In this article, we provide the steps to programmatically connect to your Umbraco Cloud Environments Azure Blob Storage containers and persist files programmatically.

These files within the folder will only be available on Azure Storage and are not publicly visible in Umbraco CMS. The only exception is that the files that can be shared publicly via the *.blob.core.windows.net URL.

By the end of this article, you will have connected and uploaded a file to your Cloud Blob Storage.

Getting the Azure Blob Storage credentials

The first thing to do if you want to connect to the Azure Blob Storage container of your environment is the credentials.

To find the connection details for your environment's Blob Storage, follow the steps below:

1. Go to your project on Umbraco Cloud.

2. Go to Configuration in the side menu.

3. Go to Connections.

4. Scroll down to Blob Storage Connection Details

5. Copy the credentials needed for connecting to Azure Blob Storage.

Connecting programmatically to Azure Blob Storage

Follow the steps below to get started connecting to Azure Blob Storage programmatically:

1. Clone down your Umbraco Cloud Project. You can find more information on how to clone a project in the Working Locally article.

2. Run your project.

3. Install Azure.Storage.Blobs package on your project. You can do it either via NuGet Package Manager on Visual Studio or install it via NuGet.

4. Run the project to complete the installation of the package.

5. Add a new class called BlobStorageService which serves as a service that has a method to connect to Blob Storage:

using Azure.Storage.Blobs;

namespace UmbracoProject
{
    public class BlobStorageService
    {
        public BlobContainerClient GetContainerClient(string connectionString, string containerName)
        {
            BlobServiceClient blobServiceClient = new BlobServiceClient(connectionString);
            BlobContainerClient containerClient = blobServiceClient.GetBlobContainerClient(containerName);
            return containerClient;

        }
    }
}

1. Add a new class called BlobStorageComposer to inject the service:

using Umbraco.Cms.Core.Composing;

namespace UmbracoProject;

public class BlobStorageComposer : IComposer
{
    public void Compose(IUmbracoBuilder builder)
    {
        builder.Services.AddScoped<BlobStorageService>();

    }
}

1. Add a new class called BlobStorageController which serves as the Surface Controller:

using Azure.Storage.Blobs;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc;
using Umbraco.Cms.Core.Cache;
using Umbraco.Cms.Core.Logging;
using Umbraco.Cms.Core.Routing;
using Umbraco.Cms.Core.Services;
using Umbraco.Cms.Core.Web;
using Umbraco.Cms.Infrastructure.Persistence;
using Umbraco.Cms.Web.Website.Controllers;

namespace UmbracoProject;

public class BlobStorageController : SurfaceController
{

    private readonly BlobStorageService _blobStorageService;

    public BlobStorageController(
        IUmbracoContextAccessor umbracoContextAccessor,
        IUmbracoDatabaseFactory databaseFactory,
        ServiceContext services,
        AppCaches appCaches,
        IProfilingLogger profilingLogger,
        IPublishedUrlProvider publishedUrlProvider,
        BlobStorageService blobStorageService)
        : base(umbracoContextAccessor, databaseFactory, services, appCaches, profilingLogger, publishedUrlProvider)
    {
        _blobStorageService = blobStorageService;
    }

    // access the endpoint in backoffice via /umbraco/surface/BlobStorage/BlobUpdate
    public async Task<IActionResult> BlobUpdate()
    {

        string SASUrl = "Replace this with the Shared access signature URL (SAS) from Umbraco Cloud settings"; 
        string containerName = "Replace this with the Container Name from the Umbraco Cloud settings"; 

        string connectionString = $"BlobEndpoint={SASUrl}";

        BlobContainerClient containerClient = _blobStorageService.GetContainerClient(connectionString, containerName);

        string localPath = "data";
        Directory.CreateDirectory(localPath);
        string fileName = Guid.NewGuid().ToString() + ".txt";
        string localFilePath = Path.Combine(localPath, fileName);

        try
        {
            // Write some content to the file
            await using (StreamWriter writer = new StreamWriter(localFilePath))
            {
                await writer.WriteLineAsync("Hello, World! This file is created programmatically!");
            }

        }
        catch (Exception)
        {
            // ignored
        }

        // Get a reference to a blob
        string blobName = "FolderProgramatically/" + Guid.NewGuid().ToString() + ".txt"; //the blobName can be anything
        BlobClient blobClient = containerClient.GetBlobClient(blobName);

        Console.WriteLine("Uploading to Blob storage as blob:\n\t {0}\n", blobClient.Uri);

        // Upload data from the local file
        await blobClient.UploadAsync(localFilePath, true);

        return Content("Check your Blob Storage to see your new file!");
    }

}

The controller is used to create a directory named FolderProgramatically and a .txt file in Azure Blob Storage.

1. Run the project.

2. Visit the {{yourProjectURL}}/umbraco/surface/BlobStorage/BlobUpdate endpoint in the backoffice of your project to manually trigger the creation of the file to the Blob Storage.

3. Connect to your Blob Storage and there you will find the folder and file that has been created programmatically:

Now you have connected to your Blob Storage programmatically you can extend it to fit your needs in terms of what you need to upload to the blob container.

References

For more information on how to work with Azure Blob Storage, see the following articles from Microsoft:

• Get started with Azure Blob Storage and .NET

• Quickstart: Azure Blob Storage client library for .NET

This includes everything that is added to the Media library through the Umbraco backoffice, like images, PDFs, and other document formats.

In some cases, you might want to store other files in the Blob Storage than Media files.

Below are two articles describing how to connect to your environment Blob Storage, and upload files either through Azure Storage Explorer or programmatically.

• Connect to Azure Storage Explorer

• Connect and Upload Files Programmatically to Azure Blob Storage

You can learn more about Azure Blob Storage in the Microsoft Documentation.

This article provides the steps you need, to connect to your Azure Blob Storage containers using Azure Storage Explorer.

Getting the credentials

The first thing to sort out, if you want to connect to the Azure Blob Storage container of your environment is the credentials.

To find the connection details for your environment's Blob Storage, follow the steps below:

1. Go to your project on Umbraco Cloud.

2. Go to Configuration in the side menu.

3. Go to Connections.

4. Scroll down to Blob Storage Connection Details

5. Copy down the credentials needed for connecting to Azure Blob Storage.

Installing Azure Storage Explorer

The next step is to have Azure Storage Explorer installed on your local computer. Download the storage explorer, and run through the installer.

Configuring the Connection to your Azure Blob Storage

Let's use the information you have gathered, and connect Azure Storage Explorer to the Blob storage container:

1. Click the Open Connect Dialog button to get the Connect dialogue.

1. Select the Blob container in the first prompt.

1. Select Shared access signature URL (SAS) in the second prompt.

1. Input the information you have gathered earlier in the following format [Endpoint][ContainerName][SharedAccessSignature], in the URI field. See below for an example.

https://ucmediastoragewelive.blob.core.windows.net/92f27eee-eb18-445e-b9e4-c7a98bd209c0?sv=2019-07-07&sr=c&si=umbraco&sig=U92YZXOdzhp7JFLzj6MH%2BeugDgEelgzpB56o1XfD1%2BU%3D&spr=https

1. Ensure that the credentials are correctly set in the Connection Summary prompt.

2. Select Connect.

You are now connected to the blob storage for your environment and you can upload your files to Azure Blob Storage through the explorer.