Deploy to an Azure App Service using KUDU and a zip file

I wrote this article about a KUDU feature that supports the dragging and dropping of files from a local workstation to your Azure App Service.  It is also possible to drag and drop a compressed ZIP file and KUDU will automatically unzip the content of the file.  This is describe here already, but I like to try things out for myself as well.

Access your KUDU console, I explain more about KUDU here.  You can also access KUDU from the App Service blade via Azure Management portal, select on Advanced Tools then Go –> as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1, how to access KUDU from the portal, advanced tools

Once in KUDU, navigate to the location where you would like to deploy the code to and drag and drop the ZIP file, as seen in Figure 2.  I navigated via the CMD Debug Console.

Figure 2, how to drag and drop deploy a zipped compressed file to KUDU to an Azure App Service, advanced tools

Once I drop the zip, compressed file, the contents are unzipped and my site is accessible, as seen in Figure 3.

Figure 3, how to drag and drop deploy a zipped compressed file to KUDU to an Azure App Service, advanced tools

I tested this using my IIS Lab CSharpGuitarBugs web site located here.  Instructions for the labs are here.

While I was deploying my site I received “CodeDom provider type could not be located” which lead me this article again…

I noticed the CSharpGuitarBugs.zip I had as version 0.1.5 did not include any binaries in the /bin folder.  I created a new version v1.0.0 which contains the binaries.

To see how to create a zip file for deployment of an App Service or to any IIS on-premise server read here “How to make a local deployment and create a zip file for drag and drop deployment”.  NOTE that if you run the app on an IIS on-premise, the supporting platform binaries and frameworks need to be installed as well.  These things already exist on the Azure App Service platform.