A directory watch stream tells the Formant agent running on a device to watch a particular directory, and upload any new files that appear in that directory as File, Image or Point cloud datapoints.

This guide will teach you how to add a directory watch stream.

Step 1: Create a directory watch stream

In Formant, in the upper-left corner, open the menu and click Settings.
Click Devices, and then click on the device you want to configure.
Click the Telemetry tab, and then click Add Stream.
Click Directory Watch. This will open the New Directory Watch Stream configuration window:

Directory watch telemetry stream configuration

Property	Usage
Telemetry stream name	Give the stream a name.
On demand	If ON, this stream will store data locally on your device, and only upload data to Formant when you click Retrieve on-demand data. `Rate limit` controls the rate at which datapoints are added to the on-device buffer. For more information, see On demand streams. If OFF, this stream will ingest periodically. `Rate limit` controls the rate of data ingestion.
Video encoding	Only applicable for `sensor_msgs/Image` and `sensor_msgs/CompressedImage` streams. Choose whether you want images ingested on this stream to be encoded as a video.
Validation schema	Only applicable for JSON and text streams. Choose a configuration schema for this stream.
Directory name	Specify the absolute directory path on the device. This directory must be read-accessible to the agent process.
Extension (optional)	If you specify a file extension, only files with that extension will be ingested. File extensions must start with a period (`.`, e.g., `.png`).
File type	Choose the datapoint type you want files added to this directory to be ingested as: `File`, `Image`, or `Point Cloud`. `File` ingests each new file in the directory as a file data point. You can then download the file from this module. `Image` ingests each new file as an image data point (supports `.jpg` and `.png` files). `Point Cloud` ingests each new file as a point cloud data point (supports `.pcd` files).
Add tags (e.g. `key: value`) (optional)	Add tags to each datapoint of this stream. For more information on tags, see Configure access levels.
Rate limit (Hz) (optional)	If `On demand` is ON: Set the rate at which data is added to the on-device buffer. Data in the on-device buffer will be ingested by the agent when you click Retrieve on-demand data. For more information, see On demand streams. If `On demand` is OFF: Set the rate at which data is ingested. The default rate is 0.5 Hz.

When you're finished configuring your stream, click Done, and then Save.

Step 2: Add stream to a view

Once you've added a stream to your device, your next step is to add it to a view in Formant.

Add the streams you want to visualize, and then move on to Viewing data in Formant.

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