How to use GroupDocs.Viewer Cloud Embedded viewer App with Azure Storage

dirk.opdebeeck · December 22, 2016, 11:08am

Hi,

I would like to use your Viewer for Cloud on my website. I'm using Azure Blob Storage to store my documents and I can't find any starting point in your API documentation.

Is there a way to point the CloudViewer to my Azure storage account to retrieve the document?

Thanks in advance.

pavelteplitsky · December 22, 2016, 11:18am

Hi,

Thank you for your request. Please check this documentation.

Best regards.

dirk.opdebeeck · December 22, 2016, 11:46am

Thanks for the quick reply!

I noticed that I need to provide a container for GroupDocs.

Is the idea that I copy the files from my containers to this container each time someone wants to view a file or is there a better way to retrieve the files.

E.g. by my containerName and fileName? (I have a container for each user or organization that is using my application)

pavelteplitsky · December 22, 2016, 11:58am

Hi,

Thank you for coming back. In such case I can suggest you two variants:

Try to create a new storage provider
Use GroupDocs.Viewer for Java or .NET stand alone version - in such case you will be able to develop any storage processing you need.

Best regards.

dirk.opdebeeck · December 23, 2016, 1:51am

Thanks again Pavel. Both solutions seem rather complicated. I would prefer to use the Cloud version but I'm afraid I would have to open thousands of Storage Providers in this case (#1).

It would be very easy to provide a signed Azure URL to the document or provide a Key, Container and FileName combination to access the file we want to show in the Viewer.

Do you have any plans to provide a simple way to access Azure files in the future?

pavelteplitsky · December 23, 2016, 6:27am

Hi,

Thank you for asking. As a simpler variant you can try to do next:

1. User selects the file to view

2. Upload this file to your GroupDocs storage

3. Get its guide from the Upload response

4. View the file

As for the plans to provide a simple way to access Azure files in the future - I will check it with our Product team and return to you.

Best regards.

dirk.opdebeeck · December 23, 2016, 11:49am

Thanks Pavel.

This solution is indeed simple but has 2 issues I don't like too much:

1. Assuming that every file uploaded to Azure will be viewed by someone at some point this will double the space needed on Azure.

2. Takes extra time to upload the file the first time (or each time in case I would cleanup after viewing) to the GroupDocs container

Azure has a feature called 'Shared Access Signatures'. It allows me to create a simple URL to any file in my storage with a signature to provide controlled access to that file for an external client (GroupDocs in this case). The URL is valid for a certain period of time and also controls the permission (read-only, r/w. etc.) but this is transparent for GroupDocs.

On your end, it would just be a URL you can use to grab the file (or not if the time has expired).

1. User selects a file to view

2. I create the SAS URL and call your API to view that file

3. GroupDocs grabs the file from Azure with that URL

4. User views the file (all in the cloud)

No need to create and maintain extra containers and storage accounts, no need to move files around or to iterate over the entire GroupDocs container to find the guid for GroupDocs.

Would be a great addition for Azure support!

pavelteplitsky · December 23, 2016, 12:03pm

Hi,

Thank you for this suggestion. I will discuss it with our Product team and then return to you.

Best regards.

nikhiljoshi111 · September 22, 2017, 2:48pm

HI @pavelteplitsky,

Thanks for such a wonderful explanation. I have same requirement as above and would like to use your services for file viewer process, but keep the files or store the files in the azure cloud.

Please suggest me and guide me on the same. I would love to hear from you.

Thanks

Nikhil Joshi

pavelteplitsky · September 23, 2017, 1:37pm

Hi @nikhiljoshi111 thank you for your request. You can configure Amazon S3 storage as your main storage for the GroupDocs account as described here Configure Amazon S3 Storage | GroupDocs.Total Cloud | Documentation . The only thing that you should keep in mind is that the viewed file and all other files placed in the same folder with the viewed file will be synced with GroupDocs. Syncing only the viewed file feature is added to our roadmap for future implementation.

Best regards