BLOB Storing Database Provider

BLOB Storing Database Provider

BLOB Storing Database Storage Provider can store BLOBs in a relational or non-relational database.

There are two database providers implemented;

Volo.Abp.BlobStoring.Database.EntityFrameworkCore package implements for EF Core, so it can store BLOBs in any DBMS supported by the EF Core.
Volo.Abp.BlobStoring.Database.MongoDB package implements for MongoDB.

Read the BLOB Storing document to understand how to use the BLOB storing system. This document only covers how to configure containers to use a database as the storage provider.

Installation

Automatic Installation

If you’ve created your solution based on the application startup template, you can use the abp add-module CLI command to automatically add related packages to your solution.

Open a command prompt (terminal) in the folder containing your solution (.sln) file and run the following command:

abp add-module Volo.Abp.BlobStoring.Database

This command adds all the NuGet packages to corresponding layers of your solution. If you are using EF Core, it adds necessary configuration, adds a new database migration and updates the database.

Manual Installation

Here, all the NuGet packages defined by this provider;

You can only install Volo.Abp.BlobStoring.Database.EntityFrameworkCore or Volo.Abp.BlobStoring.Database.MongoDB (based on your preference) since they depends on the other packages.

After installation, add DepenedsOn attribute to your related module. Here, the list of module classes defined by the related NuGet packages listed above:

BlobStoringDatabaseDomainModule
BlobStoringDatabaseDomainSharedModule
BlobStoringDatabaseEntityFrameworkCoreModule
BlobStoringDatabaseMongoDbModule

Whenever you add a NuGet package to a project, also add the module class dependency.

If you are using EF Core, you also need to configure your Migration DbContext to add BLOB storage tables to your database schema. Call builder.ConfigureBlobStoring() extension method inside the OnModelCreating method to include mappings to your DbContext. Then you can use the standard Add-Migration and Update-Database commands to create necessary tables in your database.

Configuration

Connection String

If you will use your Default connection string, you don’t need to any additional configuration.

If you want to use a separate database for BLOB storage, use the AbpBlobStoring as the connection string name in your configuration file (appsettings.json). In this case, also read the EF Core Migrations document to learn how to create and use a different database for a desired module.

Configuring the Containers

If you are using only the database storage provider, you don’t need to manually configure it, since it is automatically done. If you are using multiple storage providers, you may want to configure it.

Configuration is done in the ConfigureServices method of your module class, as explained in the BLOB Storing document.

Example: Configure to use the database storage provider by default

Configure<AbpBlobStoringOptions>(options =>
{
    options.Containers.ConfigureDefault(container =>
    {
        container.UseDatabase();
    });
});

See the BLOB Storing document to learn how to configure this provider for a specific container.

Additional Information

It is expected to use the BLOB Storing services to use the BLOB storing system. However, if you want to work on the database tables/entities, you can use the following information.

Entities

Entities defined for this module:

DatabaseBlobContainer (aggregate root) represents a container stored in the database.
DatabaseBlob (aggregate root) represents a BLOB in the database.

See the entities document to learn what is an entity and aggregate root.

Repositories

IDatabaseBlobContainerRepository
IDatabaseBlobRepository

You can also use IRepository<DatabaseBlobContainer, Guid> and IRepository<DatabaseBlob, Guid> to take the power of IQueryable. See the repository document for more.

Other Services

DatabaseBlobProvider is the main service that implements the database BLOB storage provider, if you want to override/replace it via dependency injection (don’t replace IBlobProvider interface, but replace DatabaseBlobProvider class).