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Building Java applications on Windows Azure gets easier with the new version of the Eclipse plugin

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I’m pleased to announce that the June 2011 CTP (Community Technology Preview) of the Windows Azure Plugin for Eclipse with Java is now available for download. As the project manager and designer behind our Java tooling efforts for Windows Azure,  I invite you to take a look at our latest release and share your feedback to help us make further progress in helping Java developers take advantage of the Windows Azure cloud. At the time this blog goes live, I'll be sleeping, but my colleague Gianugo Rabellino would have announced the new CTP during his keynote "Behind the scenes: Microsoft and Open Source" at the Jazoon conference in Zurich.

This plugin is intended to help Eclipse users create and configure deployment packages of their Java applications for the Windows Azure cloud. Its key features include:

  • Windows Azure project creation wizard
  • Helpful project structure
  • Sample utility scripts for downloading or unzipping files, or logging errors in the startup script when running in the cloud
  • Shortcuts to test your deployment in the Windows Azure compute emulator
  • Ant-based builder
  • Project properties UI for configuring Windows Azure roles (instance count, size, endpoints, names, etc)
  • [New in this CTP] UI for easy remote access configuration for troubleshooting purposes, including ability to create self-signed certificates
  • [New in this CTP] Schema validation and auto-complete for *.cscfg and *.csdef files

To install, just point Eclipse’s “Install New Software…” feature at http://webdownload.persistent.co.in/windowsazureplugin4ej/. Also make sure to install al the prerequisites, as explained in detail here or here. For those who have already been playing around with our Ant-based command-line tools called Windows Azure Starter Kit for Java, note that your Starter Kit projects are compatible with this plugin, in fact the plugin builds on top of the Starter Kit.

We’re continuously working on new tutorials and feature additions in our Windows Azure tooling for Java developers, so keep checking back with our main portal at http://java.interopbridges.com/cloud for further updates.

Martin Sawicki, Senior Program Manager, Interoperability Strategy team