I want to explore making a useful website on windows azure and node.js
I have been reading up and a very simple example of running basic node on the windows azure worker role is what I got so far - http://ntotten.com/2011/08/nodejs-on-windows-azure/
Now, what I want to do is to build a website based on a framework (like express - http://expressjs.com/)
How is it that I can do this? Any pointers?
Kapil
Windows azure has a nice guide for setting up nodejs: https://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/develop/nodejs/tutorials/create-a-website-(mac)/ if you create a local nodejs server that uses express, the needed libraries will be uploaded via the node_modules folder. so its just a matter of pushing it to the cloud with git :)
The method Nathan Totten uses relies on the new node.exe that runs in windows, without cygwin. I think moving forward this will be the way to go, but for now I've been using the 'smarx role' for my node stuff:
http://smarxrole.codeplex.com/
A lot of the npm packages I want to use still require node 4.x, which isn't available in a node.exe release. The smarx role runs node out of cygwin, and has git and npm support. If you want to get this working with node.exe, you likely will need to package the npm binaries along with node.exe in a zip file, and include a package.json with your dependencies. I'll try to come up with an example.
Good luck!
