►Discussion Topic◄ Left over Imges on Dir. served from DB

BenHayat

If you store images to serve to the user, then you should read this. I did a brief search but didn't find anything relevant. Here it goes:

When Aware needs to display a picture/image that is stored in DB, it must create an image file and store it some place, so when the page is served to user, it would link to that created image in a directory. For this to happen Aware creates a file that starts with "BAST" and another one with "img.jpeg" for every user making a request.
So you can imagine how fast the number of these images can grow, based on the # of records in DB, the number of BO having Pictures and # of users. You multiple these and you get a total of images created at any moment.

These files are stored in \AwareIM\Tomcat\webapps\AwareIM folder and if you are running Windows OS on your sever, any time the # of files exceeds over certain numbers (forgot the # in 32-bit and 64-bit), the OS disk access becomes very slow. I had seen it with my own eyes on another product that was creating log file for each record.

So, what do we do with these left overs that aren't any use anymore?
I wrote this to Support that Aware sever should have a clean up routine built in to clean after it's operation, but I didn't get any reply.
So, should each one of us, approach the clean up on our own, If so, what are our choices:

Do we do it manually? Delete img*.jpeg from OS explorer
Do we write a process, and ADMIN can execute the process from his VP
Do we create a schedule to call that process, every day at certain time

I'd like to hear your thoughts.

hpl123

Ben (and support),
This IS a big problem and I have also asked support about this in various previous discussions, a feature request and also it has been discussed before in multiple posts.

I for example use images a lot in 1 app and I have TENS OF THOUSANDS of these temp files in my Aware IM folder just from me PLAYING AROUND and developing for A COUPLE OF WEEKS so imagine when going live with this app and I have users using the app on a daily basis. This has to be addressed and I am not comfortable using "vague" server etc. scripts on a live production system / application and also doing this manually is just no an option.

kklosson

I see this too. Seems one could write a DOS batch file to delete them based on appname* . The batch file can be executed using the Execute Program Action in a process, or as some server script. Better though, would be if the files (if they must be created and left behind) could be targeted to a specific folder. Then it would be easier to write an AwareIM process to delete them.

BenHayat

kklosson wrote
I see this too. Seems one could write a DOS batch file to delete them based on appname* . The batch file can be executed using the Execute Program Action in a process, or as some server script. Better though, would be if the files (if they must be created and left behind) could be targeted to a specific folder. Then it would be easier to write an AwareIM process to delete them.

You also brought up another point that I had forgotten to request.
These temp images should go to a Temp directory and not AWAREIM directory.

robleer

@AwareIM support: this is an issue which is there for years. Why is there never a reply on this?

It can't be to hard to solve this very annoying problem.

BenHayat

robleer wrote
@AwareIM support: this is an issue which is there for years. Why is there never a reply on this?
It can't be to hard to solve this very annoying problem.

It turns out, not only we get temp images, but every time a user opens a PDF or document, a new folder gets created with a file inside the folder. The folder name starts with "DOCS_" and some numbers after that. Getting ride of the folders in DOS is more challenging since you can not use wild card to delete folders and you have to use loop

So, I have created a scheduling process that runs every night that calls a batch file that resides on root directory and deletes all the leftover images and a loop that deletes any folder that stars with "DOCS_".

mrbdrm

BenHayat wrote
robleer wrote
@AwareIM support: this is an issue which is there for years. Why is there never a reply on this?
It can't be to hard to solve this very annoying problem.

It turns out, not only we get temp images, but every time a user opens a PDF or document, a new folder gets created with a file inside the folder. The folder name starts with "DOCS_" and some numbers after that. Getting ride of the folders in DOS is more challenging since you can not use wild card to delete folders and you have to use loop

So, I have created a scheduling process that runs every night that calls a batch file that resides on root directory and deletes all the leftover images and a loop that deletes any folder that stars with "DOCS_".

If it's not much trouble, would you kindly share the batch code?

BenHayat

Here is the batch file. Be sure not to remove the "C:" and "CD" command. The loop must be run within the parent directory.

@Echo off
@Del C:\AwareIM\Tomcat\webapps\AwareIM\BAST*
@Del C:\AwareIM\Tomcat\webapps\AwareIM\img*.jpeg
C:
CD \AwareIM\Tomcat\webapps\AwareIM
for /r /D %%G in ("DOCS*") do @RD /S /Q "%%G"

[/b][/size]

BenHayat

This is another variation:

@Echo off
C:
CD \AwareIM\Tomcat\webapps\AwareIM
@Del BAST*
@Del img*.jpeg
for /r /D %%G in ("DOCS*") do @RD /S /Q "%%G"

[/size][/b]

mrbdrm

Thank you very much for your help BenHayat 🙂

hpl123

Thanks for sharing Ben, very nice.
Do you mind explaining what the different parts of the script is/does? I was mostly wondering about the for /r /D etc. statement?

Thanks

BenHayat

hpl123 wrote
Thanks for sharing Ben, very nice.
Do you mind explaining what the different parts of the script is/does? I was mostly wondering about the for /r /D etc. statement?

Thanks

The first two, deletes left over images and the last one deleted temp folders.

This is a recursive loop.
/r is to delete files
/d to delete directories
/S for sub-folder
/q for quiet (No prompt)

hpl123

BenHayat wrote
hpl123 wrote
Thanks for sharing Ben, very nice.
Do you mind explaining what the different parts of the script is/does? I was mostly wondering about the for /r /D etc. statement?

Thanks

The first two, deletes left over images and the last one deleted temp folders.

This is a recursive loop.
/r is to delete files
/d to delete directories
/S for sub-folder
/q for quiet (No prompt)

Thanks for the clarification Ben.