There are many ways in which REST developers can tackle error handling. Most REST services will send some kind of error condition structure which embeds an error message describing the error and some kind of code. This is a good start. However, for some REST services the HTTP status code is not well defined. In some cases, the REST services send an “OK” status code of 200 regardless of whether an...

Ever run into issues sending large media files via email? The answer is probably yes, especially if you work in a field which requires the transfer of large format video or audio files on a daily basis. While email is great for many types of workplace communications, file size limitations (usually around 10 to 25MB) make it next to impossible to...

I recently had an interesting support case that I thought deserved to be shared with everyone. Essentially the customer was unable to run FileCatalyst Server as a service on Windows 7 Premium with the Windows firewall up. After attempting several things we discovered that it was a permissions issue with Java and Windows 7 services. To fix this I edited the fcconf.conf file as an administrator and...

Transferring large files over the internet has never been a simple task. Anyone that has ever tried to transfer a file larger than 100MB can vouch for the slow transfer speeds, multiple disconnects, data corruption, complexity of the task and security issues surrounding FTP. The same problem exists for web developers trying to implement web-based file transfer functionality. Ideally, the end user...

When to Use HTTP Post vs HTTP PUT vs HTTP PatchThere seems to often be some confusion as to when to use the HTTP POST versus the HTTP PUT method for REST services. Most developers will try to associate CRUD operations directly to HTTP methods. I will argue that this is not correct, and one cannot simply associate the CRUD concepts to the HTTP methods. That is:Create => HTTP PUTRetrieve =>...

FileCatalyst exhibited at the IBC (International Broadcasting Convention) show in Amsterdam, the expo portion having run from September 7–11. It is one of the biggest shows of its type in the world, and I always find it interesting to be a part of the team in attendance. With IBC 2012 behind us, here are some parting thoughts: It was hectic, and I mean that in the best way. This year’s attendance...

In the world of file transfer acceleration, there are multiple approaches using both WAN Optimization appliances or pure software solutions like FileCatalyst. Hardware sometimes give the impression of perceived value; there is a tangibility that you just don’t get with software. But can a hardware solution on its own really replace software for file transfer acceleration? The answer is no. ...

There exist a number of open source projects trying to tackle accelerated file transfer via UDP. Some solutions are more mature than others and also use different technologies to solve the same problem of large data transfer over WAN. This article should provide the reader enough information to compare the different solutions and gauge if an open source project could be used instead of purchasing...

The life cycle of a file transfer follows this basic pattern: The first and last step in the diagram, Disk IO, were covered in Part 1 of the series: Improving Throughput Part 1: Disk IO. Disk IO is always a good place to start when analysing a system to see why files are not transferring fast enough. In the 2nd article in...

This post is the first of a series and continues in Part 2: Memory In light of the release of FileCatalyst Direct v3.0, I thought I’d write a few articles about the road to achieving 10Gbps speeds. It seems to me the best place to start is with the endpoint of the transfer: the storage media. Why? Before we even think about the file transfer protocol, we have to be sure that our disks can keep up...

On the 3rd of June, CriticalPast announced the launch of CriticalPast.com, an absolutely astonishing archive of historic footage and photographic images: From the press release on Business Wire: CriticalPast’s library of more than 57,000 video clips is drawn from government sources and digitized, making it easy for users to search CriticalPast...