Instant APIs for Azure Table Storage in Minutes with DreamFactory
Welcome to our guide on how DreamFactory simplifies the process of creating APIs for Azure Table Storage, the powerful distributed data warehouse system. In this article, we'll explore how DreamFactory streamlines the integration of Azure Table Storage, making it accessible through RESTful APIs.
Unlocking the Power of Azure Table Storage
Azure Table Storage, a part of Microsoft's Azure cloud computing platform, is a NoSQL data service for storing large amounts of structured, non-relational data. It features a schema-less design, allowing flexibility in managing diverse data structures, and is optimized for fast access with a key-attribute store model.. It's ideal for applications needing simple, fast, and flexible storage solutions, such as web applications and metadata catalogs.
Generating the Azure Table Storage REST API
To start generating your Azure Table Storage REST API, you’ll login to the DreamFactory administration interface, navigate to the side bar and select the API Connections tab. From there, select API types, then from that dropdown select Database. Then locate the blue ‘+’ button to the right of the menu to start creating your API.
Step 1: Select your database
Then, from the Service Type dropdown, select the Azure Table Storage connector. Next, you’ll be prompted to provide a name, label, and description. The latter two are used just for reference purposes within the administration interface, however the name value is particularly important because as you’ll soon see it will comprise part of the API URL.
Step 2: Provide a name, label, and description for your database
Finally, click on the Config tab. Here you’ll be prompted to provide the database connection credentials. This should really be nothing new; you’ll supply a host name, username, password, and database. Additionally, you can optionally specify other configuration characteristics such as driver options, the time zone, and caching preferences. For the purpose of this tutorial I’ll stick to the required fields and leave the optional features untouched.
Step 3: Enter database connection credentials
With the credentials in place, just press the Save button at the bottom of the screen, and believe it or not the REST API has been generated!
A remarkable feature of DreamFactory's Azure Table Storage connector is the instant generation of API documentation. As your APIs come to life, so does detailed documentation, outlining the endpoints and request/response models. This is pivotal as it hastens the development and adoption phases, enabling a swift understanding and integration of the APIs into applications.
The immediate availability of this documentation fosters better teamwork among developers and maintains a standardized approach toward API utilization. Moreover, it serves as a reliable reference, reducing the troubleshooting time. DreamFactory, by providing instant and comprehensive documentation, not only simplifies API generation but also ensures developers can effortlessly harness the capabilities of their Azure DocumentDB integrations.
So what happens in the background is DreamFactory not only generates the API but also generates the corresponding documentation and security controls. From here, navigate to the API Docs to access all your REST API endpoints, interact with tables and views, explore the schema, and utilize HTTP functionalities (GET, POST, PUT, PATCH, DELETE) and more.
Step 4: Interact with your auto-generated API Documentation to find the curl command & request URL
Security & Integration with other Services
As with all DreamFactory REST APIs you will have to secure your Azure Table Storage API with minimum role based access controls before it can be made public. You can also add headers, add service definitions and script some powerful automated workflows with the DreamFactory scripting engine.
In a few short minutes you can have your Azure Table Storage API ready to integrate alongside any number of other Enterprise applications, data sources or network APIs. DreamFactory also allows you to create, mount and manage any number of third party REST APIs with ease under a unified admin dashboard.
About DreamFactory
DreamFactory's Azure DocumentDB connector empowers developers to simplify API generation for their Azure DocumentDB buckets and objects. By leveraging the speed, security, and scalability of Azure DocumentDB, DreamFactory enables you to focus on building innovative applications without the hassle of complex backend setups.
