FTPS (FTP with TLS/SSL encryption) connector

When to use this connector

Use this connector to create Flows that work with files in FTPS.

Create a Connection

Step 1. In the Connections window,  click +, type in ftps.

Step 2. Select FTPS.

Step 3. Enter Connection parameters.

Connection parameters

• URL: the hostname and optional port of the FTPS server. 

The 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.
• Implicit FTPS: implicit FTPS assumes TLS or SSL mode right from the start and listens on TCP port 990.
• 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).
• Keystore File: a name of the keystore file which contains SSL certificate. This parameter is optional.
• Keystore Password: an optional keystore password. Keystore password is used together with keystore file.
• Authentication Protocol: FTPS authentication protocol. TLS is a default protocol.
• Client Authentication Mode: enable to set client authentication mode. This option is enabled by default.
• Need Client Authentication: enable to enforce client authentication mode. This option is disabled by default.
• Enable Session Creation: enable the creation of the SSL session. This option is enabled by default.
• Execute PBSZ and PROT commands After Login: PBSZ and PROT commands are used to enforce the SSL encrypted communication with the FTP server. This option is enabled by default.
• 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.

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.

• 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 seamless 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 FTPS 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.