If you use Azure servers to host your Shorthand stories you can sync up your Shorthand account to push directly to Azure Blob Storage – removing the need to manually download and upload or export files.
Note: This feature is available only on some plans. To discuss adding this feature, please get in touch.
Setup
The workspace owner can set up the hosting via the Workspace Settings page.
Under 'Publishing' find 'Azure Blob Storage 1 click external hosting' and click the Create button.
Here you will need to enter:
NAME - This is what users will see when choosing to publish to this host
STORAGE ACCOUNT - The name of the Azure storage account to use.
Get this information from within the Azure portal.
CONTAINER - The container the story will be published to. Find the name of the container you are using within the Azure portal.
URL BASE - (Only used to provide a quick link to the published story).
The URL that the Azure Blob Storage container corresponds to (e.g.https://storageaccount.blob.core.windows.net/container or http://shorthand.myorganisation.com).AUTHENTICATION METHOD - Choose between Connection String (Access Key) or Secure Access Signature (SAS) token.
CONNECTION STRING - Find the connection key for the storage account from the Azure Portal under Security + networking > Access Keys and input the value here.
SECURE ACCESS SIGNATURE (SAS) TOKEN - Generate a Secure Access Signature (SAS) token from within the Azure Portal under Security + networking > Shared access signature and copy the value of the token and input to this field.
Once set up, a workspace owner can enable the Azure as a publishing option per-team, and a team leader can choose to enable individual team members to publish to that location. See these support pages for more info on managing team publishing:
Note: The storage account and container in Azure must be configured to be accessible from the url base you specify for users to access the story.
To publish your story to Azure Blob Storage
Publishing to Azure can then be achieved with the 'Publish' button in the story editor without the need to download a ZIP folder or export files.
Find the story on your Shorthand dashboard
Click Edit
In the story editor, click Publish
Choose the publishing option that shows your Azure Blob Storage location.
Enter a directory name for the story. This will be part of the URL at which the story and its assets are hosted. A lowercase, underscore-separated version of the story title is good choice ( eg the_feature_story_of_the_year ). You will be shown the full URL that you can use to link to your story.
Click Publish
Your story will now be available at the URL shown.