SFTP connection

[anutakki67]

Hi,

The flow runs without errors, but I do not see any data in the download path.

In the text input, I provided the SFTP URL as sftp://<username>:<password>@<sftp site>/<path to download file> and

a download path.

In download, I set Payload -->HTTP Action is set to Get (or FTP).

Thank you in advance.

[alexnajm · Accepted solution]

Are you downloading to that path? If so make sure you select “To a File” rather than “to a string”

[Rhys_Cooper]

@anutakki67might just be the configuaration of your patricular SFTP but typically I have done it such that the username and password are placed into the "connection" header of the download tool and also the url being of the structure:

sftp://*url*:*port number*

Again that is what has worked for me in the past but not to say your approach is incorrect, certainly could be the case @alexnajm outlined!

[apathetichell]

I'm going with the 'can you confirm the file you are looking for is at the path you are looking for -> and that you are retrieving a file?' -> in your screen shot - I can see that download data has a value (PK) -> this makes me think you are correctly authenticating to your sftp server and retrieving something.

while @alexnajm is correct that downloading to a file is better - your download data should reflect either a string or a binary encoded string if your sftp is successful (which makes me think it is).

@Rhys_Cooperis correct that most SFTP's require ports. No idea about this one.

[anutakki67]

Thank you for pointing it out. By changing to select “To a File”, I was able to download the file that I wanted to. 

My requirement is to get the incremental files that are available on the ftp server every day. I modified the URL (in text input) to point it to the folder where all the files are located and I was expecting to see the list of all files available in the folder. If I see the file names, I was planning to use a directory tool and compare it with the list of downloaded files, to get the list of new files to be downloaded (saw it on a thread in the forum).

The issue is, I do not see the list of files in SFTP server. Is there any changes I need to make to see this data?

Thanks in advance.

[alexnajm]

@anutakki67 It sounds like this initial query was resolved, so can you close this thread by accepting a solution and opening a new discussion? That way people can find answers more easily in the future

plus, it sounds like you need another call to get the list of files so that’ll highly depend on the API itself

[HakimRazalieq1]

Hi all,

Great work up there! I have a different case.

I would like to extract a file using the same method, but instead of downloading the file to my laptop, I want to skip the download and use the file directly to continue with further work in alteryx

[alexnajm]

@HakimRazalieq1 you can download “to a string” then if you want to use it in Alteryx. But that all depends on the response the SFTP will give back to you

i would recommend opening a new thread so your query gets more visibility

[apathetichell]

The file must go to your laptop - either as a string in workflow - or as a temp file - or as a named file. That's how sftp/ftp works.