ASP.Net 7 deployment to Azure App Services using GitHub Actions

This is a simple reference post of the GitHub Actions yaml that I’m using to deploy a simple ASP.Net 7.0 to Azure App Services.

I was not planning to post anything today as this task was supposed a very simple Deployment Center configuration. But I ended up spending close to two hours troubleshooting due to the ff:

• The deployment center will generate an older GitHub actions YAML template (old .Net version and old action step versions)
• The same dotnet <command> that executes locally does not always result in the same behavior in actions. Part of the reason is because the generated YAML defaulted to the v1 of actions/setup-dotnet when the latest is v3.
• Online references I found at this time assume the source to be in the root directory of the repo. Setting working-directory to a src still resulted in some challenges.

For context, the my repo file structure is as follows

root
└───.github
│   └───workflows
│       │   ci.yml
└───src
    │   RazType.csproj
    │   RazType.sln
    |   **

So this is the yaml file that eventually worked. I added my learnings as in-line YAML comments. Hope this helps someone other than me :)

name: Build and deploy ASP.Net Core app to Azure Web App

on:
  push:
    branches: [ main ]
    paths-ignore:
      - '**.md'
  pull_request:
    branches: [ main ]

env:
  DOTNET_VERSION: '7.0.x' # Azure App Services Deployment Center defaults to 3.1. Docs mention 5.x and 6.x, but 7.0.x works for as of today (Jan 2023)
  DOTNET_QUALITY: 'preview'
  WORKING_DIR: src
  BUILD_CONFIG: Debug
  PROJECT_FILE: RazType.csproj # `dotnet publish` requires the does not work when specifying the .sln file
  APPSERVICE_NAME: raztype
  APPSERVICE_SLOT: Production
  PACKAGE_PATH: '/publish' # Specifying '/' at the beginning of the path is required due to differences in action working-directory.

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: windows-latest
    defaults:
      run:
        # Since the directory is not in root, specify working directory for the dotnet commands to work.
        working-directory: $

    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v3

      - name: Set up .NET 7.0.x
        uses: actions/setup-dotnet@v3
        with:
          dotnet-version: $
          dotnet-quality: $

      - name: Restore Dependencies
        # Split build step to restore and build (with --no-restore)
        run: dotnet restore

      - name: Build the .NET Solution
        run: dotnet build -c $ --no-restore

      - name: Test
        run: dotnet test --no-build --no-restore --verbosity normal

      - name: dotnet publish
        # Azure App Services defaults to '-o $/myapp'
        run: dotnet publish -c $ -o $

      - name: Upload artifact for deployment job
        uses: actions/upload-artifact@v3
        with:
          name: .net-app
          # Azure App Services defaults to $/myapp
          path: $

  deploy:
    runs-on: windows-latest
    defaults:
      run:
        working-directory: $
    needs: build
    environment:
      name: 'Production'
      url: $

    steps:
      - name: Download artifact from build job
        uses: actions/download-artifact@v3
        with:
          name: .net-app

      - name: Deploy to Azure Web App
        id: deploy-to-webapp
        uses: azure/webapps-deploy@v2
        with:
          app-name: $
          slot-name: $
          publish-profile: $
          # Path = "." is the default and is the one that's working. The downloaded artifact does not contain the package folder of $PACKAGE_PATH
          package: .