Configuring Watch Folders

Applies To: Windows 7, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Vista

After specified media file types arrive in a watch folder, IIS Transform Manager runs the tasks included in a job template that's bound to the watch folder against the media files. You can use the New Watch Folder property sheet to create new watch folders that watch for different media file types that you want to transform. When you create new job templates that run custom tasks, you can bind the job template to new watch folders that you create. You can also use the Edit Watch Folder property sheet to replace a job template with a new one. You can use the watch folder property sheet to specify watch folder locations, the number of jobs that can run simultaneously in a watch folder, watch folder priority levels, and other settings.

Use the following procedure to configure watch folder settings.

To configure a watch folder

1. Start IIS Manager (click Start > Administrative Tools > Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager).

2. In the Connections pane, click Watch Folders.

3. If you want to create a new watch folder, in the Actions pane, click New.

   -or-

   If you want to edit settings for an existing watch folder, select the watch folder in the Watch Folders page, and then in the Actions pane, click Edit.

4. In the watch folder property sheet, configure settings on the following tabs:

   Basic Settings Tab

   1. In Name, type a friendly name for the watch folder.

   2. In the Job template list, select the job template that contains the tasks that you want to run against the media files that are dropped in the watch folder. For more information about how to create job templates or edit the default job templates in Transform Manager, see About Job Templates.

   3. In Watch folder path, enter the rooted path of the watch folder or click Browse to specify a shared folder on the computer or a shared network resource to use as the watch folder. You can specify the following types of path values:

      • A local directory path (%SystemDrive%\%Directory%). This value is a folder location on the local Web server, and can include FTP and WebDAV directories to which you can upload media files. The user account that the watch folder impersonates must have Read and Write permissions for the folder.

      • The UNC path of a shared network folder (\\Share\Folder). Ask your network administrator to give Read and Write permissions for the folder to the user account that the watch folder impersonates.

• You must use a unique rooted path for each watch folder. Different watch folders that have the same rooted path won't start.
  
  
• If you specify a rooted path on the local Web server, computation-intensive tasks, such as transcoding, that consume a large amount of memory and CPU resources might affect Web server performance. You shouldn't run Transform Manager on the local Web server if you plan to run computation-intensive tasks and also use the Web server in a production environment to fulfill HTTP requests.
  
  

4.  In **File filter**, specify a file type filter to apply to the watch folder. This setting specifies the file types that the watch folder watches for and can include wildcards. For example, enter **\*.wmv** to specify that the job template that's bound to the watch folder runs tasks that act on all Windows Media Video (.wmv) files. Or type **\*** to specify that the job template tasks act on all file types.  
      
    The **File filter** value can also be the file-name extension of a media playlist or manifest file that uses Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL) 2.0 XML syntax. For example, you can type **\*.ism** to specify that the watch folder watches for IIS Smooth Streaming presentation manifest files. If you specify a **File filter** file name extension of a SMIL 2.0-compliant playlist or manifest, you must select the **Parse playlist file** option to enable the watch folder's job manager to view the media assets that are referenced by **ref** tags (and synonymous **video** and **audio** tags) in the playlist or manifest file. This combination of settings enables submission of media asset packages to the task scheduler as a group of files (the playlist or manifest file and the referenced media assets).  
      
    When you enable a watch folder to parse SMIL 2.0 playlists or manifests, select **Match case** on the **Advanced Settings** tab to specify that the names (file names and file-name extensions) of the media assets that are dropped to the watch folder match the case used in the playlist or manifest **ref** tags. This setting is useful if you intend to deliver the transformed output files from a case-sensitive computer, such as a Linux server.  
      

• The watch folder's job manager won't schedule jobs for files that don't match the File filter value.
  
  
• You must make sure that the File filter value that you specify is supported by the tasks that are bound to the watch folder. For example, if you use the default Expression Encoder 4.0 SP2 task to transcode media files, the input file types must be supported by Expression Encoder. If you specify a playlist file name extension in File filter, the tasks must be able to process the file types that are referenced in the playlist.
  
  
• If you specify a playlist file name extension in File filter, and then drop a matching playlist file in the watch folder, the watch folder's job manager won't schedule jobs for files that are referenced in the playlist until all of the files that are referenced in the playlist are present. If you select the Match case option, jobs won't be scheduled for files until all of the files that are referenced in the playlist and that match the case of the playlist references are present.
  
  

**Scheduler Tab**

1.  In the **Scheduler** list, select a task scheduler that the watch folder's job manager will use to run jobs. For more information about how to configure task schedulers for running jobs, see [Managing Watch Folder Task Schedulers](hh147634\(v=ws.10\).md).  
      
2.  Configure options for job limits:  
      
    To specify a maximum number of jobs that can be run simultaneously by the task scheduler in the watch folder, clear the **Unlimited** check box, and then select a value in **Concurrent jobs**. The task scheduler will create a job for each media asset that's dropped in a watch folder (if it matches the watch folder's **File filter** setting). If the watch folder has the highest priority setting of all active watch folders, the scheduler will start to run job tasks, up to the number of concurrent jobs that you specify (provided that CPU resources are available). The task scheduler will queue jobs that exceed this limit and submit queued jobs for processing as currently running jobs are completed. On more powerful computers, you can select a higher **Concurrent jobs** value to take advantage of the additional processing power.  
      
    \-or-  
      
    To immediately schedule all files that are detected in a watch folder for processing, select the **Unlimited** check box. The task scheduler will create a job for each media asset that's dropped in a watch folder (if it matches the watch folder's **File filter** setting). If the watch folder has the highest priority setting of all active watch folders, the scheduler will start to run job tasks, up to the limits of the available CPU resources. The **Unlimited** setting can be useful for running short tasks that consume few resources or where incoming media files are throttled by an external system.  
      
3.  If multiple watch folders will run on the computer at the same time, in **Priority**, select an appropriate value to conserve computer resources. This setting enables jobs that are in high-priority watch folders to be created and run first. If you drop media assets in a watch folder, but another watch folder that has a higher priority level is actively running jobs, the jobs for the dropped media assets aren't created and queued for processing until the higher-priority watch folder finishes all of its jobs. Determine the level of importance for the watch folder, compared to other watch folders, and set an appropriate value. The priority level values range from **1** (highest priority) to **5** (lowest priority). The default value is **3**.  
      

**Advanced Settings Tab**

  - In the **Credentials** list, select the friendly name of the account that you want the watch folder's job manager to impersonate. For more information about how to create an account for impersonation, see [Creating Watch Folder Impersonation Accounts](hh147633\(v=ws.10\).md).  
      

5. Click OK.

6. If you used this procedure to edit a watch folder that was started, restart the watch folder to apply the changes:

   1. Select the watch folder in the Watch Folders page.

   2. In the Actions pane, click Stop.

   3. In the Actions pane, click Start.

• If the watch folder was running jobs and you click Stop to stop the watch folder, the currently running jobs will finish before the watch folder stops. Queued jobs won't be submitted for processing.
  
  
• If you want to apply the changes to currently running and queued jobs, you must cancel these jobs, restart the watch folder, and then drop the original media sources in the watch folder again so that they can be processed with the updated settings. For more information about how to manage jobs in watch folders, see Running and Monitoring Jobs.
  
  

See Also

Concepts

Running and Monitoring Jobs
Logging and Monitoring Watch Folder Events
Running File Maintenance