Azure Blob - Multiple files into one zip file before downloading

Question

I'm currenlty using Azure Blob to store files, and upload/download from ASP.Net Application hosted outside of Azure. (I do not have Web Role and Worker Role.)

Is it possible to zip multiple files into one zip file within Azure Blob before downloading?

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

THe only way to achieve this would be to do it by using a WIndows Azure Compute Role in the cloud. You obviously wouldn't want to do it on your on-prem servers as you'd round-trip the files twice.

One approach you might consider would be to build a download 'client' in Silverlight. This could handle the communications to blob stgorage and pull down the blobs (maybe in parallel) and then create the zip client side for saving.

But the short answer is this is not possible using WIndows Azure storage alone.