This page is for application designers who need to ensure files appear
Within your application screens, you may use images and files that you have uploaded onto the PhixFlow server. For example, your application may need:
- a file that the user can download
- an image to be displayed.
todo-Fiona When do you need to use a soft link rather than just using the file you have uploaded (e.g. in a style, selecting a background image)
Because applications are displayed in browsers, the screens are transmitted to the browser via the Tomcat webserver. If you reference the file using it's path on the PhixFlow server, Tomcat will not be able to serve the image or file to the browser. It will appear as a broken link.
Your administrator can configure the Tomcat webserver to "see" specific PhixFlow directories by creating soft links in the <path>/tomcat/webapps/phixflow directory; see Configuring Soft Links Between PhixFlow and Tomcat. To reference file or image, use the soft link path that Tomcat will recognise.
For example:
| The administrator configures a soft link in Tomcat | which points to → | a PhixFlow server directory | which contains the file | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Linux | <path>/tomcat/webapps/phixflow/data-files-link |
| Snapshot.csv | |
| Windows | <path>\tomcat\webapps\phixflow\ | <path>/phixflow/ |
To create a link to the file Snapshot.csv, use the soft link in tomcat/webapps/phixflow:
- either using a file path:
data-files-link/Snapshot.csv - or using a URL:
url("https:data-files-link/Snapshot.csv")
Images and Soft Links
Using a URL to Display an Images
To display an image, use the soft link URL, rather than the file path.
For example:
| Tomcat has the soft link | which points to → | a PhixFlow server directory | which contains the file | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Linux | <path>/tomcat/webapps/phixflow/images-link |
| MyImage.png | |
| Windows | <path>\tomcat\webapps\phixflow\ | <path>/phixflow/ |
To display MyImage.png, use a URL to refer to the soft link url("https:images-link/MyImage.png")
Formatting Images Referenced Via Soft Links
For images, you can select an image and use the style settings to configure how it looks. If you need to use a soft link, you cannot then use the style settings to configure how it displays. You need to configure all the settings using CSS Properties. For example, to configure a background image, set CSS Tag and Values as follows:
| CSS Tag | Value |
|---|---|
background-image |
|
background-repeat | no-repeat |
background-size | Choose a size, see Image Sizing. Examples:
|