Azure MobileServices Live/UAT/Dev environments - mobile

Question

I have an azure mobile service that will go live at some point. So I need to create UAT and dev versions which would point to the UAT and dev databases. What I am struggling with is how to create these.
The namespace in my live, UAT and Dev databases need to be the same but if I create a new mobile service called myAppName_UAT, it's going to want to use MyAppName_UAT as the namespace and so will not find any of the tables.
Has anyone overcome this problem? Once the product goes live I'll need to be able to test the mobile apps against the Dev db without affecting live which surely must be a common scenario?
Any advice would be very gratefully received.
Edit: What I'm specifically after is how to manage the multiple environments within the Azure Portal. I can deploy all the other components of my UAT environment but I'm stuck on the mobile service.
I am not asking for a way for my applications to switch config files or to migrate data between databases. Does anyone have any experience of running azure applications with multiple components where they ran multiple mobile services?

Answer 1

Do you use a Version Control? For me, you just need to create branches to separate the 'UAT' and 'dev' versions.
About the databases:
You can use web.config transformations to switch the connection string between your databases.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd465326.aspx
How do I use Web.Config transform on my connection strings?
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Update:
Ok, now I understood what you want.
Create your two versions of mobile services:
1-Log in Windows Azure Management Portal (http://manage.windowsazure.com)
2-Create your test mobile services (if you already have then, skip this step):
2.1- New -> Compute -> Mobile Services
2.2- Url - MyMobileServicesTest
2.3- Database -> Create a new (test db).
3-Create your production mobile services (if you already have then, skip this step):
2.1- New -> Compute -> Mobile Services
2.2- Url - MyMobileServicesProduction
2.3- Database -> Create a new (production db).
Right now, you have two different versions.
Using Windows Azure SDK:
//public static MobileServiceClient MobileService = new MobileServiceClient(
// "AppUrl",
// "AppKey"
//);
Pay attention: AppUrl will be "MyMobileServicesTest.azure-mobile.net/" or "MyMobileServicesProduction.azure-mobile.net/". The app key, each environment will have it's own. You can store this settings in a config file and switch according to what you are doing.
More information:
http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/develop/mobile/tutorials/get-started-with-data-dotnet/

Answer 2

Multiple mobile services can share the same database. You only need to specify the same schema name in web.config in each mobile service:
<appSettings>
<add key="MS_MobileServiceName" value="MyAppName" />
</appSettings>
Updated:
The setting above only works in localhost, but not after publishing to live.
Need to do the following trick in order to make it work. Just hard code the schema name into function OnModelCreating. This way the database schema name will not depend on the mobile service name any more:
protected override void OnModelCreating(DbModelBuilder modelBuilder)
{
string schema = "MyAppName"; // ServiceSettingsDictionary.GetSchemaName();
if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(schema))
{
modelBuilder.HasDefaultSchema(schema);
}
modelBuilder.Conventions.Add(
new AttributeToColumnAnnotationConvention<TableColumnAttribute, string>(
"ServiceTableColumn", (property, attributes) => attributes.Single().ColumnType.ToString()));
}