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Thursday, April 25, 2013PrintSubscribe
Amazon S3 Upload/Download Adapter

Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) is a cloud-based data storage solution. Let’s add fields to the Suppliers table in the Northwind database in order to store company logos. The picture file name, size, and content type will be saved in the database, while the files will be uploaded to S3.

Setting Up S3

Navigate to http://aws.amazon.com/s3 and log in to your account. If you do not have an active account for Amazon S3, sign up for AWS Free Usage Tier.

When logged into the AWS Management Console, select S3 under Storage & Content Delivery section. Click on Create Bucket.

Creating a bucket in Amazon S3.

Enter a bucket name and press Create.

Naming and creating the bucket.

When complete, click on the account name in the top right corner and select Security Credentials. Scroll down to Access Keys section. If necessary, create a new access key. Click on Show under Secret Access Key and save both the Secret Access Key and Access Key ID for later use.

Getting the access key for Amazon S3.

Adding Utility Fields to the Database

Start SQL Server Management Studio. In the Object Explorer, right-click on Databases / Northwind / Tables / dbo.Suppliers, and press Design.

Designing the Suppliers table.

Add the following columns:

Column Name Data Type Allow Nulls
LogoFileName nvarchar(250) yes
LogoLength int yes
LogoContentType nvarchar(50) yes

Save the changes. Switch to the generator and click on the project name. Select Refresh, check the box next to Suppliers controller, and proceed to refresh the web app.

Refreshing the Suppliers controller.

Configuring BLOB Field

Start the Project Designer. In the Project Explorer, switch to the Controllers tab. Right-click on Suppliers / Fields node, and press New Field.

Creating a new field for Suppliers controller.

Assign the following properties:

Property Value
Name Logo
Type Byte[]
Allow Null Values yes
Value is retrieved on demand yes
Source Fields SupplierID
On Demand Handler LogoBlobHandler
On Demand Style Thumbnail
Label Logo

Save the field. Drag the new field node and drop it onto Suppliers/ Views / editForm1 to instantiate the field as a data field in the editForm1 view.

Adding a data field of Logo to view 'editForm1'.     Logo data field added.

Drag the field onto view grid1 to display the picture in the list of products.

Next, double-click on the Suppliers controller node. Enter the following in BLOB Adapter Configuration.

BLOB Adapter Configuration

Field: Logo
Storage-System: S3
Access-Key-ID: AKIAJASDFSHLPC4B7P6Q
Secret-Access-Key: lNFaASDFyosrjY3j77ASDFCUTHj408Pgz5yoCci
Bucket: northwind
Path-Template: {SupplierID}-{LogoFileName}

Note that the values above are not functional. Replace the highlighted parts with your own settings.

Make sure to save the controller.

Viewing the Results

On the toolbar, press Browse. Navigate to the Suppliers page and start editing a record. The new Logo field will accept file uploads. Click on the link and upload a file. The bar at the top of the screen will show a confirmation of upload and a thumbnail of the picture will be displayed. The File Name, Length, and Content Type utility fields will be updated accordingly.

Image uploaded to Amazon S3 and thumbnail is displayed.

The files can be seen in AWS Management Console.

Files uploaded to Amazon S3.

To upload files larger than 4 MB, you will need to increase the application upload size limit.

Wednesday, April 24, 2013PrintSubscribe
Azure Upload/Download Adapter

Microsoft Azure Storage is a low-cost option that allows storing binary content in the cloud. Let’s implement storing of product pictures in the Northwind sample database. We will capture name, size, and content type of the picture file in the Products table. The actual pictures will be saved in Microsoft Azure Storage.

Setting Up Azure Storage

Navigate to http://azure.com and click on the Portal link in the top right corner to log in to your Azure account. If you do not have an account, a free three month trial is offered.

When the Management tool loads, click on the New button in the bottom left corner. Select Data Services | Storage | Quick Create option. Assign a URL for your new storage and press Create Storage Account.

Creating a new storage account in Windows Azure.

When complete, click on the new storage account name in the list to view details. On the action bar displayed at the bottom, press Manage Access Keys. Copy one of the keys into the clipboard.

Viewing Access Keys for Azure Storage account.

At the top of the form, click on Containers tab. Press Add Container at the bottom of the screen.

Adding a container to a storage account.

Assign a name to the container. If you do not expect the product pictures to be accessible to anonymous users, then leave Access property as “Private”. Click on the Check icon to save.

Creating a new container.

Adding Utility Fields to the Database

Start SQL Server Management Studio. In the Object Explorer, right-click on Databases / Northwind / Tables / dbo.Products, and press Design.

Designing the dbo.Products table in Northwind database.

Add the following columns:

Column Name Data Type Allow Nulls
PictureFileName nvarchar(250) yes
PictureLength int yes
PictureContentType nvarchar(50) yes

Save the changes. Switch to the generator and click on the project name. Select Refresh, check the box next to Products controller, and proceed to refresh the web app.

Refreshing the Products controller.

Configuring BLOB Field

Start the Project Designer. In the Project Explorer, switch to the Controllers tab. Right-click on Products / Fields node, and press New Field.

Adding a new field to Products controller.

Assign the following properties:

Property Value
Name Picture
Type Byte[]
Allow Null Values yes
Value is retrieved on demand yes
Source Fields ProductID
On Demand Handler PictureBlobHandler
On Demand Style Thumbnail
Label Picture

Save the field. Drag the new field node and drop it onto Products / Views / editForm1 to instantiate the field as a data field in the editForm1 view.

Instantiating the Picture field in view 'editForm1'.     'Picture' data field created in 'editForm1' view.

Drag the field onto view grid1 to display the picture in the list of products.

Next, double-click on the Products controller node. Enter the following in BLOB Adapter Configuration.

BLOB Adapter Configuration

Field: Picture
Storage-System: Azure
Account: northwindproductpictures
Container: pics
Key: e2Wl668b6fEGauS6cOTAHaj7Ut6QfwKdbGY4Vd8yngz40y2f54M5EfZtSNNHYoXW7i7+kZAfFJrg==
Path-Template: Products/{ProductID}-{PictureFileName}

Note that the values above are not functional. Replace the highlighted parts with your own settings.

Make sure to save the controller.

Viewing the Results

On the toolbar, press Browse. Navigate to the Products page, and edit any record. Note that there is a Picture field which accepts files. Click on the link to upload a file and select a picture from your hard drive. A bar at the top of the page will announce completion of upload and the thumbnail of the picture will be displayed. The utility fields will be updated with the picture file name, length, and content type. If you do not want users to change any utility field values, configure the data fields as Static.

Succesful upload of product picture to Azure.

The thumbnail will display the file extension if the file is not an image.

Extension displayed in thumbnail when file is not an image.

The uploaded files are visible in Azure Management screen.

Files are visible in Azure Management tool.

To upload files larger than 4 MB, you will need to increase the application upload size limit.

Wednesday, April 3, 2013PrintSubscribe
Data View Refresh

Data views are only automatically refreshed by the client library when data is inserted, updated, or deleted. The user can force a refresh using the Refresh icon in the bottom right corner of every data view. In addition, the Refresh Interval property can be configured to refresh the data view based on a timer.

image

Certain situations require a refresh based on different conditions. For example, suppose that there are multiple tabs displaying similar data.

Multiple tabs displaying different lists of Orders.

The user may change the value of a record in one of the views.

Order date of an order is changed.

However, when the user switches to another view showing the same record, the old value will be displayed.

The order date is not updated for the same record in a different tab.

Let’s add a custom user control that will contain some custom JavaScript. This code will refresh the data view when the tab is changed in order to ensure that the data visible to the user is always fresh.

Creating Views

Start the Project Designer. In the Project Explorer, switch to the Controllers tab. Right-click on Orders / Views / grid1, and press Copy. Right-click on Orders / Views node, and press Paste to duplicate the view.

Copying view 'grid1' of Orders controller.     image

Do this one more time to create three grid views. Double-click on Orders / Views / v100.

Copied view 'v100' of Orders controller.

Make the following changes:

Property New Value
Id OrdersToShip
Label Orders To Ship
Filter Expression
OrderDate is null

Press OK to save. Double-click on Orders / Views / v101.

Copied view 'v101' of Orders controller.

Make the following changes:

Property New Value
Id HighFreight
Label High Freight
Filter Expression
Freight > 30

Press OK to save.

Setting Up the Page

Switch to the Pages tab. On the toolbar, press the New Page icon.

Adding a page to the project.

Assign a name to the page:

Property New Value
Name Filtered Orders

Press OK to save. Drop the new Filtered Orders page node to the right of Home page node.

Dropping 'Filtered Orders' page node on the right side of 'Home' page node.     Page 'Filtered Orders' is now second in the menu.

Right-click on Filtered Orders page, and press New Container.

Adding a container to a page.

Keep the defaults and press OK to save. Right-click on the new container and press New Data View.

Adding a data view to container 'c101'.

Assign the following values:

Property Value
Controller Orders
View grid1
Tag Orders
Activator Tab
Text Orders

Press OK to save. Create another data view with the following properties:

Property Value
Controller Orders
View OrdersToShip
Tag Orders To Ship
Activator Tab
Text Orders To Ship

Create one more data view.

Property Value
Controller Orders
View HighFreight
Tag High Freight
Activator Tab
Text High Freight

Save the data view.

Adding User Control

Right-click on Filtered Orders / c101 container node, and press New Control.

Adding a new control to container 'c101'.

Next to the User Control property, click on the New User Control icon.

Creating a new user control.

Assign a name:

Property Value
Name RefreshDataView

Press OK to save the user control and insert it into the property. Press OK again to save the control.

On the toolbar, press Browse to generate the web application and user control. When complete, right-click on Filtered Orders / c101 / control1 – RefreshDataView node, and press Edit in Visual Studio.

Edit the user control in Visual Studio via the context menu option in the Project Explorer.

The custom user control file will open in Visual Studio. Replace the content after the <%@ Control %> element with the following:

<script type="text/javascript">
    Sys.Application.add_load(function () {
        $('div.TabBar td.Item').click(function () {
            var linkText = $(this).find('a').text();
            var tag = linkText;
            var dataView = Web.DataView.find(tag, 'Tag');
            if (dataView) {
                if (dataView._isBusy == false && dataView.get_isDisplayed())
                    dataView.refresh();

            }
        });
    })
</script>

Viewing the Results

Save the file, and switch to the web app open in your browser window. Navigate to the Filtered Orders page. The page will have three tabs displaying different filtered lists of orders. Note the Order Date of the first record.

Three tabs displaying different lists of orders.

Switch to the High Freight tab. Edit the first record, and change the Order Date.

Changing the Order Date of an order.

Save the change, and switch back to the first tab. Note that the data view refreshes and the updated data is displayed.

The data view has been refreshed - the record is showing the latest changes.