[This article was contributed by the AppFabric team.]

Today at the TechEd conference we announced that we have released enhancements to Service Bus as part of the Windows Azure AppFabric CTP May release, and the upcoming release of the AppFabric Developer Tools and Application Manager as part of the Windows Azure AppFabric CTP June release.

Service Bus is already a production service supported by a full SLA. We also have a CTP version of the service showcasing future enhancements in our LABS previews environment. Today we have released the Windows Azure AppFabric CTP May release that adds more comprehensive pub/sub capabilities to the Windows Azure platform which enhance and enable new scenarios.

The Service Bus enhancements include capabilities that enable more advanced pub/sub messaging through Queues with a durable store and Topics that enable subscriptions. You can learn more on these capabilities in this blog post: Introducing the Windows Azure AppFabric Service Bus May 2011 CTP.

In addition, these enhancements enable connectivity to Service Bus from any platform or operating system through the REST/HTTP API. For example, it is possible for Java and PHP applications to connect to the Service Bus using the REST/HTTP API.

We are also adding more videos and code samples to the Windows Azure AppFabric Learning Series available on CodePlex regarding these capabilities. Here is the list of videos on these capabilities that have already been released, or are coming soon:

• An Introduction to the Windows Azure AppFabric Service Bus
• An Introduction to Windows Azure AppFabric
• An Introduction to Service Bus Queues
• An Introduction to Service Bus Topics
• Coming Soon: An Introduction to Service Bus Relay
• Coming Soon: How to use Service Bus Topics + Code Sample
• Coming Soon: How to use Service Bus Queues + Code Sample
• Coming Soon: How to use Service Relay + Code Sample
• Coming Soon: How to connect to Service Bus from Java and PHP applications Code Samples

In addition, we announced at TechEd that the upcoming Windows Azure AppFabric CTP June release will introduce new capabilities that make it easy for developers to build, deploy, manage and monitor multi-tier applications (across web, business logic and database tiers) as a single logical entity.

These new capabilities consist of:

• AppFabric Developer Tools which are enhancements to Visual Studio that enable to visually design and build end-to-end applications on the Windows Azure platform.
• AppFabric Application Manager which are runtime capabilities that enable automatic deployment, management and monitoring of the end-to-end application, and is supported by visual monitoring and analytics from within the cloud management portal.
• Composition Model which are a set of .NET Framework extensions for composing applications on the Windows Azure platform. This builds on the familiar Azure Service Model concepts and adds new capabilities for describing and integrating the components of an application. The Composition Model gets created by the AppFabric Developer Tools and used by the AppFabric Application Manager.

This CTP will also enable and make it easy to build, deploy, manage and monitor Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) and Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) services on AppFabric.

You can learn more by watching the Composing and Managing Applications with Windows Azure AppFabric video which we added to the Windows Azure AppFabric Learning Series available on CodePlex.

We will share more details on these capabilities with the release of the Windows Azure AppFabric June CTP.

The enhancements to Service Bus are available on our LABS previews environment at: . So be sure to login and start checking out these new capabilities.
You should also download the new Windows Azure AppFabric SDK V2.0 CTP – May Update in order to be able to use these capabilities. Please remember that there are no costs associated with using the CTPs, but they are not backed up by any SLA.

We would really like to get your feedback on these new capabilities showcased in the CTP, so make sure to ask questions and provide feedback on the Windows Azure AppFabric CTP Forum.

For questions and feedback on the production Service Bus please use the Connectivity for the Windows Azure Platform Forum.

To learn more about Windows Azure AppFabric:

• Visit the Windows Azure AppFabric website
• Visit the Windows Azure AppFabric Developer page
• Read the Windows Azure AppFabric Overview Whitepaper
• Watch the videos and code samples on the Windows Azure AppFabric Learning Series available on CodePlex

If you have not signed up for Windows Azure AppFabric yet be sure to take advantage of our free trial offer. Just click on the image below and get started today!

The Windows Azure AppFabric Team.