com673/azure-app-service

How to create and deploy a Java webapp on Azure

Azure App Service

How to create and deploy a Java webapp on Azure

The general steps are:

1. Create the Azure App Service
2. Configure the Azure App Service for Java and Jetty
3. Code your Webapp
4. (Re)Deploy your app

Create the Azure App Service

1. Log in to the Azure Portal, ensure you use your college email
2. Create a resource
3. Search for and select Web App
   1. Give it a unique name
   2. Ensure subscription is Azure for Students
   3. Create a new resource group (use a similar name so you know they are related)
   4. Select Windows (not because I work in Microsoft, but because you want to use Java/Jetty, and the Linux and Docker containers won't let you configure that as easily!)
   5. Leave Application Insights off
   6. Pin to Dashboard and Create

Configure the Azure App Service for Java and Jetty

1. In your app dashboard, go to Settings - Application Settings
   1. Java version - Java 8
   2. Java minor version - Newest
   3. Java web container - Newest Jetty 9.3

Code your Webapp

1. Create your Webapp as normal, in this case we'll use a generic Vaadin application quickstart webapp
2. Maven new project: Open Command Palette and start a Maven Archetype, then select the Vaadin template.
3. 'groupId': ie.examples
4. 'artifactId': VaadinGenericApp
5. Build your app with Maven Install, test it with Jetty on localhost
6. Find the final target/appname.war file and rename it to ROOT.war (we could automate that but no harm in learning what's happening behind the scenes)
7. On the command line, this works:

cd .\target\
ren .\VaadinGenericApp-1.0-SNAPSHOT.war ROOT.war

8. (On Windows) If you want to open a File Explorer here, type explorer . The full stop is important, it means 'this folder'!

(Re)Deploy your app

There are a few different ways to deploy, but a simple way is to FTP (File Transfer Protocol) your app to the webapps folder on your App Service. First, we need to tell your app that you might be FTP'ing to it

1. Open the app in the Azure portal
2. In Deployment - Deployment Credentials add an FTP username and password (save and remember them)
3. In Overview, copy FTP hostname

If you want to use a dedicated FTP client you can, if you have a recent version of Windows, it's built into Windows File Explorer:

1. Windows Key + E opens File Explorer
2. Paste FTP hostname into the address bar (in my case it was ftp://waws-prod-db3-095.ftp.azurewebsites.windows.net)
3. It should prompt you for the FTP username and password you set above
4. Navigate to site - wwwroot - webapps and drop/paste/copy ROOT.war into that folder (you renamed your .war file in the previous section)
5. If the file will not copy over easily, try stoping the web app in the portal first.
6. Wait for it to finish copying and close the window
7. Restart your app if you had stopped it.

Now you should be able to visit the app name (something.azurewebsites.net) and see your app running. If you don't immediately, give it a few seconds to reload...