Comments for simonguest.com

Comment on Using Apple Push Notifications from Windows Azure by Simon

Simon — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 23:13:53 +0000

Hi Simon,

Just thought I’d update you. Thanks to your website I did eventually persevere and managed to get this all up and working. I plan to post the code on my blog once I’ve tidied it up a little.

Comment on Using Windows 7 to host PHP applications in 5 easy steps! by Bill Balnaves

Bill Balnaves — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 07:14:19 +0000

The instructions are now out of date.
Install available from Microsoft http://php.iis.net/

Comment on Using Apple Push Notifications from Windows Azure by Simon

Simon — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 15:14:19 +0000

Hi Simon – sorry to hear you are still having troubles. If I’m correct, you can get the code working directly from a C# application – but once you put it in an Azure role, things stop working (even on the development fabric on your local machine)?

Comment on Using Apple Push Notifications from Windows Azure by Simon

Simon — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 12:27:25 +0000

Thanks MinGyu,

I think everyone reading this should apply these changes to be on the safe side.

Comment on Using Apple Push Notifications from Windows Azure by Simon

Simon — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 23:14:16 +0000

OK, I got it all running – its says it connected OK, and the messages were sent OK (no exceptions anyway). However, I get no notifications to my app

I double-checked the DEVICE TOKEN and it was fine.

Will this actually work when running in the Azure emulator on my laptop?

Since your example uses the “Simple” notification format for the message to the APN server, I can’t get any feedback from the APN server. And I can’t use the “enhanced” format as I haven’t got a clue how i’d intercept the usual error response.

This is all so opaque !

Comment on Using Windows 7 to host PHP applications in 5 easy steps! by Abdul hafeez Awan

Abdul hafeez Awan — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 19:32:21 +0000

inetmgr how can i open by typing inetmgr in the Start menu i do not access

Comment on Using Apple Push Notifications from Windows Azure by Simon

Simon — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 00:10:26 +0000

Hi (wiser) Simon!,

Sorry for all the questions and thanks for the offer of help.

I think I’ve got it to connect. It says it is now anyway!

There were two issues, your code example was missing the folder separators “\” I think, it should be:

private static X509Certificate2 CLIENT_CERT = new X509Certificate2(Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable(“RoleRoot”) + @”\approot\certs\mix11_dev_cert.p12″, CERT_PASSWORD);

This might be obvious to anyone that knows Azure but I’m a complete beginner.

However, I finally got my code working by moving my certificate into the root and using:

private static X509Certificate2 CLIENT_CERT = new X509Certificate2(Path.Combine(appRoot + @”\”, @”approot\my_cert_name.p12″), CERT_PASSWORD);

The other issue was my fault, but perhaps something worth stipulating. As well as marking the certificate as “Content” you must also set “Copy to Output Directory” to “Copy always” or “Copy if Newer”. As a newbie, I’d left it at “Do not copy”.

I now get a successful connection to APN with my certificate. I’m still testing locally and now moving onto the code to actually send the message. Slow progress as I’m really wanting to understand what’s happening here rather than just cutting and pasting your code.

NB: I’m totally confident with .NET and web page development, but completely new to Azure and Certificates.

Comment on Using Apple Push Notifications from Windows Azure by Simon

Simon — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 20:16:11 +0000

Simon – happy to try and help. Are you trying to get this working using Windows Azure, or just from a local machine? The cert path in my code relates to Windows Azure – the environment variable is used to determine whether the certificate is uploaded to.

Comment on Using Apple Push Notifications from Windows Azure by Simon

Simon — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 22:30:19 +0000

I get the exception:

System.Security.Cryptography.CryptographicException: The system cannot find the file specified.

Comment on Using Apple Push Notifications from Windows Azure by Simon

Simon — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 22:23:19 +0000

I don’t understand the line that (presumably) is creating a certificate class from the Apple certificate.

The line is:

private static X509Certificate2 CLIENT_CERT = new X509Certificate2(Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable(“RoleRoot”) + @”approotcertsmix11_dev_cert.p12″, CERT_PASSWORD);

Yet you advised us to put our certificate in a folder called “Certs”.
I just can’t understand how this is working or even if this IS the Apple certificate?