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Wednesday, June 18, 2014PrintSubscribe
Windows Azure Virtual Machines

One quick way of getting your app deployed online is to set up a Windows Azure Virtual Machine (VM). These VMs offer the benefit of a full-fledged Windows Server machine without the hassle of dealing with electricity and cooling costs, storing a computer on-premise, or dealing with network configuration. They also offer the additional benefits of a very fast internet connection and easy scalability. 

Getting a new Azure Virtual Machine

Let’s set up a new Azure VM for a Northwind web app created with Code On Time generator.

Navigate to http://azure.com and click on Portal in the top right corner of the screen. Enter your credentials and log in.

In the bottom left corner of the page, press New. Select Compute | Virtual Machine | Quick Create. Enter the DNS name and select the server image from the dropdown. Make sure to select the correct size as needed, as pricing is different for each one. Finally, enter the administrator credentials and select Create a Virtual Machine.

Creating a new WIndows Azure Virtual Machine.

The virtual machine will be created in a few minutes. You can watch progress by clicking on the Virtual Machines section of the site.

Waiting for the virtual machine to start.

Once the virtual machine is online, click on the VM in the list, and select CONNECT on the bottom action bar.

Downloading the rdp file for the virtual machine.

Confirm to save the downloaded *.rdp file, and open the file to start connecting to your VM using Remote Desktop Connection. Enter the previously specified username and password, and press OK.

Entering credentials for the remote virtual machine.

Confirm that you want to connect to a computer without a certificate, and you will be connected.

The virtual machine desktop accessible using Remote Desktop Connection.

Enabling HTTP Traffic to the Azure VM

In order for your application to be visible on the internet, you must enable HTTP traffic.

Switch back to the Microsoft Azure Portal. Click on the name of the virtual machine to access the properties. At the top of the page, click on ENDPOINTS tab. On the bottom action bar, press ADD.

Adding a new endpoint to the virtual machine.

Select “ADD A STAND-ALONE ENDPOINT” and press the right arrow.

Adding a new endpoint to the virtual machine.

Click on the dropdown in the NAME field and select “HTTP”. Then, press the checkmark to save the endpoint.

Adding an HTTP endpoint - TCP port 80.

You can now deploy your web app to this server.

Saturday, July 6, 2013PrintSubscribe
How to Configure Azure Factory Project

With the release of Windows Azure, Microsoft has provided a great cloud database, storage, and computing service platform. Windows Azure offers many benefits, such as guaranteed 99.95% uptime, automatic OS and service  patching, integrated network load balancing, and easy scaling.

While the Windows Azure cloud may offer the perfect platform to deploy your next web application, you still need to build this application. This is where Code On Time’s Azure Factory comes in. All you have to do is paste in your SQL Azure database connection string, and hit Generate. In a minute, your advanced web application will start in your default browser, complete with sorting, adaptive filtering, reporting, charts, and much more. Hit Publish, and the application will be packaged. Upload the published deployment package to Windows Azure, and within minutes you’ll have your app running in the cloud.

Need to add more features and customize your app? Just make your changes in the easy to use Project Designer. While no coding is needed to make a great app, you can always open the source code in Visual Studio and change it to precisely fit your requirements.

The following article will explain how to generate and deploy an Azure Factory application. View our learning system if you need help setting up a Windows Azure account or creating a database using SQL Azure tools.

In order for the application created in this article to work properly, make sure to install Microsoft Azure SDK.

Creating the Azure Factory Project

Start the app generator, and click on Create a new web application. Select Azure Factory.

Creating a new Azure Factory project.

Enter a name, select your preferred language, and press Create.

Entering a name and specifying a language for the project.

Press Next to navigate to the Database Connection page. Click on the “…” button.

Enter your server username and password. If you already have an SQL Azure database, then enter the name in the Database field. If you don’t have a database, you can quickly create one using the web application generator. The next few steps explain how to create a sample Northwind database, include ASP.NET Membership and Roles, and add Session State management.

In the Database textbox, enter “Northwind”. Press Create to create the database.

Creating the 'Northwind' database.

In the Sample Tables dropdown, select Northwind and press Install.

Installing the Northwind database.

Under Membership section, press Add button. ASP.NET Membership will be installed in the database.

Adding ASP.NET Membership and Roles provider into the database.

By default, Azure Factory applications are configured to use two extra-small server instances in the cloud. If you use multiple instances, then Session State management must be included in the application. Under Session State, press Add. Press OK to confirm the installation.

Adding Session State management into the database.

Press OK to save the connection string. Press Next twice to get to the Reporting page.

Enabling reporting in the web app.

Check the box to enable reporting, and keep pressing Next to reach the Theme page. Select “Azure” theme.

Selecting the 'Azure' theme.

Hold down Shift key, and press Next. This shortcut will take you to the Summary page. Press the Generate button.

Wait until the generator finishes, and your default browser will open with your new web application. While the application is running on your computer, the database is located in the cloud. You can log in and start using the app immediately.

Deploying the Web App

It’s time to deploy the app to Azure. Go back to the generator, and click on the project name. Press Publish.

Publishing the web app from Code On Time generator.

When the process is complete, the publish folder will be opened and will contain two files, CloudApp.cspkg and ServiceConfiguration.cscfg.

Navigate to the Azure Portal. In the bottom left corner, press New. Select Compute | Cloud Service | Custom Create.

Creating a new cloud service in the Azure portal.

Specify a URL, check the box next to “Deploy a cloud service package”, and click on the right arrow.

Specifying a URL for the new cloud service.

Next, specify a deployment name and select the two file locations. Mark the Environment as “Staging”. Click on the check icon to start deployment.

Specifying parameters for publishing the new cloud service.

Press OK, and Windows Azure will start the deployment process. This step may take up to 15 minutes. Once the status of the deployment changes to Ready, use the SITE URL link found under DASHBOARD tab to view the app running in the cloud.

If you look at the URL, you will notice that it uses the ID of the deployment, not the requested DNS Name. This is because the deployment is a staging deployment. You can go back to the management portal, and choose Swap to change it into a production deployment. Now you can use the DNS Name you specified during creation of the hosted service.

When you are ready to deploy a new project revision, create a new staging deployment. Test the new deployment in the cloud. If everything is working as expected, then swap the virtual IP address of the staging deployment with the production one. Click Swap button at the bottom of the screen to do so.

SWAP button at the bottom of the screen will swap the staging and production environments.

When VIP swapping has finished, the previous application revision will become a staging deployment. Shut it down if you don’t need it. Continue upgrading staging deployment with the new revisions of the application, and swapping them later with production.

Wednesday, June 19, 2013PrintSubscribe
ASP.NET 4.5, DotNetNuke 7, Upload on Insert, CKEditor, Dynamic Wait Indicators, Azure SDK 2.0, Native CSV Import, Container “page”

Code On Time release 7.0.9.0 includes major enhancements  providing the foundation for the upcoming Mobile Client Library and 2nd generation datasheet view. Both will be included in the follow-up release in July of 2013.

ASP.NET 4.5 has been available for awhile. We now offer support for the newest .NET Framework in  Web Site Factory, Web App Factory, and Azure Factory projects.

Starting with this release any new apps configured to use ASP.NET 4.5 (default option) will be created without dependency on Ajax Control Toolkit DLLs. We will be phasing out the toolkit by replacing any dependencies with jQuery equivalents. Existing projects that do use components of ACT will continue to be generated with the binary libraries.

Master page, theme, and script references where enhanced to further reduce application footprint and speed up page loading. Mobile client library requires this enhancement.

DotNetNuke 7 is now supported in DotNetNuke Factory. Create ASP.NET 4.0 line-of-business web apps as modules for the latest version of the populate open-source content management system. New theme Gravity is included to provide a matching look-and-feel for the apps packaged as DNN modules.

Upload on Insert is a frequently requested feature that was previously absent in the application framework. Binary content is uploaded independently from the data fields of a new record. This creates a unique challenge to delay uploading until a record has been successfully persisted. The new client library does just that. New projects will automatically include BLOB fields in createForm1 to allow upload on insert. Just make sure that the binary columns are not marked as required in the database. Drag binary fields to the createForm1 view to enable this capability in existing apps.

CKEditor is a popular web-based rich text editor embedded in many online products. We are offering a simple integration of this editor in any project created with the new release of the app generator. The built-in rich text editor is now implemented without server-side support and works entirely on the client, which makes it lightning-fast.

Dynamic Wait Indicators are now  a permanent feature of the client library. If a server-side operation takes longer than 3/4 of a second to complete, then a thin marquee line will be displayed at the top of the data view. Modal views will display a wait indicator at the top of a page. This applies to data paging/sorting/search, action execution, reporting, import, upload, and download. Consistent integration of dynamic wait indicators improves usability by offering intelligent visual clues about long running requests. Navigate to our demo web site and try printing a list of customers to see the wait indicator in action.

Azure SDK 2.0 is now supported in Azure Factory projects.

Native CSV Import classes are  implemented in web apps created with Premium or Unlimited edition. The new importer is built into the application framework, which eliminates the need for Microsoft Access Database Engine installation on the server. “Import” action is now also included under Actions menu of data views in Azure Factory web apps. Import dialog simplifies mapping of fields by hiding “mapped” fields from available mapping options.

Container “page” allows defining user controls that will be displayed in page header, title, sidebar, or footer.

The following enhancements, bug fixes, and features are included in this release:

  • ASP.NET 4.5 is now supported in Web App Factory, Web Site Factory, and Azure Factory projects.
     
  • Application Framework now includes a native CSV parser based on the work of Sébastien Lorion. Both SharePoint Factory and Azure Factory projects are now supporting the “Import” action with native CSV parsing.
     
  • Web Site Factory solution files are now located under [Documents]\Code OnTime\Solutions\Web Site Factory\PROJECT_NAME folder. The new solution file will be created if a website factory project is regenerated. If you are using a source control system then make sure to change the project bindings accordingly.
     
  • Theme file is referenced with the app generator version number in the page header.
     
  • Azure SDK 2.0 is now supported in Azure Factory.
     
  • Ajax Control Tookit 7.0429 is now integrated in the apps based on ASP.NET 3.5 and 4.0.
    Upgrade instructions for ASP.NET 4.0 projects:
    • Make sure to delete file ~/App_Code/Controls/RichEditor.* from the source code of your Web Site Factory project.
    • Delete the files MyCompany\Controls\RichEdit.* from other project types where MyCompany must be replaced with the Namespace of your project.
    • Select the project on the start page of the app generator and choose Refresh, do not select any controllers and click Refresh.
    • Re-generate the app.
       
  • Custom *.rdlc reports are now published with Web Site Factory projects.
     
  • CKEditor is seamlessly integrated in web apps created with Code On Time.
     
  • Removed references to "stub" images from the master page.
     
  • Main master page is not using “cellpadding”, “cellspacing” and “valign” attributes. It relies on new CSS rules instead.
     
  • Built in Rich Text editor and CKEDITOR will take at least as much space as specified by the CSS class "dataview-rich-text". Define a custom CSS rule with “width” and “height” property to set up a non-standard size for rich text editors.
     
  • Application pages include “lang” and “xml:lang” attributes in “html” tag when loaded in a browser.
     
  • Application framework stylesheet Core.css incorporates the core styles from AjaxControlToolkit to handle calendar, tab container, color picker, and HTML editor to minimize the number of CSS links in application pages.
     
  • Thanks to Giampaolo Bulleri for contributing Italian localization.
     
  • Membership component of the client library explicitly sets up the path to Authentication_JSON_AppService.axd of a web app when initialized.
     
  • App generator will place controls with IDs 'header', 'title', 'sidebar', and 'footer' into appropriate regions of a page if the controls belong to a page container 'page'.
     
  • Enter NoSeeAlso class in "Custom Styles" property of a page to hide the corresponding area created automatically by the class library.
     
  • The "Reset" button on automatic search bar has been replaced with "Clear" button. The new button will simply remove all filters.
     
  • BLOB fields can now be added to the "createForm1" or any other view that offers Insert command. BLOB uploading is deferred until the primary key is returned after a successful insert operation.
     
  • New projects will automatically include BLOB fields in 'createForm1'. Developers can add BLOB fields to existing data controller views 'createForm1' manually.
     
  • CSS class "dataview-loading" is added to a data view container when a data view makes a first call to fetch data. Class "dataview-loaded" will replace "dataview-loading" after the first call has been completed.
     
  • Client library will open a new window when the original of a BLOB field is downloaded by user. The data view will display a marquee indicating the download progress. The new window is twice smaller than the main browser window.
     
  • Server-side business rules (Code and SQL) do not interfere with Blob Adpaters updating utility fields.
     
  • Data fields with text mode set to "Static" work correctly in grid view when inline editin of row values is performed by a user.
     
  • Application framework includes FileSystemBlobAdapterBase class to allow override of file system blob adapter property IsPublic.
     
  • "Soft" date filters created with SQL business rules will correctly filter the data.
     
  • Import automatically adjust the list of the available unmapped fields to ease selection of mappings.
     
  • Main and Help master pages are using a short form of DOCTYPE declaration.
     
  • Methods AccessKey, SecretAccessKey and property Bucket of S3BlobAdapter are now virtual