Work with Bridge shared cache

Bridge lets you manage the cache in a robust way and provides ability to generate the shared cache in a collaborative environment. When you work on shared drives, the shared cache mechanism in Bridge lets you import the already generated shared cache and reuse it.

When you work in a collaborative environment, you can build a shared cache for other Bridge users. This shared cache brings the following benefits:

• Improves performance by faster browsing, searching, and filtering of cached items 
• Prevents the need to build the cache again and saves the cache generation effort for other users

For better understanding, consider an organization that has designers, illustrators, and photographers who frequently work with images. These images are available in an image repository for which they use Bridge to browse, add, view, edit, or search images.

If you use Bridge CC 2018 and previous releases, a separate cache is generated for all the images on each individual's machine, which is a time-taking process. 

With Bridge CC 2019, you can use the shared cache management feature to export the shared cache and other users can import a copy of the shared cache to their local systems. Given that the systems are in synchronization, managing the cache at a centralized location lets you reuse the exported cache, without the need to rebuild the cache on different user machines.

When do I perform export, import, and purge tasks on a shared cache?

• Export: You can perform the export operation to manually generate a cache for the selected folder and its subfolders. While exporting, Bridge internally generates thumbnails, previews, and indexes and stores them in the shared cache folder within the selected folder. This folder includes the shared cache that can be reused by other users. In a multi-user environment, it is recommended that only one user, who has the write access, performs the export operation to generate the shared cache and no user should modify the shared cache folder.

• Import: Once the shared cache is exported for reuse, you can perform the import operation to get a local copy of this shared cache onto your systems. Import can be done in two ways:
  • Explicit import (using the Manage Cache dialog box): Imports (copies) the exported cache from all folders in one go. 
  • Automatic cache import (controlled through a preference option): Imports (copies) the cache every time when you browse the folder via Bridge. 

When the import is performed using any of these ways, Bridge copies the contents of the shared cache folders to a folder (imported cache folder) on your machine.  

• Purge: You can perform the following types of cache purge operations:
  • Purge exported (shared) cache: The exported cache is placed in the shared cache folder. You can purge this folder to delete the shared cache by choosing Purge a specific location on the Manage Cache dialog or right-click the cache and choose Purge cache for selection. 
  • Purge the imported cache for a folder: You can purge the imported cache for a folder by choosing Purge a specific location on the Manage Cache dialog or right-clicking the folder and choosing Purge cache for selection. 
  • Purge all the imported cache: You can purge all of the imported cache in the imported cache folder by choosing Purge all local cache files on the Manage Cache dialog.

How do I export, import, and purge a shared cache?

To create and manage the cache for a folder that you want to share across multiple users, choose Tools > Manage Cache. The Manage Cache dialog box is displayed. 

In the Manage Cache dialog box, do the following: 

Which permissions do I need for exporting and importing a shared cache?

If you are exporting the cache, then you must have read and write access on the entire repository. During export, Bridge tries to create the shared cache folder that contains the cache (thumbnails, previews, and indexes) for other users to import. If you do not have write access, then you are not able to create the shared cache folder.

Similarly, import and automatic import only import cache for folders for which you have read access. If you do not have read access to the folder, then Bridge is not able to read the shared cache folder and access the shared cache.

Limitation

With Bridge CC 2019, you need to initiate an export to update the shared cache for a repository or you can also use Bridge SDK to schedule exports.

However, if the rate of addition or deletion of files to a repository is high, which causes a lot of churn on the disk, then the export process might become tedious. 

Error scenarios

Bridge stops the export operation and shows an error message in the following cases:

• Disk full: If the disc or the network location is full during the generation of cache.
• No read or write access: If you do not have access to the folder you are trying to export.
• Network issue: If the network is down and export is in progress from a network location.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)