Windows Azure adds new features: Windows Azure Mobile Services

I am very excited to announce that today we have added new features to Windows http://www.aliyun.com/zixun/aggregation/13357.html >azure: Windows Azure Mobile services.

Windows Azure Mobile Service makes it easy to connect the cloud to your client and mobile applications. It allows you to store structured data into the cloud, integrate a range of services through user authentication, and publish updates via push notifications.

The Windows Azure Mobile service, released today, enables you to add these features to Windows 8 applications, providing an efficient way to build your own application ideas, as well as getting the same functionality in Windows Phone,ios,android.

Read this introductory tutorial to walkthrough How to create a simple Windows 8 "Todo List" application by using Windows Azure Mobile service, which enables cloud services in 5 minutes. Or watch the video and let me show you how to do it step-by-step.

Begin

If you don't have a Windows Azure account, you can log in for a free experience without registering. When you log on to the Www.windowsazure website, click the "Preview function" area below the "Account" tab and have your account support the "mobile service" preview. How to start its learning guide can be found here.

Once you have started the preview of the mobile service, log on to the Windows Azure Portal, click the "New" button and choose the new mobile service icon to create your first mobile background. When you create it, you'll see a quick Start page that guides you through how to connect your mobile service to an existing and running Windows 8 client application, or how to create and connect to a new Windows 8 client application.

Read this introductory tutorial to walkthrough How to create a simple Windows 8 "Todo List" application and store the data on Windows Azure.

Storing data in the cloud

Using Windows Azure Mobile services to store data on the cloud is simple. When you create a Windows Azure mobile service, we automatically associate it with the SQL database on Windows Azure. Windows Azure Mobile Services background provides built-in support that allows remote applications to securely store and retrieve data from the cloud (using the secure rest endpoint based on Jason's OData format)-without requiring you to write and deploy any custom service code. Built-in admin support in Windows Azure is provided to create tables, browse data, set indexes, and control access rights.

This makes it very easy to connect client applications to the cloud, and enables developers who do not have a background in service code to be efficient from the start. They can focus on building the client application experience, taking full advantage of the cloud backend services provided by Windows Azure Mobile services.

The following is an example of a Windows 8 client C#/xaml code that can be used to query data from Windows Azure Mobile services. Client C # developers can use LINQ and strongly typed Poco objects to write query code like this, which is then translated into HTTP rest queries that run in Windows Azure Mobile services. Developers do not need to write or deploy any of the uniform-end code to allow the client to enable the following code to execute and asynchronously populate their client UI.

Because mobile services are part of Windows Azure, developers can later choose to add or expand their initial solutions based on their own ideas, as well as add custom service functionality and deeper logic. This provides the maximum flexibility that allows developers to expand their solutions as demand grows.