Blob Service REST API

The Azure Blob Storage REST API provides a programmatic interface for interacting with Azure Blob Storage. You can use this API to manage containers and blobs within your storage account.

Introduction to the Blob Service REST API

The Blob service exposes the following resources:

Storage Account: The top-level resource.
Containers: Collections of blobs. Containers are created within a storage account.
Blobs: Individual files or pieces of data stored in a container. There are three types of blobs: block blobs, append blobs, and page blobs.

All Blob service operations are RESTful operations that are invoked using standard HTTP methods (GET, PUT, POST, HEAD, DELETE). The Blob service operations are categorized as follows:

Account Operations: Operations on the storage account.
Container Operations: Operations on containers.
Blob Operations: Operations on blobs.

Account Operations

List Containers

GET /{accountName}/containers

Retrieves a list of all containers within the specified storage account.

Query Parameters:

Name	Type	Required	Description
`comp`	String	Yes	Must be set to `list`.
`prefix`	String	No	Filters containers by a specified prefix.
`maxresults`	Integer	No	Specifies the maximum number of containers to return.

Get Account Properties

GET /{accountName}

Retrieves the properties of the specified storage account.

Query Parameters:

Name	Type	Required	Description
`comp`	String	Yes	Must be set to `properties`.

Container Operations

Create Container

PUT /{accountName}/{containerName}

Creates a new container within the specified storage account.

Request Headers:

Name	Type	Required	Description
`x-ms-blob-public-access`	String	No	Specifies the public access level for the container (e.g., `blob`, `container`, `off`).
`x-ms-meta-name`	String	No	User-defined metadata for the container.

List Blobs

GET /{accountName}/{containerName}/blobs

Retrieves a list of all blobs within the specified container.

Query Parameters:

Name	Type	Required	Description
`restype`	String	Yes	Must be set to `container`.
`comp`	String	Yes	Must be set to `list`.
`prefix`	String	No	Filters blobs by a specified prefix.
`maxresults`	Integer	No	Specifies the maximum number of blobs to return.

Delete Container

DELETE /{accountName}/{containerName}

Deletes the specified container and all of its contents.

Blob Operations

Upload Blob (Block Blob)

PUT /{accountName}/{containerName}/{blobName}

Uploads a new block blob or overwrites an existing one.

Request Headers:

Name	Type	Required	Description
`x-ms-blob-type`	String	Yes	Must be set to `BlockBlob`.
`Content-Length`	Integer	Yes	The size of the blob data in bytes.
`x-ms-meta-name`	String	No	User-defined metadata for the blob.

Download Blob

GET /{accountName}/{containerName}/{blobName}

Downloads a blob from the specified container.

Query Parameters:

Name	Type	Required	Description
`snapshot`	DateTime	No	Specifies a snapshot version of the blob to download.

Delete Blob

DELETE /{accountName}/{containerName}/{blobName}

Deletes the specified blob.

Query Parameters:

Name	Type	Required	Description
`snapshot`	DateTime	No	Specifies a snapshot version of the blob to delete.

Authentication

All Azure Storage REST API requests must be authenticated. The primary methods for authentication are:

Shared Key Authorization: Using the account name and one of the account access keys.
Shared Access Signatures (SAS): Delegating access to resources without sharing the account key.
Azure Active Directory (Azure AD): Using service principals or managed identities for authorized access.

Refer to the Storage Authentication overview for detailed information.

Request and Response Headers

Various headers are used to control the behavior of operations and provide information about the resources. Common headers include:

Content-Type
Content-Length
x-ms-date
Authorization
x-ms-version
ETag
Last-Modified

Error Handling

Azure Storage returns standard HTTP status codes to indicate the success or failure of a request. Error details are typically provided in the response body in XML or JSON format.


HTTP/1.1 404 The specified container does not exist.
Content-Type: application/xml
...
<Error>
  <Code>ContainerNotFound</Code>
  <Message>The specified container does not exist.
    RequestId:8c521916-f00e-4309-8395-62109460245b
    Time:2023-10-27T10:00:00.0000000Z</Message>
</Error>

For a comprehensive list of operations, parameters, and response details, please refer to the official Microsoft Azure Storage REST API documentation.