Azure Drive, Who is using it?

Question

I know the potential of Azure Drive (Xdrive), I was curious what other developers were using it for? (beside migration)

 

thx

Answer 1

We use it for mimiking File I/O on Azure.

Answer 2

Would that include CSS files, can I upload a whole Area (mvc) as a module.

thx

Answer 3

I've used an Azure Drive for Lucene.NET, and it worked quite well.  The only catch is that since only one host can mount an Azure Drive in read/write mode, I was only able to have one worker role running Lucene.NET.

You can put whatever you like on an Azure Drive, but I think you'd be better off keeping your CSS files in your MVC project.

Watch Brad Calder's talk from PDC 2009 for more details.  Perhaps that will give you some ideas for what an Azure Drive can be used for.

 

Answer 4

Sorry I didnt get you. You want to upload CSS files on Azure Drive and do what?

Answer 5

To let users, change the appearance of the website (or little CSS adjustments), without the need of making a full instance upload, for only adding one CSS line.

(Same for JS files)

Answer 6

That's a great idea. But it comes at the cost. If yoy keep CSS and JS part of your package, then:

1. No extra cost is needed

2. Keeping CSS and JS on Azure Drive and linking it from there would be slow vs keeping these files locally in the package.

Do you agree?

 

Answer 7

CSS and JS files should be cached by the browser, so my hunch is that there wouldn't be a performance hit.  Also, Azure Drive creates a local cache on the server hosting the web or worker role.

Perhaps you could also keep the CSS & JS files in a regular Azure blob and take advantage of the CDN.

 

Answer 8

Hi Matt - Blob storage is meant for Binaty Large Objects.. though CSS, JS files are binary but by no means they woudl be large. So I still would want them to be part of my solution rather that keeping them on blob. 

Answer 9

@Garry:  I believe Azure514 wants to keep JS & CSS files outside of the solution so they can be easily updated.  If that weren't the case, then yes, keeping these files within the solution would be a good choice.