Finding Files
After you create a basic find file action as described in
Creating a Basic File Operation
Action, use this procedure to set the properties of the action.
Note:
If you are defining a scheduled event, make sure the “find file” action is the first action you define. Otherwise, the scheduled event will fail.
To set the properties of a find file action
1. For File URL, identify the path to search by doing one of the following:
Important:
When you enter file path locations, be sure to end the path with a slash character (“/”) to identify the location as a folder and not a file.
If the file URL is on your local machine or network, select
File Path and browse to or enter the location.
Note:
To specify a file URL for a shared location, use the following syntax: FILE:////<host>/SharedFolder/. Make sure that the OS user running the ActiveTransfer Server instance has full access to the shared location.
If the file URL is on a remote machine or network, select
Remote File Path and browse to or enter the location in the format:
protocol://<host>:<port>/DestinationFolder/Note:
If you want to find and copy files from remote, third-party HTTP(S) servers, ensure that the you provide appropriate file path here.
If the file URL is a virtual folder in the
ActiveTransfer VFS, do the following:
1. Select Virtual Folder
2. Type in the virtual folder details in the text box or use the browse option.
If you use the browse button, the Select virtual folder look up window opens.
3. In the Select virtual folder window, select the virtual folder by highlighting the element and click on Select.
4. If you want to point to a subfolder in the virtual folder, append the URL in the text box with the details of the subfolder.
Note:
The virtual folder that you select should be configured on the same ActiveTransfer Server instance on which the event is configured.
Tip:
If you want to connect to a remote server using a secure protocol (FTPES, FTPS, HTTPS or SFTP) and want to configure authentication using secure key exchange, create a virtual folder for the remote server in the VFS and configure the
Keystore,
Keystore Password, and
Key Password parameters. You can then use the Virtual folder that you configured in the
Virtual Folder option of the
File Path in the event action. For additional details see
Associating a Virtual Folder with a Physical
Folder Location.
2. For File Name, specify the name of the file to find by doing one of the following:
If you want to find files with any name, select
Any file name.
If you want to find files with a specific name, select
File name and enter the name of the file.
3. If File URL is a third-party HTTP(S) server, clear the ActiveTransfer HTTP(S) Serverselection.
Note:
This field appears only if the File URL specified:
Is an HTTP(S) URL.
Is not a server variable.
4. Select one of the following options to determine the file name for subsequent copy actions:
If the
File URL specified ends with a file name, select
Extract file name from URL. Active transfer uses this file name in subsequent copy actions.
If the
File URL specified does not end with a file name or you want to use a different file name, select
Specify file name, and then enter the file name to use in the text box. You can also use a server variable or event parameter here.
5. Type a User Name and Password for the remote system.
6. If you want to route file transfers to remote servers through a proxy server, select the appropriate proxy server options:
a. Select Use Proxy.
b. Select one of these options:
Global proxy settings. If you want
ActiveTransfer to use the default proxy server alias set up in
Integration Server or
ActiveTransfer.
Select proxy alias. If you want to use a specific proxy server alias for the event. Then select the appropriate proxy server alias to use from the available list.
7. To check the connection to the remote server with or without a proxy server, click Test Connection.
8. To assign partners for the event, do the following:
Note:
For virtual folders, use this option only if you want to override the partners configured for the virtual folders.
a. Select Assign partner.
b. Click in the text box and do one of the following:
Select the partner to assign from the list of configured partners in
ActiveTransfer.
Type a parameterized value for the partner using the following format:
[partner_name],[remote_partner_name]
9. If you want to include subfolders in the search criteria for the Find action, specify Folder Depth. The default value is 1 which restricts the search to the root folder.
10. If you want to restrict the number of items in the Find action results, specify the Maximum Items to Find. The default is 0 which includes all the items that match the search criteria for the Find action.
11. If you want to narrow the search by the time period in which the file was last modified, specify suitable time details:
a. In the Last file modification list, select the appropriate time variable to which to apply the time criteria:
Before. Select this option to specify the time before which files were modified.
Within. Select this option to specify the time (including the current date) within which files were modified.
Note:
You must specify at least one time criteria if you select a time variable.
b. In the appropriate boxes, type the days, hours, and minutes to which to apply the selected time variable.
Example: Let us assume that you have specified the time variable as Before, with 2 days and 6 hours as the time variable. When ActiveTransfer executes the Find file action on 30 April, it searches for all files that were modified before 4 pm on 27 April. If you change the time variable to Within, when ActiveTransfer executes the Find file action at 12 pm on 30 April, it searches for files that were modified between 28 April and 30 April 4 am.
12. If you want the find operation to fail if no files are found, select Fail if no files are found.
13. For File Stability and Scanning, if you want to remove files that are being processed from the list of files, select Exclude files that are being updated. Then, if you want to delay processing of all files until no further file changes are made, select Delay processing until all files are available for use.
14. For Scan for Files and Check for Stability, do one of the following:
If you want the find operation to scan and check one time only, select
Once.
If you want to check at regular intervals, select
Every and enter the seconds and minutes.
15. If you want ActiveTransfer to retry a failed find action, specify the number of retries and the retry interval in Retry [ ] times, at intervals of [ ] second(s).
16. If you want to execute an error action if the file operation fails, select Execute error action.
17. Click Save.
18. If you selected the Execute error action check box, define an error action as described in
Defining an Error Action. 19. If you are finished defining actions for this event, activate the event as described in
Activating an Event. Result:
A “find” action retrieves a list of files from a specified location. The files listed by a find action are passed on to the subsequent action for processing. If there are multiple find actions in an event, the files found by each “find” action are added to the list passed on to it from the previous action.
For example, consider the following sequence of event actions and the ActiveTransfer behavior for each event action:
Event Action Sequence | What does ActiveTransfer do? |
1. Find files in source A | Finds files in the given source location A. Let us call these files list 1. |
2. Execute Integration Server Service | Executes the Integration Service on file list 1. |
3. Find files in source B | Finds files in the given source location B. Let us call these files list 2. |
4. Execute Integration Server Service | Executes the Integration Server service on both list 1 and list 2 files. |
5. Encrypt files | Encrypts the files in list 1 and list 2. |