This page is for administrators who need to link the Tomcat Webserver to files stored on the PhixFlow Server.

Overview

Application designers use images in their screens, for example for logos, or user profiles. Application users may also need to download files from the application. For the Tomcat webserver to find files, it needs to know where they are on the PhixFlow server. This requires a soft link (also called datalink or symlink) to the relevant directories.  This acts as a shortcut between the two directories and lets the Tomcat webserver "see" the files.

Upgrade Considerations

When you upgrade PhixFlow to the latest version, the process replaces everything under the

When you configure soft links, it is usually in the .../tomcat/webapps/phixflow directory.

Configuring Soft Links 

Securing Soft Links

To ensure soft links from Tomcat to PhixFlow directories are secure, configure the context.xml file as follows:

1. Edit /opt/tomcat/conf/context.xml
2. Find the line: <Resources cachingAllowed="true" cacheMaxSize="1000000" />
3. Replace it with: <Resources allowLinking="true" cachingAllowed="true" cacheMaxSize="1000000" />

Creating Soft Links

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 you want to use as a soft link

On Linux use the ln command

ln -s path/folder_name soft_link_name

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

sudo ln -s /opt/phixflow/data/ /opt/tomcat/webapps/phixflow/datalink

On Windows use the mklink command

The mklink command creates links to specific files by default. To link to a directory, use the /D option.

mklink /D soft_link_name path/folder_name

mklink /D c:\tomcat\webapps\phixflow\datalink c:\path\phixflow\data

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

Example Data Links

In the following example, Tomcat has a soft link to a files/images directory in PhixFlow

You can also create soft links within the PhixFlow server, for example to simplify paths.