Create an Attachment

There are two ways to create an attachment resource – post the media content to DocumentDB like in the AtomPub Protocol, or post just the attachment metadata to media stored externally.

The first is to POST the raw media in the body payload to store it in the provided attachment storage under your DocumentDB account. For the attachment storage quota, see DocumentDB limits. To create this type of attachment, developers include the raw attachment (video, audio, file, blob, etc.) as the body of the POST. Two headers must be set: Content-Type and Slug. The Content-Type header is set to the MIME type of the attachment while the Slug header is set to the name of the attachment.

The second way to create an attachment resource is to POST the attachment resource properties noting the type and media link of the attachment. Unlike the first type of attachment resource, the Content-Type and Slug headers are not to be set as the raw media is not part of the request payload.

Request

Request Syntax

Note that the {databaseaccount} is the name of the DocumentDB account created under your subscription. The {_rid-db} value is the resource ID of the database. The {_rid-col} value is the resource ID of the collection the document is contained in. The {_rid-doc} value is the document associated with the attachment.

Request Headers

Request Body

Request Example(s)

Sample Request: Attachment with Raw Media

This sample shows that the raw media submitted is part of the POST payload. The Content-Type header is set to image/png and the Slug header to brush.png.

POST https://contosomarketing.documents.azure.com/dbs/hUwBcw==/colls/hUwBc+gfDX4=/docs/hUwBc+gfDX4DAAAAAAAAAA==/attachments HTTP/1.1
x-ms-date: Thu, 14 Apr 2015 22:40:25 GMT
authorization: type%3dmaster%26ver%3d1.0%26sig%3dza46lCo9nNr0%2fGMjryG8S%2b26ZsFABUYPlW3ebq26nDg%3d
x-ms-version: 2015-04-08
Content-Type: image/png
Slug: brush.png
Content-Length: 244

Sample Request: Attachment without Raw Media (only metadata)

This sample shows the JSON body containing the metadata of the attachment resource, and specifies the name, type and link for the raw media. Note that the Content-Type and Slug headers are not set.

POST https://contosomarketing.documents.azure.com/dbs/hUwBcw==/colls/hUwBc+gfDX4=/docs/hUwBc+gfDX4DAAAAAAAAAA==/attachments HTTP/1.1
x-ms-date: Thu, 14 Apr 2015 22:40:25 GMT
authorization: type%3dmaster%26ver%3d1.0%26sig%3dza46lCo9nNr0%2fGMjryG8S%2b26ZsFABUYPlW3ebq26nDg%3d
x-ms-version: 2015-04-08
Content-Length: 88

{"id":"Sample3_coverpageimage__v2","contentType":"image/jpg","media":"www.bing.com"}

Response

Response Headers

This operation returns the following common headers. There may be additional standard and common headers returned.

Response Body

Creating an attachment results in the creation of an attachment resource with the following response body.

Response Status Codes

The following table lists common status codes returned by this operation. For information related to error status codes, see HTTP Status Codes.

Response Example

Sample Response: Attachment with Raw Media

Note that the media property indicates the media link where the raw media can be retrieved from the DocumentDB attachment storage. The Slug value is recorded in the id property while the Content-Type value is recorded in the contentType property.

HTTP/1.1 201 Created
Transfer-Encoding: chunked
Content-Type: application/json
Server: Microsoft-HTTPAPI/2.0
x-ms-max-media-storage-usage-mb: 2048
x-ms-media-storage-usage-mb: 0
Access-Control-Allow-Origin: *
Access-Control-Allow-Headers: Origin,Slug,Content-Type,Accept
x-ms-last-state-change-utc: Thu, 14 Apr 2015 18:14:58.157 GMT
etag: 00002a00-0000-0000-0000-53ed3ad90000
x-ms-resource-quota: documentSize=256;
x-ms-resource-usage: documentsSize=0;
x-ms-schemaversion: 1.1
x-ms-request-charge: 3.08
x-ms-indexing-directive: Default
x-ms-serviceversion: version=0.9.0.0
x-ms-activity-id: 8ee85ee2-afec-464d-bfd7-f6c5c4da9b83
x-ms-gatewayversion: version=0.9.0.0
Date: Thu, 14 Apr 2015 22:40:25 GMT

{
"contentType":"image\/png",
"id":"brush.png",
"media":"\/media\/DTsFCc8YD28DAAAAAAAAAEnfli8=",
"_rid":"DTsFCc8YD28DAAAAAAAAAEnfli8=",
"_ts":1401314635000,
"_self":"dbs\/DTsFCQ==\/colls\/DTsFCc8YD28=\/docs\/DTsFCc8YD28DAAAAAAAAAA==\/attachments\/DTsFCc8YD28DAAAAAAAAAEnfli8=",
"_etag":"00008d00-0000-0000-0000-53865d4b0000"
}

Sample Response: Attachment without Raw Media

The response is similar to the POST request for the raw media attachment aside from the fact that the media is stored somewhere else. Note that in this case, the brush.png file is stored at www.bing.com.

HTTP/1.1 201 Created
Transfer-Encoding: chunked
Content-Type: application/json
Server: Microsoft-HTTPAPI/2.0
x-ms-max-media-storage-usage-mb: 2048
x-ms-media-storage-usage-mb: 0
Access-Control-Allow-Origin: *
Access-Control-Allow-Headers: Origin,Slug,Content-Type,Accept
x-ms-last-state-change-utc: Thu, 14 Apr 2015 18:14:58.157 GMT
etag: 00002a00-0000-0000-0000-53ed3ad90000
x-ms-resource-quota: documentSize=256;
x-ms-resource-usage: documentsSize=0;
x-ms-schemaversion: 1.1
x-ms-request-charge: 3.08
x-ms-indexing-directive: Default
x-ms-serviceversion: version=0.9.0.0
x-ms-activity-id: 8ee85ee2-afec-464d-bfd7-f6c5c4da9b83
x-ms-gatewayversion: version=0.9.0.0
Date: Thu, 14 Apr 2015 22:40:25 GMT

{
"contentType":"image\/png",
"id":"brush.png",
"media":"www.bing.com",
"_rid":"DTsFCc8YD28DAAAAAAAAAEnfli8=",
"_ts":1401314635000,
"_self":"dbs\/DTsFCQ==\/colls\/DTsFCc8YD28=\/docs\/DTsFCc8YD28DAAAAAAAAAA==\/attachments\/DTsFCc8YD28DAAAAAAAAAEnfli8=",
"_etag":"00008d00-0000-0000-0000-53865d4b0000"
}