Part 1 of 4: Introduction to Consuming Azure Mobile Services from Android

Introduction to Android and Azure Mobile Services

1. This series shows you how to use Windows Azure Mobile Services to leverage data in an Android application.
2. This means you can use these techniques for tablets as well. And with minimal adjustments, they could be made to work with any Java application.
3. This post is a follow up to https://blogs.msdn.com/b/brunoterkaly/archive/2012/09/26/part-5-of-5-introduction-to-consuming-azure-mobile-services-from-ios.aspx, which highlighted an iOS approach.
4. See Part 5 of 5: Introduction to Consuming Azure Mobile Services from iOS
5. Here is what was demonstrated previously:
   • Mobile Services enables you to create a web service and a database in minutes.
6. Android developers to get started right away consuming JSON-formatted data through http.
   • Direct support for iPhone, Windows Phone & Android is coming soon but I will show you how you can use Andorid today, or any other type of client.
7. What I will not cover here today, is the features of Push Notifications and Authentication.

This is the goal

1. Notice that data is visible.
2. This data comes from the Windows Azure Mobile Service.
3. This is what we are going to build
   • There is work to do at the Windows Azure Portal
   • There is code to add to the Android application that we build with Eclipse

Previous Posts

You will need a trial account for Windows Azure

1. Please sign up for it here:
   • https://www.microsoft.com/click/services/Redirect2.ashx?CR_CC=200114759

Setting Up Android for Development

1. I find it incredibly challenging.
   • There are many steps and it is somewhat confusing.
2. I will leave it to my Android expert friends to discuss setup.

Assumption: You've signed up for a free trial account for Windows Azure

1. The assumption is that you've signed up for a free trial account.
2. Download the free trial
   • You will need a trial account for Windows Azure
     • Please sign up for it here:
       • https://www.microsoft.com/click/services/Redirect2.ashx?CR\_CC=200114759
3. I start by clicking on BILLING.
4. You can also click on Visit the Preview Portal at the bottom.

Accessing Preview Features

1. Azure Mobile Services is currently in preview mode.
2. Azure Mobile Services is a very cost effective and productive solution.
3. In short, Windows Azure mobile services help developers build mobile app experiences faster, and enable even better user experiences by connecting your client apps to the cloud.

Drilling into Mobile Services

1. Click on MANAGE.
2. This is where we begin creating our Mobile Services project.

Creating a mobile service

1. When you click on CREATE A NEW APP and follow through with the ensuing wizard, the following will occur:
   • A SQL Database will be created
   • A web service will be created with a URL that you define
   • A sample Windows 8 application can get generated
     • We will ignore the sample application and create an Android application instead
     • We will build the Android app from scratch for maximum knowledge

How to Create a backend service for your Android Application

1. There is a caveat, though.
   • Our Android app will not end up in the Windows Store.
   • Obviously, you can deploy Android apps to the appropriate Google marketplace.

Specifying the URL that our Android app will use

1. This is the URL that will be used by mobile clients to access the mobile service
   • Windows 8, Android (or any REST-enabled client using http), and iOS
2. We can create a new database or use an existing one.
   • We are creating a new SQL Database.
     • This new database will contain the data that is sent to the Android device.
3. Currently, only the EAST is available for the region.

Specifying the name of the database

1. This database is automatically used by the service we just created
2. We will specify a new server to place the new database in
3. We will also specify and login name, password, and region

Advanced Settings

1. You can choose alternate sizes for the database
   • You can go up to 150gb
   • That is the business edition
2. We only need 1GB for this example.

The results of actions can be seen

1. The mobile service has been created
   • Note the name of the service
     • BrunoToDoService
       • Your name will necessarily differ
2. It takes less than a minute.
3. When the service is created, it is automatically bound to your previously created database.

Next steps

1. The next post will cover the following:
   • Adding data to a relational database
   • Understanding the application key
   • Creating a database and a table
   • Managing the database through the portal
   • Modifying table structures (adding columns)
   • Inserting data into the table (TodoItem table)