Upload receipts

When you add a file in DataMind Oda, the upload can finish long before you send your message. This page explains how the uploaded file is held for its chat and picked up by your message, including what happens when it can no longer be attached; the upload itself is covered on File uploads in the web app.

What Oda stages after an upload

• One receipt per finished upload. When a file finishes uploading, Oda stages an upload receipt for it: a claim that holds the file for one chat. An upload that fails stages nothing, so there is nothing for a message to pick up.
• What a receipt records. A private id for the claim, the file's name and size, and the stored copy that will travel with your message.
• Held for one chat only. A receipt belongs to the one chat you added the file to. The same file you add in another chat is a separate upload with its own receipt.

Sending is what takes the file

1. You send, and the message claims the receipt of every file you picked. Sending therefore waits until each file has finished uploading, as File uploads in the web app describes.
2. Oda checks the claim as the message is accepted. A message that goes through carries its files with it.
3. Once your message is in the chat, the receipt has done its job: it is retired, and the file stays with the chat as part of that message.

• If the send does not go through, the claim is put back: the file stays held for that chat, and the items return to the message box so you can send again. See Attach files and images to a message.

When a file cannot be attached

• The receipt is gone. A message that refers to a file whose receipt the chat no longer holds is refused with The file has not finished uploading; re-add it and try again. Add the file again, and send once its upload finishes.
• The chat ended while the file was uploading. A chat that ends mid-upload cannot stage the receipt, and the upload is refused with session "<id>" was disposed before its file upload completed. Add the file again in the chat where you want it.
• A helper's conversation. A helper's chat never stages receipts: it refuses uploads with subagent conversations do not accept file uploads. Add and send the file from the main chat.

Other reasons a file's card can show are listed in File uploads in the web app, and the messages the upload path itself reports are in Connection and upload messages.

After a restart

• A receipt is held only while DataMind Oda is running and is not saved between runs: restarting DataMind Oda clears every receipt that was still waiting.
• A send that still refers to one of those files is refused; add the file again to send it.
• Stored files are not affected: Oda does not delete stored attachments on its own, so a copy that already went out with a message stays with its chat. Only the waiting claim is lost.

Questions, answered

What is an upload receipt?

A claim Oda stages for one finished upload, held for the one chat you added the file to. It records the file's name and size and the stored copy, and it waits until a message from that chat takes it.

How does my message pick up an uploaded file?

When you send, the message claims the receipt of every file you picked, and a message that goes through carries its files with it. Once your message is in the chat, the receipt is retired.

What happens if a send does not go through?

Nothing is lost. The claim is put back: the file stays held for that chat, and the items return to the message box so you can send again. See The message box.

Why do I see The file has not finished uploading; re-add it and try again?

The chat no longer holds a receipt for that file, so the message cannot pick it up. That happens when DataMind Oda has restarted since the upload finished, or when the file was uploaded for a different chat. Add the file again, and send once its upload finishes.

Can I use the same upload in another chat?

No. A receipt belongs to one chat only: the same file you add in another chat is a new upload with its own receipt. Add the file in the chat where you want to send it.

Do upload receipts survive a restart of DataMind Oda?

No. A receipt is held only while DataMind Oda runs and is not saved between runs, so a restart clears every receipt that was still waiting. A send that still refers to one of those files is refused with The file has not finished uploading; re-add it and try again; add the file again to send it.

Can I still send a file whose chat has ended?

No. A chat that ends drops the receipts it was holding, and it never picks them up later; add the file in the chat where you want to send it. If the chat ended while the file was still uploading, the upload itself is refused with session "<id>" was disposed before its file upload completed.