// Static Sites

I've been exploring ways to bring social engagement into my blog posts. Taking inspiration from Ashley Willis' implementation, I've integrated Bluesky comments and likes into my Hugo site using the AT Protocol's public API.

Builds Conway's Game of Life end-to-end using GitHub Copilot Chat and Copilot Edits in Visual Studio Code, demonstrating a realistic iterative AI-assisted development workflow. The video covers model selection (including Claude Sonnet 3.5), prompt engineering best practices, refactoring from a single-file prototype to separate HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files using Copilot Edits, and enforcing team coding standards with a Copilot instructions file. It also shows inline chat slash commands (/doc, /explain), Copilot Extensions, README generation, and deploying to GitHub Pages via a GitHub Actions workflow.

In this post, I show how I use GitHub Actions to call an Azure Function (through Azure API Management) that interacts with Google Analytics as part of the process to build my Hugo Static Site. The end result is that top posts are pulled into the Static Site Generation build process, rather than calling the Google Analytics API through JavaScript at runtime.

A live monthly roundup covering everything notable in Azure, GitHub, and Azure DevOps through February 2022. Key highlights include GitHub Actions support for OpenID Connect (OIDC) deployments to Azure Static Web Apps, GitHub Projects beta improvements (flexible iterations, insights filtering), and updates to GitHub Codespaces and the GitHub CLI. On the Azure side: Azure Monitor gains OpenTelemetry integration and improved observability tooling, Azure Payments HSM enters public preview, and Azure Arc cloud-to-edge observability is explored. Chris also shares Cloud With Chris updates including a new Hugo-powered presentations site hosted on Azure Static Web Apps, a feature flags episode, and community highlights from the UK Azure Community Day.

Back in November, GitHub announced its OpenID Connect capability for cloud deployments was generally available. This has been on my list to try out, and I finally managed to get around to it! With scenarios like this, I prefer to do something real and hands-on, rather than mocked, or a proof of concept. I decided to refactor my GitHub Action workflows for cloudwithchris.com, removing the need for secrets stored in GitHub. In this post, I outline my journey through this.

Your monthly digest of everything happening across Azure, GitHub, and Azure DevOps — so you don't have to keep up with it all yourself! In this January 2022 roundup, Chris returns to the channel after a break with an honest discussion about mental health and burnout, recaps Cloud With Chris highlights from 2021, and covers a packed set of updates: AKS improvements (containerd GA, FIPS node pools, Kubernetes version aliasing), Static Web Apps Enterprise Grade Edge GA, Azure Cognitive Search semantic updates, Azure Monitor 1-minute frequency log alerts, GitHub Advanced Security, GitHub Projects, Dependabot, and much more. Plus an outlook for what's changing on the channel in 2022.

Chris plays Sea of Thieves with Johnny and Simon while discussing Johnny's upcoming Azure Quantum and Q# book with Apress, Simon's Azure certification journey from AZ-900 to AZ-500, in-person speaking at Welsh Azure User Group, and managing content creator energy levels.

Chris covers Azure updates including container app modernization, DDoS protection trends for H1 2021, and virtual network resizing in preview, alongside the general availability of GitHub Codespaces with a deep dive into how GitHub's engineering team uses Codespaces to develop GitHub.com. He also discusses Bicep and Infrastructure as Code on the Azure DevOps blog, plus upcoming sessions on AKS, application security, and cell-based cloud architectures.

Chris opens with a heartfelt tribute to Abel Wang before covering Azure updates including Site Recovery cross-region replication, ExpressRoute expansions, and immutable blob storage. The episode highlights GitHub's 15+ new code scanning integrations with open source security tools, a comparison of Azure Static Web Apps hosting options, and upcoming Cloud with Chris content plans.

If you've seen any of my community talks, then you'll be aware that Static sites and the Static Content Hosting Pattern is a passion area of mine. In Azure, there are a couple of great services that stand out when building towards this approach. These are Azure Static Web Apps and the Static sites functionality in Azure Blob Storage. But, which one is right for your scenario? Read on to find out more.