Question

I am working with Azure Table storage using the .NET API (TableServiceContext, WCF Data Service, etc). I have a simple graph of objects that I want to save to the table store. In the service context class, I have the following code.

_TableClient.CreateTableIfNotExist("AggRootTable");
this.AddObject("AggRoots", model);
foreach (var related in model.RelatedObjects)
{
    this.AddRelatedObject(model, "RelatedCollection", related);
}
this.SaveChanges();

I have used this style of code in WCF Data Services via EF and a SQL Server, but it doesn’t work against Azure Tables. I would not expect it to, as there aren’t real relationships between tables in Azure. However, the methods are there. Does anyone know how to use AddRelatedObject, AddLink, etc in the context of Azure Tables? Or can suggest approaches to storing object graphs in general? I haven’t been able to find any docs, and Google hasn’t been helpful.

Thanks,
Erick

Answer 1

You can’t. ATS does not support relationships. There are many non-working methods available due to it using data services API.

What you can do, however, is store the full object tree in a single table. Not sure if this will work for your design/architecture

also, it is a bad idea to keep calling CreateIfNotExists before every write operation. First, you pay extra for transactions that occur for the round-trip, second the call is not instantaneous and will slow down your writes.
just precreate the tables before deployment or during roles start.