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setup: verifies prerequisites and provisions the Azure Static Web App

Rise, cloud wanderer! This quest guides you through deploying the IT-Journey Jekyll site to Azure Static Web Apps, wiring up CI/CD, and verifying a clean production build.

🎯 Quest Objectives

Primary Objectives

  • Provision Azure Static Web Apps - Create the app and link to GitHub
  • Configure Build & Deploy - Ensure Jekyll build works in CI
  • Secure Secrets - Store keys safely in GitHub
  • Verify Production - Confirm the deployed site loads correctly

🗺️ Quest Prerequisites

📋 Knowledge Requirements

  • Basic GitHub workflow familiarity
  • Comfort with terminal commands
  • Understanding of static sites

🛠️ System Requirements

  • Azure account with permissions to create Static Web Apps
  • GitHub account with repo access
  • Azure CLI installed and authenticated (az login) — Chapter 2 depends on Azure authentication
  • Ruby ≥ 3.2 and Bundler installed (gem install bundler)

🧙‍♂️ Chapter 1: Prepare the Repository

First, clone the IT-Journey repository and change into the Jekyll site root — every command below assumes this is your working directory (it is where the Gemfile lives):

git clone https://github.com/bamr87/it-journey.git
cd it-journey

Ensure dependencies are installed (run from the it-journey repo root, next to the Gemfile):

bundle install

Verify local build:

bundle exec jekyll build

☁️ Chapter 2: Deploy with the Azure Helper Script

Use the built-in deployment script. Run it from the it-journey repo root (the same directory you cloned into in Chapter 1) using its repo-relative path:

# setup: verifies prerequisites and provisions the Azure Static Web App
scripts/deployment/azure-jekyll-deploy.sh setup

# deploy: pushes the build and wires up the GitHub Actions CI/CD workflow
#   --app-name    the name for your Azure Static Web App (e.g. my-it-journey)
#   --github-repo the HTTPS URL of your fork (e.g. https://github.com/<you>/it-journey)
scripts/deployment/azure-jekyll-deploy.sh deploy --app-name <your-app-name> --github-repo <your-repo-url>

Follow the prompts for Azure authentication and GitHub workflow setup.

🔐 Chapter 3: Secrets & Workflow Verification

  1. Confirm the required GitHub secret is set: the Azure Static Web Apps deployment token, stored as AZURE_STATIC_WEB_APPS_API_TOKEN under Settings → Secrets and variables → Actions in your repo. The deploy step above prints this token; copy it into the secret.
  2. Open the generated workflow in .github/workflows/.
  3. Trigger a deploy by pushing a small change.

✅ Chapter 4: Validate the Deployment

  • Visit the Azure-provided URL
  • Confirm /quests/ loads correctly
  • Check logs for a successful build

🏁 Quest Completion Checklist

  • Azure Static Web App created and linked
  • CI/CD pipeline runs successfully
  • Site is accessible in production

🕸️ Knowledge Graph

Structured wiki-links connect this quest to the IT-Journey knowledge graph. Open the Obsidian Graph View to explore connections.

Level hub: [[Level 1000 (8) - Cloud Computing]] Overworld: [[🏰 Overworld - Master Quest Map]] Obsidian docs: [[Obsidian Knowledge Graph and Wiki Links]]