Simple Azure Table Viewer

A minimal VS Code extension that lists Azure Storage accounts, picks a table, and renders its entities as either an HTML table (with raw-JSON toggle) or an untitled CSV document.

Not on the VS Code Marketplace yet — distributed via GitHub Releases.

Install

Grab the latest .vsix from the Releases page, then install with:

code --install-extension simple-azure-table-viewer-<version>.vsix

Reload the VS Code window after install (Cmd+Shift+P → Developer: Reload Window).

One-liner using curl (replace <version> with the tag, e.g. 0.0.2):

curl -LO https://github.com/feferka/simple-azure-table-viewer/releases/download/v<version>/simple-azure-table-viewer-<version>.vsix \
  && code --install-extension simple-azure-table-viewer-<version>.vsix

Requirements

• VS Code 1.80.0 or newer
• Azure CLI on PATH
• An active az login session
• One of the following data-plane RBAC roles on the storage account:
  • Storage Table Data Reader
  • Storage Table Data Contributor

Subscription-level Owner is not sufficient for table data. RBAC for the data plane is granted per storage account under Access Control (IAM).

Usage

1. Open the AZ Tables view from the Activity Bar.
2. Click Query Azure Table (or run Azure Table Storage Viewer: Open from the Command Palette).
3. Pick a storage account, then a table.
4. Results open in a panel with a toggle between Table and Raw JSON view.

Configuration

Setting	Type	Default	Effect
simpleAzureTableViewer.outputAsCsv	boolean	false	When true, results open as an untitled <account>-<table>.csv document instead of the HTML view. Pairs well with CSV viewer extensions (e.g. Rainbow CSV, Edit csv) for filtering, sorting, and copying into Excel/Sheets. The document is in-memory and is not saved unless you press Cmd+S.

Toggle via Settings → search „Simple Azure Table Viewer" or by editing settings.json:

"simpleAzureTableViewer.outputAsCsv": true

How it works

The extension shells out to az (no Azure SDK dependency):

Operation	Plane	Auth
az account show	management	active az login
az storage account list	management	active az login
az storage table list	data	--auth-mode login (Azure AD)
az storage entity query	data	--auth-mode login (Azure AD)

No account keys, connection strings, or SAS tokens are used or fetched.

Troubleshooting

Every CLI invocation is logged to the Azure Table Viewer Output channel (View → Output, dropdown top-right). Each line is prefixed with > for the executed command, [stderr] for warnings, [error] for failures.

Common errors and what they mean:

Error	Likely cause
Azure CLI is not logged in or not installed.	Run az login, verify az --version works.
Authorization failed for the Azure Storage data plane.	Missing Storage Table Data Reader/Contributor role on the account.
Azure AD authentication failed.	Token expired — run az login again.
Azure CLI returned empty output.	Resource exists but is empty, or wrong subscription is active. Check az account show.

Development

npm install
npm run typecheck         # tsc --noEmit
npm run compile           # esbuild bundle (with sourcemap, no minify)
npm run watch             # esbuild --watch
npm run bundle:prod       # esbuild bundle (minified)
npm run package           # produces .vsix (runs typecheck + bundle:prod)

To test a local build:

code --install-extension simple-azure-table-viewer-0.0.2.vsix --force

Then run Developer: Reload Window.

Project structure

src/
├── extension.ts                    entry point, DI wiring
├── azure/
│   ├── AzureCli.ts                 typed wrapper around `az`
│   └── AzureCliError.ts            error class + stderr → user-message mapping
├── tree/
│   └── AzureTableTreeProvider.ts   Activity Bar tree
├── commands/
│   └── QueryTableCommand.ts        pick account → pick table → query → render
├── model/
│   └── TableModel.ts               shared columns/rows derivation
└── output/
    ├── ResultPresenter.ts          interface implemented by both renderers
    ├── TableWebview.ts             panel with table/JSON toggle (CSP nonce-protected)
    └── CsvDocument.ts              untitled <account>-<table>.csv document

The bundled output is a single out/extension.js produced by esbuild.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.