How to deploy a create-react-app using Azure DevOps? - azure

Question

I've spent the past 2 days trying to figure out how to deploy my web app using Azure DevOps but nothing shows up. I used FileZila to see if the files generated by the build is uploading and all the files are there under the wwwroot folder. I tried manually uploading the files using FileZilla too. At this point I'm getting really frustrated because I've tried everything I found online to deploy the app. DevOps works perfectly fine, the part that isn't working is my web app actually showing up when I go to the URL.
I followed all the tutorials I could find.
No idea why this is asking me to deploy my code when the code is clearly deployed :/

Answer 1

Failed to reproduce your issue,you could follow my working steps as below:
1.Import repository,I used the git url from this document:https://github.com/MicrosoftDocs/pipelines-javascript
2.Create Build Pipeline.
3.Run the Build process.
4.Release the project and choose Nodejs Web APP.
5.Choosing the azure web app service in your subscription.
6.Navigate to your project url.
7.My files in the /wwwroot directory.
And web.config file as below:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!--
This configuration file is required if iisnode is used to run node processes behind
IIS or IIS Express. For more information, visit:
https://github.com/tjanczuk/iisnode/blob/master/src/samples/configuration/web.config
-->
<configuration>
<system.webServer>
<!-- Visit http://blogs.msdn.com/b/windowsazure/archive/2013/11/14/introduction-to-websockets-on-windows-azure-web-sites.aspx for more information on WebSocket support -->
<webSocket enabled="false" />
<handlers>
<!-- Indicates that the server.js file is a node.js site to be handled by the iisnode module -->
<add name="iisnode" path="server.js" verb="*" modules="iisnode"/>
</handlers>
<rewrite>
<rules>
<!-- Do not interfere with requests for node-inspector debugging -->
<rule name="NodeInspector" patternSyntax="ECMAScript" stopProcessing="true">
<match url="^server.js\/debug[\/]?" />
</rule>
<!-- First we consider whether the incoming URL matches a physical file in the /public folder -->
<rule name="StaticContent">
<action type="Rewrite" url="public{REQUEST_URI}"/>
</rule>
<!-- All other URLs are mapped to the node.js site entry point -->
<rule name="DynamicContent">
<conditions>
<add input="{REQUEST_FILENAME}" matchType="IsFile" negate="True"/>
</conditions>
<action type="Rewrite" url="server.js"/>
</rule>
</rules>
</rewrite>
<!-- 'bin' directory has no special meaning in node.js and apps can be placed in it -->
<security>
<requestFiltering>
<hiddenSegments>
<remove segment="bin"/>
</hiddenSegments>
</requestFiltering>
</security>
<!-- Make sure error responses are left untouched -->
<httpErrors existingResponse="PassThrough" />
<!--
You can control how Node is hosted within IIS using the following options:
* watchedFiles: semi-colon separated list of files that will be watched for changes to restart the server
* node_env: will be propagated to node as NODE_ENV environment variable
* debuggingEnabled - controls whether the built-in debugger is enabled
See https://github.com/tjanczuk/iisnode/blob/master/src/samples/configuration/web.config for a full list of options
-->
<!--<iisnode watchedFiles="web.config;*.js"/>-->
</system.webServer>
</configuration>
You could check any differences between your steps and mine.Any concern,please let me know.

Answer 2

The reason I was having this issue was that I was trying to deploy to a Linux web app in Azure.
Unfortunately, I couldn't find a way around getting the deployment to Linux working, but as soon as I switched the app to windows based app service plan the app worked instantly.

Answer 3

If you're deploying react app to azure app service linux instance via Azure devops, then be sure to add following 'Startup command' to the azure app service deployment task:
pm2 serve /home/site/wwwroot --no-daemon --spa
Azure App Service Linux uses Nginx for web server, and has pm2
installed. Know more about pm2 here ->
https://pm2.keymetrics.io/docs/usage/pm2-doc-single-page/
To automatically redirect all queries to the index.html use the --spa
option.
After devops run, your azure app service Configuration -> General Settings, will look like: