Get data from SFTP

It is possible to connect a process in SolveXia to a SFTP server. This will allow you to send/receive files to/from the SFTP server using SolveXia processes. 

You can connect your SFTP server to SolveXia by following the instructions below. Or, if you don't have an SFTP server, please send us a request and we can give you access to SolveXia's SFTP server. 

Steps

1. Create a new action step by clicking on three vertical dots (found to the right of the group's name) and then select "Add action step": 

2. Under "Communications", select "Get file(s) from external system" 

3. Configure the SFTP server details. 

• Configure the type of connection
• Add the Server address
• Add the port 
• Add path name, if you are using the root directory leave it as:
• Add user name
• Add Password 
• Select the retrieval type, you can choose to either fetch and zip all the files together or to collect individual files. 
• There are some options you can configure. See tips & tricks section for information about using public key authentication. 

Note: if you are using SolveXia's SFTP server, we will provide you with the configuration details. 

4. Configure the file names to get from the SFTP. It is possible to specify the full name of the file or search for a string within the file name. 

IMPORTANT: if there are two files in the SFTP that match the same search criteria the step will fail as the step cannot discern which file needs to retrieve. To avoid this, either:

• delete old files from the SFTP before sending new files.
• use the same file name in each run, this way the new file will overwrite the file sitting on the server.    

5. Once the step is run the files will be available to use in the process, a log file will also be included in the output: 

6. The files are now available to use in the process. Note that it is not required to have data step to store the files fetched from the SFTP as this step works as a data step: 

Tips and tricks 

It is possible to connect an external SFTP server to SolveXia using an encrypted connection - through SSH. In order to do this, select the "SFTP" option in the "Connection protocol" option and then check out the "Use public key authentication"This will allow you to download the public that you will need to add to your SFTP server. 

Here are some YouTube videos which explain private/public key pairs and asymmetric encryption:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQDCe585Lnc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2SWzw9D4RA