MICROSOFT EXAM 70-487 STUDY GUIDE

I have put together a study guide for the Microsoft exam 70-487 (Developing Windows Azure and Web Services) since there are yet no books available from Microsoft Press. This is the material I am using right now to study for the exam. Hopefully it covers most of the content on the exam.

The exam covers the following sections according to the exam site:

• Accessing Data (24%)
• Querying and Manipulating Data by Using the Entity Framework (20%)
• Designing and Implementing WCF Services (19%)
• Creating and Consuming Web API-based services (18%)
• Deploying Web Applications and Services (19%)

The objectives are narrowed down to keywords in the following sections in this post. The keywords are paired with links, preferably a link to a webcast. Some of the links refer to older .net technologies but will hopefully be applicable even in .Net 4.5. Most of the webcast links require a PluralSight account, so I suggest you visit pluralsight.com and get yourself a subscription. They have a free subscription for up to 200 minutes for new customers.

Happy studying!

ACCESSING DATA

• When to use blob, tables, queues, sql db (see Data management section on http://pluralsight.com/training/Courses/TableOfContents/azure-bigpicture)
• Azure caching (http://pluralsight.com/training/courses/TableOfContents?courseName=azure-caching)
• Azure CDN (http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/develop/net/common-tasks/cdn/?redirectToLocale=false and http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/develop/net/fundamentals/intro-to-windows-azure/#caching)
• System.Transactions namespace (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.transactions.aspx)
• Caching (CacheDependency)
• modify XML data structures
• Load and manipulate XML data by using XSLT
  • XMLReader (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.xml.xmlreader.aspx)
  • XMLWriter (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.xml.xmlwriter.aspx)
  • XMLDocument (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.xml.xmldocument)
  • XPath and LINQ to XML (LINQ to XML section on http://pluralsight.com/training/courses/TableOfContents?courseName=linq-data-access)
• XSLT (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/126k9kx5.aspx andhttp://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/14689742.aspx)

ENTITY FRAMEWORK

• General (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/data/ee712907)
• Whats new: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ex6y04yf.aspx)
• Deferred execution (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb738633.aspx)
• Lazy loading and eager loading, IQueryable vs. IEnumerable (http://channel9.msdn.com/blogs/matthijs/linq-tips-tricks-and-optimizations-by-scott-allen)
• Data providers
• Query using linq to entities (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/data/jj573936and http://pluralsight.com/training/Courses/TableOfContents/querying-entity-framework)
• Query using ado.net, Connection, DataReader, Command, DataAdapter, DataSet (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/8t72t3k4.aspx)
• Create data model

WCF SERVICES

• What´s new: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd456789.aspx
• General (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb412204.aspx,http://pluralsight.com/training/courses/TableOfContents?courseName=wcf-extensibility)
• Create a service (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb412178.aspxand http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb924552.aspx andhttp://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc681221.aspx and http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc656724.aspx)
• Understand contracts (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb412196.aspx)
• Synchronous and asynchronous operations (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms731177.aspx, http://blog.vuscode.com/malovicn/archive/2012/01/21/what-is-new-in-wcf-in-net-4-5-taskt-and-async.aspx)
• Configuration (endpoints, bindings) by API and config files (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms733830.aspx)
• Expose service metadata (XSD, WSDL, exchange) (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms751498.aspx)
• Routing and discovery
• Address resources; implement filtering; create a query expression; access payload formats (including JSON); use data service interceptors and service operators
• Security (http://pluralsight.com/training/Courses/TableOfContents/iac-wcf)
• Consume a service
• Versioning (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms731138.aspx)
• Create on Azure (.net4: http://www.dotnetcurry.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=819)
• Messaging patterns (one-way, request/reply, streaming, duplex) (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms733070.aspx)
• Azure messaging patterns (azure service bus, azure queues) (http://pluralsight.com/training/courses/TableOfContents?courseName=azure-sb)
• Hosting (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms730158.aspx)
• Manage services concurrency (single, multiple, reentrant) (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms752260.aspx)
• Instancing mode (per call, per session, singleton) (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms752230.aspx)
• Transaction (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms751413.aspx)
• Using AppFabric (appfabric section on http://pluralsight.com/training/courses/TableOfContents?courseName=beginner-azure)
• Host in Azure worker role (.net 4: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/wazplatformtrainingcourse_windowsazurerolecommunicationvs2010lab.aspx)

WEB API SERVICES

• Create web api-based services (http://www.asp.net/web-api,http://pluralsight.com/training/courses/TableOfContents?courseName=aspnetwebapi)
• Consume service
• Content negotiation and response types (http://www.strathweb.com/2012/07/everything-you-want-to-know-about-asp-net-web-api-content-negotation/)
• Actions and parameters
• HttpMessageHandler (http://www.asp.net/web-api/overview/working-with-http/http-message-handlers and http://byterot.blogspot.se/2012/05/aspnet-web-api-series-messagehandler.html)
• Dependency injection with dependency resolver (http://www.asp.net/web-api/overview/extensibility/using-the-web-api-dependency-resolver)
• Action and exception filters (http://www.asp.net/web-api/overview/web-api-routing-and-actions/exception-handling)
• Asynchronity and streaming (http://www.strathweb.com/2013/01/asynchronously-streaming-video-with-asp-net-web-api/)
• Security (XSRF, filters) (http://www.asp.net/web-api/overview/security/authentication-and-authorization/preventing-cross-site-request-forgery-(csrf)-attacksand http://vimeo.com/43603474)
• Host as windows service (http://www.asp.net/web-api/overview/hosting-aspnet-web-apiand http://www.piotrwalat.net/hosting-web-api-in-windows-service/)
• Host in Azure as worker role
• Restrict message size (http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9453738/how-do-i-configure-the-buffer-size-and-max-message-size-in-the-asp-net-web-api)

DEPLOYING WEB APPLICATIONS AND SERVICES

• Strategies (automated build from TFS, XCopy, IIS install package, VIP swap, sets of configs) (Basics and Source control sections in http://pluralsight.com/training/Courses/TableOfContents/azure-websites)
• SetParameters to setup IIS app pool (http://www.asp.net/web-forms/tutorials/deployment/web-deployment-in-the-enterprise/configuring-parameters-for-web-package-deployment)
• Web.config transformations (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd465318(v=vs.100).aspx)
• NuGet (http://gregorsuttie.com/2011/01/03/using-a-nuget-local-repository/)
• Interning (http://books.google.se/books?id=I-dHxFjfbi8C&pg=PA149&lpg=PA149&dq=aspnet_intern&source=bl&ots=QwT46tKHiJ&sig=R89bFg8wZJeQI0UewxSyAqDvBz8&hl=en&sa=X&ei=a3DtUIqLH6iE4gTsiIDwAw&ved=0CEwQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=aspnet_intern&f=false)
• Strong naming (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/wd40t7ad.aspx)
• Deploy to GAC (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/yf1d93sz.aspx)
• Assembly versioning (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/51ket42z.aspx)
• Assembly binding redirects (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/433ysdt1.aspx)