Post
Started: 1/21/2010 7:10 PM
Picture Placeholder: DJ Liang
DJ Liang
Azure being cut off?
Agreed with gshaw....this prototype has reached the limit for me. I'm in the process of launching a pilot group of our school's moodle - and had things all ready to go with the live plugin...then I get the notice that Azure will no longer be free. Sorry to say - but users of moodle obviously went that way for the open source aspect of it. If Microsoft is going to require payment for the Live plug-in to work - you can count this project dead in the water. Too bad - because it really had some potential.
Posted: 1/22/2010 7:20 AM
Picture Placeholder: Kosar (Education Labs)
Kosar (Education Labs)
Hi DJ, The Azure services that require payment are for applications hosting their services on Azure. It should not affect the services we are using in the plug-in, as we are using Live services, which, as far as I know, are still free. So, I hope you will continue with your efforts with this information, and please rest assured our intent was not to somehow trick folks into a for-pay service with this plug-in. The plug-in works with on-premise and hosted services, for example, so we are seeing folks use it even with their own servers that they own and manage. Our goal was only to help Moodle users integrate with services they already use, such as those in our Live@Edu offering (which incidentally is also free for qualified educational institutions). Please let us know if something you received from Microsoft led to the concerns you raised, so we can help clarify further. Or please feel free to send email to us at "moodle at microsoft dot com" so we can help with any specifics that don't apply to the community. Hope this helps. Kosar Microsoft Education Labs
Posted: 1/28/2010 3:18 PM
Picture Placeholder: gshaw
gshaw
We're on step further down the road and all new Moodle users are being issued with the Live IDs so I really hope everything stays online! Now using Outlook Live, SkyDrive and waiting on the Office web apps next, makes the Moodle experience a lot richer having those extra services there. Microsoft had Live@Edu and the Moodle plugin as one of their main presentations at the BETT education show recently so it would be crazy if this service got taken down. I think some of the confusion arises from the naming of the various areas... we use the Live Services Developer Portal to set up the AppIDs, which is branded as Azure Services \ Live Services (which then gives rise to questions about whether it's an Azure paid service or part of development tools). As long as the Live Services Developer Portal is there it seems we're OK (hope I've got that right!) I found this link about the Delegated Authentication (with the handy breadcrumb trail that shows where you need to go to find out the info... quite a few levels down from the top!) http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc287659.aspx The plugin was a great idea and I know of a few places taking up Live@Edu as a result of the integration with Moodle. I just wish it could be made an official part of the Live@Edu offering which would five that extra stability and support to the product rather than it being a continually evolving prototype...
Get Microsoft Silverlight
no thanks