Introduction to Windows Azure Marketplace for Applications

In this lab, you will learn how to publish your application in the Windows Azure Marketplace for Applications. By doing so, you will allow other users to buy a subscription and use it. You will also learn how to handle those subscriptions from a developer perspective, associate a user account to your application leveraging the Windows Azure Access Control Services to federate with the social identity providers (for example, Windows Live Id) and how your application needs to be updated to manage the subscription lifecycle (subscribe, register, access, use, unsubscribe).

Overview

The Windows Azure Marketplace is a global online market where ISVs and Data Publishers can publish and sell Windows Azure applications, services, building block components and premium datasets. The Marketplace provides partners a global online sales channel to rapidly accelerate the return on their Windows Azure investments, to land new customers, new markets and new revenue opportunities. The Windows Azure Marketplace is a one-stop location supported by Microsoft to help you succeed.

In this lab, you will learn the basis of the Microsoft Windows Azure Marketplace for Applications. This service includes listings of components, services and finished applications which can be incorporated by other developers into their Windows Azure Applications.

Through the exercises, you will learn how to publish your application in the Windows Azure Marketplace for Applications. By doing so, you will allow others to buy a subscription and use it. You will also learn how to handle those subscriptions from a developer perspective, associate a user account to your application leveraging the Windows Azure Access Control Services to federate with the social identity providers (for example, Windows Live ID) and how your application needs to be updated to manage the subscription lifecycle (subscribe, register, access, use, unsubscribe).

Objectives

In this Hands-On Lab, you will learn how to:

• Publish your application in Windows Azure Marketplace for Applications.
• Update your application to integrate with the Windows Azure Marketplace for Applications.
• Handle the subscription lifecycle for your Marketplace Application.

System Requirements

You must have the following items to complete this lab:

• Microsoft® .NET Framework 4
• Microsoft® Visual Studio 2010
• ASP.NET and ASP.NET MVC 3
• Microsoft® Windows Identity Foundation Runtime
• Microsoft® Windows Identity Foundation SDK 4.0
• Windows Azure SDK and Windows Azure Tools for Microsoft Visual Studio 1.6

Setup

In order to run the solutions provided with this lab you will need to set up and configure your environment.

The steps below will guide you though the process gathering the required information and running the setup script to configure your environment.

Get a Windows Azure 30 Day Pass (optional)

A Windows Azure Pass provides a promotional access to Windows Azure so you can try Windows Azure and SQL Azure for free.

If you don’t have a Windows Azure Account you can obtain one following the steps in the Appendix A: Get a Windows Azure 30-Day Pass section.

Configure Access Control Services

Additionally, you will need to set up the Access Control Services to federate the users with the Social Identity Providers.

If you need help configuring Access Control Services you can follow the steps in the Appendix B: Configure Access Control Services section.

Configure the Solutions

Before you perform the Exercises of this Lab, you have to run a Setup script that will configure your solutions and your Access Control Service.

1. Open a Windows Explorer window and browse to the Source folder of this Lab.
2. Run the setup.cmd script “as Administrator”. It will launch the setup process that will configure your environment and install the Visual Studio code snippets for this lab.
   Note:

   The scripts will perform the following actions:

   - First, it will request your ACS credentials and storage account settings (only if you are deploying to Windows Azure). These values will be stored in a Configuration.xml file to avoid requesting those values again next time you use the Setup script.

   - Then, it will validate that the Configuration.xml file has all the required values.

   - Install the SSL certificates used by the application.

   - Build and install the ACS Cmdlets. This tool will be used for configuring your ACS namespace for running the application.

   - Configure the ACS Namespace using the cmdlets. This implies adding the relying party application; configure the identity providers, among other tasks.

   - Configure the WIF settings based on the ACS Namespace configuration in the five solutions included in this lab.

3. Since you will run the solutions in the Compute Emulator, type Y and press ENTER.
   Note:

   If you want to deploy the lab solutions to Windows Azure you need to enter N. In addition to this, you need to create a Hosted Service, providing its url as the RelyingPartyRealm, and a Storage Account providing its AccountName and AccountKey.

4. Now you need to enter the ACSNamespace and Management Key of the Acess Control Service you created in Configure Access Control Services section.
5. Additionally, you need to enter the RelyingPartyRealm. Type https://localhost/. Remember that if you want to deploy the application to Windows Azure, you need to provide the Hosted Service URL instead (e.g. https://yournamespace.cloudapp.net/).
   Note:

   If you leave the value this way ACS will be configured to expect requests from an application located in either https://127.0.0.1:443 or https://localhost:443. Make sure the port is not being used by another application in your local IIS.

6. Wait for the setup.cmd script to complete and press ENTER.

Using the Code Snippets

With code snippets, you have all the code you need at your fingertips. If you don’t know how to use them you should read the guidance described in the Appendix C: Using the Code Snippets section.

Exercises

This Hands-On Lab contains the following exercises:

1. Exercise 0 – Understanding a SaaS Subscription Scenario
2. Exercise 1 – Modify your Application to Support Windows Azure Marketplace Subscriptions
3. Exercise 2 – Register the Application in the Windows Azure Marketplace and Test Subscriptions with the Dev Playground
4. Exercise 3 – Add Support for Unsubscribe Messages
5. Exercise 4 – Learn how to publish in Windows Azure Marketplace, Explore the Finished App

Estimated time to complete this lab: 90 minutes