Ideally, I'd like to use Azure table storage as the provider, but SQL Azure will also work. Anything I've dug up so far is over a year old, using deprecated approaches. I.e., outdated code samples, SDKs and IDEs.
As the title states, this would be applied to an MVC2 app running in Azure. Examples, code, links, etc. do not necessarily have to be for MVC. Anything related to a .Net 4.0 web app using Forms Authentication on Azure will do.
Microsoft originally released a set of sample providers with the PDC08 SDK - but these definitely are not recommended for commercial use.
Recently this project has produced some new ones - http://azureproviders.codeplex.com/ - I'd recommend going with that one as it is "live code" - you might also be able to contribute something back to it.
If you do use these providers, please be aware that Azure charges per transaction - at a base rate of $0.01 per 10000 transactions - and that the logic within these providers can cause "quite a few" transactions to occur. So if your site is busy and has a lot of membership activity, then it could work out quite expensive to operate.
If you are using SQL Azure membership, then the membership SQL is standard - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2006191 - the only differences in the ASP SQL scripts is in the Session storage (since Session uses SQL Agent to clear sessions - and SQL agent is not supported on SQL Azure)
Personally, I've use the Table storage for test/demo sites - but for anything "real" I've moved towards SQL Azure - it's easier to query, to run reports, to backup, etc
Unfortunately, unless you role your own provider, the only sample I have seen is the outdated one you mentioned. For user authentication (RoleProvider), it is not too bad (i.e. no bugs I have heard about). However, for Session state, it has some issues. I don't think it does any sort of encryption however, so the passwords might be in plaintext. Worst case scenario, you could at least use it as starting point for your own.
A quick look around and I can't even find the 'Additional Samples' anymore. They might have been lost when Code Gallery did an update awhile back. I know it is still used in http://phluffyfotos.codeplex.com, so you could pull it from the source there at least.
I would not use ATS Forms authentication, because of transaction cost associated, if your site is going to have alot of authentication requests (even token authorization requires check against ATS)
I would use Forms Authentication against SQL Azure with standard SqlMembershipProvider
It works just fine. I've manually migrated necessary aspnet tables & stored procs over to SQL Azure from a local SQL server instance without problems. Just update the aspnet_schemaversions table to have this content:
common 1 1
membership 1 1
personalization 1 1
profile 1 1
role manager 1 1
Related
I need to connect Salesforce to an external database we have, and constantly keep both the database and salesforce updated in as close to real time as we can get. I have tired Google searching possible solutions, but nearly all of them have been outdated by over a year. Any ideas?
Thank You!
Depending on your exact scenario it is quite difficult to give you a proper answer.
However off the top of my head I would suggest two Salesforce products.
Salesforce Connect
https://www.salesforce.com/products/platform/products/salesforce-connect/
Salesforce Connect allows you to connect to various data sources and turn the tables / objects of that data source into a SObject. For example MySQL, Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle etc. There are limitations and thus it would be better to talk to a Certified Architect about such an implementation.
Heroku Connect
https://www.heroku.com/connect
Heroku Connect allows you to connect a Heroku data source with a Salesforce Object. The sync is not immediate but there are quite a few customisations inside the product to make the sync as "live" as possible. There are limitations and thus it would be better to talk to a Certified Architect about such an implementation.
Salesforce Connect has limitations.. It's good for presenting data via the interface, but if you need to act on the data and report on the data it might not be the best bet.
For close to real time hand coded sync, look at the streaming API, or using Salesforce Platform Events.
If you want to use an ETL tool, my organization has had decent luck with DBAmp, which is a Sql add on product and fairly inexpensive as compared to a lot of ETL tools ($1625 annually.) http://www.forceamp.com/ We're able to replicate the entire SF database offline in SQL with DBAMP, push changes to the offline Sql copy and upsert changes. It's also a good backup solution via offline full data copy. We got very good support from them as well when we encountered challenges.
Hope this helps.
Not sure if you are syncing one object or multiple objects but there are a few options that you have.
You can try the salesforce provided features Salesforce Connect which allows you to view and update data from your external source In salesforce but there are limitations with reporting and other considerations you should consider.
If you make use of Heroku, Heroku Connect is your best bet
You can also use a middleware ESB solutions like MuleSoft which can orchestrate keeping data in sync across multiple data sources and do batch loads, but depending on how often changes you want to keep an eye out for api limits for inbound calls to salesforce.
You can roll your own solution where you can use Outbound Messages in workflow (or triggers that initiates an apex class that calls out, but that is more cumbersome and you have to do custom error handling and retry logic which you get for free using outbound messages) to send changes from salesforce to your homegrown service that writes to you database and have you homegrown solution write back to salesforce using the soap or rest api. That would probably take you some time to build. You would also still need to be aware of API limits depending on how many updates are made on the non salesforce side.
You crate a Canvas App which displays data from your DB in Salesforce as a Tab and hook it up via SSO so users are auto logged in. But again there would not be reporting, or any salesforce features that you can take advantage of.
But I really think that you should spend some time to determine what system is your source of truth because that would determine how the data should be synced. You should also investigate if you really need the sync to be realtime or near realtime, or if you can manage with something like an hourly true up on the system that is not the source of truth.
I have a quite extensive application running under Azure.
As part of the operational management of the application, I have a set of Application Insight instances to provide monitoring, tracking and logging.
The overall application consists of three ASP.NET MVC websites and a Worker Role. Additionally, I have three instances ("environments") of the application overall deployed (QA, UAT and Production).
I noticed a while back that for one of the App Insight instances (for the same MVC website across all environments) it was quite heavy on the number of Dependency data points that is being collected. Specifically, this is causing me to exceed the 5 million data points included in the monthly quota.
Noting this, I changed the Web Tests (for availability) to hit a different endpoint (one that doesn't invoke the dependencies).
However, I am still seeing the old endpoint being hit.
Digging a little further into this, I believe that I have an old rogue Web Test that is still active, and still hitting the old endpoint.
Issue is - I can't find it.
Is there a way to query, even if via the Powershell Cmdlets, the subscription in an attempt to find this? I've trawled through the portal and cannot see it anywhere.
Could this be the "Proactive Detection" feature? If so, can you change the endpoint it monitors?
You should definitely open a support ticket with us. Check out the dev support options and look at either option 3 or 4. It's preferred you open a support ticket via Azure with a support plan (option 3) if you have one. But, if you don't have a support plan check out option 4 and you can get in contact with us that way.
I've been ramping up on Azure Mobile Services over the past week. There are definitely some PROs and CONs in using them over a standard Azure Web Site where I can write APIs that hit SQL DB, etc.
One of the biggest negatives I see is developing the server side code and DB structures ON THE SERVER. I've watched lots of videos from launch and beyond, read lots of blog posts about tips and tricks around WAMS, but nobody seems to talk about the downside of developing the code (server scripts) and database structures on the server, at your live URL.
This is all great for developing the first version of your mobile app and associated mobile services. But once it's all deployed, how do you ever build version 2? Real apps hitting real APIs and data, but now I want to develop/change/play with the server scripts and database schema?
With Azure Web Sites, I can develop locally and only publish code and DB changes to the server on my schedule.
Have any of you seen or heard of the "v2 development story" around Azure Mobile Services?
Only thing I can think of would be to create another set of tables and APIs around them, most likely "virtual tables" that allow me to write APIs against the original set of data. Seems like a huge hassle, since the client code would now have to know about the original set of tables and the new set of tables... that's only for v2...
Thanks for any thoughts / insight.
You should have two services, one dev and one production and use scripts to promote your code from dev to production (pretty similar to how most workflows go, in moving from a test setup to a production one).
http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/Build/2013/3-511
I want to keep things as simple as possible and I don't want a complicated security mechanism. Basically I need for a user an ID and an e-mail address and I really don't want to bother about other things. Also, I was a minimum overhead in terms of security (if there is anoter provider who can do it for me, that's even better).
What is the simplest way to do this? I was thinking about incorporating LiveID or OpenID by I don't know what are the advantages/disadvantages.
I am working with the Azure SDK.
If you use the Windows Azure Access Control Service, you can basically outsource all identity management. Take a look at the Windows Azure Platform Training Kit - there's a lab called "Introduction to the AppFabric Access Control Service 2.0" that will get you up and running quickly. Currently, you can choose any combination of the following identity providers:
WS-Federation
Facebook
Windows Live ID
Google
Yahoo!
"Simple" for whom?
The simplest strategy for you would probably be to use ASP.NET's standard SQL-based authentication provider. You just run a script against your database to set up all the tables, and then you use ASP.NET's built-in utility methods to authenticate. Give your user-specific tables a foreign key reference to that user's ID, and you're good to go. We've done this, and never had any trouble with it. It's a tried and well-used system, so you know you won't be introducing any security invulnerabilities by hacking your own solution together. (see SqlMembershipProvider vs a custom solutions)
If you want something simple for the user, then an OpenId solution would be my pick. Set up something like StackOverflow has, where you can let users choose an account from a number of trusted providers to allow them to log in. From the user's perspective, it's really nice not to have to remember one more username and password for one more site.
I am developing a c# web application that will be hosted in Windows Azure and use Table Data Storage (TDS).
I want to architect my application such that I can also (as an option) deploy the application to a traditional IIS server with some other NoSql back-end. Basically, I want to give my customers the option to either pay me in the software as a service model, OR purchase a license of my application that they can install on a (non-azure) production server of their own.
How can I best architect my data layer and middle tier to achieve both goals?
I will likely need a Windows Azure Worker Role and an Azure Queue. How complicated is to replicate these? Can I substitue a custom Windows Service and some other queuing technology?
How I can the entities in my data model be written such that I can deploy to Azure TDS or some other storage when not deploying to Azure? Would MongoDB or similar be useful for this?
Surely there is a way to architect for Azure without being married to it.
I will likely need a Windows Azure Worker Role and an Azure Queue. How complicated is to replicate these? Can I substitue a custom Windows Service and some other queuing technology?
Yes - a Windows service with some other queuing technology would fit this reasonably well - and worker roles have a main/Run loop which is easy to use within a Windows Service.
How I can the entities in my data model be written such that I can deploy to Azure TDS or some other storage when not deploying to Azure? Would MongoDB or similar be useful for this?
NoSql is a general term encapsulating lots of different technologies. I think Azure TDS currently belongs to the Key-Value store family of NoSql, while MongoDB is more of a document database offering much richer functionality than TDS - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NoSQL_(concept). For mimmicking Azure TDS I think maybe a variant of something like Redis might work (although I believe Redis itself has wider functionality then TDS currently)
In general, it depends on the shape of your data, but I suspect if you can fit it in Azure TDS, then you'll be able to fit it into your choice of other storage too.
Surely there is a way to architect for Azure without being married to it.
Yes - as you've suggested in your question, you can architect your app so it can work on other technologies instead. In fact, this is quite a similar challenge to the traditional SQL data abstraction methods. However, I think there are a few places where you'll find TDS pushing you in certain
directions which won't fit well with other stores - e.g. Azure pushes you much more towards data replication; has very specific rules on keys; offers high performance using very specific mechanisms; and offers limited transaction integrity in very specific situations. These factors may mean that you do have to indeed change some middle tier layers as well as some data layers in order to get the most out of your app in both its Azure and non-Azure variations.
One other thought - It might be easier to offer your clients a multitenant SaaS version on Azure, and a singletenant version hosted on Azure - but this does depend on the clients!
I found a viable solution. I found that I can use EF Code First with SQL Server or SQL CE if I design my entities with the same PartitionKey & RowKey compound key structure that Azure Table Storage requires.
With a little help from Lokad Cloud (http://code.google.com/p/lokad-cloud/) to perform the interaction with Azure Table Storage, I was able to craft a common DataContext that provides crud operations against either EF's DbContext OR Lokad's TableStorageProvider.
I even found a nice way to manage relationships between entities and lazy-load them properly.
The solution is a bit complex and needs more testing. I will blog about it and post the link here when ready.