Table of Contents
How FotoWeb interacts with Index Manager and MongoDB
This article aims to explain how FotoWeb interacts with Index Manager to help you understand the benefits and implications of this setup.
27. October 2026
Table of Contents
How indexing works
As FotoWeb has no built-in metadata indexing, search engine, or file crawler, it relies on Index Manager to crawl and monitor the file repositories and keep the indexes in sync with real-time events in the file system. This way, when a file changes, Index Manager is notified by the file system, reindexes the file's content, and updates the index so that a FotoWeb user who performs a search can immediately see the changes and receive updated search results. To improve system responsiveness, Index Manager pushes indexed metadata to the MongoDB database used by FotoWeb. Several Index Managers can deliver metadata to a single FotoWeb server to allow you to balance the load across several crawler/indexing engines.
File system notifications are required
For the indexing to work optimally, the file storage must be on a volume that can be accessed over the SMB protocol and supports file system notifications. This way, Index Manager is notified of changes as they happen. Connecting Index Manager to local NTFS volumes on the server will also work.
File detection mechanisms are described in depth in this article.
How FotoWeb uses Index Manager
Much of the communication between FotoWeb and Index Manager runs over TCP/IP.
This is true when FotoWeb sends search requests to Index Manager and when writing metadata updates. These commands are passed over the FWP protocol (port 7000; secure FWPs run on port 7001 by default) and executed by the Index Manager server. Index Manager performs many of the system's metadata operations, and the process account set on the Index Manager server reads and writes metadata to the files.
File downloads
When a user requests a file download, FotoWeb retrieves the UNC path (\\servername\sharename\filename.xxx) to the resource and downloads the file from the network. Thus, the process account on the FotoWeb server needs to be able to read files from the network shares where the files are stored.
Note
It is possible to run FotoWeb and Index Manager on the same server, in which case they share a common process account used to access the asset repositories.
How FotoWeb uses MongoDB
FotoWeb uses MongoDB to store metadata and other data required for FotoWeb to operate. Index Manager pushes metadata to MongoDB and keeps its indexes and the database content in sync. FotoWeb, in turn, reads metadata from MongoDB.
Starting with Feature Release 20, MongoDB is installed and managed separately from FotoWeb. You are responsible for maintaining the MongoDB installation, including keeping it up to date and ensuring that it is included in your backup and restore procedures. Keep MongoDB up to date to benefit from the latest security patches and improvements.
Note
Important: Do not detele the MongoDB database
The MongoDB database contains data that FotoWeb requires to operate correctly. Deleting the database will result in data loss.
Note
A single FotoWeb server can only connect to one MongoDB database. However, several Index Managers crawling your servers' file repositories can push metadata to that database server. It is also possible to configure Index Manager to push metadata to a MongoDB Replica set to maintain a high-availability scheme.
Caching mechanisms
FotoWeb has a number of caching mechanisms to aid system performance. Additionally, Index Manager caches thumbnails and previews for the assets it indexes and continually refreshes them when new assets are indexed or existing assets are changed. You can learn more about Index Manager caching here.