API to connect a FileTable in Blazor Wasm

Question

Hi,
I've created a Filetable via SqL server 2019 to have an architecture of the file (quantities 100 000 files).
I would now like to display my database file on a razor page to open the files directly from my interface. Is this possible? Do you have any tips and/or tutorials on how to interface with a database filetable?

Answer 1

Hi @sblb ,

Whether you are using Entity Framework Core (EF core) or Entity Framework to map the database table and the entity classes in the application?

Generally, in Asp.net core application, we will use the EF core to map the database table and the entity classes. And use the Dependency Injection to register the DbContext and the Repository.

When we configure/register the DbContext, we can set the connection string via the DbContextOptionsBuilder, like this:

public class BloggingContext : DbContext  
{  
    public DbSet<Blog> Blogs { get; set; }  
    public DbSet<Post> Posts { get; set; }  

    protected override void OnConfiguring(DbContextOptionsBuilder optionsBuilder)  
    {  
        optionsBuilder.UseSqlServer(  
            @"Server=(localdb)\mssqllocaldb;Database=Blogging;Trusted_Connection=True");  
    }  
}  

Or register it in the Startup.cs (asp.net core 1 ~ 5) or Program.cs file (asp.net 6), like this:

        services.AddDbContext<SchoolContext>(options =>  
            options.UseSqlServer(Configuration.GetConnectionString("DefaultConnection")));  

More detail information, refer to Tutorial: Get started with EF Core in an ASP.NET MVC web app (in WebAPI application, it will use the similar steps) and Configuration in ASP.NET Core (To get the connection string stored in the appsetting.json file).

Finally, you can refer this article and sample to use EF core with FileTable, and build a API application to query data from FileTable.

ASP.NET Core 5 MVC file upload / download with MS SQL Server FileTable

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Best regards,
Dillion

Answer 2

You will need to create a webapi project that exposes the file table and files to the blazor app. As a list of a 100k files is too large, be sure to implement paging and probably a search function. You will also need an api call to return the actual file.

Answer 3

Regardless of how the files are stored, the actual file contents must be downloaded from a web server to the browser (client). Blazor WASM cannot directly access SQL Server. A web service like Web API is required to return the file contents to the Blazor application (browser).

Do you have any tips and/or tutorials on how to interface with a database filetable?

According to the documentation, a FileTable acts like the Windows file system. Use the standard System.IO namespace to interact with the FileTable.

Access FileTables with File Input-Output APIs

Answer 4

Hi, thanks to your reply.

I've configured the data acces of the following way :

using System.Data.Entity;
using DataAccess.Model;

namespace DataAccess
{
    public class FileContext : DbContext
    {
        public DbSet<FileDescription> FileDescriptions { get; set; }
    }
}

I've created a model class for the table.

using System;
using System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations;

namespace DataAccess.Model
{
    public class FileDescription
    {
        [Key]
        public int Id { get; set; }
        public string FileName { get; set; }
        public string Description { get; set; }
        public DateTime CreatedTimestamp { get; set; }
        public DateTime UpdatedTimestamp { get; set; }
        public string ContentType { get; set; }
        public string Name { get; set; }
    }
}

How can I configure the connection string ? the name of the data base is SQLFileTable
Below, I tried to define the connection string but it's not ok.
In my connection string I should find filecontext that I defined in DataAcess class

"ConnectionStrings": {
    "DefaultConnection": "Data Source=.;Initial Catalog=SQLFileTable;Integrated Security=True;Connect Timeout=30;Encrypt=False;TrustServerCertificate=False;ApplicationIntent=ReadWrite;MultiSubnetFailover=False"
  },

Answer 5

Are you sure you are use a file table? You don’t get to define the schema, and yours does not match a file table schema

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/relational-databases/blob/filetable-schema?view=sql-server-ver15

Also you show no webapi code that connects to the database. Typically you’d inject a dbcontext as a service in program.cs startup and use in api actions.