Scott Densmore's presentation at Seattle Interactive Conference 2011

1. BUILDING CLOUD APPS
WITH IOS
Scott Densmore – Senior SDE patterns &
practices

2. Agenda
 This talk is focused on building iOS
applications with Windows Azure
 We’ll talk about storage, identity,
communications, platform services, and tools
 I’ll show a few demos for the concepts

3. Expectations
 An understanding of how storage, identity, and
communications work with iOS when using
Windows Azure

4. Why Device + Cloud?
 The cloud levels the playing
field
 The cloud provides a larger
pool of resources from
which to pull
 The cloud provides a way
to reach across device
platforms

5. Why Windows Azure?
 Platform as a Service (PaaS): you build it,
Windows Azure runs it
 Automatic O/S patching
 Elasticity and scale
 Utility billing
 Higher-level services
 ACS, Traffic Manager, Caching, CDN

6. What will we see today?
 Storage
 Identity
 Communications
 Platform Services

7. Storage

8. Storage: What are our options?
 Windows Azure Tables
 Non-relational structured storage
 Massive scale-out
 OData
 Windows Azure Blobs
 Big files
 REST
 Windows Azure Queues
 Persistent Async Messaging
 Enqueue, Dequeue

9. Storage: What are our options?
 SQL Azure
 Relationaldatabase
 Highly available
 Managed for you as a service

10. Storage: Secrets
 Windows Azure
 Storage name
 Storage key
 SQL Azure
 Username
 Password
Once your share your secret, it’s no longer secret

11. Storage: How to keep secrets
secret?
Proxy the requests (2)
1. Client sends data
to web role Web
Role
2. Web role sends
data to storage
(1)

12. Storage: Shared Access
Signatures
1. Client makes request of
Web Role for SAS (4)
Web
2. Web Role sends client Role
SAS (2)
(3)
3. Client makes request
(1)
4. Client gets response

13. Storage: SQL Azure
1. Client sends request to
proxy (2)
Web
2. Proxy makes SQL call Role (3)
against SQL Azure
(4)
3. SQL Azure returns a
response
4. Proxy returns response to (1)
device

14. Storage: Offloading work with
queues
1. Client writes a message
to a queue Worker
(2 Role
2. Worker role is polling )
the queue (3)
3. Worker role finds the
message (1)

15. Storage: What are the options?
Choices Direct Proxy Other
Blob (private) x x x (SAS)
Blob (public) x x (write) x (read-
only)
Table x x
Queue x x
Database x

16. demo
iOS and Storage

17. Identity

18. Identity: What are the options?
 Create your own
 Username + password, token, etc.
 ASP.NET Membership Providers
 Use a single existing identity system
 Live Id, Facebook, etc.
 Develop directly against Identity Provider protocol
 Outsource identity management
 Access Control Service

19. Identity: Authenticating Users with
ACS
Web
Role
Access Control
Service

20. demo
iOS and Identity

21. Communications

22. Communications
 Two forms of communication
with devices
Device-initiated
Cloud-initiated

23. Communications: Device-initiated
 Device-initiated options
HTTP-based, request/response
Framework choices (WCF, OData,
WebRequest, etc.)
Wire format choices (SOAP,
JSON, POX, etc.)

24. Communications: Cloud-initiated
 Push Notifications
 Single connecting between the device and the
notification service
 Bandwidth- and battery-friendly
 No guarantee of delivery

25. Communications: Subscribing to
Push
 Device requests a
channel
Web
 *NS returns channel Role
*NS
 Device sends URL to
cloud
 Channel URL is stored
in cloud
 Cloud sends notification
 *NS pushes to device

26. Communications: Cloud to Device
 Common pattern
 Use cloud-initiated push to
tell the device to call to a
service Web
*NS
Role
 Cloud sends notification
 Notification services pushes
to device
 Device receives message
and calls to a service
 Web Role sends a
response

27. Communications: Different
notifications
 Windows 8: Windows Push Notification
Service (WNS)
 Windows Phone: Microsoft Push Notification
Service (MPNS)
 iOS: Apple Push Notification Service (APNS)
 Android: Cloud To Device Messaging (C2DM)

28. demo
iOS and Communications

29. Platform Services

30. Platform Services
 Traffic Manager
 Content Delivery Network (CDN)
 SQL Azure Data Sync
 SQL Azure
 Windows Azure Storage
 Caching

31. Putting it all together

32. Any pictures?
WAZ
SAS Storage
Process Image
Store Image in Windows Azure
UserAuthenticate
Shared Token
Access Access
Send Notification
WindowsImage
Process Signature
Azure
Authentication
Blob Storage
Translated Translated Text
Send Image
Translated
Text
Apple Push Text
Notification
Service Hawaii OCR &
Bing Translator

33. Tools and Resources

34. Toolkits
 Easier for device developers to use
Windows Azure
 Windows Phone: http://bit.ly/watwp7
 iOS: http://bit.ly/watios
 Android: http://bit.ly/watandroid
 OData: http://bit.ly/odataobjc
 Toolkits include:
 Native libraries (e.g. .NET, Objective-C)
 Samples
 Project templates
 Documentation

35. Questions

36. Windows Azure Office Hours
 Talk to an expert
 Download the SDK and toolkits
 Get a free trial
 Enter to WIN a
Samsung Focus Windows phone

37. Vote your evaluation
This session was . . .
 A little lite
 Just right
 More than I hoped for!

38. Coming soon to a
tent near you!
www.devcamps.ms