Can't access blob storage locally in chatbot emulator

Question

I used to be able to access blob storage during local testing, but I've started getting a [onTurnError]: StorageError: Forbidden message when teseting locally via emulator. I do have issues connecting to some resources from my local (notably CosmosDB), but I do believe this was working before. I have HTTPS_PROXY value set in my local .env which works for everything except Cosmos (LUIS, QnA Maker, Azure Table Storage, etc are working). So I have two questions:

1. Has something changed and/or is it possible at all to hit Blob storage via local emulator testing through a proxy.
2. If not, is it possible to code the bot so that it will use memory storage from my local and blob storage from Azure?

For what it's worth, here is the code I use to set up the state storage but I think the issue is accessing the services through the proxy, not defining these storage objects.

// Memory storage - for development only
const memoryStorage = new MemoryStorage();
const conversationState = new ConversationState(memoryStorage);
const userState = new UserState(memoryStorage);

// Blob storage - for production
/*const blobStorage = new BlobStorage({
    containerName: 'bot-storage',
    storageAccountOrConnectionString: process.env.blobStorageServiceName,
    storageAccessKey: process.env.blobStorageAccessKey
});
const conversationState = new ConversationState(blobStorage);
const userState = new UserState(blobStorage);*/

Answer 1

I came up with a workaround to this, but I feel like it's not a great approach. Would like to see other solutions to the issue.

My workaround was to look at my BOTNAME environmental variable, and if it matches what I have set in my local .env file, use MemoryStorage. Otherwise use BlobStorage. It is functioning, but I hate to have extra code only for the sake of local testing.

Here is the code in my index.js file:

if (process.env.BOTNAME == 'OEM_CSC_Support_Bot_Local') {
    // Memory storage - for development only
    console.log(`Using MemoryStorage for state storage`);
    const memoryStorage = new MemoryStorage();
    var conversationState = new ConversationState(memoryStorage);
    var userState = new UserState(memoryStorage);
} else {
    // Blob storage - for production
    console.log(`Using BlobStorage for state storage`);
    const blobStorage = new BlobStorage({
        containerName: 'bot-storage',
        storageAccountOrConnectionString: process.env.blobStorageServiceName,
        storageAccessKey: process.env.blobStorageAccessKey
    });
    var conversationState = new ConversationState(blobStorage);
    var userState = new UserState(blobStorage);
}