Home > Digital Workflow > Workflow How To's > Local Image CachingLocal Image Caching
One aspect of building Composite Templates is they usually contain Image Layers. These Image Layers use Hi-Res image assets: such as PNGs and JPGs. These files can be quite large and are stored in your myStratus database in the cloud so they can easily be accessed by any Desktop app that needs them from anywhere in the world. However, when a user is building a composite in either the Workflow hub or through Sales Presentation, the process of having to repeatedly download the Hi-Res images over your internet connection can be slow. In addition, it puts a repeated strain on the database and uses your valuable internet bandwidth.
Therefore, we've developed a system to cache these image assets locally either on the local workstation or on your local network - in a shared folder accessible by all the workstations. When Local Digital Template Image Caching is enabled, myStratus will simply use the local image assets if found. If not found, or if not enabled, the system will automatically revert back to downloading the image assets from the database as needed. For these reasons, it's highly recommended the Local Digital Template Image Caching feature be enabled, configured properly, and monitored. If you ever find a workstation that is slow when building a composite, it's likely Local Digital Template Image Caching is either not enabled or not configured properly.
The location of the local cached images is the same as your other session images. At Maintenance > Preferences > Company Preferences > Digital tab, make sure your Image Paths are set to a shared folder all workstations on your network are able to access. Remember, any Image Path Overrides setup in the Workstation Preferences > Digital tab will override these Image Path settings.
Inside this folder, myStratus will automatically create a sub folder called, "Shared Template Images". Inside this folder will be two additional sub folders for “Images” and “Previews”.
Local Digital Template Image Caching can be enabled in either two places – The Company Preferences or in the Workstation Preferences on their respective Digital tabs.
By enabling this feature in the Company Preferences, you enable it for all workstations. Therefore, this is the recommended place to turn this feature on. Alternatively, this feature can be enabled on a single workstation using the Workstation Preferences. Once the Cache Template Image Graphics Locally box has been checked, click Get Now to perform the initial population of the local cache folder.
After the local cache folder completes its initial population of images, how do you keep the folder refreshed with any changes that are made to existing Composite Templates or any new Composite Templates?
To accomplish this, we use a local Control Center job. We've created this single Control Center job so it can run once every night on a single PC. To set up this job, go to Utilities > Control Center > Add New Job > Template Image Downloader. Check the box to enable the job then set it up with your specifications. We recommend running the job once a night, and make sure to run the job on a computer that's turned on while the job processes. See also: Control Center
A manual way to ensure your locally cached images are being populated is simply to open the local cache folder found in your session images folder and make sure you can view the images. Sort the folder by "Modified Date" to ensure new images are being created anytime a new Composite Template has been created.
To check the status of your Control Center Jobs, go to Utilities > Control Center Logs. Once there, select Group By Job Type, expand the Template Image Downloader job, and you'll see whether the job ran successfully.
Use your mouse to increase the height of any row or increase the width of any column in the Control Center Logs. Doing so allows you to view the full details of the job when it ran. This can be useful to verify if the job ran correctly. Is the Image Path correct? Do you see new images that it downloaded (if there were any)? Are any errors being logged?