Develop Reference

Renaming a container/folder in azure blob storage

I am trying to rename a container name for users when a condition is met. I made some research and found out that there is no rename function for containers in azure blob storage. But there is a way to accomplish this by copying the files and deleting it after copy. Below is the code I made.
string ContainerName = "old-container-name-user1";
string NewContainerName = "new-container-name-user2"
CloudStorageAccount sourceAccount = CloudStorageAccount.Parse(CloudConfigurationManager.GetSetting("StorageConnectionString"));
CloudBlobClient sourceblobClient = sourceAccount.CreateCloudBlobClient();
CloudBlobContainer sourceBlobContainer = sourceblobClient.GetContainerReference(ContainerName);
CloudBlobContainer destBlobContainer = sourceblobClient.GetContainerReference(NewContainerName);
CloudBlockBlob blobOriginal = sourceBlobContainer.GetBlockBlobReference(ContainerName);
CloudBlockBlob blobNew = destBlobContainer.GetBlockBlobReference(NewContainerName);
blobNew.StartCopy(blobOriginal);
blobOriginal.Delete();
When I execute this code I got an error message. Below is the error.
Exception User-Unhandled
Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Storage.StorageException:'The remote server
returned an error: (404) Not Found.'
Inner Exception WebException: The remote server returned an error:
(404) Not Found.
When I also try "blobNew.StartCopyAsync(blobOriginal)" the code just goes through but when I check the containers in azure there is no container created. What do you think the problem is? Any tips on how to improve my code? Delete function does not work also.
UPDATE
I update my code and was able to copy the files from other to container to the new one. Below is the code.
string ContainerName = "old-container-name-user1"
string NewContainerName = "new-container-name-user2"
CloudStorageAccount storageAccount = CloudStorageAccount.Parse(CloudConfigurationManager.GetSetting("StorageConnectionString"));
CloudBlobClient blobClient = storageAccount.CreateCloudBlobClient();
CloudBlobContainer container = blobClient.GetContainerReference(ContainerName);
CloudBlobContainer destcontainer = blobClient.GetContainerReference(NewContainerName);
destcontainer.CreateIfNotExists(BlobContainerPublicAccessType.Blob);
IEnumerable<IListBlobItem> IE = container.ListBlobs(useFlatBlobListing: true);
foreach (IListBlobItem item in IE)
{
CloudBlockBlob blob = (CloudBlockBlob)item;
CloudBlockBlob destBlob = destcontainer.GetBlockBlobReference(blob.Name);
destBlob.StartCopyAsync(new Uri(GetSharedAccessUri(blob.Name, container)));
}
AccessURI Method
private static string GetSharedAccessUri(string blobName, CloudBlobContainer container)
{
DateTime toDateTime = DateTime.Now.AddMinutes(60);
SharedAccessBlobPolicy policy = new SharedAccessBlobPolicy
{
Permissions = SharedAccessBlobPermissions.Read,
SharedAccessStartTime = null,
SharedAccessExpiryTime = new DateTimeOffset(toDateTime)
};
CloudBlockBlob blob = container.GetBlockBlobReference(blobName);
string sas = blob.GetSharedAccessSignature(policy);
return blob.Uri.AbsoluteUri + sas;
}
Now its working but another problem shows up. It says
System.InvalidCastException: 'Unable to cast object of type
'Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Storage.Blob.CloudBlobDirectory' to type
'Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Storage.Blob.CloudBlockBlob'.'
But this will be posted in another question. Thanks to our friend Gauriv for pointing out my problem. Check his answer below.
Update 2
By adding useFlatBlobListing: true in IEnumerable<IListBlobItem> IE = container.ListBlobs(blobListingDetails: BlobListingDetails.Metadata); I was able to fix my problem. This line of code was put in my display.
Final Code
IEnumerable<IListBlobItem> IE = container.ListBlobs(blobListingDetails: BlobListingDetails.Metadata, useFlatBlobListing: true);

If you look at your code for creating source and destination blob:
CloudBlockBlob blobOriginal = sourceBlobContainer.GetBlockBlobReference(ContainerName);
CloudBlockBlob blobNew = destBlobContainer.GetBlockBlobReference(NewContainerName);
You'll notice that you're passing the names of the blob container and not the name of the blob. Because you don't have a blob in the container by the name of the container, you're getting 404 error.
To copy a blob container, what you have to do is list all blobs from the source container and then copy them individually in the destination container. Once all the blobs have been copied, you can delete the source container.
If you want, you can use Microsoft's Storage Explorer to achieve "rename container" functionality. It also works by copying blobs from old container to the renamed container and then deletes the old container.
static void RenameContainer()
{
var connectionString = "DefaultEndpointsProtocol=https;AccountName=account-name;AccountKey=account-key";
var storageAccount = CloudStorageAccount.Parse(connectionString);
var client = storageAccount.CreateCloudBlobClient();
var sourceContainer = client.GetContainerReference("source-container");
var targetContainer = client.GetContainerReference("target-container");
targetContainer.CreateIfNotExists();//Create target container
BlobContinuationToken continuationToken = null;
do
{
Console.WriteLine("Listing blobs. Please wait...");
var blobsResult = sourceContainer.ListBlobsSegmented(prefix: "", useFlatBlobListing: true, blobListingDetails: BlobListingDetails.All, maxResults: 1000, currentToken: continuationToken, options: new BlobRequestOptions(), operationContext: new OperationContext());
continuationToken = blobsResult.ContinuationToken;
var items = blobsResult.Results;
foreach (var item in items)
{
var blob = (CloudBlob)item;
var targetBlob = targetContainer.GetBlobReference(blob.Name);
Console.WriteLine(string.Format("Copying \"{0}\" from \"{1}\" blob container to \"{2}\" blob container.", blob.Name, sourceContainer.Name, targetContainer.Name));
targetBlob.StartCopy(blob.Uri);
}
} while (continuationToken != null);
Console.WriteLine("Deleting source blob container. Please wait.");
//sourceContainer.DeleteIfExists();
Console.WriteLine("Rename container operation complete. Press any key to terminate the application.");
}

You can rename containers with Microsoft's "Microsoft Azure Storage Explorer" (after version 0.8.3).
Actual Answer:
Regarding your error message, If the client application receives an HTTP 404 (Not found) message from the server, this means that the object the client was attempting to use does not exist in the storage service. There are several possible reasons for this, such as:
· The client or another process previously deleted the object (Make sure name is correct)
· A Shared Access Signature (SAS) authorization issue
· Client-side code does not have permission to access the object
· Network failure
In order to identify the issue in detail, you can add a try/catch and see the actual error

Azure blob storage download to stream returning "" asp.net

I am currently trying to download a file from Azure blob storage using the DownloadToStream method to download the contents of a blob as a text string.
However I am not getting anything back but an empty string.
Here is my code that I use to connect to the azure blob container and retrieve the blob file.
public static string DownLoadFroalaImageAsString(string blobStorageName, string companyID)
{
// Retrieve storage account from connection string.
CloudStorageAccount storageAccount = CloudStorageAccount.Parse(
CloudConfigurationManager.GetSetting("StorageConnectionString"));
// Create the blob client.
CloudBlobClient blobClient = storageAccount.CreateCloudBlobClient();
// Retrieve reference to a previously created container.
CloudBlobContainer container = blobClient.GetContainerReference(companyID.ToLower());
//retrieving the actual filename of the blob
string removeString = "BLOB/";
string trimmedString = blobStorageName.Remove(blobStorageName.IndexOf(removeString), removeString.Length);
// Retrieve reference to a blob named "trimmedString"
CloudBlockBlob blockBlob2 = container.GetBlockBlobReference(trimmedString);
string text;
using (var memoryStream = new MemoryStream())
{
blockBlob2.DownloadToStream(memoryStream);
text = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetString(memoryStream.ToArray());
}
return text;
}
I was following along this documentation however I cannot seem to get it to work. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

However I am not getting anything back but an empty string.
I test your supplied code on my side, it works correctly. I assume that the test blob content is empty in your case. We could trouble shooting with following ways:
1.please have a try to check the Length of memoryStream. If length equal 0 we could know that the blob content is empty.
using (var memoryStream = new MemoryStream())
{
blockBlob2.DownloadToStream(memoryStream);
var length = memoryStream.Length;
text = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetString(memoryStream.ToArray());
}
2.We could upload a blob with content to container, we could do that with Azure portal or Microsoft Azure storage explorer easily. And please have a try test it with uploaded blob.

If you want to get the text from the blob, you can use DownloadTextAsync()
var text = await blockBlob2.DownloadTextAsync();
If you want to return file stream back to an API respoinse, you can use FileStreamResult which is IActionResult.
var stream = await blockBlob2.OpenReadAsync();
return File(stream, blockBlob2.Properties.ContentType, "name");

CloudBlockBlob.UploadFromByteArrayAsync returns, but no image has been created

I have a method to upload my image to Azure blob storage. I have my account already created, and a name and key placed in my app. The behavior I'm seeing is that await UploadFromByteArrayAsync(...) returns and my method returns a URL. However, when I navigate to my azure blob storage in Microsoft Azure Storage Explorer, I can see that no blob has been created. Obviously, navigating to the URL returned by the method returns 404 also. The method has successfully created my container, so there is a definite connection with appropriate perms to my storage account, I have checked the content of the byte array and it contains actual data. Does anyone know why my image is never uploaded?
public async Task<string> UploadImage(byte[] imageByteArr)
{
// Retrieve storage account from the connection string.
CloudStorageAccount storageAccount = CloudStorageAccount.Parse("DefaultEndpointsProtocol=https;AccountName=redacted;AccountKey=redacted;EndpointSuffix=core.windows.net");
// Create the blob client.
CloudBlobClient blobClient = storageAccount.CreateCloudBlobClient();
// Retrieve a reference to a previously created container.
CloudBlobContainer container = blobClient.GetContainerReference("user-images");
// Create the container if it doesn't already exist.
await container.CreateIfNotExistsAsync().ConfigureAwait(false);
var docId = Guid.NewGuid().ToString();
CloudBlockBlob blockBlob = container.GetBlockBlobReference(docId);
await blockBlob.UploadFromByteArrayAsync(imageByteArr, 0, imageByteArr.Length);
blockBlob.Properties.ContentType = "image/jpg";
await blockBlob.SetPropertiesAsync();
return blockBlob.Uri.ToString();
}

I had missed a step in the creation of the blobs tutorial I was following.
We need to call the following when creating the container in the codebehind so that we have public access to the image uploaded.
container.SetPermissions(
new BlobContainerPermissions { PublicAccess = BlobContainerPublicAccessType.Blob });

Download and display a private Azure Blob using ASP MVC

I'm using ASP MVC 5 Razor with Microsoft Azure Blob storage. I can successfully upload documents and images to the Blob Storage using MVC but I am struggling to find some MVC examples how to download and display the files.
It would be quite straightforward to do this if the blobs were stored as public files, but I need them to be private.
Can anyone give me any examples or guidance how to achieve this?
I've got some code below that seems to retrieve the Blob, but I'm not sure what to do with it in MVC to actually display it in a browser.
var fullFileName = "file1.pdf";
var containerName = "default";
// Retrieve storage account from connection string.
CloudStorageAccount storageAccount = CloudStorageAccount.Parse(ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings["AttachmentStorageConnection"].ConnectionString);
// Create the blob client.
CloudBlobClient blobClient = storageAccount.CreateCloudBlobClient();
// Retrieve reference to a previously created container.
CloudBlobContainer container = blobClient.GetContainerReference(containerName);
// Retrieve reference to a blob ie "picture.jpg".
CloudBlockBlob blockBlob = container.GetBlockBlobReference(fullFileName);

I'm making an assumption based on your comment
It would be quite straightforward to do this if the blobs were stored
as public files, but I need them to be private
that because the blobs are private you are attempting to return a byte array to the client via the mvc controller.
However, an alternate method would be to use a SharedAccessSignature to provide a client temporary access to the blob which you can then access as a public url. The period for which the url is valid can be specified in your controller. This also has the advantage of taking load away from your controller as the client will download the file directly from storage.
// view model
public class MyViewModel
{
string FileUrl {get; set;}
}
// controller
public ActionResult MyControllerAction
{
var readPolicy = new SharedAccessBlobPolicy()
{
Permissions = SharedAccessBlobPermissions.Read,
SharedAccessExpiryTime = DateTime.UtcNow + TimeSpan.FromMinutes(5)
};
// Your code ------
// Retrieve storage account from connection string.
CloudStorageAccount storageAccount = CloudStorageAccount.Parse(ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings ["AttachmentStorageConnection"].ConnectionString);
// Create the blob client.
CloudBlobClient blobClient = storageAccount.CreateCloudBlobClient();
// Retrieve reference to a previously created container.
CloudBlobContainer container = blobClient.GetContainerReference(containerName);
// Retrieve reference to a blob ie "picture.jpg".
CloudBlockBlob blockBlob = container.GetBlockBlobReference(fullFileName);
//------
var newUri = new Uri(blockBlob.Uri.AbsoluteUri + blockBlob.GetSharedAccessSignature(readPolicy));
var viewModel = new MyViewModel()
{
FileUrl = newUri.ToString()
};
return View("MyViewName", viewModel);
}
Then in your view you can use the view model value
//image
<img src="#Model.FileUrl" />
//in a new tab
`Open in new window`

I hope this answers your questions:
In order to download a file or open it in a new window/tab you need to specify the proper Content-Disposition in the header. There's an example here. Basically if you want to download a blob you execute the following. Keep in mind that if the mime type is set to application/octet-stream, the file will not be opened in a new tab. It will be downloaded. You need to set the correct ContentType when you save the blob in Azure.
//Downloads file
public ActionResult Index(string name)
{
Response.AddHeader("Content-Disposition", "attachment; filename=" + name);
var blob = _azureBlobContainer.DownloadData(); //Code that returns CloudBlockBlob
var memStream = new MemoryStream();
blob.DownloadToStream(memStream);
return File(memStream.ToArray(), blob.Properties.ContentType);
}
//Opens file if correct ContentType is passed
public ActionResult Index(string name)
{
Response.AddHeader("Content-Disposition", "inline; filename=" + name); //Set it as inline instead of attached.
var blob = _azureBlobContainer.DownloadData(); //Code that returns CloudBlockBlob
var memStream = new MemoryStream();
blob.DownloadToStream(memStream);
return File(memStream.ToArray(), blob.Properties.ContentType);
}
To open file in a new tab, make sure you specify the target in the view:
In regards to the blob being public/private, you should handle that in your interaction with Azure Storage. If you want to give users permission to access your blobs from outside your application, you should use a Shared Access Signature. Details here.
Hope this helps.

As an extension Alex S's excellent answer, if you're just adding say a 'Download' button or hyperlink then an alternative approach is to make the MyControllerAction method return a Redirect:
return Redirect(newUri.ToString());
And then in your view make the download link open the response from that controller action in a new window:
Download
That will trigger the download of the file to the user and without triggering navigation to a new page.

C# with azure storage getting exception when using DeleteIfExists()

I get an exception when using the method DeleteIfExists from the CloudBlockBlob class.
This is my code:
CloudBlobClient blobClient = this._storageAccount.CreateCloudBlobClient();
directory = directory.ToLower();
string containerDirectory = this.GetContainer(directory);
string relativePathWithoutContainer = this.GetRelativePathWithoutContainer(directory);
CloudBlobContainer container = blobClient.GetContainerReference(containerDirectory);
container.CreateIfNotExist();
container.SetPermissions(new BlobContainerPermissions() { PublicAccess = BlobContainerPublicAccessType.Blob });
foreach (HttpPostedFileBase file in files)
{
CloudBlockBlob blob = container.GetBlockBlobReference(string.Format("{0}/{1}", relativePathWithoutContainer, file.FileName.ToLower()));
blob.DeleteIfExists();
blob.UploadFromStream(file.InputStream,new BlobRequestOptions());
}
return true;
I get the exception at the line:
blob.DeleteIfExists();
The details of the exception are:
Server failed to authenticate the request. Make sure the value of
Authorization header is formed correctly including the signature.

Got an example from here try to add these and see if it works
// Delete the blob if it already exists, also deleting any snapshots.
BlobRequestOptions options = new BlobRequestOptions();
options.DeleteSnapshotsOption = DeleteSnapshotsOption.IncludeSnapshots;
blob.DeleteIfExists(options);