How to delete the files stored in Azure App Service storage using Azure Functions?

Question

I have a RAG system that will fetch certain files from an external storage and push to an in-memory ChromaDB after converting them to embeddings. Now the files that can be fetched depends on the user. There will be a unique directory for individual user that persists the data for the this vector database. I am deploying this system using the Azure App service. My requirement is that a specific user's directory should be deleted within 72 hours if no further question is being asked by him or her. For the same, I plan to use Azure Functions Timer trigger that checks through the directory creation date once every 24 hours. Please let me know how I can access the App Service storage using Functions.

I tried using Blob storage for storing the data, but I'd like to store in within the App Service's memory.

Answer 1

Kudu API can be used to delete files or directory. https://webappname.scm,azurewebsites.net/api/vfs/<path/to/directory>

Below code worked for me.

I used Http trigger to delete the Vivek directory in site/wwwroot.

Note :-

1. used ?recusive=true to delete all files inside the folder or directory.
2. username and password is available in publish profile.
3. `DefaultAzureCredential() from azure.identity can be used for credentials

function_app.py:

import azure.functions as func
import requests
import base64
import logging
import json

app = func.FunctionApp()


@app.route(route="http_trigger", auth_level=func.AuthLevel.ANONYMOUS, methods= ['get'])
def http_trigger(req: func.HttpRequest) -> func.HttpResponse:

    app_name="flask9july"
    username="xxxxxxxxxx"
    password="xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"
    try:
        kudu_api_url = f"https://{app_name}.scm.azurewebsites.net/api/vfs/site/wwwroot"
        credentials = base64.b64encode(f"{username}:{password}".encode('utf-8')).decode('utf-8')
        headers = {
            "Authorization": f"Basic {credentials}"
        }
        before_response = requests.get(kudu_api_url,headers=headers)
        before_status= before_response.status_code
        before_data = before_response.json()

        before_response_json = {
                    "data": before_data
                }
        #deleteting files or folders        
        delete = requests.delete(f"{kudu_api_url}/Vivek/?recursive=true",headers=headers)

        after_delete = requests.get(kudu_api_url,headers=headers)
        after_status= after_delete.status_code
        data = after_delete.json()

        after_data ={

            "data": data
        }
        return func.HttpResponse(f"before delete list: \n{json.dumps(before_response_json)} \n\nDeleted sucessfully \n\nAfter delete list: \n{json.dumps(after_data)}", mimetype="application/json", status_code=200)

    except Exception as e:
        return func.HttpResponse(f"Error: {str(e)}")

OUTPUT:

Folder Vivek is deleted