Using the following code, a blob storage container can be created on development storage.

$storageClient = new Zend_Service_WindowsAzure_Storage_Blob();
$result = $storageClient->createContainer('testcontainer');

echo 'Container name is: ' . $result->Name;

Using the following code, a blob storage container can be removed from development storage.

$storageClient = new Zend_Service_WindowsAzure_Storage_Blob();
$storageClient->deleteContainer('testcontainer');

Using the following code, a blob can be uploaded to a blob storage container on development storage. Note that the container has already been created before.

$storageClient = new Zend_Service_WindowsAzure_Storage_Blob();

// upload /home/maarten/example.txt to Azure
$result = $storageClient->putBlob(
    'testcontainer', 'example.txt', '/home/maarten/example.txt'
);

echo 'Blob name is: ' . $result->Name;

Using the following code, a blob can be copied from inside the storage account. The advantage of using this method is that the copy operation occurs in the Azure cloud and does not involve downloading the blob. Note that the container has already been created before.

$storageClient = new Zend_Service_WindowsAzure_Storage_Blob();

// copy example.txt to example2.txt
$result = $storageClient->copyBlob(
    'testcontainer', 'example.txt', 'testcontainer', 'example2.txt'
);

echo 'Copied blob name is: ' . $result->Name;

Using the following code, a blob can be downloaded from a blob storage container on development storage. Note that the container has already been created before and a blob has been uploaded.

$storageClient = new Zend_Service_WindowsAzure_Storage_Blob();

// download file to /home/maarten/example.txt
$storageClient->getBlob(
    'testcontainer', 'example.txt', '/home/maarten/example.txt'
);

By default, blob storage containers on Windows Azure are protected from public viewing. If any user on the Internet should have access to a blob container, its ACL can be set to public. Note that this applies to a complete container and not to a single blob!

Using the following code, blob storage container ACL can be set on development storage. Note that the container has already been created before.

$storageClient = new Zend_Service_WindowsAzure_Storage_Blob();

// make container publicly available (enumerate all blobs and read blob data)
$storageClient->setContainerAcl('testcontainer', Zend_Service_WindowsAzure_Storage_Blob::ACL_PUBLIC_CONTAINER);

When you are the owner of a Windows Azure Bob Storage account, you can create and distribute a shared access key for any type of resource in your account. To do this, the generateSharedAccessUrl() method of the Zend_Service_WindowsAzure_Storage_Blob storage client can be used.

The following example code will generate a Shared Access Signature for write access in a container named "container1", within a timeframe of 3000 seconds.

$storageClient   = new Zend_Service_WindowsAzure_Storage_Blob();
$sharedAccessUrl = $storageClient->generateSharedAccessUrl(
    'container1',
    '',
    'c',
    'w',
    $storageClient ->isoDate(time() - 500),
    $storageClient ->isoDate(time() + 3000)
);

The following example code will generate a Shared Access Signature for read access in a blob named test.txt in a container named "container1" within a time frame of 3000 seconds.

$storageClient   = new Zend_Service_WindowsAzure_Storage_Blob();
$sharedAccessUrl = $storageClient->generateSharedAccessUrl(
    'container1',
    'test.txt',
    'b',
    'r',
    $storageClient ->isoDate(time() - 500),
    $storageClient ->isoDate(time() + 3000)
);

When you receive a Shared Access Signature from someone else, you can use the Windows Azure SDK for PHP to work with the addressed resource. For example, the following signature can be retrieved from the owner of a storage account:

The above signature gives write access to the "phpazuretestshared1" "container" of the phpstorage account. Since the shared key for the account is not known, the Shared Access Signature can be used to work with the authorized resource.

$storageClient = new Zend_Service_WindowsAzure_Storage_Blob(
    'blob.core.windows.net', 'phpstorage', ''
);
$storageClient->setCredentials(
    new Zend_Service_WindowsAzure_Credentials_SharedAccessSignature()
);
$storageClient->getCredentials()->setPermissionSet(array(
    'http://phpstorage.blob.core.windows.net/phpazuretestshared1?st=2009-08-17T09%3A06%3A17Z&se=2009-08-17T09%3A56%3A17Z&sr=c&sp=w&sig=hscQ7Su1nqd91OfMTwTkxabhJSaspx%2BD%2Fz8UqZAgn9s%3D'
));
$storageClient->putBlob(
    'phpazuretestshared1', 'NewBlob.txt', 'C:\Files\dataforazure.txt'
);

Note that there was no explicit permission to write to a specific blob. Instead, the Windows Azure SDK for PHP determined that a permission was required to either write to that specific blob, or to write to its container. Since only a signature was available for the latter, the Windows Azure SDK for PHP chose those credentials to perform the request on Windows Azure blob storage.