Windows Azure Toolkit for Facebook

Welcome to the Windows Azure Toolkit for Facebook. This toolkit was built by Thuzi in collaboration with Microsoft to give the community a good starter kit for getting Facebook apps up and running in Windows Azure. Facebook apps hosted in Azure provide a flexible and scalable cloud computing platform for the smallest and largest of Facebook applications. Whether you have millions of users or just a few thousand, the Facebook Azure Toolit helps you to build your app correctly so that if your app is virally successful, you won't have to architect it again. You will just need to increase the number of instances you are using, then you are done scaling. :)

DISCLAIMER: This toolkit does not demonstrate how to create a facebook application. It is assumed that you already know how to do that or are willing to learn how to do that. there are plenty of links below on how to do this. Here is one, Link that is also listed below that helps explain how to set up an app and there are plenty of sample in the Facebook Developers Toolkit.

You can watch our Channel 9 Videos @:
Getting started with the Windows Azure Tollkit for Facebook: http://bit.ly/getStartedAzureFB
Interview with Jim Zimmerman, CTO Thuzi abd author of the Toolkit: http://bit.ly/InterviewJimZ

What does this Toolit include?

  • Asp.Net MVC 2 Link
  • Windows Azure Software Development Kit (February 2010) Link
  • AutoMapper Link
  • Azure Toolkit - Simplified library for accessing Message Queues, Table Storage and Sql Server
  • Automated build scripts for one-click deployment from TFS 2010 to Azure

How do I get started?

  • Set up a facebook developers account Link
  • Set up an iframe facebook application Link
  • Set up an Azure Account Link
  • Set up a database in Sql Azure Link
  • Set up a storage account in Azure for Table Storage, Message Queues and Blob Storage

Getting Setup and Running Locally

  • Create local database using the dbscript.sql found in the AzureFacebook.Data.Sql project
  • Change connection strings in the app.config in AzureFacebook.WorkerRole.csproj and AzureFacebook.Data.Sql.csproj
  • Set up facebook app and have callback url point to http://localhost:81/ 127.0.0.1 will not be accepted in facebook.
  • Open up the web.config and modify the following keys in the appSettings to match what is in your facebook app: APIKey, Secret, Callback, Suffix, and AppUrl

Setting up Deployment in TFS 2010

  • Add a server ssl certificate to your account in Azure Link
  • Check azure cmdlets and documentation of powershell scripts Link
  • Modify the TFSBuild.proj file to include your path for where your builds are released on your server

Last edited Nov 20, 2010 at 5:14 AM by jimzim, version 22