How do Blob Tools work on server?

[tristank]

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!

[fmvizcaino · Accepted solution]

Hi @tristank ,

You got it! 

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

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

Best,

Fernando Vizcaino

[fmvizcaino]

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

[tristank]

@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 :)