Get a file with FTP

Description

The Get a file with FTP action retrieves one or more files from an FTP server.

This workflow action does not "crawl" systems.

It will not, for example, access a remote directory and go to other directories to find files that match a wildcard.

This workflow retrieves files from one directory exclusively.

Options

General tab

Option	Description
Action name	The name of the workflow action.
Server
FTP connection	An optional FTP Connection from the metadata. Pick one and the server, credentials, transfer mode, timeouts and proxy settings below come from that connection; leave it empty to configure the server on this action.
FTP server name / IP address	The name of the server or the IP address.
Server port	Port number of the FTP server.
Username	The user name associated with FTP server account.
Password	The password associated the FTP server account.
Proxy host	Proxy server host name.
Proxy port	Proxy server port number.
Proxy username	Proxy server account user name.
Proxy password	Proxy server account password.
Advanced
Binary mode	Enable if files must be transferred in binary mode.
Timeout	The timeout in milliseconds, for example 30000 for 30 seconds. 0 (the default): no timeout.
Use active FTP connection	Enable if you are connecting to the FTP server using Active mode; you must set your firewall to accept connections to the port that your FTP client will open. The default is Passive mode.
Control Encoding	Encoding matters when retrieving file names that contain special characters. For Western Europe and the USA, ISO-8859-1 usually suffices. Select encoding that is valid for your server.

Option

Description

Action name

The name of the workflow action.

Server

FTP connection

An optional FTP Connection from the metadata. Pick one and the server, credentials, transfer mode, timeouts and proxy settings below come from that connection; leave it empty to configure the server on this action.

FTP server name / IP address

The name of the server or the IP address.

Server port

Port number of the FTP server.

Username

The user name associated with FTP server account.

Password

The password associated the FTP server account.

Proxy host

Proxy server host name.

Proxy port

Proxy server port number.

Proxy username

Proxy server account user name.

Proxy password

Proxy server account password.

Advanced

Binary mode

Enable if files must be transferred in binary mode.

Timeout

The timeout in milliseconds, for example 30000 for 30 seconds. 0 (the default): no timeout.

Use active FTP connection

Enable if you are connecting to the FTP server using Active mode; you must set your firewall to accept connections to the port that your FTP client will open. The default is Passive mode.

Control Encoding

Encoding matters when retrieving file names that contain special characters. For Western Europe and the USA, ISO-8859-1 usually suffices. Select encoding that is valid for your server.

Files tab

Option	Description
Remote
Remote directory	The remote directory on FTP server from which files are taken.
Wildcard (regular expression)	Regular expression when you want to select multiple files. For example: .txt$ : get all text files A.ENG:0-9.txt : files starting with A, ending with a number and .txt
Remove files after retrieval	Removes each file from the FTP server right after it is downloaded. See the NOTE under Result.
Move files after retrieval	Moves each file on the FTP server to the folder below, right after it is downloaded. See the NOTE under Result.
Move to folder	The folder on the server to move the files to.
Create folder	Creates the move-to folder when it doesn’t exist.
Local
Target directory	The directory where you want to place the retrieved files.
Include date in filename	Adds the system date to the filename (_20101231).
Include time in filename	Adds the system time to the filename (_235959).
Specify Date time format	Enable to provide your own date/time format in Date time format.
Date time format	Select date time format.
Add date before extension	Adds date to the file name before the extension.
Don’t overwrite files	Enable to skip, rename, or fail if a file with an identical name already exists in the target directory.
If file exists	Used with Don’t overwrite files: Skip (default) leaves the local file and doesn’t download the remote one, Give unique name to local file adds the date and time to the new file’s name, Fail counts the file as an error.
Add filename to result	Adds the downloaded files to the result files (checked by default).

Option

Description

Remote

Remote directory

The remote directory on FTP server from which files are taken.

Wildcard (regular expression)

Regular expression when you want to select multiple files. For example: .txt$ : get all text files A.ENG:0-9.txt : files starting with A, ending with a number and .txt

Remove files after retrieval

Removes each file from the FTP server right after it is downloaded. See the NOTE under Result.

Move files after retrieval

Moves each file on the FTP server to the folder below, right after it is downloaded. See the NOTE under Result.

Move to folder

The folder on the server to move the files to.

Create folder

Creates the move-to folder when it doesn’t exist.

Local

Target directory

The directory where you want to place the retrieved files.

Include date in filename

Adds the system date to the filename (_20101231).

Include time in filename

Adds the system time to the filename (_235959).

Specify Date time format

Enable to provide your own date/time format in Date time format.

Date time format

Select date time format.

Add date before extension

Adds date to the file name before the extension.

Don’t overwrite files

Enable to skip, rename, or fail if a file with an identical name already exists in the target directory.

If file exists

Used with Don’t overwrite files: Skip (default) leaves the local file and doesn’t download the remote one, Give unique name to local file adds the date and time to the new file’s name, Fail counts the file as an error.

Add filename to result

Adds the downloaded files to the result files (checked by default).

Advanced tab

Option	Description
Success on	Sets conditions of success. The available options are: All works fine (default) At least we got x files Nr errors less than
Limit files	Sets number of files associated with a condition of success.

Option

Description

Success on

Sets conditions of success. The available options are:

All works fine (default)
At least we got x files
Nr errors less than

Limit files

Sets number of files associated with a condition of success.

Socks Proxy

Option	Description
Host	Socks Proxy host name.
Port	Socks Proxy port number.
Username	User name associated with the Socks Proxy account.
Password	Password associated with the Socks Proxy account.

Option

Description

Host

Socks Proxy host name.

Port

Socks Proxy port number.

Username

User name associated with the Socks Proxy account.

Password

Password associated with the Socks Proxy account.

Result

What this action passes on to the next action. See Action results for how results travel through a workflow.

Result	Value
True	Depends on Success on (Advanced tab): All works fine (default): no file failed. No file matching the wildcard is also true. At least we got x files: at least Limit files files were downloaded, whatever the number of errors. Nr errors less than: the number of errors is at most Limit files. The download stops as soon as the number of errors reaches Limit files, and the action is still true then. Some failures before the download also count as 1 error: see False.
False	The success condition is not met. Without Nr errors less than, the download stops at the first file that fails. The action is also false, before any download, when the server can’t be reached or refuses the login, the remote directory doesn’t exist, the wildcard is not a valid regular expression, or Move files after retrieval is checked while the move-to folder is empty, or doesn’t exist and Create folder is unchecked. With Nr errors less than, an unreachable server, a refused login and an invalid wildcard count as 1 error, so the action is true when Limit files is 1 or more. A missing remote directory and the move-to folder checks give false whatever the condition.
Errors	The number of files that failed, or 1 when the action fails before the download.
Result files	The downloaded files are added when Add filename to result is checked (the default). The previous result files are kept.
Result rows	Passed on unchanged.
Files retrieved	The number of files downloaded.

Result

Value

True

Depends on Success on (Advanced tab):

All works fine (default): no file failed. No file matching the wildcard is also true.
At least we got x files: at least Limit files files were downloaded, whatever the number of errors.
Nr errors less than: the number of errors is at most Limit files. The download stops as soon as the number of errors reaches Limit files, and the action is still true then. Some failures before the download also count as 1 error: see False.

False

The success condition is not met. Without Nr errors less than, the download stops at the first file that fails. The action is also false, before any download, when the server can’t be reached or refuses the login, the remote directory doesn’t exist, the wildcard is not a valid regular expression, or Move files after retrieval is checked while the move-to folder is empty, or doesn’t exist and Create folder is unchecked. With Nr errors less than, an unreachable server, a refused login and an invalid wildcard count as 1 error, so the action is true when Limit files is 1 or more. A missing remote directory and the move-to folder checks give false whatever the condition.

Errors

The number of files that failed, or 1 when the action fails before the download.

Result files

The downloaded files are added when Add filename to result is checked (the default). The previous result files are kept.

Result rows

Passed on unchanged.

Files retrieved

The number of files downloaded.

Remove files after retrieval and Move files after retrieval act on each file right after it is downloaded, not after all files are: when a later file fails, the files before it are already removed or moved on the server.