Live Services: What I Learned Building My First Mesh Application

Don GillettPrincipal ArchitectMicrosoft Corporation

BB41

Mesh Application OverviewJotDemoKey Takeaways and TipsCode walkthroughQ & A

Agenda

Azure™ Services Platform

Azure™ Services Platform

Mesh ApplicationsSynchronized access to your shared data

desktop

phoneserver

Simple note taking and list creation Notes and lists can be shared between people

and across devices. Developed Jot as both a Mesh Application and

a ‘Mesh Enabled’ Desktop Application Key Scenarios

Shopping Lists Weekend To-do Lists Gift List Expense List “Digital Junk Drawer”

Jot

Jot

demo

Live Framework delivers another great component for .NET developers… it just fits in and getting started is simple.

A synchronized data store is at the heart of Mesh and it’s easy to utilize.

Mesh Applications work great with Silverlight. Mesh + Silverlight makes an excellent rapid development platform.

Compile your projects for both Silverlight and the full .NET runtime (desktop apps and services).

Best part... what I didn't have to do. User management, authentication, invites, contacts, permissions, ...

Key Takeaways

Getting Started With The Live Framework Librariesusing Microsoft.LiveFX.Client;

Mesh mesh = ConnectToMesh();

foreach (MeshObject meshObject in mesh.MeshObjects.Entries){

Console.WriteLine("MeshObject:\t{0} (type {1})",meshObject.Resource.Title,meshObject.Resource.Type);

foreach (DataFeed dataFeed in meshObject.DataFeeds.Entries){

Console.WriteLine(" DataFeed:\t{0} (type {1})",dataFeed.Resource.Title,dataFeed.Resource.Type);

foreach (DataEntry dataEntry in dataFeed.DataEntries.Entries)

{Console.WriteLine(" DataEntry:\t{0} (type {1})",dataEntry.Resource.Title,dataEntry.Resource.Type);

}}

}

MeshObjects, DataFeeds, DataEntries, and Enclosures make up the Mesh storage hierarchy…

MeshObjects are our top level containers MeshObjects represent the unit you want

to share. Live Folders creates one MeshObject for each

top level Live Folder that is created. Jot also creates one MeshObject for each Jot list.

Storing Data In The MeshCreating a 'Storage Model'

MeshObjects can contain 1 or more DataFeeds. DataFeeds represents a collection of data you want to

access and group together DataEntries

Represents your smallest storage units and can contain small chunks of application data directly within the DataFeed

Enclosures Enclosures are used when your chunks of data get

too big. They are stored in the Mesh and referenced from

a DataEntry.

Storing data in the Mesh Creating a 'Storage Model' (continued)

Live Framework Resource Model

Devices

Media Resources

Data Entry

Members Mappings Data Feeds News Subscription

Applications News Notification Queue

Mesh Objects

Scripts ProfilesMesh Contacts

LOEEnd-Point

Data Entry

Evolve from flat serialization or database storage to a merge-able storage schema using DataEntries

Step 0 - We’ll start with an application that knows how to persist to a database or flat file.

Step 1 - Reading and writing DataEntries from a DataFeed rather than directly serializing or loading from a database.

Step 2 – Utilize FeedSync. With FeedSync integration we can easily batch our changes, as well as easily accept changes made from other devices and users.

Storing Data In The MeshThe Code

Synchronization of data makes a good system of change notification all that more important. INotifyCollectionChanged and

INotifyPropertyChanged facilitate Silverlight and WPF data binding

ObservableCollection<T> implements INotifyCollectionChanged

One major gotcha is that notifications going to UI need to happen on the UI thread.

Code WalkthroughSilverlight and WPF data binding

(Try these search terms some good articles about getting change notifications to the UI thread for Silverlight and WPF.)

Mow the grassBuy giftsCall home

Code Walkthrough Object Model

Checklist

ChecklistItem

ChecklistItem

ChecklistItem

ChecklistItemData

ChecklistItemData

ChecklistItemData

Checklist Application

code walkthrough

Membership based on Windows Live ID Authentication Sharing Permissions and Invites Contacts News Feeds Application Distribution …

The Things Live Framework Gives Me Beyond Storage

Cross Development Between Silverlight And .NET (Desktop And Services)

Usefull (Invaluable) Tools

Fiddler 2Download from http://fiddlertool.com

Resource Model BrowserComes with the Live Framework SDK

Fiddler TipHow to substitute/debug any file on the web without uploading it

static function OnBeforeResponse(oSession: Session){

if (oSession.uriContains("myapp.xap")) {

oSession["ui-color"]="red";oSession["ui-italic"]="true";oSession.LoadResponseFromFile(

"C:\\myapp\\bin\\debug\\myapp.xap");oSession.oResponse.headers.Add("Vary", "*");

}…

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© 2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Microsoft, Windows, Windows Vista and other product names are or may be registered trademarks and/or trademarks in the U.S. and/or other countries.The information herein is for informational purposes only and represents the current view of Microsoft Corporation as of the date of this presentation. Because Microsoft must respond to changing market

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