Because I build Evejob multi-platform project with support of Cloud deployment scenarios (currently for Google App Engine and Microsoft Azure) and I am sure that best Web software must be ready to be deployed in Cloud(s), it was very interesting to read latest announcement from Amazon: “… AWS Software Development Kit (SDK) for .NET Now Available… “.

Sure it’s just a beginning for Amazon in development of real .NET SDK, but even with this version we can quickly build .NET applications that tap into AWS Cloud.   Yes,  even before developers have good libraries to build such applications, but now looks like we have first “standard” API from Amazon and this fact is very important!

For example, for Ruby there is no such official SDK (or Ruby gem), and developers can choice from few available gems (right_aws, amazon-ec2 or AWS:S3 to name just few).  The same situation for Java - available a lot of “community” libraries, but no official SDK… (ok, ok, for Java we have at least official AWS Toolkit for Eclipse, but Toolkit it is not SDK!!!).

But why it is important to have official “language specific” SDK?

Well, first of all, now because Amazon have few BIG rivals, like Google App Engine (and we know that Google DO have official SDKs, more so, for both Python and Java!) and Microsoft Azure (sure Microsoft always have SDKs – it a BIG plus for Microsoft!).

Also it is important for developers, so they know that if they take some library and put this library as “base” for communications with a Cloud, they will not need to dial with changes in API in case of library author decide to drop development! It is important to have SDK that will be up to date with company services (Amazon in our case), just because we developers want to be SAFE! Sure it is good if there are a lot of open source libraries that EXTEND SDK some way, but it’s just “add-ons” and can’t replace real official SDK!

So it is really BIG day for Amazon and .NET developers – first official “language specific” SDK, and for .NET!!! What will be answer from Microsoft Azure that is still in “Beta”?

Note: in this post I mean “language specific” SDK, not just common SDK that list API for Web Services  with samples how to use them for example, etc… Because most of they time developers dial with some specific language, it is important for services like AWS to provide language specific SDKs so developers can really quickly and “safely” create applications using such “language specific” SDKs! Hope you understand what I mean

.NET development Environment Installation

• Download and install Microsoft SQL Server 2008 (any edition will fit, including Free Express)
• Download and install Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Standard, Professional or Team Edition (feel free to read about installation order in here)
• Download and install service packs for SQL Server and for Visual Studio 2008 (at least SP1 required)
• Download and install ASP.NET MVC 1.0
• Download and install latest Azure SDK (make sure that Enable IIS7 with ASP.NET and WCF HTTP Activation – read more on here)

Creating EvejobNET Solution

Open Visual Studio, select “File / New Project” and fill form with following details (make sure you select ASP.NET MVC Web Application template):

Press “OK” and on next window “Create Unit Test Project”, select “Yes” and press OK:

You will get solution loaded into Visual Studio with 2 projects: ASP.NET MVC Application (EvejobNET) and Unit Tests project (EvejobNET.Tests):

You can now try to run it, just press “Start Debuging” Button and make sure that you agree with action to “Modify the Web.config file to Enable Debugging”. Your default browser will open test site, hosted by development server (build in into Visual Studio).

Creating EvejobAzNET Azure Solution

Go to “File / New Project”, select “Cloud Service” template in New Project Window and fill project name and path like on following screenshot:

After you press “OK” you will need to select Roles to be added to solution. At the time I write this, there was no ASP.NET MVC role available, so let’s just temporary add ASP.NET Web Role (keep default name for now):

After you press OK, solution will be opened with WebRole1 Project. Now it is time to remove “WebRole1″ temp project from solution (don’t forget to delete unused folder, with content, WebRole1 in C:\evejob\EvejobAzNET).

Next step is to add new ASP.NET MVC project: like was done above for EvejobNET project – just simply right click in solution explorer on “Solution ‘EvejobAzNET’” and select “Add New Project”, than select ASP.NET MVC Web Application Template and give this template name “EvejobAzNETMvcWebRole” to keep Azure standard naming convention.

One more step to finish – you need to associate role, so in solution explorer right click on “No project associated (WebRole1)” and select same like on screenshot:

In opened window for association, make sure that you select “EvejobAzNETMvcWebRole” project:

Your solution will looks like this now:

Now it’s time to test it – just press “Start Debugging”  in Visual Studio. Probably you will get following question (if everything going well):

Sure thing, correct answer “Yes” Ones it finished you will get another window that show “Development Storage Initialization” – just press “OK” button here and continue with execution.

You can get following popup also:

I hope you answer yes, as probably you want to be sure that you use latest Tools available for Azure

Finally, your default browser probably opens with http://127.0.0.1:81/ Url and you will see “My MVC Application”

If so, that we just prepare everything to start EvejobAzNET development

Ah, one small note – you can check status in “Development Fabric” and in “Development Storage” – small icons are added to Windows taskbar – right click on each and select “Show …”:

Thats it!