CarTrackr on Windows Azure - Part 3 - Data storage

This post is part 3 of my series on Windows Azure, in which I'll try to convert my ASP.NET MVC application into a cloud application. The current post is all about implementing cloud storage in CarTrackr.

Other parts:

• Part 1 - Introduction, containg links to all other parts
• Part 2 - Cloud-enabling CarTrackr
• Part 3 - Data storage (current part)
• Part 4 - Membership and authentication
• Part 5 - Deploying in the cloud

Types of Azure storage

Windows Azure offers 3 types of cloud storage: blobs, tables and queues. Blob Storage stores sets of binary data, organized in containers of your storage account. Table Storage offers structured storage in the form of tables. The Queue service stores an unlimited number of messages, each of which can be up to 8 KB in size.

CarTrackr will use table storage to store cars and refuellings. Table Storage is one of the simplest way to store data in Azure. All tables are accessed using a Uri in the form of http://<applicationname>.tables.core.windows.net. You need to have a storage cccount if you want to use the table storage. Waiting for an invitation? The Azure SDK contains a development storage tool which simulates all cloud table storage features on your local host: http://127.0.0.1:10002

Each storage account has a Table containg an Entity. An Entity contains Columns. Entity can be considered to be the row and Columns as values. Each Entity always contains these properties: PartitionKey, RowKey and Timestamp . The PartitionKey and RowKey identify a row or an Entity. (source)

Implementing Azure TableStorage in CarTrackr

Configuring TableStorage

First of all, we have to specify we are going to use storage in the CarTrackr application. This can be achieved by adding some configuration to the CarTrackr_Azure's ServiceConfiguration.cscfg:

[code:c#]

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<ServiceConfiguration serviceName="CarTrackr_Azure" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/ServiceHosting/2008/10/ServiceConfiguration">
  <Role name="Web">
    <Instances count="1" />
    <ConfigurationSettings>
      <Setting name="AccountName" value="devstoreaccount1"/>
      <Setting name="AccountSharedKey" value="Eby8vdM02xNOcqFlqUwJPLlmEtlCDXJ1OUzFT50uSRZ6IFsuFq2UVErCz4I6tq/K1SZFPTOtr/KBHBeksoGMGw=="/>
      <Setting name="TableStorageEndpoint" value="http://127.0.0.1:10002"/>
    </ConfigurationSettings>
  </Role>
</ServiceConfiguration>

[/code]

When deploying, we should of course change the TableStorageEndpoint to the Azure TableStorage endpoint. Account name and key should also be modified at that moment.

Making sure all tables exist in TableStorage

To make sure all tables exist in TableStorage, a TableStorageDataServiceContext should be defined. This TableStorageDataServiceContext should contain some TableStorageEntity items. We can easily make all domain objects in CarTrackr of type TableStorageEntity. Make sure to build the samples in the Azure SDK folder and add a reference to the StorageClient.dll in that folder.

Creating a class that is TableStorage aware is easy now: inherit the Microsoft.Samples.ServiceHosting.StorageClient.Microsoft.Samples.ServiceHosting.StorageClient class, modify the constructor and you're done. I've also modified the domain classes, making RowKey the identifier for the current object.

[code:c#]

namespace CarTrackr.Domain
{
    public partial class Car : TableStorageEntity, IRuleEntity
    {
        public Car()
            : base()
        {
            PartitionKey = Guid.NewGuid().ToString();
            RowKey = Guid.NewGuid().ToString();
        }

        // ... other code ...
    }
}

[/code]

Also add the CarTrackrCloudContext class to the CarTrackr.Data namespace. This CarTrackrCloudContext class will implement a TableStorageDataServiceContext, defining which tables are in the TableStorage.

[code:c#]

using System.Data.Services.Client;
using CarTrackr.Domain;
using Microsoft.Samples.ServiceHosting.StorageClient;

namespace CarTrackr.Data
{
    public class CarTrackrCloudContext : TableStorageDataServiceContext
    {
        public DataServiceQuery<Car> Cars
        {
            get
            {
                return CreateQuery<Car>("Cars");
            }
        }

        public DataServiceQuery<Refuelling> Refuellings
        {
            get
            {
                return CreateQuery<Refuelling>("Refuellings");
            }
        }

        public DataServiceQuery<User> Users
        {
            get
            {
                return CreateQuery<User>("Users");
            }
        }
    }
}

[/code]

This CarTrackrCloudContext tells the application there are 3 types of tables, represented by 3 domain class types. Note that the class has been inherited from TableStorageDataServiceContext, which automatically connects to the TableStorage endpoint with the account information we stored previously in the Service Configuration file.

To make sure tables exist and are up to date when the application is started, add the following to CarTrackr's Global.asax:

[code:c#]

protected static bool tablesRegistered = false;
protected static object syncLock = "";

protected void Application_BeginRequest(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    if (!tablesRegistered)
    {
        lock (syncLock)
        {
            if (!tablesRegistered)
            {
                try {
                    StorageAccountInfo account = StorageAccountInfo.GetDefaultTableStorageAccountFromConfiguration();
                    TableStorage.CreateTablesFromModel(typeof(CarTrackr.Data.CarTrackrCloudContext), account);
                    tablesRegistered = true;
                }
                catch { }
            }
        }
    }
}

[/code]

The TableStorage client will create all requried tables based on the CarTrackrCloudContext class's IQueryable properties. Note that I'm using double-check locking here to make sure tables are only created once (performance). 

Querying data

Luckily, my repository code is not subject to much changes. Linq queries just keep working on the Azure TableStorage. Only Insert, Update and Delete are a little bit different. The CarTrackrCloudContext class represents the runtime context of ADO.NET Data Services and enables to use AddObject(), DeleteObject(), UpdateObject(), followed by SaveChanges().

Here's an example on adding a Car (CarRepository):

[code:c#]

public void Add(Car car)
{
    if (car.OwnerId == Guid.Empty)
        car.OwnerId = User.UserId;

    car.EnsureValid();

    DataSource.DataContext.AddObject("Cars", car);
    DataSource.DataContext.SaveChanges();
}

[/code]

Storage conclusions

I have actually modified my Linq to SQL classes and repository code as TableStorage currently only supports Binary, Bool, DateTime, Double, Guid, Int, Long and String. No decimals and custom types anymore... There's also some other missing features regarding ordering of data and joins which required me to change a lot of repository code. But hey, it's still only the repository code I needed to change!

Next post will be about membership and authentication. Stay tuned!

This is an imported post. It was imported from my old blog using an automated tool and may contain formatting errors and/or broken images.