Last week Orchard, the new cool CMS system from the Microsoft stables, was migrated to the cloud. More precisely to Windows Azure. That’s of course great news as it shows that this puppy is growing up fast as I stated in my live meeting a couple of weeks ago.

However with the migration it turns out to be that the default Gallery service url doesn’t function anymore and you get to see something like the following when trying to either install a module or a theme:

To change the Gallery url go to the Dashboard > Settings > Gallery

Add a new feed and provide the following url: http://packages.orchardproject.net/FeedService.svc/. So you’ll end up with the following:

Now delete the first, original, url (http://orchardproject.net/gallery/server/FeedService.svc).

You’re now back in control to add new modules and themes.

Grz, Kris.

Last summer I was asked if I could write an article for SDN, a Dutch organization for IT enthusiasts. First time that I wrote for the magazine they offer but I was very pleased with the interaction between myself and the editor.

The article itself is an introduction about the new AppFabric Caching services on Windows Azure.

Grz, Kris.

When I look outside I see quite some clouds passing by. Not what you want during summer, especially when rain starts. However there are also fun clouds. They are colored in Azure. Microsoft Belgium provides a new summer course for us: Dive into the Windows Azure platform this summer.

I also blogged about other courses you could take a look at:

• HTML 5
• Windows phone 7 Mango update and Visual Studio 2010 ALM

Have fun diving into the cool stuff!

Grz, Kris.

Well organized and in a great location last Thursday the fifth edition of Community day was held. I gave a presentation myself about giving applications a second life in the cloud. It was a lot of fun to do so and I already got some great feedback from people in the audience. For the people who couldn’t make it, here are my slides:

If you’re interested in getting me over for your community to talk about ASP.NET (MVC), Razor, WebMatrix, jQuery, Azure, … just drop me a note or follow me on twitter: @KvdM.

Grz, Kris.

Your business, your fame. That’s the title of the new Belgian Microsoft contest. It’s a great opportunity for you to learn to work with Azure, put your company in the spotlights and win! There are some cool prizes, besides eternal fame, to win.

The link where the big adventure can begin for you is: http://yourbusinessyourfame.cloudapp.net/. Good luck!

Grz, Kris.

With lots of goodies in it. Feels like Santa’s early this year .

This is taken from the overview of the download page:

The Windows Azure Platform Training Kit includes a comprehensive set of technical content including hands-on labs, presentations, and demos that are designed to help you learn how to use the Windows Azure platform including: Windows Azure, SQL Azure and the Windows Azure AppFabric.
The December update provides new and updated hands-on labs, demo scripts, and presentations for the Windows Azure November 2010 enhancements and the Windows Azure Tools for Microsoft Visual Studio 1.3. These new hands-on labs demonstrate how to use new Windows Azure features such as Virtual Machine Role, Elevated Privileges, Full IIS, and more. This release also includes hands-on labs that were updated in late October and November 2010 to demonstrate some of the new Windows Azure AppFabric services that were announced at the Professional Developers Conference (http://microsoftpdc.com) including the Windows Azure AppFabric Access Control Service, Caching Service, and the Service Bus.
Some of the specific changes with the December update of the training kit include:

• [Updated] All demos were updated to the Azure SDK 1.3
• [New demo script] Deploying and Managing SQL Azure Databases with Visual Studio 2010 Data-tier Applications
• [New presentation] Identity and Access Control in the Cloud
• [New presentation] Introduction to SQL Azure Reporting
• [New presentation] Advanced SQL Azure
• [New presentation] Windows Azure Marketplace DataMarket
• [New presentation] Managing, Debugging, and Monitoring Windows Azure
• [New presentation] Building Low Latency Web Applications
• [New presentation] Windows Azure AppFabric Service Bus
• [New presentation] Windows Azure Connect
• [New presentation] Moving Applications to the Cloud with VM Role

Grz, Kris.