Azure Blob storage output binding for Azure Functions

02/13/2020
10 minutes to read

The output binding allows you to modify and delete blob storage data in an Azure Function.

For information on setup and configuration details, see the overview.

Example

The following example is a C# function that uses a blob trigger and two output blob bindings. The function is triggered by the creation of an image blob in the sample-images container. It creates small and medium size copies of the image blob.

using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.IO;
using Microsoft.Azure.WebJobs;
using SixLabors.ImageSharp;
using SixLabors.ImageSharp.Formats;
using SixLabors.ImageSharp.PixelFormats;
using SixLabors.ImageSharp.Processing;

public class ResizeImages
{
    [FunctionName("ResizeImage")]
    public static void Run([BlobTrigger("sample-images/{name}")] Stream image,
        [Blob("sample-images-sm/{name}", FileAccess.Write)] Stream imageSmall,
        [Blob("sample-images-md/{name}", FileAccess.Write)] Stream imageMedium)
    {
        IImageFormat format;

        using (Image<Rgba32> input = Image.Load<Rgba32>(image, out format))
        {
            ResizeImage(input, imageSmall, ImageSize.Small, format);
        }

        image.Position = 0;
        using (Image<Rgba32> input = Image.Load<Rgba32>(image, out format))
        {
            ResizeImage(input, imageMedium, ImageSize.Medium, format);
        }
    }

    public static void ResizeImage(Image<Rgba32> input, Stream output, ImageSize size, IImageFormat format)
    {
        var dimensions = imageDimensionsTable[size];

        input.Mutate(x => x.Resize(dimensions.Item1, dimensions.Item2));
        input.Save(output, format);
    }

    public enum ImageSize { ExtraSmall, Small, Medium }

    private static Dictionary<ImageSize, (int, int)> imageDimensionsTable = new Dictionary<ImageSize, (int, int)>() {
        { ImageSize.ExtraSmall, (320, 200) },
        { ImageSize.Small,      (640, 400) },
        { ImageSize.Medium,     (800, 600) }
    };

}

The following example shows blob input and output bindings in a function.json file and C# script (.csx) code that uses the bindings. The function makes a copy of a text blob. The function is triggered by a queue message that contains the name of the blob to copy. The new blob is named {originalblobname}-Copy.

In the function.json file, the queueTrigger metadata property is used to specify the blob name in the path properties:

{
  "bindings": [
    {
      "queueName": "myqueue-items",
      "connection": "MyStorageConnectionAppSetting",
      "name": "myQueueItem",
      "type": "queueTrigger",
      "direction": "in"
    },
    {
      "name": "myInputBlob",
      "type": "blob",
      "path": "samples-workitems/{queueTrigger}",
      "connection": "MyStorageConnectionAppSetting",
      "direction": "in"
    },
    {
      "name": "myOutputBlob",
      "type": "blob",
      "path": "samples-workitems/{queueTrigger}-Copy",
      "connection": "MyStorageConnectionAppSetting",
      "direction": "out"
    }
  ],
  "disabled": false
}

The configuration section explains these properties.

Here's the C# script code:

public static void Run(string myQueueItem, string myInputBlob, out string myOutputBlob, ILogger log)
{
    log.LogInformation($"C# Queue trigger function processed: {myQueueItem}");
    myOutputBlob = myInputBlob;
}

This section contains the following examples:

HTTP trigger, using OutputBinding
Queue trigger, using function return value

HTTP trigger, using OutputBinding (Java)

The following example shows a Java function that uses the HttpTrigger annotation to receive a parameter containing the name of a file in a blob storage container. The BlobInput annotation then reads the file and passes its contents to the function as a byte[]. The BlobOutput annotation binds to OutputBinding outputItem, which is then used by the function to write the contents of the input blob to the configured storage container.

  @FunctionName("copyBlobHttp")
  @StorageAccount("Storage_Account_Connection_String")
  public HttpResponseMessage copyBlobHttp(
    @HttpTrigger(name = "req", 
      methods = {HttpMethod.GET}, 
      authLevel = AuthorizationLevel.ANONYMOUS) 
    HttpRequestMessage<Optional<String>> request,
    @BlobInput(
      name = "file", 
      dataType = "binary", 
      path = "samples-workitems/{Query.file}") 
    byte[] content,
    @BlobOutput(
      name = "target", 
      path = "myblob/{Query.file}-CopyViaHttp")
    OutputBinding<String> outputItem,
    final ExecutionContext context) {
      // Save blob to outputItem
      outputItem.setValue(new String(content, StandardCharsets.UTF_8));

      // build HTTP response with size of requested blob
      return request.createResponseBuilder(HttpStatus.OK)
        .body("The size of \"" + request.getQueryParameters().get("file") + "\" is: " + content.length + " bytes")
        .build();
  }

Queue trigger, using function return value (Java)

The following example shows a Java function that uses the QueueTrigger annotation to receive a message containing the name of a file in a blob storage container. The BlobInput annotation then reads the file and passes its contents to the function as a byte[]. The BlobOutput annotation binds to the function return value, which is then used by the runtime to write the contents of the input blob to the configured storage container.

  @FunctionName("copyBlobQueueTrigger")
  @StorageAccount("Storage_Account_Connection_String")
  @BlobOutput(
    name = "target", 
    path = "myblob/{queueTrigger}-Copy")
  public String copyBlobQueue(
    @QueueTrigger(
      name = "filename", 
      dataType = "string",
      queueName = "myqueue-items") 
    String filename,
    @BlobInput(
      name = "file", 
      path = "samples-workitems/{queueTrigger}") 
    String content,
    final ExecutionContext context) {
      context.getLogger().info("The content of \"" + filename + "\" is: " + content);
      return content;
  }

In the Java functions runtime library, use the @BlobOutput annotation on function parameters whose value would be written to an object in blob storage. The parameter type should be OutputBinding<T>, where T is any native Java type or a POJO.

The following example shows blob input and output bindings in a function.json file and JavaScript code that uses the bindings. The function makes a copy of a blob. The function is triggered by a queue message that contains the name of the blob to copy. The new blob is named {originalblobname}-Copy.

In the function.json file, the queueTrigger metadata property is used to specify the blob name in the path properties:

{
  "bindings": [
    {
      "queueName": "myqueue-items",
      "connection": "MyStorageConnectionAppSetting",
      "name": "myQueueItem",
      "type": "queueTrigger",
      "direction": "in"
    },
    {
      "name": "myInputBlob",
      "type": "blob",
      "path": "samples-workitems/{queueTrigger}",
      "connection": "MyStorageConnectionAppSetting",
      "direction": "in"
    },
    {
      "name": "myOutputBlob",
      "type": "blob",
      "path": "samples-workitems/{queueTrigger}-Copy",
      "connection": "MyStorageConnectionAppSetting",
      "direction": "out"
    }
  ],
  "disabled": false
}

The configuration section explains these properties.

Here's the JavaScript code:

module.exports = function(context) {
    context.log('Node.js Queue trigger function processed', context.bindings.myQueueItem);
    context.bindings.myOutputBlob = context.bindings.myInputBlob;
    context.done();
};

The following example demonstrates how to create a copy of an incoming blob as the output from a PowerShell function.

In the function's configuration file (function.json), the trigger metadata property is used to specify the output blob name in the path properties.

Note

To avoid infinite loops, make sure your input and output paths are different.

{
  "bindings": [
    {
      "name": "myInputBlob",
      "path": "data/{trigger}",
      "connection": "MyStorageConnectionAppSetting",
      "direction": "in",
      "type": "blobTrigger"
    },
    {
      "name": "myOutputBlob",
      "type": "blob",
      "path": "data/copy/{trigger}",
      "connection": "MyStorageConnectionAppSetting",
      "direction": "out"
    }
  ],
  "disabled": false
}

Here's the PowerShell code:

# Input bindings are passed in via param block.
param([byte[]] $myInputBlob, $TriggerMetadata)
Write-Host "PowerShell Blob trigger function Processed blob Name: $($TriggerMetadata.Name)"
Push-OutputBinding -Name myOutputBlob -Value $myInputBlob

The following example shows blob input and output bindings in a function.json file and Python code that uses the bindings. The function makes a copy of a blob. The function is triggered by a queue message that contains the name of the blob to copy. The new blob is named {originalblobname}-Copy.

In the function.json file, the queueTrigger metadata property is used to specify the blob name in the path properties:

{
  "bindings": [
    {
      "queueName": "myqueue-items",
      "connection": "MyStorageConnectionAppSetting",
      "name": "queuemsg",
      "type": "queueTrigger",
      "direction": "in"
    },
    {
      "name": "inputblob",
      "type": "blob",
      "dataType": "binary",
      "path": "samples-workitems/{queueTrigger}",
      "connection": "MyStorageConnectionAppSetting",
      "direction": "in"
    },
    {
      "name": "outputblob",
      "type": "blob",
      "dataType": "binary",
      "path": "samples-workitems/{queueTrigger}-Copy",
      "connection": "MyStorageConnectionAppSetting",
      "direction": "out"
    }
  ],
  "disabled": false,
  "scriptFile": "__init__.py"
}

The configuration section explains these properties.

Here's the Python code:

import logging
import azure.functions as func


def main(queuemsg: func.QueueMessage, inputblob: bytes, outputblob: func.Out[bytes]):
    logging.info(f'Python Queue trigger function processed {len(inputblob)} bytes')
    outputblob.set(inputblob)

Attributes and annotations

In C# class libraries, use the BlobAttribute.

The attribute's constructor takes the path to the blob and a FileAccess parameter indicating read or write, as shown in the following example:

[FunctionName("ResizeImage")]
public static void Run(
    [BlobTrigger("sample-images/{name}")] Stream image,
    [Blob("sample-images-md/{name}", FileAccess.Write)] Stream imageSmall)
{
    ...
}

You can set the Connection property to specify the storage account to use, as shown in the following example:

[FunctionName("ResizeImage")]
public static void Run(
    [BlobTrigger("sample-images/{name}")] Stream image,
    [Blob("sample-images-md/{name}", FileAccess.Write, Connection = "StorageConnectionAppSetting")] Stream imageSmall)
{
    ...
}

For a complete example, see Output example.

You can use the StorageAccount attribute to specify the storage account at class, method, or parameter level. For more information, see Trigger - attributes.

Configuration

The following table explains the binding configuration properties that you set in the function.json file and the Blob attribute.

function.json property	Attribute property	Description
type	n/a	Must be set to `blob`.
direction	n/a	Must be set to `out` for an output binding. Exceptions are noted in the usage section.
name	n/a	The name of the variable that represents the blob in function code. Set to `$return` to reference the function return value.
path	BlobPath	The path to the blob container.
connection	Connection	The name of an app setting that contains the Storage connection string to use for this binding. If the app setting name begins with "AzureWebJobs", you can specify only the remainder of the name here. For example, if you set `connection` to "MyStorage", the Functions runtime looks for an app setting that is named "AzureWebJobsMyStorage." If you leave `connection` empty, the Functions runtime uses the default Storage connection string in the app setting that is named `AzureWebJobsStorage`. The connection string must be for a general-purpose storage account, not a blob-only storage account. If you are using version 5.x or higher of the extension, instead of a connection string, you can provide a reference to a configuration section which defines the connection. See Connections.
n/a	Access	Indicates whether you will be reading or writing.

When you're developing locally, app settings go into the local.settings.json file.

Usage

Default

You can bind to the following types to write blobs:

TextWriter
out string
out Byte[]
CloudBlobStream
Stream
CloudBlobContainer¹
CloudBlobDirectory
ICloudBlob²
CloudBlockBlob²
CloudPageBlob²
CloudAppendBlob²

¹ Requires "in" binding direction in function.json or FileAccess.Read in a C# class library. However, you can use the container object that the runtime provides to do write operations, such as uploading blobs to the container.

² Requires "inout" binding direction in function.json or FileAccess.ReadWrite in a C# class library.

If you try to bind to one of the Storage SDK types and get an error message, make sure that you have a reference to the correct Storage SDK version.

Binding to string or Byte[] is only recommended if the blob size is small, as the entire blob contents are loaded into memory. Generally, it is preferable to use a Stream or CloudBlockBlob type. For more information, see Concurrency and memory usage earlier in this article.

Additional types

Apps using the 5.0.0 or higher version of the Storage extension may also use types from the Azure SDK for .NET. This version drops support for the legacy CloudBlobContainer, CloudBlobDirectory, ICloudBlob, CloudBlockBlob, CloudPageBlob, and CloudAppendBlob types in favor of the following types:

² Requires "inout" binding direction in function.json or FileAccess.ReadWrite in a C# class library.

For examples using these types, see the GitHub repository for the extension.

Default

You can bind to the following types to write blobs:

TextWriter
out string
out Byte[]
CloudBlobStream
Stream
CloudBlobContainer¹
CloudBlobDirectory
ICloudBlob²
CloudBlockBlob²
CloudPageBlob²
CloudAppendBlob²

² Requires "inout" binding direction in function.json or FileAccess.ReadWrite in a C# class library.

If you try to bind to one of the Storage SDK types and get an error message, make sure that you have a reference to the correct Storage SDK version.

Additional types

² Requires "inout" binding direction in function.json or FileAccess.ReadWrite in a C# class library.

For examples using these types, see the GitHub repository for the extension.

Exceptions and return codes

Binding	Reference
Blob	Blob Error Codes
Blob, Table, Queue	Storage Error Codes
Blob, Table, Queue	Troubleshooting

Azure Blob storage output binding for Azure Functions

Example

HTTP trigger, using OutputBinding (Java)

Queue trigger, using function return value (Java)

Attributes and annotations

Configuration

Usage

Default

Additional types

Default

Additional types

Exceptions and return codes

Next steps

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