azure-functions-dotnet-worker: Missing Table Binding

https://www.nuget.org/packages/Microsoft.Azure.WebJobs.Extensions.Tables/1.0.0 is now a GA version, and we should have a similar package here, too. It should not be housed under Microsoft.Azure.Functions.Worker.Extensions.Storage, but rather something like Microsoft.Azure.Functions.Worker.Extensions.Tables. The readme for the Storage package (5.x version) on nuget.org should be updated to help redirect.

@asparrowhawk @MarGraz @cleferman

UPDATE: I’ve given up using Microsoft.Azure.Functions.Worker.Extensions.Storage now using Azure.Data.Tables instead. This is the new way of using Azure Table Storage.

While it no longer has our beloved input binding, the API is not difficult. I’m rewriting the Azure Functions service I use to access Table Storage.

@brettsam What is the way if I would like to manipulate the binded output (or input) CloudTable’s data? Currently I got “row exist” exception if I want to “owerwrite” a row’s value. I couldn’t find any example how can I remove the old one or update an existing one.

@brettsam Can we control what kind of operation is performed when sending the data to the output? For ex on CosmosDBOutput as well as TableOutput can I define that I want the return value to be inserted/replaced? (InsertOrMerge, InsertOrReplace, Replace, Update)

@oscarvantol Many thanks for the response. That was very useful with my scenario. Lets hope the documentation for these bindings improves.

@mattchenderson - may I ask when the expected GA is for Microsoft.Azure.Functions.Worker.Extensions.Tables?

Following up on this the Table attributes are missing from Microsoft.Azure.Functions.Worker.Extensions.Storage version 5.0.0-beta.4. Are there plans to add them back? And will they make use of managed identity auth? Meanwhile I believe I can use TableServiceClient from Azure.Data.Tables.

[TableInput] is supported – but you cannot use CloudTable as an parameter type. Language workers are not able to use “rich SDK types” like the in-proc .NET model was able to. We’re looking to improve this in the future.

I believe that when you specify the table name only, the binding will retrieve the entire table and return it to you in this parameter (so you could use an array as your input here).

We need docs and analyzers to help with this – it’s not entirely clear what’s supported just by using the attribute itself.

Hi @asparrowhawk, you tried using [TableInput] but [TableOutput] might help you in this scenario. The following example shows how this would work, it has multi output so it is a bit bloated.

Another option if you would need to directly interact with the table, would be to use DI to inject some helper in your functions class.

    public class TableFunction
    {
        [Function(nameof(HttpToTableFunction))]
        public async Task<MyOutput> HttpToTableFunction([HttpTrigger(AuthorizationLevel.Anonymous, "get", Route = "test-table-output")] HttpRequestData req)
        {
            var tableEntity = new MyTableData { PartitionKey = "test-table-output", RowKey = Guid.NewGuid().ToString(), Text = "some text" };

            var httpResponse = req.CreateResponse();
            await httpResponse.WriteStringAsync("Success");

            return new() { HttpResponse = httpResponse, MyTableData = tableEntity };
        }

        public class MyOutput
        {
            public HttpResponseData? HttpResponse { get; set; }

            [TableOutput("TestTable", Connection = "AzureWebJobsStorage")]
            public MyTableData? MyTableData { get; set; }
        }

        public class MyTableData
        {
            public string? PartitionKey { get; set; }
            public string? RowKey { get; set; }
            public string? Text { get; set; }
        }
    }

//from: https://github.com/oscarvantol/azure-functions-dotnet5-examples/blob/main/ExampleFunction/TableFunction.cs