FTP Plug-in Stages

Like the Sequential File stage, the FTP Plug-in stage extracts data from, or writes data to, a single text file. However, the text files to be accessed by the FTP Plug-in stage reside on another machine (possibly with a different file system and character file storage conventions) over a communications network instead of on a local disk.

The FTP Plug-in stage provides users with rapid and efficient remote file access using existing FTP servers on remote platforms. The FTP Plug-in stage does not require additional installation on the remote platforms.

Additionally, the FTP Plug-in stage provides the option to execute before- and after-commands on the remote machine. This automates the following data flow processes:

• Before it begins the file transfer. You can use the before-command to prepare a file to be transferred or to prepare the remote machine to receive it.
• After it completes the file transfer. You can use the after-command to delete temporary files or to start a subsequent activity that uses the transferred file.

Each FTP Plug-in stage is a passive stage that can have any number of input and output links:

• Input links specify the data you are writing, which is a stream of rows to be loaded into a single remote file.
• Output links specify the data you are extracting, which is a stream of rows to be read from a single remote file.