Maarten Balliauw has a new post to his blog today talking about a new feature they're considering adding to the SDK API - the ability scaffold and package up a PHP application for use on the Windows Azure platform.

With the fresh release of the Windows Azure SDK for PHP v3.0, it's time to have a look at the future. One of the features we're playing with is creating a full-fledged replacement for the current Windows Azure Command-Line tools available. These tools sometimes are a life saver and sometimes a big PITA due to baked-in defaults and lack of customization options. And to overcome that last one, here's what we're thinking of: scaffolders. Basically what we'll be doing is splitting the packaging process into two steps: Scaffolding and Packaging.

He goes through their current suggestions of how to set up the scaffold template that would auto-generate everything you need from a command-line call. He also talks about making custom scaffolds (that are, in concept, similar to phar archives) and gives an example of the simple structure.