This is the second part of the SQL Azure Database Manager series. The first part is here.

So, now you're connected to your database by using the SQL Azure Database Manager.

Here is the detailed interface provided :

The different parts of the interface are :

A toolbar :

Here from the Database toolbar, you can have access to the most common tasks that I'll explain gradually.

Note that on the top of the toolbar, I've a small buttons panel. The second button will change depending on the content currently loaded in the designer/editor view.

In the case I'm working on a table with the table designer, the buttons will then be Database and Table :

In the case I'm working on a view with the view designer, the buttons will then be Database and View :

So you understood that the second button will be contextualized. And by clicking the first one, you can come back to the Database Toolbar.

A navigation pane :

This is where you'll find your Tables, Views and Stored Procedures.

This is an accordion control, so you can choose the detail to deploy.

At the top of the pane is a filter text box. So if I type the term Stored, here will be the filtered result of the previous snapshot:

This is a multi-tab view where you will :

• Design your tables.
• Edit your data.
• Edit/Run your queries.
• Edit your stored procedures.
• Edit your views.

The start page show information (inside a beautiful cube) about your database like the status, the collation, the compatibility level, …

And if you turn the cube, you'll have a 3D chart displaying the data storage used.

In the status bar, you'll find information about: the server FQN & the database you're connected to, the user you're logged in and a support ID.

You can logout from the SQL Azure Database Manager by using the small upper right link.

More to come in the next part! :)

The SQL Azure Database Manager is a light and easy to use tool to manage you SQL Azure Database.

This tool runs inside your browser thanks to the Silverlight power (remember, the dead Silverlight!).

The URL to access the SQL Azure DB Manager is : https://manage-db3.sql.azure.com/

***

Edit (14/12/2010)

I was contacted by Microsoft today. Working with a direct URL is a bad practice.

Here is their message :

In the post you reference https://manage-db3.sql.azure.com . We have instances of database manager co-located in each of the SQL Azure datacenters. The best practice would be to launch database manager directly from the portal, instead of hitting the url directly to ensure that you are running on an instance of database manager that is closest to your data. That url points to one of our European datacenters and may not be the best launch point for it(depending on where your data is located).

***

One you get the Silverlight application loaded, insert :

• Your SQL Azure Server Name (Fully Qualified DNS Name)
• Your database Name
• Your login Name
• Your password.

That's it! Click on the Connect button an you're in!

If you've any problem connecting, you'll see a small error link :

Click on it and you'll have a more detailed error message:

Once the door is open, you'll meet this new view :

More to come… :)

If you install the last version (1.3) of the Azure SDK, you'll now have the possibility to use an Extras small VM size :

For more information about the VM sizes : http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee814754.aspx

To download the 1.3 version of Azure SDK : http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=7a1089b6-4050-4307-86c4-9dadaa5ed018&displaylang=en

If you want to use the ASP.NET Authentication Service with your Windows Phone 7 (this is quite similar if you want to use it with Silverlight), just create a standard Windows Phone project in Visual Studio 2010 :

Once this is done, add an empty web test project :

Create a new WCF service in this Web Application :

Name it AuthenticationService.

Remove the auto-generated Code-Behind file and Interface.

Edit the .svc to rely on the AuthenticationService (more info) provided by Microsoft :

Edit the Web.config or use the WAT (Web Site Administration Tool Security Tab) to enable the Authentication Service and to create some users. Here is how my Web.config file looks like :

Once this is made, you can reference this service in your WP7 application and start to use the authentication mechanism :

And the result is :

Or :

You can download the sample here

I created a user Spiderman with a password Spiderm@n

Recently I've worked on a small Silverlight application that targets Sharepoint 2010 file operations (copy, move, delete, …).

Sharepoint 2010 has a lot of great enhancements compare to Sharepoint 2007 but still lacks of basic file operations facilities (e.g. if you want to copy a file from a doclib to another doclib, you must give the URL of the destination doclib).

This V 0.1 of Sharepoint 2010 SilverXplorer currently only offers files & folders browsing.

Here is how the application looks like inside of Sharepoint :

Here is how the loading progress looks:

To change the Sharepoint site, click the button and choose a new site URL:

To go inside a folder, just click it!

To go up, click the button.

You can also use it in an out of browser way (with elevated trust).

On the Silverlight side, the new Sharepoint 2010 Client Object Model has been used.

If you take a look at the code, you'll also note that I've used a Resource Dictionary & Merged Dictionaries for styles and states and that I'm playing a lot with states (I like them!).

Sharepoint queries were optimized by Mathieu Gretry who joined the project!

To download the V 0.1 of the XAP or to access the source code, just go to : http://spsilverxplorer.codeplex.com/