When to use this connector
Use this connector to create Flows that work with files in FTP.
Process
Step 1. In the Connections window, click +, type in ftp.
Step 2. Select FTP.
Step 3. Enter Connection parameters.
Connection parameters
- URL: the hostname and optional port of the FTP server.
Important: The FTP URL must start with ftp://.
- Directory: the actual directory with files. This parameter is optional.
- Files: the actual file name or a wildcard file name, for example, *.csv.
- User: username.
- Password: password.
- Passive Mode: must be selected if Etlworks is running behind a firewall (always select this when using Etlworks in a cloud).
- Add Suffix When Creating Files in Transformation: you can select one of the predefined suffixes for the files created using this Connection. For example, if you select uuid as a suffix and the original filename is dest.csv, Etlworks will create files with the name dest_uuid.csv, where uuid is a globally unique identifier such as 21EC2020-3AEA-4069-A2DD-08002B30309D.
Note: This parameter works only when the file is created using source-to-destination-transformation. Read how to add a suffix to the files created when copying, moving, renaming, and zipping files.
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File Processing Order: Specifies the order in which source files are processed when using wildcard patterns in ETL and file-based flows (e.g., copy, move, delete). The default setting is Oldest, meaning files are processed starting with the oldest by creation or modification time. Choose from various criteria such as file age, size, or name to determine the processing sequence:
- Disabled: wildcard processing is disabled,
- Oldest/Newest: Process files based on their creation or modification time, Ascending/Descending: Process files in alphabetical order, Largest/Smallest: Process files based on their size.
Handling UTF-8 Filenames in FTP Connections
Some FTP servers store filenames using UTF-8 encoding, which may contain special characters such as German umlauts (ä, ö, ü), accented letters, or non-Latin scripts. By default, the FTP connector uses the server’s default encoding, which may cause filenames with special characters to be displayed incorrectly or become unreadable.
To ensure proper handling of such filenames, enable the Enable UTF-8 Encoding for Filenamesoption in the FTP connection settings. When enabled, the connector will explicitly use UTF-8 encoding for file and folder names, allowing interaction with international character sets.
If this option is disabled, the system will rely on the default encoding of the FTP server, which may not always support special characters. If filenames appear garbled, enable this setting to resolve encoding issues.
Decryption
When FTP Connection is used as a source (FROM) in the source-to-destination transformation, it is possible to configure the automatic decryption of the encrypted source files using the PGP algorithm and private key uploaded to the secure key storage.
If the private key is available, all source files processed by the transformation will be automatically decrypted using the PGP algorithm and given key. Note that the private key requires a password.
Read how to generate a pair of public/private keys.
Expected Compression
The Expected Compression setting allows you to specify the compression format expected when reading individual files from a connection. Supported options include No Compression, Zip, and GZip.
If set to Zip or GZip, Etlworks will automatically decompress each resource as it’s read. This setting assumes that each compressed file contains a single resource; it does not support archives with multiple files. Use this setting with caution, as the system will always attempt to decompress the resource based on the selected format, regardless of its file extension or actual content.