drivendataorg/cloudpathlib

az:// URL scheme isn't really a URL because it is not unique

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#157 opened on Aug 28, 2021

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Description

The existing 'az://' pseudo-URL scheme violates the principal of URLs in that it is not universal and unique.

The 's3://' bucket syntax is valid because S3 buckets are universally unique. You may need account credentials to access an S3 bucket but you don't need additional information to locate it.

With Azure blob storage you need the storage account as well. Without that you have no way to locate the blobs even if they are publically accessible.

A better scheme would be something like:

az://<storage-account>/<container>/...

which would turn into:

https://<storage-account>.blob.core.windows.net/<container>/...

You could allow the optional addition of .blob or .dfs, so one could write:

az://<storage-account>.dfs/<container>/...

Contributor guide

Research direction
Investigate the current 'az://' URL parsing in cloudpathlib and modify it to include the storage account as part of the URL scheme, e.g., 'az://<storage account>/<container>'. Update the relevant classes and tests to handle the new format.
Tech stack
python
Domain
backendapi
Issue type
Feature
DifficultyEstimated implementation difficulty for a new contributor, from 1 for very small changes to 5 for expert-level work.
3
Estimated timeA rough time range for an experienced contributor to investigate, implement, test, and prepare a pull request.
Half day
Activity statusHow available the issue appears right now: fresh, active, stale, blocked, or waiting on maintainer input.
Active
ClarityHow clearly the issue explains the expected change, acceptance criteria, and next step.
Clear
Prerequisites
PythonAzure Blob Storage
Newbie friendlinessA 1-100 score estimating how approachable this issue is for first-time contributors.
40