UpdateAttachmentsPlugin

A batched alternative to AutoAttachments (adds and removes attachments)

Usage

This plugin provides a rest handler that can replace the inbuilt {AutoAttachPubFiles} functionality with a batched update - so you can upload (ftp, drag&drop etc) thousands of images into Foswiki's pub area, and then tell Foswiki to update the attachments to all your topics.

This will allow you to SEARCH for attachments, use DBCacheContrib & DBCachePlugin?, and use any other functionality that relies on the topic files containing references to the attachments.

Doing this may provide a speed advantage as it will remove the need for Foswiki to scan the requested topics' attachment directory.

Also, it will (optionally) remove attachment references to files that no longer exist in the topic's attachment directory.

Warning: because Foswiki does not deal well with attachments with special characters (or even spaces) in them, these files will be ignored on update.

Warning: checking 28500 topics (many with attachments) takes around 2-3 minutes on my test system, with no plugins that have an beforeSave or afterSave handler registered.

Triggering an Attachment Update

As this is a RestHandler? based plugin, you can trigger it to run from a suitably authenticated URL (it will only update topics your user as permission to edit) - for example, to update the Sandbox web

• http://www.gccaweb.org/w/bin/rest/UpdateAttachmentsPlugin/update?topic=Sandbox.WebHome

Or using a cronjob - make sure the cronjob is running as the same user as Foswiki's web access is

• ./rest UpdateAttachmentsPlugin.update topic Sandbox

(if you get a 500 or premature end of script error, chances are your current user does not have permission to change the web or topics)

Settings

These settings are in the configure web interface in the Update Attachments Plugin section of configure.

• $Foswiki::cfg{Plugins}{UpdateAttachmentsPlugin}{AttachAsUser} - defaults to the unknown user. To reset the attributed user for attachments that already exist, touch the files in the attachment directory.
• $Foswiki::cfg{Plugins}{UpdateAttachmentsPlugin}{RemoveMissing} - will remove attachment references in a topic that no longer exist
• $Foswiki::cfg{Plugins}{UpdateAttachmentsPlugin}{UseDangerousNoHandlersSave} - use with extreme caution, if you understand what the results of a no_handler save are, and if you are able to recover your Foswiki if it fails.
• $Foswiki::cfg{Plugins}{UpdateAttachmentsPlugin}{Debug} - to see what topics are updated (edit LocalSite?.cfg by hand to add this setting).

It is recommended to disable $Foswiki::cfg{AutoAttachPubFiles}.

Installation Instructions

This plugin may not function correctly if $Foswiki::cfg{AutoAttachPubFiles} is on, predominantly on the WebHome and WebPreferences topics.

You do not need to install anything in the browser to use this extension. The following instructions are for the administrator who installs the extension on the server.

Open configure, and open the "Extensions" section. Use "Find More Extensions" to get a list of available extensions. Select "Install".

If you have any problems, or if the extension isn't available in configure, then you can still install manually from the command-line. See http://foswiki.org/Support/ManuallyInstallingExtensions for more help.

Plugin Info

Plugin Author(s):	Foswiki:Main.SvenDowideit - http://fosiki.com a WikiRing founding partner
Copyright:	© SvenDowideit@fosiki.com
Attachment Icon	based on eXperience Crystal, by David Christian Berg
License:	GPL 3 (Gnu General Public License)
Plugin Version:	2555 (20 Feb 2009)
Change History:
port to Foswiki :	Feb 2009
add AttachAsUser?:	December 2007
initial release:	November 2007
Dependencies:	None
Plugin Home:	http://foswiki.org/Extensions/UpdateAttachmentsPlugin

Related Topics: Plugins, DeveloperDocumentationCategory, AdminDocumentationCategory, DefaultPreferences, SitePreferences