(this post is also available in French)
This post is about creating an automatic deployment that could be used by everyone. I picked Dropbox as source control because today mostly everyone got is account. If you need one, feel free to use this invite it will gives you 500 MB of bonus space for free!
Step 1: Configure the automatic deployment
To configure the deployment, connect to the Azure management portal. Although the new portal is my favourite to manage and visualize information on websites, as I write this post the features needed for the Dropbox deployment were not yet available. We must connect to "old" portal and select the Web site. You a website is not already created you can add one using the quick create.
After selecting the site, you need to click on the option: Set the deployment from source control, which is located at the bottom right of the dashboard code.
From the dropdown list, choose Dropbox and click the arrow. Microsoft Azure deployment will now aks you to have to access on a directory in your Dropbox account.
Step 2: Publish Web Site
From your computer, access Dropbox. If you left the default settings, the directory should be under Apps / Azure / [dirname]. You can now copy the code, images and all other files that you need. After synchronization with DroxBox completed (the small green checks everywhere) you can return to Azure portal.
It is now time to deploy. To do this you need to click Sync.
Once completed you'll get a message informing you that the deployment is done. You can now check the log to see the deployment steps in detail if you wish.
The new version of your website is now available!
Conclusion
Deploy a blog, a static business site, a family owned site with Dropbox is so simple! It`s even better than the good old FTP, if something goes wrong, you can redeploy by one click.
Mostly Cloudy – Sept 5th, 2014 - Really interesting post that resumes the last release of Azure. It also gives a reference for every feature to get more detail.
Writing a Site Extension for Azure Websites (Elliott Hamai) - Great tutorial that explains how to build and test our Site Extention. It also explains how to publish it privately or publicly.
Azure DocumentDB: first use cases (Vincent-Philippe Lauzon) - Interesting post that places the new DocumentDb compares to the other solution in Azure.
A chatroom for all! Part 1 - Introduction to Node.js - This post is the first tutorial of a series about developing a real application in Node.js and putting it to Azure. In this one, learns how to setup your Windows environment.
Getting Started With Microsoft Azure Search - This post describes how to start playing with the new Azure search feature. A nice library that wrapped the REST API call is also used and shared on Github.
Microsoft Azure Media Services - This article explains how works Azure Media Services by following a real case step by step.
Programming
Getting Started with Git and GitHub (Dhananjay Kumar) - Very clear and simple tutorial that explains the basic command of Git Prompt and Git in VisualStudio.
Architect for the Cloud Using Azure Web Sites - That the article we need to read before doing our website on Azure. From A to Z, everything is explained to plan exactly what we need.
Tips for Best Practices in WordPress Development - Tuts+ Code Article (Damian Logghe) - This post explains the best practices to follow when "playing" with WordPress. It's true that some info are available on the WordPress website, but here is a little "je ne sais quoi" that make it very clear.
Why you need to use Bower - If you are hesitating about if you should or not try Bower, this post will pin down the nail.
Image Sprites made easy with Web Essentials (Josh Eastburn) - If you thought that using sprite was too complicated for the benefit you could have, this post will show you how effortless it is today.
New Compiler and Moving to GitHub - Interesting improvement about the compiler, looking forward to try those new features... And time to add GitHub followed projects to add Typescript.
At the office, we use a lot of virtual machines for our development and tests. It's really useful to be able to pop any number of VM in just few minutes and dispose of them once the job is completed. However, sometimes we need them for a long period, wouldn't it be great if we could save money? In this post, I will show you how you can achieve that.
Tip #1
The first tip is to shut down the VM when you don't need them. Why should you pay for it 24/7 if you only use them from 9 to 5, five days a week?! The common way to do it is by log-in into the Windows Azure management portal and to go in the virtual machine list. Select one by one the VM you want to close and click the shutdown button in the center of the bottom screen.
If you have many VMs, this task could become very boring. A PowerShell script is the perfect tool for that. Here are two scripts to start of stop one virtual machine.
Script to start the VM
#Full path of the publish Setting file downloaded from Azure.
$NameOfSettingFile = ".\MySettings.publishsettings"
# The name of the machine to get started
$VMName = "dev2"
# Azure Subscription Name
$SubscriptionName = "Frank Dev"
cls
if(!(Test-Path $NameOfSettingFile)){
echo "Download the Publishing Setting files, and re-run the script."
Get-AzurePublishSettingsFile
exit
}
Import-AzurePublishSettingsFile $NameOfSettingFile
Select-AzureSubscription -SubscriptionName $SubscriptionName
Write-Host "Starting the VM $VMName" -ForegroundColor Cyan
Start-AzureVM -Name $VMName -ServiceName $VMName
do{
Start-Sleep –Seconds 2
$vmInfo = Get-AzureVM -ServiceName $VMName -Name $VMName
$vmStatus = $vmInfo.InstanceStatus
Write-Host "The VM $VMName is still $vmStatus..."
}
while($vmStatus -ne "ReadyRole")
Write-Host "The VM $VMName is now accessible by Remote Connection." -ForegroundColor Green
read-host "Press enter key to close"
Script to stop the VM
#Full path of the publish Setting file downloaded from Azure.
$NameOfSettingFile = ".\MySettings.publishsettings"
# The name of the machine to get started
$VMName = "dev2"
# Azure Subscription Name
$SubscriptionName = "Frank Dev"
cls
if(!(Test-Path $NameOfSettingFile)){
echo "Download the Publishing Setting files, and re-run the script."
Get-AzurePublishSettingsFile
exit
}
Import-AzurePublishSettingsFile $NameOfSettingFile
Select-AzureSubscription -SubscriptionName $SubscriptionName
Write-Host "Stop the VM $VMName" -ForegroundColor Cyan
Stop-AzureVM -Name $VMName -ServiceName $VMName -Force
Write-Host "The VM $VMName is now shuting down." -ForegroundColor Green
read-host "Press enter key to close"
Tip #2
The second tip could be applied only on VM that don't need to scale or to be under a load balancer. A developer's machine is the perfect case for that. We need to change the tier of the VM. That a new feature since (put the date of the release here), so all your VM should be presently to standard.
We need to change the tier for basic. With this change apply the Billing rate will change. You could go on the pricing page to see more detail, but to give you an idea on a large VM this represent 40$. Interested? Here's how to change this setting. First, if you are not already, connect to the Windows Azure management portal. Then in the list of the virtual machine select the VM you want to change. Click on the Setting tab then change the tier. If the VM is running it will need a reboot, so save any work before.
I hope this quick tips could help you. Let me know if you have other idea and I will add them.
The Open Group Open Platform 3.0™ Starts to Take Shape (The Open Group Blog) - This post talks about an interesting white paper. What’s good in it and why we should read it. This new 3.0 platform look very promising.
Suggestion of the week
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