Get Started

Running Locally in Azure

You need to make sure that the local development address (127.0.0.1) is set up in Azure ACS. To confirm this:

1. Navigate to the Azure Management Portal
2. Click Active Directory and go to the Azure Control Namespaces tab.

3. Select the namespace corresponding to your local environment then the Manage icon.
4. Click the Relying party applications button on the left side and ensure that your development environments are set up:

Azure Service Configuration Files

In order to be able to gain access to the running application you will need to ensure an email address you have access to is added to the AdministratorEmailAddresses setting in the ConfigurationSettings element of the cloud configuration file. For the local environment, this is the "ServiceConfiguration.Local.cscfg" file.

This will allow you to setup the initial Data Admin user who can then administer the application. A user who registers, and confirms, one of the AdministratorEmailAddresses has the ability to manage user roles, including himself.

Visual Studio

You must always remember to run Visual Studio as Administrator. The Azure Emulator requires elevated rights in order to function properly. Some things to take note of:

• Before running the solution you need to make sure you've enabled the NuGet Package Manager to automatically download files and updates it doesn't already have. This can be done by going to Tools -> Library Package Manager -> Package Manager Settings and then clicking "Allow NuGet to download missing packages".

• Another thing to take note of is that some machines have problems with running the post-build event that attaches the certificate to the project such as this one:

This can be fixed by opening the "Applications" folder and right clicking the "StudentSuccessDashboard" solution and navigating to its properties. From there select the "Build Events" tab and remove the "my" keyword from the Post-build event command line.

Running the Application for the First Time

Once the steps above are complete, follow these steps to get the development environment up and running for the first time.

• Run the solution with the SSD.Azure project as the Start Up project. Because you are not logged in, you will land on the Login page, which is the main landing page for unauthenticated users
• Log in using the identity provider of your choice and you will be redirected to the Single Sign-On log in experience for that identity provider. Note that the identity provider buttons are created dynamically based on the configuration of the relying party associated with the local development realm. Each identity provider associated with that relying party gets a button.

• Upon first log in you will be greeted by a profile registration page. The application requires the creation of a valid User Profile. This includes a valid email address. Your account will not be activated until you confirm that your email address is indeed valid. NOTE: The Gmail and Yahoo! identity providers can deliver the display name and email address automatically with the default rule group. If the email is accepted, no confirmation is necessary, however, the user is free to use a different email address.

• Once you have created your user account, assuming that you have setup your email address properly as described in the Azure Service Configuration Files section above, you should be able to navigate to Manage User Roles within the Admin drop-down navigation menu. From the data table, select your name and click the “+ Create New Activation” button. Setup yourself with whichever role you prefer and save your activation. If you simply want to explore the system the best role for this would be Data Admin, which has rights to view all content on the application.


NOTE: When running the application using a Debug build, the database that is created for you is prepopulated with some sample data to test with. This data does not get created when running a Release build.