My goal was to write a bit of scaffolding to make using the storage service fun and easy from in IronPython. The Windows Azure SDK comes with a library in the samples which does the low level work interfacing with the API and provides some nice classes to work with. There are methods to generate table schemas by reflecting on model classes and another sample implements all the standard .NET providers.
I was hoping to write all the scaffolding and the model classes in IronPython but, in the first of a series of set backs, I found the development storage server behaves differently than the cloud. For some reason you need to create tables on the development storage server using a command line tool, passing your model assemblies as arguments. Apparently this will be fixed soon, but trying to stay focused I decided I'd have to write my models in C# for now.
Once I had an assembly with some models I could use the DevTableGen.exe command line tool that comes with the Azure SDK to create tables on my development storage server.
I don't think there are currently any good tools for visualizing and editing data, but I'm sure by the time its released it will integrate into Server Explorer and Query Analyzer (or perhaps it'll just be a Firefox plug-in). I've seen a presentation where HTTP requests are hand coded to retrieve data, but I wasn't up for that and tried importing the sample library into an IronPython console. I got enough working to convince me everything was going to work out, I just needed find out how to use extension methods in IronPython...
Much to my surprise and disappointment, consuming extension methods in IronPython is still difficult. There does appear to be a way to bind the extension methods, but I haven't seen an example binding all the Linq extension methods. This is a problem as it means Linq expression trees can't be easily built in IronPython. Passing expression trees as queries is ideal as the cloud can do the filtering, sorting and only return the data you want.
I decided to put this problem on ice and write helpers in C# that returned a List<T> of all the rows. This won't work well with lots of data, but it will work find on small tables.
I wrapped the required credentials to connect to the service in an Account class, mainly so I could hard code the development credentials which are always the same.
public class Account
{
public Uri EndPoint { get; set; }
public String AccountName { get; set; }
public String SharedKey { get; set; }
public Account()
{
// development server defaults
EndPoint = new Uri("http://127.0.0.1:10002/");
AccountName = "devstoreaccount1";
SharedKey = "Eby8vdM02xNOcqFlqUwJPLlmEtlCDXJ1OUzFT50uSRZ6IFsuFq2UVErCz4I6tq/K1SZFPTOtr/KBHBeksoGMGw==";
}
}I later I will try creating Models on the DLR, but for now I created them in a separate assembly using C#.
namespace DataModels
{
public class PostDataModel : TableStorageEntity
{
public PostDataModel(string partitionKey, string rowKey)
: base(partitionKey, rowKey)
{
}
public PostDataModel()
: base()
{
PartitionKey = Guid.NewGuid().ToString();
RowKey = String.Empty;
}
public string Name
{
get;
set;
}
public string Content
{
get;
set;
}
}
}A context is required that derives from TableStorageDataServiceContext, the field names in the context are used for table names and the type of the field describes the table row. The DataServiceContext works a bit like the LinqToSql data context keeping track of all the objects it returns.
namespace DataModels
{
public class DataServiceContext : TableStorageDataServiceContext
{
public DataServiceContext(StorageAccountInfo accountInfo)
: base(accountInfo)
{
}
public IQueryable<PostDataModel> PostTable
{
get
{
return this.CreateQuery<PostDataModel>("PostTable");
}
}
public IQueryable<PostDataModel> CommentTable
{
get
{
return this.CreateQuery<PostDataModel>("CommentTable");
}
}
}
}I wrote a generic model class to hide all the details and provide a simple wrapper to access create, read and select operations on a table. There's a couple of tests in the solution that demonstrate how this work, but basically you just need a custom context (V), a model (T) and table name. The generic model can then be used to insert, select and delete from the table.
public class Model<T, V>
where V : TableStorageDataServiceContext
{
private V _context;
public StorageAccountInfo AccountInfo { get; set; }
public TableStorage TableStorage { get; set; }
public string TableName { get; set; }
public Model(Account account, string tableName)
{
TableName = tableName;
AccountInfo = new StorageAccountInfo(account.EndPoint, null, account.AccountName, account.SharedKey);
TableStorage = TableStorage.Create(AccountInfo);
_context = Activator.CreateInstance(typeof(V), new object[] { AccountInfo } ) as V;
}
public List<T> Select()
{
MethodInfo field = _context.GetType().GetMethods().Where(f => f.Name == "get_" + TableName).FirstOrDefault();
if (field == null) return null; // field doesn't exist
IQueryable<T> fieldValue = (field.Invoke(_context, null) as DataServiceQuery<T>);
var results = from c in fieldValue select c;
TableStorageDataServiceQuery<T> query = new TableStorageDataServiceQuery<T>(results as DataServiceQuery<T>);
IEnumerable<T> queryResults = query.ExecuteAllWithRetries();
return queryResults.ToList();
}
public void Insert(object item)
{
_context.AddObject(TableName, item);
_context.SaveChanges();
}
public void Delete(object item)
{
// AttachTo is not required if the item was created by the context
_context.DeleteObject(item);
_context.SaveChanges();
}
}We've done all the C# code, now lets see how it can all be tied together in an IronPython console.
IronPython 2.0 (2.0.0.0) on .NET 2.0.50727.3053
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>>
>>> # import everything we need
>>>
>>> import clr
>>> clr.AddReference("DataModels.dll")
>>> clr.AddReference("DataHelper.dll")
>>> clr.AddReference("StorageClient.dll")
>>> from DataModels import *
>>> from DataHelper import *
>>> from Microsoft.Samples.ServiceHosting.StorageClient import *
>>>
>>> # create a generic model, using the default account (development server)
>>>
>>> model = Model[PostDataModel, DataServiceContext](Account(), "PostTable")
>>>
>>> # now we can add some data rows
>>>
>>> for i in range(5):
... post = PostDataModel()
... post.Name = "Post Name " + str(i)
... post.Content = "Some content for post" + str(i)
... model.Insert(post)
...
>>>
>>> # we can now read them back
>>>
>>> for post in model.Select():
... print "Name", post.Name
...
Name Post Name 3
Name Post Name 1
Name Post Name 2
Name Post Name 0
Name Post Name 4
>>>
>>> # delete them all
>>>
>>> for post in model.Select():
... model.Delete(post)
...
>>>
>>> # and finally ensure they have all been removed
>>>
>>> for post in model.Select():
... print "Name", post.Name
...
>>>
>>>
|
I'm pretty excited with how it all worked out, despite the setbacks. In future posts hopefully I'll have a go creating tables in the cloud with models and context created on the DLR. I will also try and resolve using Linq Extension Methods in IronPython which are essential to building complex queries to be executed in the cloud. I'm also writing a very simple Azure MVC weblog app which I'll hopefully finish soon.
The project can be downloaded here and I've also uploaded just the compiled DataHelper assembly.
I found these links useful writing this post:
Windows Azure Essential Links
Walkthrough: Simple Table Storage
Creating Azure Tables From Script