Exercise - Create an Azure Static Web App

  • 5 minutes

In this exercise, you create an Azure Static Web Apps instance including a GitHub Action that automatically builds and publishes your application.

Create a Static Web App

Now that you created your GitHub repository, you can create a Static Web Apps instance from the Azure portal.

This module uses the Azure sandbox to provide you with a free, temporary Azure subscription you can use to complete the exercise. Before proceeding, make sure that you activate the sandbox at the top of this page.

  1. Sign in to the Azure portal, making sure you use the same account to sign in as you did to activate the sandbox.

  2. On the Azure home page, under Azure services, select Create a resource. The Create a resource pane appears.

  3. In the marketplace search box, search for and select Static Web App. The Static Web App pane appears.

  4. Select Create. The Create Static Web App pane appears. Configure your new app and link it to your GitHub repository.

  5. On the Basics tab, enter the following values for each setting.

    Setting Value
    Project Details
    Subscription Concierge Subscription
    Resource Group [Sandbox resource group name]
    Static Web App details
    Name Name your app. Valid characters are a-z (case insensitive), 0-9, and -.
    Hosting plan
    Pricing tier for your application Select Free
    Azure Functions and staging details
    Region for Azure Functions API and staging environments Select the region closest to you
    Deployment details
    Source Select GitHub
    GitHub account Select Sign in with GitHub. The Authorize Azure Static Web Apps pane appears. Select Authorize Azure-App-Service-Static-Web-Apps. Enter your password.
    Organization Select the Organization where you created the repository
    Repository my-static-blazor-app
    Branch main
    Build Details
    Build Presets Blazor
    App location Client
    Api location Api
    Output location wwwroot

  6. Select Review + create > Create.

  7. After deployment completes, select Go to resource. Your Static Web App pane appears.

Review the GitHub Action

At this stage, your Static Web Apps instance is created in Azure, but your app isn't yet deployed. The GitHub Action that Azure creates in your repository runs automatically to trigger the first build and deployment of your app, but it takes a couple minutes to finish.

You can check the status of your build and deploy action by selecting the following link to go to the Actions page of your GitHub repository:

Screenshot showing how to browse to see the progress of the GitHub Actions workflow.

After you're there:

  1. Select Azure Static Web Apps CI/CD.

  2. Select the commit titled, ci: add Azure Static Web Apps workflow file.

  3. Select the Build and Deploy Job link

From here, you can observe the progress of your app as it builds.

View website

After your GitHub Action finishes building and publishing your web app, you can browse to see your running app.

Select the URL link in the Azure portal to visit your app in the browser.

Your app is now globally available, but still says Loading data because there's no data or API yet. You'll add the API for your web app in the next section.

Congratulations! You deployed your first app to Azure Static Web Apps!

Note

Don't worry if you see a web page that says the app hasn't been built and deployed yet. Try refreshing the browser in a minute. The GitHub Action runs automatically when the Azure Static Web Apps is created. So if you see the splash page, the app is still being deployed.

Next steps

Your app is missing an API for its shopping list. Next, you explore how to add an Azure Functions API to your app that publishes to Azure alongside the static assets.