in this answer he said that i can use RIA services while creating my 3 tiers solution, how it can help me and how it can save me time, because when i checked it on msdn i found that RIA is something tied to silver light, while i am creating a normal asp.net website.
Distringuish between RIA and RIA Services
In the broadest sensse RIA (generally Rich Internet Applications) are implemented in technologies such as Silverlight, Dojo etc, give a really ncie UI experience in the browser (tier 1)
They will usually need to get data from somewhere, so you write service on a server somewhere. (tier 2). That in turn may actually go to some database or other data source (tier 3).
RIA Services is making the task of building that tier 2, service tier, logic easier. The kinds of services you build there are in principle reusable by many clients, but in fact you tend to find that certain patterns of service work particularly well for RIA UIs, and so the RIA Services are targeted at satisfying those needs.
Related
I have a WebAPI back-end for a mobile, and want to host it in Azure.
I am having a hard time figuring out the real differences between AMS and Websites.
All the articles I read about the subject talks about changes and benefits in general, and I want to understand specifically which new features AMS provides, and the benefits of hosting in AMS.
Authentication
In AMS I see the "IDENTITY" tab in azure portal. From what I understand, those 3rd party configs allow me to authenticate my users easily with google,FB etc. But this is just making the process more convenient and configurable via UI. In Websites, I can achieve the same functionality pretty easily using code from ASPNet.Identity and OWIN libraris.
Push Notifications
Again looking at AMS in the "PUSH" tab, I can see two mechanisms. The Notification Hub and 3rd party section.
The Notification Hub is nothing special to AMS, and I can get the exact same functionality when hosting in Websites.
The 3rd party section allows me to configure credentials to push services from Apple and Google (APNS,GCM...) and together with libraries in AMS namespace I can easily write code to communicate with those services.
But When hosting in Websites, in my back-end I can use open source libraries. For example, Moon-APNS to talk to APNS.
Scale
As far as I understand, both Websites and AMS allows the same scale functionality (One calls it Units and the other Instances).
Are there any big differences I missed?
Are any of the claims I made are incorrect?
It would be great if anyone could shed some light on the matter, specifically addressing all the 3 issues (Auth,Push,Scale).
That's a question I often get when I present Mobile Services at user group events.
For a .NET developer, there's nothing really special about Mobile Services since everything it offers, you can do it with a Website.
Mobile Services really shines for non .NET developers since you can have a complete mobile backend by writing scripts running on Node and Mobile Services abstract all the database and REST complexity.
I will likely get downvoted since I'll express a personal opinion but anyways: I see no obvious reasons for using Mobile Services if you're coding a .NET backend.
I think you are exactly the target customer for Azure Mobile Apps. You will get all of the power of having your own Azure Website (now rebranded as Azure Web App), with the additional convenience and client libraries of Mobile Services.
One feature of the client library that you may not have noticed is the cross-platform offline data sync capability. That's usually hard to build on your own, and we have an implementation that's conceptually consistent across all client platforms. (Plus, if you use Xamarin, you can share code between your client implementations.)
To be clear: Azure Mobile Services is NOT deprecated, and will not be until long after GA (general availability) of Azure Mobile Apps. Azure Mobile Apps is currently in preview.
The other big benefit of Mobile Services that you haven't mentioned is the client libraries for Android, iOS, Xamarin, and Cordova. If you already have a REST client library in your app and don't need to worry about multiple client platforms, then Azure Web Sites sound like a good way for you to go.
AMS by itself is built on top of Azure Websites. So you can actually implement everything in an Azure website that is available in AMS.
However, the good thing about AMS is that it allows you to quickly build the backend for a mobile app with CRUD operations, authentication/authorization and also provides client side libraries for different type of clients e.g., HTML, C#, etc. so we don't have to manually make the HTTP calls.
If you have need to implement the above functionality in Web API, it is quite an effort. Isn't it?
I am trying to undestand "What really SAAS is". It is Software as a Service, and hotmail outlook is one example of SAAS. But I am still in confusion.
Suppose, I built an web app "Hospital Management System" which keeps the record of all patient and all that, Is it a Software as a Service. What specific things are needed to be a Software as a Service, or just a web app is a SAAS????
A software is SAAS if it is deployed and managed to serve mutiple users (tenant is the term here) from the same deployment. That means the software is not deployed at the client side and it need not be one per tenant.
Your Hospital Management Systems would be a SAAS if you deployed it in your infrastructure and multiple hospitals used them as if you had created one for each of them.
Here are a few links that will help to understand better.
Databse architecture (single db vs client specific db) for Building Enterprise Web (RIA) application on cloud
Explanation of Tenant Load Balancer in SaaS maturity model level 4
Web applications (especially online and browser-based application services) require a significant amount of flexibility to accommodate ever-changing user demand.
SoftLayer’s infrastructure lets you customize highly scalable solutions ideal for meeting today’s needs without compromising cost efficiency or expansion speed. Linear stacks of Web, application and database servers can be added on the fly to precisely meet demand whenever more resources are needed.
I need to connect to a middle tier (think Azure) between both my Windows store app and WP8 app. Windows Azure Mobile Services has been proffered as a/the solution.
But am I reading too much into the name "...MOBILES Services" (as one of the pieces is not a mobile app, but runs on desktops, laptops AND tablets)?
In my case, am I better off with Azure Cloud Services as opposed to Windows Azure Mobile Services?
Windows Azure Mobile Services is a fast, easy way to get a back-end in the cloud for your mobile apps and Windows 8 apps (it's fine if your Windows 8 apps aren't necessarily targeting mobile devices). It includes the things most commonly needed in a back-end, such as authentication, database storage, and push notifications. There's no server-side development needed here, you just request the back-end and moments later it's ready to use; however, if you do want server-side logic you can add it in the form of JavaScript scripts.
Alternatively, you could build your own back end in the cloud using a combination of Windows Azure Cloud Services such as the Compute, Storage, and SQL Database services. You have access to more features at this level, but you also are doing your own development. You can write server-side logic in C#, VB.NET, PHP, Java, Python, etc. as you prefer.
Which should you use?
If Windows Azure Mobile Services meets your needs, and you'd rather focus on your mobile app than learning anything cloud-specific, that's likely the best path for you.
If you're conversant with the Windows Azure platform, and need features different from what WAMS provides, that suggests creating your own back end with Cloud Services.
If you're not sure which way to go, I suggest experimenting first with WAMS since it is quick and painless to get started.
Azure mobile services is designed to get you up and going with storing data, push notifications and authentication whichever of those components you might need.
It abstracts the need of creating a data access layer and a web/wcf service to access it from your applications; it's simply there to boilerplate as much functionality off the bat.
This however does not mean that it is only for mobile applications, behind it all is a normal SQL Azure database and an API that you can use from any .NET based application.
I would reason that if you need more than basic CRUD operations and won't be using authentication and push notifications, I would roll my own set of APIs and DAL and use cloud services instead.
If you need a flexible schema, boilerplate data access and want to use some of the other mobile services, it would suit you quite well.
Here is a link to getting going with mobile services from a non Windows8 or WP - ASP application : link
I've recently been asked to redevelop an .Net 2.0 WinForms application with a back end SQL Server Express DB.
One of the requirements is to allow remote users access to the application, so I've been considering hosted options to avoid VPN setup. The data is not sensitive and does not fall under data protection act, so a basic security approach for the web will cover me.
I like the idea of using Azure for a few reasons, but I'm not sure if a good fit for a users base of 5 or 6 with no real scope to grow. I've never used Azure and I plan to develop using MVC and a SQL backend as this is my main skillset.
A few points in favour of Azure in my mind are:
Tight integration with the TFS preview that I'm using for this project
Easy to setup a sandpit and a live version
Easy maintenance as I expect other hosted options will require more knowledge of underlying OS
Sticking to a full Microsoft stack should hopefully make things simpler
From what I find on the Azure site the message is all about scalability, which is great if you need it.
My question is simply, do you need a large user base, or plans to grow quickly, to use azure or is it how we should be hosting apps now?
What you're asking here is the perfect case for Windows Azure Web Sites:
You get 10 web sites for free (no custom DNS, but this is perfect for your 'sandpit'/test version). The shared mode supports custom DNS and is very cheap.
Tight integration with TFS preview and GitHub
You don't need to worry about the underlying OS, you simply publish from Visual Studio or with TFS Preview.
Sticking to the Microsoft stack is the easiest solution, but other technologies work great aswell. Since you're talking about MVC I'm assuming you are considering ASP.NET MVC, which is a perfect match with Windows Azure. Take a look at the training kit for some good examples.
The day you'll need a solution which more scalable (meaning you'll have more users and more income) you can easily upgrade to a reserved instance or to a Cloud Service (Web/Worker Role).
About your question: "My question is simply, do you need a large user base, or plans to grow quickly, to use azure or is it how we should be hosting apps now?"
Windows Azure is a cloud service platform (includes PaaS as Cloud Services, IaaS as Windows Azure Virtual Machines and also Websites suggest by Sandrino above), and with cloud services you have ability to start very small and grow as much and as quickly as your user requirement is, so you can use Azure with both cases. On the other hand there are some advantages using certain offering depend on your which service you are going to use to run your application.
I think article (Section: "What Should I Use? Making a Choice") will explain the strategy about how you make a selection among various services.
This SO discussion does talks about the difference between cloud Services and Azure WebSites as well.
I'm looking into the possibility of integrating an Azure hosted .NET solution with Dynamics GP and I'm new to Dynamics. In general it seems like there are two approaches to connecting to GP: 1) web services and 2) eConnect. This article has some good background.
I would think as long as the web services are accessible, that option would work. I see that there are MSMQ and other requirements for eConnect which makes me think that would be a headache if it is even possible without something like Azure Connect. Has anyone has done this one way or the other?
Thanks
Yes you can connect to your Dynamics GP from a Windows Azure Worker role (why Worker, why not web role?) and it's all depend which route your would want to take.
Web Services method is comparatively neat & easier to access your Secure Web Services configured Dynamics GP.
On the other hand, eConnect Integration requires several other configurations so If you decided to use eConnect, I think you are better of using eConnect along with BizTalk Server/Adapter combination set into Service Bus (which is talking directly to eConnect) and your Azure application is talking to BizTalk services directly. This could be much easier to implement but you can not beat web services.