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...

One of the tasks of the dependency handler ( dependencyhandler.axd ) used in Umbraco is to manage the return of client-side files such as css and javascript. For live code, caching this makes sense but for development, it just makes the troublesome line of code harder to find. While in development, make sure you change the web.config file's setting of compilation to debug=true. Then when you refresh the page. You should now see the client files in the network trace instead of the dependency handler. For more information, review the docs . For more extensive configuration, find the ClientDependency.config file in the Umbraco website's /Config directory, off of the root.

I mentioned in my last post how much I enjoyed Ruby and wanted to continue to use it in my project. That is easier said than done.   In order to leverage all the great Ruby ( RoR ) tools and methodologies I learned, I’m attempting to find .Net equivalents. This started with finding a Behavior Driven Development ( BDD ) tool. There are several that come up but they are a hybrid to a BDD (I picked SpecFlow ) tool siting on top of a TDD tool ( NUnit or MSTest).  I also needed a web driver to make calls to a browser and verify results. I looked at WatiN but went with Selenium .   The next two tools I need to add are a mocking tool ( Moq ) and an injection tool (probably NInject ).   Since the class used GitHub and Heroku , I’ll also stick with that. My GitHub account is DFBerry .  All my example code is posted up their in public repositories.

Introduction Several things happened in a short period of time to influence my decision to take a Ruby/SaaS class. I’m a lifer on .Net or more specifically Asp.Net and it’s precursor, Asp. First, the MVC .Net book I was reading at the time said programmers either use .Net or Ruby for MVC development but not both. Second, an online UC Berkeley class was free and gave me both a new language ( Ruby ) and backfilled any software-as-a-service (SaaS) holes in my knowledge. Third, the class used the Agile methodology which I had bits and pieces of. I wanted to see someone else’s interpretation put into practice.   Ruby on Rails (RoR)/MVC I knew MVC , web protocols, and web development so the learning curve was all Ruby. The class had a quick pace where I knew how to do it in .Net but not Ruby. Ruby, fortunately, is a very easy language to pick up. It feels very much like a script kiddie toy but  more powerful.   Interpreted versus Compiled Ruby is interpreted w...

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> // ----------------------------------...

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...

I’ve made two apps targeting Windows Azure developers, testers, and managers. If your company uses any Windows Azure products, you should take a look at the apps, WAZUp and WAZDash. WAZUp allows you to manage the Deployment status and WAZDash reports on recent service issues. If you would like to keep up with my Windows Azure apps, subscribe by RSS .

R (“GNU S”) is  a sweet language and environment for statistical computing and graphics. R is similar to the award-winning S system, which was developed at Bell Laboratories by John Chambers et al. It is also very similar to my first taught language APL/360 except it does not require special characters.   You can install it from http://www.r-project.org/ , there is a Windows version which comes with it’s own UI.   As simple example.  You want to calculate   1/1 +1/2+ …. 1/1000.  A verbose solution may be:   > a1 <- 1:1000 > sum(1/a1) [1] 7.485471   A one-liner (which APL is infamous for) would be: > sum(1/1:1000) [1] 7.485471   You can also do some really interesting stuff, like finding the sum of all the square roots from –1 to -45   >  a1 <- -1:-45 > a2 <- a1+ 0i > sum(sqrt(a2)) [1] 0+204.3985i   Yes, complex number support is native! ...

Introduction In all development processes, you need to perform a security review in order to responsibly handle your user’s data . With my Windows Phone 7 application, the process turned into a huge decision and many incremental steps to handle. This blog post will enumerate how I took my unsecured WP7 app and corresponding Windows Azure website and secured them. This blog includes a detailed step-by-step of deploying a SSL certificate on Windows Azure. Process Summary DNS Name Change : Mapped my subdomain (wazup.berryintl.com) to my Windows Azure subdomain (*.cloudapp.net) via a CName change to my DNS on Network Solutions. Cert Provider : Found an SSL Cert provider. Dev Box/IIS : Created the certificate request in the IIS Manager. Cert Provider : Since I was requesting a wildcard certificate to handle all subdomains as well, I received two files: one for the domain and one to handle the wildcard subdomains. Dev Box/Certificate Manager : The next part of the pr...

Last Friday I had a long discussion on different type of developers and their relevant value for an ongoing company. I am not talking about a startup-pancake (typically venture capital based whose model is to sell or flip into an IPO – then walking away with the money).   Support/Maintenance Developer This is a developer that is completely happy doing high quality fixes, dotting I’s and crossing T’s. It is typically a destination career – one that is grossly underpaid for their value.  In terms of construction industry, he is someone that comes in an fixes leaky roofs and windows, change furnace filters and all of the way up to doing minor additions. If you are familiar with Holmes on Homes , we talking of Mikes, and not the type that he ends up undoing and redoing.  A good one will often spend their entire career at one company, well appreciated (but likely underpaid!).   Release Developer This is where most developers ends at being.  Typically the...

This is a catchall for any kind of Windows Phone 7 resource for developers. If you have a favorite resource you would like added to the list, add it to the comments and I will update the list. MSFT Blogs Windows Phone Developer Blog Jesse Liberty, Silverlight Mike Ormond, UK David Anson Chris Koenig Jaime Rodriguez Jeff Wilcox Pete Brown Scott Guthrie Shawn Oster James Conard John Papa MSFT Sites Windows Phone developer resources (main landing page) http://bit.ly/h6B0MN Silverlight for Windows Phone http://bit.ly/hZHv3e XNA Game Studio and XNA Framework http://bit.ly/f0vzAI Windows Phone Developer Tools and Device Unlock http://bit.ly/fEv2Gd User Experience and User Interface http://bit.ly/e9BcQ7 Application and Execution Model http://bit.ly/dJ1Kg2 Input, Touch and Gestures http://bit.ly/erTdpa Launchers and Choosers http://bit.ly/hgCoRo Security http://bit.ly/evDf4S...