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I would like to create a simple static web site on Azure Web Apps. I don't want any VS or PowerShell so I have just connected my Azure Web App to my OneDrive account. I just want to edit my local files and see them on site.

I have created new web app, connected it to my OneDrive account and this step was fine, it created apps/Azure Web Apps/""app name"" folder in my OneDrive so I have placed some html/css files there. Web App was synchronized; however, I could not open any html file (404 could not get resource index.html).

I FTP-ed site and I have found that there is a following element in my Web.Config file:

<rule name="StaticContent">
  <action url="public{REQUEST_URI}" type="Rewrite"/>
</rule>

Ok, so by default it assumes that static content will be in "public" folder so I have created "public" folder in my OneDrive and moved html file there. I have opened html file on my site url via browser and it was shown successfully!!!

Now, I have copied some other html/css files in subfolders of my "public" folder, but I cannot open them. Http requests to ""site""/somefolder/file.html ""site""/somefolder/file.css returns 404.

It seems that StaticContent rule do not matches subfolders.

I can continue hacking this and modifying iisnode rewrite rules, but am I missing something?

I just want simple static site connected to my OneDrive or Dropbox account, no VS, no power shell, no customization. Is it possible that this is a minefield if you are using the simple use case? Is there some tutorial or setting that I have not found?

Jovan MSFT
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2 Answers2

1

It's actually a lot simpler than what you tried.

As CSharpRocks already suggested in a comment, you could place static HTML files and resource files into the root folder. However, you did say that you want to use your OneDrive account.

The trick is to identify the source location on your OneDrive account, after you set it up on Azure. It looks like you already tried that initially, but it appears that you also moved the files to a different "public" location.

Just to clarify, here are the steps that I performed.

  1. In your Web App settings blade, click Continuous Deployment to select OneDrive, authenticate and choose the name, e.g. schtml5.
  2. In your OneDrive account, find the source location, e.g. /Apps/Azure Web Apps/schtml5/
  3. Place your static files into the above OneDrive location.

Since you already have continuous deployment set up (from Step 1), your website should be updated automatically every time that OneDrive folder (from Step 2) is updated. Make sure you choose to replace files when uploading any newer versions of files that already exist.

But you also mentioned that you have a Web.config file. Since you only have static files, you don't need this configuration file. Delete the Web.config file in Azure. You could use FTP to access your "/site/wwwroot" folder to delete the file. Make sure that you don't include the config file in OneDrive.

Hope that helps! :-)

Screenshots of my Azure portal and OneDrive below:

Azure portal screenshot

OneDrive screenshot

Shahed C - MSFT
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  • Thanks, this works.It still seems strange that web.config is automatically generated and that it cannot be removed without FTP. This was my firs web connected to OneDrive, and I assumed that all relevant files will appear in my local OneDrive folder. It is good to know what is workaround. – Jovan MSFT Feb 24 '16 at 22:32
  • That's weird. I used Notepad to create my index.html file, Azure portal to create the web app, OneDrive to upload the file, and FTP to verify the deployment. I didn't get any config file. Do you create a web project or website in Visual Studio? – Shahed C - MSFT Feb 24 '16 at 22:34
  • No I just created new app via portal and I have expected that I can do everything via file system. I'm doing some demo and I want to show that we don't need any tool to start with web apps. – Jovan MSFT Feb 24 '16 at 22:36
  • Oh ok, let me know if you see any continued issues once you delete the config file. All the best! – Shahed C - MSFT Feb 24 '16 at 23:48
  • Ok this was definitely my mistake. Deleting web.config solved the problem. Now I have crated another Web App and it does not have Web.config and everything works fine. Out f curiosity, do you know is there some chance that this web config was generated via some setting in web app? I have not used VS - I'm 100% sure about this and now I'm trying to reproduce how I made this mistake. I'm changing .Net settings but none of them generates web.config in FTP location. Strange. – Jovan MSFT Feb 25 '16 at 23:02
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In MS Build 2020 Microsoft announced the support for hosting Static Web Apps which allows you to build JavaScript web applications that automatically publish from changes made in GitHub.

This new option is ideal for static site generators such as Hugo, Jekyll and Hexo or for developers who use frameworks like Angular, Vue and React and seek a simple interface to deploy the cloud resources needed for a single-page application.

Here is an example to get started.

Sajeetharan
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