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In this post, I will explain why using FTP isn’t the best way to get your code into an Azure web app and how you can integrate your code management solution into Azure web apps for direct delivery without using FTP. In this example, I will create a deployment integration from GitHub into an Azure web app.
In another post, Uploading to Azure Web Apps using FTP, I explained how you could use FTP to publish your code and web content to an Azure web app or deployment slot. That’s a method that has been used for years but it’s very manual. These days, there are better ways to do things.
Code can be shared and stored in lots of ways, including very basic solutions, such as OneDrive or DropBox. More organized teams might use solutions, such as a Git server, GitHub, BitBucket, or Visual Studio Team Services (VSTS). This is not only to share code but also to manage it. So, if we have better ways to store code, manage versions, push/pulls/merges, and to collaborate, then wouldn’t it make sense to integrate these code management solutions into Azure. This would help to deliver our latest and greatest version directly to the web app or deployment slot without using FTP? I think so!
If you open a web app or deployment slot, you will find under Deployment something called Deployment Options. This allows you to connect your web app or deployment slot (I’ll just talk about web apps from now on) directly to your code management solution and synchronize your code from there.
Azure web apps support a number of external services:
The latter two services aren’t real code management solutions but they could be used by smaller operators as a means of collaboration. We can connect our web app with authentication to one of these services and synchronize the code content from it. As code is updated, a sync command can be run to update the web app repository. The result is that all that FTP mess is replaced by clicking a button.
When you enable one of the above solutions, a link is created with the storage of the web app. You can:
This approach brings about a structure and ensures that only production/tested code is pushed into production or a pre-production deployment slot in the web app.
There’s no better way to understand something than to see it or do it for yourself. In this example, I have created a project in GitHub with a very simple website.
A Simple Website Project in GitHub [Image Credit: Aidan Finn]
The Default Website in an Azure Web App [Image Credit: Aidan Finn]
The Supported Deployment Integrations for Azure Web Apps [Image Credit: Aidan Finn]
Configure a GitHub Deployment Integration with an Azure Web App [Image Credit: Aidan Finn]
The Optional Stress or Performance Test that Tuns After Every Web App Deployment [Image Credit: Aidan Finn]
How My Azure Web App Deployment Integration Performed Last [Image Credit: Aidan Finn]
A Site that Was Loaded from GitHub into Azure Web Apps [Image Credit: Aidan Finn]
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