SilverlightShow: Azure Services connecting Windows Phone to Data Comments

Re: Azure Services connecting Windows Phone to Data

samidip — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 05:05:24 GMT

RandyLim,

Thanks for your question. If you are connecting directly to a SQL Azure DB, the Connection String can be found on the right hand side on the Azure portal, after you have the DB server selected. If connecting to a service that is sitting on top of the DB, you do not need a direct connecting string; but rather work with the service endpoint.

Please lemme know if this helps or of other problems you encounter.

Thanks!

Re: Azure Services connecting Windows Phone to Data

RandyLim — Tue, 21 Aug 2012 05:03:14 GMT

Hi, dont know can you help me, but i am stuck at the ADO.NET Entity Data Model part. My new to this so i have some problems. the connection string, how do you link it to azure? or is it some other database? I cant seems to understand. Thanks

Re: Azure Services connecting Windows Phone to Data

samidip — Wed, 13 Jun 2012 14:58:24 GMT

Marimon,

No worries at all .. we all learn from each other :). Now, there are two aspects of this as you already understand - the WCF service which is running in a WebRole and the Windows Phone client. The WCF service can really be hosted anywhere; but you would use the WebRole if leveraging Azure. The WCF service & the Windows Phone app actually do not need to belong in the same VS solution.

So first, create the WCF service in a WebRole. If using the latest Azure SDK, you can publish directly using your Azure subscription details or create a local package (right click) & then upload to Azure. Once done & hosted, grab the URL of the hosted service (ending in .svc) and add a service reference to it in your separate Windows Phone solution.

Hope this helps!

Re: Azure Services connecting Windows Phone to Data

marimon — Wed, 13 Jun 2012 05:20:10 GMT

Thanks for the reply, I think what I am confused about is how to use the webrole service in a windows phone 7 application. Is it as simple as adding a silverlight project within the webrole project?

Also, I am having a problem with publishing the webrole. I do not see the option “Create Service Packages only” option. When I click publish, I get a popup that has steps: sign in, settings, and summary.

Sorry for asking such trivial questions, I am new.

Re: Azure Services connecting Windows Phone to Data

samidip — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 18:37:46 GMT

Marimon,

Not following your question. The webrole is a WCF service; why would you expect a XAML file? If consuming services from Windows Phone client, that will have XAML files as front-end UI. Please lemme know if you have more questions.

Thanks!

Re: Azure Services connecting Windows Phone to Data

marimon — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 10:30:39 GMT

Hello, my question is where is my .xaml file? I don't see it in my solution explorer when I created the webrole project. How can I add it so I can start developing? thanks!

Re: Azure Services connecting Windows Phone to Data

marimon — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 10:23:47 GMT

Hello, my question is where is my .xaml file? I don't see it in my solution explorer when I created the webrole project. How can I add it so I can start developing? thanks!

Re: Azure Services connecting Windows Phone to Data

samidip — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 17:58:40 GMT

Karim,

WP should surely be able to consume services that return arrays or lists. Are you adding the ADO.NET Data Entity Model? Did the .edmx file get created ok? What is your service returning?

If you want to take the conversation offline, you can email me @ firstname@live.com. I'll be happy look through some of your code.

Thanks!

Re: Azure Services connecting Windows Phone to Data

KarimAly — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 12:47:56 GMT

Thanks for your fast reply :)
And i think i have solved it , that's what i did :

I made an ASP.NET Web role then added "WCF Service" item to the web role project

I published the azureProject and it worked great -- That's before i use ADO.NET Entity Data Model --, i used just a function which returns a string and added the service reference in the WP client , everything worked just fine.

I then Added ADO.NET Model and returned a List as your tutorial but WP couldn't read the namespace "ServiceReference1" ! : ( , the problem is not in connecting to the database cuz when i returned a string even after using ADO.NET Model , it worked fine

So to check that : i deleted the Model and made a function that returns an array of numbers but the same problem occured again !
i think WP Client can't use functions that returns arrays or list , i don't know if that's correct , it's just a suggestion :)

Re: Azure Services connecting Windows Phone to Data

KarimAly — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 12:41:58 GMT

Thanks for your fast reply :)
And i think i have solved it , that's what i did :

I made an ASP.NET Web role then added "WCF Service" item to the web role project

Re: Azure Services connecting Windows Phone to Data

samidip — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 02:45:20 GMT

KarimAly,

Thank you for the comment & kind words.

Let's knock out potential error conditions one by one:

Does adding a "/" at the end of the svc in the URL work?
In your cloud project, could you right click on the svc file & view in browser? What error do you see, if any?
Is the DB connection string correct?
What operations does the WCF service support?
Are you using latest Azure SDK?

Lemme know.

Thanks!

Re: Azure Services connecting Windows Phone to Data

KarimAly — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 21:19:54 GMT

Hi , first of all , great tutorials , i have read most of Them and liked so much :)

but i have a problem in here if you can help me :)

The Problem : i have deployed windows azure project as you said but still the link doesn't work

http://xxxxxxx.cloudapp.net/Service1.svc

It gives me 500 -Internal server error ,, Any help will be appreciated :)