Flash Media Server stores recorded streams and video and audio files in default locations in the application directory. In some scenarios, you might want to specify particular locations for these resources, but without restricting access by application or application instance. By mapping a virtual directory to a physical directory, you do not need to copy resources to Flash Media Server's application directory, and you can retain your existing classification and categorization of resources.

To map a virtual directory for an application, you can use the <VirtualDirectory> element in the Vhost.xml or the Application.xml file. This element provides various options:

• You can specify a virtual directory name or not. When a name is specified, the server maps the name to the specified directory and first looks for the stream in the specified directory.
• When specified in an application-specific Application.xml file, <VirtualDirectory> controls only the storage location of resources for that application. Any instance of the application can access video files in that location (unlike with <storageDir>), but other applications cannot.
• When specified in the virtual-host Application.xml file or the Vhost.xml file, <VirtualDirectory> controls the storage location of all applications on that virtual host. All applications on the virtual host can access video files in the specified location, although Adobe recommends that if you want control at the virtual host level, you configure the <VirtualDirectory> tag in the the Vhost.xml file instead of the virtual-host Application.xml file.

The order in which the server determines the correct directory to use for streams is as follows:

1. Virtual directory (as specified in <VirtualDirectory>)
2. Storage directory (as specified in <storageDir>)
3. Default location (the streams folder in the application directory)