In my first post in the series, I provided a basic introduction to Microsoft’s new product: Azure DocumentDB, and how it compares to SQL Server.

If you haven’t read it yet, and you’re still unfamiliar with DocumentDB, then I recommend you read it here.

In this post, I will provide a short explanation on getting your feet wet with your very first Azure DocumentDB account. This is the very first necessary step with DocumentDB.

1.     Register for Microsoft Azure

If you don’t have one yet, you’ll first need to register a Microsoft Azure account.

Go to https://portal.azure.com/ and follow the standard registration process (if needed).

Eventually you’ll see something like this:

2.     Register for DocumentDB

Click on the “NEW” button with the big “+” on the left toolbar.

Click on “Data + storage” and then click on “Azure DocumentDB”.

If this is your first time doing this, you may get a message asking you to “Sign up” for the service.

Follow the standard registration process as instructed at every step.

For starters, I’d recommend selecting the “Free Trial” version to get you up to speed.

You will be asked for billing (credit card) information regardless, but you will only be charged if you use premium features and services.

3.     Accessing your DocumentDB Account

Once you have a DocumentDB account, you’ll be able to find it by clicking on “BROWSE ALL” on the left toolbar, and then either finding it under the “Recent” section, or by clicking on “DocumentDB Accounts” under the “Filter by” section.

Once you click on your DocumentDB account (in our case it’s “madeiradocs”), you’ll be presented with the DocumentDB Account dashboard, from which you can access all the features of DocumentDB:

You can find interesting features and developer tools at the top (such as Settings, Add Database, Document/Query/Script Explorer and more). You can also find interesting information if you scroll down (such as usage data, links to documentation and samples, and the same developer tools as at the top):

4.     Playing Around with Azure

The Azure portal allows lots of functionality for DocumentDB:

• Creating and managing databases.
• Creating and managing collections.
• Creating, querying and managing documents.
• Changing DocumentDB settings.

Feel free to play around in the portal and checking out its various features and developer tools.

5.     Programming with DocumentDB

In my next post in the series, I’ll help you get started with the really interesting DocumentDB stuff, namely – programming with DocumentDB in Microsoft Visual Studio 2013.

See you again soon!

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