Interacting with Azure Queues Using REST

1. Set up some environment variables to aid in generating a signature. For the storage_account and access_key, provide the actual storage account name and access key. One way to obtain these is to log in to the Azure portal. The access key can be found by clicking the storage account, then clicking Access Keys:

storage_account=${your storage account name}

access_key=${your storage account access key}

queue_name=incoming-items

request_date=$(TZ=GMT date "+%a, %d %h %Y %H:%M:%S %Z")

resource="/${storage_account}/${queue_name}/messages"

request_method="GET"

headers="x-ms-date:$request_date"

2. Generate a signature and Authorization header:

string_to_sign="${request_method}\n\n\n\n${headers}\n${resource}"

hex_key="$(echo -n $access_key | base64 -d -w0 | xxd -p -c256)"

signature=$(printf "$string_to_sign" | openssl dgst -sha256 -mac HMAC -macopt "hexkey:$hex_key" -binary |  base64 -w0)

authorization_header="SharedKey $storage_account:$signature"

3. Make a request to peek the current messages in the queue, redirecting the output to a file:

curl -s -X $request_method 
  -H "x-ms-date:$request_date" 
  -H "Authorization:$authorization_header" 
  "https://${storage_account}.queue.core.windows.net/${queue_name}/messages?peekonly=true&numofmessages=32" 
  > /home/cloud_user/messages.txt

4. Check the contents of the file to see the messages:

cat /home/cloud_user/messages.txt

You should see some XML representing one existing message.

1. Set up some environment variables to aid in generating a signature.

request_date=$(TZ=GMT date "+%a, %d %h %Y %H:%M:%S %Z")

resource="/${storage_account}/${queue_name}/messages"

request_method="POST"

content_type="application/x-www-form-urlencoded; charset=utf-8"

storage_service_version="2018-11-09"

headers="x-ms-date:$request_date\nx-ms-version:$storage_service_version"

message="Item 4489: Coin Collection"

message_base64=$(echo $message | base64)

message_xml="<QueueMessage><MessageText>$message_base64</MessageText></QueueMessage>"

message_length=${#message_xml}

2. Generate a signature and Authorization header.

string_to_sign="${request_method}\n\n\n$message_length\n\n$content_type\n\n\n\n\n\n\n${headers}\n${resource}\nmessagettl:-1"

hex_key="$(echo -n $access_key | base64 -d -w0 | xxd -p -c256)"

signature=$(printf "$string_to_sign" | openssl dgst -sha256 -mac HMAC -macopt "hexkey:$hex_key" -binary |  base64 -w0)

authorization_header="SharedKey $storage_account:$signature"

3. Make a request to peek the current messages in the queue, redirecting the output to a file.

curl -X $request_method 
  -H "x-ms-date:$request_date" 
  -H "x-ms-version:$storage_service_version" 
  -H "Content-Type:$content_type" 
  -H "Authorization:$authorization_header" 
  --data "$message_xml" 
  "https://${storage_account}.queue.core.windows.net/${queue_name}/messages?messagettl=-1"

4. If you wish, you can check the Queue in Azure Portal to verify that your new message appears.