Use Azure Publisher to upload your website to a blob storage.

We recommend that you use C1 CMS Azure Publisher to upload your website to a Microsoft Azure blob storage.

Set up a staging environment

To upload your website to a blob storage with Azure Publisher, you should have it already running. The best option is to set up a staging environment to run the copy of your website in.

For example you can use WebMatrix to run the website locally. But any environment convenient for you will do, both local and remote.

Install Azure Publisher on your staging website

To initially upload your website to a blob storage, you can use Azure Publisher - Single Edition (which is part of the Developer, Business and Premium subscriptions). Install it on your staging website.

To install Azure Publisher:

1. Log into the CMS Console as an administrator.
2. Go to the "System" perspective.
3. Open the folders "Packages" | "Available Packages" | " Composite.Azure".
4. Select " Composite.Azure.Publisher" and click "Package Info".
5. In the "Package Info" view, click "Install" and complete the wizard.

Configure Azure Publisher

Before you configure Azure Publisher, you should have a blob storage created on Windows Azure and know the storage's account name and primary access key. You'll specify these values in the connection string.

You should also come up with the name for the website container where Azure Publisher will upload the website. Azure Publisher will create the container and the website folder automatically.

To configure Azure Publisher:

1. Log into the CMS Console as an administrator.
2. In the "Content" perspective, right-click "Windows Azure Publisher" and select "Configure".
3. Within the "Configuration" group box, fill the following fields:
   1. Container Name: The name of the blob container where you website is deployed. For example, C1 CMSwebsite.
   2. Account Name: Your Azure storage account name.
   3. Account Key: Your Azure storage account primary key.
4. Click "Save".

Now you can go on to upload (publish) the website to the blob storage.

Publish the website

After you've configured Azure Publisher, you are ready to upload the website to the blob storage using the publishing feature of Azure Publisher.

1. Log into the CMS Console as an administrator.
2. In the "Content" perspective, select "Windows Azure Publisher" and click "Open Publisher".
3. In the view that opens in the right pane, click "Publish" to start uploading website files to the blob storage.
   

(Please note that at this point C1 CMS Azure is not configured to synchronize website files from the blob storage to the web role where the website will be running publicly.

Eventually when C1 CMS Azure is properly configured, Azure Publisher will be normally used to publish the changes from the staging website to the website in the cloud via the blob storage.)

Once you've uploaded your website to the storage, you should configure the website.