bing AppID and use it during the BabelCam setup process.

Updated Wiki: Obtain a Project Hawaii Application ID

nharris — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 21:26:27 GMT

This Toolkit is now deprecated and is now

superseded by Windows Azure Mobile Services

To get started with Mobile Services, sign up for a Windows Azure account and receive 10 free Mobile Services.

The BabelCam sample uses Project Hawaii’s Services in the Cloud to recognize text in pictures. In order to use Project Hawaii’s services you need to obtain a valid Application ID.

Obtaining a Project Hawaii Application ID

Navigate to http://hawaiiguidgen.cloudapp.net/default.aspx and click Sign In.
Sign in using your Windows Live ID account.
Click Register this Live Id With Hawaii.
Copy your Project Hawaii’s Application ID and use it in the BabelCam setup process.

Updated Wiki: Deploy to Windows Azure

nharris — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 21:26:15 GMT

This Toolkit is now deprecated and is now

superseded by Windows Azure Mobile Services

To get started with Mobile Services, sign up for a Windows Azure account and receive 10 free Mobile Services.

In order to deploy the toolkit services generated by either the Windows Phone Cloud Application or the Windows Phone Empty Cloud Application project templates to a Windows Azure Hosted Service, please follow these steps:

Create a Certificate

Open the Visual Studio Command Prompt window as an administrator.
Change the directory to the location where you want to save the certificate file.
Type the following command, making sure to replace <CertificateName> with your hosted service URL:
```
makecert -sky exchange -r -n "CN=<CertificateName>" -pe -a sha1 -len 2048 -ss My "<CertificateName>.cer"
```
For example:

Note: The makecert tool will both create the .cer file and register the certificate in your Personal Certificates store. For more information, check the following article: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg432987.aspx.

Export the PFX File

Open the Certificate Manager snap-in for the management console by typing certmgr.msc in the Start menu textbox.
The new certificate was automatically added to the personal certificate store. Export the certificate by right-clicking it, pointing to All Tasks, and then clicking Export.
On the Export Private Key page, make sure to select Yes, export the private key.
Choose a name and export the file to a .pfx file.
Finish the wizard.

Note: You now have a copy of the certificate (.pfx) with the private key. For more information, check the following article: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg432987.aspx.

Upload the PFX File to Windows Azure

Open a browser, navigate to the Windows Azure Platform Management Portal at https://windows.azure.com and log in with your credentials.
Select Hosted Services, Storage Accounts & CDN and then Hosted Services.
Expand your hosted service project, and select the Certificates folder.
Click Add Certificate.
Click Browse and select the PFX file you saved. Enter the password, and click Create.
Once the certificate has been uploaded and created, copy the Thumbprint for later use.

Supporting Apple Push Notifications

During the project creation through the project template, you are given the option to support Apple Push Notifications through the Azure Web role.

If you chose to support Apple Push Notifications, please follow these additional steps:

In order to use the toolkit to send Apple push notifications, you should have obtained the appropriate SSL certificate for your iOS application. You can find more information on how to obtain an Apple development certificate in the Provisioning and Development article in the Local and Push Notification Programming Guide.
Upload the same Apple development certificate selected during the project template wizard to your hosted service. To do this, you can follow the same steps required to upload the SSL certificate described in the previous section.

Update and Deploy to Windows Azure

In the Windows Azure Project, double-click the role (e.g. WPCloudApp1.Web) to open the role properties.
Select the Settings tab and update the DataConnectionString and Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Diagnostics.ConnectionString to point to your production storage account.
Select the Certificates tab, and set the SslCertificate property value to the Thumbprint you saved from the Windows Azure portal. This will replace the thumbprint for the localhost certificate with the thumbprint related to the certificate you uploaded into your hosted service.
Add the .cer file to your web application project. This way, you can point your phone users to download the certificate and install into the emulator. Right-click on the Web application project, choose Add Existing Item, select the .cer file you previously created, and add it to the project.
Open the .cer file properties and make sure that the Build Action is set to Content.
Now you can publish your Windows Azure project to your hosted service. You can do this from the Windows Azure Platform Management Portal or directly from Visual Studio 2010.

Update Your Windows Phone Project to Consume Your Windows Azure Hosted Service

In your Windows Phone project, open the App.xaml file.

Update the following resources:

Key	Value
SSLCertificateUrl	http://<YourDNSPrefix>.cloudapp.net:10080/<CertificateName>.cer
SharedAccessSignatureServiceEndpoint	https://<YourDNSPrefix>.cloudapp.net/SharedAccessSignatureService
AzureStorageTableProxyEndpoint	https://<YourDNSPrefix>.cloudapp.net/AzureTablesProxy.axd
AzureStorageQueueProxyEndpoint	https://<YourDNSPrefix>.cloudapp.net/AzureQueuesProxy.axd
AuthenticationServiceEndpoint	https://<YourDNSPrefix>.cloudapp.net/AuthenticationService
RegistrationServiceEndpoint	https://<YourDNSPrefix>.cloudapp.net/RegistrationService
PushNotificationServiceEndpoint	https://<YourDNSPrefix>.cloudapp.net/PushNotificationService
SqlOdataEndpoint	https://<YourDNSPrefix>.cloudapp.net/SqlAzureSampleOdataService

To test against the deployed services, right-click the Windows Phone project, navigate to the Debug context menu, and click on Start new instance.

Updated Wiki: Obtain Namespace and Management Key

nharris — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 21:26:06 GMT

This Toolkit is now deprecated and is now

superseded by Windows Azure Mobile Services

To get started with Mobile Services, sign up for a Windows Azure account and receive 10 free Mobile Services.

To watch a screencast on how to get started using ACS, please visit Getting Started with ACS and the Windows Azure Toolkit for Windows Phone 7 on Channel 9.

The Windows Azure Toolkit for Windows Phone project template for Visual Studio can generate a project which is fully configured for outsourcing authentication functions to ACS, and configure ACS with some basic settings. You can hit F5 just after creation and the application will be ready to authenticate users from Windows Live ID, Google and Yahoo right out of the box.

In order to accomplish this, you need to have an active subscription with ACS; furthermore, the project template needs to acquire some information about your ACS namespace.

If you need to create an ACS namespace, please refer to the walkthrough here. Note, you only need to go through the sections “Accessing the AppFabric Portal” and “Service Namespace Creation”; the project template will take care of the rest for you.

The ACS Namespace field expects the unique string you chose as your namespace.

The Management Key can be obtained by navigating to https://{MYNAMESPACE}.accesscontrol.windows.net/v2/mgmt/web/ServiceAccount/ManagementKey/Edit

Substitute {MYNAMESPACE} with your ACS namespace, then click on Symmetric Key and copy the content of the Key field.

Updated Wiki: Choosing the Access Control Strategy

nharris — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 21:25:55 GMT

This Toolkit is now deprecated and is now

superseded by Windows Azure Mobile Services

To get started with Mobile Services, sign up for a Windows Azure account and receive 10 free Mobile Services.

To watch a screencast on how to get started using ACS, please visit Getting Started with ACS and the Windows Azure Toolkit for Windows Phone 7 on Channel 9.

The Windows Azure Toolkit for Windows Phone project template for Visual Studio can implement two different access control strategies: it can generate and include in the project a classic ASP.NET membership store, or it can outsource authentication to the Windows Azure Access Control Service. Here there is a brief comparison of the two options.

Create a new ASP.NET membership store in Windows Azure Tables

If you choose this option, the template will generate an ASP.NET membership store and place it in Windows Azure storage. The Windows Phone application will include UI elements for registering and logging in users via username and password, which will be stored in the membership database.

This option implements a very well known approach, and has the least amount of requirements: the project can be entirely self-contained. It can be very convenient when you are using the toolkit as a learning tool, or if you foresee that your application will have to include its own account store.

On the other hand, managing a user store may become a burden; and one application relying on its own user store cannot be easily integrated with other solutions.

Use the Windows Azure Access Control Service

If you choose this option, the template will configure your application to outsource authentication to the Windows Azure Access Control Service. This means that the Windows Phone application will enable users to register and log in by reusing their existing accounts from identity providers such as Windows Live ID, Google, Yahoo and possibly from their Active Directory or Facebook.

In order to take advantage of this option you need to have a namespace with the Windows Azure Access Control Service, and an active internet connection for communicating with ACS itself and the configured identity providers. You can obtain ACS namespaces for free thanks to a promotion that will run until at least the end of 2011.

The template gathers some info about your namespace and generates an application that is fully integrated with ACS with some basic settings.

The ACS approach gives you the most reach, as it can authenticate users from well known identity providers on the web; it also allows you to reuse in your mobile application accounts from your local directory.

Updated Wiki: CRUDSqlAzure

nharris — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 21:25:45 GMT

This Toolkit is now deprecated and is now

superseded by Windows Azure Mobile Services

To get started with Mobile Services, sign up for a Windows Azure account and receive 10 free Mobile Services.

This section provides a walkthrough for the CRUDSqlAzure sample application. This application was developed using the Windows Phone Cloud Application project template included in this toolkit.

Starting the application

After installing the toolkit and running the SetupSample.cmd setup script for this sample, perform the following steps to go through the CRUDSqlAzure application.

Note: If you face any problems while following these steps, please make sure to review the Troubleshooting section.

Open Visual Studio 2010 as administrator (this is required to run Windows Azure projects).
In the File menu, point to Open and then click Project/Solution.
Browse to the Samples\WP7.1\CRUDSqlAzure folder, choose CRUDSqlAzure.sln and click Open.
Explore the sample. You should see the following projects:
- CRUDSqlAzure: Windows Azure project with a Web Role configured.
- CRUDSqlAzure.Phone: Silverlight for Windows Phone project containing a sample application that shows how to perform CRUD operations against an OData service.
- CRUDSqlAzure.Web: ASP.NET MVC 3 project configured as a Web Role containing the services consumed by the phone application and the administration pages.
Additionally, the solution includes the source code for the following libraries used:
1. Microsoft.Samples.Data.Services.Client.dll: Modified version of the OData client library for Windows Phone (System.Data.Services.Client) to make it work with the Windows Azure Table Service API (http://odata.codeplex.com).
2. MIcrosoft.Samples.DPE.OAuth.dll: Microsoft DPE OAuth2 library.
3. SL.Phone.Federation.dll: Microsoft Silverlight ACS sign in control.
4. WindowsPhoneCloud.StorageClient.dll: Windows Azure Storage Client library for Windows Phone.
Make sure that you do not have any Web site running in ports 443 and 10080 on your local IIS.
Note: By default, the ASP.NET MVC 3 Web Role is configured to run over two different endpoints: one HTTPS in port 443 and another HTTP in port 10080.
Make sure that the target for Silverlight for Windows Phone projects is set to Windows Phone Emulator.
In Solution Explorer, right-click the Windows Azure project, point to Debug and click Start new instance.
Wait for the Web Role to start and click the Continue to this website (not recommended) link to be able to browse the site despite of the certificate warning. You will get a forbidden error because the Web site does not have any pages (it only hosts a WCF Service), and IIS by default does not allow anonymous users to list the site directory.
To log into the Web application use the following credentials:
- User Name: admin
- Password: (with a zero)
In Solution Explorer, right-click the Windows Phone project, point to Debug and click Start new instance. This will launch the Windows Phone Emulator and start the application.
The application will redirect you to the log in page.
In the log in page, click the Install certificate link. This will open Internet Explorer in the Windows Phone Emulator at http://127.0.0.1:10080/127.0.0.1.cer.

Note: In order to consume the REST services over HTTPS in a Windows Phone device or in the Windows Phone Emulator, you need to use a trusted SSL certificate. If you do not have one, you can use a self-signed certificate, but you need to install it in the phone before consuming the services. Since the Computer Emulator always uses the 127.0.0.1 self-signed certificate, we need to install it in the Windows Phone Emulator before continuing with the next steps.
Click the shield icon to install the Windows Azure Compute Emulator’s SSL certificate in the Windows Phone Emulator. Finally, click install to confirm that you want to install the certificate.

Important: If you leave the Windows Phone Emulator open, you do not need to install the certificate every time that you run the application. However, if you close the Windows Phone Emulator, you will have to install it again.
Once the certificate is installed, click ok and navigate back to the running application using the left arrow ().

Authenticating The User

Select the identity provider you want to authenticate with and log in providing your account information.
If this is the first time you logged into the application, you will be redirected to the register page. Enter a name and an email address for the user, and then click register. Wait for the registration to complete. If the registration was successful, you will see the Registration Successful message. Click ok and you will be redirected back to the log in page.

Note: The Windows Phone Emulator supports mapping of the keyboard on your development computer to the hardware keyboard on a Windows Phone (by default is not enabled). To enable the keyboard in the Windows Phone Emulator press the PAGE UP or PAUSE/BREAK key. To disable it, press the PAGE DOWN or PAUSE/BREAK key. For more information, see the following article: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/ff754352(VS.92).aspx.

Working with all permissions

After completing the log in page, you will be taken to the products page. You can browse all the products loaded in the database. Click in the Chai product to view its details.
In this page, you can see the detailed information of each record in the Products entity set.
Change the Name to Chai (Tea) and click the save button (). You will notice an error message saying that you do not have permissions to update products.
Go to the administration site and in the Users tab, choose SQL Update for the user John Doe and click Save.
Back in the phone application click the save button () again. This time, the changes will be saved and you will be taken to the Products page where you can see the new data for the product.
Now, choose the Chang item and in the details page select Discontinued, and click the save button (). Once the product is discontinued, click the Chang item again and in the details page click the delete button ().You will notice an error message saying that you do not have permissions to remove products.
Go to the administration site and in the Users tab, choose SQL Delete for the user John Doe and click Save.
Back in the phone application click the delete button () again. This time, the item will be deleted and you will be taken back to the products page, this time the product will be removed.
To add a product, click the plus button (). Load the form with new sample data and click the save button (). You will notice an error message saying that you do not have permissions to add products.
Go to the administration site and in the Users tab, choose SQL Create for the user John Doe and click Save.
Back in the phone emulator, click the save button () again. This time the product will be added and the application will navigate to the products page. To see the item you have just added, scroll to the bottom of the page, when you reach the end, click Load More…, repeat this action until you reach the end of the list.
Finally, go to the administration site and in the Users tab, choose SQL Read for the user John Doe and click Save.
Back in the phone emulator, click the refresh button and notice the error message saying that you do not have permissions to read the products entity set.

Next step: Troubleshooting

Updated Wiki: TweetYourBlobs

nharris — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 21:25:20 GMT

This Toolkit is now deprecated and is now

superseded by Windows Azure Mobile Services

To get started with Mobile Services, sign up for a Windows Azure account and receive 10 free Mobile Services.

This section provides a walkthrough for the TweetYourBlobs sample application. This application was developed using the Windows Phone Cloud Application project template included in this toolkit.

Starting the Application

After installing the toolkit and running the SetupSample.cmd setup script for this sample, perform the following steps to go through the TweetYourBlobs application.

Note: If you face any problems while following these steps, please make sure to review the Troubleshooting section.

Open Visual Studio 2010 as administrator (this is required to run Windows Azure projects).
In the File menu, point to Open and then click Project/Solution.
Browse to the Samples\WP7.1\TweetYourBlobs folder, choose TweetYourBlobs.sln and click Open.
Explore the sample. You should see the following projects:
- TweetYourBlobs: Windows Azure project with a Web Role configured.
- TweetYourBlobs.Phone: Silverlight for Windows Phone project containing a sample application that shows how to work with Blobs and Containers.
- TweetYourBlobs.Web: ASP.NET MVC 3 project configured as a Web Role containing the services consumed by the phone application. This project does not contain a Web administration portal; it only hosts the required WCF services.
Additionally, the solution includes the source code for the following libraries used:
- Microsoft.Samples.Data.Services.Client: Modified version of the OData client library for Windows Phone (System.Data.Services.Client) to make it work with the Windows Azure Table Service API (http://odata.codeplex.com).
- WindowsPhoneCloud.StorageClient: Windows Azure Storage Client library for Windows Phone.
Make sure that you do not have any Web site running in ports 443 and 10080 on your local IIS.
Note: By default, the ASP.NET MVC 3 Web Role is configured to run over two different endpoints: one HTTPS in port 443 and another HTTP in port 10080.
In Solution Explorer, right-click the Windows Azure project, point to Debug and click Start new instance.
Wait for the Web Role to start and click the Continue to this website (not recommended) link to be able to browse the site despite of the certificate warning. You will get a forbidden error because the Web site does not have any pages (it only hosts a WCF Service), and IIS by default does not allow anonymous users to list the site directory.
In Solution Explorer, right-click the Windows Phone project, point to Debug and click Start new instance. This will launch the Windows Phone Emulator and start the application.
The application will redirect you to the main page.
In the main page, click the Install certificate link. This will open Internet Explorer in the Windows Phone Emulator at http://127.0.0.1:10080/127.0.0.1.cer.

Note: In order to consume the REST services over HTTPS in a Windows Phone device or in the Windows Phone Emulator, you need to use a trusted SSL certificate. If you do not have one, you can use a self-signed certificate, but you need to install it in the phone before consuming the services. Since the Computer Emulator always uses the 127.0.0.1 self-signed certificate, we need to install it in the Windows Phone Emulator before continuing with the next steps.
Click the shield icon to install the Windows Azure Compute Emulator’s SSL certificate in the Windows Phone Emulator. Finally, click install to confirm that you want to install the certificate.

Important: If you leave the Windows Phone Emulator open, you do not need to install the certificate every time that you run the application. However, if you close the Windows Phone Emulator, you will have to install it again.
Once the certificate is installed, click ok and navigate back to the running application using the left arrow ().

Taking a Picture and Uploading it to a Blob Container

In the main page, click the camera button to open the device camera. Click the button in the top-right corner of the screen to take a photo and then click accept. This will redirect you to the tweet picture page.
In the tweet picture page, type the name of the container where you want to upload your picture. Notice that the autocomplete list of available containers is filtered while you type. If you type a container name that does not exist in the storage, it will be created. Additionally, if you check the Make container public option, the Container ACL will be changed to full public read access.
Type a name for the blob. Additionally, check the Include location data option if want to include the GPS location value as blob metadata. Finally, click tweet. If everything worked as expected, Internet Explorer will be opened in the Windows Phone Emulator showing the Twitter mobile page.

Tweeting your Blob

In the Sign in! page, enter your Twitter credentials and click Sign in.
You will see a message ready to be tweeted with the blob URL shortened by bitly. Click Tweet to publish it. If you then click the link inside the tweet you have just sent, you will navigate to the blob containing your picture.

Next step: CRUD Sql Azure

Updated Wiki: BabelCam

nharris — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 21:25:10 GMT

This Toolkit is now deprecated and is now

superseded by Windows Azure Mobile Services

To get started with Mobile Services, sign up for a Windows Azure account and receive 10 free Mobile Services.

This section provides a walkthrough for the BabelCam sample application. This application was developed using the Windows Phone Cloud Application project template included in this toolkit.

Starting the application

After installing the toolkit and running the SetupSample.cmd setup script for this sample, perform the following steps to go through the BabelCam application.

Note: If you face any problems while following these steps, please make sure to review the Troubleshooting section.

Open Visual Studio 2010 as administrator (this is required to run Windows Azure projects).
In the File menu, point to Open and then click Project/Solution.
Explore the sample. You should see the following projects:
Explore the sample. You should see the following projects:
- BabelCam: Windows Azure project with a Web and a Worker role.
- BabelCam.Infrastructure: A class library project with helpers and model classes common to both the Web and Worker Roles.
- BabelCam.Phone: Silverlight for Windows Phone project containing a sample application that shows how to receive push notifications and consume Windows Azure Tables, Blobs and Queues.
- BabelCam.Web: ASP.NET MVC 3 project configured as a Web Role containing the sample services and the administration pages.
- BabelCam.Worker: Class library project configured as a Worker role containing the sample services for image OCR and translating services.
Additionally, the solution includes the source code for the following libraries used:
- AspProviders: ASP.NET Providers for Windows Azure Tables (Membership, Roles, Profile and Session State Store).
- Microsoft.Samples.Data.Services.Client: Modified version of the OData client library for Windows Phone (System.Data.Services.Client) to make it work with the Windows Azure Table Service API (http://odata.codeplex.com).
- WindowsPhoneCloud.StorageClient: Windows Azure Storage Client library for Windows Phone.
- WindowsPhone.Recipes.Push.Messages (Microsoft Push only): Push Notification Server Side Helper Library (http://create.msdn.com/education/catalog/article/pnhelp-wp7).
- DPE.OAuth: Microsoft DPE OAuth2 library.
- SL.Phone.Federation: Microsoft Silverlight ACS sign in control.
- Hawaii.Services.Client: Ported service library from the MSR Hawaii Project (http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/redmond/projects/hawaii/).
- Hawaii.Services.Client.Ocr: Ported OCR service library from the MSR Hawaii Project (http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/redmond/projects/hawaii/).
Make sure that you do not have any Web site running in ports 443 and 10080 on your local IIS.
Note: By default, the ASP.NET MVC 3 Web Role is configured to run over two different endpoints: one HTTPS in port 443 and another HTTP in port 10080.
Make sure that the target for Silverlight for Windows Phone projects is set to Windows Phone Emulator.
In Solution Explorer, right-click the Windows Azure project, point to Debug and click Start new instance.
Wait for the Web Role to start and click the Continue to this website (not recommended) link to be able to browse the site despite of the certificate warning.
To log into the Web application use the following credentials:
- User Name: admin
- Password: (with a zero)
In Solution Explorer, right-click the Windows Phone project, point to Debug and click Start new instance. This will launch the Windows Phone Emulator and start the application.
The application will redirect you to the log in page.
In the log in page, click the Install certificate link. This will open Internet Explorer in the Windows Phone Emulator at http://127.0.0.1:10080/127.0.0.1.cer.

Note: In order to consume the REST services over HTTPS in a Windows Phone device or in the Windows Phone Emulator, you need to use a trusted SSL certificate. If you do not have one, you can use a self-signed certificate, but you need to install it in the phone before consuming the services. Since the Computer Emulator always uses the 127.0.0.1 self-signed certificate, we need to install it in the Windows Phone Emulator before continuing with the next steps.
Click the shield icon to install the Windows Azure Compute Emulator’s SSL certificate in the Windows Phone Emulator. Finally, click install to confirm that you want to install the certificate.

Important: If you leave the Windows Phone Emulator open, you do not need to install the certificate every time that you run the application. However, if you close the Windows Phone Emulator, you will have to install it again.
Once the certificate is installed, click ok and navigate back to the running application using the left arrow ( ).

Authenticating the User

In the log in page you can choose to log in using an identity provider or use the application as a guest user, if you choose Don’t want to log in? you will be taken to the babels page directly.
If you want to log in using an identity provider, select the identity provider you want to authenticate with and log in providing your account information.
If this is the first time you logged into the application, you will be redirected to the register page. Enter a name and an email address for the user, and then click register. Wait for the registration to complete. If the registration was successful, you will see the Registration Successful message. Click ok and you will be redirected back to the log in page.

Note: The Windows Phone Emulator supports mapping of the keyboard on your development computer to the hardware keyboard on a Windows Phone (by default is not enabled). To enable the keyboard in the Windows Phone Emulator press the PAGE UP or PAUSE/BREAK key. To disable it, press the PAGE DOWN or PAUSE/BREAK key. For more information, see the following article: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/ff754352(VS.92).aspx.
After completing the log in page, you will be taken to the babels page, wait until the application finishes registering for push notifications before using the application. The connection status should be connected and the application should indicate the time it received the last notification:

Sending Babels for Translation

Flick or pan to the left to navigate to the babels pivot item and click the camera button ( ) in the application bar. The phone’s camera will be open. Click the button in the top-right corner of the screen to take a photo and then click accept. This will redirect you to the upload picture page.
In the upload picture page, select English in the From list and English in the To list and finally clicked upload. If everything worked as expected, you will see a message box saying that the images was successfully uploaded. Click ok to navigate back to the babels pivot page.
Back in the babels pivot page, wait for a few seconds while the image is processed. After a short period, you should receive a push notification indicating that no text was found on the image.
The solution contains a sample image that can be used for testing. Go back to Visual Studio or Visual Studio Express for Windows Phone and in the Solution Explorer, choose the BabelCam.Phone project and find the Resources and Toolkit.Content folders:
To see how BabelCam works with this sample image, go back in the Windows Phone Emulator and, in the babels pivot page, click Translate a sample text image. In the upload picture page, choose French as the target language and click upload. If everything worked as expected, you will see a message box saying that the images was successfully uploaded. Click ok to navigate back to the babels pivot page.
Back in the babels pivot page, wait for a few seconds while the image is processed. After a short period, you should receive a push notification with the translated text to French.

Note: If you want to use a different sample image for translation, replace the sampletext.jpg file in both Resources and Toolkit.Content folders, rebuild the application and restart it.

Viewing Previos Babels

BabelCam archives all your past babels in a Windows Azure Storage Table. Follow the steps below to learn how to view your past babels.

Flick or pan to the left to navigate to my babels pivot item and click in the refresh icon (). The pivot page will show all your previous babels sent for translation with the date and time it was processed.
If you scroll down or up the list of babels, you can see all your past babels.
Click in the text of any babel and a browser window will open showing the original image that generated that babel.

Next step: TweetYourBlobs

Updated Wiki: Running and Going Through the Windows Phone Cloud Application

nharris — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 21:25:01 GMT

This Toolkit is now deprecated and is now

superseded by Windows Azure Mobile Services

To get started with Mobile Services, sign up for a Windows Azure account and receive 10 free Mobile Services.

This section goes through the solution generated and the steps required to explore it and run it. To watch a screencast on how to get started with the toolkit, please visit Getting Started with the Windows Azure Toolkit for Windows Phone 7 on Channel 9.

After creating a new Windows Phone Cloud Application project, perform these steps to go through the sample application generated.

Note: If you face any problems while following these steps, please make sure to review the Troubleshooting section.

Starting the Application

Make sure that you do not have any Web sites running in ports 443 or 10080 on your local IIS
Note: By default, the ASP.NET MVC 3 Web Role that is generated by the project template is configured to run over two different endpoints: one HTTPS in port 443 and another HTTP in port 10080.
Make sure that the target for Silverlight for Windows Phone projects is set to Windows Phone Emulator.

In Solution Explorer, right-click the Windows Azure project, point to Debug and click Start new instance.
Wait for the Web Role to start and click the Continue to this website (not recommended) link to be able to browse the site despite of the certificate warning.
To log into the Web application use the following credentials.
- User Name: admin
- Password: (with a zero)
In Solution Explorer, right-click the Windows Phone project, point to Debug and click Start new instance. This will launch the Windows Phone Emulator and start the application.
The application will redirect you to the log in page. Depending on the authentication mechanism selected when the application was created (ASP.NET Membership or ACS), you will get a different log in page. This is because there are some differences between ASP.NET Membership and ACS regarding the authentication flow.
In the log in page, click the Install certificate link. This will open Internet Explorer in the Windows Phone Emulator at http://127.0.0.1:10080/127.0.0.1.cer.

Note: In order to consume the REST services over HTTPS in a Windows Phone device or in the Windows Phone Emulator, you need to use a trusted SSL certificate. If you do not have one, you can use a self-signed certificate, but you need to install it in the phone before consuming the services. Since the Computer Emulator always uses the 127.0.0.1 self-signed certificate, we need to install it in the Windows Phone Emulator before continuing with the next steps.
Click the shield icon to install the Windows Azure Compute Emulator’s SSL certificate in the Windows Phone Emulator. Finally, click install to confirm that you want to install the certificate.

Important: If you leave the Windows Phone Emulator open, you do not need to install the certificate every time that you run the application. However, if you close the Windows Phone Emulator, you will have to install it again.
Once the certificate is installed, click ok and navigate back to the running application using the left arrow ().

Authenticating the User (ASP.NET Membership Authentication)

The following steps describe how the user logs in to the application configured to use ASP.NET Membership.

Note: If you selected the ACS authentication mechanism when the application was created, you should skip these steps and follow the authentication flow described in the Authenticating the user (ACS Authentication) section.

From the log in page of the application, click register.
In the register page, enter a username, e-mail and password, and then click register. Wait for the registration to complete. If the registration was successful, you will see the Registration Successful message. Click ok and you will be redirected back to the log in page.

Note: The Windows Phone Emulator supports mapping of the keyboard on your development computer to the hardware keyboard on a Windows Phone (by default is not enabled). To enable the keyboard in the Windows Phone Emulator press the PAGE UP or PAUSE/BREAK key. To disable it, press the PAGE DOWN or PAUSE/BREAK key. For more information, see the following article: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/ff754352(VS.92).aspx.
Back in the log in page, enter the credentials of the user you have previously created and then click log in. If the log in is successful, you will be redirected to the main pivot page.
Note: In case you want to log in with different credentials, you need to log out by clicking the log out button () in the phone application bar, which will redirect you to the log in page.

Authenticating the User (ACS Authentication)

The following steps describe how the user logs in to the application configured to use Windows Azure Access Control Service (ACS).

Note: These steps only apply if you selected the ACS authentication mechanism when the application was created.

In the log in page, a list with the configured identity providers is shown. Select the identity provider you want to authenticate with and log in providing your account information.

Note: Windows Live ID, Google and Yahoo identity providers are automatically configured into your ACS namespace when the application is created from the Windows Phone Cloud Application project template.
If this is the first time you logged into the application, you will be redirected to the register page. Enter a name and an email address for the user, and then click register. Wait for the registration to complete. If the registration was successful, you will see the Registration Successful message. Click ok and you will be redirected back to the log in page.

Note: The Windows Phone Emulator supports mapping of the keyboard on your development computer to the hardware keyboard on a Windows Phone (by default is not enabled). To enable the keyboard in the Windows Phone Emulator press the PAGE UP or PAUSE/BREAK key. To disable it, press the PAGE DOWN or PAUSE/BREAK key. For more information, see the following article: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/ff754352(VS.92).aspx.
Note: In case you want to log in with different credentials, you need to log out by clicking the log out button () in the phone application bar, which will redirect you to the log in page.

Sending Microsoft Push Notifications

If you configured the application to support Microsoft Push Notifications in the Creating a New Windows Phone Cloud Application section, you will be able to send notification messages to Windows Phone devices. Follow the steps below to learn how to send Microsoft Push Notifications.

After the user authenticates, the notification pivot item is shown in the application. You will notice that push notifications are not enabled and therefore the connection status is disconnected.
Check the Enable push notifications option and wait until you see a message saying that the notification updates were received.

Note: When the user enables push notifications, the application is registered with Microsoft Push Notification Service (MPNS) and the sample notification service included in this toolkit. After doing that, the application then downloads the queued messages for that Windows Phone device if there is any available. For more information about MPNS, you can read the Understanding Microsoft Push Notifications for Windows Phones and Understanding How Microsoft Push Notification Works – Part 2 articles.
Switch to the Web browser showing the Mobile Cloud Application Services Web site. Click the Log On link in the top-right corner.
To log into the Web application use the following credentials:
- User Name: admin
- Password: (with a zero)
Once logged in, additional menu options will be shown to manage user permissions to tables, blobs and queues, and to send push notifications.
Note: The menu items displayed in the Mobile Cloud Application Services Web site may differ depending on the option you selected in the template wizard steps. For example, if you selected SQL Azure Database as the only data provider, you will not see the Tables and Queue menu items.
Click the Microsoft Push Notifications menu option, type “raw message” in the textbox for the user you have just created and click Send Raw. You will see a success message.
Now, type “tile message” in the textbox and click Send Tile. You will see an error message saying that the notification was not received by the Windows Phone device.
Note: In order to receive tile notifications you first need to pin the application to the Windows Phone Start menu.
Switch back to the Windows Phone Emulator. You will see the raw notification message displayed in the Messages list.
Click the windows button () in the Windows Phone Emulator to navigate to the Start menu. In the Start menu, click the right arrow () to see the entire applications’ list. In the applications’ list, click the WA Toolkit WP icon and hold it for a few seconds until you see a contextual menu. In the contextual menu, click pin to start. This will redirect you back to the Start menu and you will now see the WA Toolkit WP application icon.
Switch to the Web browser and click Send Tile to send the 'tile message' notification again. You will now see a success message.
Now, type “toast message” in the textbox and click Send Toast. You will see another success message.
Switch back to the Windows Phone Emulator. You will see that the WAT Windows Phone icon now displays a number (in this case 1) and there is a toast notification available too. Click on the toast notification or the icon to open the WAT Windows Phone application. In the notifications page, you will see that both messages ('tile message' and 'toast message') are displayed in the Messages list.

Note: You were not redirected to the log in page because the authentication token that you had received the first time you logged in, is stored by default in the Isolated Storage.

Sending Apple Push Notifications

If you configured the application to support Apple Push Notifications in the Creating a New Windows Phone Cloud Application section, you will be able to send notification messages to an iOS application running in an iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch devices. Follow the steps below to learn how to send Apple Push Notifications.

Switch to the Web browser showing the Mobile Cloud Application Services Web site.
If not already logged in, click the Log On link in the top-right corner. Enter the administrator credentials provisioned by default and click Log On. Once logged in, additional menu options will be shown to manage user permissions to tables, blobs and queues, and to send push notifications.
Click the Apple Push Notifications menu option and specify in the Device ID the id of the iOS device to send the notification to, and in the Message field, the notification message text. Finally, press Send to send the push notification.
Note: The menu items displayed in the Mobile Cloud Application Services Web site may differ depending on the option you selected in the template wizard steps. For example, if you selected SQL Azure Database as the only data provider, you will not see the Tables and Queue menu items.

Note: The push notifications can only be sent to the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch devices running the iOS application associated to the APNS certificate that was configured when creating the Windows Phone Cloud Application.

Working with Tables, Blobs and Queues

If you configured the application to support Windows Azure Storage in the Creating a New Windows Phone Cloud Application section, you will be able to access tables, blobs and queues stored on Windows Azure. Follow the steps below to learn how to use these features.

Flick or pan to the left to navigate to the tables pivot item. You will see the list of available tables in your Windows Azure storage. You can click the plus button () in the application bar to add a new one and click the delete button () next to the table’s name to delete one.

Note: The PushUserEndpoints, secMembership, UserPrivileges and secRole tables are internally used by the toolkit services. Therefore, if you try to delete one of them you will get an error message saying that you do not have permissions.
Flick or pan to the left to navigate to the sample data pivot item. You will see the rows available in the SampleData table. If this table does not exist in your Windows Azure Tables storage, it is first created.
In the sample data pivot item click the plus button () in the application bar to add a new row. You can also click over each of the existing rows to edit or delete them.
Flick or pan to the left to navigate to the list blobs pivot item and click the camera button () in the application bar. The phone’s camera will be open. Click the button in the top-right corner of the screen to take a photo and then click accept. This will redirect you to the upload picture page.
In the upload picture page, type the name of the container where you want to upload your picture. Notice that the autocomplete list of available containers is filtered while you type. If you type a container name that does not exist in the storage, it will be created. Additionally, if you check the Make container public option, the Container ACL will be changed to full public read access.
Type a name for the blob. Additionally, check the Include location data and Include author data options if want to include the GPS location and the user ID values as blob metadata. Finally, click upload. If everything worked as expected, you will see a message box saying that the image was successfully uploaded. Click ok to navigate back to the main pivot page.
Back in the list blobs pivot item, chose the container where have just upload the picture in the previous step, and then click list blobs (notice that you can also filter the blob name by choosing a prefix).
Wait until the blob list finishes loading. You should see a thumbnail of the picture you have previously uploaded along with a link to the blob. If you click the link, it will open Internet Explorer in the phone displaying the picture. Additionally, you can click the delete button () next to the blob’s name to delete one.
Navigate back to the running application using the left arrow ().
Flick or pan to the left to navigate to the queues pivot item and click list queues to see the list of available queues in your Windows Azure storage. Notice that you can also filter the queues using a prefix.
In the queues pivot item, click the plus button () in the application bar to add a new queue (notice that you can click the delete button () next to the queue’s name to delete it).
Click the name of the queue you have just created in the previous step to navigate to the queue details page.
In the queue details page, type 'message 1' in the textbox and click queue. Then type 'message 2' in the textbox and click queue again. Finally, click dequeue two times to get the previous messages from the queue in the right order.
Click the windows button () in the Windows Phone Emulator to navigate to the Start menu.
Switch to the Web browser and click the User menu option. Notice that new users (like the one you have created) have by default granted permissions to access Tables, Blobs, Queues and SQL Azure.

Note: The Web Site’s administrator user (admin) is displayed in the list only if the application is configured to use ASP.NET Membership authentication, in which case the admin user is also a valid application user.
Note: The column SQL is displayed only if the application is configured to use a SQL database.
Uncheck the Tables, Blobs and Queues checkboxes for the user you have created.
Click the Tables menu option. In this page, you can grant permission to each user for each of the tables available in the Windows Azure Table storage.
Click the Queues menu option. In this page, you can grant permission to each user for each of the queues available in the Windows Azure Queue storage.
Click the Blob Containers menu option. In this page, you can grant permission to each user for each of the blob containers available in the Windows Azure Blob storage.
Switch back to the Windows Phone Emulator and click the WAT Windows Phone icon to open the application again.
Flick or pan back to left to navigate to the tables list pivot item and then to the sample data pivot item. You will see error messages in both pages saying that you have no permissions to use tables.
Flick or pan to left to navigate to the list blobs pivot item and then click list blobs. You will also see an error message saying that you have no permissions to use blobs.
Flick or pan to left to navigate to the queues pivot item and then click list queues. You will see an error message saying that you have no permissions to use queues.

Working with SQL Azure Database

If you configured the application to support SQL Azure Database in the Creating a New Windows Phone Cloud Application section, you will be able access an OData service on top of a SQL Azure database. Follow the steps below to learn how to use these features.

Note: The application uses Entity Framework 4.1 Code First, in order to create the needed database tables. By default, a database will be created in the SQL Azure server with the same name as the base project name used during the template wizard creation. In order to allow Entity Framework Code First to re-create the needed database tables when the model changes, it is necessary to add Persist Security Info=True to the connection string. This setting may not be suitable for production environments and you should consider removing it from your deployed applications.

Flick or pan to the left to navigate to the sql azure data pivot item. You will see the rows available in the SqlSampleData table.

Note: The PushUserEndpoints, secMembership, UserPrivileges and secRole tables are internally used by the toolkit services. Therefore, if you try to delete one of them you will get an error message saying that you do not have permissions.
Click the windows button () in the Windows Phone Emulator to navigate to the Start menu.
Switch to the Web browser and click the User menu option. Notice that new users (like the one you have created) have by default granted permissions to access Tables, Blobs, Queues and SQL Azure.

Note: The Web Site’s administrator user (admin) is displayed in the list only if the application is configured to use ASP.NET Membership authentication, in which case the admin user is also a valid application user.
Note: The columns Tables, Blobs and Queues are displayed only if the application is configured to use Windows Azure Storage.
Uncheck the SQL checkbox for the user you have created.
Switch back to the Windows Phone Emulator and click the WAT Windows Phone icon to open the application again.
Flick or pan back to left to navigate to the sql azure data pivot item. You will see an error message in the page saying that you have no permissions to use SQL Azure.

Next step: BabelCam

Updated Wiki: Creating a New Windows Phone Cloud Application

nharris — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 21:24:52 GMT

This Toolkit is now deprecated and is now

superseded by Windows Azure Mobile Services

To get started with Mobile Services, sign up for a Windows Azure account and receive 10 free Mobile Services.

This section describes how to create a new Windows Phone 7 Cloud Application using the project template included in this toolkit. To watch a screencast on how to get started with the toolkit, please visit Getting Started with the Windows Azure Toolkit for Windows Phone 7 on Channel 9.

Creating a New Windows Phone 7 Cloud Application

Open Visual Studio 2010 as administrator (this is required to run Windows Azure projects).
In the File menu point to New and then click Project.
In the Installed Templates list on the left of the New Project dialog, select Cloud under the Visual C# node, select the Windows Phone Cloud Application template, enter the Name and Location of the solution, and then click OK.
In the New Windows Phone Cloud Application Project dialog, select which storage options you wish to use. You must select at least one of the Windows Azure Storage or SQL Azure Database options.
Note: Windows Azure Storage is the project template’s default choice to store the Membership providers’ information and other infrastructure data. In case SQL Azure Database is the only storage choice selected, this information will instead be stored on a SQL Azure database.
Click Next to move to the next step of the wizard.
If the Windows Azure Storage option was selected, you need to provide your Windows Azure Storage account information (name and key). If you instead want to use the Storage Emulator, then check the Use Storage Emulator option.
Click Next to move to the next step of the wizard.
If the SQL Azure Database option was selected, you need to provide your SQL Azure database Server information (server name, user and password).

In case you want to use a local SQL Server instance instead of a SQL Azure Database, check Use local SQL Server instance, and select which instance of SQL Server you wish to use from the list.
Click Next to move to the next step of the wizard.
For the Push Notification Services options, select whether you want to include the Push Notifications Service support for Windows Phone and/or iOS devices (by default, only the Microsoft Push Notification Service support option is checked).

If the Apple Push Notification Service (APNS) support option is checked, a dialog window appears showing a list of the certificates installed in your local machine. Select the certificate to use as the APNS certificate identity and click OK.

Note: To create and install the Apple Push Notification certificate for a specific iOS application, you first need to register within the iOS Developer Program and get an SSL certificate from the iPhone Provisioning Portal. For more information, you can check the Provisioning and Development article in the iOS Developer Library.

Note: The Android Push Notification Service is not currently supported. It will become available in future releases of the toolkit.
Click Next to move to the next step of the wizard.
Select the authentication mechanism the application will support. You can choose either ASP.NET membership (default) or Windows Azure Access Control Service.

Note: For additional help on how to choose the authentication mechanism most suitable for your application, check Choosing the Access Control Strategy.

If the Windows Azure Access Control Service (ACS) option is selected, you need to provide the Namespace and Management key of your ACS service. For instructions on how to obtain your own Windows Azure Access Control Service namespace and management key, see Obtain Namespace and Management Key.

Note: If ACS authentication is selected, the template will perform the following configuration steps in your ACS namespace:
1. Add the following identity providers: Windows Live ID, Google and Yahoo.
2. Add the new application as a Relying Party Application.
3. Define a default set of claim transformation rules (needed for the application)
Click OK and wait until Visual Studio finishes creating the projects.
Explore the solution generated. You should see the following projects:
1. WPCloudApp1: Windows Azure project with a Web Role configured.
2. WPCloudApp1.Phone: Silverlight for Windows Phone project containing a sample application that shows how to receive push notifications and consume Windows Azure Tables, Blobs and Queues.
3. WPCloudApp1.Web: ASP.NET MVC 3 project configured as a Web Role containing the toolkit services and the administration pages.
  Note: The project names might be different depending on the name you typed in the New Project dialog.
Additionally, the project template also creates a Libs folder containing the following assemblies:
1. AspProviders.dll: ASP.NET Providers for Windows Azure Tables (Membership, Roles, Profile and Session State Store).
2. Microsoft.Samples.Data.Services.Client.dll: Modified version of the OData client library for Windows Phone (System.Data.Services.Client) to make it work with the Windows Azure Table Service API (http://odata.codeplex.com).
3. MIcrosoft.Samples.DPE.OAuth.dll (ACS only): Microsoft DPE OAuth2 library.
4. SL.Phone.Federation.dll (ACS only): Microsoft Silverlight ACS sign in control.
5. WindowsPhone.Recipes.Push.Messages.dll (Microsoft Push only): Push Notification Server Side Helper Library (http://create.msdn.com/education/catalog/article/pnhelp-wp7).
6. WindowsPhoneCloud.StorageClient.dll: Windows Azure Storage Client library for Windows Phone.

Note: The number of assemblies might be different depending on the settings configured in the wizard.

Next step: Running and Going Through the Windows Phone Cloud Application

Updated Wiki: Getting Started

nharris — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 21:24:41 GMT

This Toolkit is now deprecated and is now

superseded by Windows Azure Mobile Services

To get started with Mobile Services, sign up for a Windows Azure account and receive 10 free Mobile Services.

This section describes how to create a new Windows Phone Cloud Application using the project template included in this toolkit. It also goes through the solution generated and the steps required to explore it and run it.

Updated Wiki: FAQs

nharris — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 21:24:26 GMT

This Toolkit is now deprecated and is now

superseded by Windows Azure Mobile Services

To get started with Mobile Services, sign up for a Windows Azure account and receive 10 free Mobile Services.

Why are the proxies and services needed?

The proxies and services included in the Windows Phone Cloud Application enable Windows Phone developers to create device applications that use Windows Azure services in a secure and controllable fashion.

In order to access Windows Azure Storage (Tables, Blobs, or Queues) directly from the phone application without these proxies and services, you would have to include your Windows Azure Storage account information in the phone application. Clearly, this is not secure, since any malicious user could access this information and use your Windows Azure Storage account for their purposes.

The Windows Phone Cloud Application provides proxies and services that enable developers to overcome these and other issues:

You can store the Windows Azure Storage account information safely in a Web Application, away from potential malicious users.
You can assign finely grained permissions to each user for each of the Windows Azure Storage services (Tables, Blobs, or Queues) and every object created in them (such as tables, blob containers, blobs, queues, etc.).
The Tables and Queues proxies work transparently and provide the same API as the Windows Azure Storage REST API.
The Shared Access signature service provides an interface that combined with Windows Azure Storage Shared Access Signature features allows the developer to:
1. Create and Delete containers.
2. List Blobs in a container.
3. Obtain a Shared Access Signature for a container in order to:
  - List Blobs in the container
  - Upload Blobs to the container
  - Delete Blobs from the container
  - Attach meta-data to a Blob in the container
4. Obtain a Shared Access Signature for a Blob in a private container in order to download it

Does Windows Azure Storage support granular authorization permissions now?

No, Windows Azure Storage does not support granular authorization permissions for storage operations.

The Windows Phone Cloud Application proxies and Administration portal provide this functionality out-of-the-box, fully integrated with Windows Azure Access Control Service (ACS) or with Membership-based authentication (either using Asp Providers for Windows Azure Storage or Universal Providers for SQL Azure or SQL Server).

Using the Administration portal included in the project template, you can manage authorization for the users to allow/forbid access to Windows Azure Storage Tables, Queues, Blobs, and access to SQL Azure, as well as granular control for creating, retrieving, updating, and deleting data in SQL Azure over an OData service.

Can I use the StorageClient library for Windows Phone directly against a Windows Azure Storage account?

Yes, the WindowsPhoneCloud.StorageClient library included in the toolkit is a Windows Phone Class Library that can be used to access the Windows Phone Cloud Application proxies and services or Windows Azure Storage directly.

Just take into account that if you access Windows Azure Storage directly you will have to include your storage account key in the phone application, also, you will not be able to provide granular authorization to individual users, since this feature is available only using the proxy.

To access Windows Azure Storage tables directly, update the phone application following these steps:

Update the App.xaml definitions to point to Windows Azure Storage directly.

<!--Toolkit services' resources (to avoid having to store the Azure Storage account name and key in the phone application)-->
<system:String x:Key="SSLCertificateUrl">http://127.0.0.1:10080/127.0.0.1.cer</system:String>
<system:String x:Key="SharedAccessSignatureServiceEndpoint">https://127.0.0.1/SharedAccessSignatureService</system:String>
<system:String x:Key="AzureStorageTableProxyEndpoint">https://[your storage account name].table.core.windows.net</system:String>

In the CloudClientFactory.cs class, update the ResolveStorageCredentials method to return a StorageCredentialsAccountAndKey object with your storage account credentials.

public IStorageCredentials ResolveStorageCredentials()
{
      return new StorageCredentialsAccountAndKey("[your storage account name]", "[your storage account key]");
}

You can repeat these steps for Queues and Blobs as needed.

When Using ACS for authentication, how does the user know that the login page is not a phishing application?

The same as with desktop applications, when users install a phone application, they make an implicit decision to trust the developer with their data.

This decision is particularly important in applications that handle sensitive information such as usernames and passwords.

You, as a developer, need to ensure the user that their credentials are not accessible to your application, they will not be stored in the device and that data will not be handled un-appropriately.

How do I deploy to Windows Azure a ‘Windows Phone Cloud Application’ generated with the project templates?

See Deploy Your Services to Windows Azure.

Do not forget to update your Windows Phone application to consume your Windows Azure Hosted Service from https://<YourDNSPrefix>.cloudapp.net/.

Why do I need to install the SSL certificate in the phone device to access the toolkit services and proxies?

You can connect to a web service using an SSL connection as long as the server’s SSL certificate is valid for the target web site and issued by a trusted authority. Before testing the SSL connection from your application, you can try to navigate to the web site using Windows Phone Internet Explorer. If the certificate causes a warning or error while using the browser, it is likely that the connection will fail in your application as well.

To see a full list of SSL root certificates that ship with Windows Phone, see SSL Root Certificates for Windows Phone.

Next step: Getting Started

Updated Wiki: Architecture Diagrams

nharris — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 21:24:11 GMT

This Toolkit is now deprecated and is now

superseded by Windows Azure Mobile Services

To get started with Mobile Services, sign up for a Windows Azure account and receive 10 free Mobile Services.

This section provides an overview of the services and proxies included in the Windows Azure Toolkit for Windows Phone.

Proxies and Services for Windows Azure Storage

Every request made against the Windows Azure Storage Services must be authenticated (unless the request is for a blob or container resource that has been made available for public or signed access).

An authenticated request requires two headers: the Date or x-ms-date header and the Authorization header. The latter, contains a request signature that is generated with the key for the account that is making the request. This means that to perform operations to these services, you require to have access to the storage account secrets.

To avoid having to store your secrets (the storage account name and key) in your phone client applications, the toolkit provides a set of proxies and services that let you consume the Windows Azure Storage Services in a secure fashion. This way, the storage account information remains safe in the Web Role hosting these services:

The Azure Tables and Queues proxies are HTTP Handlers that forward requests to the real Windows Azure Storage Services. These proxies support different authentication mechanisms, like Membership and ACS, and allow a more granular level of authorization on top of the storage resources. If the proxy determines that the request has the correct privileges, it will sign the request, forward it to the real Windows Azure Storage Services, and then forward back the response to the client.
The Shared Access Signature service is a WCF REST Service that delivers Shared Access Signatures (SAS) for containers and blobs. A SAS is a set of URL query parameters that incorporates all of the information necessary to grant controlled access to a blob or container resource. The URL specifies the time interval over which the SAS is valid, the permissions that it grants, the resource that is to be made available, and the signature that the Blob service should use to authenticate the request. Once the phone client receives the SAS, it can use it to perform requests to the Blob Service REST API.

For more information, you can review the following articles:

OData Service for SQL Azure

The SQL Azure OData Service is a sample WCF Data Service built on top of a SQL Azure (or SQL Server) database using Entity Framework 4.1 Code First.

The current version of this service only supports Read operations and, in addition to exposing the SQL Azure database as an OData feed, it adds a security layer to manage authentication / authorization.

For more information, you can review the following articles:

Microsoft Push Notifications

The Microsoft Push Notification Service in Windows Phone offers third-party developers a resilient, dedicated, and persistent channel to send data to a Windows Phone application from a web service in a power-efficient way. The toolkit provides an enhanced notification service built on top of the MPN service that saves the notifications sent to the user while he is offline, and delivers them to him the next time he logs in.

The Windows Phone, the MPN service and the toolkit service collaborate in this way:

The Windows Phone Application registers in the MPN service: The WP application opens a notification channel to the MPN service. The WP application indicates that it wishes to receive push notification messages. The MPN server creates a subscription endpoint associated with that particular channel, so the notifications received at that endpoint will be forwarded to that specific WP device, and that specific WP application, using the channel it’s just opened. The MPN server sends the endpoint to the WP application, so the WP application can send the endpoint to the service it wants to receive notifications from.
The Windows Phone Client registers in the Toolkit Web Role: The WP application invokes the SamplePushNotificationService in the Web Role to register itself with the subscription endpoint received from the MPN service. This endpoint is the URI to which the cloud application will perform the HTTP POSTs to send PN messages to the device.
The Toolkit Cloud Service sends a notification request to the MPN Service: The cloud services sends a notification request by doing a HTTP POST in a specific XML format defined by the MPN protocol to the subscription endpoint associated with the device it wants to notify.
The MPN service sends the notification to the WP device: The MPN transforms the notification request it received to a proper Push Notification to send to the WP device associated with the endpoint where it received the notification request. The notification request can ask for a toast, a tile, or a raw notification. Once the WP device receives the PN via the Push Client it will route the notification to the Shell, which will take an action according to the status of the application. If the application is not running, the shell will either update the application tile, or show a toast. If the application is running, it will send the notification to the already running application.

When sending Tile or Toast notifications from the Administration Portal, the full text of the notification is stored either in an Azure Queue (if available) or in a SQL Azure database table (if this is the only storage medium available). When the phone application is launched, and the Notifications pivot item selected, this queue or database table is polled and all the messages for that user are extracted and shown to the user.

For more information, you can review the following articles:

ACS Authentication

The Windows Azure Access Control Service (ACS) allows your application to outsource authentication, enabling users to register and log in from the Windows Phone client by reusing their existing accounts from identity providers such as Windows Live ID, Google, Yahoo and possibly from an Active Directory or Facebook.

The phone application pulls a list of the available Authentication Providers from the configured ACS namespace, and the users authenticate themselves with one of those providers. After that, the Simple Web token provided by ACS is stored in the device and it is used to sign every HTTP request made to the services. All services check the validity of this token before authorizing a request to pass through to Windows Azure Storage or SQL Azure.

After authenticating against an Authentication Provider the phone application checks against the Web Role if the user is already registered. If he is registered, he is redirected to the registration page, where he is asked for a name and an email address.

The username is used by the administration to grant or revoke granular permissions for each of the Services and Proxies in the Web Role.

Membership Authentication

ASP.NET membership enables developers to validate and manage user information for your Web application. It provides functionality for validating user credentials, creating and modifying membership users, and managing user settings such as passwords and e-mail addresses. ASP.NET membership is primarily intended for use with ASP.NET forms authentication, but can be used anywhere within an ASP.NET application.

When the Windows Phone Application is configured using Membership as authentication service, users must create a user in the Web Role, using the Phone Application. Once a user is created, they can access all services deployed in the Web role for which the administrator grants permission to. The Phone Application uses the Authentication ticket provided by ASP.NET membership to sign every request made to the Web Role. All services check the validity of this ticket before authorizing request to pass through to Windows Azure Storage or SQL Azure.

The username is used by the administration to grant or revoke granular permissions for each of the Services and Proxies in the Web Role.

If the Web Role was deployed with the Windows Azure Storage services and proxies, the Windows Azure ASP.NET Membership Providers are used to store the Authorization information in your Windows Azure Storage account, otherwise, the ASP.NET Universal Membership Providers are used to store this information in a SQL Azure database.

For more information, you can review the following articles:

Administration Portal

All Windows Phone Cloud Applications come bundled with an Administration Portal that allow administrators to:

Grant / Revoke permissions for users on:
- Blob Containers
  - Individually for each container
  - For all containers
- Windows Azure Queues
  - Individually for each queue
  - For all queues
- Windows Azure Tables
  - Individually for each table
  - For all tables
- SQL Azure
  - Read access to the OData service.
Send Microsoft Push Notifications
Send Apple Push Notifications

The administrator users are authenticated using ASP.NET Membership. If the Web Role was deployed with the Windows Azure Storage services and proxies, the Windows Azure ASP.NET Membership Providers are used to store the Authorization information in your Windows Azure Storage account, otherwise, the ASP.NET Universal Membership Providers are used to store this information in a SQL Azure database.

For more information, you can review the following articles:

Running and Going Through the Windows Phone Cloud Application

Next step: FAQs

Updated Wiki: Toolkit Content

nharris — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 21:23:59 GMT

This Toolkit is now deprecated and is now

superseded by Windows Azure Mobile Services

To get started with Mobile Services, sign up for a Windows Azure account and receive 10 free Mobile Services.

Windows Phone Cloud Application Project Templates

This toolkit contains the following two project templates for both C# and Visual Basic:

Windows Phone Cloud Application: This template makes it easier for developers to create a Windows Phone application that relies on Windows Azure. This template generates a Windows Azure project, an ASP.NET MVC 3 project (configured as a Web Role), and a Windows Phone application project. All these projects working together show how you can interact with Windows Azure Storage without needing to include the storage account information (name and key) in the phone application, thus making it more secure to distribute.
Windows Phone Empty Cloud Application: The same as the Windows Phone Cloud Application template, but instead of creating a sample Windows Phone application to highlight the toolkit services, it creates a default Windows Phone application project with minimum settings and dependencies.

Note: Take into account that the content of each of the previous project templates varies according to the Visual Studio edition for which it is targeted.

Visual Studio Supported Versions

The toolkit relies on the Windows Azure, Silverlight for Windows Phone and ASP.NET MVC 3 project types. Therefore, to run the sample solution and use the project templates, you will need to have either Visual Studio 2010 Professional (or higher) installed, or both Microsoft Visual Web Developer 2010 Express and Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Express for Windows Phone.

Project Type	Visual Studio 2010 Professional (or higher)	Visual Studio 2010 Express for Windows Phone	Web Developer 2010 Express
Windows Azure	Supported	Not Supported	Supported
Silverlight for Windows Phone	Supported	Supported	Not Supported
ASP.NET MVC 3	Supported	Not Supported	Supported

Note: For more details about the project types supported in Visual Studio Express editions, check the following table: http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/en-us/products/2010-editions/product-comparison#expressCompareTable.

If you are running the toolkit with the Visual Studio Express editions (Visual Web Developer 2010 Express and Visual Studio 2010 Express for Windows Phone), one project template will be installed for each of them. The template for Visual Web Developer 2010 Express creates a Windows Azure project and its corresponding ASP.NET MVC 3 Web Role that provides services to work with data in the Windows Azure Storage. On the other hand, the project template for Visual Studio 2010 Express for Windows Phone creates a Windows Phone sample client application that consumes those services and lets users interact with Windows Azure Storage data.

Samples and Libraries Source Code

If you browse to the Samples\WP7.1 folder, you will find the following folders:

BabelCam: The source code for the BabelCam sample.
TweetYourBlobs: The source code for the Tweet Your Blobs sample.
ProjectTemplates: The source code for the Project Templates samples.
Libraries: The source code for the libraries included in the toolkit.

Note: You can find in the Samples\WP7.0 folder the source code of the legacy samples and libraries targeting Windows Phone OS 7.0. The source code in them is updated up to the v1.3.0 toolkit release (August 30th, 2011). This means that none of the new features, bug fixes, updates, and changes made to the toolkit afterwards are available in these samples.

BabelCam Sample

The BabelCam sample application is based on a similar solution structure as the Windows Phone Cloud Application project templates.

The application allows users to take a picture of a text, upload it to a Windows Azure Blob and send a message to a Windows Azure Worker role using a Windows Azure Queue.

The Worker role, in turn, invokes Microsoft Research Project Hawaii OCR in the Cloud Service to recognize the text, and then, translates it to another language of the user’s choice by using the Bing Translator Service. Finally, it sends a push notification message of the resulting text back to the phone.

If you browse to the Samples\WP7.1\BabelCam folder, you will find three different solution files:

BabelCam.sln: This solution only works with Visual Studio 2010 Professional (or higher) and contains all the projects.
BabelCam.Phone.sln: This solution works with Visual Studio 2010 Express for Windows Phone and only contains the phone projects:
- BabelCam.Phone
- Microsoft.Samples.Data.Services.Client
- SL.Phone.Federation
- WindowsPhoneCloud.StorageClient
BabelCam.Azure.sln: This solution works with Visual Web Developer 2010 Express and only contains the Azure and Web projects:
- AspProviders
- BabelCam
- BabelCam.Infrastructure
- BabelCam.Web
- BabelCam.Worker
- DPE.OAuth
- Hawaii.Services.Client
- Hawaii.Services.Client.Ocr
- WindowsPhone.Recipes.Push.Messages

Note: The BabelCam.Azure.sln and BabelCam.Phone.sln allow you to run the whole sample without needing to install Visual Studio 2010 Professional (or higher). To do this, you can run both solutions separately, first the Azure solution (as administrator) and then the Phone one.

Important: Set up BabelCam Sample

Before running the BabelCam sample, you will need to update your Windows Azure Access Control Service Namespace information, your Microsoft Research Project Hawaii Cloud Services Application Id, and your Bing Translator Service Application Id in the configuration files. To do this, perform the following steps:

Double-click the SetupSample.cmd file located inside the Samples\WP7.1\BabelCam folder to launch a tool that will help you in the process of configuring the sample.
In order to use Microsoft Research Project Hawaii services, you must accept their EULA. Review the document and enter y to continue.
Obtain your ACS namespace and its management key. To do this, you can follow the instructions in How to Obtain Namespace and Management Keys?
If you have not created an ACS namespace, you can try out the sample without creating one. Just press ENTER when asked for your ACS namespace and service key and the sample will use the fully pre-configured sample https://watwindowsphone.accesscontrol.windows.net/ ACS namespace.
Enter your Windows Azure Access Control service namespace and the symmetric key you obtained in the first step.
If you want to configure Facebook as Identity Provider, enter your Facebook Application ID and Application Secret. Otherwise, press ENTER.
Wait until the tool finishes configuring your sample.

Note: You can get more information about configuring relying party applications in the ACS Management Portal on the following article: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg185906.aspx.
Obtain your Bing Translator Application Id. To do this, you can follow the instructions in Obtain a Bing Application Id.
Enter your Bing Translator Application Id and press ENTER.
Obtain your Microsoft Research Project Hawaii OCR in the Cloud Service Application Id. To do this, you can follow the instructions in Obtain Project Hawaii Application ID.
Enter your Microsoft Research Project Hawaii OCR in the Cloud Service Application Id and press ENTER.

Tweet Your Blobs Sample

The TweetYourBlobs sample application is based on a similar solution structure as the Windows Phone Cloud Application project templates, but it has being simplified for its particular scenario. Additionally, all the authentication / authorization code was removed to allow anonymous access.

The application allows users to take a picture, upload it to a Windows Azure Blob of their choice and tweet the picture URL.

If you browse to the Samples\WP7.1\TweetYourBlobs folder, you will find three different solution files:

TweetYourBlobs.sln: This solution only works with Visual Studio 2010 Professional (or higher) and contains all the projects.
TweetYourBlobs.Phone.sln: This solution works with Visual Studio 2010 Express for Windows Phone and only contains the phone projects:
- TweetYourBlobs.Phone
- Microsoft.Samples.Data.Services.Client
- WindowsPhoneCloud.StorageClient
TweetYourBlobs.Azure.sln: This solution works with Visual Web Developer 2010 Express and only contains the Azure and Web projects:
- TweetYourBlobs
- TweetYourBlobs.Web

Note: The TweetYourBlobs.Azure.sln and TweetYourBlobs.Phone.sln allow you to run the whole sample without needing to install Visual Studio 2010 Professional (or higher). To do this, you can run both solutions separately, first the Azure solution (as administrator) and then the Phone one.

Important: Tweet Your Blobs Sample

Before running the Tweet Your Blobs sample, you will need to update your bitly login and API Key used to shorten picture URLs before tweeting them. To do this, perform the following steps:

Double-click the SetupSample.cmd file located inside the Samples\WP7.1\TweetYourBlobs folder to launch a script that will help you in the process of configuring the sample.
Obtain your bitly login and API Key. To do this, you can follow the instructions in Appendix V: How to obtain a bitly Username and API Key.
Enter your bitly Username and press ENTER.
Enter your bitly API Key and press ENTER.

CRUD Sql Azure Sample

The CRUDSqlAzure sample application is based on a similar solution structure as the Windows Phone Cloud Application project templates, but it has being simplified for its particular scenario.

The application shows how to use an OData service on top of a SQL Azure database with full support for CRUD operations, using Windows Azure Access Control Service (ACS) as the authentication mechanism, and storing all the infrastructure information in a SQL Azure database.

If you browse to the Samples\WP7.1\TweetYourBlobs folder, you will find three different solution files:

CRUDSqlAzure.sln: This solution only works with Visual Studio 2010 Professional (or higher) and contains all the projects.
CRUDSqlAzure.Phone.sln: This solution works with Visual Studio 2010 Express for Windows Phone and only contains the phone projects:
- CRUDSqlAzure.Phone
- SL.Phone.Federation
- Microsoft.Samples.Data.Services.Client
- WindowsPhoneCloud.StorageClient
CRUDSqlAzure.Azure.sln: This solution works with Visual Web Developer 2010 Express and only contains the Azure and Web projects:
- CRUDSqlAzure
- CRUDSqlAzure.Web
- DPE.OAuth

Note: The CRUDSqlAzure.Azure.sln and CRUDSqlAzure.Phone.sln allow you to run the whole sample without needing to install Visual Studio 2010 Professional (or higher). To do this, you can run both solutions separately, first the Azure solution (as administrator) and then the Phone one.

Important: Set up CRUD Sql Azure Sample

Before running the project template samples, you will need to update either your SQL Azure Database and your Windows Azure Access Control Service Namespace information in the configuration files. To do this, perform the following steps:

Double-click the SetupSample.cmd file located inside the Samples\WP7.1\CRUDSqlAzure folder to launch a script that will help you in the process of configuring the sample.
Obtain your ACS namespace and its management key. To do this, you can follow the instructions in How to Obtain Namespace and Management Keys?
If you have not created an ACS namespace, you can try out the sample without creating one. Just press ENTER when asked for your ACS namespace and service key and the sample will use the fully pre-configured sample https://watwindowsphone.accesscontrol.windows.net/ ACS namespace.
Enter your Windows Azure Access Control service namespace and the symmetric key you obtained in the previous step.
If you want to configure Facebook as Identity Provider, enter your Facebook Application ID and Application Secret. Otherwise, press ENTER.
Wait until the tool finishes configuring your sample.

Note: You can get more information about configuring relying party applications in the ACS Management Portal on the following article: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg185906.aspx.
Obtain your SQL Azure server name, username and password. To do this, you can follow the instructions in How to Create a SQL Azure Database Server.
To use a local SQL Server Database, choose 1, enter your SQL Server instance name and the name for the database you wish to use:

Note: If you use the name of an existing database, it will be dropped and recreated with the schema needed for this sample. Do not use a database that already exists if you need the data in that database.
To use a SQL Azure database, choose 2 and enter your SQL Azure server name, username, password and the name for the database you wish to use:

Note: If you use the name of an existing database, it will be dropped and recreated with the schema needed for this sample. Do not use a database that already exists if you need the data in that database.

Project Templates Samples

The toolkit also includes a set of sample applications based on the same solution structure as the Windows Phone Cloud Application project templates. You can find them at Samples\WP7.1\ProjectTemplates.

If you browse to the Samples\WP7.1\ProjectTemplates folder, you will find the following folders:

WPCloud.ACS: This folder contains a full version of the sample application showing how to use Blobs, Queues, Tables, Push Notification, and an OData service on top of a SQL Azure database, using Windows Azure Access Control Service (ACS) as the authentication mechanism.
WPCloud.Mem: This folder contains a full version of the sample application showing how to use Blobs, Queues, Tables, Push Notification, and an OData service on top of a SQL Azure database, using ASP.NET Membership as the authentication mechanism.
WPCloud.SQL.ACS: This folder contains a reduced version of the sample application showing how to use an OData service on top of a SQL Azure database, using Windows Azure Access Control Service (ACS) as the authentication mechanism, and storing all the infrastructure information in a SQL Azure database.
WPCloud.SQL.Mem: This folder contains a reduced version of the sample application showing how to use an OData service on top of a SQL Azure database, using ASP.NET Membership as the authentication mechanism, and storing all the infrastructure information in a SQL Azure database.

Each of these samples contains three different solution files (the solution file name matches the Sample project chosen):

WindowsPhoneCloud.{Authentication}(.SQL).sln: This solution only works with Visual Studio 2010 Professional (or higher) and contains all the projects.
WindowsPhoneCloud.{Authentication}(.SQL).Phone.sln: This solution works with Visual Studio 2010 Express for Windows Phone and only contains the phone projects:
- Microsoft.Samples.Data.Services.Client
- SL.Phone.Federation (for ACS only)
- WindowsPhoneCloud.StorageClient
- WindowsPhoneCloud.Phone
WindowsPhoneCloud.{Authentication}(.SQL).Azure.sln: This solution works with Visual Web Developer 2010 Express and only contains the Azure and Web projects:
- AspProviders (for full samples only)
- DPE.OAuth (for ACS only)
- WindowsPhone.Recipes.Push.Messages
- WindowsPhoneCloud
- WindowsPhoneCloud.Web

Note: The WindowsPhoneCloud.Azure.sln and WindowsPhoneCloud.Phone.sln allow you to run the whole sample without needing to install Visual Studio 2010 Professional (or higher). To do this, you can run both solutions separately, first the Azure solution (as administrator) and then the Phone one.

Import: Set up Project Templates Samples

Before running the project template samples, you will need to update either your SQL Azure Database or your Windows Azure Access Control Service Namespace information in the configuration files. To do this, perform the following steps:

Double-click the SetupSample.cmd file located inside the Samples\WP7.1\ProjectTemplates\{SampleName} folder to launch a tool that will help you in the process of configuring the sample.
If you are using WPCloud.ACS or WPCloud.SQL.ACS samples, see the next step. Otherwise, skip to step 7.
Obtain your ACS namespace and its management key. To do this, you can follow the instructions in How to Obtain Namespace and Management Keys?
If you have not created an ACS namespace, you can try out the sample without creating one. Just press ENTER when asked for your ACS namespace and service key and the sample will use the fully pre-configured sample https://watwindowsphone.accesscontrol.windows.net/ ACS namespace.
Enter your Windows Azure Access Control service namespace and the symmetric key you obtained in the first step.
If you want to configure Facebook as Identity Provider, enter your Facebook Application ID and Application Secret. Otherwise, press ENTER.
Wait until the tool finishes configuring your sample.

Note: You can get more information about configuring relying party applications in the ACS Management Portal on the following article: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg185906.aspx.
Obtain your SQL Azure server name, username and password. To do this, you can follow the instructions in How to Create a SQL Azure Database Server.
To use a local SQL Server Database, choose 1 and enter your SQL Server instance name:
To use a SQL Azure Database, choose 2 and enter your SQL Azure Server name, username and password:

Libraries

Inside the Samples\WP7.1\Libraries folder you will also find the source code of all the libraries included in this toolkit:

AspProviders: ASP.NET Providers for Windows Azure Tables (Membership, Roles, Profile and Session State Store)
DPE.OAuth: Microsoft DPE OAuth2 library.
SL.Phone.Federation: Microsoft Silverlight ACS sign in control.
Microsoft.Samples.Data.Services.Client: Modified version of the OData client library for Windows Phone (System.Data.Services.Client) to make it work with the Windows Azure Table Service API – (http://odata.codeplex.com).
WindowsPhone.Recipes.Push.Messages: Push Notification Server Side Helper Library, a part of the Windows Phone Push Recipe, that provides an easy way to send all three types of push notification messages that are currently supported by Microsoft Push Notification Services (MPNS): Tile, Toast, and Raw.
WindowsPhoneCloud.StorageClient: Windows Azure Storage Client library for Windows Phone.
Hawaii.Services.Client.Ocr: Is a version of the Microsoft Research Hawaii Project OCR in the Cloud service client libraries ported to .NET Framework 4.0, that allow simple access to the OCR service from a .NET client. Additionally, all previous asynchronous calls to the Web service have been changed to synchronous versions.

Next step: Architecture Diagrams

Updated Wiki: Setup and Configuration

nharris — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 21:23:47 GMT

This Toolkit is now deprecated and is now

superseded by Windows Azure Mobile Services

To get started with Mobile Services, sign up for a Windows Azure account and receive 10 free Mobile Services.

This section describes the software requirements for running this toolkit.

Software Requirements

You must have the following components installed to run the project templates and the sample solutions included in this toolkit:

Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Professional (or higher) or both Microsoft Visual Web Developer 2010 Express and Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Express for Windows Phone
Microsoft ASP.NET MVC 3
Windows Phone SDK 7.1 Release Candidate
Silverlight for Windows Phone Toolkit
Internet Information Services 7 (IIS7)
Windows Azure SDK for .NET – November 2011
Windows Identity Foundation Runtime
Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Express (or higher)
Entity Framework 4.1 Code First
Internet Explorer 9 (or any other modern Web browser supporting HTML5)

Note: The Configuration Wizard included with this toolkit is used to check the dependencies and install the VSIX files with the project templates. To launch it, browse to the root installation folder, and double-click Setup.cmd.

Next step: Toolkit Content

Updated Wiki: Overview

nharris — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 21:23:34 GMT

This Toolkit is now deprecated and is now

superseded by Windows Azure Mobile Services

To get started with Mobile Services, sign up for a Windows Azure account and receive 10 free Mobile Services.

The Windows Azure Toolkit for Windows Phone is designed to make it easier for you to build mobile applications that leverage cloud services running in Windows Azure.

The toolkit includes Visual Studio project templates for Windows Phone and Windows Azure, class libraries optimized for use on the phone, sample applications, and documentation. All this content is designed to be easily reused, simplifying your experience and optimizing your time when building your own phone applications leveraging cloud services.

In addition to support for Windows Azure storage services, this toolkit includes membership services to provide authentication and authorization for your phone applications and support for Microsoft and Apple push notifications.

For membership, you can choose between two different access control strategies: the toolkit can generate and include in your application a classic ASP.NET membership store, or it can outsource authentication to the Windows Azure Access Control Service (ACS). The latter enables your users to register and log in by reusing their existing accounts from identity providers such as Windows Live ID, Google, Yahoo and possibly from their Active Directory or Facebook.

Windows Azure

Windows Azure is a cloud-computing platform that lets you run applications and store data in the cloud. Instead of having to worry about building out the underlying infrastructure and managing the operating system, you can simply build your application and deploy it to Windows Azure. Windows Azure provides developers with on-demand compute, storage, networking, and content delivery capabilities.

SQL Azure Database

Microsoft SQL Azure Database is a highly available and scalable cloud database service built on SQL Server technologies. With SQL Azure, you do not have to install, setup, patch, or manage any software. High availability and fault tolerance is built-in and no physical administration is required. Additionally, you can get productive on SQL Azure quickly by using the same familiar T-SQL based relational model and the same powerful development and management tools used for on-premises databases.

For more information about Windows Azure, visit the Windows Azure website. For developer focused training material, download the Windows Azure Platform Training Kit or view the online Windows Azure Platform Training Course.