AppFabric
Encyclopedia
AppFabric refers to two related Microsoft
products.
. Positioned by Microsoft as middleware
, it provides several cloud computing
services:
s and web service
s to identify users, and grant access control
to the applications and services. The Access Control Service enables authorization decisions to be pulled out of the application and into a set of declarative rules that can transform incoming security claims into claims that applications understand. These rules are defined using a simple and familiar programming model, resulting in cleaner code. It can also be used to manage users’ permissions, saving the effort and complexity of developing these capabilities.
expressly for deployment through the service. (Still under development. The first beta release occurred on June 20, 2011.) The first public announcement was at the 2010 Professional Developer's Conference, as reported in Visual Studio Magazine. Previously known as "CompApp."
and scale.
such as transforming messages from one format to another, or providing a queue for message passing
. (Still under development.) An early mention is found in Information Week.
workflows that are hosted in Windows Communication Foundation
services. The software includes an extension of the Internet Information Services
management tool that enables an IIS administrator to monitor performance of services and workflows.
is an in-memory cache
that runs on one or more servers to provide a performance boost for users anywhere on the Internet.
Web Resource Authorization Protocol (WRAP) v0.9 REST
protocol, and changed REST support for Service Bus.
AppFabric version 1.0 released in December 2009, with an extended free period out to April 2010.
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
products.
- Windows Server AppFabric
- Windows Azure AppFabric
Windows Azure AppFabric
Windows Azure AppFabric is a part of the Microsoft Windows Azure PlatformAzure Services Platform
The Windows Azure Platform is a Microsoft cloud platform used to build, host and scale web applications through Microsoft data centers. Windows Azure Platform is thus classified as platform as a service and forms part of Microsoft's cloud computing strategy, along with their software as a service...
. Positioned by Microsoft as middleware
Middleware
Middleware is computer software that connects software components or people and their applications. The software consists of a set of services that allows multiple processes running on one or more machines to interact...
, it provides several cloud computing
Cloud computing
Cloud computing is the delivery of computing as a service rather than a product, whereby shared resources, software, and information are provided to computers and other devices as a utility over a network ....
services:
Access Control Service
Provides an easy way for web applicationWeb application
A web application is an application that is accessed over a network such as the Internet or an intranet. The term may also mean a computer software application that is coded in a browser-supported language and reliant on a common web browser to render the application executable.Web applications are...
s and web service
Web service
A Web service is a method of communication between two electronic devices over the web.The W3C defines a "Web service" as "a software system designed to support interoperable machine-to-machine interaction over a network". It has an interface described in a machine-processable format...
s to identify users, and grant access control
Access control
Access control refers to exerting control over who can interact with a resource. Often but not always, this involves an authority, who does the controlling. The resource can be a given building, group of buildings, or computer-based information system...
to the applications and services. The Access Control Service enables authorization decisions to be pulled out of the application and into a set of declarative rules that can transform incoming security claims into claims that applications understand. These rules are defined using a simple and familiar programming model, resulting in cleaner code. It can also be used to manage users’ permissions, saving the effort and complexity of developing these capabilities.
AppFabric Applications
Provides tools and APIs for developing and hosting a composite applicationComposite application
In computing, the term composite application expresses a perspective of software engineering that defines an application built by combining multiple existing functions into a new application. The technical concept can be compared to mashups...
expressly for deployment through the service. (Still under development. The first beta release occurred on June 20, 2011.) The first public announcement was at the 2010 Professional Developer's Conference, as reported in Visual Studio Magazine. Previously known as "CompApp."
Service Bus
Provides secure connections between distributed and disconnected applications in the cloud. The Service Bus diversifies choices for various communication and messaging protocols and patterns, and saves the need for the developer to worry about delivery assurance, reliable messagingReliable messaging
Reliable messaging is the concept of communicating messages across an unreliable infrastructure whilst being able to make certain guarantees about the successful transmission of the messages; for example, that if the message is delivered, it is delivered at most once, or that all messages...
and scale.
Caching
Provides a distributed, in-memory, application cache service for Windows Azure and SQL Azure applications. It provides applications with high-speed access, scale, and high availability, to application data. The benefit is a widely available service for optimizing performance. This is a cloud service version of the Windows Server AppFabric technology (see below).Integration
Leverages several capabilities of Microsoft BizTalk ServerMicrosoft BizTalk Server
Microsoft BizTalk Server, often referred to as simply "BizTalk", is an Enterprise Service Bus. Through the use of "adapters" which are tailored to communicate with different software systems used in an enterprise, it enables companies to automate business processes...
such as transforming messages from one format to another, or providing a queue for message passing
Message passing
Message passing in computer science is a form of communication used in parallel computing, object-oriented programming, and interprocess communication. In this model, processes or objects can send and receive messages to other processes...
. (Still under development.) An early mention is found in Information Week.
Windows Server AppFabric
Windows Server AppFabric consists of two technologies with different purposes.AppFabric Hosting Services
Provides an easy way for users to deploy and manage Windows Workflow FoundationWindows Workflow Foundation
Windows Workflow Foundation is a Microsoft technology that provides an API, an in-process workflow engine, and a rehostable designer to implement long-running processes as workflows within .NET applications...
workflows that are hosted in Windows Communication Foundation
Windows Communication Foundation
The Windows Communication Foundation , previously known as "Indigo", is an application programming interface in the .NET Framework for building connected, service-oriented applications.-The architectures:...
services. The software includes an extension of the Internet Information Services
Internet Information Services
Internet Information Services – formerly called Internet Information Server – is a web server application and set of feature extension modules created by Microsoft for use with Microsoft Windows. It is the most used web server after Apache HTTP Server. IIS 7.5 supports HTTP, HTTPS,...
management tool that enables an IIS administrator to monitor performance of services and workflows.
AppFabric Caching Service
AppFabric Caching ServiceAppFabric Caching Service
AppFabric Caching Service is a distributed cache platform for in-memory caches spread across multiple systems, developed by Microsoft. It is one of Microsoft's AppFabric's Services...
is an in-memory cache
Cache
In computer engineering, a cache is a component that transparently stores data so that future requests for that data can be served faster. The data that is stored within a cache might be values that have been computed earlier or duplicates of original values that are stored elsewhere...
that runs on one or more servers to provide a performance boost for users anywhere on the Internet.
Beta Versions
Beta versions of the services are released in what Microsoft calls a Customer Technology Preview, or "CTP." Current CTPS are found by searching on MSDN.Windows Azure AppFabric
AppFabric was originally called Microsoft .NET Services at its first public Community Technology Preview (CTP) release at the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference in October 2008. It originally consisted of three Internet-hosted services, Access Control, Service Bus, and Workflow Services. The July 2009 CTP release removed the Workflow Services feature. The PDC 2009 release revamped the Access Control service to use the OAuthOAuth
OAuth is an open standard for authorization. It allows users to share their private resources stored on one site with another site without having to hand out their credentials, typically username and password.OAuth allows users to hand out tokens instead of credentials to their data hosted by a...
Web Resource Authorization Protocol (WRAP) v0.9 REST
Rest
Rest may refer to:* Leisure* Human relaxation* SleepRest may also refer to:* Rest , a pause in a piece of music* Rest , the relation between two observers* Rest , a 2008 album by Gregor Samsa...
protocol, and changed REST support for Service Bus.
AppFabric version 1.0 released in December 2009, with an extended free period out to April 2010.
Microsoft sites
- Windows Azure AppFabric SDK download page, including the main documentation CHM file and the client binaries in an MSI installer
- Windows Azure AppFabric Documentation, online documentation.
- Windows Server AppFabric SDK Download page, includes documentation in a CHM file and installation binaries.
- Windows Azure AppFabric Overview, Microsoft's overview of the service suite.
- Windows Azure AppFabric CTP download page, beta version of soon-to-be-released software.
- Windows Azure AppFabric main product page
- Composite App
- Windows Azure AppFabric SDK June Release