Chapter 6
Use the Cloud!
WHAT YOU WILL LEARN IN THIS CHAPTER:
- Understanding cloud services
- Understanding cloud databases
- Understanding the REST model for web services
- Learning to use the Amazon SimpleDB service
- Learning to use the simpledb Node module
- Developing a command-line interface for SimpleDB
- Dealing with time differences on clients and servers
- Developing a web service interface for SimpleDB
- Synchronizing local data with remote data
It’s time to start using the cloud. In this chapter, you’ll begin using cloud services as the building blocks for enhancing the functionality of your mobile applications. This chapter shows you how to store your application data in the cloud, using the Amazon SimpleDB cloud database. You’ll also learn how to write a REST web service and how to synchronize local mobile application data with data in the cloud.
THE CLASSIC CLOUD ARCHITECTURE
When you start to build and use cloud-based services, you need to understand how all the pieces fit together. You need to understand these three participants: the clients, your service, and the third-party cloud services you use. It helps to have a simple picture in your head that drives your design decisions. Figure 6-1 shows such a picture.
You may very well build the client apps yourself. But even if you provide client apps to your users, you will almost certainly want to provide a web service ...
