Project 2: Azure Storage for File Management

Introduction

In this project, I focused on Azure Blob Storage, where I learned how to set up a storage account, create containers, and upload or retrieve files programmatically. Additionally, I explored Azure Storage Explorer for easy file management.

Project Overview

This project helped me:

• Set up an Azure Storage Account.
• Create a Blob Storage container.
• Upload files using Azure Storage Explorer.
• Optionally, I built a simple C# app to upload and retrieve files programmatically.

Let me walk you through the steps I followed to complete this project.

Step 1: Set Up an Azure Storage Account

1️⃣ Create a Storage Account:

I opened the Azure Portal and clicked on Create a resource at the top left.

In the Search the Marketplace bar, I searched for Storage account and selected it from the results.
Then, I clicked Create.

2️⃣ Filled in Storage Account Details:

• Subscription: I selected the correct subscription I was working under.
• Resource Group: I created a new resource group called az-rg1 (for organizational purposes).
• Storage Account Name: I gave my storage account a unique name like az104bobstg1.
• Region: I chose UK South since it was the closest to me.
• Performance: I selected Standard for the performance tier.
• Replication: I went with Locally Redundant Storage (LRS) for simplicity.

3️⃣ Review and Create: After filling in all the details, I clicked Review + Create and then Create. I waited for the deployment to complete.

4️⃣ Access Your Storage Account: Once the storage account was created, I navigated to the Resource Group and selected my new storage account.

Step 2: Set Up Blob Storage Containers

1️⃣ Navigate to Blob Service:
In the Storage Account, I went to the Blob Service section and clicked on Containers.

2️⃣ Create a New Blob Container:

1. I clicked + Container.
2. I provided a name for my container (e.g., my-container).
3. I set the Public access level to Private for secure file storage.
4. I clicked Create to set up the container.

Step 3: Upload Files Using Azure Storage Explorer

1️⃣ Install Azure Storage Explorer:
I downloaded and installed Azure Storage Explorer from here.

2️⃣ Connect Azure Storage Explorer to My Azure Account:
I opened Azure Storage Explorer.
Clicked on the plug icon (Account Management) and chose Connect to Azure Storage.
I selected Azure Account and signed in with my Azure credentials.

3️⃣ Navigate to My Storage Account:
In the left panel, I expanded Azure → Storage Accounts.
I found my storage account by navigating through Subscriptions → Resource Groups → My Storage Account.
I expanded the account and clicked on Blob Containers.

4️⃣ Upload Files to Blob Container:
I right-clicked on the Blob Container I created earlier.
Selected Upload → Upload Files.
I selected the file(s) from my local machine and clicked Open.
The files were uploaded and appeared in the container once the upload was complete.

Step 4: Build a Simple App to Upload and Retrieve Files Programmatically
Now, I decided to build a simple C# Console App to interact with my Blob Storage.

1️⃣ Install .NET SDK (if not installed already):
I downloaded and installed the .NET SDK from here.

2️⃣ Create a Console App in Visual Studio Code:
I opened Visual Studio Code and created a new directory for my project:
mkdir MyConsoleApp
cd MyConsoleApp
code .

Created a new console app using:
dotnet new console
This generated a new Program.cs file.

3️⃣ Install the Azure.Storage.Blobs NuGet Package:
I opened the terminal in Visual Studio Code and ran the following command to install the Azure.Storage.Blobs package:
dotnet add package Azure.Storage.Blobs

4️⃣ Write Code to Upload Files: I replaced the default code with the following to upload files to Azure Blob Storage:
using Azure.Storage.Blobs;
using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Threading.Tasks;

class Program
{
static async Task Main(string[] args)
{
// Connection string for your Azure Storage account
string connectionString = "";

    // The container name in Azure Blob Storage
    string containerName = "my-container"; 

    // Local file path to upload
    string filePath = @"C:\path\to\your\file.txt";

    // The name the file will have in Blob Storage
    string blobName = "file.txt";

    // Initialize BlobServiceClient and BlobContainerClient
    BlobServiceClient blobServiceClient = new BlobServiceClient(connectionString);
    BlobContainerClient containerClient = blobServiceClient.GetBlobContainerClient(containerName);
    BlobClient blobClient = containerClient.GetBlobClient(blobName);

    // Upload file to blob storage
    Console.WriteLine($"Uploading file to {blobName}...");
    await blobClient.UploadAsync(filePath, overwrite: true);
    Console.WriteLine("Upload completed.");
}

}

You can find the code for uploading files in my GitHub - Code to Upload Files.

Step 5: Retrieve Files from Azure Blob Storage

1️⃣ Write Code to Retrieve Files: To retrieve a file from Blob Storage, I used the following code:
using Azure.Storage.Blobs;
using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Threading.Tasks;

class Program
{
static async Task Main(string[] args)
{
string connectionString = "";
string containerName = "my-container";
string blobName = "file.txt"; // The name of the file to download
string downloadFolderPath = @"C:\path\to\download";

    string downloadFilePath = Path.Combine(downloadFolderPath, blobName);

    try
    {
        BlobServiceClient blobServiceClient = new BlobServiceClient(connectionString);
        BlobContainerClient containerClient = blobServiceClient.GetBlobContainerClient(containerName);
        BlobClient blobClient = containerClient.GetBlobClient(blobName);

        Console.WriteLine($"Downloading {blobName}...");
        await blobClient.DownloadToAsync(downloadFilePath);

        Console.WriteLine($"Download completed!\nThe file is saved as {downloadFilePath}");
    }
    catch (Exception ex)
    {
        Console.WriteLine($"An error occurred: {ex.Message}");
    }
}

}

You can find the code for retrieving files in my GitHub - Code to Retrieve Files.

Step 6: Conclusion and Cleanup
1️⃣ Test Your Application: I ensured the app was working correctly by uploading and downloading files from my Azure Blob Storage container.

2️⃣ Verify Upload and Download: I went to Azure Storage Explorer or the Azure Portal to confirm that the files were uploaded successfully and could be retrieved.

3️⃣ Clean Up Resources: After I was done, I deleted the storage account and all associated resources from the Azure portal to avoid unnecessary charges.

Conclusion

In this project, I successfully set up Azure Blob Storage, created containers, and uploaded and retrieved files using Azure Storage Explorer. Additionally, I built a C# Console App to interact with Blob Storage programmatically, allowing me to upload and download files easily.

By the end of this project, I gained hands-on experience with Azure Blob Storage, Azure Storage Explorer, and programmatic file management using C# in Azure. I can now implement these tools to manage files within Azure and integrate them into applications efficiently.

Credits: https://www.datacamp.com/blog/azure-project-ideas?dc_referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F

You can find the full code for this project on my GitHub - Code to Upload Files and GitHub - Code to Retrieve Files.