Cloud Powered Mobile Apps with Azure

Editor's Notes

1. Speaking Points: Topics covered in the session include What is Mobile Services, a feature of Azure Features and demos Advanced features throughout the session Scaling and pricing details Questions at the end
2. Speaking Notes Azure Mobile Services is a Backend-as-a-Service Instead of you having to design, build, test, deploy, manage, and upgrade your whole backend, we do it for you Features of Mobile Services Storage – SQL DB Authentication – built in support for social providers w/ ability to custom auth Backend logic – data validation, logical flows, etc. Push Notifications – across all major mobile platforms Scaling – so you can meet the demand of your mobile apps when they get featured
3. Demo: Getting Started Go to the portal Create a new mobile service (Node backend works with most of deck) Walk through Getting started screen Choose platform Download quick start Run quick start Save and update data Show data in portal (Node) Walk through client code that deals with Mobile Service
4. Speaking points Without having to do more on the server side than say we wanted a table named TodoItem, we were able to start storing data in our database We created a new DB for this Mobile Service, but, we can use the same database for multiple mobile services. This is possible because each table created has it’s own schema set to the name of that mobile service Mobile Service easily connects to SQL Database SQL offers rich querying and indexing capabilities Dynamic Schematization means you don’t have to be a DBA and manage schema Data can be managed in: Azure Portal (read and delete data) SQL Portal (Silverlight) SQL Management Studio (windows) REST API (used by SDKs) Azure CLI tools SQL CLI (Node module)
5. Speaking points This is the mapping for the REST API exposed by table storage Whenever you generate a table, the REST API is auto created for you Standard REST Anything that can talk REST can connect to your Mobile Service
6. Speaking points JSON to SQL mapping Whatever JSON data type on left is passed in generates column of SQL type on right Mobile Services uses Dynamic Schematization to inspect the data you send over to create new columns
7. Speaking notes Auto-generated columns id – unique id used to handle querying, updating, and deleting specific rows createdAt, updatedAt, version help with optimistic concurrency (first update wins) Last three columns not pulled to client by default (Need to specify query parameter to get those back)
8. Speaking points * Section change: Backend Logic
9. Speaking points Node backend generates Node scripts for each table action Scripts intercept CRUD requests against a table Pass through to SQL by default Custom logic can be added here Edit in portal (NODE) .NET Backend creates Visual Studio project
10. Speaking points Node backend comes with pre-included modules Request – make web requests against 3rd party services Push.* - perform push notifications Console – log information MSSQL – call stored procedures / perform custom SQL queries Tables – OO way of accessing tables in backend Azure – access service bus, blob, table storage, notification hubs, queues, etc. Partners that offer other abilities Sendgrid – send emails Pusher – web socket style real-time communications Twilio – SMS messaging and voice capabilities Most have a free tier you can use
11. Speaking Points: Let’s add some server scripts to validate our todo item before we Insert it When Dynamic Schema is enabled, your Mobile Service will automatically add columns to tables as necessary to store incoming data We’ll make it so the data will only be saved if the todo item’s text is at least 5 characters Demo: Customizing logic If using quick start Go into insert script and add validation to check length of item.text field Run app and show validation catching Show app still working if validation is fulfilled
12. File storage SQL DB for Mobile Services not ideal for file data storage Best practice is to use Mobile Service as Proxy Mobile Service script generates SAS URL Client uploads file to SAS URL Valet Key Pattern http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn568102.aspx
13. Speaking points Section change: Push Notifications
14. Speaking points Push notifications work the same no matter which client you’re working with STEP 1 – Client talks to PNS to register for push STEP 2 – Client receives token and passes to Mobile Service for storage STEP 3 – Mobile Service asks PNS to deliver payload to token / channel URI / registration ID STEP 4 – PNS delivers push to client app PNS = Push Notification Service (i.e. MPNS, WNS, GCM, ADM, APNS)
15. Speaking points Notification Hubs are a separate service from Mobile Services but also used by Mobile Services Pushes to iOS, Android, Kindle, Windows Phone, Windows Store Extremely scalable (millions of pushes in minutes) Tags and templates Server SDKs: .NET, Java (beta), Node, REST API
16. Speaking points Section change: Authorization and Authentication Controlling who can access what
17. Speaking Points Server auth flow uses OAUTH Mobile Service is registered with provider to allow auth Client calls auth method and passes in provider name User authenticates, Mobile Service and provider do OAUTH User ID and token (for Mobile Service) returned to client Provider token / secret accessible in Mobile Service To interact with Facebook you can talk to their REST-based Graph API To get the user information, we send a request passing the access token as a query string parameter With the access token you can also call other functions on the Graph API, depending on user access
18. Speaking points Subject change: Script source control
19. Speaking points Script source control creates GIT repo for all scripts and permission JSON files Enables you to pull scripts down and edit locally Lets you create shared scripts to reuse code Enables installing of NPM modules (Node) SWITCH to Azure Portal to show them (Dashboard | right side | “Set up source control”)
20. Speaking points Subject change: diagnostics, logging, scale
21. Speaking points Some default stats like # of API calls, # of devices connecting, amount of data out API calls are important because that’s how mobile services’ scale is based All console statements and errors go to logging area Auto-scaling helps save money Free tier for Mobile Services and SQL while developing
22. Speaking points Scaling Free 500k / month / sub (across entire subscription is important distinction) Basic 1.5M / unit / month (up to 6 units) Standard 15M / unit / month (up to 10 units) More units available by contacting support
23. Demo: Scaling Go to scaling tab Go to Standard mode Turn on auto-scaling Explain that additional units will only be turned on / used if you need them based off daily API calls
24. Speaking points Review different tiers For SQL Database, explain there is a 20mb free DB you can use (one per subscription) SQL database bills separately but is a full SQL DB and can be accessed from other resources (i.e. web sites, VMs)
25. Speaking Notes Summarize earlier slide Azure Mobile Services is a Backend-as-a-Service Instead of you having to design, build, test, deploy, manage, and upgrade your whole backend, we do it for you Features of Mobile Services Storage – SQL DB Authentication – built in support for social providers w/ ability to custom auth Backend logic – data validation, logical flows, etc. Push Notifications – across all major mobile platforms Scaling – so you can meet the demand of your mobile apps when they get featured
26. Speaking points Sign up for a free Azure trial Mobile Services are free to develop with (to a point) on non-trial subscription Additional videos, tutorials, samples available SDK source code (for Mobile Services and Notification Hubs) available in GitHub