Create an Azure Blob base connection using the Flow Service API

A base connection represents the authenticated connection between a source and Adobe Experience Platform.

This tutorial provides steps to create a base connection for Azure Blob (hereinafter referred to as “Blob”) using the Flow Service API.

Getting started

This guide requires a working understanding of the following components of Adobe Experience Platform:

The following sections provide additional information that you will need to know in order to successfully create a Blob source connection using the Flow Service API.

Gather required credentials

In order for Flow Service to connect with your Blob storage, you must provide values for the following connection property:

Using Platform APIs

For information on how to successfully make calls to Platform APIs, see the guide on getting started with Platform APIs.

Create a base connection

A base connection retains information between your source and Platform, including your source’s authentication credentials, the current state of the connection, and your unique base connection ID. The base connection ID allows you to explore and navigate files from within your source and identify the specific items that you want to ingest, including information regarding their data types and formats.

The Blob source supports both connection string and shared access signature (SAS) authentication. A shared access signature (SAS) URI allows for secure delegated authorization to your Blob account. You can use SAS to create authentication credentials with varying degrees of access, as a SAS-based authentication allows you to set permissions, start and expiry dates, as well as provisions to specific resources.

During this step, you can also designate the sub folders that your account will have access to by defining the name of the container and the path to the sub folder.

To create a base connection ID, make a POST request to the /connections endpoint while providing your Blob authentication credentials as part of the request parameters.

API format

POST /connections

Request

curl -X POST \
  'https://platform.adobe.io/data/foundation/flowservice/connections' \
  -H 'Authorization: Bearer {ACCESS_TOKEN}' \
  -H 'x-api-key: {API_KEY}' \
  -H 'x-gw-ims-org-id: {ORG_ID}' \
  -H 'x-sandbox-name: {SANDBOX_NAME}' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{
      "name": "Azure Blob connection using connectionString",
      "description": "Azure Blob connection using connectionString",
      "auth": {
          "specName": "ConnectionString",
          "params": {
              "connectionString": "DefaultEndpointsProtocol=https;AccountName={ACCOUNT_NAME};AccountKey={ACCOUNT_KEY}",
              "container": "acme-blob-container",
              "folderPath": "/acme/customers/salesData"
          }
      },
      "connectionSpec": {
          "id": "4c10e202-c428-4796-9208-5f1f5732b1cf",
          "version": "1.0"
      }
  }'

{
    "id": "4cb0c374-d3bb-4557-b139-5712880adc55",
    "etag": "\"1700c57b-0000-0200-0000-5e3b3f440000\""
}

curl -X POST \
  'https://platform.adobe.io/data/foundation/flowservice/connections' \
  -H 'Authorization: Bearer {ACCESS_TOKEN}' \
  -H 'x-api-key: {API_KEY}' \
  -H 'x-gw-ims-org-id: {ORG_ID}' \
  -H 'x-sandbox-name: {SANDBOX_NAME}' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{
      "name": "Azure Blob source connection using SAS URI",
      "description": "Azure Blob source connection using SAS URI",
      "auth": {
          "specName": "SAS URI Authentication",
          "params": {
              "sasUri": "https://{ACCOUNT_NAME}.blob.core.windows.net/?sv={STORAGE_VERSION}&st={START_TIME}&se={EXPIRE_TIME}&sr={RESOURCE}&sp={PERMISSIONS}>&sip=<{IP_RANGE}>&spr={PROTOCOL}&sig={SIGNATURE}>",
              "container": "acme-blob-container",
              "folderPath": "/acme/customers/salesData"
          }
      },
      "connectionSpec": {
          "id": "4c10e202-c428-4796-9208-5f1f5732b1cf",
          "version": "1.0"
      }
  }'

{
    "id": "4cb0c374-d3bb-4557-b139-5712880adc55",
    "etag": "\"1700c57b-0000-0200-0000-5e3b3f440000\""
}

Next steps

By following this tutorial, you have created a Blob connection using APIs and a unique ID was obtained as part of the response body. You can use this connection ID to explore cloud storages using the Flow Service API.