FTR (File System Transfer Receiver) configuration in 4.0 Ent

[mccarthymp]

I tested out the FTR (File System Transfer Receiver) this morning for the first time. I noticed what appears to be a duplicate configuration between the "Replication Jobs" setup and the "Transfer Target" setup. The Transfer target (Repository->Data Dictionary->Transfers->Transfer Target Groups->Default Group) has a property for the "Root Folder". The Replication Job has a property for "Payload - Source Items". It appears that the only value to have any effect on what is transferred is the Root Folder in the transfer target configuration. I would have thought that configuring the value through the Replication Job would be more intuitive. Is this the correct behavior?

[bremmington]

Hi Michael

Yes, this is the correct behaviour. The setting in the transfer target is defining which folder in the repository corresponds to the "ftr-root" folder on the target file system. The setting in the replication job is defining the top-level folder to replicate to the target file system.

In many cases these are the same thing, but let's say you start with an empty folder structure in the repo that looks like this:

  My Root Folder
      |- Images
      |- Javascript
‍‍‍‍‍

Let's also assume that you want the folder structure on the target file system to look like this:

  ftr-root
      |- Images
      |- Javascript
‍‍‍‍‍

In this case you would set up your transfer target in the repo so its root folder was "My Root Folder".

Now, to initially populate your remote file system with the correct folder structure you may decide to set up a replication job with "My Root Folder" as its payload and run it precisely once. This will replicate your empty folder structure.

Let's assume that the content in your Images folder changes quite frequently, whereas the content in the Javascript folder doesn't change much at all. You decide to set up two replication jobs, both using the same transfer target (the corresponding root folder is the same for both), but with one using the Images folder as its payload and the other using the Javascript folder as its payload. You could set different schedules on those two jobs.

Does that help to clarify the different uses for those settings? Basically, the setting in the transfer target is used by any transfer to that target (including those done directly via the TransferService API). The setting in the replication job sits at a higher level.

[mccarthymp]

Hi Brian,

Thanks for the quick response. That does make it very clear what each of the different properties controls. I wanted to verify some of my assumptions:
1. It seems that after the initial transfer job, only nodes that have changed are transferred.
2. There is no easy way to clear out the FSTR root folder. (i.e delete the derby db and delete the contents of ftr-root on the file system)
3. Changing the "Root Folder" of the transfer target is not a good idea after you have already completed a replication job with content nodes rather than just folders.
4. Once a content node is transferred, it can not be transferred to a different location by way of changing either the "Root Folder" or the "Source Items".
5. It is not a good idea to select multiple values for the "Root Folder". Does it even make sense to do this? Is it supported?
6. You can choose multiple "Source Items" to transfer.

I did quite a bit of experimenting using the OOTB "swsdp" site's document library. The initial transfer worked fine, but after I started changing around the "Root Folder" and "Source Folder" I got varying results. It seems that a node that was already transferred would not transfer again if either "Root Folder" or "Source Folder" was changed. A transferred node was not updated unless the source node was altered in the repository.

For reference I included the directory structure below. I first transferred the "Contracts", "Images", and "Logo Files" folders directly to my "ftr-root" (i.e. the transfer target "Root Folder" matched the "Source Items"). The files were transferred directly to my ftr-root on the file system. I then used a new transfer target with a "Root Folder" of "documentLibrary" and a new replication job with a "Source Items" also of "documentLibrary". This transferred everything except "Contracts", "Images", and "Logo Files" into a corresponding directory structure on the file system. I updated my Contracts\Project Contract.pdf file and it transferred a second time (I can tell by the time stamp in the file system). I also tried updating Mock-Ups\sample 1.png and Mock-Ups\sample2.png but these did not transfer a second time.

      swsdp
          |- documentLibrary
              |- Agency Files
                  |- Contracts
                  |- Images
                  |- Logo Files
                  |- Mock-Ups
                  |- Video Files
              |- Budget Files
                  |- Invoices
              |- Meeting Notes
              |- Presentations
‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍

[suda]

where should I install File System Transfer Receiver? on alfresco server or receiving app server?

[mrogers]

receiving app server