This chapter is mainly for system administrators, normal users may skip. It is a description of the folder structure that Mistika Workflows will create in your computer (Only the relevant user folders are mentioned, not all the installation files)
As a difference to other Mistika products, a Mistika Workflows project is just a single xml file with .mwf extension. Just one of these files can contain any number of workflows simultaneously, so you can keep all the workflows that are inter-related together. By default these files are saved under the User home folder/SGO Data/Projects folder, although you can change this location in the File->Preferences menu.
Folder structures when collaborating with other Mistika products, other users, and other systems
Note: Next examples use Unix notation (as used on Mac and Linux). For Windows systems just change / by \ characters and add the usual drive letter.
User home folder/SGO Data/Projects : This is the default folder where Mistika products create their projects. But you can save workflow files anywhere you want.
Note that the SGO Data folder can be shared between multiple users and even multiple computers (as long as you provide the necessary access permissions)
The next details are only relevant for Mistika Workflows users also having other Mistika products or additional computers with Mistika Workflows:
For example, if you have more Mistika products (Boutique, VR, ..) you can save your workflow projects under the Mistika project folders created with other Mistika products, or you can keep them in the generic default location if they are generic workflows to be used by multiple Mistika projects.
User home folder/SGO Data/Projects/ProjectName/DATA/RENDER/ : This is where other Mistika products save the render scripts, which you can render with the Mistika Render task node. Mistika Workflows creates its own render jobs in the ProjectName/DATA/RENDER/WORKFLOWS subfolder.
User home folder/SGO AppData/Workflows/log: This folder contains the log files from workflows executions (one log file per day). When things are going wrong these log files can be very useful for troubleshooting.
User home folder/SGO AppData/shared: The content of this folder depends on which Mistika products are installed, and it can be shared between all Mistika applications, all the users, and all computers collaborating in the same workflows (as long as you provide the necessary access permissions).
Note that you should not share any other files coming under the SGO AppData folder. The SGO AppData/shared folder exists for a reason, this folder contains all the Mistika configuration files that are considered safe to be shared between different users and even different computers in a network, so that you do not need to configure each one separately. But every other files and subfolders of the SGO AppData folder are designed to be kept local to each computer and user and should never be shared. If you want to share the SGO AppData/shared folder proceed as explained at the end of this chapter.
Among others, the SGO AppData/shared folder contains a couple of folders that are specially relevant for Mistika Workflows:
SGO AppData/shared/display_filters: The display filter files are created with Mistika Ultima and Mistika Boutique products, and they can contain any effects available to those applications. Using display filters you can apply any combination of those effects during a workflow execution, by using the "Display Filter" properties available in encoder task nodes.
SGO AppData/shared/config/schemes: xsd files to define the visible properties for each node. You will only need it if you plan to implement new nodes using Python scripts, to establish their GUI characteristics.
SGO AppData/shared/workflowsLibrary: It contains the code for all the python based nodes, and also extra files required for some other nodes. Sharing this folder is convenient because when you add a python node it will be readily available to other users and other computers, but you have to make sure that all computers are using the same Mistika Workflows version.
SGO AppData/shared/workflowsXXX: In general, other workflows folders not intended for user direct manipulation
If you need to change the basic user paths, you can use the File -> Preferences -> Paths menu:
But in there you will only find paths not requiring additional actions to be changed. For more advanced changes (such as changing the location of the shared folder), all the user paths are stored in this configuration file:
Mac, Linux: .sgoMistika/mistikaPaths.xml
Windows: AppData/Local/sgoMistika/mistikaPaths.xml
Note that if you change any of those paths manually you will need to copy all their content to the new destinations, and also provide full access permissions for the users.
If you need more details, here it is a complete description of all folder structures and base configuration files for all Mistika products: