Hosting Our Server API on Azure WebApp

As we progressed through the development of our app, the front end began to take shape, marking a significant milestone in our project. However, a crucial component needed to ensure our app could operate effectively in a real-world environment—the server API. Initially hosted locally, this setup was sufficient for development and testing but would not suffice for a production environment. Our solution? Hosting the server API on Azure WebApp. In this blog post, we’ll dive into our decision-making process, the steps we took to host our API, and the impact it had on our app's usability outside of a developer environment.

As our front-end development neared completion, the need to host our server API in a stable, scalable, and accessible environment became increasingly apparent. After researching various hosting platforms, we chose Azure WebApp for its reliability, scalability, and integration capabilities with other Azure services. Azure WebApp's ability to handle the deployment and hosting of web applications made it an ideal choice for our server API, promising seamless operation and easy management.

The transition to Azure WebApp required careful preparation. We started by moving our server file to a separate repository. This step was crucial for a smooth integration with Azure WebApp, as it allows for direct deployment from a repository. By isolating the server file, we ensured that Azure could easily access and deploy our API without complications.

With our server file in a new repository, we proceeded to set up the deployment on Azure WebApp. The process involved:

1. Creating a New WebApp Instance on Azure: We initiated by setting up a new WebApp instance in our Azure portal. This step required configuring basic settings, such as selecting the runtime stack, region, and pricing tier, tailored to our app's needs.

2. Connecting the Repository: Azure WebApp offers various options for continuous deployment, including integration with GitHub, Bitbucket, and Azure Repos. We connected our newly created repository to Azure, enabling automatic deployment whenever changes are pushed to the repository.

With everything set up, we triggered the initial deployment. Azure WebApp seamlessly pulled the latest version of our server file from the repository and deployed it to the cloud.

Hosting our server API on Azure WebApp marked a significant leap towards making our app fully operational in a non-developer environment. This move not only provided a stable and scalable hosting solution but also enhanced our app's accessibility, enabling users to interact with it from anywhere, at any time.

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