A View Inside My Head

Jason's Random Thoughts of Interest
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Azure

Book Review: Azure in Action

I’ve spent the last few week, or so, reading through Azure in Action by Chris Hay and Brian H. Prince. This book is not yet published, so my copy was in the form of a PDF provided by the Manning Early Access Program (http://manning.com/about/meap). The book is broken into parts, with 2-4 chapters per part: Welcome to the cloud Understanding the Azure service model Running your site with web roles Working with blob storage Working with structured data Doing work with messages Each...

posted @ Monday, April 26, 2010 8:55 AM | Feedback (0) | Filed Under [ Articles Azure ]

Windows Azure platform AppFabric Access Control: Using the Token

In previous articles (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3), ACS was configured to process token requests from different Issuers, and a Customer application obtained a SWT token from ACS using an intermediate service (that represented its particular Issuer). Now that the application has a token, ACS is not needed again until that token expires. This article will show how to use that token in order for the Customer application to call the Bartender web service. Note: OAuth WRAP defines terminology for parts of the system as follows: The Customer application is known as the Client. The Bouncer (ACS)...

posted @ Saturday, March 27, 2010 3:46 PM | Feedback (0) | Filed Under [ .NET Azure ]

Windows Azure platform AppFabric Access Control: Obtaining Tokens

In this, the third part of a series of articles examining Windows Azure platform AppFabric Access Control (Part 1, Part2), I will continue developing the [somewhat contrived] nightclub web service scenario and demonstrate how to obtain a token from ACS that can be used to call into a Bartender web service. A Quick Review Our distributed nightclub system has four major components: A Customer application coupled with some external identity management system, a Bartender web service, and ACS, which acts as our nightclub’s Bouncer. A Customer application ultimately represents a user that wishes...

posted @ Monday, March 22, 2010 11:18 AM | Feedback (0) | Filed Under [ Articles Azure ]

Windows Azure platform AppFabric Access Control: Service Namespace

In the previous article, I provided an example scenario of how claims-based access control might map to the real-world event of a customer entering a bar. This article will build upon that concept, eventually enabling a Customer application to obtain a token from our Bouncer (ACS), and then use that token to order a drink from the Bartender web service. Now let’s walk through how to create a Service Namespace in Windows Azure, which is needed to permit your application and/or web service to utilize AppFabric Access Control. Service Namespace At this time, Windows Azure platform AppFabric provides two services for developers to...

posted @ Wednesday, March 17, 2010 12:34 PM | Feedback (1) | Filed Under [ Articles Azure ]

Windows Azure platform AppFabric Access Control: Introduction

The Windows Azure platform AppFabric Access Control service was one aspect of the Windows Azure platform that I found a bit challenging to understand, primarily because identity is not a domain that I regularly work with. This post, the first in a planned series of articles, will explore what the Access Control service is and why it is useful. Three Geeks Walk Into a Bar… Let’s examine a common real-world scenario: Ordering a drink from a bartender at a nightclub. Before the nightclub opens, the bouncers inform the bartenders about the token that customers will bear on that night to indicate...

posted @ Monday, March 08, 2010 11:37 PM | Feedback (0) | Filed Under [ Articles .NET Azure ]

You Need that Using Statement for Extension Methods!

I was working through some Windows Azure example code today, and came across a situation where IntelliSense did not show a method that the sample code used (CreateCloudBlobClient(), in this case): var storageAccount = Microsoft.WindowsAzure.CloudStorageAccount.FromConfigurationSetting("DataConnectionString");var blobStorage = storageAccount.CreateCloudBlobClient(); A lot of times, when I'm exploring an API, I will type out the fully qualified class name in code so that I can use IntelliSense to see what the other members exist in the same namespace. And, while I'm exploring, I usually don't bother to include a using statement at the top of my code because it's so easy to just use the...

posted @ Thursday, February 25, 2010 2:11 PM | Feedback (0) | Filed Under [ Articles .NET Azure ]

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