Purging unused embedded images

Embedded attachments can be shared between Optiva objects. That is multiple objects can point to the same BLOB field. This is accomplished by the fact that the embedded attachment is saved in the database with a unique number (BLOB_ID). This ID is the key to the FsEmbeddedObjects table.

For Optiva objects to share this BLOB record, the objects must reference that unique BLOB_ID value. The Optiva object saves that reference in the FsDoc table. At run time, Optiva retrieves the BLOB record that has the associated BLOB_ID value.

The user can remove an embedded attachment from an Optiva object. In this case, Optiva does not delete the actual BLOB data; there can be other objects that are still using it. Only the BLOB_ID value in FsDoc is deleted. In other words, the BLOB data is still in the database, but the Optiva object no longer points to that data.

The result can be BLOB data that no Optiva object points to. In other words, the BLOB is orphaned. Optiva database administrators should monitor this orphaned data because it can be large in size.