When exchanging information, be it orders, statuses or other data, it is necessary that the information is transferred from one party to the other. In many cases, FTP (File Transfer Protocol) is used for this. To facilitate the exchange of files, Transpas Enterprise has a built-in FTP client that can automatically exchange files.
Transpas has no FTP server functionality. It is therefore not possible to connect to Transpas from an FTP client. Transpas will have to connect to an FTP server.
¶ Set up
¶ Profiles
All profiles and associated jobs are recorded in the FTP Profiles screen.
The top part of the screen are the profiles. The profiles record information about the connection to the FTP server.
For regular FTP, at least a description, hostname, port and username and password are required.
¶ Jobs
One or more jobs can be recorded per profile (or connection).
For each job, the job type, description, and a source and destination directory must be recorded.
The job type indicates whether files need to be downloaded or uploaded.
Give the job a useful description so that it can be seen at a glance what exactly this job does.
Finally, a source and destination directory must be specified.
In a download job, the source directory is the folder on the FTP server, for example /Out.
In an upload job, the source directory is the folder from which files are to be uploaded. This can be either a local path or a UNC path.
For the target directory this is of course reversed.
A file mask can also be specified. The FTP job will then only download or upload files that match this mask. Use an asterisk (*) as a wildcard. For example, as shown in the image above, the *.xml file mask can be applied during an order import.
It is also possible to fill a backup directory with an upload job.
After uploading, instead of deleting the local file, it will be moved to the specified folder. This can be either an absolute path (C:\...) or a relative path (for example, Backup).
¶ FTPS
FTP is by nature quite unsafe. With FTP traffic, the files are sent over the internet without encryption. If traffic is intercepted en route, the entire contents of the file can be intercepted without the sender or receiver realizing it. For this reason, FTPS was created. FTPS traffic is encrypted. This ensures that traffic cannot be eavesdropped. FTPS stands for FTP over SSL.
This can be set in Transpas by setting the Protocol column to FTP and then selecting a TLS mode in the TLS column. In general, Use implicit TLS mode will give the best results. However, this does not guarantee that TLS is used. If the server indicates that it does not support FTPS, Transpas will fall back on regular FTP. With the Require TLS mode, Transpas will refuse the connection in that case.
¶ SFTP
Transpas Enterprise also supports file transfer via SFTP. To do this, set the Protocol column to SFTP.
SFTP itself uses encryption. So no TLS needs to be set up.
Passive mode also has no effect on SFTP and can therefore be ignored.
¶ Public/Private key
With the SFTP protocol it is possible to use public/private key cryptography. Instead of a password, a combination of a public and a secret key is used.
To do this, set the authorization method to public key in the FTP Profiles screen under the heading SFTP and select the correct key in the Public key field.
The implementation of SFTP in Transpas supports keys in OpenSSH and SSH.com formats.
In addition, the following encryption standards are supported:
- DES-EDE3-CBC
- DES-EDE3-CFB
- DES-CBC
- AES-128-CBC
- AES-192-CBC
- AES-256-CBC
¶ Transfer type
The transfer type sets how files are transferred.
ASCII is suitable for text files such as XML, CSV or TXT files.
Use binary for all other files such as Excel and PDF files.
The binary and automatic options are identical.
¶ Filesystem watcher
In many cases, something will have to be done with the data transferred by the FTP Profiles.
These are often read into Transpas. This can be done by setting up a filesystem watcher that looks at the target directory of a download job.
Read more about this in the article about the filesystem watcher:
¶ Queues
When processing a queue, an FTP item can also be created.
This does not work via the jobs but via the Outgoing queue tab.
A separate line is created for each file in this tab.
A number of settings have been built in for this in the Queues screen:
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| FTP profile | The profile with which the files should be sent |
| FTP destination folder | The folder on the FTP server where the files should be transferred |
| Monitor FTP items automatically | If Yes, this setting ensures that the status of the queue item is updated based on the status of the FTP item. The queue item must then be set to status 2 (wait) after processing. |
Placing a file in the outgoing queue is done with the stored procedure sp_QueueFTPfile.
In any case, the following parameters are mandatory:
exec sp_QueueFTPfile
@FTPProfile = Queue.FTPProfile,
@Filename = @Filename, -- Full file name of the source file
@DestinationFolder = Queue.FTPDestinationFolder
¶ Fingerprint
For FTPS and SFTP, a fingerprint is stored in Transpas upon the first successful connection. This is an MD5 hash of the server's certificate. This is a security mechanism that ensures that Transpas is sure that it connects to the same server every time.
If the fingerprint of the server to which the connection is made does not match the fingerprint stored in Transpas, no connection will be made and therefore no files will be transferred.
If the certificate of the FTP server has changed, or the other party has, for example, performed a server migration, it may be necessary to clear the fingerprint. Another option is to set the fingerprint mismatch action to Ignore.
Ignoring the fingerprint is not recommended for security reasons!
¶ Troubleshooting
To properly troubleshoot the FTP profiles, a Job log tab has been included under the job.
This displays the error messages of the selected job.
All notifications included in the job log are also included in the Transpas application log.
To get a quick and complete overview of all FTP error messages, the Application log can also be consulted.
¶ Connection timed out
Some errors are normal with an FTP connection. Connection timed out messages are therefore not immediately a cause for concern as long as the files that are being prepared are also transferred.
When Transpas tries to connect every 10 seconds every day, all day, it sometimes fails. For example, because the server is a bit busier at that moment and therefore takes too long to respond. Especially in FTP profiles where few files are read, the log may largely consist of these messages.
¶ Key exchange negotiation failed
The fingerprint of the server does not match the fingerprint stored in Transpas.
Clear the stored fingerprint or set the Fingerprint mismatch action to Ignore.
Ignoring the fingerprint is not recommended for security reasons!