topic Re: How do Blob Tools work on server? in Alteryx Server Discussions

How do Blob Tools work on server?

tristank — Wed, 08 Nov 2023 20:52:15 GMT

I have a blob output tool that takes a template from a shared drive and creates a copy of it with a given name (test_template.xlsx) and no file path. I'm just trying to wrap my head around how this works without a file path as it relates to server. Is it just creating a temporary copy somewhere since I didn't define a file path, and then allowing the user to download that temporary file? Everything is working as intended I'm just trying to better understand the process. Thanks for any insight!

Re: How do Blob Tools work on server?

fmvizcaino — Wed, 08 Nov 2023 20:59:20 GMT

Hi @tristank ,

You got it!

Only so I don`t give you that lazy answer, here are the steps:

Run a workflow on the Gallery
A temporary Folder is created at %ProgramData%\Alteryx\Service\Staging\XProcessCache
Your workflow package is downloaded from MongoDB and unzipped there
Workflow is executed locally in this folder and all the outputs with no paths are saved and retrieved from there
After run, the folder is deleted.

Best,

Fernando Vizcaino

Re: How do Blob Tools work on server?

fmvizcaino — Wed, 08 Nov 2023 21:01:04 GMT

It is important to mention that I learned this empirically so I could be 100% talking nonsense here 😁

Re: How do Blob Tools work on server?

tristank — Wed, 08 Nov 2023 21:09:17 GMT

@fmvizcaino that makes a lot of sense! So the app output and the template copy are existing in the same, temporary location since they don't have file paths just file names. Very interesting stuff! Thanks a lot :)