Uploading a file to Azure Blob

Windows Azure storage provides flexible storage services. Blob storage is one of them which is used to store binary large objects.

Windows Azure blob has the concepts of containers (which you can think like partitions of a disk). Containers are either private or public.

Private containers are only accessible to the user and application developer with proper storage access keys. Public containers are accessible to all. So just by URL you can access a file stored in the public container.

You can use the Azure Storage Explorer to create and manipulate your Azure storage. It is a handy tool available for free from codeplex. Download link : http://azurestorageexplorer.codeplex.com/

The below code sample demonstrates how you can upload a file to a private container named ‘privatecontainer’ in Windows Azure.

private void UploadFileToPrivateContainer()
{
    // get the storage (blob) connection string from the config file
    var storageAccount = Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Storage.CloudStorageAccount.Parse
        (CloudConfigurationManager.GetSetting("StorageConnectionString"));
  
    // creates a blob client
    CloudBlobClient blobClient = storageAccount.CreateCloudBlobClient();
  
    // creates a container :: container name should be small otherwise you'll get Error 400 Bad Request Error.
    CloudBlobContainer container = blobClient.GetContainerReference("privatecontainer");
    container.CreateIfNotExists();
  
    // gets the physicall file path to be uploaded from ASP.NET FileUpload content.
    string path = FileUpload1.FileName;
    
    // creating a blockBlob, if a block blob exists witht the same name then it will be replaced.
    CloudBlockBlob blockBlob = container.GetBlockBlobReference(Path.GetFileName(path));
  
    var stream = FileUpload1.FileContent;
  
    // uploads the stream.
    blockBlob.UploadFromStream(stream);
  
    stream.Close();
  
    Label1.Text = "Upload Success";
}

I used the Azure Storage Explorer to create the container, you can create it using the code as well.

In order to run the above sample you should have Azure SDK installed and use Nuget Package manager to install the Windows Azure Storage assemblies.

Here’s the code for transfer a file from a private container to public container. Azure storage SDK doesn’t have an operation for move. So here we copy the file to the public container by downloading and re uploading it and deleting the file from the private container.

protected void BtnMove_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    var storageAccount = Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Storage.CloudStorageAccount.Parse(CloudConfigurationManager.GetSetting("StorageConnectionString"));
    CloudBlobClient blobClient = storageAccount.CreateCloudBlobClient();
  
    CloudBlobContainer privateContainer = blobClient.GetContainerReference("privatecontainer");
  
    CloudBlobContainer publicContainer = blobClient.GetContainerReference("testpubliccontainer");
  
    /*
     * Moving is not available directly, so we download from priavte blob and upload to public blob.
     * and delete the file from private file from private blob
     */ 
  
    // getting the blob to move.
    // based on my UI user has t type the name of the file he/she wants to move.
    var prblob = privateContainer.ListBlobs(null, false).OfType<CloudBlockBlob>().FirstOrDefault(b => b.Name == TextBox1.Text);
  
    var stream = prblob.OpenRead();
  
    var blobref = publicContainer.GetBlockBlobReference(prblob.Name);
    blobref.UploadFromStream(stream);
  
    stream.Close();
  
    prblob.DeleteIfExists();           
}

Finally the below code samples how to query the files in a blob.

protected void BtnGetVideos_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    var storageAccount = Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Storage.CloudStorageAccount.Parse(CloudConfigurationManager.GetSetting("StorageConnectionString"));
  
    // creates a blob client
    CloudBlobClient blobClient = storageAccount.CreateCloudBlobClient();
  
   
    CloudBlobContainer publiccontainer = blobClient.GetContainerReference("testpubliccontainer");
    List<BlobDetails> list2 = new List<BlobDetails>();
  
    foreach (IListBlobItem item in publiccontainer.ListBlobs(null, false))
    {
        if (item.GetType() == typeof(CloudBlockBlob))
        {
            CloudBlockBlob blob = (CloudBlockBlob)item;
            list2.Add(new BlobDetails() { BlobName = blob.Name, URL = blob.Uri.AbsoluteUri });
        }
    }
}

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Uploading a file to Azure Blob

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