Questions: swa start

[anthonychu]

Have a few questions about parts of the start command that are unclear...

• What's the "context" and how does that differ from appLocation or appArtifactLocation?
  • If I have a folder named static and I want to serve it, it seems like the only way to make this work is to set the context: swa start ./static. swa start --app-location ./static (or using --app) doesn't seem to work.
• How does it select the workflow file to use, especially if there's more than one?
• What does it use from the workflow?
• How does --build work?
• How does it determine which config file to use? Add flag to accept location of config or routes.json #125

[manekinekko]

Great questions! Let's talk about this during our next call and then I'll write down the answers in the wiki.

[manekinekko]

What's the "context" and how does that differ from appLocation or appArtifactLocation?

context determines how the emulator will serve the static content:

• if context is a folder, then we will start the emulator and serve static content from that folder
• if context is an HTTP address, then we will start the emulator and proxy req to the dev server

In both cases, we reconfigure appLocation and appArtifactLocation to reflect that:

• appArtifactLocation = context
• appLocation = cwd() (currently, we don't use appLocation if context is a dev server)

If I have a folder named static and I want to serve it, it seems like the only way to make this work is to set the context: swa start ./static. swa start --app-location ./static (or using --app) doesn't seem to work.

swa start --app-location ./static is the old way. Technically speaking this:

swa start --app-location ./static

translates to this:

swa start <context> --app-location ./static

When not provided, context maps to the pwd:

swa start ./ --app-location ./static

My understanding of how commander works, is that context (a command) will take precedence over --app-location (an options). But I am sure with a little of checks we can change that.

How does it select the workflow file to use, especially if there's more than one?

The scans scans for azure-static-web-apps-**.yml files under cwd()/.github/workflows/, and picks the 1st one (non-deterministic!).

What does it use from the workflow?

app_build_command
api_build_command
app_location
app_artifact_location
api_location

These values are overridden by user's config (CLI flags).

How does --build work?

We check for runtime type. We currently support Node.js and .NET (experimental):

• For Node.js,
  • For app, we invoke npm install && <app_build_command>
  • For api we invoke npm install && <api_build_command>
• For .NET,
  • We invoke dotnet build

Important: We don't build if context is a dev server.

How does it determine which config file to use

We scan recursively the appLocation for staticwebapp.config.json (or routes.json):

• If we find both staticwebapp.config.json and routes.json, we pick staticwebapp.config.json.
• If we find only routes.json, verify it's a valid SWA config file (some JS framework use same filename for routing) then pick it.

[Divyesh85]

Hi @anthonychu , i was trying to implement Static Web apps and add API to it as described in this document - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/static-web-apps/add-api?tabs=vanilla-javascript but seems i am having problem running this command on my bash terminal. "swa start src --api-location api"
I get below error when i try to run it, i am not sure if i missed anything to install or configure. I have followed all the steps mentioned in this document already.

I am using Windows machine , and running the code from the root directory.

[Reshmi-Sriram]

Hi @Divyesh85 ,

Sorry that you faced this issue. Could you please confirm if you followed the Installation steps mentioned above? One usually comes across this error when the SWA CLI is not installed, hence the bash is not able to recognise the command swa

Also, it would be great if you could help us repro the error by sharing your project in a public repository if possible.
Hope this helps!

[Divyesh85]

@Reshmi-Sriram sorry for late reply due to holidays, i was able to resolve the issue, seems by default when i was trying to install azure functions and azure static webapps cli on VS code terminal it was not installing using the administrator mode hence was not able to install properly. I tried it in separate command prompt as an admin and it went well. Thanks for the prompt reply though.