Passing object messages in Azure Queue Storage

Question

I'm trying to find a way to pass objects to the Azure Queue. I couldn't find a way to do this.

As I've seen I can pass string or byte array, which is not very comfortable for passing objects.

Is there anyway to pass custom objects to the Queue?

Thanks!

Answer 1

You can use the following classes as example:

 [Serializable]     public abstract class BaseMessage     {         public byte[] ToBinary()         {             BinaryFormatter bf = new BinaryFormatter();             byte[] output = null;             using (MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream())             {                 ms.Position = 0;                 bf.Serialize(ms, this);                 output = ms.GetBuffer();             }             return output;         }          public static T FromMessage<T>(CloudQueueMessage m)         {             byte[] buffer = m.AsBytes;             T returnValue = default(T);             using (MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream(buffer))             {                 ms.Position = 0;                 BinaryFormatter bf = new BinaryFormatter();                 returnValue = (T)bf.Deserialize(ms);             }             return returnValue;         }     } 

Then a StdQueue (a Queue that is strongly typed):

   public class StdQueue<T> where T : BaseMessage, new()     {         protected CloudQueue queue;          public StdQueue(CloudQueue queue)         {             this.queue = queue;         }          public void AddMessage(T message)         {             CloudQueueMessage msg =             new CloudQueueMessage(message.ToBinary());             queue.AddMessage(msg);         }          public void DeleteMessage(CloudQueueMessage msg)         {             queue.DeleteMessage(msg);         }          public CloudQueueMessage GetMessage()         {             return queue.GetMessage(TimeSpan.FromSeconds(120));         }     } 

Then, all you have to do is to inherit the BaseMessage:

[Serializable] public class ParseTaskMessage : BaseMessage {     public Guid TaskId { get; set; }      public string BlobReferenceString { get; set; }      public DateTime TimeRequested { get; set; } } 

And make a queue that works with that message:

CloudStorageAccount acc;             if (!CloudStorageAccount.TryParse(connectionString, out acc))             {                 throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException("connectionString", "Invalid connection string was introduced!");             }             CloudQueueClient clnt = acc.CreateCloudQueueClient();             CloudQueue queue = clnt.GetQueueReference(processQueue);             queue.CreateIfNotExist();             this._queue = new StdQueue<ParseTaskMessage>(queue); 

Hope this helps!

Answer 2

Extension method that uses Newtonsoft.Json and async

    public static async Task AddMessageAsJsonAsync<T>(this CloudQueue cloudQueue, T objectToAdd)     {         var messageAsJson = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(objectToAdd);         var cloudQueueMessage = new CloudQueueMessage(messageAsJson);         await cloudQueue.AddMessageAsync(cloudQueueMessage);     }