Introduction to Windows Azure Marketplace DataMarket

In this lab you will learn about Microsoft's new information service called Windows Azure Marketplace DataMarket. We'll start by exploring the developer portal and service explorer, in addition to covering consuming DataMarket datasets via managed code and PowerPivot.

Overview

In this lab, we will introduce Microsoft Azure Maketplace DataMarket. DataMarket is Microsoft’s Information Service offering which allows developers and information workers to find, acquire and consume published datasets and web services. Users subscribe to datasets and web services of interest and can integrate the information into their own applications via a standardized data services. Data can also be analyzed online using the DataMarket Service Explorer or externally using the PowerPivot Add-In for Excel.

Objectives

In this hands-on lab, you will learn how to:

• Explore the Microsoft Azure Marketplace DataMarket portal and Service Explorer
• Query a Microsoft Azure Marketplace DataMarket dataset using a URL
• Access and consume a Microsoft Azure Marketplace DataMarket dataset and Service via Managed Code
• Use the PowerPivot Add-In for Excel to consume and analyze data from Microsoft Azure Marketplace DataMarket datasets

System Requeriments

You must have the following items to complete this lab:

• Microsoft Visual Studio 2010
• Microsoft .NET Framework 4.0
• Microsoft Office Excel 2010
• PowerPivot

Setup

In order to execute this hands-on lab exercises you need to setup this lab.

1. Open a Windows Explorer window and browse to the lab’s root folder.
2. Double-click the Setup.cmd file in this folder to launch the setup process that will configure your environment and install the Visual Studio code snippets for this lab.
3. If the User Account Control dialog is shown, confirm the action to proceed.

Using the Code Snippets

Throughout the lab document, you will be instructed to insert code blocks. For your convenience, most of that code is provided as Visual Studio Code Snippets, which you can use from within Visual Studio 2010 to avoid having to add it manually.

If you are not familiar with the Visual Studio Code Snippets, and want to learn how to use them, you can refer to the Setup.docx document in the Assets folder of the training kit, which contains a section describing how to use them.

Exercises

This hands-on lab includes the following exercises:

1. Exploring the Microsoft Azure Marketplace DataMarket portal and Service Explorer
2. Querying Microsoft Azure Marketplace DataMarket Datasets via URL’s
3. Consuming Microsoft Azure Marketplace DataMarket Data and Services via Managed Code
4. Consuming Microsoft Azure Marketplace DataMarket Data via PowerPivot

Estimated time to complete this lab: 60 minutes.