Four Questions With … Clemens Vasters (seroter)- Interesting topics in this interview with one of the public face of Azure team about different topic.
MVC on Azure for Beginner (Henry He) - Definitively a good starting point for everyone want to start or try Azure and Asp.Net MVC.
Introducing Microsoft Sync Framework - A good product that is the core of the new Azure Data Sync. If you want a better configuration capability you will need sync framework.
How to avoid chaos in the cloud - We are at a time were the cloud is only beginning and nobody know how it will grow... this post ask so questions about the near future
New SQL Azure lab available (How to move data to SQL Azure) (Susan Ibach) - Microsoft Codename “Data Transfer” Tutorial (Liam Cavanagh - MSFT)- Nice tools quick and simple. However I got some hard time trying it, my Excel or csv file was not process. Finally I discover that the problem was my column name. Don't use ID as name for a column. Use something less generic like CustomerID... and it will work just fine.
I was re-doing some of the labs in the Windows Azure Platform Training Kit (WAPTK) when one of then didn't works: MessagingWithQueue. A got this error message:
Could not connect to net.tcp://xxxx.servicebus.windows.net:9354/.
The connection attempt lasted for a time span of 00:00:00.0615234.
TCP error code 10061: No connection could be made because the target machine actively refused it.
Quickly this message is saying that the port 9354 need to be open. So I was going to ask to open this port, but then I ask my self: “What if I couldn't?” Does Azure service Bus suppose to be super flexible and give me the opportunity to you all kind of connection? Of course it does, so I decide to make a RESTful version of this lab.
Let’s begin
Create a new Cloud project in Visual Studio, and add a web role. In fact, regular web project will work just fine, but to keep it close to the original lab I will start with a cloud on. In the content folder add preloader.gif and override the Site.css (all the code, images and files are available here). In the View / Shared folder override the Site.Master and in View / Home override Index.aspx. You can run now the application, you should see something like that:
Create Azure AppFabric Service Bus
On the Azure management portal at windows.azure.com In the Service Bus section, create a new Service Bus. You will need the Service Gateway, the Default Issuer (always “owner” in the CTP) and the Default Key.
Create New Queues
To Create a queue the button “Create” in section B will send the text, the queue name, to the Home controller and let us know the result. To do that let’s add some JavaScript /JQuery code in the Index page.
var getQueuesUrl = '< %= Url.Action("Queues") % >';
$(document).ready(function () {
loadQueues();
$("#createQueue").submit(function (event) {
event.preventDefault();
var url = $(this).attr('action');
var queueName = $("#queueName").val();
$(".loading").show();
$("#send").attr("disabled", "true");
$("#retrieve").attr("disabled", "true");
$.post(url, { queueName: queueName })
.success(function (response) { renderCreateQueueStatus(response); })
.error(function () { renderCreateQueueStatus(false); });
});
});
function renderCreateQueueStatus(response) {
if (response) {
$("#createQueueStatus").html("Queue created successfully!");
loadQueues();
} else {
$("#createQueueStatus").html("An error occurred, please try again later.");
}
$(".loading").hide();
$("#send").attr("disabled", "");
$("#retrieve").attr("disabled", "");
}
function loadQueues() {
$.get(getQueuesUrl).success(function (response) {
var ul = $("fieldset.center > ul");
var sendMsgCombo = $("#sendMessageQueue");
var receiveMsgCombo = $("#retrieveMessageQueue");
sendMsgCombo.children().remove();
receiveMsgCombo.children().remove();
ul.children().remove();
for (var i = 0; i < response.length; i++) {
var item = response[i];
sendMsgCombo.append('<option value="' + item.Name + '">' + item.Name + '</option>');
receiveMsgCombo.append('<option value="' + item.Name + '">' + item.Name + '</option>');
ul.append('<li><label>' + item.Name + '</label><div class="msgCountOf' + item.Name.replace(/ /g, '') + '" style="float:right"><label>Messages</label></div></li>');
updateMessageCountOf(item.Name, item.Messages);
}
});
$(".loading").hide();
}
function updateMessageCountOf(queueName, numberOfMessages) {
var message = numberOfMessages + " Messages";
if (numberOfMessages == "0") message = "No Messages";
if (numberOfMessages == "1") message = numberOfMessages + " Message";
$("div.msgCountOf" + queueName.replace(/ /g, '') + " > label").html(message);
}
Once the document is ready loadQueues() is called. This function will loop through a list of queues name and fill the two listbox and the build the middle list .
Using Jquery the $("#createQueue") add a submit function to the button with the ID createQueue and on the success or error will call the function renderCreateQueueStatus to update the content of the Label createQueueStatus. Then recall loadQueues() so it can refresh the queues lists.
On the server side now we will need a function CreateQueue that accept a string parameter as queue name and return a JsonResult. This function should act as a HttpPost. To communicate a token is needed. This is done by the primary call to Index. It’s creating a token for us with the issuer name and issuer secret of our Service bus with the function GetToken.
Put the information about your Service Bus (Service Gateway, Issuer and Key) in the Settings.The default constructor load this information.
To update the list of our queues we will use a function Queues(). This will download the information from “$Resources/Queues” and build a array of Json object with properties: Name and Messages. It took me some time before this Linq query works, the tricks is to use the namespace when looking for a node.
public class HomeController : Controller
{
private String mServiceNamespace;
private static String mBaseAddress;
private static String mToken;
private String mIssuerName;
private String mIssuerSecret;
private const String SBHOSTNAME = "servicebus.windows.net";
private const String ACSHOSTNAME = "accesscontrol.windows.net";
private const String ATOMNS = "{http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom}";
private const String SBNS = "{http://schemas.microsoft.com/netservices/2010/10/servicebus/connect}";
public HomeController()
{
mServiceNamespace = RoleEnvironment.GetConfigurationSettingValue("namespaceAddress");
mIssuerName = RoleEnvironment.GetConfigurationSettingValue("issuerName");
mIssuerSecret = RoleEnvironment.GetConfigurationSettingValue("issuerSecret");
mBaseAddress = "https://" + mServiceNamespace + "." + SBHOSTNAME + "/";
}
public ActionResult Index()
{
try
{
// Get a SWT token from the Access Control Service, given the issuerName and issuerSecret values.
mToken = GetToken(mIssuerName, mIssuerSecret);
}
catch (WebException we)
{
using (HttpWebResponse response = we.Response as HttpWebResponse)
{
if (response != null)
{
ViewBag.Message += Environment.NewLine + (new StreamReader(response.GetResponseStream()).ReadToEnd());
}
else
{
ViewBag.Message += Environment.NewLine + (we.ToString());
}
}
}
return View();
}
[HttpPost]
public JsonResult CreateQueue(String queueName)
{
try
{
var _queueAddress = mBaseAddress + queueName;
var _webClient = GetWebClient();
var _putData = @"<entry xmlns=""http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"">
<title type=""text"">" + queueName + @"</title>
<content type=""application/xml"">
<QueueDescription xmlns:i=""http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"" xmlns=""http://schemas.microsoft.com/netservices/2010/10/servicebus/connect"" />
</content>
</entry>";
byte[] _response = _webClient.UploadData(_queueAddress, "PUT", Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(_putData));
var _queueDescription = Encoding.UTF8.GetString(_response);
return Json(_queueDescription, JsonRequestBehavior.AllowGet);
}
catch
{
return Json(false, JsonRequestBehavior.AllowGet);
}
}
[OutputCache(NoStore = true, Duration = 0, VaryByParam = "*")]
public JsonResult Queues()
{
var _xDoc = XDocument.Parse(GetResources("$Resources/Queues"));
var _queues = (from entry in _xDoc.Descendants(ATOMNS + "entry")
select new
{
Name = entry.Element(ATOMNS + "title").Value,
Messages = entry.Element(ATOMNS + "content").Element(SBNS + "QueueDescription").Element(SBNS + "MessageCount").Value
}).ToArray();
return Json(_queues, JsonRequestBehavior.AllowGet);
}
private WebClient GetWebClient()
{
var _webClient = new WebClient();
_webClient.Headers[HttpRequestHeader.Authorization] = mToken;
return _webClient;
}
private String GetToken(String issuerName, String issuerSecret)
{
var acsEndpoint = "https://" + mServiceNamespace + "-sb." + ACSHOSTNAME + "/WRAPv0.9/";
var realm = "http://" + mServiceNamespace + "." + SBHOSTNAME + "/";
var _values = new NameValueCollection();
_values.Add("wrap_name", issuerName);
_values.Add("wrap_password", issuerSecret);
_values.Add("wrap_scope", realm);
var _webClient = new WebClient();
byte[] response = _webClient.UploadValues(acsEndpoint, _values);
var _responseString = Encoding.UTF8.GetString(response);
var _responseProperties = _responseString.Split('&');
var _tokenProperty = _responseProperties[0].Split('=');
var _token = Uri.UnescapeDataString(_tokenProperty[1]);
return "WRAP access_token=\"" + _token + "\"";
}
private String GetResources(String resourceAddress)
{
String _fullAddress = mBaseAddress + resourceAddress;
var _webClient = GetWebClient();
return _webClient.DownloadString(_fullAddress); ;
}
}
Send a Message
On the client side using JQuery we add a submit event that will call SendMessage from our controller then update the status and the message count.
$(document).ready(function () {
$("#sendMessage").submit(function (event) {
event.preventDefault();
var url = $(this).attr('action');
var queueName = $("#sendMessageQueue option:selected").val();
var message = $("#messageToSend").val();
$(".loading").show();
$("#create").attr("disabled", "true");
$("#retrieve").attr("disabled", "true");
$.post(url, { message: message, queueName: queueName })
.success(function (response) {
renderSendMessageStatus(response);
updateMessageCountOf(queueName, response);
})
.error(function () { renderSendMessageStatus(false); });
});
});
function updateMessageCountOf(queueName, numberOfMessages) {
var message = numberOfMessages + " Messages";
if (numberOfMessages == "0") message = "No Messages";
if (numberOfMessages == "1") message = numberOfMessages + " Message";
$("div.msgCountOf" + queueName.replace(/ /g, '') + " > label").html(message);
}
function renderSendMessageStatus(response) {
if (response) $("#sendMessageStatus").html("Message sent successfully!");
else $("#sendMessageStatus").html("An error occurred, please try again later.");
$(".loading").hide();
$("#create").attr("disabled", "");
$("#retrieve").attr("disabled", "");
}
function updateMessageCountOf(queueName, numberOfMessages) {
var message = numberOfMessages + " Messages";
if (numberOfMessages == "0") message = "No Messages";
if (numberOfMessages == "1") message = numberOfMessages + " Message";
$("div.msgCountOf" + queueName.replace(/ /g, '') + " > label").html(message);
}
On the server side the SendMessage function will post our message.
[HttpPost]
public JsonResult SendMessage(String queueName, String message)
{
var _fullAddress = mBaseAddress + queueName + "/messages" + "?timeout=60";
var _webClient = GetWebClient();
_webClient.UploadData(_fullAddress, "POST", Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(message));
return Json("1", JsonRequestBehavior.AllowGet);
}
Retrieve a Message
Finally to retrieve a message wee need to select a queue then send it to the server side. I modify this part of the code because I’m not using the brokeredMessage so I don't have all the properties from the original code lab.
How To Write Plugin in jQuery (Shakeel Iqbal | 28 Nov 2011 | Unedited contribution) - Yet another tutorial about creating a jQuery plugin. What is nice in this one is that is doing by iteration, starting with an empty plugin then adding bit of code to finish with some really great.
