PHP Applications in Windows Azure Assets

Very shortly I will be starting a series on working with PHP on Windows Azure.  I will start off by explaining how to get PHP running in Azure using Full-IIS mode.  I know there is another article out that explains this, but my approach is slightly different as it does not require using Web PI for the PHP install.  Next up is setting up your development environment to work with Azure for development and testing.  I will be using Zend Studio for this, but it should be easily translated to any Eclipse based IDE.  From there I will move on to talking about the good stuff, code.  For this I will be building a Photo Gallery using Zend Framework.  In this I will show you how to write a web role to work with table and blob storage as well as using a worker role to work with Azure queues.  All of this is leading to a speaking engagement in July, more information on this and other speaking engagements coming soon.

The beginning…

We were married in January of 2000 and we had always talked about having a family, but made the decision to wait a couple of years.  We figured we were young and had plenty of time to get settled in to marriage and have a few life experiences before starting a family. This was a great couple of years and our relationship grew stronger.

The trying…

We finally decided that it was time to start trying to have a family, but we would be casual about it.  No sense in rushing it or putting undo pressure on ourselves, we are still young after all and had plenty of time.  After a year we started getting concerned and consulted with physicians.  Initially the physician identified my weight as a possible problem, so we set out to resolve that issue and put things on hold.

What next…

After I lost a little over two hundred pounds we decided that we should begin trying again.  This time we waited another year, with no encouraging signs we started to get very concerned. We switched physicians and finally found a doctor that thought it would be a good idea to do something other than just through some drugs at my wife.  At this point he suggested we have a couple tests done; mine painless and a little humiliating, hers very painful.

The heart break…

Test results started coming back, hers first, very encouraging.  Nothing physically wrong we were thrilled. Then my results were returned.  It turns out that I was the culprit, but there was a glimmer of hope that something could be done.  I went to see a specialist and after an examination and more tests we found that there was nothing that could be done medically at this time.

Moving on…

We as a couple decided we would try a couple of other things to conceive and have the family we so strongly desired.  After about 6 months and multiple attempts, we decided that adoption was the answer that we were looking for.  We started the process by contacting Adoption Circle in August of 2008 and I don’t think we could have made a better decision. They were a dream to work with and were with us every step of the way.  We had our first orientation meeting the following month.  After our second meeting with Adoption Circle we got to start moving down the path of adopting.

Procedures…

After a myriad of procedural things completed we were finally ready to start meeting with our social worker.  The first meeting was a bit nerve racking, but ended well enough.  We finished our final meeting with her in early February of 2009. At this time our social worker informed us that the normal wait time was between 1-2 years, but that she had a feeling our process would probably be more likely to be between 6-8 months…  If only she knew, she may have warned us.

Hyper speed…

About 5 days later we were contact by the agency with an opportunity and asked if we would be interested in sharing our adoption profile with the birthmother.  After some conversation on the phone and reading over the information we were given, we decided we were interested.  A day later (a Saturday) we received the next phone call explaining to us that the birth mother was very interested and would like to meet us.  We arranged to meet the following Wednesday in her home town for lunch about 2 hours away from ours, little did we know how fast this process was about to become.

The meeting…

So on that Wednesday we started on our drive out to meet the birthmother that had chosen us.  We were nervous and had no idea what to expect.  As we drew with in 20 minutes of our destination, we received a phone call from the social worker letting us know that something had came up and the birthmother would be unable to make it to the meeting, that we should go ahead home.  We were hungry, so we decided to go ahead and go to where we had planned to meet and have lunch.  Afterward we decided to go and try to locate the hospital that the birthmother was set to deliver at in a month.  We finally finished up and decided to go home… a little disappointed and concerned about what may have kept the birthmother from meeting us.

20 minutes…

So as we approached home, about 20 minutes from home to be exact, we received a phone call from the social worker again.  It went something like this:

Me: Hello?

Social Worker: Where are you guys right now?

Me: About 20 minutes from home.

Social Worker: Would you be able to turn around and come back?

Me: Sure, why?

Social Worker: Well the birthmother has been told that she needs to be induced, but is refusing to until she can meet you guys and be there for the birth.

Me: We are on our way (I had already turned around)

The meeting (take two)…

We met the birthmother that evening in her hospital room, shortly there after she was given the medication to induce labor.  We talked with her and got to know her while we were waiting.  Some of her family visited and we got to know them as well.  Infact, we waited all night as it turns out this childbirth was not going to be quick.

A baby is born…

On Thursday, February 19th, Christopher was born, all 5 pounds 11 ounces of him. It was all, so slow, but so very very fast.  It was exciting, frightening and absolutely thrilling. We spent the next 5 days getting to know both Christopher, his birthmother and various members of her family.  It was a truly exciting time.

He comes home…

After the initial stay we were able to bring Christopher home on the 24th. It was an amazing feeling to finally have a child.  It was well worth the wait.  Shortly after we arrived home we were greeted by the arrival of two very excited grandparents.

Finalization…

Over the next 6 months we grew as a family both in our home and at his grandparents. On August 25th, we were able to legally finalize our adoption of Christopher Lawrence William Beall.  There has only been two days that were happier in my life.  The day I married my lovely wife and the day my son was born. I hope you enjoyed our story and may it bring a little peace and happiness to you, the way my son has brought peace and happiness to me and my wife.

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So I take it that unit testing WPF bindings isn't an easy thing to do?

At ICC we tend to use what we consider a “Debug” value converter to make debugging bindings easier on ourselves.  Below is the source to such a value converter.

   1: using System;

   2: using System.Collections.Generic;

   3: using System.Linq;

   4: using System.Text;

   5: using System.Windows.Data;

   6:  

   7: namespace WpfApplication1

   8: {

   9:     public class DEBUG_Converter : IValueConverter

  10:     {

  11:         #region IValueConverter Members

  12:  

  13:         public object Convert(object value, Type targetType, object parameter, System.Globalization.CultureInfo culture)

  14:         {

  15:             return value;

  16:         }

  17:  

  18:         public object ConvertBack(object value, Type targetType, object parameter, System.Globalization.CultureInfo culture)

  19:         {

  20:             throw new NotImplementedException();

  21:         }

  22:  

  23:         #endregion

  24:     }

  25: }

From here we we will put a break point in the Convert method, so that we can be sure that the binding is in fact firing and that the value we expect is showing up.  The thing to remember is that a binding in this scenario should fire atleast two times.  The first being the initial class instantiation, then the next one when a value is actually set.  If you get only one and the value coming in is null, it is most likely due to your implementation of INotifiyPropertyChanged not being correct.  Below is the source of the XAML that shows the binding with the debug converter applied.  I am also attaching the source of the example project that this code comes from.

   1: <Window x:Class="WpfApplication1.Window1"

   2:         xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"

   3:         xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"

   4:         xmlns:converter="clr-namespace:WpfApplication1"

   5:         Name="uiThis" 

   6:         Title="Window1" 

   7:         Height="300" 

   8:         Width="300"

   9:         >

  10:     

  11:     <Window.Resources>

  12:         <converter:DEBUG_Converter x:Key="_DEBUG_Converter" />

  13:     </Window.Resources>

  14:     

  15:     <Grid>

  16:         <TextBlock Text="{Binding MyString, ElementName=uiThis, Converter={StaticResource _DEBUG_Converter}}" />

  17:     </Grid>

  18: </Window>

One thing to remember is that this is just one approach and it is the first step we will normally take.  This will most likely help solve 50-60% of all cases.

Source Solution

MVC4WPF is a software architectural pattern that provides an approach for building enterprise applications in an efficient, highly flexible, and cost-effective manner. Broadly speaking, MVC4WPF is based on a hybrid of the MVC pattern and the PAC patterns, with modules built on MVC and controller parent-child relationships built on PAC relationships. The result is a natural, hierarchical flow. MVC4WPF provides flexible architecture but requires a disciplined implementation approach. It also provides code automation for rapidly producing reliable "plumbing" code, allowing your developers to focus on requirements rather than reinventing solutions to old problems. It also maintains the separation of roles provided by MVC to gain all the advantages of parallel development.

One of the best things about MVC4WPF is that it is free.  We have released the project on CodePlex for everyone to use, comment on and help shape it’s direction.  In the next code drop we will be including some code snippets and further refinements to our automation code to make this pattern even better in the future. If you happened to miss our launch event or are not located in Columbus, you can find all the materials that we covered at the event here. This includes the files needed to get up and running, our slide deck and the source code to an early release version of our demo application that is modeled after Nerd Dinner.