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Sesame: Microsoft Dallas support

With the release of Microsoft Codename "Dallas" CTP3 and the features announced in the previous post, it became easier to add support for Dallas to Sesame Data Browser.
The new version of Sesame published today allows you to browse Dallas datasets, as demonstrated below.

Creating a connection to a Dallas dataset in Sesame is easy. You just need a dataset URL and an account key.

The Dallas portal

In order to get an account key and URLs, you need to visit https://www.sqlazureservices.com and sign in with a Windows Live ID. You'll then be able to subscribe to datasets, such as AP Online (Associated Press) or business information from InfoGroup:

Dallas Subscriptions

Note: Only CTP3 services are supported in Sesame.

Once you have a subscription, you can visit its preview page. This is where you'll find the URL you'll use in Sesame.
Here is for example the page for AP Online:

Dallas URL AP Online

The URL for AP Online is highlighted in blue on the above picture.

Your account key is available on the "Account keys" page:

Dallas Account Keys

Dallas in Sesame

Now that you have an account key and a URL, you can create an OData connection in Sesame:

Sesame Dallas Connection

Here is the result for AP Online if you click on GetBreakingNewsCategories:

Sesame Dallas GetBreakingNewsCategories

Copy a category ID and click on GetBreakingNewsContentByCategory.
Paste the category ID in categoryId and type 5 for count:

Sesame Dallas GetBreakingNewsContentByCategory

After clicking on Open, you'll get data in a grid, as usual:

Sesame Dallas GetBreakingNewsContentByCategory data

You can also locate the news items on a map:

Sesame Dallas Map

Known bugs

  • A bug in Dallas CTP3 prevents the "Load more" button to work correctly in all cases.
  • Dallas CTP3 does not support all filter operations. Namely, the EndsWith, StartsWith, Contains, DoesNotContain and IsContainedIn don't work with Dallas datasets.

Please give this new version a try. As always, your feedback and suggestions are welcome!

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