Orchardcore Azure Media

Orchard Core Azure Media Storage - Prompt Templates

Module Overview

The OrchardCore.Media.Azure module enables storing media assets in Microsoft Azure Blob Storage instead of the default App_Data file-based store. It provides two features:

• OrchardCore.Media.Azure.Storage — Replaces the default media store with Azure Blob Storage.
• OrchardCore.Media.Azure.ImageSharpImageCache — Stores ImageSharp resized image cache in Azure Blob Storage instead of the local file system.

Media is still served by the Orchard Core web site. The Media Cache module fetches assets on the fly from Azure Blob Storage, enabling image resizing through ImageSharp.Web integration. The AssetUrl helpers generate URLs pointing to the Orchard Core web site.

Azure Media Storage Configuration

Guidelines

• Enable the OrchardCore.Media.Azure.Storage feature.
• Provide a valid Azure Storage account connection string.
• The container name must be a valid DNS name and conform to Azure container naming rules (lowercase only).
• Set CreateContainer to true to auto-create the container on startup; set to false if your container already exists.
• If the connection string is missing or invalid, the feature will not activate and an error will be logged.
• Only one storage provider can be active at a time (File Storage, Azure Blob Storage, or Amazon S3 Storage).

Configuration Properties

Basic Configuration

{
  "OrchardCore": {
    "OrchardCore_Media_Azure": {
      "ConnectionString": "DefaultEndpointsProtocol=https;AccountName=myaccount;AccountKey=mykey;EndpointSuffix=core.windows.net",
      "ContainerName": "media",
      "BasePath": "Media",
      "CreateContainer": true,
      "RemoveContainer": false
    }
  }
}

Liquid Templating for Multi-Tenant Configuration

Guidelines

• Use Liquid templating in ContainerName and BasePath properties for multi-tenant setups.
• The ShellSettings object is available in the Liquid template context.
• {{ ShellSettings.Name }} is automatically lowercased, but ensure the full ContainerName conforms to Azure naming rules.
• Only default Liquid filters and tags are available; extra filters like slugify are not supported.

Container per Tenant

{
  "OrchardCore": {
    "OrchardCore_Media_Azure": {
      "ConnectionString": "DefaultEndpointsProtocol=https;AccountName=myaccount;AccountKey=mykey;EndpointSuffix=core.windows.net",
      "ContainerName": "{{ ShellSettings.Name }}-media",
      "BasePath": "Media",
      "CreateContainer": true
    }
  }
}

Single Container with Base Folder per Tenant

{
  "OrchardCore": {
    "OrchardCore_Media_Azure": {
      "ConnectionString": "DefaultEndpointsProtocol=https;AccountName=myaccount;AccountKey=mykey;EndpointSuffix=core.windows.net",
      "ContainerName": "sharedmedia",
      "BasePath": "{{ ShellSettings.Name }}/Media",
      "CreateContainer": true
    }
  }
}

Media Cache

Guidelines

• The Media Cache feature is automatically enabled when Azure Media Storage is enabled.
• It caches files fetched from Azure Blob Storage locally to support image resizing via ImageSharp.
• Local remote-media files use the wwwroot/{tenant}/ms-cache folder.
• The admin dashboard provides a Purge action to clear cached files.
• Consider purging only after a CDN has had sufficient time to cache most assets.
• CDN providers have multiple Points of Presence (PoPs), each maintaining its own cache. A purged local cache item will be re-fetched from Azure Blob Storage when a CDN PoP requests it.
• CDN providers periodically clear their own caches, so the Media Cache must always be able to re-fetch source files from Azure Blob Storage.

Azure Media ImageSharp Image Cache

Guidelines

• Enable the OrchardCore.Media.Azure.ImageSharpImageCache feature to store resized images in Azure Blob Storage.
• The options type is ImageSharpBlobImageCacheOptions.
• Custom startup registration uses the AzureImageSharpCache configure order.
• The ImageSharp cache maps BasePath to its cache folder, so use it to keep image-cache blobs in a separate hierarchy within the container.
• Useful for ephemeral file systems (e.g., container hosting, clean deployments).
• Reduces pressure on local disk IO, beneficial for environments like Azure App Services with throttled local storage.
• Cache files are only removed per tenant when using a separate container per tenant.

ImageSharp Cache Configuration

ImageSharp Cache Configuration Example

{
  "OrchardCore": {
    "OrchardCore_Media_Azure_ImageSharp_Cache": {
      "ConnectionString": "DefaultEndpointsProtocol=https;AccountName=myaccount;AccountKey=mykey;EndpointSuffix=core.windows.net",
      "ContainerName": "imagecache",
      "BasePath": "cache",
      "CreateContainer": true,
      "RemoveContainer": false,
      "RemoveFilesFromBasePath": true
    }
  }
}

CDN Considerations

• When fronting media with a CDN, allow sufficient time for CDN PoPs to cache assets before purging the local Media Cache.
• Each CDN PoP maintains its own cache independently; one PoP having an asset does not mean all do.
• The Media Cache will automatically re-fetch assets from Azure Blob Storage when requested by a CDN PoP that doesn't have the cached version.
• CDN providers clear caches on their own schedules, so the source in Azure Blob Storage must always remain accessible.