Chennai .Net User Group

Building a Simple REST API using Node.js with MongoDB and Mongoose

Shiju Varghese's Blog — Sat, 19 May 2012 12:27:45 GMT

In this post, I will demonstrate how to build a simple REST API using Node.js with NoSQL database MongoDB. This demo app will be using MongoDB object modeling tool Mongoose to connecting with MongoDB from the Node app. This demo app is a very basic level API app without following any better practices and mainly created this sample demo for demonstrating Node.js and MongoDB using with Mongoose Node package. Node.js for building REST JSON API Node.js is a very powerful platform for building highly...(read more)

Windows Azure SDK for Node.js 0.5.4 Released

Shiju Varghese's Blog — Mon, 14 May 2012 06:14:58 GMT

The Microsoft Windows Azure team has released the Windows Azure SDK for Node.js 0.5.4 which will be using the Node.js 0.6.17 and iisnode 0.1.19. The Node.js 0.6.17 contains a security fix against the HTTP Server Security Vulnerability detected by recently. It would be recommended to upgrade to the new version of Azure SDK for Node.js if you have already deployed any Node.js app to Windows Azure which will provide better security. The iisnode 0.1.19 provides iisnode.yml file instead of XML based...(read more)

Windows Azure Supports Voice and SMS Capabilities

Shiju Varghese's Blog — Fri, 04 May 2012 07:06:18 GMT

Windows Azure is now supports Telephony and SMS capabilities to the apps hosted in Windows Azure by using the Twilio API. Twilio is a third-party service that provides a cloud-based telephony service which allows to add scalable, reliable voice and text messaging capabilities into you apps. Using Twilio's native libraries for Java, PHP and .NET , developers can build telephony enabled web apps hosted on Windows Azure in which we can make and receive phone calls and SMS messages from phones...(read more)

Dependency Injection in ASP.NET Web API using Autofac

Shiju Varghese's Blog — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 09:29:11 GMT

In this post, I will demonstrate how to use Dependency Injection in ASP.NET Web API using Autofac in an ASP.NET MVC 4 app. The new ASP.NET Web API is a great framework for building HTTP services. The Autofac IoC container provides the better integration with ASP.NET Web API for applying dependency injection. The NuGet package Autofac.WebApi provides the Dependency Injection support for ASP.NET Web API services. Using Autofac in ASP.NET Web API The following command in the Package Manager console...(read more)

Windows Azure PowerShell for Node.js

Shiju Varghese's Blog — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 07:59:28 GMT

The Windows Azure PowerShell for Node.js is a command-line tool that allows the Node developers to build and deploy Node.js apps in Windows Azure using Windows PowerShell cmdlets. Using Windows Azure PowerShell for Node.js, you can develop, test, deploy and manage Node based hosted service in Windows Azure. For getting the PowerShell for Node.js, click All Programs, Windows Azure SDK Node.js and run Windows Azure PowerShell for Node.js, as Administrator. The followings are the few PowerShell...(read more)

Using Node Package Manager in Cloud9 IDE

Shiju Varghese's Blog — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 09:26:11 GMT

NPM - Package Manager for Node.js npm is a package manager for node that is run through command-line interface. It can use it to install and publish your node programs. npm manages dependencies for an application.Node packages are represented as package.json files. The npm is a very similar like NuGet package manager for .NET. Using npm, you can quickly find node packages, download them, install them, and manage packages you have already installed. Cloud9 IDE supports Node Package Manager With Cloud9...(read more)

Building and Deploying Node.js Apps to Windows Azure using Cloud9 IDE

Shiju Varghese's Blog — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 10:20:46 GMT

In this post, I will demonstrate how to building Node.js apps using Cloud9 IDE ad deploying Node.js apps to Windows Azure from the Cloud9 IDE. Cloud9 IDE is a cross-platform, browser-based development environment for JavaScript and Node.js apps which is integrates with GitHub and BitBucket repository services. Cloud9 IDE is the most popular developer tool among the Node developers. Since Cloud9 IDE is working and running on the browser, developers can work from any OS platform. Using...(read more)

EFMVC App Migrated to ASP.NET MVC 4

Shiju Varghese's Blog — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 07:04:52 GMT

I have upgraded my EFMVC app from ASP.NET MVC 3 to ASP.NET MVC 4 Beta. EFMVC is a demo web app initially built for demonstrating ASP.NET MVC and EF Code First. Now I am planning to add more features onto EFMVC and want to add cloud specific features with Windows Azure. You can expect more implementations in future releases. The current migration does not contains any major code changes. I have added a Windows Azure web role and will add some cloud specific features on later. The migration process...(read more)

ASP.NET MVC 4 Beta Released

Shiju Varghese's Blog — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 14:44:00 GMT

Microsoft has announced the availability of ASP.NET MVC 4 Beta. You can get the all details on ASP.NET MVC 4 Beta at http://www.asp.net/mvc/mvc4 . The greatest new feature of ASP.NET MVC 4 Beta is the addition of ASP.NET Web API which lets the developers to build REST based services which can be easily consume from variety of clients including browsers and mobile devices. These HTTP services are ideal for clients which are building by using Ajax and following a highly responsive UI. For more details...(read more)

Microsoft Reduces Prices on SQL Azure Cloud Storage

Shiju Varghese's Blog — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 14:20:00 GMT

Microsoft has reduced the price of SQL Azure storage which will greatly attract customers to migrating their apps to Windows Azure. The newly announced price of SQL Azure decreases 48 percentages to 75 percentages of cost from the previous cost. The new price details are given below GB Previous Pricing New Pricing New Price/GB Total % Decrease 5 $49.95 $25.99 $5.20 48% 10 $99.99 $45.99 $4.60 54% 25 $299.97 $75.99 $3.04 75% 50 $499.95* $125.99 $2.52 75% 100 $499.95 * $175.99 $1.76 65% 150 $499.95...(read more)

Tips and Important Steps for Migrating Apps to Windows Azure

Shiju Varghese's Blog — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 11:45:00 GMT

The following are the few important steps and tips for migrating ASP.NET apps to Windows Azure. Convert the ASP.NET application into a Web Role project. Verify that the application is running correctly in the development environment. Make sure that your application is 64-bit compatible since Window azure is a 64-bit environment. Since Window Azure Web Roles runs on IIS7 Integrated mode, make sure that your web application does not have any issues with running on IIS 7 Integrated mode. If your web...(read more)

Building a Windows Azure App using Azure Queue, Azure Table and ASP.NET MVC Web Role

Shiju Varghese's Blog — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 18:20:00 GMT

In this post, I will demonstrate a Windows Azure app using Azure Queue, Azure Table and a ASP.NET MVC 4 Web Role application. This post is explaining few initial steps for building a demo Azure app where asynchronous commands (write operations that changes the data) put into Azure Queue and an Azure Work Role will persist the data into Azure Table from Queue messages for the read operations. The source code is available from http://azurehack.codeplex.com/ .The demo application will modify and add...(read more)

Startup Tasks for Windows Azure Roles

Shiju Varghese's Blog — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 12:15:00 GMT

Windows Azure supports startup tasks that can be use to perform operations and install components before your Azure Role starts on Virtual Server. You can use to startup tasks to install other software, register COM components, setting registry keys, start another process, etc. This is very useful in many situations where you might want to running an initialization scripts, execute batch files and PowerShell scripts etc before your Role starts. In the past, I had used a startup task to install ASP...(read more)

Visual Studio Enhancements in Windows Azure SDK 1.6 for Publishing Apps

Shiju Varghese's Blog — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 14:39:37 GMT

The new Windows Azure SDK 1.6 is providing many enhancements including a better experience for publishing Windows Azure applications using Visual Studio. To publish an application onto Azure, do the following steps. First right click on the Azure project from Visual Studio and Select Publish. The below publish window will show. When you run the publish wizard for the first time, you must download your credentials from Windows Azure portal. Choose the Sign In To Download Credentials link...(read more)

CQRS, Commands, Command Handlers and Command Dispatcher

Shiju Varghese's Blog — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 02:57:00 GMT

In this post, I am trying to add some CQRS principles onto my EFMVC project. Please keep in mind that this is not the implementation CQRS patterns, but trying to add some CQRS flavors on the Solution Architecture with Commands that changes the data (Create, Update and Delete). The current implementation of command execution is implemented in a synchronous way. CQRS CQRS is stands for Command-Query Responsibility Segregation that is a principle of separating commands (that change the data) from queries...(read more)

EFMVC 1.0 Preview Released

Shiju Varghese's Blog — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 12:01:00 GMT

A while ago, I have released EFMVC , a demo web app built using ASP.NET MVC 3, EF Code First and Unity. The EFMVC app has demonstrated many architectural patterns and practices such as Generic Repository, Repository pattern, Unit of Work pattern, Dependency Injection pattern and Application Service later. Today I would like to announce the release of EFMVC 1.0 Preview. This release is an early preview release that has made some changes in the solution architecture. The preview is written in ASP.NET...(read more)

Removing EdmMetadata table in EF Code First

Shiju Varghese's Blog — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 08:54:00 GMT

EF Code First Framework is using a table named EdmMetadata on the database to check the current model is compatible with the database. When your model is changing, you need to drop the database and create a new database. In that scenario, you can add a initialization strategy using DropCreateDatabaseIfModelChanges<TContext>. You can avoid the EdmMetadata table from your database so it won't check the schema of database with model. When you are using Code First Migrations or updating your...(read more)

Autofac - My Choice of IoC Container

Shiju Varghese's Blog — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 08:09:00 GMT

I have been using Unity for dependency injection since the early days of ASP.NET MVC framework. Recently I have evaluated other IoC containers and really impressed with Autofac. The next version of my codeplex project EFMVC will be use Autofac as IoC container. Autofac is a lightweight IoC container that providing better performance and can easily integrate with .NET applications. Autofac is developed by Nicholas Blumhardt and the community is actively working on the code base. Using Autofac in ASP...(read more)

ASP.NET MVC 4 Enhancements to Default Project Templates

Shiju Varghese's Blog — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 07:37:00 GMT

The ASP.NET MVC 4 provides an additional project teamplate for Mobile Web Application. The new Project dialog is shown below The project templates that are used to create new ASP.NET MVC 4 projects have been updated and provide a nice and modern looking user interface. The home page using the new project template is shown below The new project template provides adaptive rendering for both desktop browsers and mobile browsers without any customization. The home page is displayed in the mobile browser...(read more)

ASP.NET MVC 4 Developer Preview Released

Shiju Varghese's Blog — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 03:37:00 GMT

Microsoft has announced the availability of ASP.NET MVC 4 Developer Preview. The following are the some of the new features of ASP.NET MVC 4 Developer Preview. Mobile Project Template based on jQuery Mobile Enhancements to Default Project Templates Recipes for Code Generation in Visual Studio Task Support for Asynchronous Controllers You can install the ASP.NET MVC 4 Developer Preview from here . For the Windows Azure, ASP.NET MVC 4 Developer Preview supports the September 2011 1.5 release of the...(read more)

Auto Registration in Microsoft Unity

Shiju Varghese's Blog — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 11:26:00 GMT

Unlike many other .NET IoC containers, Microsoft Unity does not support auto registrations. Auto registration is a very useful feature for any IoC container and it would be very helpful in some specific contexts. The Unity Auto Registration project in Codeplex will provide the support for automatic registration using a fluent API. You can add Unity Auto Registration package using NuGet. The following command will add reference to Unity Auto Registration. PM> Install-Package UnityAutoRegistration...(read more)

Building JavaScript MVVM apps in ASP.NET MVC using KnockoutJS

Shiju Varghese's Blog — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 02:56:37 GMT

JavaScript is getting more attention in modern web application development and increasing the popularity of JavaScript on every day. HTML 5 is making a revolution in web apps world and it is becoming a common platform for variety of scenarios. JavaScript is the language for HTML 5. The next question is how we can write highly maintainable JavaScript code and how to write testable JavaScript code. The answer would be to use a high level JavaScript framework such as KnockoutJS, BackboneJS and SpineJS...(read more)

Speaking at Kerala Microsoft User Group on JavaScript MVVM and KnockoutJS

Shiju Varghese's Blog — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 09:20:55 GMT

I will be speaking about JavaScript MVVM and KnockoutJS at Kerala Microsoft User Group , Kochi on August 20. In this session, I will provide an overview of KnockoutJS, a MVVM framework for creating rich, interactive user interfaces with JavaScript and HTML. Finally, I will demonstrate how to use KnockoutJS in your ASP.NET/ASP.NET MVC applications. The event details available from here . ...(read more)

EF Code First Migrations August 2011 CTP Released

Shiju Varghese's Blog — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 03:25:17 GMT

EF Code First is a great ORM tool which lets you to develop applications in a Domain Driven approach. One of the pain point of EF Code First was the data migrations when your domain model is changing. Finally the ADO.NET team is providing a data migration solution for EF Code First that will incrementally evolve the database schema as you model changes over time. The ADO.NET team has released the CTP version of Code First migration solution named EF Code First Migrations August 2011 CTP. EF Code...(read more)

User Activity logging in ASP.NET MVC app using Action Filter and log4net

Shiju Varghese's Blog — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 10:31:02 GMT

In this post, I will demonstrate how to use an action filter to log user tracking information in an ASP.NET MVC app. The below action filter will take logged user name, controller name, action name, timestamp information and the value of route data id. These user tracking information will be logged using log4net logging framework. public class UserTrackerAttribute : ActionFilterAttribute , IActionFilter { public override void OnActionExecuted( ActionExecutedContext filterContext) { var actionDescriptor...(read more)