Is it possible to deploy Flask to Azure with external directories?

Let's say I have following structure

root/
- app/
  - flask_app.py
  - requirements.txt
- shared_libs/
  - lib.py
- others/

The shared folder is used for either flask_app.py and other processing that can reference to. As it is stored outside of the flask_app, it could only run in local by adding parent working directory (root) to sys.path

import sys
sys.path.append('..')
import os
from shared_libs.lib import ExampleLib

Typically, the deployment to Azure with only app/ is easy to achieve, but in this case I would like to pick these app/ and shared_libs/ to compress to a zip file, subsequently point default runner to app/flask_app.py

I am not sure which technique to do it, thank if you could give me some ideas.

Seems quite specific for my case but I believe my answer would be helpful for someone would like to achieve it.

root/
 - app/
   - flask_app.py
   - requirements.txt
 - libs/
   - lib.py
 - others/

Following above structure is fine for local running but for Azure webapp this is not enough, particularly in requirements.txt should be put under root folder

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/app-service/configure-language-python#could-not-find-setuppy-or-requirementstxt

> "Could not find setup.py or requirements.txt; Not running pip install.": The Oryx build process failed to find your requirements.txt file.
>
> Connect to the web app's container via SSH and verify that requirements.txt is named correctly and exists directly under site/wwwroot. If it doesn't exist, make site the file exists in your repository and is included in your deployment. If it exists in a separate folder, move it to the root.

So I was going to create .deploy folder and move these elements

root/
 - .deploy/
   - app/*
   - libs/*
   - requirements.txt
 - app/
   - flask_app.py
   - requirements.txt
 - libs/
   - lib.py
 - others/root/

Then compress it to zip file, noticed that zip content is including child of .deploy, not folder .deploy

Next, if your Azure is using gunicorn, it is good to start testing by python or you can assume it is gunicorn as default.

os.environ.get("SERVER_SOFTWARE", "")
# gunicorn/20.1.0

I was using this gunicorn to point to the app folder

gunicorn --bind=0.0.0.0:8000 --chdir app flask_app:app

My final Powershell script

# Azure deployment variables
$resourceGroupName = "YOUR_RESOURCE_GROUP_NAME"
$appName = "YOUR_APP_NAME"
$zipFilePath = "app.zip"

$mainDir = "app"
$libDir = "libs"

$deploymentDir = ".deploy"

# Step 1: Create the deployment directory
# Remove previous
if (Test-Path -Path $deploymentDir) {
    Remove-Item -Path $deploymentDir -Recurse -Force
}
New-Item -ItemType Directory -Force -Path $deploymentDir | Out-Null

# Step 2: Copy the necessary files
Copy-Item -Path $mainDir -Destination $deploymentDir -Recurse -Force
Copy-Item -Path $libDir -Destination "$deploymentDir/$libDir" -Recurse -Force
Copy-Item -Path "$mainDir/requirements.txt" -Destination "$deploymentDir" -Force

# Step 3: Create the zip file
Compress-Archive -Path $deploymentDir/* -DestinationPath $zipFilePath -Force

# Step 4: Deploy the zip file
az webapp config appsettings set --name "$appName" --resource-group "$resourceGroupName" --settings SCM_DO_BUILD_DURING_DEPLOYMENT=true
az webapp deploy --name $appName --resource-group $resourceGroupName --src-path $zipFilePath --type zip
az webapp config set --name "$appName" --resource-group "$resourceGroupName" --startup-file "gunicorn --bind=0.0.0.0:8000 --chdir $mainDir flask_app:app"

# Step 5: Clean up the deployment files
Remove-Item -Path $zipFilePath -Force
Remove-Item -Path $deploymentDir -Recurse