Android Support in Windows Azure Mobile Services
Official Android SDK for Windows Azure Mobile Services is recently released. Android developers now have easy access to structured data storage, authentication, push notifications using Google Cloud Messaging (GCM) and more in the form of a native Java SDK. This SDK joins the Windows Store, Windows Phone 8, and iOS SDKs that was already released. When the team first launched Mobile Services, they mentioned that our goal was to enable any application developer to connect their app to a backend hosted in Windows Azure. Recent announcement means that even more mobile developers can be Microsoft developers by easily consuming Windows Azure services for their backend.
For this release, the Windows Azure team worked with Microsoft Open Technologies. MS Open Tech developed the SDK and the Windows Azure team worked on the portal integration and push notifications. The native Java SDK for Android developers can be used for applications destined for the Google Play Store, Amazon App Store, or any other Android app store. Additionally, integrated support for push notifications with GCM has been added to server scripts. Like the other Mobile Services SDKs, the Android SDK will be open sourced on GitHub. This should occur within a few days. You can access the GitHub repository here. Going forward, the plan is to keep improvements to each SDK the same when possible.
In addition to Android support, team also recently announced that Mobile Services is now available in the Southeast Asia region. You can now create and run Mobile Services in 4 datacenters covering North America, Europe, and Asia.
To learn more about the release, please watch this short 7 minute video where Chris Risner shows how to quickly create a new mobile service, download the Android quick start app, and connect the app to Windows Azure Mobile Services. Additionally, the features of the portal and capabilities of Mobile Services are described for people that haven't looked at Mobile Services before.
You can learn more about the announcement in ScottGu’s blog post here.
To help you drive awareness of the new Android SDK, team has prepared several new evangelism resources. The below provides more info about these resources including: