For the server side of XamChat, we'll use Azure Mobile Services to provide backend storage to the application. Azure Mobile Service is a neat solution to accelerate development for mobile applications that provide data storage and a REST-based API. It also includes a .NET client library for interacting with the service from C#.
A few nice features of Azure Mobile Services are as follows:
- Storage of data in the cloud with SQL Azure, or other Azure data services such as blob or table storage
- Easy authentication with Windows Live ID, Facebook, Google, or Twitter
- Push notifications with iOS, Android, and Windows devices
- An easy-to-use .NET library for client-side development
- Scale Azure Mobile Services to accommodate high volumes of data
You can see why using Azure Mobile Services is a good choice for simple mobile applications. The benefits of accelerated development and the many features it provides are a great fit for our XamChat sample application.
Navigate to your account at http://manage.windowsazure.com and perform the following steps to create a Mobile Service:
- Click on the plus button in the bottom-left of the window.
- Navigate to Compute | Mobile Service | Create through the menu.
- Enter a domain URL of your choice such as
yourname-xamchat. - We use the free database option for now.
- Select a data center near your location in the Region dropdown.
- Now, click on Next.
- Use the default database name, and choose New SQL database server.
- Enter a login name and password for the SQL server and keep this information in a safe place.
- Make sure the region is the same as that of your mobile service to ensure performance.
- Review your final settings and hit the Finish button.
The management portal will display progress, and it could take several seconds to create your mobile service and SQL server instances. Remember, Azure is creating and starting new virtual machines for you under the hood, so it is really doing a lot of work to accommodate your request.
When completed, your account will have one Mobile Service and one SQL database in addition to the Default Directory that is included in all accounts, as shown in the following screenshot:
If you look at the Scale tab for your Mobile Service, you'll notice that it is running under the Free tier by default. This is a great place for development; at the time of writing this book, it accommodates 500 devices. When deploying your applications into production, you might consider the Basic or Standard tiers, which also give you the option to add multiple instances.