SFTP Input

The SFTP Input task retrieves files from a secure FTP site through an encrypted connection. Masks are typically used to select multiple files to be retrieved from the server.

The SFTP Input and SFTP Output tasks are part of a separate installer and are not included in the Workflow installer. The SFTP plugin installer can be downloaded from the Resource Center, under 'Plugins' in PlanetPress Connect.

Input

The SFTP Input connects to the specified FTP server and path, and retrieves a list of all files corresponding to the specified mask. These files may be of any format, even formats that are not readable by PlanetPress Workflow. The files are not deleted from the server when they are downloaded. They are added to a list of processed files for this server. These lists are located under C:\ProgramData\Objectif Lune\.

Processing

Each file captured by the input is sent down through the process, one at a time. When the file is finished, the process goes back to the input which feeds another file down, as long as there are files in the queue. Once all the files are gone, the task polls the FTP folder again to see if new files are present and, if so, the process continues with these files. Otherwise, the process ends.

Output

The output of this task is a series of individual files, one after the other. These files are not modified in any way from when they are captured from the source FTP server.

Task properties

General Tab
  • Server Settings group
    • FTP Server: Enter the IP address or host name of the FTP server to poll.
    • User name: Enter the name of a user account on the FTP server.
    • Password: If account named in the User name box is password protected, enter the password here.
      • Parse password: Checkbox to determine if the password should be parsed or used as a literal string. This option is checked by default (parsed) for backwards comparability with SFTP I/O plugin versions earlier than 1.3.
  • Protocol group
    • SFTP: Select if the FTP server uses SFTP (SSH).
    • FTPS: Select if the FTP server uses FTPS (SSL/TSL)
  • Port Number Group
    • Use default port: Check to use the default port used by the protocol selected above.
    • Port number: Set to use a specific port number. Note: There is no validation to ensure the port is available. It is the user's responsibility to ensure the selected port is available and not being monitored by another application or another PlanetPress Workflow task.
  • File Options group
    • Directory: Enter the path of the folder to poll on the FTP server. If this box is left empty, PlanetPress Workflow will poll the root directory.
      The given directory will be looked up from the user's home directory. Such a home directory is usually under the server main user directory and generally includes the user’s name. For example, if "/tmp/temp/copy_pending" is entered, it does not point to the "/tmp/temp/copy_pending" directory but to the "/users/support/tmp/temp/copy_pending" directory.
    • Masks: Enter a single file name mask. Multiple entries are not allowed in this box.
    • Delete remote file: Check this option to delete the file after it has been retrieved by Workflow.
  • Connection mode group: This group is only relevant to the FTPS protocol and appears when it is selected. SFTP uses a single connection to download all files.
    • Active: Select to prompt the ftp client to use the active mode when retrieving files from the FTP server.
    • Passive: Select to prompt the ftp client to use the passive mode when retrieving files from the FTP server.
  • Reset Download List:
Security Tab

This tab defines the certificates used to connect to the secured FTP servers.

  • Accept all certificates: Check this option to automatically accept the certificates returned by the FTP server. Otherwise, in order for a connection to work, you have to establish a connection first and then accept a certificate from the List of known servers up to the Approved server list.
  • Approved Server list: Displays a list of servers that were approved for connection:
    • Server: The name of the server the certificate belongs to.
    • Fingerprint: The RSA fingerprint of the server.
    • Remove: Click to remove the server from the approved list.
  • List of known servers: Displays a list of servers that were connected to, whether they are approved or not.
    • Server: The name of the server the certificate belongs to.
    • Fingerprint: The RSA fingerprint of the server.
    • Approve: Click to add the server to the list of approved servers.
  • Refresh: Click to refresh the list of known servers
"Other" Tab
  • Job Information group
    • Information elements: Indicates what Job Info variables are automatically created by the input task.
    • Add lines before first data page: Using the arrows keys you can add any job information directly at the beginning of your data file.
  • Backup input files: Check this to save a copy of each data file that is captured by your input. These files are saved in the PlanetPress Workflow Tools working folders under the "Backup" folder.
    To navigate quickly to the Workflow working folders, press the keyboard shortcut CTRL+ALT+Shift+F4 from within the Workflow configuration tool.
    The number of days to keep backups of jobs processed by input tasks is set per process; see Process properties.
  • Backup filename: Enter the file name that you wish the input data file backup to be saved under.
  • Delete Existing Metadata: Check to remove any Metadata from memory. This option is disabled on initial input tasks, and is checked by default on secondary input tasks.
Job Information definitions
  • %1 - User name: Contains the user name that was used to connect to the FTP server. This is useful if this task is used as a secondary input and the information is defined dynamically.
  • %2 - FTP Server: Contains the FTP address of the server from which the files were retrieved.
  • %3 - Source file name: Contains the name of the current file that was retrieved from the server.
  • %4 - Folder: Contains the FTP folder from which the current file was retrieved.

On Error Tab

For a description of the options on the On Error tab see Using the On Error tab.

Miscellaneous Tab

The Miscellaneous tab is common to all tasks.

It contains a text area (Task comments) that lets you write comments about the task. These comments are saved when the dialog is closed with the OK button and are displayed in The Task Comments Pane.

Check the option Use as step description to display the text next to the icon of the plugin in the Process area.

The tab also provides an option to highlight the task in The Process area with the default color, set in the Preferences (see Colors), or the color selected or defined under Highlight color on this tab.
To revert the selected highlight color to the default color, open this tab, turn the Highlight option off and close the dialog with the OK button; then turn highlighting back on.
Highlighting can also be turned on and off via the task's contextual menu and with the Highlight button on the View ribbon.