SFTP Smart Services

Overview

Contains multiple Smart Services for interacting with a remote file server via SFTP, FTP, or SCP.  Using these services, an Appian application can be configured to send and receive files, folders, and metadata in a process.  Features support for zlib compression.

Key Features & Functionality

Smart Services included:

  • SFTP:
    • Remove Directory Over SFTP (Basic Credentials)
    • Send File Over SFTP
    • Send File Over SFTP (Basic Credentials)
    • Receive File Over SFTP
    • Receive File Over SFTP (Basic Credentials)
    • Rename File Over SFTP
    • Get Remote Directory Contents Over SFTP
    • Get Remote Directory Contents Over SFTP (Basic Credentials)
    • Create Directory Over SFTP
    • Create Directory Over SFTP (Basic Credentials)
  • SCP:
    • Send File Over SCP
    • Receive File Over SCP
  • FTP:
    • Send File Over FTP
    • Receive File Over FTP
    • Receive Folder Over FTP
  • FTPS
    • Receive Folder Over FTPS
    • Send File Over FTPS (Basic Credentials)

All smart services in the package use Secure Credentials Store.

Anonymous
  • Hello!

    I need help with using the SFTP plugin, specifically the Send File Smart Service. I have followed the instructions in the documentation, but I cannot establish a successful connection with the remote server. 

    These are the steps that I have performed: 

    - I have downloaded the rsa file that contains the private key and uploaded it to the privateKeyFile field. 

    - I have created a Third-Party Credentials and added there the username. 

    However, when I try to run the plugin, I receive a timeout error. 

    I have generated a ppk with puttygen and configured the private key with this value but it tells me that the ppk is invalid. 

    The configuration that I have is the following: 

    Could someone please tell me what I am doing wrong and how to solve this problem? 

    Thank you very much for your attention and collaboration.

  • Hello, I'm currently experiencing an issue with the Smart Service called "Send File Over SFTP" after upgrading our plug-in from 1.7.0 to 3.0.2.  The error I am seeing in the PM and tomcat logs is "Error transferring file to SFTP server 2: No such file".

    1.7.0 - SendFileOverSFTPwithSCSUsernameAndPasswordV2 - working

    3.0.2 - SendFileOverSFTPwithSCSUsernameAndPasswordV3 - not working

    I understand that there is an even new version of the Smart Service than the V3 above but I would like to understand why my current process model is failing assuming the V3 support is still valid.  I've checked and the file I'm currently trying to send exists within Appian.  Our SCS have also been configured and verified to be correct.  The file path is correct as well.  Could I get some help in figuring out what could be the problem?

    Configuration for Send File Over SFTP

    External System Key: pv!sftpKey

    Server Host Name: pv!sftpHostPort[1]

    Server Port: tointeger(pv!sftpHostPort[2])

    Remote File Path: concat(pv!remoteFilePath, "/", pv!zipDocName)  i.e. "/broadcast/testing.dat.zip"

    Source Document: pv!zipFile

    ** info redacted to just show the error received from the Smart Service**

  • hi, Are you planning to update security so RSA-SHA2 is supported by plugin?

  • hi, 

    Can someone please let me know what File Transfer Configurations to be used for this ?

  • Hi!

    We have discovered the cause of the issue. Compared to winSCP, it is as if the plugin work with this check disabled.

    Is it correct? Can we connect to FTP through the plugin with 'Reuse TLS/SSL session ID for data connections enable'? In WinSCP is enable by default.

  •  Appian Solutions Appian Community   

    I am trying to create folder over sftp, but receiving below error. But when I did ssh and able to manually create a folder in the same location with the same user. Initially for Remote Folder Path, tried with actual base folder location and actual folder to be created but received same below Nullpointer exception. Then created a new parameter newDirectoryName, still received same error.

    Could you please help me why I am facing this issue?

    Inputs configured to the smart service:

    File Transfer Configurations: 

    'type!{plugins.ps.appiancorp.com/.../}FT_Config'
    (
    serverHostName: 'hostname',
    serverPort: 22,
    scsExternalSystemKey: 'SCS_key',
    )

    Remote Folder Path : Actual Path where folder to be created.
    newDirectoryName: New directory name to be created.

    Error:
    2024-02-26 06:11:58,450 [Appian Work Item - 1508821 - WorkID 727 - execution02 - process 538855364 - model 15269 : UnattendedJavaActivityRequest] ERROR com.appiancorp.ps.plugins.filetransfer.sftp.CreateFolderOverSFTP - java.lang.NullPointerException

  • Sorry, the correct transfer data ports are between 30,000 and 30,100

  • We are testing a new connection with a customer FTPS with the plugin SFTP Functions Plugin V 3.0.3. 

    For this purpose, we have tested first the connection in WinSCP, with successful result, and without any private connection or restriction in this way. We are outside the customer network. Then, we are using the smart service '(FTP) Get Remote Folder Contents', using Third-party Credentials in the admin console with the same credentials we have used previously in WinSCP, but we obtain the following error:

    ERROR com.appiancorp.ps.plugins.filetransfer.ftps.GetRemoteFolderContentsOverFTPS - org.apache.commons.net.ftp.FTPConnectionClosedException: Connection closed without indication.

    These are the details provided about ftp:

    * The control port (the port that we are using from Appian to call FTP) is 21021

    * The transfer data ports are between 30,000 and 31,000

    We have tested the 'Get Remote Folder Contents' smart service with FTP, FTPS and SFTP (even though we know it should be FTPS).

    We have tested these 3 options without any certificate, and also with the Trusted Server Certificate uploaded in the Admin Console.

    We have tested the connection with Appian Support team, and they were able to successfully telnet, so it´s not a communication problem.

    With this information. Could you see if there could be a problem from the plugin side. May be the ports that FTP is using, we don't know what else to test to find out the cause of the error, so your help could be really useful.

  • v3.0.3 Release Notes
    • Added License file

  • We do have the following requirements. We need to share some CSV exports from the Kiwa Appian environment to a remote file server using SFTP. However, the SFTP file server must be accessed through an SSH key pair.

    I'm trying to use the "SFTP Functions" plugin from the Appian marketplace. Since we need to use the SSH key pair to access the remote file server. I was looking Appian community for help and found the following discussion thread useful and tried to follow the instructions.

    Appian Community

    But to proceed further, I have a few questions about the shared approach and need your support on this.

    1. Is it possible to communicate SFTP file server using SSH key pairs from Appian? Could you please share any Appian documentation for this?
    2. In the discussion, It mentioned that I need to configure third-party credentials, could please mention what will be the credentials field names and values?
    3. I tried to configure third-party credentials with "username" and "password" fields,
      1. The username is the user name to access the remote server
      2. I tried to set the password value as the private key. Since the length of the private key is 3330 characters. Appian does not allow more than 2500 characters. 

    Is it the correct approach? If yes, Please help me to set the password field with our private key.