Windows Azure Web Sites: Quick Start Management Page

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The QUICK START management page is seen right after the user selects one of the websites in the management page. As self descriptive it can get, the page provides quick access to important actions relating to creating a deployment of a site on to Windows Azure. This is also the default landing page in the portal for a newly created website.

The user can chose to skip the Quick Start page when they visit the website next time. To do so select the checkbox “Skip Quick Start the next time I visit” provided right at the center of the page.

Below is a snapshot of the page:

image

The page contains the following sections:

        WebMatrix is a free, lightweight web development tool that includes everything you need to create web sites and publish applications for Windows Azure. WebMatrix supports the latest web technologies, including ASP.NET, PHP, HTML5, CSS3, Node and more. The Windows Azure SDKs allow you to build applications that take advantage of Windows Azure's scalable cloud computing resources.

  • Publish your app. – Once the user has set up a web site and dependent resources, such as a database in the Portal with the create option, they can download the generated publishing profile, import it into the development tool of choice (for example, WebMatrix or Visual Web Developer), and deploy the web site to Windows Azure within seconds.

        They can also publish the web application from FTP directly by setting up deployment credentials in the portal and pushing the application to Windows Azure using one of their favorite FTP clients.

  • Integrate source control – This allows the user to setup deployments from a source control providers like TFS, CodePlex, GitHub, Dropbox, Bitbucket and Local Git.

The last two options are again available on the Dashboard page.

NOTE: If the user selects the option “Skip Quick Start the next time I visit ” the default landing page would change to the DASHBOARD page. To revisit the Quick Start Page and undo the changes click on the Cloud icon image towards left of DASHBOARD menu, you would be back to the Quick Start page.

image

Unlike other management pages this one is represented by a Image, rather than a descriptive name. The Image is very tiny and the users might miss it. Even I missed noticing this one. However thanks to my colleague Ivanov for figuring this out as soon as I approached him with the problem. Sometimes its always better to take a second opinion.