All files that the Application Server stores, e.g. as data for instances of a property of type binary value or a created report, undergo a thorough inspection before they are stored. The Application Server tries to extract structured information from the files that can then be used for searching, previewing etc.

Basic file properties

For each file stored by the Application Server the file name, and the size of the file are extracted and stored as separate meta data.

Mime type

The Application Server analyzes the stored files for their Internet Media Type (MIME-Type) and stores this information along with the file. The analysis of mime types is based purely on the inspection of the file extension.

Preview image

If possible the Application Server creates a preview image whenever a new file is stored. Preview images are low resolution (96 x 96 pixel) raster images that give a first impression of the file contents without loading the binary data itself. For mime types listed in table 1 the Application Server creates those previews natively i.e. without dependency on some external software.

For files of all other media types the Application Server relies on the Windows operating system's abilities to create preview images for files. For non natively supported media types it is therefore depending on your operating system installation and configuration if a preview image can be created.

Table 1: Media types for which the Application Server supports preview generation natively

File meta data

Files of some media types can contain information about themselves as so called file meta data, examples for this meta data are EXIF data stored with image files or IDv3 stored with audio files. The Application Server supports the extraction of meta data from some file types as listed in table 12 Depending on the meta data type the Application Server does not necessarily extract all meta data.

Table 2: Supported meta data types and media types from which they can be extracted