Windows Azure Mobile Services with iOS and Android
Yesterday, Scott Guthrie blogged about the new iOS client SDK and feature set for Mobile Services.
I'd like to bring several great bits of documentation together so that if you're interested in seeing the different ways you can use non-Microsoft platforms like iOS and Android to connect to Mobile Services, you have them all here. First, you can build the quickstart "Todo" Mobile Service by starting with the Windows Store quickstart here: https://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/develop/mobile/tutorials/get-started/. (To use the iOS instructions, you can go to https://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/develop/mobile/tutorials/get-started-ios/.) (I had a hand in writing the code for the native iOS client SDK application tutorial.)
That's existed for some time, and early on Microsoft evangelist Bruno Terkaly was very interested in showing how to use the service from any client, so he build a great tutorial set for iOS that makes HTTP REST requests and responses and the JSONKit library to handle the JSON formatting. It's a very simple walkthrough, and once you've built the basic ToDo Mobile Service, you can use and reuse it again and again from any application, including nodejs or php sites (duh). But his iOS tutorial is in five parts, beginning here:
Now you can do these same steps using the Mobile Services client iOS SDK. Those tutorials are:
- Getting Started with Mobile Services iOS SDK.
- Getting Started with Data using an iOS application. (Shows how to add support for Mobile Services to a pre-existing iOS application.)
- Getting Started with Authentication using an iOS application. (Shows how to add support for FB, Google, Twitter, and Microsoft Account authentication to a pre-existing iOS application.)
Got that? The first five demonstrate how to use Mobile Services making direct HTTP requests and the JSONKit library for serialization. The second set show you how to do the same thing, with the same Todo Mobile Service, but using the native client iOS SDK.
But Bruno didn't stop there. He's still out ahead of our own releases. Next up is Android support, and sure enough, he's already there. I get to help write up any Android client SDK when it arrives, but for now:
- Mobile Services from Android, Part One.
- Mobile Services from Android, Part Two.
- Mobile Services from Android, Part Three.
- Mobile Services from Android, Part Four.
Hopefully we'll catch up with Bruno soon.
-- Ralph