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This page is for anyone who needs to reference files on the PhixFlow Server.

Understanding the Soft Link Between Tomcat and PhixFlow

When you want to reference a file saved on the PhixFlow server, you need to use a path that the PhixFlow Webapp can understand. The PhixFlow webapp runs within Tomcat, so only knows about files below  /opt/tomcat/webapps/phixflow 

For the webapp to know about files stored on the server, for example in  /opt/phixflow/data/phixflow, it has a soft link (also called symbolic link, symlink or data link). This acts as a shortcut between the two directories and lets the PhixFlow webapp "see" the files under /opt/phixflow/data/phixflow/datalink. 

Soft link in Tomcat directory
points to → 		PhixFlow server directory containing files
/opt/tomcat/webapps/phixflow/datalink

/opt/phixflow/data/phixflow/datalink/


You may not want to save files under the datalink directory on the PhixFlow server. For example, you could have a directory for each project, and the files belong to a specific project. In this case, you can add a second soft link.

Soft link in Tomcat directory
points to → 		Soft link in PhixFlow server
points to → 		Directory containing files
/opt/tomcat/webapps/phixflow/datalink

/opt/phixflow/data/phixflow/datalink/MyProject/

/opt/phixflow/data/phixflow/Projects/MyProject/


Creating Symlinks

In the following commands:

  • path/folder_name is the full path to the directory to which you want to link
  • soft_link_name is the directory name that appears in the current location.

On Linux

In the directory where you want to create the symlink, enter the following ln command:

ln -s path/folder_name soft_link_name

If a file path includes spaces, enclose it in double-quotes

On Windows

In the directory where you want to create the symlink, enter the following mklink command. 

mklink /D soft_link_name path/folder_name

To soft link to a specific file, omit /D.

For more information about symlinks, see this article on Creating Symbolic Links.

The Path or URL to Use

Within PhixFlow, to refer to a file on the server, start the path with the datalink directory.

Examples:

  • file path:   datalink/Project1/Images/file1.png
  • URL:   url("https:datalink/MyProject/MyImage.png")

Using a URL to Display an Image 

In your PhixFlow application, to display an image stored on the PhixFlow server, use the URL for it's location, for example:  url("https:datalink/MyProject/MyImage.png").

For example, you can configure the following CSS Properties to use an image stored on the PhixFlow server as a background image. 

  • Name: background-image
  • Expression: url("https:datalink/MyProject/MyImage.png")
  • Name: background-repeat
  • Expression: no-repeat
  • Name: background-size
  • Expression: choose size – could be 100%, 20px, auto; see Image Sizing.
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