vs-storage-webjobs-getting-started-tables.md

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Getting Started with Azure storage and Visual Studio connected services (WebJob projects)	How to get started using Azure Table storage in an Azure WebJobs project in Visual Studio after connecting to a storage account using Visual Studio connected services	storage		TomArcher	douge		061a6c46-0592-4e5d-aced-ab7498481cde	storage	web	vs-getting-started	na	article	12/02/2016	tarcher

Getting Started with Azure Storage (Azure WebJob Projects)

[!INCLUDE storage-try-azure-tools-tables]

Overview

This article provides C# code samples that show show how to use the Azure WebJobs SDK version 1.x with the Azure table storage service. The code samples use the WebJobs SDK version 1.x.

The Azure Table storage service enables you to store large amounts of structured data. The service is a NoSQL datastore that accepts authenticated calls from inside and outside the Azure cloud. Azure tables are ideal for storing structured, non-relational data. See Get started with Azure Table storage using .NET for more information.

Some of the code snippets show the Table attribute used in functions that are called manually, that is, not by using one of the trigger attributes.

How to add entities to a table

To add entities to a table, use the Table attribute with an ICollector or IAsyncCollector parameter where T specifies the schema of the entities you want to add. The attribute constructor takes a string parameter that specifies the name of the table.

The following code sample adds Person entities to a table named Ingress.

    [NoAutomaticTrigger]
    public static void IngressDemo(
        [Table("Ingress")] ICollector<Person> tableBinding)
    {
        for (int i = 0; i < 100000; i++)
        {
            tableBinding.Add(
                new Person() {
                    PartitionKey = "Test",
                    RowKey = i.ToString(),
                    Name = "Name" }
                );
        }
    }

Typically the type you use with ICollector derives from TableEntity or implements ITableEntity, but it doesn't have to. Either of the following Person classes work with the code shown in the preceding Ingress method.

    public class Person : TableEntity
    {
        public string Name { get; set; }
    }

    public class Person
    {
        public string PartitionKey { get; set; }
        public string RowKey { get; set; }
        public string Name { get; set; }
    }

If you want to work directly with the Azure storage API, you can add a CloudStorageAccount parameter to the method signature.

Real-time monitoring

Because data ingress functions often process large volumes of data, the WebJobs SDK dashboard provides real-time monitoring data. The Invocation Log section tells you if the function is still running.

The Invocation Details page reports the function's progress (number of entities written) while it's running and gives you an opportunity to abort it.

When the function finishes, the Invocation Details page reports the number of rows written.

How to read multiple entities from a table

To read a table, use the Table attribute with an IQueryable parameter where type T derives from TableEntity or implements ITableEntity.

The following code sample reads and logs all rows from the Ingress table:

    public static void ReadTable(
        [Table("Ingress")] IQueryable<Person> tableBinding,
        TextWriter logger)
    {
        var query = from p in tableBinding select p;
        foreach (Person person in query)
        {
            logger.WriteLine("PK:{0}, RK:{1}, Name:{2}",
                person.PartitionKey, person.RowKey, person.Name);
        }
    }

How to read a single entity from a table

There is a Table attribute constructor with two additional parameters that let you specify the partition key and row key when you want to bind to a single table entity.

The following code sample reads a table row for a Person entity based on partition key and row key values received in a queue message:

    public static void ReadTableEntity(
        [QueueTrigger("inputqueue")] Person personInQueue,
        [Table("persontable","{PartitionKey}", "{RowKey}")] Person personInTable,
        TextWriter logger)
    {
        if (personInTable == null)
        {
            logger.WriteLine("Person not found: PK:{0}, RK:{1}",
                    personInQueue.PartitionKey, personInQueue.RowKey);
        }
        else
        {
            logger.WriteLine("Person found: PK:{0}, RK:{1}, Name:{2}",
                    personInTable.PartitionKey, personInTable.RowKey, personInTable.Name);
        }
    }

The Person class in this example does not have to implement ITableEntity.

How to use the .NET Storage API directly to work with a table

You can also use the Table attribute with a CloudTable object for more flexibility in working with a table.

The following code sample uses a CloudTable object to add a single entity to the Ingress table.

    public static void UseStorageAPI(
        [Table("Ingress")] CloudTable tableBinding,
        TextWriter logger)
    {
        var person = new Person()
            {
                PartitionKey = "Test",
                RowKey = "100",
                Name = "Name"
            };
        TableOperation insertOperation = TableOperation.Insert(person);
        tableBinding.Execute(insertOperation);
    }

For more information about how to use the CloudTable object, see Get started with Azure Table storage using .NET.

Related topics covered by the queues how-to article

For information about how to handle table processing triggered by a queue message, or for WebJobs SDK scenarios not specific to table processing, see Getting started with Azure Queue storage and Visual Studio connected services (WebJob Projects).

Next steps

This article has provided code samples that show how to handle common scenarios for working with Azure tables. For more information about how to use Azure WebJobs and the WebJobs SDK, see Azure WebJobs documentation resources.