DreamFactory's open source REST API platform for mobile enterprise applications is now supported on Microsoft Windows environments. In this blog post we'll describe installation options and highlight some of the benefits DreamFactory can bring to your Microsoft projects.
Installation
We've partnered with Bitnami to offer a DreamFactory installer that configures a standalone WAMP (Windows-Apache-MySQL-PHP) stack for Microsoft Windows. This DreamFactory + WAMP setup won’t interfere with other installed software. Also available is a Bitnami DreamFactory module that can be installed on top of any existing Bitnami WAMP stack. If you prefer to run with IIS DreamFactory can be installed directly from GitHub on any server.
We're also one of the inaugural members of the Azure Certified program. For cloud hosting of DreamFactory on Azure, Bitnami offers an Ubuntu-based VM image which is now available from the Azure Gallery on the new Azure Management Portal. This makes it incredibly easy to get DreamFactory up and running on Azure.
Key Benefits
Here are some of the ways DreamFactory can make your Microsoft development a lot easier.
Provide a REST API for SQL Server - With DreamFactory you can add a REST API to SQL Server, or to any other SQL database, in just a few minutes. DreamFactory allows you to use our REST API to transact with any external database simply by configuring the database as a service in the DSP admin console. All you have to do is configure the credentials and connection string for the database. You can configure these globally for all users, by role for groups of users, or on a per-user basis. This information is stored securely on the DSP.
Mobilize Existing Windows-Based Apps - DreamFactory makes it easy to mobilize all or parts of your existing applications. For example, you might be creating mobile versions of your legacy .NET apps. DreamFactory enables you to RESTfully access the existing backend resources used by your .NET and other Windows apps, including any number of remote backend services such as databases, file storage, and email.
Run DreamFactory On Premises or in the Cloud - DreamFactory is a completely portable open source package that you can install either on premises or in the cloud. You're never locked in to a specific platform or installation. For example, you can easily point your mobile apps to a DreamFactory WAMP installation and later migrate your apps, services, schema, and data to a different DreamFactory installation running on Microsoft Azure or on a different cloud provider.
Windows SDKs to Streamline Mobile Development - We offer a Windows SDK to help you build your apps by providing C# interfaces to our REST API. This can be found on GitHub. You can also install DreamFactory on WAMP and use any of our other client SDKs for your mobile development projects (you can also call the DreamFactory REST APIs without any SDKs). It's completely flexible, the frontend mobile technology choices are up to you!
If you have any questions about installing or using DreamFactory for your projects please visit our wiki, our forums, or contact support directly.