It is a really hard paced week here at the Build Windows (8) launch event (//build/). The 3500-5000, roughly, developers who are here are all scrambling to keep up while picking up pieces of our brains from the floors since most of what we see here in Anaheim CA is blowing our mind! Yes almost literally. Color me impressed folks! The fact that we were given a Preview Tablet with Windows 8 and all the new development tools was really awesome: With this we can get going immediately and develop the new Metro style apps with...

How do you do Dependency Injection on a custom ClaimsAuthenticationManager and ClaimsAuthorizationManager when you use Windows Identity Foundation and Claims Based Authentication? What you want to do is set a Factory or some kind of instance Resolver for the instance creation of the two manager instances. Can this be done? (Concept page for WIF managers and OriginalIssuer) According to The Man himself Mr. Vittorio Bertocci it was not a scenario that made the cut on the feature list for the current version of WIF: If @vibronet says to try to do it who am I to...

How do you do Dependency Injection on a custom ClaimsAuthenticationManager and ClaimsAuthorizationManager when you use Windows Identity Foundation and Claims Based Authentication? What you want to do is set a Factory or some kind of instance Resolver for the instance creation of the two manager instances. Can this be done? (Concept page for WIF managers and OriginalIssuer) According to The Man himself Mr. Vittorio Bertocci it was not a scenario that made the cut on the feature list for the current version of WIF: If @vibronet says to try to do it who am I to...

Ever wanted to send a strongly typed message over a Windows Azure Storage Queue? Here is a neat little trick that helps you do that a bit better than the string payload the CloudQueueMessage carries. Note: The code and artifacts for this post are available on the AzureContrib site or with your friendly call to the nuget package manager: PM> Install-Package AzureContrib. The Windows Azure Storage Queue Service is a light weight easy to use queuing service used for “reliable, persistent messaging between Web Roles and Worker Roles”. It can be used for so much more like serializing...

Ever wanted to send a strongly typed message over a Windows Azure Storage Queue? Here is a neat little trick that helps you do that a bit better than the string payload the CloudQueueMessage carries. Note: The code and artifacts for this post are available on the AzureContrib site or with your friendly call to the nuget package manager: PM> Install-Package AzureContrib. The Windows Azure Storage Queue Service is a light weight easy to use queuing service used for “reliable, persistent messaging between Web Roles and Worker Roles”. It can be used for so much more like serializing...

Two exciting new releases from the Windows Azure today which is already installed on my system: Release of the Windows Azure Tools for Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Update of the Windows Azure Platform Training Kit So what’s new? The new Azure Tools now include Profile applications running in Windows Azure This is a really cool new feature. You can now deploy your application with one of four profiling settings turned on. This enables collection of profiling information in the application as it is running in the cloud. ...

Two exciting new releases from the Windows Azure today which is already installed on my system: Release of the Windows Azure Tools for Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Update of the Windows Azure Platform Training Kit So what’s new? The new Azure Tools now include Profile applications running in Windows Azure This is a really cool new feature. You can now deploy your application with one of four profiling settings turned on. This enables collection of profiling information in the application as it is running in the cloud. ...

Want to learn about Java on the Windows Azure Platform? Here is a good place to start with an epic blog post, Channel 9 video, .NET Rocks interview and session recording is a good way to start! My friend Jas Sandhu has published an epic blog post about Windows Azure and Java interoperability on the Microsoft Interoperability Team Blog: Neo4j, the open source Java graph database, and Windows Azure Also he has put up a video on Channel 9 he shot when he was here in Sweden a while ago: Neo4j, the open source Java graph...

Want to learn about Java on the Windows Azure Platform? Here is a good place to start with an epic blog post, Channel 9 video, .NET Rocks interview and session recording is a good way to start! My friend Jas Sandhu has published an epic blog post about Windows Azure and Java interoperability on the Microsoft Interoperability Team Blog: Neo4j, the open source Java graph database, and Windows Azure Also he has put up a video on Channel 9 he shot when he was here in Sweden a while ago: Neo4j, the open source Java graph...

Do you find the flood of information on Microsoft’s Cloud overwhelming? Here are two great ways to keep up with news on Windows Azure, AppFabric, SQL Azure and DataMarket! The consolidated blog by the team and one daily read! www.WindowsAzureBlog.com & The Windows Azure Daily Since the Windows Azure team(s) just announced that they are steering announcements and information about Windows Azure, AppFabric, SQL Azure and DataMarket to one announcement blog; www.WindowsAzureBlog.com this is now the GREATEST place to go to keep up with the happenings on Microsoft’s great Cloud platform! It’s a one stop shop on all that’s...

A couple of weeks ago I gave two sessions at Norwegian Developers Conference (NDC). The two videos are now public for download. Together with a colleague Björn Ekengren we were also fortunate enough to get interviewed by the #awesome guys at .NET Rocks; Richard and Carl this interview is now also public on their site. We had horrible technical difficulties in our session room unfortunately. This was totally outside of our control and it hit other speakers in the same room too. Right now the videos are rough and start up with a looong section of confused tech-check silence....

Just put some enhanced System.Diagnostics.Trace (SDTrace below) support up on the AzureContrib project on CodePlex. The drop improves performance over standard tracing offers. Also we implement the functionality you need to make trace configuration available from the standard Windows Azure configuration as opposed to just using the basic web.config or app.config trace configuration (which in turn would require re-deploying your application to Window Azure). Code at a glance The following test method creates a factory, creates a trace based on the type to trace for and finally creates an instance of the class (Foo) sending in the custom...

Just put some enhanced System.Diagnostics.Trace (SDTrace below) support up on the AzureContrib project on CodePlex. The drop improves performance over standard tracing offers. Also we implement the functionality you need to make trace configuration available from the standard Windows Azure configuration as opposed to just using the basic web.config or app.config trace configuration (which in turn would require re-deploying your application to Window Azure). Code at a glance The following test method creates a factory, creates a trace based on the type to trace for and finally creates an instance of the class (Foo) sending in the custom...

It was time to wash out the old AzureContrib CodePlex project and add a new one. (Actually the old version is still there in the source code for now.) I’ve also changed source control of the project to Mercurial since it’s a bit more fresh! In the box for now are a few Windows Azure utilities including the Cloud Drive Manager (I previously blogged about the CloudDriveManager), a wrapper for LocalResource and a small manager to get a local resource as well as some nifty IEqualityComparer<T>s for CloudStorageAccount and StorageCredentials with extension methods to check if the account currently in...

Is SOA making a comeback with the emerging trend toward Cloud Computing? Is SOA (finally) getting it’s revenge? I kind of tend to think ‘no’ but this is a matter of perspective. The kind of SOA we now see is a more mature view on what SOA is or should do. We could be kind to the SOA concept and go ahead and say that this is the rebirth of SOA and that SOA as such was before it’s time. Now, with Cloud and cloud computing, SOA finally comes to it’s full right. SOA vs. Cloud Computing ...

Is SOA making a comeback with the emerging trend toward Cloud Computing? Is SOA (finally) getting it’s revenge? I kind of tend to think ‘no’ but this is a matter of perspective. The kind of SOA we now see is a more mature view on what SOA is or should do. We could be kind to the SOA concept and go ahead and say that this is the rebirth of SOA and that SOA as such was before it’s time. Now, with Cloud and cloud computing, SOA finally comes to it’s full right. SOA vs. Cloud Computing ...

Very happy to find my blog linked from my favorite video cast show; Cloud Cover with Wade Wegner and Steve Marx: Cloud Cover Episode 38 - VM Role with Corey and Cory The coverage is in “the news” section of the episode where Wade and Steve note Peter Neubauer’s and my work to put Neo4j on Windows Azure. Neo4j is an enterprise grade graph database which is highly scalable and optimized to handle any kind of graph theory problem. Big Day for my little obscure blog at the outer rims of the galaxy where the empire… well...

In response to Yishan Wong “What’s wrong with OpenID?” I just feel I’d like to make a few points. Some of Wong's arguments may seem valid at first glance but it is an oversimplified version of reality online which is very lopsided towards the notion of users not wanting to know, care or understand about security. I wonder, Wong, have you ever gazed into the eyes of an online citizen who has had their identity stolen and abused? It is stare of distress and a feeling of utter desperation to be seen I can tell you. Those users feel violated....

In response to Yishan Wong “What’s wrong with OpenID?” I just feel I’d like to make a few points. Some of Wong's arguments may seem valid at first glance but it is an oversimplified version of reality online which is very lopsided towards the notion of users not wanting to know, care or understand about security. I wonder, Wong, have you ever gazed into the eyes of an online citizen who has had their identity stolen and abused? It is stare of distress and a feeling of utter desperation to be seen I can tell you. Those users feel violated....

Oh’boy oh’boy I feel as giddy as a school boy. I am SO looking forward to next weeks PDC and all the content that will be streamed to the world Live from Redmond as the sessions progress. The actual session content is coming on-line little by little staring this morning with detailed session descriptions and time slots along with a cool PDC player for overviewing and viewing the content. Click into the player to see what content will be streamed live. Personally I will be GLUED to the “Cloud Services”-Channel and there will also be a “Client &...

There is some rumors that the Orleans software platform will actually be a product coming out from Microsoft that will empower the Windows Azure platform and make it more easy to architecture and manage. This is just a research project but I for one am liking the hopeful outlook on life. ;~) Somewhere among the few references out there on the web I am grasping for an explanation on what this will be. How about this: Orleans is to Azure as the CLR is to Windows It appears Orleans is designed to create...

Have you ever wanted to dynamically choose from many potential implementations of some code? Would you like to have the power of metadata filtering and lazy instantiation of the selected implementation? Here is how to do just that using Managed Extensibility Framework (MEF) and also a neat trick to handle your implementation/metadata pairs that I recently put to good use. Code samples and optimizations follow so don’t worry; I won’t remain all theoretical in this post. (MEF is part of .NET Framework 4.0 but is available also on CodePlex for other releases – MEF Community Site.) Up front I...

In order to make Managed Extensibility Framework (MEF) a part of your Windows Azure project in Visual Studio 2010 while having a Test Project to test your code there is a nasty reference issue you have to resolve. I posted all the steps to resolving this issue in my recent post MEF + Azure + Visual Studio 2010 = Tricky but doable. but I forgot one step! Here is the final piece of the puzzle. The remaining problem Following the steps in my previous post (link above) you are good to go with your project in all respects...

Putting Managed Extensibility Framework (MEF) in your Windows Azure Application while trying to test your code using Visual Studio 2010 does not work OOTB. It is quite easy to modify – in this case MEF – to enable this scenario. The same issue might result from using other libraries as well. Now that Visual Studio 2010 is out you really do not want to remain on the old version. Sometimes there can be issues working with applications that need to support previous versions of .NET Framework – previous to .NET 4.0 that is. Here is one such issue and...

The main points of our Effective and Infinite Storage in the Cloud session at TechDays 2010 in Sweden are listed below as well as links to all of our related material and the zip with our demos. The slides are here too but they are in Swedish only. Our session at TechDays 2010 gave an overview of what storage in the Cloud is, according to Microsoft at present date, and some of the goals for the future in this area. We intended our session to provide the basis for companies to be able to evaluate if and how moving...

There is a new release for Windows Azure today with a refresh of the Windows Azure SDK (1.1, February 2010) and the Windows Azure Visual Studio Tools (1.1, February 2010). If you want code samples, as usual, go to Windows Azure Code Samples on Code Gallery. UPDATE: So as not to mislead; If you are using Visual Studio 2010 only on your system the Windows Azure Tools for Visual Studio requires Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 RC which is not yet released. But with Visual Studio 2008 you are safe. The biggest news in there is that you can...

Soon it it is time for Microsoft TechDays Sweden 2010. Lots of things will happen, lots of great presentations will take place. I will be there! Note: I am now on ½ time parental leave for a while – which is great. Weird but great. This, among other things, greatly impacts how often and what I have time to blog. (In case you were wondering why my blogging is a bit slow these days. Regarding TechDays there are several things I’d like to call out: My blog is blinged with the official speaker badge: ...

The enhanced (intelligent) Windows Azure Project template @ AzureContrib.codeplex.com is now updated to run on Windows Azure Tools for Microsoft Visual Studio (November 2009). There is a new piece of code for managing logging (tracing) with the new Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Diagnostics functionality. The Microsoft.WindowsAzure.ServiceRuntime has been updated to reflect the recent changes to the Azure runtime including support for the new Windows Azure Role Lifecycle. The new Microsoft.WindowsAzure.StorageClient release is pending but that takes a bit of more work. The goal @ AzureContrib where Cloud Storage is concerned is to enable so called Persistence Ignorance (PI). The PI thing is...

Tech-Talks recorded today. One on an Open Source and very much enhanced Windows Azure Project Template and another one that turned out to be a lot more “what is MEF” than I initially anticipated? And at the event at large people are looking focused on learning just as we do at the beginning of a week. I am anticipating less and less strength for focus as the week progresses. So this week I am at Tech-Ed Europe attending as a speaker on the Architecture track. Here is a brief account of the first day so far. Today anyway, apart...

Here is how to enable a rich extensibility model for Windows Azure projects and how to run create jobs on Windows Azure Storage only once in your Windows Azure Projects. This sample and related AzureContrib release leverages Managed Extensibility Framework (MEF) – an upcoming .NET Framework component in .NET Framework 4.0. We have made a small project at Dotway where I work on making the basic Windows Azure project template a bit more rich and intelligent. This has lead to three releases in the AzureContrib project, each one building on the last to make the functionality one more step...

The error is from the RDRuntimeLoader.exe and says that ”Windows i trying to identify the problem…”. Is your Windows Azure Application crashing when you hit F5? This is the reason: Dramatic title and intro huh? ;~) I just wanted to get your attention on this completely understandable but yet annoying error you get when you try to launch an Azure App in the Development Fabric. Symptoms: This is what the error looks like.   All the while your Visual Studio completely hangs and nothing responds. After the time out time which is about 30 seconds...

The third and final post in our blog series on basic usage of the Cloud Storage API (CloudStorage.API). This time we will show how to interact with the Cloud Entity Storage. The implementation we use for the API is developed against Azure but the API should be reusable for any type of Cloud Storage. While doing this our main goals are to: Enable testability Abstract away storage Create an extensible and easy to evolve application that supports good developments practices Here are other posts...

Today I did a seminar with msdn.se. I was on stage with Johan Lindfors and Robert Folkesson talking about Windows Azure devlopment. I was asked to produce my slides so in an effort to please the crowd here they are. Several of them are copies of slides from Steve Marx, Manuvir Das and Brad Calder. This is my angle on their work so to say, thanks guys. DevelopmentOnWindowsAzure.pdf (First three slides are in Swedish but not the rest.) Cheers, M. Technorati Tags: Microsoft,Windows Azure,Software Architecture,Cloud Computing,Cloud Storage

Now that you have an understanding of the idea behind the Cloud Storage API it’s time to show it in action. We will start by writing a simple application accessing the Message Queue using the API. Note: Premier time for a guest blogger at Techie.notepad! WooHoo! Peter von Lochow is the man behind this post. The implementation we use for the API is developed against Azure but the API should be reusable for any type of Cloud. While doing this our main goals (just to reiterate) are: Enable testability Abstract...

The ultimate goal for this API is to enable Cloud Storage Persistence Ignorance. A secondary, and almost equally important, objective for creating this API is to enable testability and thus enhance the over all maintainability of Cloud Applications that make use of Cloud Storage also generally thought of as “shared state”. We have been doing this work on the Windows Azure cloud but in theory this API may be used on any Cloud Storage. Note: We have created a Cloud Storage API at the consultancy where I work, Dotway. Me and a great colleague Peter von Lochow have been...

On the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference last week the business and partner model for Windows Azure got announced. (Daddy goes on vacation for two weeks and THIS happens. Man you can’t turn your back for a moment. ;~) ) Windows Azure: Compute @ $0.12 / hour Storage @ $0.15 / GB / month stored Storage Transactions @ $0.01 / 10K SQL Azure: Web Edition – Up to 1 GB relational database @ $9.99 Business Edition – Up to...

I will show in this post how to extend the basic Windows Azure Project Template and make the solution a bit more intelligent. I will do this using a new and upcoming .NET Framework 4 technology; Managed Extensibility Framework (MEF). MEF Preview 5 is targeting .NET Framework 3.5 and is even developed under MSPL license and so fits like a glove into Windows Azure. Intro My overall goal is to create a Windows Azure project template that: enables testability abstracts away storage is extensible and easy...