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Manage container properties and metadata with JavaScript

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  • 2 minutes to read

Blob containers support system properties and user-defined metadata, in addition to the data they contain. This article shows how to manage system properties and user-defined metadata with the Azure Storage client library for JavaScript.

About properties and metadata

  • System properties: System properties exist on each Blob storage resource. Some of them can be read or set, while others are read-only. Under the covers, some system properties correspond to certain standard HTTP headers. The Azure Storage client library for JavaScript maintains these properties for you.

  • User-defined metadata: User-defined metadata consists of one or more name-value pairs that you specify for a Blob storage resource. You can use metadata to store additional values with the resource. Metadata values are for your own purposes only, and don't affect how the resource behaves.

    Metadata name/value pairs are valid HTTP headers and should adhere to all restrictions governing HTTP headers. For more information about metadata naming requirements, see Metadata names.

Retrieve container properties

To retrieve container properties, create a ContainerClient object then use the following method:

The following code example fetches a container's properties and writes the property values to a console window:

async function getContainerProperties(containerClient) {

  // Get Properties including existing metadata
  const containerProperties = await containerClient.getProperties();
  if(!containerProperties.errorCode){
    console.log(containerProperties);
  }
}

Set and retrieve metadata

You can specify metadata as one or more name-value pairs container resource. To set metadata, create a ContainerClient object then use the following method:

The following code example sets metadata on a container.

/*
const metadata = {
  // values must be strings
  lastFileReview: currentDate.toString(),
  reviewer: `johnh`
}
*/
async function setContainerMetadata(containerClient, metadata) {

  await containerClient.setMetadata(metadata);

}

To retrieve metadata, get the container properties then use the returned metadata property.

See also