SynchronousIO Sample Code

The SynchronousIO sample code illustrates techniques for retrieving information from a web service and returning it to a client. The sample comprises the following items:

• SynchronousIO solution file

• AzureCloudService

• CreateFileToUpload project

• WebRole WebAPI project

• Detailed Documentation

The sample simulates fetching information from a data store. The data returned is a UserProfile object (defined in the Models folder in the WebRole project):

C#

public class UserProfile
{
    public string FirstName { get; set; }
    public string LastName { get; set; }
}

The code that actually retrieves the data is located in the FakeUserProfileService class, located in the WebRole project. This class exposes the following three methods: C#

public class FakeUserProfileService : IUserProfileService
{
    public UserProfile GetUserProfile()
    {
        ...
    }

    public async Task<UserProfile> GetUserProfileAsync()
    {
        ...
    }

    public Task<UserProfile> GetUserProfileWrappedAsync()
    {
        ...
    }
}

These methods demonstrate the synchronous, task-based asynchronous, and wrapped async techniques for fetching data. The methods return hard-coded values, but simulate the delay expected when retrieving information from a remote data store.

WebRole is a Web API project. It contains five controllers:

• AsyncController

• AsyncUploadController

• SyncController

• SyncUploadController

• WrappedSyncController

The AsyncController, SyncController, and WrappedSyncController WebAPI controllers call the corresponding methods of the FakeUserProfileService class.

The AsyncUploadController and SyncUploadController WebAPI controllers call corresponding methods in the Azure Blob storage sdk to upload the "FileToUpload.txt" file to Blob storage.

The CreateFileToUpload project is a console app that can be used to generate a file named "FileToUpload.txt" that is 10 MB in size.

Configuring the project

The SyncUploadController and AsyncUploadController use Azure Storage to save blob data. Use the Azure Management Portal to create an Azure Storage Account and add the connection string for this account to the AzureCloudService ServiceConfiguration files.

Deploying the project to Azure

In Visual Studio Solution Explorer, right-click the AzureCloudService project and then click Publish to deploy the project to Azure.

Load testing

You can use Visual Studio Online to load test your application. For details of the load testing strategy for this sample, see Load Testing.

For more realistic results, configure the user load to simulate bursts of traffic with periods of low usage between bursts of high usage. In order to raise and lower the user load within a load test, you will need to create a custom load test plugin.

Dependencies

This project requires Azure SDK 2.5