Microsoft intros Windows Azure plugin for Eclipse

BANGALORE, INDIA: Software giant Microsoft has announced that the CTP (Community Technology Preview) of the Windows Azure Plugin for Eclipse with Java.

Windows Azure Plugin for Eclipse helps Java developers to take advantage of Java development on Microsoft's Windows Azure cloud platform.

"Our plugin is intended to help Eclipse users to create and configure deployment packages of their Java applications for the Windows Azure cloud," said Martin Sawicki, senior program manager, Interoperability Strategy team at Microsoft in a blog post.

Features of Windows Azure Eclpise plug-in includes Windows Azure project creation wizard and sample utility scripts for downloading or unzipping files, or logging errors in the startup script when running in the cloud.

Sawicki added, “I invite you to take a look at our latest release and share your feedback to help us make further progress in helping Java developers take advantage of the Windows Azure cloud.”

Other key feature includes, Shortcuts to test deployment in the Windows Azure compute emulator, Ant-based builder, Project properties UI for configuring Windows Azure roles (instance count, size, endpoints, names, etc), UI for easy remote access configuration for troubleshooting purposes, including ability to create self-signed certificates and Schema validation and auto-complete for *.cscfg and *.csdef files.