Azure Tables client library for JavaScript - version 13.2.2

  • Article

Azure Tables is a cloud-based service that stores structured NoSQL data, providing a key/attribute store with a schemaless design. Tables storage gives developers flexibility and scalability with all the best parts of Azure cloud.

Use the client library to:

  • Create/Delete Tables
  • Query/Create/Read/Update/Delete Entities

Azure Cosmos DB provides a Table API for applications that are written for Azure Table storage and that need premium capabilities like:

  • Turnkey global distribution.
  • Dedicated throughput worldwide.
  • Single-digit millisecond latencies at the 99th percentile.
  • Guaranteed high availability.
  • Automatic secondary indexing.
  • The Azure Tables client library can seamlessly target either Azure table storage or Azure Cosmos DB table service endpoints with no code changes.

Key links:

Getting started

Prerequisites

Currently supported environments:

  • LTS versions of Node.js
  • Latest versions of Safari, Chrome, Edge and Firefox

You must have an Azure subscription and a Storage Account or an Azure CosmosDB database to use this package.

Install the @azure/data-tables package

The preferred way to install the Azure Tables client library for JavaScript is to use the npm package manager. Type the following into a terminal window:

npm install @azure/data-tables

Authenticate a TableServiceClient

Azure Tables supports several ways to authenticate. In order to interact with the Azure Tables service you'll need to create an instance of a Tables client - TableServiceClient or TableClient for example. See samples for creating the TableServiceClient to learn more about authentication.

Note: Azure Active Directory (AAD) is only supported for Azure Storage accounts.

Following features, interfaces, classes or functions are only available in Node.js

  • Shared Key Authorization based on account name and account key
    • AzureNamedKeyCredential
    • Account connection string.

JavaScript Bundle

To use this client library in the browser, first you need to use a bundler. For details on how to do this, please refer to our bundling documentation.

CORS

You need to set up Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS) rules for your storage account if you need to develop for browsers. Go to Azure portal and Azure Storage Explorer, find your storage account, create new CORS rules for blob/queue/file/table service(s).

For example, you can create following CORS settings for debugging. But please customize the settings carefully according to your requirements in production environment.

  • Allowed origins: *
  • Allowed verbs: DELETE,GET,HEAD,MERGE,POST,OPTIONS,PUT
  • Allowed headers: *
  • Exposed headers: *
  • Maximum age (seconds): 86400

Key concepts

  • TableServiceClient - Client that provides functions to interact at a Table Service level such as create, list and delete tables

  • TableClient - Client that provides functions to interact at an entity level such as create, list and delete entities within a table.

  • Table - Tables store data as collections of entities.

  • Entity - Entities are similar to rows. An entity has a primary key and a set of properties. A property is a name, typed-value pair, similar to a column.

Common uses of the Table service include:

  • Storing TBs of structured data capable of serving web scale applications
  • Storing datasets that don't require complex joins, foreign keys, or stored procedures and can be de-normalized for fast access
  • Quickly querying data using a clustered index
  • Accessing data using the OData protocol filter expressions

Examples

Import the package

To use the clients, import the package in your file:

const AzureTables = require("@azure/data-tables");

Alternatively, selectively import only the types you need:

const { TableServiceClient, AzureNamedKeyCredential } = require("@azure/data-tables");

Create the Table service client

The TableServiceClient requires a URL to the table service and an access credential. It also optionally accepts some settings in the options parameter.

TableServiceClient with AzureNamedKeyCredential

You can instantiate a TableServiceClient with a AzureNamedKeyCredential by passing account-name and account-key as arguments. (The account-name and account-key can be obtained from the azure portal.) [ONLY AVAILABLE IN NODE.JS RUNTIME]

const { TableServiceClient, AzureNamedKeyCredential } = require("@azure/data-tables");

const account = "<account>";
const accountKey = "<accountkey>";

const credential = new AzureNamedKeyCredential(account, accountKey);
const serviceClient = new TableServiceClient(
  `https://${account}.table.core.windows.net`,
  credential
);

TableServiceClient with TokenCredential (AAD)

Azure Tables provides integration with Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) for identity-based authentication of requests to the Table service when targeting a Storage endpoint. With Azure AD, you can use role-based access control (RBAC) to grant access to your Azure Table resources to users, groups, or applications.

To access a table resource with a TokenCredential, the authenticated identity should have either the "Storage Table Data Contributor" or "Storage Table Data Reader" role.

With the @azure/identity package, you can seamlessly authorize requests in both development and production environments. To learn more about Azure AD integration in Azure Storage, see the Azure.Identity README

const { TableServiceClient } = require("@azure/data-tables");
const { DefaultAzureCredential } = require("@azure/identity");

// DefaultAzureCredential expects the following three environment variables:
// - AZURE_TENANT_ID: The tenant ID in Azure Active Directory
// - AZURE_CLIENT_ID: The application (client) ID registered in the AAD tenant
// - AZURE_CLIENT_SECRET: The client secret for the registered application
const credential = new DefaultAzureCredential();
const account = "<account name>";

const clientWithAAD = new TableServiceClient(
  `https://${account}.table.core.windows.net`,
  credential
);

TableServiceClient with SAS Token

Also, You can instantiate a TableServiceClient with a shared access signatures (SAS). You can get the SAS token from the Azure Portal.

const { TableServiceClient, AzureSASCredential } = require("@azure/data-tables");

const account = "<account name>";
const sas = "<service Shared Access Signature Token>";

const serviceClientWithSAS = new TableServiceClient(
  `https://${account}.table.core.windows.net`,
  new AzureSASCredential(sas)
);

List tables in the account

You can list tables within an account through a TableServiceClient instance calling the listTables function. This function returns a PageableAsyncIterator that you can consume using for-await-of

const { TableServiceClient, AzureNamedKeyCredential } = require("@azure/data-tables");

const account = "<account>";
const accountKey = "<accountkey>";

const credential = new AzureNamedKeyCredential(account, accountKey);
const serviceClient = new TableServiceClient(
  `https://${account}.table.core.windows.net`,
  credential
);

async function main() {
  let tablesIter = serviceClient.listTables();
  let i = 1;
  for await (const table of tablesIter) {
    console.log(`Table${i}: ${table.name}`);
    i++;
    // Output:
    // Table1: testTable1
    // Table1: testTable2
    // Table1: testTable3
    // Table1: testTable4
    // Table1: testTable5
  }
}

main();

Create a new table

You can create a table through a TableServiceClient instance calling the createTable function. This function takes the name of the table to create as a parameter. Note that createTable won't throw an error when the table already exists.

const { TableServiceClient, AzureNamedKeyCredential } = require("@azure/data-tables");

const account = "<account>";
const accountKey = "<accountkey>";

const credential = new AzureNamedKeyCredential(account, accountKey);
const serviceClient = new TableServiceClient(
  `https://${account}.table.core.windows.net`,
  credential
);

async function main() {
  const tableName = `newtable`;
  // If the table 'newTable' already exists, createTable doesn't throw
  await serviceClient.createTable(tableName);
}

main();

Here is a sample that demonstrates how to test if the table already exists when attempting to create it:

const { TableServiceClient, AzureNamedKeyCredential } = require("@azure/data-tables");

const account = "<account>";
const accountKey = "<accountkey>";

const credential = new AzureNamedKeyCredential(account, accountKey);
const serviceClient = new TableServiceClient(
  `https://${account}.table.core.windows.net`,
  credential
);

async function main() {
  const tableName = `newtable${new Date().getTime()}`;
  await serviceClient.createTable(tableName, {
    onResponse: (response) => {
      if (response.status === 409) {
        console.log(`Table ${tableName} already exists`);
      }
    }
  });
}

main();

Create the table client

The TableClient is created in a similar way as the TableServiceClient with the difference that TableClient takes a table name as a parameter

TableClient with AzureNamedKeyCredential

You can instantiate a TableClient with a AzureNamedKeyCredential by passing account-name and account-key as arguments. (The account-name and account-key can be obtained from the azure portal.) [ONLY AVAILABLE IN NODE.JS RUNTIME]

const { TableClient, AzureNamedKeyCredential } = require("@azure/data-tables");

// Enter your storage account name and shared key
const account = "<account>";
const accountKey = "<accountkey>";
const tableName = "<tableName>";

// Use AzureNamedKeyCredential with storage account and account key
// AzureNamedKeyCredential is only available in Node.js runtime, not in browsers
const credential = new AzureNamedKeyCredential(account, accountKey);
const client = new TableClient(`https://${account}.table.core.windows.net`, tableName, credential);

TableClient with TokenCredential (Azure Active Directory)

Azure Tables provides integration with Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) for identity-based authentication of requests to the Table service when targeting a Storage endpoint. With Azure AD, you can use role-based access control (RBAC) to grant access to your Azure Table resources to users, groups, or applications.

To access a table resource with a TokenCredential, the authenticated identity should have either the "Storage Table Data Contributor" or "Storage Table Data Reader" role.

With the @azure/identity package, you can seamlessly authorize requests in both development and production environments. To learn more about Azure AD integration in Azure Storage, see the Azure.Identity README

const { TableClient } = require("@azure/data-tables");
const { DefaultAzureCredential } = require("@azure/identity");

// DefaultAzureCredential expects the following three environment variables:
// - AZURE_TENANT_ID: The tenant ID in Azure Active Directory
// - AZURE_CLIENT_ID: The application (client) ID registered in the AAD tenant
// - AZURE_CLIENT_SECRET: The client secret for the registered application
const credential = new DefaultAzureCredential();
const account = "<account name>";
const tableName = "<tableName>";

const clientWithAAD = new TableClient(
  `https://${account}.table.core.windows.net`,
  tableName,
  credential
);

TableClient with SAS Token

You can instantiate a TableClient with a shared access signatures (SAS). You can get the SAS token from the Azure Portal.

const { TableClient, AzureSASCredential } = require("@azure/data-tables");

const account = "<account name>";
const sas = "<service Shared Access Signature Token>";
const tableName = "<tableName>";

const clientWithSAS = new TableClient(
  `https://${account}.table.core.windows.net`,
  tableName,
  new AzureSASCredential(sas)
);

TableClient with TokenCredential (AAD)

Azure Tables provides integration with Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) for identity-based authentication of requests to the Table service when targeting a Storage endpoint. With Azure AD, you can use role-based access control (RBAC) to grant access to your Azure Table resources to users, groups, or applications.

To access a table resource with a TokenCredential, the authenticated identity should have either the "Storage Table Data Contributor" or "Storage Table Data Reader" role.

With the @azure/identity package, you can seamlessly authorize requests in both development and production environments. To learn more about Azure AD integration in Azure Storage, see the Azure.Identity README

const { TableClient } = require("@azure/data-tables");
const { DefaultAzureCredential } = require("@azure/identity");

// DefaultAzureCredential expects the following three environment variables:
// - AZURE_TENANT_ID: The tenant ID in Azure Active Directory
// - AZURE_CLIENT_ID: The application (client) ID registered in the AAD tenant
// - AZURE_CLIENT_SECRET: The client secret for the registered application
const credential = new DefaultAzureCredential();
const account = "<account name>";
const tableName = "<tableName>";

const clientWithAAD = new TableClient(
  `https://${account}.table.core.windows.net`,
  tableName,
  credential
);

List Entities in a table

You can list entities within a table by through a TableClient instance calling the listEntities function. This function returns a PageableAsyncIterator that you can consume using for-await-of

const { TableClient, AzureNamedKeyCredential } = require("@azure/data-tables");

const account = "<account>";
const accountKey = "<accountkey>";
const tableName = "<tableName>";

const credential = new AzureNamedKeyCredential(account, accountKey);
const client = new TableClient(`https://${account}.table.core.windows.net`, tableName, credential);

async function main() {
  let entitiesIter = client.listEntities();
  let i = 1;
  for await (const entity of entitiesIter) {
    console.log(`Entity${i}: PartitionKey: ${entity.partitionKey} RowKey: ${entity.rowKey}`);
    i++;
    // Output:
    // Entity1: PartitionKey: P1 RowKey: R1
    // Entity2: PartitionKey: P2 RowKey: R2
    // Entity3: PartitionKey: P3 RowKey: R3
    // Entity4: PartitionKey: P4 RowKey: R4
  }
}

main();

Create a new entity and add it to a table

You can create a new Entity in a table by through a TableClient instance calling the createEntity function. This function takes the entity to insert as a parameter. The entity must contain partitionKey and rowKey.

const { TableClient, AzureNamedKeyCredential } = require("@azure/data-tables");

const account = "<account>";
const accountKey = "<accountkey>";
const tableName = "<tableName>";

const credential = new AzureNamedKeyCredential(account, accountKey);
const client = new TableClient(`https://${account}.table.core.windows.net`, tableName, credential);

async function main() {
  const testEntity = {
    partitionKey: "P1",
    rowKey: "R1",
    foo: "foo",
    bar: 123
  };
  await client.createEntity(testEntity);
}

main();

Azurite and Storage Emulator

The Azure Tables Client SDK also works with Azurite, an Azure Storage and Tables API compatible server emulator. Please refer to the (Azurite repository) on how to get started using it.

Connecting to Azurite with Connection String shortcut

The easiest way to connect to Azurite from your application is to configure a connection string that references the shortcut UseDevelopmentStorage=true. The shortcut is equivalent to the full connection string for the emulator, which specifies the account name, the account key, and the emulator endpoints for each of the Azure Storage services: (see more). Using this shortcut, the Azure Tables Client SDK would setup the default connection string and allowInsecureConnection in the client options.

import { TableClient } from "@azure/data-tables";

const connectionString = "UseDevelopmentStorage=true";
const client = TableClient.fromConnectionString(connectionString, "myTable");

Connecting to Azurite without Connection String shortcut

You can connect to azurite manually without using the connection string shortcut by specifying the service URL and AzureNamedKeyCredential or a custom connection string. However, allowInsecureConnection will need to be set manually in case Azurite runs in an http endpoint.

import { TableClient, AzureNamedKeyCredential } from "@azure/data-tables";

const client = new TableClient(
  "<Azurite-http-table-endpoint>",
  "myTable",
  new AzureNamedKeyCredential("<Azurite-account-name>", "<Azurite-account-key>"),
  { allowInsecureConnection: true }
);

Troubleshooting

General

When you interact with Tables service using the Javascript/Typescript SDK, errors returned by the service correspond to the same HTTP status codes returned for REST API requests: Storage Table Service Error Codes

Logging

Enabling logging may help uncover useful information about failures. In order to see a log of HTTP requests and responses, set the AZURE_LOG_LEVEL environment variable to info. Alternatively, logging can be enabled at runtime by calling setLogLevel in the @azure/logger:

const { setLogLevel } = require("@azure/logger");

setLogLevel("info");

Next steps

More code samples coming soon Issue#10531

Contributing

This project welcomes contributions and suggestions. Most contributions require you to agree to a Contributor License Agreement (CLA) declaring that you have the right to, and actually do, grant us the rights to use your contribution. For details, visit https://cla.microsoft.com.

When you submit a pull request, a CLA-bot will automatically determine whether you need to provide a CLA and decorate the PR appropriately (e.g., label, comment). Simply follow the instructions provided by the bot. You will only need to do this once across all repos using our CLA.

This project has adopted the Microsoft Open Source Code of Conduct. For more information see the Code of Conduct FAQ or contact opencode@microsoft.com with any additional questions or comments.

If you'd like to contribute to this library, please read the contributing guide to learn more about how to build and test the code.

Impressions