Consuming OData WCF REST Service from Android Client Device

As in my previous blog , already mentioned to create about OData Service feed in ATOM format which can be consumed in Windows Phone 7, Android, iPhone/iPAD , Silverlight,PHP, Windows Azure Table Storage clients.

• Lets check , how to consume the OData WCF REST service in Android client. To work with OData Android client lets download Odata4j Android client library from RESTlet: http://www.restlet.org/downloads/ & select the OData4j-Bundle.jar in Java Build Path of your Android project.
• Next, to consume OData service from android device, we need to host the service in IIS. In my demo, i have hosted it in IIS 7.5.
• Now, Start develop an android client application which can consume OData feed.

• Modify AndroidManifest.xml as it can consume feed from internet from native application:

<uses-permissionandroid:name=“android.permission.INTERNET”>

</uses-permission>

   Write code for  Activity.java :

package com.example.android.OData;

import java.util.ArrayList;

import java.util.List;

import org.odata4j.consumer.ODataConsumer;

import org.odata4j.core.OEntity;

import android.app.ListActivity;

import android.os.Bundle;

import android.widget.ArrayAdapter;

public class JsonGrabbingConsumerExampleActivity  extends  ListActivity {

/** Called when the activity is first created. */

@Override

public void  onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {

 super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

        setListAdapter(new ArrayAdapter<String>(this,   android.R.layout.simple_list_item_1, GetExpenseReports()));

        getListView().setTextFilterEnabled(true);

    }

// read expenses odata feed

    ArrayList<String> GetExpenseReports()

    {

// build a simple array list of strings to test things out

        ArrayList<String> listUI = new ArrayList<String>();

// use odata4j consumer

        ODataConsumer c = ODataConsumer.create(http://10.12.1.223/ODataSample1/Service.svc);

// run a query just for Pending states

        List<OEntity> listExpenses = c.getEntities(“SampleCustomerData”).execute().toList();

for(OEntity expense : listExpenses) {

    listUI.add(expense.getProperty(

“CustomerID”).getValue().toString()

    +

“; “ + expense.getProperty(“CustomerName”).getValue().toString()

    +

“; “ + expense.getProperty(“CustomerNotes”).getValue().toString()

    );

        }

return  listUI;   

    }

}

• Checkout the output in Android 2.3:

Consuming OData WCF REST service from Windows Phone 7 Panorama Application

Consuming an OData (Open Data Protocol) in Client devices , Client services are quite easy. Open Data protocol , is a web protocol for querying and updating data and it was born of the need to break down data silos and increase their shared value. This allows data silos to interoperate between producers such as SQL Server, SharePoint servers, Cloud Storage Services, and consumers, for example Java, PHP, Silverlight, IIS, ASP.NET, AJAX.

OData incorporates with JSON, AtomPub, RSS to provide access to the  information from a range of applications, services, relational databases, file systems, content management systems (CMS), traditional websites.

Supported Platforms for OData Services:

1. Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 SP1
2. Microsoft Visual Studio 2010
3. Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2
4. Microsoft Sharepoint 2010
5. Microsoft Windows Azure Storage(Blobs, Tables, Queues)
6. Microsoft SQL Azure
7. Microsoft Office Excel 2010 PowerPivot

• Lets create an OData WCF REST Service that for this purpose lets create an empty web application from Visual Studio

• Lets add a new WCF Service in the application & named it as Service.SVC

• Next , add the following Code to the service & check the resulting feed in browser.

using System;

using System.Collections.Generic;

using System.Data.Services;

using System.Data.Services.Common;

using System.Linq;

using System.ServiceModel.Web;

using System.Web;

namespace ODataSample1

{

public class Service : DataService<SampleDataSource>

{

// This method is called only once to initialize service-wide policies.

public static void InitializeService(DataServiceConfiguration config)

{

// TODO: set rules to indicate which entity sets and service operations are visible, updatable, etc.

// Examples:

// config.SetEntitySetAccessRule(“MyEntityset”, EntitySetRights.AllRead);

// config.SetServiceOperationAccessRule(“MyServiceOperation”, ServiceOperationRights.All);

config.SetEntitySetAccessRule(“*”, EntitySetRights.All);

config.SetServiceOperationAccessRule(“*”, ServiceOperationRights.All);

config.MaxResultsPerCollection = 100;

config.DataServiceBehavior.MaxProtocolVersion = DataServiceProtocolVersion.V2;

}

}

[ EntityPropertyMappingAttribute(“CustomerName”, SyndicationItemProperty.Title, SyndicationTextContentKind.Plaintext, true)]

[DataServiceKey(“CustomerID”)]

public class CustomerRecord

{

public int CustomerID { get; set; }

public string CustomerName { get; set; }

public string CustomerEmail { get; set; }

public string CustomerNotes { get; set; }

public DateTime CustomerLastContact { get; set; }

}

public class SampleDataSource

{

private readonly List<CustomerRecord> _sampleCustomerRecordList;

public SampleDataSource()

{

_sampleCustomerRecordList = newList<CustomerRecord>();

for (int i = 0; i < 100; i++)

{

CustomerRecord CR = newCustomerRecord();

CR.CustomerID = i;

CR.CustomerName =string.Format(“FirstName{0} LastName{1}”, i.ToString(), i.ToString());

CR.CustomerEmail =string.Format(“Email{0}@{1}.com”, i.ToString(), i.ToString());

CR.CustomerNotes =string.Format(“Notes{0}.Notes{1}”, i.ToString(), i.ToString());

CR.CustomerLastContact =DateTime.Now.AddDays(-10000).AddHours(i);

_sampleCustomerRecordList.Add(CR);

}

}

public IQueryable<CustomerRecord> SampleCustomerData

{

get

{

return _sampleCustomerRecordList.AsQueryable();

}

}

}

}

• Now check the Service status in Linqpad (http://www.linqpad.com) by adding the WCF service endpoint to the database/service endpoint connection.

• Lets check the status of the feed by entering query (<atom:title>)(e.g : SampleCustomerData  for this demo)in the browser

•  Check after entering query in the URL of the feed

• Service endpoint shows successful OData feed , next add a Windows Phone Panorama Application with the solution to implement a smartClient to the OData REST application.

• Now check the OData Codeplex site:http://odata.codeplex.com/releases/view/54698  & Download ODataClient_BinariesAndCodeGenToolForWinPhone.zip  , extract it in windows explorer & run the following command in the command prompt by browsing the corresponding directory.

datasvcutil /uri:http://localhost:8554/Service.svc/ /out:.\ServiceModel.cs /Version:2.0 /DataServiceCollection

<!–Panorama item one–>

<controls:PanoramaItem Header=”first item”>

<ListBox x:Name=”lst” Margin=”0,0,-12,0″ ItemsSource=”{Binding}”>

<ListBox.ItemTemplate>

<DataTemplate>

<StackPanel Margin=”0,0,0,17″ Width=”432″>

<TextBlock Text=”{Binding CustomerID}” TextWrapping=”Wrap” Margin=”12,-6,12,0″ Style=”{StaticResource PhoneTextExtraLargeStyle}” />

<TextBlock Text=”{Binding CustomerName}” TextWrapping=”Wrap” Margin=”12,-6,12,0″ Style=”{StaticResource PhoneTextExtraLargeStyle}” />

<TextBlock Text=”{Binding CustomerEmail}” TextWrapping=”Wrap” Margin=”12,-6,12,0″ Style=”{StaticResource PhoneTextExtraLargeStyle}” />

<TextBlock Text=”{Binding CustomerNotes}” TextWrapping=”Wrap” Margin=”12,-6,12,0″ Style=”{StaticResource PhoneTextExtraLargeStyle}” />

</StackPanel>

</DataTemplate>

</ListBox.ItemTemplate>

</ListBox>

</controls:PanoramaItem>

using System;

using System.Collections.Generic;

using System.Linq;

using System.Net;

using System.Windows;

using System.Windows.Controls;

using System.Windows.Documents;

using System.Windows.Input;

using System.Windows.Media;

using System.Windows.Media.Animation;

using System.Windows.Shapes;

using Microsoft.Phone.Controls;

using ODataWP7Panorama.CustomersModel;

using System.Data.Services.Client;

namespace ODataWP7Panorama

{

public partial classMainPage : PhoneApplicationPage

{

public  SampleDataSource ctx = new SampleDataSource(new Uri(“http://localhost:8554/Service.svc/&#8221;, UriKind.Absolute));

// Constructor

public MainPage()

{

InitializeComponent();

this.Loaded += newRoutedEventHandler(MainPage_Loaded);

// Set the data context of the listbox control to the sample data

}

// Load data for the ViewModel Items

private void MainPage_Loaded(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)

{

var ctx = newSampleDataSource(newUri(http://localhost:8554/Service.svc/));

var coll = new  DataServiceCollection<CustomerRecord>(ctx);

lst.ItemsSource = coll;

coll.LoadCompleted +=newEventHandler<LoadCompletedEventArgs>(coll_LoadCompleted);

var qry = “/SampleCustomerData”;

coll.LoadAsync(newUri(qry, UriKind.Relative));

}

void coll_LoadCompleted(object sender, LoadCompletedEventArgs e)

{

if (e.Error != null)

{

MessageBox.Show(e.Error.Message);

}

}

}

}

• Now , lets the OData REST Service in Windows Phone 7.1 Client :

Sharepoint 2010 With Windows Azure Development Agenda

The Sharepoint 2010 with Windows Azure Training kit consists of  useful hands on labs , presentations & Video presentations.

The hands on labs mainly focuses on :

• Windows Azure Marketplace DataMarket
• Introduction to SQL Azure
• Windows Azure Overview

• Sharepoint 2010 development with Visual Studio 2010.
• Consuming Windows Communication foundation services from Sharepoint 2010 & Infopath 2010.
• Integrating Windows Azure with Office 2010.
• Geospatial applications using Sharepoint 2010 , SQL Azure & Bing Maps.
• Securing Sharepoint 2010  with Azure.
• Sharepoint 2010 with Blob Storage.
• Sharepoint with Windows Azure Hosted services.
• Sharepoint with Windows Azure Event Handlers.
• Windows Azure with Sharepoint workflow using Azure Worker role with TCP endpoints.

Windows Azure Toolkit for Windows 8

The Windows Azure Toolkit for Windows 8 is released to make development easy for Windows Metro style application that can harness the power of Windows Azure Compute and Storage. The template is based on Windows Push Notification services existing with Windows Phone 7 applications.

Technologies:

• ASP.NET MVC 3
• Windows Azure SDK 1.4.1 Refresh
• Windows Metro style Javascript application project

The process of sending a notification requires few steps:

1. Request a channel. Utilize the WinRT API to request a Channel Uri from WNS. The Channel Uri will be the unique identifier you use to send notifications to an application instance.
2. Register the channel with your Windows Azure cloud services. Once you have your channel you can then store your channel and associate it with any application specific data (e.g user profiles and such) until your services decide that it’s time to send a notification to the given channel
3. Authenticate against WNS. To send notifications to your channel URI you are first required to Authenticate against WNS using OAuth2 to retrieve a token to be used for each subsequent notification that you push to WNS.
4. Push notification to channel recipient. Once you have your channel, notification payload and WNS access token you can then perform an HttpWebRequest to post your notification to WNS for delivery to your client.

To download & more :   http://blogs.msdn.com/b/windowsazure/archive/2011/09/14/announcing-the-windows-azure-toolkit-for-windows-8.aspx

Download SDK:  http://watwindows8.codeplex.com/

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