Using Windows Azure Mobile Services to Cloud-Enable your Windows Store Apps in C#

Windows Azure Developer Center

Summary: This section shows you how to use Windows Azure Mobile Services and C# to leverage data in a Windows Store app. In this tutorial, you will download an app that stores data in memory, create a new mobile service, integrate the mobile service with the app, and then login to the Windows Azure Management Portal to view changes to data made when running the app.

Category: Step-by-Step
Applies to: Windows Azure Mobile Services
Source: Windows Azure Developer Center (link to source content)
E-book publication date: January 2013

Copyright © 2012 by Microsoft Corporation

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Contents

Introducing Windows Azure Mobile Services

Get started with data in Mobile Services

Download the GetStartedWithData project

Create a new mobile service in the Management Portal

Add a new table to the mobile service

Update the app to use the mobile service for data access

Test the app against your new mobile service

Validate and modify data in Mobile Services by using server scripts

Add validation

Update the client

Add a timestamp

Update the client again

Refine Mobile Services queries with paging

Get started with authentication in Mobile Services

Register your app for authentication and configure Mobile Services

Restrict permissions to authenticated users

Add authentication to the app

Use scripts to authorize users in Mobile Services

Register scripts

Test the app

Single sign-on for Windows Store apps by using Live Connect

Register your app for the Windows Store

Restrict permissions to authenticated users

Add authentication to the app

Get started with push notifications in Mobile Services

Register your app for the Windows Store

Add push notifications to your app

Update the registered insert script in the Management Portal

Test push notifications in your app

Next steps

Push notifications to users by using Mobile Services

Create a new table

Update your app

Update server scripts

Test the app

Learn more about Mobile Services

Appendix A: Register your apps for Twitter login with Mobile Services

Appendix B: Register your Windows Store apps to use a Microsoft Account login

Appendix C: Register your apps for Google login with Mobile Services

Introducing Windows Azure Mobile Services

Windows Azure Mobile Services is a Windows Azure service offering designed to make it easy to create highly-functional mobile apps using Windows Azure. Mobile Services brings together a set of Windows Azure services that enable backend capabilities for your apps. Mobile Services provides the following backend capabilities in Windows Azure to support your apps:

• Client libraries support mobile app development on various devices, including Windows 8, Windows Phone 8, iPhone, and iPad:
Like other Windows Azure service offerings, Mobile Services features a full set of REST APIs for data access and authentication so that you can leverage your mobile service from any HTTP compatible device. However, to make it easier for you to develop your apps, Mobile Services also provides client library support on most major device platforms so that you can interact with your mobile service by using a simplified client programming model that handles the HTTP messaging tasks for you.

• Simple provisioning and management of tables for storing app data:
Mobile Services lets you store app data in SQL Database tables. By using the Windows Azure Management Portal, you easily create new tables as well as view and manage app data.

• Integration with notification services to deliver push notifications to your app:
The ability to send real-time notifications to users has become a key functionality for device apps. Mobile Services integrates with platform-specific notification providers to enable you send notifications to your apps.

• Integration with well-known identity providers for authentication:
Mobile Services makes it easy to add authentication to your apps. You can have your users log in with any of the major identity provider (Facebook, Twitter, Google, and Microsoft Account) and Mobile Services handles the authentication for you. Single sign-on is also supported by using Live Connect.

• Granular control for authorizing access to tables:
Access to read, insert, update, and delete operations on tables can be restricted to various levels. This enables you to restrict table access to only authenticated users. Data can be further restricted based on the user ID of an authenticated user by using server scripts.

• Supports scripts to inject business logic into data access operations:
The ability to execute your own business logic from the service-side is a key requirement of any backend solution. Mobile Services lets you register JavaScript code that is executed when specific insert, delete, update or read operations occur.

• Integration with other cloud services:
Server scripts enable to integrate your mobile service with other backend services, such as Twilio, SendMail, Twitter, Facebook, other Windows Azure services, and any other services accessible from HTTP requests.

• Supports the ability to scale a mobile service instance:
When your app gets popular, Mobile Services lets you easily scale your backend solution by adding instances or increasing the size of the database.

• Service monitoring and logging:
Mobile services provides a dashboard that gives you an at-a-glance assessment of your mobile services activity and it also lets you see logged errors and write to the logs from your own server scripts.

The following is a functional representation of the Mobile Services architecture:

The tutorials in this e-book show you how to perform most of the important tasks in Mobile Services.

Get started with data in Mobile Services

This section shows you how to use Windows Azure Mobile Services to leverage data in a Windows Store app. In this tutorial, you will download an app that stores data in memory, create a new mobile service, integrate the mobile service with the app, and then login to the Windows Azure Management Portal to view changes to data made when running the app.

Note: This tutorial is intended to help you better understand how Mobile Services enables you to use Windows Azure to store and retrieve data from a Windows Store app. As such, this topic walks you through many of the steps that are completed for you in the Mobile Services quickstart. If this is your first experience with Mobile Services, consider first completing the tutorial Get started with Mobile Services.

This tutorial walks you through these basic steps:

1. Download the Windows Store app project

2. Create the mobile service

3. Add a data table for storage

4. Update the app to use Mobile Services

5. Test the app against Mobile Services

This tutorial requires the Mobile Services SDK.

Download the GetStartedWithData project

This tutorial is built on the GetStartedWithData app, which is a Windows Store app. The UI for this app is identical to the app generated by the Mobile Services quickstart, except that added items are stored locally in memory.

1. Download the C# version of the GetStartedWithData sample app from the Developer Code Samples site.

2. In Visual Studio 2012 Express for Windows 8, open the downloaded project and examine the MainPage.xaml.cs file.

Notice that added TodoItem objects are stored in an in-memory ObservableCollection<TodoItem>.

3. Press the F5 key to rebuild the project and start the app.

4. In the app, type some text in Insert a TodoItem, then click Save.

Notice that the saved text is displayed in the second column under Query and update data.

Create a new mobile service in the Management Portal

Next, you will create a new mobile service to replace the in-memory list for data storage. Follow these steps to create a new mobile service.

1. Log into the Windows Azure Management Portal.

2. At the bottom of the navigation pane, click +NEW.

3. Expand Compute and Mobile Service, then click Create.

This displays the New Mobile Service dialog.

4. In the Create a mobile service page, type a subdomain name for the new mobile service in the URL textbox and wait for name verification. Once name verification completes, click the right arrow button to go to the next page.

This displays the Specify database settings page.

Note: As part of this tutorial, you create a new SQL Database instance and server. You can reuse this new database and administer it as you would any other SQL Database instance. If you already have a database in the same region as the new mobile service, you can instead choose Use existing Database and then select that database. The use of a database in a different region is not recommended because of additional bandwidth costs and higher latencies.

5. In Name, type the name of the new database, then type Login name, which is the administrator login name for the new SQL Database server, type and confirm the password, and click the check button to complete the process.

Note: When the password that you supply does not meet the minimum requirements or when there is a mismatch, a warning is displayed. We recommend that you make a note of the administrator login name and password that you specify; you will need this information to reuse the SQL Database instance or the server in the future.

You have now created a new mobile service that can be used by your mobile apps. Next, you will add a new table in which to store app data. This table will be used by the app in place of the in-memory collection.

Add a new table to the mobile service

To be able to store app data in the new mobile service, you must first create a new table in the associated SQL Database instance.

1. In the Management Portal, click Mobile Services, and then click the mobile service that you just created.

2. Click the Data tab, then click +Create.

This displays the Create new table dialog.

3. In Table name type TodoItem, then click the check button.

This creates a new storage table TodoItem with the default permissions set, which means that any user of the app can access and change data in the table.

Note: The same table name is used in Mobile Services quickstart. However, each table is created in a schema that is specific to a given mobile service. This is to prevent data collisions when multiple mobile services use the same database.

4. Click the new TodoItem table and verify that there are no data rows.

5. Click the Columns tab and verify that there is only a single id column, which is automatically created for you.

This is the minimum requirement for a table in Mobile Services.

Note: When dynamic schema is enabled on your mobile service, new columns are created automatically when JSON objects are sent to the mobile service by an insert or update operation.

You are now ready to use the new mobile service as data storage for the app.

Update the app to use the mobile service for data access

Now that your mobile service is ready, you can update the app to store items in Mobile Services instead of the local collection.

1. If you haven’t already installed the Mobile Services SDK, install it now.

2. In the Project menu in Visual Studio, click Add Reference, then expand Windows, click Extensions, check Windows Azure Mobile Services Managed Client, and click OK.

This adds a reference to the Mobile Services client to the project.

3. In both the MainPage.xaml.cs and App.xaml.cs project files, add the following using statement:

using Microsoft.WindowsAzure.MobileServices;

Click here to view code as image

4. In the Management Portal, click Mobile Services, and then click the mobile service you just created.

5. Click the Dashboard tab and make a note of the Site URL, then click Manage keys and make a note of the Application key.

You will need these values when accessing the mobile service from your app code.

6. In Visual Studio, open the file App.xaml.cs, uncomment the code that defines the MobileService variable, and supply the URL and application key from the mobile service in the MobileServiceClient constructor, in that order.

This creates a new instance of MobileServiceClient that is used to access your mobile service.

7. In the file MainPage.xaml.cs, comment the line that defines the existing items collection, and uncomment the following lines:

private MobileServiceCollectionView<TodoItem> items;
private IMobileServiceTable<TodoItem> todoTable =
App.MobileService.GetTable<TodoItem>();

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This code creates a mobile services-aware binding collection (items) and a proxy class for the SQL Database table TodoItem (todoTable).

8. In the InsertTodoItem method, remove the line of code that sets the TodoItem.Id property, add the async modifier to the method, and uncomment the following line of code:

await todoTable.InsertAsync(todoItem);

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This code inserts a new item into the table.

9. In the RefreshTodoItems method, uncomment the following line of code:

items = todoTable.ToCollectionView();

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This sets the binding to the collection of items in the todoTable, which contains all TodoItem objects returned from the mobile service.

10. In the UpdateCheckedTodoItem method, add the async modifier to the method, and uncomment the following line of code:

await todoTable.UpdateAsync(item);

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This sends an item update to the mobile service.

Now that the app has been updated to use Mobile Services for backend storage, it’s time to test the app against Mobile Services.

Test the app against your new mobile service

1. In Visual Studio, press the F5 key to run the app.

2. As before, type text in Insert a TodoItem, and then click Save.

This sends a new item as an insert to the mobile service.

3. In the Management Portal, click Mobile Services, and then click your mobile service.

4. Click the Data tab, then click Browse.

Notice that the TodoItem table now contains data, with id values generated by Mobile Services, and that columns have been automatically added to the table to match the TodoItem class in the app.

5. In the app, check one of the items in the list, then go back to the Browse tab in the portal and click Refresh.

Notice that the complete value has changed from false to true.

6. In the MainPage.xaml.cs project file, replace the existing RefreshTodoItems method with the following code that filters out completed items:

private void RefreshTodoItems()
{
// This query filters out completed TodoItems.
items = todoTable
.Where(todoItem => todoItem.Complete == false)
.ToCollectionView();

ListItems.ItemsSource = items;

}

Click here to view code as image

7. In the app, check another one of the items in the list and then click the Refresh button.

Notice that the checked item now disappears from the list. Each refresh results in a round-trip to the mobile service, which now returns filtered data.

This concludes the Get started with data section. Next, you will learn more about using server scripts in Mobile Services to validate and change data sent from your app and also how to use paging in queries to control the amount of data handled in a single request.

Validate and modify data in Mobile Services by using server scripts

This section shows you how to leverage server scripts in Windows Azure Mobile Services. Server scripts are registered in a mobile service and can be used to perform a wide range of operations on data being inserted and updated, including validation and data modification. In this tutorial, you will define and register server scripts that validate and modify data. Because the behavior of server side scripts often affects the client, you will also update your Windows Store app to take advantage of these new behaviors.

This tutorial walks you through these basic steps:

1. Add string length validation

2. Update the client to support validation

3. Add a timestamp on insert

4. Update the client to display the timestamp

This tutorial builds on the steps and the sample app from the previous section Get started with data. Before you begin this tutorial, you must first complete Get started with data.

Add validation

It is always a good practice to validate the length of data that is submitted by users. First, you register a script that validates the length of string data sent to the mobile service and rejects strings that are too long, in this case longer than 10 characters.

1. Log into the Windows Azure Management Portal, click Mobile Services, and then click your app.

2. Click the Data tab, then click the TodoItem table.

3. Click Script, then select the Insert operation.

4. Replace the existing script with the following function, and then click Save.

function insert(item, user, request) {
if (item.text.length > 10) {
request.respond(statusCodes.BAD_REQUEST, 'Text
length must be under 10');
} else {
request.execute();
}
}

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This script checks the length of the TodoItem.text property and sends an error response when the length exceeds 10 characters. Otherwise, the execute method is called to complete the insert.

Note: You can remove a registered script on the Script tab by clicking Clear and then Save.

Update the client

Now that the mobile service is validating data and sending error responses, you need to update your app to be able to handle error responses from validation.

1. In Visual Studio 2012 Express for Windows 8, open the project that you modified when you completed the tutorial Get started with data.

2. Press the F5 key to run the app, then type text longer than 10 characters in Insert a TodoItem and click Save.

Notice that the app raises an unhandled MobileServiceInvalidOperationException as a result of the 400 response (Bad Request) returned by the mobile service.

3. Open the file MainPage.xaml.cs, then add the following using statement:

using Windows.UI.Popups;

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4. Replace the existing InsertTodoItem method with the following:

private async void InsertTodoItem(TodoItem todoItem)
{
// This code inserts a new TodoItem into the database.
When the operation completes
// and Mobile Services has assigned an Id, the item is
added to the CollectionView
try
{
await todoTable.InsertAsync(todoItem);
items.Add(todoItem);
}
catch (MobileServiceInvalidOperationException e)
{
MessageDialog errormsg = new MessageDialog(e.
Response.Content, string.Format("{0} (HTTP {1})",
e.Response.StatusDescription,
e.Response.StatusCode));
var ignoreAsyncOpResult = errormsg.ShowAsync();
}
}

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This version of the method includes error handling for the MobileServiceInvalidOperationException that displays the error response in a popup.

Add a timestamp

The previous tasks validated an insert and either accepted or rejected it. Now, you will update inserted data by using a server script that adds a timestamp property to the object before it gets inserted.

1. In the Scripts tab in the Management Portal, replace the current Insert script with the following function, and then click Save.

function insert(item, user, request) {
if (item.text.length  > 10) {
request.respond(statusCodes.BAD_REQUEST, 'Text
length must be under 10');
} else {
item.createdAt = new Date();
request.execute();
}
}

Click here to view code as image

This function augments the previous insert script by adding a new createdAt timestamp property to the object before it gets inserted by the call to request.execute.

Note: Dynamic schema must be enabled the first time that this insert script runs. With dynamic schema enabled, Mobile Services automatically adds the createdAt column to the TodoItem table on the first execution. Dynamic schema is enabled by default for a new mobile service, and it should be disabled before the app is published to the Windows Store.

2. In Visual Studio, press the F5 key to run the app, then type text (shorter than 10 characters) in Insert a TodoItem and click Save.

Notice that the new timestamp does not appear in the app UI.

3. Back in the Management Portal, click the Browse tab in the todoitem table.

Notice that there is now a createdAt column, and the new inserted item has a timestamp value.

Next, you need to update the Windows Store app to display this new column.

Update the client again

The Mobile Service client will ignore any data in a response that it cannot serialize into properties on the defined type. The final step is to update the client to display this new data.

1. In Visual Studio, open the file MainPage.xaml.cs, then replace the existing TodoItem class with the following definition:

public class TodoItem
{
public int Id { get; set; }

[DataMember(Name="text")]
public string Text { get; set; }

[DataMember(Name="complete")]
public bool Complete { get; set; }

[DataMember(Name="createdAt")]
public DateTime? CreatedAt { get; set; }

}

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This new class definition includes the new timestamp property, as a nullable DateTime type.

Note: The DataMemberAttribute tells the client to map the new CreatedAt property in the app to the createdAt column defined in the TodoItem table, which has a different casing. By using this attribute, your app can have property names on objects that differ from column names in the SQL Database. Without this attribute, an error would occur because of the casing differences.

2. Add the following XAML element just below the CheckBoxComplete element in the MainPage.xaml file:

<TextBlock Name="WhenCreated" Text="{Binding CreatedAt}"
VerticalAlignment="Center"/>

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This displays the new CreatedAt property in a text box.

3. Press the F5 key to run the app.

Notice that the timestamp is only displayed for items inserted after you updated the insert script.

4. Replace the existing RefreshTodoItems method with the following code:

private void RefreshTodoItems()
{
// This query filters out completed TodoItems and
// items without a timestamp.
items = todoTable
.Where(todoItem => todoItem.Complete == false
&& todoItem.CreatedAt != null)
.ToCollectionView();

ListItems.ItemsSource = items;

}

Click here to view code as image

This method updates the query to also filter out items that do not have a timestamp value.

5. Press the F5 key to run the app.

Notice that all items created without timestamp value disappear from the UI.

You have completed this working with data tutorial.

Refine Mobile Services queries with paging

This topic shows you how to use paging to manage the amount of data returned to your Windows Store app from Windows Azure Mobile Services. In this tutorial, you will use the Take and Skip query methods on the client to request specific ″pages″ of data.

Note: To prevent data overflow in mobile device clients, Mobile Services implements an automatic page limit, which defaults to a maximum of 50 items in a response. By specifying the page size, you can explicitly request up to 1,000 items in the response.

This tutorial builds on the steps and the sample app from the previous tutorial Get started with data. Before you begin this tutorial, you must complete at least the first tutorial in the working with data series—Get started with data

1. In Visual Studio 2012 Express for Windows 8, open the project that you modified when you completed the tutorial Get started with data.

2. Press the F5 key to run the app, then type text in Insert a TodoItem and click Save.

3. Repeat the previous step at least three times, so that you have more than three items stored in the TodoItem table.

4. In the MainPage.xaml.cs file, replace the RefreshTodoItems method with the following code:

private void RefreshTodoItems()
{
// Define a filtered query that returns the top 3 items.
MobileServiceTableQuery<TodoItem> query = todoTable
.Where(todoItem => todoItem.Complete == false)
.Take(3);
items = query.ToCollectionView();
ListItems.ItemsSource = items;
}

Click here to view code as image

This query, when executed during data binding, returns the top three items that are not marked as completed.

5. Press the F5 key to run the app.

Notice that only the first three results from the TodoItem table are displayed.

6. (Optional) View the URI of the request sent to the mobile service by using message inspection software, such as browser developer tools or Fiddler.

Notice that the Take(3) method was translated into the query option $top=3 in the query URI.

7. Update the RefreshTodoItems method once more with the following code:

private void RefreshTodoItems()
{
// Define a filtered query that skips the first 3 items and
// then returns the next 3 items.
MobileServiceTableQuery<TodoItem> query = todoTable
.Where(todoItem => todoItem.Complete == false)
.Skip(3)
.Take(3);
items = query.ToCollectionView();
ListItems.ItemsSource = items;
}

Click here to view code as image

This query skips the first three results and returns the next three after that. This is effectively the second ″page″ of data, where the page size is three items.

Note: This tutorial uses a simplified scenario by passing hard-coded paging values to the Take and Skip methods. In a real-world app, you can use queries similar to the above with a pager control or comparable UI to let users navigate to previous and next pages. You can also call the IncludeTotalCount method to get the total count of items available on the server, along with the paged data.

8. (Optional) Again view the URI of the request sent to the mobile service.

Notice that the Skip(3) method was translated into the query option $skip=3 in the query URI.

Get started with authentication in Mobile Services

This topic shows you how to authenticate users in Windows Azure Mobile Services from your app. In this tutorial, you add authentication to the quickstart project using an identity provider that is supported by Mobile Services. After being successfully authenticated and authorized by Mobile Services, the user ID value is displayed.

This tutorial walks you through these basic steps to enable authentication in your app:

1. Register your app for authentication and configure Mobile Services

2. Restrict table permissions to authenticated users

3. Add authentication to the app

This tutorial is based on the Mobile Services quickstart. You must also first complete the tutorial Get started with Mobile Services.

Note: This tutorial demonstrates the basic method provided by Mobile Services to authenticate users by using a variety of identity providers. This method is easy to configure and supports multiple providers. However, this method also requires users to log-in every time your app starts. To instead use Live Connect to provide a single sign-on experience in your Windows Store app, see the later section Single sign-on for Windows Store apps by using Live Connect.

Register your app for authentication and configure Mobile Services

To be able to authenticate users, you must register your app with an identity provider. You must then register the provider-generated client secret with Mobile Services.

Note: This section shows how to register your app to use Facebook as the identity provider. See the Appendix for the steps required to register your app with other identity providers, including Twitter, Microsoft Account, and Google.

1. Log on to the Windows Azure Management Portal, click Mobile Services, and then click your mobile service.

2. Click the Dashboard tab and make a note of the Site URL value.

You may need to provide this value to the identity provider when you register your app.

Note: To complete the procedure in this topic, you must have a Facebook account that has a verified email address and a mobile phone number. To create a new Facebook account, go to facebook.com.

3. Navigate to the Facebook Developers web site and sign-in with your Facebook account credentials.

4. (Optional) If you have not already registered, click Register Now button, accept the policy, provide any and then click Done.

5. Click Apps, then click Create New App.

6. Choose a unique name for your app, select OK.

This registers the app with Facebook

7. Under Select how your app integrates with Facebook, expand Website with Facebook Login, type the URL of your mobile service in Site URL, and then click Save Changes.

8. Make a note of the values of App ID and App Secret.

Security Note: The app secret is an important security credential. Do not share this secret with anyone or distribute it with your app.

You are now ready to use a Facebook login for authentication in your app by providing the App ID and App Secret values to Mobile Services.

9. Back in the Management Portal, click the Identity tab, enter the app identifier and shared secret values obtained from your identity provider (in this case Facebook), and click Save.

Both your mobile service and your app are now configured to work with your chosen authentication provider.

Restrict permissions to authenticated users

1. In the Management Portal, click the Data tab, and then click the TodoItem table.

2. Click the Permissions tab, set all permissions to Only authenticated users, and then click Save. This will ensure that all operations against the TodoItem table require an authenticated user. This also simplifies the scripts in the next tutorial because they will not have to allow for the possibility of anonymous users.

3. In Visual Studio 2012 Express for Windows 8, open the project that you created when you completed the tutorial Get started with data in Mobile Services.

4. Press the F5 key to run this quickstart-based app; verify that an unhandled exception with a status code of 401 (Unauthorized) is raised after the app starts.

This happens because the app attempts to access Mobile Services as an unauthenticated user, but the TodoItem table now requires authentication.

Next, you will update the app to authenticate users before requesting resources from the mobile service.

Add authentication to the app

1. Open the project file mainpage.xaml.cs and add the following using statement:

using Windows.UI.Popups;

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2. Add the following code snippet to the MainPage class:

private MobileServiceUser user;
private async System.Threading.Tasks.Task Authenticate()
{
while (user == null)
{
string message;
try
{
user = await App.MobileService
.LoginAsync(MobileServiceAuthenticationProvider.Facebook);
message =
string.Format("You are now logged in - {0}", user.UserId);
}
catch (InvalidOperationException)
{
message = "You must log in. Login Required";
}

var dialog = new MessageDialog(message);
dialog.Commands.Add(new UICommand("OK"));
await dialog.ShowAsync();
}

}

Click here to view code as image

This creates a member variable for storing the current user and a method to handle the authentication process. The user is authenticated by using a Facebook login.

Note: If you are using an identity provider other than Facebook, change the value of MobileServiceAuthenticationProvider above to the value for your provider.

3. Replace the existing OnNavigatedTo method override with the following method that calls the new Authenticate method:

protected override async void OnNavigatedTo(NavigationEventArgs e)
{
await Authenticate();
RefreshTodoItems();
}

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4. Press the F5 key to run the app and sign into the app with your chosen identity provider.

When you are successfully logged-in, the app should run without errors, and you should be able to query Mobile Services and make updates to data.

In the next tutorial, you will take the user ID value provided by Mobile Services based on an authenticated user and use it to filter the data returned by Mobile Services.

Use scripts to authorize users in Mobile Services

This section shows you how to use server scripts to authorize authenticated users for accessing data in Windows Azure Mobile Services from a Windows Store app. In this tutorial you register scripts with Mobile Services to filter queries based on the userId of an authenticated user, ensuring that each user can see only their own data.

This tutorial is based on the Mobile Services quickstart and builds on the previous tutorial Get started with authentication. Before you start this tutorial, you must first complete Get started with authentication.

Register scripts

Because the quickstart app reads and inserts data, you need to register scripts for these operations against the TodoItem table.

1. Log on to the Windows Azure Management Portal, click Mobile Services, and then click your app.

2. Click the Data tab, then click the TodoItem table.

3. Click Script, then select the Insert operation.

4. Replace the existing script with the following function, and then click Save.

function insert(item, user, request) {
item.userId = user.userId;
request.execute();
}

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This script adds a userId value to the item, which is the user ID of the authenticated user, before it is inserted into the TodoItem table.

Note: Dynamic schema must be enabled the first time that this insert script runs. With dynamic schema enabled, Mobile Services automatically adds the userId column to the TodoItem table on the first execution. Dynamic schema is enabled by default for a new mobile service, and it should be disabled before the app is published to the Windows Store.

5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 to replace the existing Read operation with the following function:

function read(query, user, request) {
query.where({ userId: user.userId });
request.execute();
}

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This script filters the returned TodoItem objects so that each user only receives the items that they inserted.

Test the app

1. In Visual Studio 2012 Express for Windows 8, open the project that you modified when you completed the tutorial Get started with authentication.

2. Press the F5 key to run the app, then log-on with your chosen identity provider.

Notice that this time, although there are items already in the TodoItem table from preview tutorials, no items are returned. This happens because previous items were inserted without the userId column and now have null values.

3. In the app, enter text in Insert a TodoItem and then click Save.

This inserts both the text and the userId in the TodoItem table in the mobile service. Because the new item has the correct userId value, it is returned by the mobile service and displayed in the second column.

4. Back in the todoitem table in the Management Portal, click Browse and verify that each newly added item how has an associated userId value.

5. (Optional) If you have additional login accounts, you can verify that users can only see their own data by closing the app (Alt+F4) and then running it again. When the login credentials dialog is displayed, enter a different login, and then verify that the items entered under the previous account are not displayed.

This concludes the tutorials that demonstrate the basics of working with authentication. The next section shows how to use Live Connect to provide a single sign-on experience in your Windows Store app.

Single sign-on for Windows Store apps by using Live Connect

This section shows you how to use Live Connect single sign-on to authenticate users in Windows Azure Mobile Services from a Windows Store app. In this tutorial, you add authentication to the quickstart project using Live Connect. When successfully authenticated by Live Connect, a logged-in user is welcomed by name and the user ID value is displayed.

Note

This tutorial demonstrates the benefits of using the single sign-on experience provided by Live Connect for Windows Store apps. This enables you to more easily authenticate an already logged-on user with you mobile service. For a more generalized authentication experience that supports multiple authentication providers, see the topic Get started with authentication.

This tutorial walks you through these basic steps to enable Live Connect authentication:

1. Register your app for authentication and configure Mobile Services

2. Restrict table permissions to authenticated users

3. Add authentication to the app

This tutorial requires the following:

• Live SDK for Windows

• Microsoft Visual Studio 2012 Express for Windows 8 RC, or a later version

This tutorial is based on the Mobile Services quickstart. You must also first complete the tutorial Get started with data in Mobile Services.

Register your app for the Windows Store

To be able to authenticate users, you must submit your app to the Windows Store. You must then register the client secret to integrate Live Connect with Mobile Services.

1. If you have not already registered your app, navigate to the Submit an app page at the Dev Center for Windows Store apps, log on with your Microsoft account, and then click App name.

2. Type a name for your app in App name, click Reserve app name, and then click Save.

This creates a new Windows Store registration for your app.

3. In Visual Studio 2012 Express for Windows 8, open the project that you created when you completed the tutorial Get started with data in Mobile Services.

4. In solution explorer, right-click the project, click Store, and then click Associate App with the Store....

This displays the Associate Your App with the Windows Store Wizard.

5. In the wizard, click Sign in and then login with your Microsoft account.

6. Select the app that you registered in step 2, click Next, and then click Associate.

This adds the required Windows Store registration information to the application manifest.

7. Log on to the Windows Azure Management Portal, click Mobile Services, and then click your mobile service.

8. Click the Dashboard tab and make a note of the Site URL value.

You will use this value to define the redirect domain.

9. Navigate to the My Applications page in the Live Connect Developer Center and click on your app in the My applications list.

10. Click Edit settings, then API Settings and make a note of the value of Client secret.

Security Note: The client secret is an important security credential. Do not share the client secret with anyone or distribute it with your app.

11. In Redirect domain, enter the URL of your mobile service from Step 8, and then click Save.

12. Back in the Management Portal, click the Identity tab, enter the Client secret obtained from Windows Store, and click Save.

Both your mobile service and your app are now configured to work with Live Connect.

Restrict permissions to authenticated users

1. In the Management Portal, click the Data tab, and then click the TodoItem table.

2. Click the Permissions tab, set all permissions to Only authenticated users, and then click Save. This will ensure that all operations against the TodoItem table require an authenticated user. This also simplifies the scripts in the next tutorial because they will not have to allow for the possibility of anonymous users.

3. In Visual Studio 2012 Express for Windows 8, open the project that you created when you completed the tutorial Get started with data in Mobile Services.

4. Press the F5 key to run this quickstart-based app; verify that an exception with a status code of 401 (Unauthorized) is raised.

This happens because the app is accessing Mobile Services as an unauthenticated user, but the TodoItem table now requires authentication.

Next, you will update the app to authenticate users with Live Connect before requesting resources from the mobile service.

Add authentication to the app

1. Download and install the Live SDK for Windows.

2. In the Project menu in Visual Studio, click Add Reference, then expand Windows, click Extensions, check Live SDK, and then click OK.

This adds a reference to the Live SDK to the project.

3. Open the project file mainpage.xaml.cs and add the following using statements:

using Microsoft.Live;
using Windows.UI.Popups;

Click here to view code as image

4. Add the following code snippet to the MainPage class:

private LiveConnectSession session;
private async System.Threading.Tasks.Task Authenticate()
{
LiveAuthClient liveIdClient = new LiveAuthClient("<<
INSERT REDIRECT DOMAIN HERE >>");

while (session == null)
{
// Force a logout to make it easier to test with
multiple Microsoft Accounts
if (liveIdClient.CanLogout)
liveIdClient.Logout();

LiveLoginResult result = await liveIdClient.LoginAsync
(new[] {"wl.basic" });
if (result.Status == LiveConnectSessionStatus.Connected)
{
session = result.Session;
LiveConnectClient client = new LiveConnectClient(result.Session);
LiveOperationResult meResult = await client.GetAsync("me");
MobileServiceUser loginResult = await
App.MobileService.LoginAsync(result.Session.AuthenticationToken);

string title = string.Format("Welcome {0}!",
meResult.Result["first_name"]);
var message = string.Format("You are now logged in - {0}",
loginResult.UserId);
var dialog = new MessageDialog(message, title);
dialog.Commands.Add(new UICommand("OK"));
await dialog.ShowAsync();
}
else
{
session = null;
var dialog = new MessageDialog("You must log in.", "Login
Required");
dialog.Commands.Add(new UICommand("OK"));
await dialog.ShowAsync();
}
}

}

Click here to view code as image

This creates a member variable for storing the current Live Connect session and a method to handle the authentication process.

Note: This code forces a logout, when possible, to make sure that the user is prompted for credentials each time the application runs. This makes it easier to test the application with different Microsoft Accounts to ensure that the authentication is working correctly. This mechanism will only work if the logged in user does not have a connected Microsoft account.

5. Update string << INSERT REDIRECT DOMAIN HERE >> from the previous step with the redirect domain that was specified when setting up the app in Live Connect, in the format https://service-name.azure-mobile.net/.

6. Replace the existing OnNavigatedTo event handler with the handler that calls the new Authenticate method:

protected override async void OnNavigatedTo(NavigationEventArgs e)
{
await Authenticate();
RefreshTodoItems();
}

Click here to view code as image

7. Press the F5 key to run the app and sign into Live Connect with your Microsoft Account.

When you are successfully logged-in, the app should run without errors, and you should be able to query Mobile Services and make updates to data.

Get started with push notifications in Mobile Services

This section shows you how to use Windows Azure Mobile Services to send push notifications to a Windows Store app. In this tutorial you add push notifications using the Windows Push Notification service (WNS) to the quickstart project. When complete, your mobile service will send a push notification each time a record is inserted.

Note: This tutorial demonstrates a simplified way of sending push notifications by attaching a push notification channel to the inserted record. Be sure to follow along with the next tutorial to get a better idea of how to incorporate push notifications into your real-world apps.

This tutorial walks you through these basic steps to enable push notifications:

1. Register your app for push notifications and configure Mobile Services

2. Add push notifications to the app

3. Update scripts to send push notifications

4. Insert data to receive notifications

This tutorial requires the following:

• Microsoft Visual Studio 2012 Express for Windows 8 RC, or a later version

This tutorial is based on the Mobile Services quickstart. Before you start this tutorial, you must first complete Get started with Mobile Services.

Register your app for the Windows Store

To be able to send push notifications to Windows Store apps from Mobile Services, you must submit your app to the Windows Store. You must then configure your mobile service to integrate with WNS.

1. If you have not already registered your app, navigate to the Submit an app page at the Dev Center for Windows Store apps, log on with your Microsoft account, and then click App name.

2. Type a name for your app in App name, click Reserve app name, and then click Save.

This creates a new Windows Store registration for your app.

3. In Visual Studio 2012 Express for Windows 8, open the project that you created when you completed the tutorial Get started with data in Mobile Services.

4. In solution explorer, right-click the project, click Store, and then click Associate App with the Store....

This displays the Associate Your App with the Windows Store Wizard.

5. In the wizard, click Sign in and then login with your Microsoft account.

6. Select the app that you registered in step 2, click Next, and then click Associate.

This adds the required Windows Store registration information to the application manifest.

7. Navigate to the My Applications page in the Live Connect Developer Center and click on your app in the My applications list.

8. Under API Settings, make a note of the values of Client secret and Package security identifier (SID).

Security Note: The client secret and package SID are important security credentials. Do not share these secrets with anyone or distribute them with your app.

9. Log on to the Windows Azure Management Portal, click Mobile Services, and then click your app.

10. Click the Push tab, enter the Client secret and Package SID values obtained from WNS in Step 4, and then click Save.

Both your mobile service and your app are now configured to work with WNS.

Add push notifications to your app

1. Open the file App.xaml.cs and add the following using statement:

using Windows.Networking.PushNotifications;

Click here to view code as image

2. Add the following to App.xaml.cs:

public static PushNotificationChannel CurrentChannel { get; private set; }

private async void AcquirePushChannel()
{
CurrentChannel =
await
PushNotificationChannelManager.CreatePushNotificationChannelForApplication
Async();
}

Click here to view code as image

This code acquires and stores a push notification channel.

3. At the top of the OnLaunched event handler in App.xaml.cs, add the following call to the new AcquirePushChannel method:

AcquirePushChannel();

Click here to view code as image

This guarantees that the CurrentChannel property is initialized each time the application is launched.

4. Open the project file MainPage.xaml.cs and add the following new attributed property to the TodoItem class:

[DataMember(Name = "channel")]
public string Channel { get; set; }

Click here to view code as image

Note: When dynamic schema is enabled on your mobile service, a new ’channel’ column is automatically added to the TodoItem table when a new item that contains this property is inserted.

5. Replace the ButtonSave_Click event handler method with the following code:

private void ButtonSave_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
var todoItem = new TodoItem { Text = TextInput.Text, Channel =
App.CurrentChannel.Uri };
InsertTodoItem(todoItem);
}

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This sets the client’s current channel value on the item before it is sent to the mobile service.

6. (Optional) If you are not using the Management Portal-generated quickstart project, open the Package.appxmanifest file and make sure that in the Application UI tab, Toast capable is set to Yes.

This makes sure that your app can raise toast notifications. These notifications are already enabled in the downloaded quickstart project.

Update the registered insert script in the Management Portal

1. In the Management Portal, click the Data tab and then click the TodoItem table.

2. In todoitem, click the Script tab and select Insert.

This displays the function that is invoked when an insert occurs in the TodoItem table.

3. Replace the insert function with the following code, and then click Save:

function insert(item, user, request) {
request.execute({
success: function() {
// Write to the response and then send the
notification in the background
request.respond();
push.wns.sendToastText04(item.channel, {
text1: item.text
}, {
success: function(pushResponse) {
console.log("Sent push:", pushResponse);
}
});
}
});
}

Click here to view code as image

This registers a new insert script, which uses the wns object to send a push notification (the inserted text) to the channel provided in the insert request.

Test push notifications in your app

1. In Visual Studio, press the F5 key to run the app.

2. In the app, type text in Insert a TodoItem, and then click Save.

Note that after the insert completes, the app receives a push notification from WNS.

Next steps

In this simple example a user receives a push notification with the data that was just inserted. The channel used by WNS is supplied to the mobile service by the client in the request. In the next tutorial, you will create a separate Channel table in which to store channel URIs and send a push notification out to all stored channels when an insert occurs.

Push notifications to users by using Mobile Services

This section extends the previous push notification tutorial by adding a new table to store Windows Push Notification Service (WNS) channel URIs. These channels can then be used to send push notifications to users of the Windows Store app.

This tutorial walks you through these steps to update push notifications in your app:

1. Create the Channel table

2. Update the app

3. Update server scripts

4. Verify the push notification behavior

This tutorial is based on the Mobile Services quickstart and builds on the previous tutorial Get started with push notifications. Before you start this tutorial, you must first complete Get started with push notifications.

Create a new table

1. Log into the Windows Azure Management Portal, click Mobile Services, and then click your app.

2. Click the Data tab, and then click Create.

This displays the Create new table dialog.

3. Keeping the default Anybody with the application key setting for all permissions, type Channel in Table name, and then click the check button.

This creates the Channel table, which stores the channel URIs used to send push notifications separate from item data.

Next, you will modify the push notifications app to store data in this new table instead of in the TodoItem table.

Update your app

1. In Visual Studio 2012 Express for Windows 8, open the project from the tutorial Get started with push notifications, open up file MainPage.xaml.cs, and remove the Channel property from the TodoItem class. It should now look like this:

public class TodoItem
{
public int Id { get; set; }

[DataMember(Name = "text")]
public string Text { get; set; }

[DataMember(Name = "complete")]
public bool Complete { get; set; }

}

Click here to view code as image

2. Replace the ButtonSave_Click event handler method with the original version of this method, as follows:

private void ButtonSave_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
var todoItem = new TodoItem { Text = TextInput.Text };
InsertTodoItem(todoItem);
}

Click here to view code as image

3. Add the following code that creates a new Channel class:

public class Channel
{
public int Id { get; set; }

[DataMember(Name = "uri")]
public string Uri { get; set; }

}

Click here to view code as image

4. Open the file App.xaml.cs and replace AcquirePushChannel method with the following code:

private async void AcquirePushChannel() { CurrentChannel = await
PushNotificationChannelManager.CreatePushNotificationChannelForApplicationAsync();

IMobileServiceTable<Channel> channelTable =
App.MobileService.GetTable<Channel>();
var channel = new Channel { Uri = CurrentChannel.Uri };
await channelTable.InsertAsync(channel);

}

Click here to view code as image

This code inserts the current channel into the Channel table.

Update server scripts

1. In the Management Portal, click the Data tab and then click the Channel table.

2. In channel, click the Script tab and select Insert.

This displays the function that is invoked when an insert occurs in the Channel table.

3. Replace the insert function with the following code, and then click Save:

function insert(item, user, request) {
var channelTable = tables.getTable('Channel');
channelTable
.where({ uri: item.uri })
.read({ success: insertChannelIfNotFound });

function insertChannelIfNotFound(existingChannels) {
if (existingChannels.length &gt; 0) {
request.respond(200, existingChannels[0]);
} else {
request.execute();
}
}

}

Click here to view code as image

This script checks the Channel table for an existing channel with the same URI. The insert only proceeds if no matching channel was found. This prevents duplicate channel records.

4. Click TodoItem, click Script and select Insert.

5. Replace the insert function with the following code, and then click Save:

function insert(item, user, request) {
request.execute({
success: function() {
request.respond();
sendNotifications();
}
});

function sendNotifications() {
var channelTable = tables.getTable('Channel');
channelTable.read({
success: function(channels) {
channels.forEach(function(channel) {
push.wns.sendToastText04(channel.uri, {

text1: item.text
}, {
success: function(pushResponse) {
console.log("Sent push:", pushResponse);
}
});
});
}
});
}

}

Click here to view code as image

This insert script sends a push notification (with the text of the inserted item) to all channels stored in the Channel table.

Test the app

1. In Visual Studio, press the F5 key to run the app.

2. In the app, type text in Insert a TodoItem, and then click Save.

Note that after the insert completes, the app still receives a push notification from WNS.

3. (Optional) Run the app on two machines at the same time, and repeat the previous step.

The notification is sent to all running app instances.

Learn more about Mobile Services

This concludes the tutorials that demonstrate the basics of working with Mobile Services. To learn more about Mobile Services, browse to the following web sites:

Mobile Services developer center (http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/develop/mobile/) Includes links to all relevant information about Mobile Services.

Mobile Services forums (http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/azuremobile/threads) Find the latest questions and answers about Mobile Services in the Windows Azure platform forums.

Mobile Services client SDK for Windows 8 (http://aka.ms/zumosdk) Download location for the Mobile Services client SDK for Windows Store apps.

Mobile Services technical references (http://aka.ms/zumodocs) Reference documentation for Mobile Services client libraries and server scripts.

Appendix A: Register your apps for Twitter login with Mobile Services

This appendix shows you how to register your apps to be able to use Twitter to authenticate with Windows Azure Mobile Services.

Note: To complete the procedure in this topic, you must have a Twitter account that has a verified email address. To create a new Twitter account, go to twitter.com.

1. Navigate to the Twitter Developers web site, sign-in with your Twitter account credentials, and then click Create an app.

2. Type the Name, Description, and Website values for your app, and type the URL of the mobile service in Callback URL.

Note: The Website value is required but is not used.

3. At the bottom the page, read and accept the terms, type the correct CAPTCHA words, and then click Create your Twitter application.

This registers the app displays the application details.

4. Make a note of the values of Consumer key and Consumer secret.

Security Note: The consumer secret is an important security credential. Do not share this secret with anyone or distribute it with your app.

You are now ready to use a Twitter login for authentication in your app by providing the consumer key and consumer secret values to Mobile Services.

Appendix B: Register your Windows Store apps to use a Microsoft Account login

This topic shows you how to register your apps to be able to use Live Connect as an authentication provider for Windows Azure Mobile Services.

Note: When you intend to also provide single sign-on or push notifications from a Windows Store app, consider also registering your app with the Windows Store. For more information, see Register your Windows Store apps for Windows Live Connect authentication.

1. Navigate to the My Applications page in the Live Connect Developer Center, and log on with your Microsoft account, if required.

2. Click Create application, then type an Application name and click I accept.

This registers the application with Live Connect.

3. Click Application settings page, then API Settings and make a note of the values of the Client ID and Client secret.

Security Note: The client secret is an important security credential. Do not share the client secret with anyone or distribute it with your app.

4. In Redirect domain, enter the URL of your mobile service, and then click Save.

You are now ready to use a Microsoft Account for authentication in your app by providing the client ID and client secret values to Mobile Services.

Appendix C: Register your apps for Google login with Mobile Services

This topic shows you how to register your apps to be able to use Google to authenticate with Windows Azure Mobile Services.

Note: To complete the procedure in this topic, you must have a Google account that has a verified email address. To create a new Google account, go to accounts.google.com.

1. Navigate to the Google apis web site, sign-in with your Google account credentials, and then click Create project....

2. Click API Access and then click Create an OAuth 2.0 client ID....

3. Under Branding Information, type your Product name, then click Next.

4. Under Client ID Settings, select Web application, type your mobile service URL in Your site or hostname, click more options, replace the generated URL in Authorized Redirect URIs with the URL of your mobile service appended with the path /login/google, and then click Create client ID.

5. Under Client ID for web applications, make a note of the values of Client ID and Client secret.

Security Note: The client secret is an important security credential. Do not share this secret with anyone or distribute it with your app.

You are now ready to use a Google login for authentication in your app by providing the client ID and client secret values to Mobile Services.

Appendix: Code and Table Images

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