Azure

The Azure node in Server Explorer is a central place for managing all the resources associated with your Azure subscription accounts. If you have a valid Azure account, connecting to it from Server Explorer will give you quick access to edit and configure your cloud-based databases, websites, and other services.

For example, editing the HTML for an Azure hosted web page is as simple as connecting to your subscription, expanding the websites node, and then double-clicking on the web page to load it into Visual Studio. Figure 5.12 shows a simple “about” page being edited within Visual Studio.

FIGURE 5.12 Editing an Azure web page.

Server Explorer provides other useful ways to interact with Azure resources. You can view an Azure website in your browser, attach a debugger to a web page or Azure service, or directly launch the Azure management portal. These actions are available by right-clicking an item under the Azure node. Figure 5.13 shows the context menu available for an Azure website.

FIGURE 5.13 Options for interacting with an Azure website.

We dig into much more detail on the Azure development front within Chapter 12, “Developing Applications in the Cloud with Windows Azure.”