There are some scenarios where you may want or need to consider leveraging Azure Blob Storage. An example would be for media in Umbraco sites with substantial media libraries.

Having your site's media in Azure Blob Storage can help your deployments complete more quickly. This has the potential to positively affect site performance, as the ImageSharp cache is moved to Azure Blob Storage.

The setup consists of adding a package to your site, setting the correct configuration, and adding the services and middleware. Before you begin you’ll need to create an Azure Storage Account and a container for your media and ImageSharp cache. In this example, we assume your container name is "mysitestorage" and has already been created.

See the Microsoft documentation for a quickstart guide on how to create a blob storage container.

Installing the package

Before you begin, you need to install the Umbraco.StorageProviders.AzureBlob and the Umbraco.StorageProviders.AzureBlob.ImageSharp NuGet packages. There are two approaches to installing the packages:

1. Use your favorite Integrated Development Environment (IDE) and open up the NuGet Package Manager to search and install the packages

2. Use the command line to install the packages

Installing through command line

Navigate to your project folder, which is the folder that contains your .csproj file. Now use the following dotnet add package commands to install the packages:

dotnet add package Umbraco.StorageProviders.AzureBlob
dotnet add package Umbraco.StorageProviders.AzureBlob.ImageSharp

The correct packages will have been installed in your project.

Configuring Blob storage

The next step is to configure your blob storage. There are multiple approaches for this, but in this document, we're going to do it through appsettings.json. For more configuration options, see the readme on the Github repository.

Open up your appsettings.json file and add the connection string and container name under Umbraco:Storage:AzureBlob:Media. Your Umbraco section of appsettings will look something like this:

  "Umbraco": {
    "Storage": {
      "AzureBlob": {
        "Media": {
          "ConnectionString": "DefaultEndpointsProtocol=https;AccountName=<media account name>;AccountKey=<media account key>;EndpointSuffix=core.windows.net",
          "ContainerName": "mysitestorage"
        }
      }
    },
    "CMS": {
      "Hosting": {
        "Debug": false
      },
      {...}
    }
  }

In this example, the container name is mysitestorage.

Setting the services and middleware

You are almost there. The last step is to set up the required services and middleware. This can be done using extension methods.

Invoke the .AddAzureBlobMediaFileSystem() and the .AddAzureBlobImageSharpCache() extension methods using the CreateUmbracoBuilder() builder chain in the Program.cs file like shown below.

builder.CreateUmbracoBuilder()
    .AddBackOffice()
    .AddWebsite()
    .AddDeliveryApi()
    .AddComposers()
    .AddAzureBlobMediaFileSystem() // This configures the required services for Media
    .AddAzureBlobImageSharpCache() // This configures the required services for the Image Sharp cache
    .Build();

Learn more about invoking and registering extension methods in the Dependency Injection article.

Now when you launch your site again, the blob storage will be used to store media items as well as the ImageSharp cache. Do note though that the /media and /cache folders do not get created until a piece of media is uploaded.

Existing Media files

Any media files you already have on your site will not automatically be added to the blob storage container. You will need to copy the contents on the /wwwroot/media folder and upload them to a new folder called /media in your blob storage container. Once you've done that, you can safely delete the wwwroot/media folder locally, as it is no longer needed.

Any new media files you upload to the site will automatically be added to the Blob Storage.

Media Filesystem

By default, Umbraco uses an instance of PhysicalFileSystem to handle the storage location of the media archive (wwwroot/media).

This can be configured by composition:

using Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection;
using Microsoft.Extensions.Logging;
using Umbraco.Cms.Core.Composing;
using Umbraco.Cms.Core.DependencyInjection;
using Umbraco.Cms.Core.Hosting;
using Umbraco.Cms.Core.IO;
using Umbraco.Cms.Infrastructure.DependencyInjection;

namespace UmbracoExamples.Composition;

public class SetMediaFileSystemComposer : IComposer
{
    public void Compose(IUmbracoBuilder builder)
    {
        builder.SetMediaFileSystem((factory) =>
        {
            IHostingEnvironment hostingEnvironment = factory.GetRequiredService<IHostingEnvironment>();
            var folderLocation = "~/CustomMediaFolder";
            var rootPath = hostingEnvironment.MapPathWebRoot(folderLocation);
            var rootUrl = hostingEnvironment.ToAbsolute(folderLocation);

            return new PhysicalFileSystem(
                factory.GetRequiredService<IIOHelper>(),
                hostingEnvironment,
                factory.GetRequiredService<ILogger<PhysicalFileSystem>>(),
                rootPath,
                rootUrl);
        });
    }
}

When creating a PhysicalFileSystem it takes some dependencies like IIOHelper, but the last two parameters are what we're interested in.

The rootPath is where your media will be stored on the disk. Since netcore by default stores files in the wwwroot, we must put our desired folder somewhere within wwwroot to ensure that we use hostingEnvironment.MapPathWebRoot(~/CustomMediaFolder). The ~ will be mapped to your wwwroot folder, so the final rootPath will be your/project/path/wwwroot/CustomMediaFolder. The ~ is therefore important.

The rootUrl is the base URL that your media files will be served from. In this case, your image URL could look something like mysite.com/CustomMediaFolder/MyAwesomePicture.png. Again the ~ is important.

In the code sample above, the rootUrl must map to the the same physical location as rootPath, which again must be placed under wwwroot. If you want to store the media files outside of wwwroot there is an extra step involved; you need to instruct netcore to include static files from a different physical location.

The rootUrl is the base URL that your media files will be served from. In this case, your image URL could look something like mysite.com/CustomMediaFolder/MyAwesomePicture.png. Again the ~ is important. With the code sample above, the rootUrl must map to the same physical location as rootPath, otherwise, you will get 404's for your images.

If you want to store the media files outside of wwwroot there is an extra step involved; you need to instruct netcore to include static files from a different physical location.

In the Program.cs file, register a new static file location like so:

...
WebApplication app = builder.Build();

app.UseStaticFiles(new StaticFileOptions
    {
        FileProvider = new PhysicalFileProvider(Path.Combine("C:", "storage", "umbracoMedia")),
        RequestPath = "/CustomPath"
    });

The PhysicalFileProvider takes a single parameter, the RootPath. This is the rooted filesystem path using directory separator chars and not ending with a directory separator, eg: c:\storage\umbracoMedia or \\server\path. The safest way to achieve this is using Path.Combine.

You also have to specify the RequestPath. This is the relative URL where the media will be served using URL separator chars and not ending with a separator, eg: /CustomPath or /Media.

Now you can use your newly registered static file location as if it was wwwroot. Notice how you no longer need to use hostingEnvironment.MapPathWebRoot(folderLocation), since you're no longer trying to map the location to somewhere within wwwroot, but instead use your newly registered static file location.

public void Compose(IUmbracoBuilder builder)
{
    builder.SetMediaFileSystem((factory) =>
    {
        IHostingEnvironment hostingEnvironment = factory.GetRequiredService<IHostingEnvironment>();
        var rootPath = Path.Combine("C:", "storage", "umbracoMedia");
        var rootUrl = hostingEnvironment.ToAbsolute("/CustomPath");

        return new PhysicalFileSystem(
            factory.GetRequiredService<IIOHelper>(),
            hostingEnvironment,
            factory.GetRequiredService<ILogger<PhysicalFileSystem>>(),
            rootPath,
            rootUrl);
    });
}

This is almost the same as when registering a location within the wwwroot folder. The only difference is that rootPath is now set to the path we gave the PhysicalFileProvider and the rootUrl is the same as we set as the RequestPath in the StaticFileOption.

Our media is now stored in C:\storage\umbracoMedia, and is served from the base URL /CustomPath, so an image URL will look something like mysite.com/CustomPath/MyAwesomePicture.png.

Creating a custom file system

You can replace PhysicalFileSystem with a custom file system implementation - eg. if you want your media files stored on Amazon S3 or elsewhere outside your site.

To achieve this, you must first create your own file system by implementing the interfaces IFileSystem and IFileProviderFactory (the interfaces that are implemented by PhysicalFileSystem).

You then replace the media filesystem by composition using IUmbracoBuilder.SetMediaFileSystem(...) (as is demonstrated in the paragraphs above), but instead of returning a PhysicalFileSystem, you return your own file system implementation.

For inspiration on building a custom file system, have a look at the Azure Blob Storage file system implementation.

Accessing the media file system from code

Since the default media file system can be swapped with custom implementations, you should never access the implementation directly. Umbraco uses a manager class called MediaFileManager. You can get a reference to this manager class via dependency injection in the constructor for your custom class or controller:

public class ImagesController : UmbracoAuthorizedApiController
{
    private readonly MediaFileManager _mediaFileManager;

    public ImagesController(MediaFileManager mediaFileManager)
    {
        _mediaFileManager = mediaFileManager;
    }

{...}

You can then access the configured file system provider through _mediaFileManager.FileSystem, which is the same way Umbraco will access the file system provider.

MediaPath Scheme

The MediaPath Scheme defines the current set of rules that decide the format of the Media Path when it is saved into the media archive wherever it is located.

By default the MediaPath scheme used by Umbraco is the UniqueMediaPathScheme this generates a unique 'folder' to place the uploaded image in eg.

/media/dozdrg2f/mylovelyimage.jpg

/media is defined by the PhysicalFileSystem and 'dozdrg2f' is generated by the UniqueMediaPathScheme.

You can set the MediaPathScheme during composition, for example if you wanted to revert back to the V7 methodology in a migrated site:

  builder.Services.AddUnique<IMediaPathScheme, OriginalMediaPathScheme>();

And you could create your own logic for the path by implementing IMediaPathScheme.

Other IFileSystems

Umbraco also registers instances of PhysicalFileSystem for the following parts of Umbraco that persist to 'files':

• MacroPartialsFileSystem

• PartialViewsFileSystem

• StylesheetsFileSystem

• ScriptsFileSystem

• MvcViewsFileSystem

These are accessible via dependency injection.

public class FileSystemLocations
{
    private readonly FileSystems _fileSystems;
    public FileSystemLocations(FileSystems fileSystems)
    {
        _fileSystems = fileSystems;
        var macroPartialsFileSystem = _fileSystems.MacroPartialsFileSystem;
    }

IFileSystem, MediaFileManager, and FileSystems are located in the Umbraco.Cms.Core.IO namespace.

Stylesheet Filesystem

Like with the media file system it is also possible to replace the stylesheet filesystem with your own implementation of IFileSystem in a composer. It's important to note here that, unlike media file system, you cannot replace the filesystem with a PhysicalFileSystem using a different root path or root URL, this will not work, and will cause issues since the root path is coupled to the virtual path, given by the frontend, e.g. /css/MyBeautifulStyle.css.

When replacing the stylesheet filesystem, you don't need to register it, since it's only available through Filesystems, what you need to do instead is configure the FileSystems to use your implementation for the StylesheetsFileSystem.

The IUmbracoBuilder has an extension method for configuring the FileSystems, you need to invoke this method with an action that accepts an IServiceProvider and the FileSystems you will configure, configuring the FileSystems can look like this:

using Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection;
using Microsoft.Extensions.Logging;
using Microsoft.Extensions.Options;
using Umbraco.Cms.Core.Composing;
using Umbraco.Cms.Core.Configuration.Models;
using Umbraco.Cms.Core.DependencyInjection;
using Umbraco.Cms.Core.Hosting;
using Umbraco.Cms.Core.IO;
using Umbraco.Cms.Infrastructure.DependencyInjection;

namespace UmbracoExamples.Composition;

public class FileSystemComposer : IComposer
{
    public void Compose(IUmbracoBuilder builder)
    {
        builder.ConfigureFileSystems((factory, systems) =>
        {
            IIOHelper ioHelper = factory.GetRequiredService<IIOHelper>();
            IHostingEnvironment hostingEnvironment = factory.GetRequiredService<IHostingEnvironment>();
            ILogger<PhysicalFileSystem> logger = factory.GetRequiredService<ILogger<PhysicalFileSystem>>();
            GlobalSettings settings = factory.GetRequiredService<IOptions<GlobalSettings>>().Value;

            var path = settings.UmbracoCssPath;
            var rootPath = hostingEnvironment.MapPathWebRoot(path);
            var rootUrl = hostingEnvironment.ToAbsolute(path);
            var fileSystem = new YourFileSystemImplementaion(ioHelper, hostingEnvironment, logger, rootPath, rootUrl);

            systems.SetStylesheetFilesystem(fileSystem);
        });
    }
}

Where YourFileSystemImplementation is a class that implements IFileSystem. This should always be done in a composer, since we do not recommend trying to change filesystems on the fly.

After the SetStylesheetFileSystem method has run, FileSystems.StylesheetsFileSystem will return the instance that was created in the ConfigureFileSystems extension method.

Custom providers

There is an Azure Blob Storage provider:

• Azure Blob Storage