Hosting Windows Azure Microsoft publishes Office 365 Beta

Last week, Microsoft Office 365 and SharePoint released a beta release that introduced several great improvements, including a batch of developer-specific improvements. Developers can now use ASP.net (including asp.net web Forms and current aps.net MVC) to create Web applications to extend SharePoint functionality, and to use. NET The new workflow framework in 4.5 to edit the custom workflow to extend SharePoint.

Even better, web and workflow applications created by these developers to extend SharePoint can now be hosted on Windows Azure. We provide end-to-end support across Office 365 and Windows Azure, making it incredibly easy to securely package and deploy solutions.

Last month we released a major update to Windows Azure. One of the new offerings in this release is the call to Windows Azure Web site, where developers can quickly and easily deploy Web applications to Windows Azure. With last week's new office, the release of the SharePoint Server 2013 and Office 365 previews, developers can now create applications for office and SharePoint and host Windows Azure.

You can now create SharePoint applications using any version of ASP.net (including asp.net webforms,asp.net mvc and asp.net Web Pages), and you can use OAuth 2 and Windows Azure The Active Directory authenticates these items and consolidates them into Office 365. This enables you to securely create/read/update data stored in SharePoint and combine the rich data and document libraries in Office 365.

In addition to allowing developers to host these Web applications in their own Windows Azure, the new version of Office 365 and SharePoint also enables developers to package and upload customized Web applications into Office 365. End users can then browse these applications in the new Office and SharePoint stores available in Office 365 and choose to install them in the SharePoint solution. This can trigger the automatic deployment of Office 365 and the preparation of a copy of an application as a Windows Azure Web site, and Office 365 will manage these on behalf of the end-user that installed it. This provides a truly appealing path for developers to create and distribute custom Web applications, and selectively monetization the solution through the store.

You can learn more about how to build these solutions and the new cloud application model for Office and SharePoint here to learn more about how to build your application for SharePoint.

Develop Windows Azure workflows integrated with Office 365

This new version of SharePoint now also supports developers performing custom. NET 4.5 Workflows to answer SharePoint behavior (for example, an end user uploading a document, or modifying options in a SharePoint table). The following describes how. NET 4.5 Workflows Make SharePoint Workflows Richer:

With the Office 365 preview released this month, developers can now easily create and upload workflows into their SharePoint solutions. Office 365 now automates these operations in Windows Azure with a new Windows Azure Workflow service. Developers and Office 365 customers do not need to make any setup on Windows Azure to do so (and do not need Windows Azure account)--office 365 and Windows Azure automatically provide End-to-end Integration services.

You can use either the Office SharePoint Designer or use visual Studio 2012来 to create these workflows. In the Office SharePoint Designer, users will be able to generate. NET 4.5 workflows through the visual designer.

Or in a text view (similar to the Rules Wizard for Outlook)

Developers can use the new Workflow designer and the Office development tools in Visual Studio 2012:

This workflow support provides a truly simple way to customize the active behavior in SharePoint and run custom logic in Windows Azure. All of these actions do not require the customization of developer and professional it, and SharePoint can deploy any app of its own (even without registering Windows Azure account--office 365 will do it all). Because workflows can now manipulate asynchronous rest and OData calls in a workflow, you can simply invoke custom features and services that run on Windows Azure to create workflows such as one that uses ASP.net Web API, and combine data and logic into your SharePoint solution.

Summary

The updates provided by Windows Azure and Office 365 this summer provide a wealth of new cloud functionality. You can use any service independently or combine their strengths to develop a more compelling end-to-end solution. Visit the Office Developer Center to learn more and start practicing today.

I hope it helps.

Scott