Project 31-A

There are several blog posts on this site answering how to copy an Azure SQL database. Since they are older or in some cases lost (Wayne's Microsoft blog posts are gone), I'll link to the Microsoft docs.  Enterprise data or functionality? Don't use these processes if you need change detection or other enterprise-level requirements. Copy the Azure SQL database and keep it in the cloud. Make a copy of your Azure Cloud database To copy an existing Azure SQL Database in the Azure portal, you can copy or export. Generally, I choose to export to Azure Storage Blob container as a bacpac file . This allows me to use it as either a cloud or local database. The bacpac file includes data and schema. Watch for export completion To watch for export completion, from the Azure Server (not database) in the portal, use the  Import/Export History in the Data Management section. Download bacpac file from Azure Storage To download the bacpac file, Azure Storage container in the Azure portal...

I have a catalog of small front-end Javascript apps built with Angular (ng) and React (CRA and Next) I would like to host on Azure. Hosting on Azure Azure provides features for a web host: * Options from big to small - full VM , container , web app , or host static website * HTTPS and URL - every Azure resource is served via HTTPS with a dedicated URL - no need to buy a certificate or domain name until needed. No Configuration changes In order to reduce hidden problems, each front-end app should be installed and running with no configuration change away from the development environment such as a to change the routing of assets from absolute to relative, or folder and subfolder naming. Consistent & immediate deployment Once the app is ready to deploy as a collection of static files, there shouldn't be a need to spend time preparing the hosting environment. The front-end system deployment steps should be consistent regardless of which front-end framework the proje...

Introduction While working on apps.berryintl.com ’s web service, it appeared from the Windows Azure project templates that I might need several worker roles because they cycle at different times. One worker needed to cycle every day. The other needed to cycle every five minutes. Since the work and the cycle rate were very different, it felt “right” to isolate each role. In this post, I’ll show you how I combined multiple worker roles into a single, underutilized Azure web role thereby keeping the concept and design of worker roles while not having to pay extra for them. In order to verify the solution, the project uses Azure Diagnostics Trace statements. The solution file is available for download . Combining Multiple Azure Worker Roles into an Azure Web Role Currently, I use a small Azure instance and there isn’t enough traffic to justify a separate worker role. I implemented Wayne ’s process for combining one worker role with a web role a while back. Now I needed to add anot...

While writing a unit test for a class that created a Windows Azure Storage table, I named the test table “Test_Function_Date” where Function and Date where replaced with meaningful test information. The underscores in the table name were also there.   Azure CloudTableClient.CreateTableIfNotExist Exception While running the test, my call to CloudTableClient.CreateTableIfNotExist(TableName) threw an exception.     Illegal Table Name Exception Details The outer exception is Exception of type 'Microsoft.WindowsAzure.StorageClient.StorageClientException' was thrown. The inner exception is "An error occurred while processing this request." Buried in the inner exception XML is a status code of OutOfRangeInput, with a message of “ One of the request inputs is out of range .” Since this was a single unit test with not much prep work, I figured out it was the table name.   Azure Table Name Rules The rules for table naming allow: alphanume...

My unit tests add and delete entities from local Windows Azure dev storage,  at their most basic. If the Azure Storage emulator isn’t started, the tests don’t fail quickly – they just sit there acting like the test framework is hung. In order to ensure that the tests proceed, I needed to make sure the emulator was started before the tests ran.   I started with code found in this thread on StackOverflow . I needed to make sure the Storage Emulator is started before the test classes are called and that the emulator is shut down when the tests are done. I wrote this class and added it as a separate file to my test assembly.   More information about CSRun.exe and the Process class are available in MSDN .   // ----------------------------------------------------------------------- // <copyright file="AssemblySpecific.cs" company="BerryIntl"> // Berry International 2011 // </copyright> // ----------------------------------...

This is a continuation of the simple series. Links for other posts in the series are at the bottom of this post. Download Visual Studio Solution here .   This series explains the Windows Phone 7 requesting data from a Windows Azure web service. The phone tile and toast are supported by a background agent on the phone while the web service is supported by a continuous worker role on Windows Azure. The phone calls the WebRole REST API from both the phone app and the phone app’s background agent. Each request is different though. The App’s request is fetching a list of items to show in the app while the background agent is fetching the count of items since the last fetch and the very last item. This information will be displayed in the popup toast and the app’s start screen pinned tile.   Azure Only This post will cover the Azure web  and worker roles only. The Windows Phone 7 app-to-Azure communication will be covered in a separate post. Grab the Visual Studi...

Introduction This post will explain how Windows Phone 7 and Windows Azure relate to each other. This is in response to an email question I received over on my apps site. The person, apparently, had been assigned the task of “putting his rewards app on Azure.”   This post is a 100 level (introductory) explanation.   Client/Server Twenty years ago the client/server conversation was obvious with a physical client machine (perhaps a Windows version) connecting through a wire to a physical server. Usually these were in the same location or in some sort of private wide area network.  But they were just a client and a server.   Ten years ago the client/server conversation was a physical client machine connecting through a wire to a physical server that was not in the same building, probably not in the same state or country. But they were just a client and a server.   Since then, until Windows Phone and Azure, nothing really changed except the conne...

Article Summary This article will explain how to extend Elmah to log to and view errors from Windows Azure Table Storage.  Introduction Elmah is an exception handling and logging tool that plugs into ASP.NET and ASP.NET MVC applications. When an error is thrown, Elmah grabs all the information including the stack trace, server variables, and query string. Then this information is entered into the data container of your choice. When you want to review these exceptions, the tool provides a web interface to display the errors. Your Windows Azure Usage This article assumes you already have a Windows Azure account and know how to manage data in Azure Table Storage. I use either the Visual Studio Server Explorer or the Azure Storage Explorer ( codeplex ) to look at the tables. A longer list of Storage Viewer applications is referenced at the bottom of this article. Visual Studio Server Explorer Azure Storage Explorer Steps to Connect Elmah to Windows Azure Table Storag...