FTP Target

Owned by Akash Kumar Jaiswal (Unlicensed)
Last updated: Jan 25, 2023 by Rohan Dhanwade (Deactivated)
5 min read

FTP Target provides the ability to specify a target location that is accessible via FTP.

Steps to create a FTP target:

  1. Click Configure > TARGETS > FTP Target.

  2. Click Create FTP Target.



  3. Enter the name and description of the new FTP Target in the Name and Description fields..
  4. Enter the Host name and Port on which FTP Server is running.
  5. Enter the username and password required to access FTP Server in the User ID and Password fields.
  6. Re-enter the password in the Confirm Password field.

  7. Enter the full path of the target file in the Remote File Path field. However, if the respective drive does not contain the folder mentioned in the path then the creation of the new folder will depend on the value of the system property abpm.target.createFolder and on the option value selected from the new drop-down list Auto folder Creation added in the Advanced Properties section.

    To check or change the value for the application property abpm.target.createFolder,
    1. Click Account > Settings.
    2. Expand the Server Nodes Settings in the left panel.
    3. Select the server node.
    4. Click Edit.
    5. Click  to expand Services and then Target Property.
    By default, the value of this property is set to None.
  8. Enter the target file name in the File Name field. 
  9. If you want to append date and time stamp in the target file name, then select the date and time stamp in the Time Stamp field.
  10. If you want that each target file created by this activity should have unique name, then select the Create Unique File checkbox. When this option is enabled, a 30 digit random number is appended in the file name.

  11. Enter the file extension in the field File Extension.

  12. Select the transfer mode as either BINARY or ASCII in the Transfer Mode field.

    In BINARY mode a file is copied bit for bit from one machine to the other. Both files (the original and the transferred file) will contain exactly the same sequence of bytes. In ASCII mode a file may be changed slightly to maintain the meaning of EOL (End Of Line) characters.

  13. Select the transfer type as either Active or Passive in theTransfer Type field.

    Active transfer is more secure since the client only initiates communication to the Server on one port whereas in case of Passive transfer the client initiates communication to the Server over two ports. Passive mode is useful when you are behind a firewall or a proxy.
    The next step is to decide if you want to use SFTP, or FTPS. If you do not use any of these two protocols, the default FTP protocol is used, and you need to skip to step 17 and complete all the steps that follow.

    In case you opt to use SFTP or FTPS protocol, follow the steps below.

  14. Choose either of the two protocols – SFTP, or FTPS
    If you want to use SFTP protocol, 

    1. Select SFTP checkbox. 
    2. Convert the format of the key that you want to use to OpenSSH key format by using any key conversion tool. Once converted, import the key to Key Manager. Refer to this page to know how to import a key to the Key Manager.
    3. In the Key Manager field, select the key from the list.
    4. Skip to the step 15 and complete all the steps that follow.
    If you want to use FTPS protocol, 
    1. Select FTPS checkbox.

    2. Select FTPS mode in the FTPS Mode field. The available options are Explicit and Implicit.  Select FTPS mode with respect to FTP Server you are accessing.

      In Explicit mode (also known as FTPES), an FTPS client must "explicitly request" security from an FTPS server and then step-up to a mutually agreed encryption method. If a client does not request security, FTPS server can either allow the client to continue in insecure mode or refuse/limit the connection.

      In Implicit mode, negotiation is not allowed with implicit FTPS configuration. A client is immediately expected to challenge FTPS server with a TLS/SSL message. If such a message is not received by the FTPS server, the server should drop the connection.

      By default, it should be Explicit as in this mode client request security from FTPS server.

    3. In the Protection Level field, select the protection level. 

      Protection Level is a single Telnet character code specifying the data channel protection level. This command indicates server what type of data channel protection the client and server will be using. The default protection level is None. The available options are:
      • None
      • Clear: This protection level indicates that the data channel will carry the raw data of the file transfer with no security applied

      • Private: This protection level indicates data will be confidentially protected

    4. If you want Adeptia Connect to authenticate FTP server and subsequently validate the certificate sent by FTPS server against the certificate imported in Keystore, select Validate Server checkbox. This certificate is required to authenticate the trusted FTP server. 

    5. Select a keystore activity in the Keystore Name field. This option is applicable only when you have selected the Validate Server checkbox.

      If Validate Server checkbox is not selected, it always accept the certificate sent by FTPS Server. You must select this checkbox, if you are using FTP over SSL. In addition, you need to create a Keystore Activity by importing the certificate which can be used to trust the FTP server.

  15. Expand Advanced Properties.

  16. The Auto Folder Creation field has the following three options:
      • None
      • Yes
      • No
    2. By default, the option None is selected.

      When the value of the system property abpm.target.createFolder is set to Yes and if the option value selected in the New Folder field is: 
      • Yes, then the new folder will be created.
      • No, then the new folder will not be created and an error message will be displayed.

    • When the value of the system property abpm.target.createFolder is set to No and if the option value selected in the New Folder field is: 
      • Yes, then the new folder will be created.
      • No, then the new folder will not be created and an error message will be displayed.

    • If the option value selected in the New Folder field is None. In this case, None indicates that the folder will be created depending only on the value of the property abpm.target.createFolder. 
      If abpm.target.createFolder is set to Yes then the folder will be created and if abpm is set to No then the folder will not be created irrespective of the option value selected in New Folder field.

  17. Enter a time (in seconds) in the Data Timeout field within which you want the FTP server to break the data connection. The default value is 60 seconds. If you want to disable this property then enter 0 in the Data Timeout field.

  18. The Connector field lists the APIs that you can use to connect to the FTP Server. The options of the Connector field changes as per your selection of the protocols that you want to use to establish the FTP connection. By default, Apache Camel is selected in this field. Please see the below table for more information:

    FTP

    Apache Camel
    NATIVE

    SFTP

    Apache Camel
    J2SCH (VFS)
    J2SSH

    FTPS

    Apache Camel
    J2SCH (VFS)

    Protocol

    Options

    Make sure that you've selected an OpenSSH key in the Key Manager field in case the selected connector is Apache Camel and the protocol is SFTP.

  19. In the Preferred Authentications field, enter your preferred authentication methods. 

    This field is available only when you select SFTP as the protocol and Apache Camel as the connector. The default set of authentication methods for FTP Target is publickey,keyboard-interactive,password. 

  20. Enter the additional configuration details in the Add On Configurations field. 

    This field is available only if you have selected Apache Camel connector. 

  21. If you want to create a log file of your FTP service then check the Verbose check box.

    You can enable the Verbose check box only if you have selected the Apache Camel option from the Connector field.

    When you select the Verbose check box using Apache Camel option, the log files are generated on the basis of the FTP protocols. For example, if a user runs FTP activity named FTP Source (connecting with FTP protocol only), the verbose log file path for this activity will be ...\logs\ftpLogs\ftpcomponent.log. If the user runs this activity more than once, all the generated logs will be appended to this ftpcomponent.log file.

    Log file will be generated on the basis of FTP protocols (FTP/FTPS/SFTP) at the different location as explained below:

    • For FTP protocol:  ...<ConnectServerInstallFolder>\AdeptiaServer\ServerKernel\logs\ftpLogs\ftpcomponent.log
    • For FTPS protocol:  …<ConnectServerInstallFolder>\AdeptiaServer\ServerKernel\logs\ftpLogs\ftpscomponent.log
    • For SFTP protocol:  …<ConnectServerInstallFolder>\AdeptiaServer\ServerKernel\logs\ftpLogs\sftpcomponent.log
  22. Select the Project in the Project field.

  23. Click Save.

    You can verify the FTP target service at design time. For this, click Test. This verifies the values given in the Host Name, Port, User ID, Password, and Secured fields.


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