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Manage app deployments from Eclipse

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The Azure Toolkit for Eclipse provides several tools in the Azure Explorer that you can use to manage, configure, and redeploy web apps to an Azure App Service. In this unit, you'll learn how to use these features to start and stop a web app, redeploy it, switch deployment slots, set properties for a web app, and delete it.

How to stop and restart a web app

Starting and stopping a web app using Azure Explorer is a straightforward process.

To stop a web app in the Azure Explorer window, right-click the web app in the Web Apps folder, and then click Stop.

The web app will stop accepting new requests and then shut down. The icon for the web app will change to indicate that it has stopped.

To start a web app, use the Start command in the context menu for the web app. Once the app is running, the icon will change back to its original state.

If you need to quickly reset a stalled web app, use the Restart command to stop and start the web app in a single step.

How to redeploy a web app

To redeploy a web app after you've made changes, follow the same procedure that you used to originally deploy the web app; for example: in the Project Explorer pane, right-click your web app, select Azure, and then click Publish as Azure Web App. However, instead of creating a new App Service, select an existing App Service and then click Deploy, and the previous version of the web app will be replaced by the new version.

How to use deployment slots

As described in an earlier unit, if you're redeploying a web app after making modifications to its functionality, it's a good idea to use a new deployment slot. You would leave the existing version of the web app running until you're satisfied that the new version is functioning correctly. When you deploy the new version of the web app, in the Deploy Web App wizard, select the Deploy to Slot option. You can reuse an existing deployment slot, or create a new one. The example below deploys a new version of the contosocurrenylistener web app to a deployment slot named contosocurrenylistenerv2. The previous version of the web service stays in the original deployment slot.

After you have deployed your web app to a new deployment slot, the deployment slot name will be appended to the name of the web app. In the example shown above, the new version of the web app would be available through the URL http://contosocurrencylister-contosocurrencylistenerv2.azurewebsites.net/, while the original web app would still be available at http://contosocurrencylister.azurewebsites.net/.

How to swap deployment slots

You can easily switch the new version of your web app with the original. Once you have made the switch, the new version will be available through the URL http://contosocurrencylister.azurewebsites.net/. To make the switch, in the Azure Explorer window, expand your web app and then expand Deployment Slots. Right-click the new deployment slot, and then click Swap with production.

Note

In the Azure Explorer, you can manage web apps running in a deployment slot as you would any web app. For example: you can start, stop, and reconfigure the properties of a web app that is running in a deployment slot.

How to configure web app properties

Web apps (and deployment slots) can have developer-defined properties. A property is a key-value pair that is provided to the web app as an environment variable. You can use properties to pass configuration information to a web app. A Java web app can read the value of a property using the System.getenv() function, which enables developers to change the value of a property without having to modify or redeploy the web app. For example: if your web app stores a connection string in a property, you would only need to update the property if you need to change the location of your database.

You create and modify properties by using the Show Properties command in the Azure Explorer window.

The properties window contains a list of properties. This list is initially empty, but you can add, remove, and change property values using the New, Delete, and Edit buttons. You make the changes permanent with the Save button.

The example below defines a property named MaxNumberToDisplay, with the value 50.

For example, you could modify the currency listing example from earlier in this module to read the value of the MaxNumberToDisplay property and use that property to limit the number of currencies that will be displayed, as shown in the following code:

<%! int counter;
    Set<Currency> currencies = Currency.getAvailableCurrencies(); 
    int maxNumberToDisplay = Integer.valueOf(System.getenv("MaxNumberToDisplay"));%>
  
<% counter = 1;
   for(Currency currency : currencies){ %>
        <p>Currency is <%= currency.toString() %> </p>
<%      counter++;
        if (counter >= maxNumberToDisplay)
            break;
    } %>
<p> There are <%= counter %> currencies available.</p>

How to delete a web app

To remove a web app, right-click the web app in the Azure Explorer window, and then click Delete. You'll be prompted to confirm the deletion, as this operation can't be easily undone.

When you delete a web app, the application is removed from Azure App Service, but the App Service Plan stays – so you'll still be charged. If you wish, you can delete the App Service Plan using the Azure portal.

You can also delete individual deployment slots from a web app. In this case, only the deployment slot will be removed.

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