How does FotoWare use the SMB protocol?
As explained in another topic, at the minimum, a Fotoware system typically consists of a Fotoware server that is connected to an Index Manager server.
Index Manager is the engine that crawls the folders with assets and exposes the resulting index to Fotoware. In turn, you set up archives in Fotoware that connect to these archives and apply additional filtering and navigational aids as required.
The communications between Fotoware and Index Manager is almost entirely IP-based (using the proprietary Fotoware Protocol - FWP) - e.g. when a client performs an operation that requires access to the master asset (a highres image, for example), the file is transferred to Fotoware over FWP and then delivered to the client via https.
Features that require SMB between Fotoware and Index Manager
Certain features still require an SMB connection between Fotoware and Index Manager.
Specifically, these are the Open (=Checkout), Edit and Crop features in the Fotoware Desktop client package. They rely on an SMB connection from Fotoware to Index Manager to obtain the master file. Once the file reaches Fotoware, it is delivered to the client over https.
For Fotoware to obtain the highres from the Index Manager server, it obtains the SMB share path obtained from Index Manager: Each document folder in Index Manager's indexes has a Windows Share name property where one can set the share path to the document folder. If the document folders are local on the Index Manager server, the sharename will typically be filled in automatically. If the files are on a separate share on the network, it is possible to set the path manually.
See Adding document folders to an index for details on configuring document folders in Index Manager.
The result is that when a user requests the highres using any of the Fotoware Desktop features mentioned above, Fotoware will obtain the master file using the SMB sharename and then deliver it to the client over https.