@netlify/blobs

A TypeScript client for Netlify Blobs.

Installation

You can install @netlify/blobs via npm:

npm install @netlify/blobs

Requirements

• Deno 1.30 and above or Node.js 16.0.0 and above

Usage

To start reading and writing data, you must first get a reference to a store using the getStore method.

This method takes an options object that lets you configure the store for different access modes.

Environment-based configuration

Rather than explicitly passing the configuration context to the getStore method, it can be read from the execution environment. This is particularly useful for setups where the configuration data is held by one system and the data needs to be accessed in another system, with no direct communication between the two.

To do this, the system that holds the configuration data should set a global variable called netlifyBlobsContext or an environment variable called NETLIFY_BLOBS_CONTEXT with a Base64-encoded, JSON-stringified representation of an object with the following properties:

• apiURL (optional) or edgeURL: URL of the Netlify API (for API access) or the edge endpoint (for Edge access)
• token: Access token for the corresponding access mode
• siteID: ID of the Netlify site

This data is automatically populated by Netlify in the execution environment for both serverless and edge functions.

With this in place, the getStore method can be called just with the store name. No configuration object is required, since it'll be read from the environment.

import { getStore } from '@netlify/blobs'

const store = getStore('my-store')

console.log(await store.get('my-key'))

Lambda compatibility mode

The environment is not configured automatically when running functions in the Lambda compatibility mode. To use Netlify Blobs, you must initialize the environment manually by calling the connectLambda method with the Lambda event as a parameter.

You should call this method immediately before calling getStore or getDeployStore.

import { connectLambda, getStore } from '@netlify/blobs'

export const handler = async (event) => {
  connectLambda(event)

  const store = getStore('my-store')
  const value = await store.get('my-key')

  return {
    statusCode: 200,
    body: value,
  }
}

API access

You can interact with the blob store through the Netlify API. This is the recommended method if you're looking for a strong-consistency way of accessing data, where latency is not mission critical (since requests will always go to a non-distributed origin).

Create a store for API access by calling getStore with the following parameters:

• name (string): Name of the store
• siteID (string): ID of the Netlify site
• token (string): Personal access token to access the Netlify API
• apiURL (string): URL of the Netlify API (optional, defaults to https://api.netlify.com)

import { getStore } from '@netlify/blobs'

const store = getStore({
  name: 'my-store',
  siteID: 'MY_SITE_ID',
  token: 'MY_TOKEN',
})

console.log(await store.get('some-key'))

Edge access

You can also interact with the blob store using a distributed network that caches entries at the edge. This is the recommended method if you're looking for fast reads across multiple locations, knowing that reads will be eventually-consistent with a drift of up to 60 seconds.

Create a store for edge access by calling getStore with the following parameters:

• name (string): Name of the store
• siteID (string): ID of the Netlify site
• token (string): Access token to the edge endpoint
• edgeURL (string): URL of the edge endpoint

import { Buffer } from 'node:buffer'

import { getStore } from '@netlify/blobs'

// Serverless function using the Lambda compatibility mode
export const handler = async (event) => {
  const rawData = Buffer.from(event.blobs, 'base64')
  const data = JSON.parse(rawData.toString('ascii'))
  const store = getStore({
    edgeURL: data.url,
    name: 'my-store',
    token: data.token,
    siteID: 'MY_SITE_ID',
  })
  const item = await store.get('some-key')

  return {
    statusCode: 200,
    body: item,
  }
}

Deploy scope

By default, stores exist at the site level, which means that data can be read and written across different deploys and deploy contexts. Users are responsible for managing that data, since the platform doesn't have enough information to know whether an item is still relevant or safe to delete.

But sometimes it's useful to have data pegged to a specific deploy, and shift to the platform the responsibility of managing that data — keep it as long as the deploy is around, and wipe it if the deploy is deleted.

You can opt-in to this behavior by creating the store using the getDeployStore method.

import { assert } from 'node:assert'

import { getDeployStore } from '@netlify/blobs'

// Using API access
const store1 = getDeployStore({
  deployID: 'MY_DEPLOY_ID',
  token: 'MY_API_TOKEN',
})

await store1.set('my-key', 'my value')

// Using environment-based configuration
const store2 = getDeployStore()

assert.equal(await store2.get('my-key'), 'my value')

Custom fetch

The client uses the web platform fetch() to make HTTP calls. By default, it will use any globally-defined instance of fetch, but you can choose to provide your own.

You can do this by supplying a fetch property to the getStore method.

import { fetch } from 'whatwg-fetch'

import { getStore } from '@netlify/blobs'

const store = getStore({
  fetch,
  name: 'my-store',
})

console.log(await store.get('my-key'))

Store API reference

get(key: string, { type?: string }): Promise<any>

Retrieves an object with the given key.

Depending on the most convenient format for you to access the value, you may choose to supply a type property as a second parameter, with one of the following values:

• arrayBuffer: Returns the entry as an ArrayBuffer
• blob: Returns the entry as a Blob
• json: Parses the entry as JSON and returns the resulting object
• stream: Returns the entry as a ReadableStream
• text (default): Returns the entry as a string of plain text

If an object with the given key is not found, null is returned.

const entry = await store.get('some-key', { type: 'json' })

console.log(entry)

getWithMetadata(key: string, { etag?: string, type?: string }): Promise<{ data: any, etag: string, metadata: object }>

Retrieves an object with the given key, the ETag value for the entry, and any metadata that has been stored with the entry.

Depending on the most convenient format for you to access the value, you may choose to supply a type property as a second parameter, with one of the following values:

• arrayBuffer: Returns the entry as an ArrayBuffer
• blob: Returns the entry as a Blob
• json: Parses the entry as JSON and returns the resulting object
• stream: Returns the entry as a ReadableStream
• text (default): Returns the entry as a string of plain text

If an object with the given key is not found, null is returned.

const blob = await store.getWithMetadata('some-key', { type: 'json' })

console.log(blob.data, blob.etag, blob.metadata)

The etag input parameter lets you implement conditional requests, where the blob is only returned if it differs from a version you have previously obtained.

// Mock implementation of a system for locally persisting blobs and their etags
const cachedETag = getFromMockCache('my-key')

// Get entry from the blob store only if its ETag is different from the one you
// have locally, which means the entry has changed since you last obtained it
const { data, etag } = await store.getWithMetadata('some-key', { etag: cachedETag })

if (etag === cachedETag) {
  // `data` is `null` because the local blob is fresh
} else {
  // `data` contains the new blob, store it locally alongside the new ETag
  writeInMockCache('my-key', data, etag)
}

getMetadata(key: string, { etag?: string, type?: string }): Promise<{ etag: string, metadata: object }>

Retrieves any metadata associated with a given key and its ETag value.

If an object with the given key is not found, null is returned.

This method can be used to check whether a key exists without having to actually retrieve it and transfer a potentially-large blob.

const blob = await store.getMetadata('some-key')

console.log(blob.etag, blob.metadata)

set(key: string, value: ArrayBuffer | Blob | string, { metadata?: object }): Promise<void>

Creates an object with the given key and value.

If an entry with the given key already exists, its value is overwritten.

await store.set('some-key', 'This is a string value')

setJSON(key: string, value: any, { metadata?: object }): Promise<void>

Convenience method for creating a JSON-serialized object with the given key.

If an entry with the given key already exists, its value is overwritten.

await store.setJSON('some-key', {
  foo: 'bar',
})

delete(key: string): Promise<void>

Deletes an object with the given key, if one exists. The return value is always undefined, regardless of whether or not there was an object to delete.

await store.delete('my-key')

list(options?: { directories?: boolean, paginate?: boolean. prefix?: string }): Promise<{ blobs: BlobResult[], directories: string[] }> | AsyncIterable<{ blobs: BlobResult[], directories: string[] }>

Returns a list of blobs in a given store.

const { blobs } = await store.list()

// [ { etag: 'etag1', key: 'some-key' }, { etag: 'etag2', key: 'another-key' } ]
console.log(blobs)

To filter down the entries that should be returned, an optional prefix parameter can be supplied. When used, only the entries whose key starts with that prefix are returned.

const { blobs } = await store.list({ prefix: 'some' })

// [ { etag: 'etag1', key: 'some-key' } ]
console.log(blobs)

Optionally, you can choose to group blobs together under a common prefix and then browse them hierarchically when listing a store, just like grouping files in a directory. To do this, use the / character in your keys to group them into directories.

Take the following list of keys as an example:

cats/garfield.jpg
cats/tom.jpg
mice/jerry.jpg
mice/mickey.jpg
pink-panther.jpg

By default, calling store.list() will return all five keys.

const { blobs } = await store.list()

// [
//   { etag: "etag1", key: "cats/garfield.jpg" },
//   { etag: "etag2", key: "cats/tom.jpg" },
//   { etag: "etag3", key: "mice/jerry.jpg" },
//   { etag: "etag4", key: "mice/mickey.jpg" },
//   { etag: "etag5", key: "pink-panther.jpg" },
// ]
console.log(blobs)

But if you want to list entries hierarchically, use the directories parameter.

const { blobs, directories } = await store.list({ directories: true })

// [ { etag: "etag1", key: "pink-panther.jpg" } ]
console.log(blobs)

// [ "cats", "mice" ]
console.log(directories)

To drill down into a directory and get a list of its items, you can use the directory name as the prefix value.

const { blobs, directories } = await store.list({ directories: true, prefix: 'cats/' })

// [ { etag: "etag1", key: "cats/garfield.jpg" }, { etag: "etag2", key: "cats/tom.jpg" } ]
console.log(blobs)

// [ ]
console.log(directories)

Note that we're only interested in entries under the cats directory, which is why we're using a trailing slash. Without it, other keys like catsuit would also match.

For performance reasons, the server groups results into pages of up to 1,000 entries. By default, the list() method automatically retrieves all pages, meaning you'll always get the full list of results.

If you'd like to handle this pagination manually, you can supply the paginate parameter, which makes list() return an AsyncIterator.

const blobs = []

for await (const entry of store.list({ paginate: true })) {
  blobs.push(...entry.blobs)
}

// [
//   { etag: "etag1", key: "cats/garfield.jpg" },
//   { etag: "etag2", key: "cats/tom.jpg" },
//   { etag: "etag3", key: "mice/jerry.jpg" },
//   { etag: "etag4", key: "mice/mickey.jpg" },
//   { etag: "etag5", key: "pink-panther.jpg" },
// ]
console.log(blobs)

Server API reference

We provide a Node.js server that implements the Netlify Blobs server interface backed by the local filesystem. This is useful if you want to write automated tests that involve the Netlify Blobs API without interacting with a live store.

The BlobsServer export lets you construct and initialize a server. You can then use its address to initialize a store.

import { BlobsServer, getStore } from '@netlify/blobs'

// Choose any token for protecting your local server from
// extraneous requests
const token = 'some-token'

// Create a server by providing a local directory where all
// blobs and metadata should be persisted
const server = new BlobsServer({
  directory: '/path/to/blobs/directory',
  port: 1234,
  token,
})

await server.start()

// Get a store and provide the address of the local server
const store = getStore({
  edgeURL: 'http://localhost:1234',
  name: 'my-store',
  token,
})

await store.set('my-key', 'This is a local blob')

console.log(await store.get('my-key'))

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! If you encounter any issues or have suggestions for improvements, please open an issue or submit a pull request on the GitHub repository.

License

Netlify Blobs is open-source software licensed under the MIT license.